All the time I could spend editing was destroyed by siblings.
Raditz: She's just Lazy.
SS: Thank you for the reviews, especially Mystitat, cause she helped me through my writers block. I'll see about getting you that scene, but it might take a while cause of plot issues.
Raditz: can I go now?
SS: No! Unless you want me to replace you with Skulker.
Raditz: … Freedom! Runs off
SS: What! Oh butter biscuits…
----
Maddie was cleaning up. Jack was downstairs, and Vlad had gone home the night before around ten.
The children were at school. She wanted to keep Danny home, but he checked out fine and insisted on going.
A frown crossed her lips as she walked into the bathroom. A light scent of rotting flesh and blood was in the air. She remembered Danny running into the house last night. He practically flew up the stairs and she didn't see him again until this morning. She never got the chance to question him.
She found the source of the stench on Danny's clothes that were left in haste on the bathroom floor. Blood stains were splattered on the pants and a piece of rotten flesh clung to his shirt.
Worry choked her. Was Danny getting into trouble? Did her baby run into a ghost and not tell her? Was he possessed?
Maddie shook her head to clear it. Further investigation revealed bits of flesh in a towel and blood stains in the tub. If there was a ghost, possessing Danny, it wouldn't have left this kind of evidence. That didn't rule out the supernatural however.
Suddenly she wondered what kind of business Vlad had in Amity Park. He knew more of the spirit realm than any other man alive. Or at least the theories concerning it. Last night he had played in the animated dead into their game.
"Animated dead! Was Vlad hinting at a problem? Is Danny somehow caught up in it?" As far as she knew, Vlad didn't do field work, but then again, neither did Danny. Her baby stayed as far from ghosts as humanly possible.
'I'll have to ask Danny when he gets home.' Maddie thought as she cleaned up. 'Hopefully he won't try to hide it from me.'
---
"I don't know how much longer I can hide this guys. Valerie's following me and I think my mom might be getting suspicious." It was early, just before school, and the day's paranoia was already setting in.
"Your mom's not going to… wait, Valerie is following you?" Sam said calmly, her face betraying her jealous and irritated feelings.
"I told you she digs you!" Tucker said a little too loudly. Several students turned to look for a moment, causing Danny's feet to disappear shortly afterward.
"Tucker! Not so loud." Danny hissed. "Valerie might hear you."
"Danny, your feet." Tucker gestured with his PDA.
Danny looked down to see that his shoes had vanished and nothing was underneath. "Oh man, I haven't done that in a while." he said as they came back into view.
"At least it wasn't your pants." Sam dead panned. Secretly she was relieved. If it was only his shoes, then he may have gotten over Valerie.
"Don't start that again. I haven't had that problem in a long time." Danny frowned knowing that it wouldn't help.
"But you gave the school a good view of your boxers and right in front of Paullina. I got pictures." Tucker smiled as he pulled them up on his PDA. "See, shows your better side."
"Tucker, turn that off. We have a bigger problem on our hands." Danny's eyes turned green.
At that moment, the bell rang, signaling the start of school. And the rush of students reluctantly trudging to class, not wanting to be late, but not wanting enter class quite yet. Last minute conversations were underway in the last moments of freedom that morning.
"Yes, like being tardy. Come on Danny, we'll worry about the ghosts later." Sam as she dragged the boys to class.
Danny didn't get to tell them about his late night adventure.
---
Skulker walked through the park where Danny's energy blipped last night. Old blood and rotting flesh clung to everything in the area including his polished boots.
He spotted a patch of lessened decay, a body's outline. His scanners picked up a dark energy from the spot. "Looks like our problems are just starting. Masters will want to know about his."
---
Danny couldn't concentrate as Lancer read poetry. "The temperature's trying to pass fifty-five. I'm freezing but at least I'm alive…"
A chill swept down Danny's back as he remembered last night. Skeletons had haunted his dreams. No one else knew about her, and she could be anywhere. The feeling of death and disgust still lingered in his bones.
Valerie had started to look nervous beside him. She leaned over and asked, "Are you alright?"
Danny shook his head to clear it. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"You're contradicting your self." her eyes narrowed and Danny knew she wasn't buying it. He couldn't shake the feeling either, if anything, it grew stronger.
Before he could assure her that he was fine, loud screaming was heard from the hallway.
There was a shift in the air and nervous chatter started. Lancer stopped reading Fight and tried to calm the kids down. "Stay in your seats, I'll go see what happened."
As soon as Lancer left the kids got louder. Many kids thought it was a ghost. Only one knew otherwise. Danny attempted to sneak out of the classroom. Unfortunately Valerie followed him
"Where do you think you are going? Mr. Lancer said to stay in our seats." Valerie looked a little angry.
"I have to go to the bathroom?" Danny hoped she would leave him alone so he could take care of the problem. No such luck.
"More like you're afraid of the ghosts." her brow furled as she frowned. "I'm going with you."
"No…" Lancer's cry cut Danny off.
"Lord of the flies! What in the tarnations is that thing?"
A brown teddy bear, eyes glowing red and teeth dripping with blood, stood in the middle of the halls. The little girl from last night was behind it, and she looked angry. Her blue eyes settled on Danny. "Silicon, get him."
Danny knew instantly that she meant him. He had to find somewhere to transform without revealing his identity. Valerie had followed him pulling out a gun.
"Don't worry Danny; I'll protect you from these nasties." She shot over her shoulder, hitting the bear. It let out a loud roar.
Danny ducked into an open door and ran into an empty class room. Suddenly he wished he hadn't It was the biology room, with stuffed animal whose eyes stared into his soul.
A blast fired behind him and he heard the door fall down. The walls vibrated with the force of Valerie's body hitting a wall. Danny ran for the windows, knowing they were after him.
"You can't escape. You're coming with me whether you like it or not." Energy spiked and he heard bones creak from lack of use. Dusty feathers beat in the air. Suddenly he agreed with Sam, animals should not be stuffed.
He launched himself up to the window sill, but dear old Fred, the school's skeleton it the closet, grabbed onto his right arm and yanked him back down. He didn't have time to get his feet under him so his left hand hit the ground with his full weight. A sickening crunch echoed though the room.
Valerie must have heard it because she turned on her full suite. A red blast took care of he skeleton and several more got rid of the stuffed animals.
Through Danny's dazed shock, he heard Checka throwing a temper tantrum. "Don't hurt my bear! I'm gonna kill you! You're a big meanie, breaking my toys!"
Danny grasped his wrist. 'Yep, I think it's defiantly broken. Oh look, I can make it hang at an odd angle and it doesn't hurt.'
The fight must have ended because Valerie bent down next to him. her armor gone. "Danny, are you alright?" concern glowed in her eyes.
"I think my arm's broken." He held it out to her and watched in sick fascination as it flopped the wrong way.
"Doesn't that hurt?" her face took on a green look.
"Not right now, but it probably will when the adrenalin wears off."
---
Valerie fidgeted in her seat outside the hospital room. Despite her attempts to protect him, Danny had gotten hurt. That thing that she had fought wasn't human, but it was no ghost.
A nurse walked in the door with wraps in her hand. Valerie's lips curled down. The doctors said it would take two to four weeks to heal, and even then he shouldn't be doing anything with that hand.
Valerie assumed that the girl was sent by Master's enemies, but the assumption that they wanted to keep it quiet was out. The two broken bones would bring Danny's parents on the scene soon.
"We are finished. You may go in now." The nurse smiled.
Valerie pushed down her urge to rush in and nodded. She had been able to go with him only on the account that Danny was in shock and wanted her with him. For someone who hated dealing with ghosts, he was awfully calm. But then again, with his household…
Valerie barely noticed as her feet brought her into the emergency room
"Hey Val." Danny's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
"How are you doing?" She managed to smile for him.
"The cast is itchy and my parents will be here any moment. I can already hear dad driving the family assault vehicle. And there's a cat, still frozen to the street barely an inch out dad's war path, saved by mom. I just know it." Danny threw both hands down. "Ouch!"
Valerie couldn't help but laugh at him while he rubbed his arm. It was moments like these that made him so lovable. "Don't hurt yourself."
Danny rolled his eyes, "A little too late for that isn't it?'
Another chuckle escaped her lips before she turn serious. "Do you know why they were after you?"
She watched as his face turned pale, "I uh…" He looked everywhere but at her. "No. I-I don't.
She knew he was lying. Before, he knew they were coming. That was why he was nervous. Vlad didn't tell her the whole truth, but she understood why. "You can sense when ghosts and the supernatural are around. That's why you flip out all the time. Before, you knew that thing was there long before anyone else."
"Uh…"
Danny's parents burst into the room. She knew that there would be no more information out of him.
A squeak could be heard when Jack wrapped his son in a bone crushing hug. "Dad! My arm! Watch the arm!"
"Oh sorry. So was it a ghost?"
"No dad, I was pulled down from a bench and landed on my am wrong."
Valerie frowned. 'Why is he lying? Oh well, I'll talk to him later, when his parents aren't hovering.'
She tried to walk out the door but was stopped by Mrs. Fenton, "Were you there?" Valerie nodded and Danny's mother continued, "Will you come by and tell me exactly what happened? I'm a bit worried."
'So even Danny's mom has caught on. Maybe I'll find out what's going on yet.' She nodded to Mrs. Fenton "Yeah, I'll come by and check on him."
---
Masters was not happy. Only one of his employees was brave enough to give him the news of the latest breach in security. That one was now getting an earful of curses and dodging a few ill tempered blasts.
"How could you idiots let this happen? I give you one simple job; look out for those rouges, and what happens? His arm is broken, the school is trashed and my pawn is starting to suspect something!"
Skulker just calmly waited for Vlad to blow his steam Vlad had nothing to direct his anger at, and strong as he was, he really didn't want it at him.
"They are using different techniques than before."
"I know that!" One of the ghost servants could swear that fire emitted from his mouth. The next day he retired.
"What we need is a way to nullify this problem before it gets worse."
Skulker knew he shouldn't but it was too good to resist. "His mom and Valerie are going to talk over what happened. It seems that Maddie is getting suspicious."
It was a good thing he was prepared for the outburst that came next, dodging out of the way. The blast took out the wall behind him.
"That is not what I wanted to hear." the fury in the ghost king's eyes could only be matched by a dragon's. "Keep them away from each other."
Skulker nodded knowing that it would be a challenge. "And if the boy interferes?"
Vlad had managed to calm himself down, "I'll take care of that."
---
Danny fidgeted, and twitched again. The cast was terribly itchy. He wanted to phase out of it, but knew that it would defeat the purpose.
He put down the pencil and leaned back in is chair. Now that his hand was free, he used it to scratch his broken arm. Just because he couldn't phase out of it, didn't mean he couldn't phase in.
"Why does Lancer give out so much homework? I have better things to do, like figuring out how I'm going to fight one-handed." The door opened and he fell back, arm, chair and all.
Maddie looked down at her son sprawled out on the ground and sighed. "Danny, how many times have I told not to lean back in your chair?"
"A lot?" he wasn't hurt, just startled. He wasn't expecting his mom to come in, and he wanted to know how his ghost form would handle a broken arm.
Maddie sat down on his bed, "So how did you break your arm?"
Danny attempted to struggle his way to his feet, but only managed to some how tangle himself and the chair up more. His face started to turn red, whether from his upside down position, or embarrassment, even he couldn't tell, "Um… I fell on it after being pulled down. I told you that."
The look on his mom's face told him that she didn't buy it, "There was an attack on your school. Mr. Lancer said you were the target."
Danny jerked, almost getting to his feet, but the chair tripped him and his left arm screamed at him for the jar. He winced and sat up. "Well it was chasing me. I didn't want dad to flip out that it was ghost. It wasn't."
"Do you know what it was then?" Danny was relived that she was taking it better than he thought she would.
"No, but it was scary. I tried to run, but it caught up. I… I don't remember much after my arm broke." Danny smiled as innocently as he could, hoping she would leave him alone now.
It seems his mom had other ideas. "This isn't the first time you've been attacked, is it?"
'What? No! Help! Jazz help! No, please don't know. Please don't know!' "Um…" He prayed that something, anything would save him. "Uh…"
"Danny I saw your clothes and the blood stains in the bathroom. Was that your blood? What happened?"
'Crap. Stupid skeletons that I couldn't phase though, stupid C average intelligence. I hope this works. "Mom, I don't really want to talk about it."
From his mother's expression, he could tell she wanted him to tell her what happened. She was worried, but he couldn't tell her, it might reveal his secret. He hated lying, but it was for the best, especially for him.
"Danny, if you don't tell me I can't help."
"I know." 'That's the point.' "I'm not ready to talk about it." Danny looked down and closed his eyes, praying to what ever gods or deities listening that she wouldn't figure him out.
He could feel her eyes boring into him. "Alright, but if this happens again, tell me. I'm going to make dinner."
He didn't open his eyes until she left. Silently he thanked what ever gods had heard him. What he didn't know was that god was one of chaos and mischief, and was just getting started.