Author's Note: I own nothing.
19 Mixed Up
Vince was running on empty. He would admit that, though only to himself. He'd gotten a job at the local Nasty Burger to try and help supplement his father's income, to at least pay for his own clothes and thing, alongside saving for college. He just wanted to help. But his father's work life had not gotten any less stressful. In fact it was just getting worse since Axiom labs were currently in talks about selling to some new tech corporation Dalv Co, and it was unclear if their first move would be to clean house and bring in their own people. The stress was grating on his nerves. And then there was his other job. The ghosts had been wild that weekend, mostly animals without real sentience, many of which Vince didn't recognize as anything that could have ever been living. Phantom had been noticeably absent though. She was harder to fight, she talked and for the most part looked human and it bothered Vince a bit. He knew it shouldn't. She was a ghost but she was almost too human, often running from him instead of attacking. It weirded him out. A fight with Phantom was going to make him late to Tetslaff's class again though. He wasn't looking where he was going, fishing in his bag for his notebook when he ran smack into someone else.
"Ouch!" He looked up from where he'd fallen to find Dani Fenton on the floor across from him. It seemed they'd barreled into each other in front of Tetslaff's classroom. The door opened and the large woman frowned down at them.
"Fenton, Grey, you're late which means you've just teamed up for our latest project." She handed Dani a flower sack dressed in a dipper with a smiley face sticker on the front. "I now pronounce you man, wife and child." She said with a slight grin. "Now kindly join us in class if you will." Vince found his feet first and reached out a hand to help Dani up. She accepted with a small smile before slipping into the classroom ahead of him, still holding the fake baby. Vince found his seat, across the room from Dani, next to Kwan who was still rather friendly with him and handed him the notes they'd taken so far.
"Thanks man. So what's this assignment?" Vince asked quickly copying Kwan's notes.
"We're supposed to prove we can take care of a child, so we've all got these stupid flower sacks. At least I got paired with Star, but you and Fenton are cool now right?" Kwan asked and Vince shrugged as Tetslaff began to go over the rubric for the project.
"I mean she's pretty cool. We haven't talked much since that stupid Northwestern Standardized test but sometimes I eat lunch with her and her friends. She's pretty chill." This wasn't entirely true, he'd spoken to Dani much more recently than that, but not as himself as the Red Hunter. She'd fixed his board after Phantom busted it and he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her. He had a major crush, he knew that, but he didn't want to get her involved in ghost hunting. After all she didn't seem all that interested in it. She was downright embarrassed every time her parents showed up hunting ghosts, though really he couldn't blame her. He shook his head focusing on the notes in front of him. This project was gonna be tough around both of his jobs. No one knew yet that he'd begun working at Nasty Burger and he'd like to keep that to himself as long as he could since he was stuck in the stupid mascot costume for at least the next month if not longer. But it meant he wouldn't be able to help Dani as much as he should. He shook his head, resolving to talk to her after class. He caught her after class at her locker, the sack of flour balanced on her hip.
"Dani, hey about this project. I need your help." Dani turned to him. She looked a bit tired too, dark circles under her eyes matching the ones under his. "I'm gonna be honest with you, I got a job and it's seriously hurting my grades. I need to pass this project to pass Tetslaff's class. But I don't have a whole lot of time to help out in this project. My schedule is crazy, I can get you a schedule of when I'm at work." He trailed off as Dani rolled her eyes.
"Yeah sure. Just get me the schedule as soon as you can." She trudged away and he frowned. Between ghost hunting and his job he barely had time for anything. He'd have been happy to take out his aggression on the ghost girl but she escaped again which really just made him more upset. It seemed like Dani was losing her patience too, at least she didn't know it was him in the mascot suit. That was a little comforting at least. Less so was when she showed up at his house later to drop off the 'kid'.
"I know all about your stupid job." She said rolling her eyes and his heart about stopped. Which one? Had he approached her one too many times as the Red Hunter? Or did she know who was currently wearing the much laughed at Nasty Nate costume at the Nasty Burger? "I get that you need to do this but you need to think about yourself too." She handed over the flour sack and left. Vince frowned at the smiley face sticker on the sack as he thought about his life. He didn't have much time for introspection though as the sack was yanked out of his hands by some invisible force and began to float before it vanished through the ceiling. He swore grabbing the nearest blaster and taking off out of the apartment quickly pulling on his suit as he went.
Skulker had found himself in a bit of a conundrum. He had sworn a blood oath to have the halfling's pelt on his wall, but it seemed there was a match to her in her own town. A ghost hunter, a boy in red. For some reason though the ghost girl tended to run instead of fighting her, or go solely on the defensive. He wished to hunt the strongest of them but every time he tried to set up a contest between the two the ghost girl would find a way to wiggle out of it. Not this time. He'd made up his mind, he would hunt them both at the same time. Luring them into a trap was easy, for some reason they were both overly attached to this flour sack, it held no value that he could find but still. It was the key. The boy fell to the knockout gas first, he was fully human after all. As the girl fell he caught her by the wrist as lights bloomed around her middle. He slapped the power suppressor cuff on her before she could transform back. The lights around her middle fizzled out leaving her unconscious as Phantom. Skulker grinned as he dragged Phantom over to the hunter and slapped the other cuff to his wrist. It wouldn't effect him the way it did Phantom but it was easier to hunt one target than two.
Getting back to the Ghost Zone with his cargo was tricky. He had to sneak into the ghost girl's house and past her parents, one teen over each shoulder. Both of them would be out for a while yet, enough time for him to prep his hunting ground. It took him some time to disarm the boy, he had quite a few weapons hidden on his person. They would make for good traps for when the whelps woke up. He smiled as his island came into view. Haunt sweet home. He dropped the teens onto the hard ground and began his preparations.
