DarkFoxKit:Whew, I don't know about you, but I managed to get a lot of great new games that was on sale for Black Friday! XD
ZAFT: I only got the Pokemon Violet, and that was before Black Friday. ^^' But glad you got a lot of good games. XD
DarkFoxKit: I've also been playing Pokemon Violet myself. It's been a lot of fun, and I've been kinda, sorta addicted to it. XD But you guys don't want to hear us talk about stuff, you came here to read the next chapter. So here ya go!
(Two symbols, one red, and one blue, spin before colliding and flaring with light as they do so, showing the title)
Digital Phantom!
(Shows six forms in shadow before they are revealed to be Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, Tucker Foley, Takuya Kanbara, Andy Fenton, and Jazz Fenton)
Falling into destiny
(A swirling green portal is shown, followed by the sky and cities of the living world before a computer monitor is zoomed in on, revealing another world of lush greenery through that)
Reaching across new boundaries
(Andy Fenton appears with Jazz beside him. Takuya Kanbara appears behind him as well, the form of Agunimon appearing behind Takuya himself)
Let our stories come together
(Andy is shown with the form of Phantom beside him, a shadowed form with blue eyes behind the ghost boy)
Growing stronger
(Andy looks on at Phantom fighting before running to help the ghost boy by taking out his Fenton Rod)
Our pasts intertwine
(Six glowing orbs of light are shown, each of a different color (red, teal, lavender, dark purple, white, and yellow) before the red orb speeds towards Takuya)
Showing our future
(Takuya holds up his D-Tector before fractal code surrounds him, dissipating as fire erupts from it, revealing him as Agunimon, lunging out from the fire as Plasmius fires off ecto-rays at him, only for a glowing orange orb to appear around Agunimon and deflect the beams)
As we evolve
(The blasts speed past the screen as Tucker is shown with a Fenton Wrist ray being fired at a ghost)
Let's go… EVOLUTION
(Sam is shown with her Fenton Lipstick, firing it at a different ghost)
As our worlds collide
(Jazz is shown beside Andy, her hand on his shoulder as Andy looked shell-shocked by something)
We stand as one
(Jack and Maddie Fenton are shown, with the Fenton Works logo behind them as it glows green)
Growing strong
(A shadowed form is shown with blue eyes and a glowing white blade erupting from what looks like a giant weapon in the form's hands)
As we move along
(Danny is shown walking down the street with those closest to him appearing one by one; Andy, Tucke, Sam, Takuya, and Jazz.)
CHOU… SHINKA!
(Fractal code is shown before it dissipates to reveal Agunimon lunging out of the dissipating data, fire around his left fist)
Let's go… EVOLUTION!
(The group is shown facing down Plasmius, who looms above them with hands outstretched as a dark form appears behind Plasmius himself.)
Nothing will stand in our way!
(Andy, Danny, Tucker, Sam, Jazz, and Takuya all appear with ribbons of fractal code streaming out from behind them, a swirling green orb behind the ribbons of fractal code.)
Digital Phantom!
Chapter 12: Twisted Wishes
Danny sometimes wished his brother wasn't such a drill sergeant.
"Keep moving! Do you want a ghost to hit you!?" Andy shouted.
Danny yelped as he narrowly avoided an incoming ecto gun. Tucker was using a metal plate as a shield and was running through the simulated lab. Sam was currently hunkered down at one of the steel walls used for a safe zone.
"When facing ghosts, beings that can fly, go through walls, become invisible, and can shoot literal lasers at you, you'll want to find something to shield yourself with, or deflect their attacks," Andy stated, using his Fenton Rod to deflect an ecto gun's attack. "If you don't think you can deflect an attack, then try to find something to use as a shield!"
Takuya was hiding with Sam, not really sure how Andy could be such a good drill sergeant. "I don't know when Andy became a drill sergeant, but he would excel in the military with how hard he is pushing us."
"Tell me about it. Andy really loves to push us to our limits." Sam muttered under her breath.
And this is when I am not transformed into Agunimon… Takuya added mentally with a small sweatdrop running down the side of his head.
"Why isn't Phantom a part of this training!?" Tucker yelped, keeping his shield up to protect his face. "I'm beginning to question your teaching methods!"
"I believe in learning on the job," Andy said, doding another blast from an ecto gun. "And Phantom isn't a part of this training because this is for humans only, it's about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead."
"In this case, it may be literal!" Takuya exclaimed as he ducked to avoid getting his face blasted by an ecto-gun. "This is a bit extreme, wouldn't you say?!"
Tucker yelped as an ecto gun blasted his shield out of his hand, and then hit him on the chest. It didn't hurt, but it did push him back.
"Tucker, you're out!" Andy called. "And you'll be fine, like I said, these guns aren't harmful to humans! Now, Takuya, Sam, get out here!"
Takuya remained hiding though. He was perfectly fine staying where he was, thank you very much!
Sam rolled her eyes as she emerged from behind the steel wall, pushing Takuya out with her.
"Come on, don't be such a wuss," Sam said before she sneezed. "AH-CHOO!"
This caused her to lose focus and get hit by an ecto gun. "Darn it!"
Danny ran over to Takuya and grinned sheepishly. "So, uh, I guess it's just us and Andy left, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess it is." Takuya said as he got out his Fenon Rod. "But this won't be so easy."
Danny nodded. "Yeah… for… reasons…" He said while grinning nervously. Only because I'm not in my ghost form and because you're not transformed into Agunimon.
Takuya perked up as he heard an ecto-gun firing at him and dodged it before deflecting another ecto-gun's blast with his Fenton Rod. Danny dodged another ecto-gun shot and grabbed Tucker's shield he had dropped to deflect another one coming at him from the front.
"Look out!" Takuya yelled as a big gun fired at Danny.
Danny yelped, pulling the metal plate in front of him. The metal plate protected Danny from the blast, but the blast had been strong enough to knock the metal plate out of his hands. The metal plate was rolling on the lab and Danny quickly ran after it. While the guns may be harmless to humans, it was likely very harmful to halfa, so this wasn't just about survival, it was about keeping his secret from Takuya and Andy.
Another ecto gun shot at Danny, which hit the ground next to his feet, causing him to fall back into a wall. Danny's eyes went wide when he saw one of the guns aiming at his face. He didn't know what to do, he almost went intangible to try to avoid the blast when suddenly a Fenton Rod came in and deflected the blast away from Danny's face. Danny blinked, surprised to see it was Andy who came to his rescue.
"We'll have to work more on your dodging skills," Andy said before he went over to the control panel to turn off the ecto weapons. "I think that's enough training for tonight."
Danny sighed in relief. "Good. I don't think I could take much more of that."
Takuya sighed as well. "I guess we all need a break." He said before looking at Sam. "Are you feeling okay, Sam? You sneezed pretty good back there."
"I'm fine… I think it's a little dusty here," Sam sniffled as she stood up. "I'm also feeling pretty tired. I think I just need a good night's sleep."
Tucker grumbled, he was the first one to get out of this survival training. As a human, he wasn't much, he knew that, and it sucked. Sometimes he wished he could've been Phantom, having ghost powers was awesome.
"Then you should get back home, Sam." Takuya said in concern. "You may be coming down with a cold or something."
"We'll take care of cleaning up the lab from that training." Danny added to Sam.
"Thanks," Sam replied. "The weather is starting to get a little cooler, so it's possible for colds to start running rampant. I hope I don't have one though, it would suck to go through it, especially with my overbearing parents."
Tucker walked over to Sam, trying to hide his own disappointment at his lack of athletic skills. "I can walk you home, Sam, you don't live too far away from me."
'Thanks, Tucker." Sam said as she sniffled again. "Ugh… I think I just need some rest…"
"Make sure you get plenty of liquids, it might help if you are coming down with something," Andy suggested. "Oh, and Tucker, are we still down for the Swap Meet tomorrow?"
Tucker grinned. "You know it, Andy! I wouldn't miss it for the world! Who knows what kinds of cool stuff you can find there?"
Takuya grinned. "I'm game. I kinda want to see what this Swap Meet is about."
"Great, we'll meet up with you there tomorrow then." Danny smiled as well. "And if you're feeling okay tomorrow, Sam, we could watch that new movie that came out in Theaters, Dead Teacher 4: This Time It's Personal."
"That…" Sam sniffled again. "That would be great. Ugh… If I'm not sick…"
"Come on, Sam, let's get you home," Tucker said as he and Sam walked upstairs.
The next day, it was a Saturday, so the kids didn't have to worry about school. Danny, Andy, and Takuya met up with Tucker at the Amity Park's Swap Meet. There were all sorts of items for them to look at, many items tempting them to buy them. While Danny and Andy didn't get allowances from their parents, their parents would give them a handful of dollar bills whenever they went to places like this so they could splurge a little.
Takuya was eying some stuff with interest. "Wow, there's so much here." He said with a whistle. "I wonder what I should get here…"
"That's the Swap Meet for ya, cuz~" Danny grinned. "It's a place to buy whatever you see that catches your eye."
"Is that a limited edition soccer trophy?" Takuya asked, his eyes sparkling.
"How about we split up for a bit and see what we like?" Andy suggested.
"Sounds fun!" Tucker said, seeing Takuya's eyes sparkle as he eyed that trophy. "And I think I know where this soccer head is going~"
The group split up to look at the other shops for a bit. Andy managed to get a kangaroo model to help replace the one he lost, and a new manga volume of a series he liked. He also bought a model jungle that looked interesting to put together. He met up with Danny at one of the other shops, this one sold cool looking trinkets.
"Hey, what's that shop over there?" Danny asked, pointing at what looked like a fortune teller's shop.
Andy read the sign. "Madam Babazita's Mystical Oddities. Huh… I wonder if they sell any ghostly artifacts like that dragon amulet."
"I wouldn't count on it, bro." Danny said. "But it would be interesting to check out at the very least."
The twins walked over to the shop. There were some interesting items, like a golden lamp, some incense, a crystal ball, some tarot cards, which made Andy wonder how it would affect ghosts, and a beautiful looking golden ancient bottle that had rubies encrusted into it.
"Welcome young ones, please take a look at what I have, and what catches your interest," A woman wearing a pink headscarf, and a pink dress said. She had on golden earrings and golden bracelets as well. On her chin was a very noticeable mole.
"What's your most interesting item?" Andy asked.
"That would be this," The woman, presumingly Babazita, gestured to the golden bottle. "If you can release the genie inside this bottle, she will grant you wishes."
Andy blinked, surprised to hear that. "Is that true or-"
"Come on, bro, who would sell a genie in a bottle?" Danny chuckled. "It's likely just a sales pitch to get people to buy it."
"Oh, it's no sales pitch, child. This is a very real genie in a bottle." Babazita said mysteriously.
Andy raised an eyebrow. If it was fake, then it would be a waste of money, unless the gold and rubies were real, then it would be out of their spending range. If it was real, it would still be out of their spending range. No sane person would sell something as valuable as a wish granting genie or a golden bottle with rubies encrusted into it for a cheap price.
"Thanks, but we'll keep looking around," Andy said, hoping no rich person would come and buy it and get wishes from this supposed genie.
The brothers walked to the shop next to Babazita's, which was labeled Snacks n' Candy. The woman was making cotton candy there.
"Want any cotton candy, bro?" Andy asked.
Danny blinked before he smiled. "Why not? I haven't had cotton candy in ages! And I think I deserve a treat after that training session you put me through."
"Hey, it was for your own good, bro," Andy replied. "But yeah, you do deserve a treat."
Andy chuckled as he and Danny walked up to the lady making the cotton candy. As they were placing their orders, however, a woman and a little girl were passing by. The little girl had a blue balloon tied to her arm, and she looked at the cotton candy machine.
"MOMMY! CAN I HAVE SOME COTTON CANDY!? PLEASE?! PLEASE!? PLEASE!?" The girl shouted, sounding very energetic.
"I think you've had enough sugar today." The woman said to her daughter.
Danny grimaced at hearing the little girl demanding cotton candy. "Wow, talk about being hyper on sugar…"
"And a really high pitched voice," Andy grumbled.
"I WANT IT! PLEASE!?" The girl shouted as the string of her balloon got caught up on the genie in the bottle item.
The bottle ended up falling onto the ground, which was hard enough to break the bottle open. Babazita gasped, horrified as the bottle breaking freed the genie, and the genie had nothing to hold her back from doing what she wanted. Green mist flew up from the broken bottle, forming into a green-skinned ghost wearing a light blue top and with a matching ghostly tail. There were silver accents on her top, matching the silver arm bands on her upper arms and wrists, as well as her bracelets and necklace. Her eyes were red and she had long black hair while she had a light blue headband near the top of her head.
The ghost smiled. "And your heart's desire is my command~"
"...What…" Andy began.
"Is that!?" Danny yelled.
The feminine looking ghost flew over to the cotton candy machine and raised up her arms. The cotton candy machine was suddenly pouring out pink cotton candy, blasting away the poor lady. Danny and Andy quickly got down. The cotton candy began to cover everyone else, practically drowning them. The girl from earlier was happy to see all that cotton candy, until it buried her and her mother.
"That 'genie' in the bottle is a ghost!" Danny exclaimed.
"We gotta get-" Andy began before he and Danny were caught up in the cotton candy tsunami.
Seeing how nobody can see him while buried in all this cotton candy, Danny transformed himself into Phantom and used intangibility to fly out of the cotton candy wave. Takuya and Tucker were caught up in the wave of sweets as well.
Oh gosh, I better end this quickly before it gets worse! Phantom thought to himself as he flew up to the ghost.
"I am Desiree." The female ghost said as she faced Phantom. "What is your wish? I will grant your heart's desire."
"I don't have any wishes," Phantom replied. Well, not any that I'm going to say to someone like you.
"Surely there must be something," Desiree said as she began to reach out to Phantom.
"H-hey! Don't touch me!" Phantom yelped, backing away.
"Pyro Darts!" Fiery flames came at Desiree all of a sudden.
Desiree let out a scream from the flames before she flew away quickly.
Phantom looked down, seeing Agunimon had made it to the fight. "I hope I didn't interrupt your fight too much." Agunimon said with a sheepish grin.
Phantom flew down to Agunimon. "Well, at least you got her out of here before she could do too much damage, but we did lose her, which could be bad."
"Hey! A little help here!" Tucker yelled, his legs buried under the cotton candy. If only I could just phase through this…
Phantom and Agunimon ran to Tucker to help him out.
"Um… where's Andy?" Phantom asked Tucker as Agunimon began to dig out Tucker's legs.
"I don't know, I think he got buried too," Tucker answered.
"I'll dig him out, you try to find Andy and Danny," Agunimon volunteered.
"Thanks, Agunimon. I'll be right back." Phantom said before he turned intangible and flew into the cotton candy pile.
Phantom frowned, unsure how he was going to find his brother in all of this mess. He stopped for a moment and tried to see if he could hear Andy, or maybe sense him somehow, they were twins, there should be some kind of link there. After a moment, Phantom felt something tugging him at a pile of cotton candy. He flew down to it, turning intangible before diving under.
Phantom found Andy, trying to claw his way out of the fluffy substance. "That's it, Danny can have this lifetime supply of cotton candy… I'm not paying for any of this though."
"H-hey, Andy!" Phantom said from just above Andy. "Need a little help?"
Andy looked up at Phantom. "Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes? Some help would be nice, yes."
Phantom chuckled as he took Andy's hand, turned both of them intangible and flew Andy out of the cotton candy pile.
"Do you know what that was about?" Andy asked, trying to take the cotton candy off of his hair.
"Just that some ghost that can grant wishes is loose." Phantom grumbled. "Agunimon chased her off though before she could do anymore damage."
"We really should be using the Fenton Thermos on these ghosts more often," Andy groaned. A ghost that grants wishes? That's a weird one… "Guess we're on clean up duty… I doubt you'd want to leave these people to suffocate in the cotton candy."
"N-no… but… who knows who could come here? I doubt ou-err… your parents will be missing this, since it just seemed to happen from nowhere." Phantom said. "But yeah, I could see if anyone is stuck in this mess before I have to leave if your parents show up."
"Great…" Andy sighed. "So much for a fun Saturday…"
While the Saturday afternoon was a bust, Danny had promised that Saturday night was going to be better. The reason was because he managed to get front row seats for his friends for the Casper High football game. The reason this was a big deal wasn't because of the game itself, but because Casper High's team was facing off against the Buffalos. They were known to be a strong football team, and had won the last football championship. They were going to make Dash look like a helpless monkey out there.
Andy, Tucker, Takuya, and a not so good looking Sam were sitting on the front bleachers together. Although it was a warm night, Sam was shivering, and had a blanket around her body. She was sneezing up a storm.
"Sam…? Are you sure you should be here?" Andy asked in concern. "You really don't look so good."
"Ugh… Blame Tucker. He said Danny had the best seat in the house and we needed to be here to support him…" Sam grumbled before sneezing loudly again. "AH-CHOO! Ugh… I'd rather be dealing with my parents than being here, sick as a dog."
"Come on, it can't be that bad, right?" Tucker said. "Besides, would you really want to pass up a chance to see how our team will handle a championship team?"
"You just want to see Dash get hurt, don't you?" Takuya remarked.
Tucker looked away. "N-no… No it's not that at all!" He said while not making eye contact with Takuya.
Takuya rolled his eyes. "No need to deny it, Tucker. I can't say I blame you though."
"So…" Sam started before sniffling. "How did Danny get us these seats?"
"He filled in for the mascot. Apparently the mascot for our team was out sick today," Andy answered.
"I told Danny it'd be fun and that he'll meet cheerleaders!" Tucker grinned. And if he gets trampled, he'll be fine, I mean he is part ghost. There isn't much he can't take.
Takuya frowned a little. "Okay…?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Ugh… I hate sports… I'm only doing this for Danny to show my support." Sam grumbled.
"And now everybody, here they are, our very own, Casper High Ravens!" The announcer said with a cheery voice as the mascot Raven came out and started flapping its arms like wings while jumping up and down.
The Casper High's football team started running out to the field, intending to run over the mascot. The mascot, however, sidestepped the jocks, dodging their trampling.
Whew, that was close. I guess Andy's dodge training is coming in handy. Danny, who was in the raven costume, thought in relief.
Of course, one more jock came out and slammed into poor Danny, knocking him down anyway. Ow… And that only reinforces why I need to train more as a human…
"Oh, gosh, that looked painful." Takuya frowned.
"Pay more attention next time!" Andy shouted to Danny.
"Come on, dude, we're not in training right now," Tucker grumbled.
"Still, always be prepared," Andy remarked.
The referee blew his whistle, it was time for the game to start. Team Buffalo had a pretty good start, one of their team members kicked the football. Dash managed to catch the football and grinned.
However, Dash then gasped and was tackled as the Buffalos all piled on top of him before he could run with the ball.
"Ouch… I don't think Dash could take that many people piling on him too many times…" Takuya winced at seeing Dash getting dogpiled on.
"It's kind of a wonder why they have nearly their entire team dogpile on one person," Andy remarked. "Wouldn't it be smarter to spread out?"
"Do you play football?" Tucker asked.
"No," Andy replied.
"If it works, it works," Tucker remarked.
The next few times Casper High's team had the ball, Dash was piled on again and again.
Tucker sighed as he and his friends watched this unfolding. "This is pathetic." Tucker said at last with a sigh. "Our team's fading fast."
"I think Dash is fading fast," Andy commented. I almost feel sorry for him.
"AH-CHOO!" Sam sneezed for the upteenth time that night. "So am I… I really should go home. So, goodnight, have fun watching the one-sided game."
Sam stood up and left, leaving the three boys alone together in their seats.
"Wow, Sam must really be sick if she wants to leave in the middle of a game." Takuya noted with some concern.
"She never cared for sports, and neither do I," Andy replied. "I don't blame her for wanting to leave."
"You don't like sports?" Takuya frowned.
Andy chose not to reply to that.
Team Raven got into a huddle to try to discuss a game plan, but they didn't have much of one.
"They're working too well together, every time I grab the ball, I get ambushed by nearly the entire team," Dash grumbled, his body covered in bruises. "Man, I wish I could turn into the kind of monster who could crush these guys single handed."
Above the football field, a swirling green mist appeared, revealing Desiree again. She smiled as she held up a hand, releasing a green mist that then flowed over Dash and entered his body.
When Dash turned away from his team, he suddenly transformed. His body became bigger and more muscular, his skin turned a bright green, his teeth grew sharp, his eyes turned blood red. He ripped parts of his football uniform.
"Did… did Dash just turn into the Hulk?" Andy asked, blinking. "I'm not the only one seeing this, right?"
"No, you're not the only one seeing this…" Tucker said, his eyes wide.
"That's… not normal…" Takuya said, his body tense. He had felt those conflicting feelings of heat and chills run down his spine again. "I think… this has a ghostly reason behind it…"
"Whoa! Looks like those high protein breakfasts are finally kicking in, huh?" One of the announcers said.
"Unless he's taking steroids, I don't think that's the case…" The other announcer replied. "This doesn't look natural."
Danny frowned, his ghost sense had activated, and he looked up, seeing that Desiree ghost flying off. "Oh no…"
Danny looked at the Hulk Dash, knowing he had to do something before someone got hurt.
Hulk Dash grabbed the football and threw it. Nobody could catch it because it was going so fast, except for Dash himself, he managed to catch up to the football and got to the touchdown so quickly that not even a second went by before he threw it.
"Great… I need some help to cover for me…" Danny grumbled as he tried to come up with a plan.
"How is nobody else freaking out about this?" Andy frowned.
"Uh… I think everyone's thinking Dash took steroids or something." Tucker frowned.
"We have to do something!" Takuya said.
"How? There's a bunch of people here!" Andy pointed out before leaning closer to Takuya so Tucker wouldn't hear him. "Unless you can suddenly turn invisible, Agunimon can't just show up here."
"I know that!" Takuya whispered back. "But we determined I am not a ghost when I become Agunimon!"
"Speaking of ghosts, Phantom should be here soon, maybe we can figure out something?" Andy said.
Danny ran over to them. "Hey, uh… Tucker, I need your help with something."
Tucker frowned. "What do you need, Danny?" He asked, already having a feeling it had to do with him.
"Just come with me," Danny quickly said, gesturing to Tucker to follow him.
Tucker frowned, but followed after Danny.
Andy and Takuya weren't sure what to do other than wait for Danny or until the other people here started running away. But they were a lot more invested now, seeing one of the football players had mutated into a monster. Phantom, where are you?
Takuya frowned. "Is it me, or are the students here actually interested now that Dash became the Hulk?"
"I think people think he's cosplaying or something," Andy said. "Why would they actually believe he turned into a monster?"
Then, Takuya suddenly got those feelings of heat and chills down his spine again. "Ah… I sense another ghost… This one… feels familiar though…"
"It must be Phantom, he's likely here and invisible," Andy replied.
As the two football teams readied themselves, Team Buffalo were looking at Dash with fear, they weren't sure how they were going to win against a literal monster. The Hulk Dash shouted out some numbers as he got ready for the ball. At the same time, Phantom, invisible, flew up to Dash's head.
"Whoa… The ghost energy's pretty strong, but hopefully ripe for the picking!" Phantom said before he turned his hand intangible and reached into Hulk Dash's head. He grabbed hold of something that felt ghostly and pulled, yanking out what looked like a green ghostly blob with Dash's head shape and red eyes.
As soon as Phantom took the ghostly blob away, Dash lost his monstrous form, shrinking back down to a normal human. Dash was in a bit of a daze.
"Looks like Phantom did it," Andy noted in relief.
"Uhhh… hike?" Dash squealed.
As soon as his teammate threw him the ball, Dash was quickly buried by Team Buffalo again.
Behind the bleachers, Phantom was holding a Fenton Thermos. "Alright, back to the Ghost Zone with you!" He said as he aimed the thermos at the blobby ghost. The ghost screeched as it was sucked into the thermos, which Phantom capped easily.
Phantom flew back to Fenton Works so he could release the ghost into the Ghost Zone, he wasn't that interested to stick around for the rest of the game anyways.
When Phantom got home, he quickly flew down into the lab. He blinked when he saw a weird net thing in the lab. That was a new thing.
Phantom decided to ignore the new invention for now. He floated over to the Ghost Portal and stuck the thermos into the slot where the Fenton Thermos could be placed to release a ghost into the Ghost Zone. The blob ghost from Dash appeared in the Ghost Portal before being sucked into the Ghost Zone. "End of the line, gruesome."
Once the blob ghost was in the Ghost Zone, Phantom smiled as he began to fly away, only to wind up passing through that new net thing he had dismissed earlier. This caused Danny to suddenly separate into two halves, his human form, and his ghost form. His human form fell to the floor, feeling the effects of gravity.
Human Danny looked up at Ghost Danny in confusion, Ghost Danny was looking down at his human self, just as confused.
"What the…?" Human Danny blinked. "Was I… overshadowed or something all along? Like what Sidney did to Andy?"
Instead of answering, Ghost Danny suddenly flew back into Human Danny, and Danny felt like he was whole again. Going through that thing had made him feel like half of him was missing or something. His head ached a little, suddenly getting two memories of looking at both his human self, and his ghost self, it was a paradox in his mind. But Danny knew for sure his ghost half wasn't like Sidney, they weren't separate entities at all, they were indeed the same person. What happened was very odd, it was like Danny himself had been split in half.
When Ghost Danny flew back into Human Danny, they appeared to have fused back together, and that was why Danny felt whole again, and why he had the strange double memory. It was a very odd feeling, and not one he wanted to experience again. Though he wondered if Andy may have felt anything from that, since he knew Andy felt it when Sidney had tried to rip Danny's soul out of his body.
Danny's thoughts were interrupted when he heard what sounded like sneezing.
"Who's that?" Jack's voice asked from what looked like a giant tent of some kind. "Is somebody out there?" Jack opened the flap, revealing he looked very sick, as sick as Sam had appeared to be.
Maddie was there too, looking just as sick.
"Uh… am I interrupting something that I hope I'm not?" Danny asked nervously, really glad his ghost half had fused back with him when he did. He didn't want to imagine what would've happened if his parents saw his ghost half.
Maddie sniffled. "I'm sorry, Danny, we explained this to Jazz earlier, but you guys went out before we could tell you. Your father and I are sick, and we wanted to stay down here so we wouldn't get you kids sick too. In fact, you really shouldn't be down here right now, Danny, especially without a hazmat suit…"
"Although, just to be on the safe side, we made the Fenton Ghost Catcher," Jack explained, gesturing to the net Danny went through earlier. "We knew we had a cold, but we also needed to be sure we didn't get infected by ghost germs or some kind of infected ectoplasm. The Ghost Catcher is designed to remove and purify anything ghostly from objects and living beings, so it would be immensely useful for overshadowed people and objects."
"Uh… right… Okay, you guys get some rest and I will just head back upstairs." Danny said nervously.
"You do that… be sure to let your brother and cousin know not to come down here unless there's an emergency, sweetie," Maddie said. "You can order take out for dinner. Hopefully this cold won't last too long."
Danny nodded before he quickly ran up the stairs and out of the lab. Wow… that invention actually works! I will have to label that as under 'Must Avoid'. I better tell Andy about it too, so he can put it away during training. I don't want to risk touching it again.
Meanwhile, not long after Phantom had left, the game was over pretty quickly. The visitors won by a landslide. Everybody went home pretty disappointed how the home team lost rather embarrassingly. The home team, however, were not going to just go home and sulk. They wanted an outlet for their anger and embarrassment. They were aiming for the poor mascot, who was Tucker.
Tucker managed to dodge a lot of the angry jocks' hands, but there was only so much he could do. Andy grabbed onto Tucker from behind the bleachers and pulled him in.
"Ditch the costume," Andy whispered. "Quickly!"
Tucker didn't waste any time ditching the costume. He threw out the head, the beak and the rest of the mascot suit quickly.
"Now go," Andy pushed Tucker out of the bleachers.
Andy picked up the head and beak, and the rest of the suit, putting them back together. He hurried forward before tossing the costume onto one of the football goals, having it hang there. That should buy us some time to escape.
Andy quickly ran before the jocks could see him. They eyed the hanging raven costume, and grabbed their bats. They were ready to beat up whatever poor soul was in that costume, which was thankfully nobody.
"Start up the moped, Takuya!" Andy yelled.
Takuya started the moped, with Tucker already on the seat just behind the older boy. "Ready, Andy!" He said. "Get on, quick!" It would be a tight fit with all three of them, but it would be worth it to get away quickly.
Tucker held out his hand for Andy to take, they could already hear the footsteps of the angry jocks running out. They tore up the costume rather quickly. Takuya got the moped moving just as Andy grabbed onto Tucker's hand, and Tucker pulled him on as Takuya sped down the road, hoping the jocks didn't see them.
Andy was in his room, currently drawing a raven in his notebook while Danny was talking to him.
"So, Mom and Dad are sick, like Sam is, and they made this thing called the Fenton Ghost Catcher," Danny began. "It kind of looks like an Indian Dream Catcher, but it catches ghosts rather than dreams. And it's actually kind of cool, it expunges anything ghostly in an object or person. I guess Mom and Dad made it after the garage sale incident with Technus."
"Did you try using it on yourself?" Andy asked, which immediately put Danny on guard for why Andy asked that question.
"Um, no, why?" Danny asked, trying very hard to not look so nervous.
Andy wasn't looking at Danny, he was still doodling, so he didn't notice the nervous look on his brother's face. "I just figured it might help expunge all the ectoplasm in your system you probably got from the accident. At least this way Mom and Dad's inventions won't keep picking you up as a ghost, and maybe you won't have such weird side effects like that blue mist thing that comes out of your mouth sometimes."
"Ah… it's fine, Andy." Danny said. "The ectoplasm in me is a small amount, so it won't hurt me. And I kinda like that blue mist thing that comes out of my mouth. It's… like a sense almost. It… uh… it lets me know when a ghost is near."
"Really?" Andy blinked. "So it's… like a ghost sense?"
"Yeah, I think so," Danny chuckled.
"Are you sure you're okay with the ectoplasm in your system? I mean… you're fine now, but like… I thought ectoplasm didn't mix well with human DNA," Andy remarked, giving Danny a curious look. "Wouldn't you start getting sick or something if it's left in your system?"
"Ah… nope! It's just a small amount, so no need to worry!" Danny said with a nervous grin.
Andy raised an eyebrow, now seeing the nervousness. He thought Danny would've been ecstatic to be able to get rid of any contaminated ectoplasm DNA he may have gotten in the accident, but Danny seemed to really not want to do that. He wondered if there was more to this whole thing that Danny wasn't telling him. But seeing how Danny didn't seem willing to share, Andy decided to ask a different question.
"You know, Takuya and I had to bail Tucker out of the football game after our team lost. You seemed to have magically disappeared though. Why was Tucker in that costume? Did you bail on the game?" Andy asked.
"Ah…" Danny began, but he was not liking being questioned like this so much. "I may have, but only because I sensed a ghost around when my ghost sense kicked in!"
Andy raised an eyebrow. "So you chose to put Tucker in the costume so you could leave instead of warning the rest of us?"
Danny facepalmed, realizing how bad he made himself sound.
Aw crap… Way to ruin it, Fenton! Danny thought mentally. Me and my big mouth…
"I, um… well I sensed a ghost was nearby… and I also noticed Phantom was watching the game. I couldn't just leave, because I was filling in for the mascot, so I had Tucker fill in for me while I warned Phantom about the ghost," Danny wovened. "I was told to go home for the sake of my safety by Phantom."
Andy raised an eyebrow again, there were a lot of holes in Danny's story just now. Danny had claimed to be afraid of Phantom, so the fact he would discreetly tell Phantom, and not him or Takuya, was odd. Second, if Phantom was there, he would've seen what was happening himself, he wouldn't need Danny to tell him. Third, even if Phantom wasn't there, Phantom had his own way of sensing ghosts, so he would've gotten there either way. There was more to this story than Danny was telling him.
However, Andy decided not to interrogate his brother. He didn't want Danny to feel like he needed to start isolating Andy again because Andy was getting too suspicious of him.
"Well, I'm glad you got home safely then, bro," Andy said.
"Yeah, me too." Danny sighed, relieved Andy had decided to stop questioning him. Geez… if that was a real interrogation, I would've cracked.
"Are we still on for the movie tomorrow?" Andy asked, going back to his notebook.
"You know it!" Danny grinned. "This new Dead Teacher movie is said to be filled to the brim with horror-filled goodness!"
"I also heard there's gonna be some psychological torture to the main characters too, each one will see their own sins manifested right before them," Andy remarked. "Should be an interesting movie~"
While Andy wasn't a huge fan of gory horror stuff, he rather enjoyed the psychological horror, which Dead Teacher was also filled with, and why Andy was excited to see it. There was also another reason, while movies may not represent what could happen in real life, Andy was curious if it was possible for dead people to come back to life.
"Only you and your psychological horror." Danny chuckled. "While I like the gore and stuff, you like the psychological torment." Inwardly though, Danny shivered. Maybe that's why Andy is so scary when he gets angry or mischievous…
"Hey, psychological horror lets you learn more about the characters and their background. Gore stuff is just them getting gutted in a gross way," Andy grumbled.
Danny chuckled, now this was a conversation he was more comfortable with having.
The next day, Tucker, Takuya, Danny, and Andy were at the mall, heading to the theater inside. Danny decided to call Sam with his cell phone to see how she was doing. He heard her sneezing a few times.
"Ugh… I feel like I'm going to die, I hate being sick!" Sam groaned.
"Hang in there, Sam. Tucker, Andy, Takuya, and I will come visit you after we've seen the movie. Do you want us to bring you anything?" Danny asked, concerned about one of his best friends.
Sam sneezed again before answering, sounding all stuffy. "N-no, no, please don't bother. My folks are taking pretty good care of me… Guys! It's just a cold!"
"CLEAR!" Danny blinked when he heard someone shouting in the background, and crackles of electricity.
"Okay, I think we'll talk later then," Danny said before he hung up.
"Wow… Sam has to be very sick if she is missing Dead Teacher 4: This Time It's Personal." Tucker said as he and the other boys walked into the theater.
The smell of butter and popcorn was pretty overwhelming. It never failed to make Andy feel hungry whenever he walked into a movie theater, even if he had just eaten.
"We should definitely get some popcorn while we're here," Andy said.
"Of course we should." Danny agreed. "It's, like, a crime to not have popcorn when you are watching a movie at the theater."
"Okay, but I only have enough money left for a few snacks," Tucker grumbled.
"Shouldn't have spent it all on the new PDA 1.5 that came out," Takuya chuckled.
"It was an upgrade that I needed!" Tucker whined.
"I can't wait to see the new Sayonara PussyCat movie!" One of the girls from Casper High giggled.
"I know, I want to see it so bad!" Another girl, probably a friend, agreed.
The girls were looking at a big, anime, white anthropomorphic, big headed cat cutout that was animated to wave its arms cutely.
Takuya raised an eyebrow as he saw that. "Wow, it seems like Sayonara PussyCat is popular over here."
"You mean that anime show for girls?" Tucker shrugged. "It's alright."
Andy chose not to say that he had a lot of plushies and keychains of Sayonara Pussycat, at least those didn't get destroyed when Skulker tried to kidnap Danny. He hoped Danny wouldn't say anything either, or he was getting pranked the next morning.
"Well, people like what they like." Danny said, trying not to laugh at the fact that Andy had plushies and keychains of said character.
"Sayonara Pussycat is so cute!" They heard Paulina's voice cooing longingly. "I wish I could be that popular and cute!"
"Hey, they got some arcades here," Tucker pointed out. "I'd like to try out that Crash Nebula one! I think that was like a thing in that fairy odd parents show or something."
Takuya sighed. "As long as we can get our seats for the movie…"
"C'mon, Takuya. It's Tucker. He will blitz through that game in no time." Danny chuckled.
"I'm going to get in line to get some popcorn," Andy volunteered as he walked over to the concession line.
Not long after Tucker and Danny put their quarters into the Crash Nebula arcade, Takuya was watching them, and Andy was in the concession line. There was a sudden bright flash of green light, and suddenly a big headed, anime looking girl floated up to the sky, smiling at everyone, which caused everyone to gasp in shock when they looked up.
"Hi everyone, what do you think of me?~" The big-headed anime girl asked in Paulina's voice.
Everyone then smiled widely at her. "WE LOVE YOU! WE LOVE YOU! WE LOVE YOU, PAULINA!"
Andy blinked, feeling some kind of unnatural feeling in his chest. He knew that was Paulina, but there was something trying to grip him that he couldn't see, something that was telling him to love her and worship her. Andy quickly looked away, knowing whatever was going on was unnatural. Oh gosh… I can't look at her… or I'll fall under whatever spell she's in.
At the same time, Takuya and Danny both had their ghost senses go off, but differently. For Danny, his blue mist emerged from his mouth while Takuya gasped as he felt the heat and chills run down his spine.
Danny looked over, only to see big-headed Paulina. "Wait… Paulina?" Danny asked, blinking.
"Oh my gosh… She's adorable!" Tucker yelled.
Big headed anime Paulina began to skip across the theater with a crowd of people following her, claiming how much they loved her.
"Attention, movie goers!" The announcer spoke through the speakers. "GooglePlex Cinema has officially declared this to be 'Happy Fabulous Paulina Day!"
Danny and Takuya were really weirded out by this, especially with how fast everything was going.
"I don't know what to say!" Big headed anime Paulina smiled as she looked at everyone. "But why squander my popularity here? I'm so adorable, I bet I could become Super Fairy Queen of all teenagerdome!"
As Paulina was talking, she was suddenly growing in size, and soon she was towering over everyone while giving a big, happy smile. "Isn't that lucious!?"
Everyone cheered for Paulina while Danny looked at Tucker and Takuya. "Guys, this is bad…"
"No duh!" Takuya growled. "We need to do something!"
"Um, how about we follow her?" Tucker suggested. "She's pretty cute, and maybe we can… uh… do something?"
"Don't look at her," Danny quickly said. "I think there's some kind of spell on her that makes people want to love her when you look at her."
"So what should we do?" Takuya frowned.
"Um… close your eyes, and I'll see if I can do something with the Fenton Thermos," Danny said, taking out his Fenton Thermos. "It should suck the, uh… ghost right out of Paulina."
Takuya frowned. He had not felt the urge to worship or love Paulina, even with his brief eye contact with her, but he decided to do as Danny asked anyway.
"Just hurry. I don't want to see any more of her big head." Takuya grumbled as he closed his eyes.
"I'll try, you take Tucker somewhere safe," Danny quickly said.
Takuya looked down at the floor as he grabbed Tucker's arm and pulled him away. Seeing his chance, Danny transformed into Phantom. He had to be quick.
Phantom flew down to the big-headed Paulina while intangible, pushing her through the wall as he collided with her big head. Phantom emerged in what looked like a storage room with the big-headed Paulina.
"Hi! I'm Paulina! I'm adorable as well and full of big-headed anime goodness!" Paulina said happily.
"Say goodbye, kitty!" Phantom said as he focused on his ghost ray, hoping to shoot the ghost right out of Paulina.
Phantom hadn't been sure about it, but he had been working on his ghost ray in secret for a bit to see if he could make it harmless to humans and only hit the ghosts. It was something Phantom had been worrying about before, because he didn't want to accidentally hurt someone when firing his ghost rays. This was as good a time as any to test if his training had been paying off, since Paulina was overshadowed, her body wouldn't get hurt too much if he shot her with his ghost ray.
Phantom fired his ghost ray at Paulina's forehead. Paulina let out a surprised yelp, and a green, ghostly version of what appeared to be Sayonara Pussycat was shot out of Paulina's body.
"Hi! Isn't everything in the world sweet and wonderful and-" The ghostly version of Sayonara PussyCat said before Phantom just aimed the Fenton Thermos at her and sucked her in. The cat let out a long meow as she was sucked into the thermos.
"Wow, that actually worked." Phantom smiled as Paulina changed back to her normal, human self, she was in a bit of a daze.
Phantom quickly flew out of the storage room, but he made sure the door was unlocked so Paulina could get out.
Meanwhile, Andy managed to find Takuya and Tucker. He found them in a different room, where there weren't a lot of people in. The movie was showing My Little Pony. Andy raised an eyebrow, he liked My Little Pony, but he didn't think this was the movie Tucker and Takuya wanted to see.
"Guys? Why are you here?" Andy asked.
"The movie got sold out…" Tucker grumbled.
"I got Tucker away on Danny's instruction, but because of that Paulina incident, we had to come here instead of Dead Teacher 4." Takuya sighed.
"Oh… well… My Little Pony isn't so bad," Andy said sheepishly.
"It's about candy colored ponies that solve their problems with rainbows, magic, and friendship. It's a girl's show if I ever saw one," Tucker moodily grumbled.
Andy frowned. "If you ever took the time to watch the show, you'd see it's much more than that."
Tucker and Takuya looked at Andy. Andy blushed.
"N-not that I've seen it! I just saw reviews for it!" Andy quickly said.
"Whatever. I think I need to stretch my legs." Takuya said as he stood up. "Danny said he would take care of the big-headed Paulina and I am wondering if he was successful in that. I'm going to see if I can find him."
"You do that, I'll stay here with Tucker," Andy said, knowing Takuya needed to be alone to spirit evolve to help his brother.
When Takuya left, Andy sat down next to Tucker with his monster sized popcorn, and soda.
"Popcorn?" Andy offered.
"No thanks. I'd rather watch Dead Teacher 4…" Tucker grumbled.
Andy frowned. "I know it's not exactly Dead Teacher 4, but at least we get to watch a movie together. And we have the whole theater room to ourselves. We can always watch Dead Teacher 4 next weekend when Sam is all better, that way we can all watch it."
Tucker sighed. "I guess… it's just…"
"What?" Andy asked. "This isn't just about the movie, is it?"
"No, it isn't…" Tucker admitted. "When you see Phantom, you can see how cool and awesome he is, right? How he can fly freely through the air at any time… how he can go invisible so people can't see him, heck he could probably get into any movie he wanted for free! And he can even go through any solid objects, do you know how useful that could be? And he can blast out things with his ghost ray, there's just no downside to it!"
"Well, there is a downside." Andy frowned. "He had to die to gain those powers."
Tucker stared at Andy for a moment before he looked away. "Yeah… die, right…" Danny didn't die, at least, not fully, or so I assume anyway. "I still feel jealous of Phantom. Man, how cool would it be to have ghost powers?"
Instead of giving an answer right away, Andy was munching on his popcorn. He spent good money on it, so he wasn't going to wait until it went stale to eat it.
Tucker looked over at Andy. "You can't tell me you didn't think about wanting ghost powers of your own."
"I mean it is really cool," Andy admitted after swallowing his popcorn. "But… I mean he's a ghost… wouldn't that mean he wouldn't be able to enjoy things like food, or social activities? He's usually alone when I meet up with him at Central park."
Tucker sighed. If Andy only knew the truth, he would agree with Tucker in a heartbeat. "I wish I could have ghost powers too… you know, without the dying part…"
"Heh, wouldn't that be interesting?" Andy chuckled, neither boy noticing a green mist appearing behind them.
"Your heart's desire is my command~" A female voice said softly.
The boys blinked.
"Did you say something?" Both boys asked before they looked behind them.
Andy and Tucker saw that genie ghost woman again, she was already moving her hands around, creating green mist around Tucker. Andy yelped as he fell out of his seat out of reflex to get away from the ghost genie and the green mist. Unfortunately, Tucker didn't have the same reaction, and sat there as the green mist covered his body.
"Tucker!" Andy yelled. "What are you doing to him!?"
Desiree smiled. "I am only giving him what his heart desires~"
With that said, Desiree turned intangible and flew out of the theater room. The green mist disappeared as well.
"Tucker! Are you alright?" Andy asked in concern. "Do you feel any different? Are you sick? Dizzy? Nauseous?"
Tucker opened his eyes and looked around, seeing no green mist or ghost genie. He then looked at Andy. "I feel fine. I don't think I feel sick or dizzy or nauseous. And I feel f-IIINNNEEE!" Tucket yelped as his body turned intangible and he fell through his seat.
This caused Andy to scream out in shock and worry for his friend. "Tucker!?"
Tucker poked his head up from the seat cushion, looking at his own body. "I… I'm intangible… This… is… AWESOME!" He exclaimed at last.
"W-what?" Andy asked. "But… you… did… did she… turn you into a ghost? Wait, isn't that bad!? Did she kill you!?"
Tucker got out of the seat and returned to a tangible form before he took his own pulse. "Hmmm… nope, I still have a heartbeat, and I am still breathing, not to mention warm to the touch."
Andy wanted to ask how that was possible, until he remembered the Hulk Dash incident, and the big headed anime Paulina transformations he saw. So Desiree giving Tucker ghost powers while still a human shouldn't be that out of the question, but…
"Are you… sure this is okay?" Andy asked, skeptically. "I mean… we don't know the effects of these… ghost powers you were given by that ghost genie. You know how genies are in stories, right? They grant wishes, but they twist them horribly."
"Relax, Andy. It can't be all that bad." Tucker chuckled. "I mean, now I can do all of the stuff Phantom does! Which means I can fly, go through walls, turn invisible, and even shoot those ghost rays if I so wanted to!"
"Yeah, but… you don't know how to use those powers yet," Andy pointed out. "Phantom told me it took him a while to get control of his powers. And we still don't know what'll happen to you if you keep these powers. Maybe we should tell Phantom-"
"No way!" Tucker quickly said. "Come on, Phantom would spoil it! At least wait until I'm ready to make my debut as Tucker Phantom!"
"Tucker… Phantom?" Andy blinked.
"Yeah! A cool name for a cool superhero!" Tucker grinned. "What else would I be called?"
"Phantom might sue…" Andy deadpanned.
Tucker looked at his hands before he lit them up with his ghost rays, he grinned before he flew up into the air with ease. "Man, I don't know what D- erm, Phantom was complaining about. This is easy! Maybe I'm just a natural at this!"
Andy blinked, surprised at how quickly Tucker was grasping his new ghost powers.
"C'mon, Andy! Don't be such a spoilsport! This could be fun~" Tucker grinned at Andy from the air.
Andy wasn't sure if Tucker being able to use his ghost powers so easily was normal, then again, a human having ghost powers at all was anything but normal. Still, Phantom had trouble controlling his powers for a while, so the fact Tucker could grasp it so quickly was a little concerning. Still, maybe it may not be such a bad thing after all. If Tucker used his powers for good, like Phantom and Agunimon did, then that meant they had more power on their side.
"I guess, you might have a point," Andy hesitantly relented. "You having ghost powers could be beneficial to us, especially since we'll now have a ghost boy nearby whenever a ghost decides to attack."
"I knew you'd see the benefits~" Tucker grinned. "Don't worry, Andy, this is a good thing. Now…"
Tucker turned himself invisible for a moment before reappearing in front of Andy, making Andy jump back, spilling his popcorn everywhere.
"Oh, my popcorn!" Andy whined. "There goes most of my money down the drain…"
Tucker returned to visibility. "Oh man! That's a good prank right there!" He cried as he laughed hysterically.
"This isn't funny! You owe me 12 dollars!" Andy huffed.
"Chill out, Andy! It's not like I ruined your favorite shirt or anything." Tucker chuckled.
Andy frowned at him.
"Would it help if I got us into Dead Teacher 4?" Tucker offered.
"What? But wasn't it sold out?" Andy asked.
"Andy, hello~ Ghost powers! I can get us in for free~" Tucker grinned. "Just a little intangibility and we are in~"
"I don't know, isn't that kind of illegal?" Andy questioned in hesitance. "Not to mention, you just got those powers, can you even hold invisibility and intangibility?"
Tucker took Andy's arm. "Guess we'll find out. Don't worry about the cimentics, we already bought tickets for this movie, might as well let our money be put to good use."
Before Andy could protest, Tucker turned both of them intangible and invisible and flew them, that's right, flew them, to the next theater over, making Andy yelp.
Danny himself flew into the theater showing Dead Teacher 4, transforming back to his human form while nobody could see him. He assumed Tucker, Takuya, and Andy would be waiting for him here.
"Huh… no sign of Andy, Tucker or Takuya… Maybe they all left?" Danny wondered. "I mean, this place is packed! I'm glad I got in here when I did."
Danny wondered if he should leave too. He wanted to see this movie with his friends, cousin, and brother, but the movie was just starting, meaning all the previews were already over. Danny gave it some thought before he figured he was already here, he could watch it now, then watch it again next weekend with everyone.
Tucker, however, was here, while holding onto Andy.
"Maybe we should find a place to sit," Andy whispered.
"You can find a seat. I'm going to have a little fun before I join you guys~" Tucker grinned.
"Fun? What fun?" Andy asked, starting to get a bad feeling.
"Don't worry about it, it's harmless," Tucker replied before he put Andy down, causing Andy to be visible again.
Luckily for Andy, nobody was paying attention to the boy who suddenly appeared. Although one person noticed Andy.
"Hey, bro! You made it after all!" Danny smiled.
"Shhhh!" The other people shushed him.
Andy turned to Danny, surprised. Wait… what? How did Danny get in here if the movie was sold out?
Danny waved to Andy. "C'mon bro!" He whispered excitedly. "I saved you a seat!"
Andy walked over to Danny and sat down next to him. He wanted to ask Danny how he got in here, and he also wanted to tell Danny about Tucker's ghost powers, but the movie was already starting, and Andy needed a quiet place to tell Danny.
"Where's Takuya?" Andy asked.
Meanwhile, at the condo plex, Takuya was frowning as he was standing there all alone.
"Okay, where is Danny? I swore he would be out here." Takuya said as he looked around. Grumbling, the older boy decided he would just wait out in the lobby. "Fine… I'll just wait here until Danny comes back."
Meanwhile, Tucker, seeing how he had a golden opportunity to play some fun pranks with his newly acquired ghost powers, pranks he couldn't believe Danny never tried to do. Tucker flew up, making sure he was invisible, then he flew down at the audience. He grabbed a handful of popcorn from an old lady and ate it. He then drank the person next to the old lady's soda. Then he put a man's toupee on the boy's head who was sitting next to him. And finally, for the punch line, Tucker placed a nerd's and around a hot girl's shoulder that was sitting next to him.
The nerd smiled at the girl, who raised up her fist and punched him in the nose. "OUCH!"
Tucker was laughing up a storm. This is way better than the movie!
Outside of the theater, it was traffic. The cars weren't going anywhere for a while. Takuya was bored as he had been waiting for over an hour, until finally he saw Danny and Andy walking out of the theater room and into the lobby.
"There you are!" Takuya said as he ran over to the twins. "Where were you Danny? I was waiting for you guys for an hour!" Then Takuya blinked. "Wait, Andy? When did you meet up with Danny?"
"Takuya? Were you waiting here the whole time?" Danny asked. "I thought you and Tucker left. Andy and I just decided to watch Dead Teacher 4."
Takuya frowned. "Wait… How did you two get into Dead Teacher 4? I thought the tickets were all sold out. And last I saw, Andy was with Tucker."
"Dead Teacher 4 was… sold out?" Danny frowned, confused and surprised. "But… oh… well crap…"
"I don't know how Danny got in," Andy admitted. "But about Tucker, he's… um… could we talk somewhere more private?"
Takuya and Danny looked at Andy. "Um… sure?" Danny said, raising an eyebrow.
Takuya frowned. "Why do I think I won't like hearing about this?"
"You… may or may not," Andy ominously said.
The group walked to an empty spot of the lobby, and sat down. Not many people were coming through here, so that should give them some privacy. And hopefully if someone did hear them, they would assume the boys were talking about a character in a movie.
"You remember that genie ghost who made that cotton candy tsunami?" Andy asked the two.
Takuya nodded, as did Danny.
"How could I forget her?" Takuya grumbled. "Cotton candy was everywhere."
"And you almost got drowned in that, bro." Danny said. "If it weren't for Phantom, you'd be in a cotton candy coffin. And I think she said her name was Desiree."
"Fitting name for a genie who grants the heart desires," Andy commented. "Anyways, Desiree showed up to Tucker and me while we were waiting for you two in that empty theater room. Tucker was talking about how he wanted to have ghost powers like Phantom, and how awesome it would be. While I understand the appeal, because who wouldn't want to be able to fly or go invisible? I also know gaining such powers would mean the death of one's self, literally. But Tucker was pretty insistent on it, and wished he had ghost powers, that was when Desiree showed up, and… well… let's just say Phantom isn't the only ghost boy around anymore."
Takuya frowned while Danny looked a bit pale.
"O-oh…" Danny said, not liking the sound of this. "I-is that so? I didn't… think Tucker was jealous…" Oh man… And I've been showing off my ghost powers a bit too much lately…
"If that's the case, then… What should we do? I don't think Tucker having ghost powers is very… I don't know how to feel about this to be honest…" Takuya finally admitted. "On one hand, it would be great, but on the other… since these powers were given by a ghostly genie, there may be some sort of nasty surprise waiting for us."
"I don't know what to expect myself," Andy admitted. "But I want to try to think positively about this, and believe it's a good thing."
"Why would you think it's a good thing?" Danny asked.
"Well, Phantom's only other super powered help is Agunimon, and he's still figuring out how to use his powers," Andy explained. "Tucker's able to get a good grasp on his ghost powers pretty quickly, and Phantom could use some ghostly help, right? So maybe this isn't such a bad thing."
Danny smiled a bit. "Yeah, I can see why. Extra help would be nice… Err… for Phantom anyway. Maybe Phantom will have to deal with ghosts less if Tucker can help out with his new powers."
"Maybe…" Takuya said, still doubtful. "Are you sure a human should have such powers though? I mean someone like Agunimon is one thing, but he can't fly, or go through walls, or turn invisible. Tucker having all of that though… is that… really a good thing?"
"I mean… Tucker might try to prank some people, and maybe even… peek into the girl's locker room," Andy frowned, but still tried to look at the bright side to this. "But he's not a bad guy, he's like Sidney, right? Only he's not… you know, dead… I think… I hope… so he should be able to help us when we need it."
Danny and Takuya both frowned at Andy's words, but they were not about to ruin Andy's optimistic mood with their own doubts. Andy really hoped Tucker having ghost powers didn't mean he was dead, he did see Desiree granting the wish after all, and it didn't look like she had to kill Tucker to give him his ghost powers. It was just ghosts usually meant a spirit of someone who had died. So Andy found this whole thing to be very screwy in the head. Tucker had assured him that he was still alive, with a heartbeat and everything. So despite Andy's doubts and worries, he chose to just see it as a human with ghost powers and nothing more.
"So where is Tucker now?" Danny asked.
"Heck if I know," Andy shrugged. "Since he can fly and go through stuff, he could be anywhere. Maybe your ghost sense could pick him up."
Takuya blinked. "Ghost sense?"
Danny looked at Takuya nervously. "Uh… yeah… the accident left me with… an interesting side-effect. Apparently I can sense ghosts, which comes out as a blue mist from my mouth."
Takuya blinked. "Really? That sounds like it could be handy."
Danny chuckled. "It has been handy, trust me."
"Do you sense Tucker then?" Takuya asked.
"No…" Danny frowned. "Maybe… he's not ghostly enough for me to pick up on him?"
Takuya wondered as well, since he did have his own ghost sense, though his appeared to be internal rather than Danny's external misty breath. Takuya couldn't sense anything either.
"Or maybe he's not here, he could've left," Andy pointed out. "I don't blame him though. He's a teenager who just got the ability to fly freely, why wouldn't he just go out there and try out his new powers as soon as possible? I mean any of us would do the same, right?"
"Err… Yeah, I probably would." Danny said nervously. More like I already have, but…
"I can see why. The temptation to use such powers would be too much of a draw to resist." Takuya chuckled.
"So as long as he's not using his powers to hurt anyone, I'd say let him have his fun," Andy chuckled. "We should go and check in on Sam, if her parents would let us." Though I have to admit, I'm a little envious of Tucker. It would be nice to be able to fly… go invisible… and intangible. Imagine how much more effective I could be as a human with ghost powers… and how much of a help I could be to Phantom and Takuya in battle… I'd be less of a burden.
Andy realized he could so easily get those ghost powers if he made the wish, like Tucker did. It was very tempting, however, Andy was a cautious boy. He wasn't going to recklessly make that wish until he knew for sure it was safe. He needed to see how things played out with Tucker first before he did anything.
"Knowing Sam's parents, they won't let us within 5 miles of her." Danny said sheepishly. "At least not while she's sick."
"I'd rather not get sick myself." Takuya said. "No offense to Sam, but I'm not in the mood to have a cold right now."
"I think you two would be fine, out of the 3 of us, I'd be the one in most danger of getting Sam's cold… and maybe Danny," Andy said.
"Why do you say that?" Danny asked, feeling a little nervous.
"Takuya has… uh… his athletic background, his immune system is through the roof," Andy said, though he really meant the magical armor likely protecting Takuya. "And for you, Danny, you could either be immune to normal sickness like the cold due to the ectoplasm in your system, or you could be vastly vulnerable to sickness because the ectoplasm could be reeking havoc in your body, as well as tearing down your immune system."
Danny paled as he heard that. "O-oh…" Aw crap! Way to make me feel bad about my ghost half, Andy! Then Danny shook his head. "Ah… I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I mean, I've had this ectoplasm in my system for some time now, so I'm sure it will be fine!"
Takuya didn't know much about ectoplasm, that was more in his aunt and uncle's field, but he knew ectoplasm and human blood usually didn't mix. So it was a miracle Danny was okay if he really had some in his system, no matter how little there were.
Danny noticed Takuya was looking at him with worry. "Really, I'm fine! I think the accident made me a little more compatible with the ectoplasm. It's been a few months since then, I think if the ectoplasm was killing me, we would've noticed by now."
"Okay… if you say so, Danny…" Takuya said slowly. "I will hold you to that."
Danny sighed. "Can we go now?"
Danny really wanted to get the subject off of him.
"Yeah," Andy said as he stood up. "We can talk to Tucker about his ghost powers later. I'll have to let Phantom know too so he doesn't think Tucker is an enemy, even if Tucker was hoping to surprise him."
"Yeah, sure. You can do that." Danny said as the trio of boys walked out of the theater and the mall.
The 3 walked out of the theater, noticing there was a pretty bad traffic jam.
"Jeez, you'd think people would be better prepared for the busy hour," Takuya muttered.
"I'm just glad we didn't take a car to get here," Andy remarked.
Suddenly, Danny's ghost sense went off, and Takuya felt the cold and hot sense inside him again. Andy took notice of Danny's ghost sense.
"Uh-oh… where-" Andy began to ask before they looked up, seeing Desiree flying by again.
"Oh, c'mon…" Danny grumbled. "Can't that lady ever take a break?"
"Probably not," Andy said. "And I think she granted another wish, because… unless we all jumped like… 50 years into the future, that's not a normal sight."
Andy was gesturing to someone's red car flying in the sky out of control.
"Oh, c'mon!" Takuya growled. "A flying car?! How can any of us catch that?!"
"We can't…" Andy frowned.
"I'm going to run ahead, see if maybe there's something I can find to help," Danny volunteered before he ran ahead, going around the building to get out of sight.
Andy raised an eyebrow at how quick Danny was to leave, but he looked over at Takuya. "Maybe Agunimon can jump really high?"
"I doubt he could jump that high…" Takuya grumbled.
"Wait… look!" Andy pointed, seeing a familiar black and white blur flying across the sky. "That's gotta be Phantom. I guess he sensed trouble here."
"Most likely, yeah." Takuya agreed. "Do you think he can handle that on his own?"
"Um…" Andy saw another blur flying towards Phantom. "Oh, he may not have to."
Andy grinned. "Looks like Tucker's about to prove his mettle."
Sure enough, Takuya could see what looked like Tucker, flying, to help Phantom. "That… is very weird to see…" He noted with some unease.
"Come on, we'll try to follow them for as long as we can." Andy smiled. "If we lose them, we'll head home. We can meet up with Danny there, and maybe ask Tucker how it went at school tomorrow."
Meanwhile, in the air, Phantom was trying to catch up to the flying car, it was going rather fast. "Hang on, Mr. Driver, I'm almost there!"
"Yo!" Tucker, who was flying just under Phantom, spoke up. "Don't sweat this one, Danny, I'm on it!"
Phantom came to a sudden halt, "H-huh? W-What?"
Tucker flew ahead to the car, he was pretty fast for someone who just got his powers. Tucker, Phantom noticed quickly, had an unnatural green aura around him as opposed to the white aura all the other ghosts Phantom had met prior, including himself, and the dragon ghost Andy was. Phantom frowned before he quickly flew after Tucker and the car himself, this wasn't the time to be surprised. Andy had told him about Tucker's ghost powers, but it was still really shocking to see Tucker flying through the air like he had been half ghost all this time.
Tucker caught up to the flying car and entered it via intangibility. "Chill, dude. I got this." Tucker said with a grin.
"W-what?" The driver questioned, looking quite freaked out.
"You can count on Tucker Phantom to bail you out of trouble!" Tucker grinned.
"Tucker Phantom?" Phantom spoke up, coming into the car with intangibility himself. "Okay, ignoring the originality of that, what do you think you're doing?"
"I'm here to save the day~" Tucker grinned back. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some heroic exploits to attend to!"
Tucker took the wheel of the car.
"Do you even know how to drive?" Phantom questioned. "Why not just-"
Due to Tucker's inability to drive well, he caused the car to flip around towards the city, and they were quickly heading into a building. Despite Tucker's unnatural grasp at his powers, he still lacked the experience with how to use them effectively. Phantom, on the other hand, had experience, as well as training, on when and how to use his powers. Tucker and the driver were both screaming in a panic as they were heading for the building.
Phantom saw this and knew what he had to do. He closed his eyes and focused on turning the car, and everyone in it, intangible so they could phase through the building. Thankfully, the tactic worked, and all of them made it out the other side unharmed.
Once the danger was behind them, however, Tucker looked back at Phantom with a less than gratifying expression. "Oh sure, phase the car through the building, you had to save the day again, didn't you?"
"Uh, yeah, because a car smashing into the 28th floor of anything is bad news!" Phantom exclaimed. What is Tucker's problem? It wasn't like I did that to soak up attention!
"You're just jealous, because there's somebody else to grab the spotlight now, someone who could rival you, unlike that flightless armor man!" Tucker stated, pointing at himself.
Phantom frowned at the not so subtle insult towards Agunimon. "Hey! You know as well as I do that he's not as useless as you might think!"
"Yo! Hallucinations! Focus!" The driver exclaimed, but to no avail.
"And on top of that, when have I ever grabbed the spotlight?" Phantom continued.
"How about right now for instance!?" Tucker snapped.
"WAAAAH!" The man cried as the car was about to crash into a silo.
While Phantom wanted to set Tucker straight, someone's life was in danger right now. Phantom grabbed onto the driver and turned him intangible just before the car crashed into the silo.
Phantom flew out with the driver and put him down. "Are you alright?"
"Y-yeah… I-I think so… uh… Hallucination…?" The driver questioned, still wondering about his sanity.
"Good, then you better get home, or find someone to help you get home," Phantom instructed.
The driver didn't hesitate to leave the area, wanting to get away from these crazy hallucinations as soon as possible. It was just as well, because after the man left, Tucker came out of the silo himself, looking no worse for wear, likely due to being half ghost himself.
"And you did it again!" Tucker growled.
"Look, Tucker, that man's life was in danger. This wasn't about taking the spotlight, it was about saving a life," Phantom explained. "And why are you acting like this? I'm not jealous of you, I'm just worried. You're not usually this… aggressive."
"Well, don't be." Tucker growled. "This town is big enough for more than one ghost kid." He added before flying away, much faster than Phantom had seen anyone fly, in fact, Tucker left behind quite the energy streak when he flew away.
"Whoa… I can't fly that fast…" Phantom frowned. "Is… Tucker getting more powerful…?"
Phantom knew Tucker's ghost powers weren't normal. With Phantom, he wasn't normal either, but still, Tucker felt like something else was going on with him. Tucker had always been a little mischievous, but he was never really aggressive, nor was he quick to anger. Phantom decided he needed to talk to Andy about this, this was serious.
Phantom wanted to talk to Andy about Tucker's… episode as Phantom rather than as Danny, because 'Danny' wasn't there when it happened, and he had one too many close calls with Andy already. So he had been waiting at central park for Andy to show up. He was worried Andy might pick today of all days to not show up, maybe he should've nudged Andy to see Phantom as Danny.
But much to Phantom's relief, he heard the sound of a moped arriving at central park. Andy barely got off of his moped when Phantom flew up to him.
"Whoa, someone's eager," Andy remarked.
"Yeah, good to see you too." Phantom said to Andy quickly. "Look, Andy, we have a major problem! It's Tucker. He has ghost powers!"
"Yeah… I came here to tell you that, but you already saw it yourself today," Andy chuckled sheepishly. "How did the car chase go?"
"The driver is fine, but the main issue is Tucker." Phantom explained. "He… was not acting like himself. He was acting… more aggressive than usual. And he seemed to think I was stealing the spotlight or whatever. It almost cost the poor driver his life, more than once!"
Andy blinked, frowning. "Whoa, slow down, Phantom. Start at the beginning and tell me what happened."
Phantom, despite being a ghost, took a deep breath and let it out. "Alright…"
Phantom told Andy about the car chase, how Tucker reacted when Phantom used his intangibility to save them from the building, and the drive when the car crashed into a silo, before Tucker flew away really quickly.
Andy furrowed his eyebrows in concern. "I thought Tucker would be more helpful, not snippy and angry at you for doing your job…"
"And on top of that, Tucker also wasn't exactly subtle about insulting Agunimon either…" Phantom grumbled.
"I'm not too sure what's going on with Tucker, but it sounds like he may have some negativity to you and Agunimon," Andy theorized. "Perhaps having ghost powers made him cocky enough to be a lot more blunt about it?"
"You think?" Phantom frowned.
"Look, I'm not a ghost, nor am I a human with ghost powers, I can't say I know what happens when someone gets ghost powers via genie wish," Andy sighed, rubbing his head. "I can only speculate. If I had to go with my parents' theory, which I'd rather not, it could be that Tucker is acting more like a malevolent ghost, but considering we know not all ghosts are evil, that seems to be a bit of a stretch, right?"
"I don't know…" Phantom frowned again. "I… when I was alive… I remember reading fairy tales about genies, and how they could twist wishes. What if… what if that's what's happened here?"
"That is a likely scenario," Andy agreed. "But despite how Tucker reacted, he hasn't hurt anyone himself, right? How about we wait and see what happens first? Maybe Tucker was just having a really off day, he might come around after he gets some sleep tonight."
"Maybe…" Phantom sighed. "But I agree. We should watch Tucker, just to make sure nothing else happens."
"Are you… okay with watching Tucker at school?" Andy asked.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Phantom questioned.
Andy didn't want to bring up how school life could remind Phantom of his life, so instead he said, "Tucker might sense you if you're there. It seems ghosts are able to sense each other if you and Danny's ghost sense are anything to go by."
"I… will be fine. I can keep my distance." Phantom said, not wanting to upset Andy. "I promise I won't get too close to Tucker."
"Okay," Andy replied. "My parents finally gave up on searching for Sidney's ghost, so it should be safe for you to go there as long as Tucker doesn't sense you. Let's hope this whole thing was just one big misunderstanding, and Tucker will be fine when we see him at school tomorrow." If anything, I just want at least someone to be able to talk with Phantom more about what being a ghost is like. I had hoped Sidney could do that, but that didn't work out. Tucker would've been a good substitute, he may not be dead himself, but he's the closest thing around who could relate to Phantom, but… if things are going south, that may not work out either.
"I hope so too." Phantom sighed. "But if it's not, we need to be prepared for what may come next."
Titanic X: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, I like heartwarming endings.
Son Sandy: DarkFoxKit: I'm glad you think this one has a good spark to it. I wanted to see what direction the story could go if Danny had handled his identity differently with Andy. He's still hiding it, but he's trying to bond with Andy as his ghost form, which made a really strong difference.
ZAFT: The changes were fun to make, and boy, has it paid off! XD I love how the story is coming along myself, and I'm helping write it! XD
CT7567Rules: ZAFT: You will enjoy the next chapters for sure~ :3