I really appreciate all the reviews and encouragement. Thanks to those who reviewed Chapter 6: moonymonster, Zilleniose, Poison's Ivy, CharmedNightSkye, Ghostboy814, JDPhoenix, look for the girl with the broken smile, Spirit, Mystitat, Nobody Famous, jessicajason, Funkatron, Shimegami-chan, Sasia, and emotigone crazy. Hope you enjoy this next chapter just as much!
And now, a bit more:
Somewhere Between
"Enough talking, whelp!" Skulker raised his arm, and an ecto-gun popped up out of his forearm.
"Gah!" In an instant Danny was floating in front of Sam; he flung his arms wide, a green shield forming between himself and Skulker. The ecto-rays bounced harmlessly off of it. "Skulker, listen to me! Walker is hot on my tail, and if he encounters you, he'll settle for you, too!"
"I can handle him."
"Like you handled him last time?" Danny cried, exasperated. "Look, most of the ghosts look up to you. If we worked together, we could – yikes!" Danny ducked a net, grabbing Sam and hauling her away across the room. Sam yelped, her arm feeling like it was being yanked out of its socket.
"Dan—Phantom, stop--!"
Danny let go of her arm, but he wasn't listening to her; his attention was entirely on the hunter ghost. He flew back, releasing ectoblasts furiously from his fists. "How stupid are you? You're going to attract Walker! Ugh!"
Skulker had grabbed Phantom by the neck and was holding him off his feet. The ghost boy kicked uselessly. "I have no need to work with you to avoid Walker," Skulker informed him crisply. "And I have no interest in fighting him!"
"Just—guh—just listen," Danny panted, for some reason not escaping Skulker's grasp by going intangible. Sam watched, her breath stuck in her throat. "It's not just about Walker. It's Pariah," he strangled out. "He's got a sarcophagus, right? The one the Ancients locked him up in."
Skulker narrowed his eyes. "I'm listening."
"If the ghosts worked together to fight Pariah, we could lock him back up in that sarcophagus. Then you'd be free of him, right? You could go-nngh-go home."
Skulker dropped Phantom to the ground, stepping on his chest. Danny let out a pained sound. "Your proposal is preposterous. The Skeleton Key would be required to lock the sarcophagus, and Pariah himself is invincible as long as he is wearing the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire."
"Then we get those away from him! It can't be impossible," Danny wheezed.
"Phantom's right," Sam said suddenly, surprising herself almost as much as she apparently surprised Danny and Skulker; both looked at her with wide eyes. "The humans will help, too. We've got some really good, uh, ghost hunters on our side."
There was a moment of silence. Danny broke it. "Look, what do you have to lose? Your life?"
Skulker glared down at his prey, pressing harder with his boot for a moment. "My freedom, for one," he snapped. "However, as long as the Ghost Zone is ruled by Pariah, my activities are extremely limited. And as long as my former employer is around, proper hunting is almost impossible."
"Is that a yes?" Phantom coughed.
"It's only a consideration," Skulker answered flatly.
Sam bit her lip. However, just then Danny drew in a heavy breath and let it out sharply, a green tinge coming to his ghostly face. "Can't maintain the clones," he said shakily. His fingers twitched, and his eyes went to the window. "Walker!"
Sam looked up, as did Skulker, and indeed, there was Walker, floating into the room. "Well, well, if it isn't a couple of my inmates enjoying an afternoon chat," he smirked.
"Look what you did! You let him find us!" Danny snarled, suddenly slipping out from under Skulker's foot now that the ghost wasn't paying attention.
"It was your fault, whelp! Your ecto-blasts attracted the attention!"
"Guys! Is now really the time to fight over this?" Sam demanded.
"I refuse to be jailed!" Skulker announced.
"Same here," Danny scowled.
"You have no choice. You've both violated the – augh!"
Walker shot out of the side of the building, pummeled simultaneously by an ecto-blast from Phantom and a ghost ray from Skulker.
"I'll distract him," Danny said. "I've been doing enough of that for the last few days. And you—" He grabbed Sam's arm again, thrusting her towards Skulker. "Do me a favor and drop her near FentonWorks!"
Skulker snarled. "Why should I do you any favors, ghost child?"
"Why do I have to go with him?" Sam wailed.
"Because I'm saving your butt by distracting Walker, and because you don't want to go to jail!" Danny answered them, shooting out the window. "Hah! Not so tough without your goons, huh, Walker?" Sam heard outside the window, followed by a cry of outrage from Walker himself.
Sam looked at Skulker, and Skulker looked at Sam.
"Uh … I don't even know what FentonWorks is," Sam said.
Skulker sighed aloud. "Unfortunately, I do," he said. "Grab my arm."
"You're actually going to do what he says?" Sam said skeptically. "Why should I trust you?"
"Because unfortunately, the whelp is right. And while you would certainly make excellent bait, I have bigger fish to fry – and I won't have time to deal with a needy human child." He grasped her forearm since Sam had made no move towards him, and with that, she found herself flying unwillingly in the arms of the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter.
"I'm amazed to find a human willingly in the company of a ghost," Skulker commented suddenly as they floated slowly from building to building.
Sam was caught off-guard by the remark. "Well, uh, he's gotten me in a lot of trouble, so he owes me," she said, thinking fast.
"Hm. Trouble follows the ghost child everywhere, it is true," Skulker said. "You should keep that in mind. Also, his proposal to depose Pariah Dark is pathetic and doomed to failure."
"Why do you think so?" Sam wanted to know. Skulker had been around for a while; maybe he knew something Danny didn't.
"There are too many obstacles in his way," Skulker growled. "First he needs the Skeleton Key. Secondly, he will require the sarcophagus itself – which only I and Plasmius know the location of."
Sam's eyes widened. "You know where the sarcophagus is?"
Skulker glared down at her. "Of course I know where it is! Plasmius had me in his employ until he turned traitor. He hid the sarcophagus well."
"Plasmius hid the sarcophagus?" Sam gaped.
"It is no easy task to get to," Skulker warned. "It is in the Fright Knight's former lair."
"Oh, really …" Sam said slowly.
"However, having the sarcophagus is only half the battle. And beyond that, to fight Pariah himself, one must go through Wulf, the Fright Knight, and Plasmius. All will protect him with their afterlives. They are sworn to it," Skulker growled. "But enough. You are in the company of the ghost child. Tell him that Skulker will consider his proposal – if he presents the Skeleton Key and the Sarcophagus to me."
They came to rest between two buildings on a street Sam vaguely recognized.
"I've honored my part of the deal. So long, child." Skulker dropped through the ground.
Sam blinked, and hesitantly made her way out of the alleyway.
She found herself facing the Fenton's home.
"FentonWorks," Sam muttered to herself. "Clever." She went up to the door and rang the doorbell.
It was only a moment before someone made an appearance at the door.
"Samantha!"
"Oh, please don't call me that, Mrs. Fenton," Sam answered awkwardly. "It's Sam."
"All right then, Sam," Maddie Fenton answered, entirely too cheery for Sam's taste. But her expression sobered immediately. "Quickly, inside. You're here because Walker decided to take you in for questioning, right?" She ushered the teenager in the door. "Where's Danny?"
"I think he's getting chased around by Walker again," Sam answered, not sure if she should tell Mrs. Fenton that she'd been dropped off by Skulker (of all ghosts). "I … I guess you know he's a ghost?"
"Oh, no, he's not one," Maddie answered, smiling. "He's a normal young boy who has been highly infected with ectoplasmic energy by electrocution! It's entirely different. Would you like some cookies? They're fresh."
This was Sam's first time inside the Fenton's home, and she looked around in amazement. It seemed normal enough; the foyer led into the stairs and a sitting room, with the kitchen visible just beyond it. "Uh … I guess so," she said slowly, letting herself be led into the perfectly normal kitchen with perfectly normal cookies sitting on the table. Mrs. Fenton handed her one, and Sam fiddled with it.
"Sit down, honey. Relax. You've probably had a trying day," Maddie said gently, pulling out a chair.
Sam sat in it heavily without thinking, and Maddie sat opposite her. "More like a really strange day," Sam answered. "I mean, I was just getting to know Danny, so I guess I can't be the judge of what's normal, but … what he is … and the ghosts … and Walker coming after me … I can't go back home, can I?" she realized suddenly. "I don't even know if I can go to school any more." Walker would be looking for her. How could she go about her normal activities with a ghost out to send her to prison for a curfew violation she hadn't even actually committed?
"No, you can't," Maddie sighed, reaching out to pat Sam sympathetically on the arm. "Not for now, anyway." She smiled. "We've already set up a pull-out bed in Jazz's room for you. Don't worry, we'll make sure everything is as comfortable as possible."
Sam stared at her uneaten cookie, the reality of the last half an hour slowly sinking in. "This is hard," she said slowly. She looked up at Mrs. Fenton, trying to organize her thoughts. Maddie knew her son was a ghost, knew that Danny was out being chased by Walker right now, and yet here she was, sitting with her son's friend and baking cookies. She was a ghost hunter by trade who had gone with her family into the heart of Pariah's empire to take him down. How could she be okay sitting here eating cookies? Where was all the fabled ghost-hunting equipment? "I … how do you …" she started helplessly. "I mean … what … what happened while Danny was in ghost jail?" she finally blurted.
Maddie blinked at the question. "Why, we all worried quite a lot," she answered. "Your phone call gave us all a scare. His father was ready to come running in there, guns blazing," she laughed gently. "Oh, Jack. He shoots first and asks questions later." She sobered. "However, Danny made us agree to wait twenty-four hours when he was jailed."
Sam blinked. "Wait. When he was jailed?"
"Well, he knew he would have to get into the jail somehow if he wanted to talk to all the ghosts who oppose Pariah Dark," Maddie pointed out. "And he came through! Jack wasn't too happy about it, but he's coming around. The idea of having ghosts to hunt after this is over has helped," she admitted.
Sam arched an eyebrow. "So he was planning on getting captured by Walker?"
"Eventually, I suppose," Maddie sighed. "It was an incredibly unsafe plan, and Jazz and I were trying to formulate a better one, but then he went and got himself caught, and all we could do was wait." Her gaze shifted away from Sam.
There was an awkward pause. Sam cleared her throat. "Why all the waiting?"
"Why sweetie, there's far too many ghosts to do anything except remain on the defensive for now," Maddie chastised Sam gently. "Danny … it's hard, but he worked hard to make his point; he is an excellent secret weapon." She smiled. "I suppose he hasn't told you all this, has he?"
"Uh, well, he's told me about the ghost stuff, but … secret weapon?"
"Danny has provided rather apt distraction for all our work," Maddie answered. She beamed, a smile worthy of Mrs. Manson herself. "Why, according to Jazz's calculations, we Fentons should have been forced into work 3.2 days ago! But they've been too busy. Of course we don't like it, but until we're ready for our first attack, there's been no choice. And Danny is as much a part of this as the rest of us; we have to rely on him."
"It seems like a lot of responsibility," Sam said to her cookie.
"It is. Too much, I think," Maddie said, almost to herself. "Well, shall I show you to Jazz's room?"
Sam looked up, putting down the cookie as a thought occurred to her. Mrs. Fenton knew about the plan to engage ghosts in the battle against Pariah. "Mrs. Fenton, I know where the sarcophagus is!"
Maddie was getting up from the table; she turned to look at Sam. "Oh?"
"It's in the Fright Knight's lair," Sam said.
"Hm," Was all Maddie said for a moment, pressing her thumb and forefinger to her chin in a thinking pose. "Well, it's useless without the Skeleton Key, but it's a start. How did you find out where it was?" she asked.
"Uh, a little bird told me," Sam answered.
Maddie smiled. "Well, if you don't want to tell me, all right," she answered warmly. Sam decided Mrs. Fenton was nice, but far too cheery for her tastes. "I'll tell Jack and we'll decide what to do about it. Now, Jazz's room is right this way …"
Sam stood with a sigh. She'd expected the news to have more of an impact. Resigning herself to a tour of her new room, as it were, she got up to follow Maddie.
&
Two hours later found Sam curled up on the futon Mrs. Fenton had pulled out for her; the ghost hunter had disappeared down into the basement (Sam could only presume it was the lab where the ghost weapons were made), babbling about an intangibility-slash-invisibility suit in development. Sam felt … trapped. It was an uncomfortable feeling. A fugitive in her own town, Sam couldn't leave the Fenton house. She couldn't go home, and she couldn't go to school. She almost called Tucker, but what would she say? Danny hadn't told Tucker about his ghost powers yet, as far as she knew.
She looked up when the door opened a crack. "Sam?"
"Danny," Sam said, sitting up. "I take it you gave Walker the slip?"
"I almost didn't," Danny admitted, opening the door the rest of the way and pressing it shut, resting his back against it. He wasn't wearing the red shirt under his t-shirt any more, and the bandages went up nearly to his elbows. "Are you doing okay?"
"I'm depressed," Sam answered flatly. "I can't go home even to get clothes, I can't go to school, I'm trapped in this house! Not that it isn't nice, but …" She trailed off.
Danny grimaced. "It's my fault," he said. "I'm sorry."
It was Danny's fault. Sam sighed aloud, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Apology accepted."
They were silent for a long moment, lost in thought. Finally, Sam spoke. "Skulker told me where the sarcophagus is."
"So he did know," Danny muttered, almost to himself. He looked up, meeting Sam's eyes. "He just told you, out of the blue?"
"He said it was hard to get to," Sam answered. "It's in the Fright Knight's lair. I think he was trying to indicate it was an impossible task."
"Nothing's impossible." Danny grinned. "Besides, he's forgetting the advantage humans have over ghosts."
Sam frowned, confused, before it dawned on her. "Humans phase through everything in the Ghost Zone!" she remembered. "Geez, this will be a cinch."
"But getting the Skeleton Key won't be so easy." Danny bemoaned. "It can't be destroyed, but it's probably been well hidden. We'll have to find it."
"It's a legendary artifact, right?" Sam asked. "There's probably literature about its hiding place somewhere. There's a few old bookstores I like to skulk around … don't make that face!"
"Skulk," Danny said, rolling his eyes. "Sorry. Reflex reaction."
Sam rolled her eyes back. "Anyway, if I poke around there, I might be able to find out something about the Skeleton Key."
"Great idea. One problem," Danny shot back. "You can't leave the house."
Sam instantly deflated. "Oh. Right …" Suddenly she realized just how out of the race she was. As long as Walker had it in for her, she was useless – trapped in a home full of ghost equipment, but with nothing to do. Except play Doomed. "Darn."
Danny looked stricken for a moment, his pallor poor. "Sam …"
"Don't apologize again, Danny," Sam sighed. "It's over, too late. Don't sweat it." She searched for a distraction and blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Did Walker just do that to you?" she pointed to the bandages on Danny's arms.
Danny had the grace to look embarrassed this time, as well as a little irritated. "What difference does it make?" he asked, giving a little shrug and a slight smile. "It's the fault of my own stupidity. It'll heal in a day."
"How often does this happen to you?" Sam asked incredulously.
"Often enough." A scowl was starting to settle on Danny's face. "It never lasts long and Mom is trained in first aid, so—"
"Your mom is worried about you. I hung out with her for all of fifteen minutes and I know that," Sam answered, throwing out an arm in gesture. "You're taking on a lot right now, so just … argh. I dunno. Let us worry about you."
Danny's mouth twitched slightly. Sam wasn't sure if it was a hint of a smile or something else entirely, but it was something. "I'll be careful. I don't want to become a full ghost any time soon," he said, with the tone of a long-given promise.
Sam snorted in response, resting her chin on her knees again. "Right." She rolled her eyes over towards the window, then back towards Danny, who was contemplating the bandages around his arms with a serious expression. I guess … it's weird. It's hard to get used to, and it makes me nervous, but I don't think Danny is … a bad ghost, I guess. His parents believe in him, and I can't imagine that they're in league with Pariah Dark.
I don't know if I trust him yet, but … I guess I can trust him to come down on our side, if it's Pariah.
Still, Sam didn't want to reveal her worries about Danny to Danny. He was nice enough, and if everything he'd said was true, he meant well. He couldn't help being what he was. Embracing it was weird to Sam: if she had … well, ghostly powers, she would have done her best to ignore them. But Danny was using them, and using them constantly. What if that eventually turned against him? What if that – what did he call it? Ghostly obsession? – turned him against full humans as well?
Unique. I've always wanted to be unique. And now here's Danny Fenton, not fully human and not fully ghost, as unique as can be. And I can't bring myself to think that's cool.
Danny interrupted her thoughts. "So," he said casually, his smile an offering of friendship, "Wanna go see my parents' inventions?"
Sam smiled back, hoping the expression didn't look too forced. "Sure."
&
The basement was like a whole different world compared to the rest of the house: built like a bunker, it had no windows and only one doorway, and it was filled from one end to the other with test tubes, beakers, wires, tools, blowtorches, Bunsen Burners, samples, files, sheet metal, and weapons, weapons, weapons. Jack was impossible to miss, dressed again in his orange hazmat suit and working with a blowtorch on something impossible to see past his massive girth. Maddie was next to him, studying a blueprint. Danny made a shushing motion, putting his finger to his lips as they came down the stairs. "Come on. I want to show you stuff before Dad—"
"Danny? Is that you?" Jack lifted his head, turning around. "Danny! Check this out! I—UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL IN THE LAB!"
Sam jumped, and Danny waved his hands in front of himself. "No, no, Dad! This is Sam Manson! Sam, you know – the girl I told you about? She's been at the meetings!"
"Oh. Wait, you want to hunt ghosts, too?" Jack asked Sam enthusiastically, pushing Danny aside.
"Well, I—"
"Dad! I just brought her down here to show her the inventions," Danny protested, rubbing his arm.
"Honey, don't scare Danny's friend away," Maddie said gently, putting a hand on Jack's arm. "You know what a hard time he has making them."
"Mom!" Danny's face flushed.
"If you're going to show her inventions, start with this one!" Jack pounded across the room, picked up whatever it was he had been working on, and spun around, holding it up. It looked like a silvery hazmat suit, built to fit Jack himself. It was huge. "The Fenton Invisibility Suit! It can turn a normal human invisible, just like a ghost!"
"And we never would have managed it without Danny's help," Maddie added, ruffling Danny's hair. "But it isn't finished yet; it needs some tweaking."
Sam cocked an eyebrow. Danny pressed his hand over his eyes. "Mom, stop embarrassing me, please," he pleaded. "And make Dad stop, too!"
"Don't be silly, son! It's our job to embarrass you," Jack grinned. Sam couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
"Now, Jack. Let's finish this thing up so we can get back to the Ecto-Suit," Maddie said, guiding Jack away.
"That was mortifying," Danny said miserably. "I'm sorry about my parents. They're …" he searched for a word.
"Fanatical?" Sam asked. She smirked at Danny's nod. "Good. We need people like that."
Danny didn't look so sure. "Well, anyway … you're going to have to use some of this stuff, probably. I heard my sister gave you the Fenton Lipstick."
"This?" Sam held up the lipstick, tucked into her pocket from when Jazz had given it to her.
"Yeah." Danny plucked it from her fingers, rolling up the lipstick itself, which was a sickly green color. "I really wouldn't recommend wearing this."
"Green isn't my color anyway," Sam said dryly. "I figure you use it by twisting it all the way up?"
"Pretty much," Danny nodded, handing it back to Sam. "It's still fully charged. I just wanted to check." He started leading her down along one of the rows of cabinets covered with ghost-fighting – and ghost-finding – equipment. "A lot of this stuff doesn't work, but a lot of it does." He picked up what looked like an outlandish recording device. "This is totally useless …"
"This is totally useless. Fear me," said the recording device.
Danny blushed. "It's the Fenton Ghost Gabber. It translates noises ghosts make into English. Dad made it before we came here, but every ghost I've met speaks English. Except Wulf."
"…every ghost I've met speaks English. Except Wulf. Fear me," said the Ghost Gabber.
"Wow. So why is it repeating everything you … oh, right. Hah. Got it," Sam said, smiling nervously. I feel dumb … "Moving on?"
Danny put down the Ghost Gabber. "There's the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick. It's actually just a baseball bat with the word 'Fenton' on it, but Mom and Dad do that sometimes. That's the Fenton Bazooka I was talking about at your house. I can't even lift it normally." He laughed nervously. "When my mom tested that, I was, like, trying to be on the other side of the planet. Seriously."
Considering that it was supposed to create Ghost Portals into the Ghost Zone, which sucked ghosts in, Sam could understand that. "Wow. It must be really awkward living with parents who hunt ghosts when you're part ghost," she said slowly.
"Well … it's only kind of scary when they want to test new inventions."
"Do they test them on you?" Sam said incredulously. Suddenly Danny's pleading to be hidden at Tuck's house several days ago took on a whole other meaning.
"Uh, as long as they're not supposed to hurt, sometimes," Danny answered, looking vaguely confused. "Why not? I'm right here. And I'd rather they not work on me than on a ghost that's, oh, trying to kill them or something."
"But what if they do work?" Sam asked.
Danny didn't get a chance to answer, since the doorbell rang just then. "I'll get it!" cried Jack, suddenly breezing by Sam and Danny on his way up the stairs.
Sam and Danny looked at each other, then made chase. "Sam! Stay downstairs! What if it's Walker?"
"If it was Walker he'd just barge in! Why would he ring the doorbell?" Sam shot back. "It's probably just Tucker or something!"
"Tucker? Oh crud, I should probably—"
But as it turned out, neither of them were right. They both jogged into the foyer as Jack threw open the door to a tall, thin man in a suit, with silver hair and dark blue eyes. "Vladdie!" cried Jack.
"Vlad?" Danny asked incredulously.
"Why yes, yes, it's me! Good to see you … Jack," said the man, coming in the door. "I heard you had made it into Amity Park, and I just couldn't help myself. I had to come take a more active role. So here I am!"
Sam blinked twice. "Who is that?" she asked in a harsh whisper.
Danny turned her away from the man, whispering as well. "That's Vladimir Masters," he answered. "And along with the Guys in White, he's our main sponsor in the war against Pariah Dark."
Tbc
Zomg! What is Vlad up to? Stay tuned and find out! -end cheesy 50's serial dialogue-
Thank you again for reading! Please leave me a review that I can hug and kiss goodnight. XD;
