Chapter 3
"Who shot JR?" Jackson asked, looking across the table at Danny.
Danny eyed the sand as it ran out, trying to remember what the card's answer was. He was the closest to Quizzar, but the twins were right behind him passing Pluto. "Kristin!" Danny announced, pointing at the boy.
"Correct," Jackson said, putting the card in the back of the pile.
"Who even was JR?" Misty asked.
"He got shot in the season finale of some show," Danny tried. "Something about that being the biggest show cliffhanger of the time."
"Right, these are from the 80's," Jackson said, picking up the die. "That was forever ago."
"Two thousand twenty-six," Danny mumbled, remembering that's when they said they were from. "Forty years ago for you."
"Like I said, forever," Jackson said, throwing the die to the side of the table for his role.
"How long has Gran-uh, Mr. Fenton been out?" Misty asked as she slid the cards towards herself.
Danny glanced at a wall clock, once again reminded the house lost power when he wanted to look at the microwave, and sighed. "About an hour."
"I'm starting to worry about him," Jackson admitted, moving his ship.
"You think we could at least walk around the house?" Misty asked, giving Danny large pleading purple eyes.
"I'm with Misty," Jackson admitted. "It feels wrong too, to just be sitting here. We're Fenton's and Fenton's are heroes."
"Jackson," Misty hissed.
"I kinda figured out you're Fenton's," Danny admitted. He pushed himself up and nodded his head. "And you're right. Let's grab some flashlights."
"Shouldn't we put up the game?" Jackson asked as his sister jumped out of her seat.
"Naw," Danny threw off, going around the table to the junk draw by the fridge. He pulled out the drawer and dug around for the flashlights as he added, "If we can't find him nearby, we should stick with the house in case Mom manages to bring us back." He pulled out two hand flashlights, passing them back towards the twins, and pulled out a headlamp. He strapped it on and hit the power button, smiling at the light bouncing off the cabinets he faced. He stepped back into the living room to deactivate the shield and security system before turning to look at the twins. "Give me your hands."
"We're twelve, not five," Jackson retorted, checking his own flashlight to make sure it worked.
"And somehow related to me," Danny grumbled. "That means you should understand we don't know what's out there. If I lost one of you because a reanimated turkey decided to grab you?" Danny asked as a threat, remembering that Thanksgiving.
"Yeah, yeah, we know about the turkey," Jackson said, rolling his eyes.
"Come on, Jackson," Misty said, grabbing Danny's right hand. "Just do it so we can go outside."
"You need to start threatening us with something more than the reanimated turkey," Jackson said, grabbing Danny's left hand. "The ecto-weenies are scarier and they live in the fridge."
"Ecto-weenies?" Danny asked, unsure what to imagine as Misty led them to the front door.
"Think ghost hot dog," Misty offered. She grabbed hold of the front door handle and froze. "This isn't right," she mumbled.
"Come on, Misty," Jackson said, reaching over to grab his sister's hand and the handle. He turned the nob and pulled back the door, showing them a bit of a drop to the ground as the house rested on ground not designed for a basement.
"Guess the steps are back home," Danny offered, looking down to guess it was a four or five foot drop. "Hang on," Danny said, letting go of their hands. He sat down on the entry way and dropped down to the ground. He gave the area a glance, the full moon helping where there were no street lamps. Looking back up at the door, he held out his hands and ordered, "Misty, sit down. I'll help you down first." She did as asked, getting Danny to grab her around the waist to help bring her down. He set her down beside him and turned to help Jackson only for the boy to jump down on his own. Danny kept the retort in and grabbed hold of their hands again. Turning to look around again, he asked them, "Do you see him?"
"No, but here's his footprints," Jackson said, shining his light on the ground where fresh footsteps imprinted themselves into the dirt. Jackson shown his flashlight up to point and added, "He went that way."
The three walked after the footsteps, Danny letting the boy lead the way as he kept an eye around them. The plot of land the house had landed in was an old quarry, mostly surrounded by woods. Even Willow Drive, the street beside the house, was exposed dirt and rocks. They rounded the house on the non-existent street side, exposing the large moon. Danny looked up only to stop and stare, surprising the twins.
"Hey!" Jackson exclaimed, almost falling backwards.
"The stars aren't right," Danny pointed out.
"What?" Misty asked, looking up as well.
"I thought we already figured out we're not home," Jackson said. "There's no ectoplasm here. Not surprised the stars are different."
"How do you know there's no ectoplasm?" Danny asked, looking back down at the purple haired boy.
"What did Mom call it?" Jackson tried as he pulled Danny's hand to continue them along Jack's footsteps. "We've got a type of ecto-contamination."
"Oh right," Misty exclaimed. "It's not harmful or anything, but we can tell things like where a ghost is and stuff."
Danny gave the girl a glance, careful to not blind her with the light.
"But right now there's nothing," Jackson continued. "We normally can sense each other even, but that's disappearing."
"So you're like, running out of ectoplasm?" Danny tried to understand.
"Yeah," Jackson said with a nod of his head. "Now Grandma's speech is making more sense."
"The other day, Grandma pulled us aside," Misty offered, gripping tighter to Danny's hand. "It was like she knew we'd be in a world like this. Told us the best thing to do was try and conserve."
"Don't think she guessed it'd be this bad," Jackson retorted, leaving the house side as Jack's footprints led towards the forest. He stopped, forcing those behind him to stop, and shined his flashlight at the tree line. "Why'd he go this way?"
"He had an old Ghost Locator with him," Misty offered. "Maybe he found a ghost?"
"We just went over that," Jackson said in frustration as he swung his light around to point at Misty's eyes. She quickly raised the hand holding her flashlight to block her eyes as he added, "There's no ghosts here."
"Jackson, put the light down," Danny ordered, mentally realizing how much he sounded like Jazz. He waited till the boy did so before determining, "If we get to the tree line and still don't see him, we'll turn back. We might have to wait till morning and see if the people across the street can help."
"We'll be lucky if they speak English," Jackson mumbled, leading them along again.
"I speak whale," Misty said with a laugh.
"Still not funny," Jackson mumbled.
"Yoooouu dooOOO?" Danny asked, a smile on his face.
"Great, you've got him going," Jackson said. "That movie's so old."
"Hey, it just came out this year," Danny defended.
"You're old," Jackson retorted. He came to a stop with his flashlight searching the ground around them.
"Well, Mr. Tracker?" Misty asked.
"I don't know," Jackson admitted. "Here's both of his feet, like he had stopped," he shinned the light on the two footprints before shining the light on the ground around it still a few feet away from the woods. "But there's nothing after. It's like he just flew away."
"Grandpa can't fly," Misty retorted.
"And there's no ghosts here," Jackson reminded, shining his light into the woods.
"Let's get back to the house and figure something else out," Danny said.
"Something's out here, picking us one by one," Jackson realized aloud. "And we're powerless."
AN: For those who didn't grow up in the 80s or with 80s things (I'm a paradox! I know it! Born in the 90s, grew up with 80s TV and arcades but also with 2000s cartoons! Nothing about me is 90s other than the spell I had loving wearing these pink with orange poka-dot tank top and short set) Who killed JR? is from the season finale of Dallas. No other show had ended a season with a cliffhanger like this, leading to the spell between seasons to speculation. Everyone wanted to know who killed JR, even the cast of the show. They were left in the dark, having shot alternate versions of the reveal for the next season so they ended up in a game of Clue where anyone could be the killer.