Chapter 7: Waking Up
"I didn't change, I just woke up."
-Philo Yan
Jack paused midstep 5 steps from the bottom.
"Wait…" He said turning around and marching back up the steps. He stopped in front of the kitchen ops center stairwell. 'When did that get here?' He thought scratching his head. Confused Jack followed the passage up to the emergency ops center and found his wife sitting at the main console typing away. "When was this installed Maddie?"
The scientist in question turned around and raised an eyebrow. "I built this last summer. You helped knock down the metal wall panels Jack. And you tripped on the last step with July's stash of fudge."
"Oh! Now I remember. Yeah that was tragic. Damn ghosts." He muttered.
Maddie shook her head. "I did most of the ground work on the grid and there's not too much to do after that but I still need the master key. That has the encryption code and program specs for it. Also it still needs a name."
"Let's get crackin' then! When it's done I'm sure a name will come to us!" Jack said excitedly.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Danny groaned as he became aware of the harsh pounding in his head and the leadened feeling bearing down on his whole body. 'Damn, what hit me?' He thought eyes scrunching up in discomfort.
A slew of memories assaulted his mind and Danny's eyes flew open as he bolted upright. He winced at the stinging sensation in his chest and the irritating tug of wires attached to his head. Grunting in annoyance he ripped the silicon pads off his skin and tossed them over the beeping machines. As he moved his arm Danny noticed the IV and carefully pulled the needle out. A bead of red blood welled up. Danny wiped it off without thinking but stared at the red smudge on his thumb frowning. Something was off. He was missing something, something important. 'I'm in my human form!' His mind suddenly screamed.
His panicky eyes darted around the lab in seconds trying to find his parents. Seeing neither in the immediate area Danny let out a sigh of relief. 'When did I shift? Was it right after Mom knocked me out or did it happen later? What do they think? What're they gonna do? Are they ok with me or am I going to be put through some treatment to purge the 'contamination'?'
As multiple questions formed in his frantic mind one stopped all the others like a brick wall. 'Did they even see?' Curious and even hopeful Danny reached for the burning cold energy inside and gave it a solid tug. He let go in surprise feeling it strong and steady. 'How long was I out if I'm already back up to 90%?'
Reaching for his core again Danny gave a gentle pull and felt energy wash over him; freezing his heartbeat, lessening gravity's hold, and filing him with raw power. He went to get off the table but as soon as his feet hit the floor a wave of dizziness washed over him and forced him to take refuge in the air to avoid hitting anything. He didn't need any more injuries. When his vision was clear again Danny flew up the staircase. In the kitchen he immediately spotted the passage he had helped his mom build the previous summer in exchange for a laptop (His desk computer was acting fritzy after all the ghost fights and Technus encounters it had endured in his room).
'I bet they're up there.' He thought with dread rising. 'Just… act normal. For all you know they've been up there for hours and didn't see a thing. Normal… I can do that.' With a fortifying breath Danny trudged up the steps.
At the sound of footsteps both Fentons turned their heads.
"Phantom." Maddie said in surprise. "You're up."
"And actually taking the stairs." Jack noted in amusement.
"Thought I'd switch it up." He replied.
Maddie got up and walked over to the young ghost giving him a thorough looking over. "How do you feel? Any pain? Weakness? Destabilized feeling?"
"Fine, not really, a little and thankfully no. I'm doing much better thanks to you… Both of you." He amended. "I owe you my life."
The auburn haired scientist gave him a sad smile. "No problem." She paused. "You gonna run off now that you're up?"
"If you want me to stay I can stay. You need something tested?"
"No, but even if I did I'd wait till you were feeling better. You were hurt pretty bad, even with your accelerated healing you could stand to get some more rest."
"I'll be good as new tomorrow. Promise."
"I hope so." Jack said joining the conversation. "You can't seem to go a day with getting into a fight and I'd hate to have to sew you back up again so soon."
Phantom rolled his eyes. "It's not like I try to get into fights. Ghosts just like picking on, they seem to think it's this rite of passage or something."
Maddie laughed. "Just watch yourself out there." She gave Phantom a pat on the back. "We'll see you around. And you'll definitely see us around; Fenton's are hard to miss."
Phantom chuckled. "You'd know huh? Oh well, I need to get going; I have errands to run. I'll stay out of trouble." He gave Maddie a cheeky grin and flew through the ceiling.
Once he was out of sight Maddie turned her head to the computer monitor. A lime green triangle was moving away from their house, a quarter sized square on the screen. For a few minutes the pair watched the shape showing Phantom's location move until it disappeared from screen out of range.
"I have Phantom's ecto signature on the computer downstairs from the core sample we took earlier. I just need to send the data to this one to hook it into the program data base. That way we'll be able to distinguish him from the other ghosts."
"Why don't you do that now as long as we're thinking about it." Jack suggested.
xXxXxXxXxXx
The cool night air whipped at Danny's hair, smacking raven locks into his face. He didn't mind though, the feeling was one he had long ago grown used to.
It didn't take Danny too long to reach the school and soon enough he was landing on the roof. He looked over to the field where he had been earlier. 'I can't believe I was almost killed by the Klemper and the box ghost. I'm never living that down.' He thought hanging his head in shame. 'Sam and Tucker don't need to know. It'll just upset them and me.'
Vowing to keep his little misadventure to himself (and obviously his parents) Danny phased through the school's roof into the building. He looked around to see exactly where he was and then started walking. One left turn and three doors down he reached 136. 'I hope Lancer doesn't give me any crap about not making it to the auditorium. I'm not about to be in the mood to explain my greatest humiliation tomorrow to someone who won't even get it.'
Danny phased through the door and walked over to his pile of stuff which sat untouched at the desk from earlier. He put the loose papers back in his notebook and the note book back in his back pack. Everything away Danny flew off towards FentonWorks intent on having Danny Fenton put in an appearance.
A block away from home Danny transformed into his human form and walked the rest of the way.
xXxXxXxXxXx
"Phantom's back." Jack said noting the appearance of the triangle that now read 'Phantom' underneath. "We really need to get more data on the other ghost, this is so convenient."
"I'm sure Phantom can help with that." Maddie said.
"Probably. He does owe us one and-" the signal on Phantom vanished. "What happened?"
"Hm?"
"Phantom's signal, it just… disappeared." Jack said at a loss.
Maddie mentally face palmed. 'Danny…' she groaned to herself.
"You don't think he…"
"What?" Maddie asked with a feeling she knew what Jack was getting at.
"Destabalized? Melted? Dried up? I mean a ghost's signal just doesn't disappear. Maybe he got into trouble and reopened his wounds."
"I'm sure Phantom's fine, Jack."
"You were the one fussing over him originally, how can you be so calm about this?" Jack asked incredulously. He couldn't understand how his wife wasn't seeing what just happened. Phantom's signature, which indicated that he was still alive, or at least existent, had vanished. Ghosts could vanish. They could channel their electrical energy through themselves and distort the light around them effectively making them 'disappear'. They could disperse their ectoplasmic structure on a subatomic level and then pass it through 'solid' matter. They could fly and shoot energy and overshadow people and so many more things but they couldn't make their electrical fields vanish. Not entirely and certainly not instantly.
It was like a human choosing to stop their heart beat so they could pass as dead. It was possible to induce 'death' with certain toxins and those with the best mental fortitude in the world could will their hearts to slow to unbelievable levels but that took time. And even in those special circumstances the heart rate was slowed but not stopped. Hearts didn't beat fine one second and completely stop the next. Phantom's energy disappeared without a trace. That just didn't add up.
While Jack was going through possibilities and trying to figure out how his wife was handling this so fine Maddie was trying to jar the urge to whack Danny over the head out of her own head. 'I'd bet money he shifted back to his human form and the signal was lost because it can't hone onto his energy. He's going to do something stupid that gives himself away like he did with me one of these day. There're only so many times Phantom's signal can appear and disappear from Danny's room without Jack getting suspicious. Honestly how can someone with so much experience in battle be so careless?' She stared at Jack a moment. 'I guess I know where it comes from at least.' She thought dryly.
"We should go to the location his signal disappeared at. There should be something there." Jack stated.
Maddie wanted to sigh. She was happy Jack was showing so much concern for Danny but it was completely unnecessary and she didn't know how to explain that without making Jack suspicious. She had to worry enough about the graves Danny dug for himself, she couldn't afford to go digging her own.
"Jack, we've seen Phantom's signal vanish before. That's just one of his mysteries, like how he can get inside ghost shields. I don't think he could have reverted to such an unstable state in this short of a time period; he was mostly healed when he left and the monitor showed him flying a normal pace with a healthy, steady electrical output. It wasn't failing or falling. I think he's just pulling one of his disappearing acts. If looking would satisfy you more though, we can stop by the street he vanished on."
Jack was about to reply when a voice cut him off. "Mom! Dad! I'm home!"
"We're in the ops center." Maddie said pushing a button that projected her voice through a speaker in the living room. Turning to Jack she let go of the bottom. "Why don't we keep this and what happened earlier to ourselves, there's no need to upset the kids. You know how much they love Phantom."
"I don't like keeping secrets but I suppose keeping quiet is probably the best thing."
Danny came up the stairs and Jack was struck with a strong sense of déjà vu.
"Is dinner ready yet Mom? I'm really hungry, like I could eat a horse kinda starving."
'His core must have drained his body's food reserves when it was in overdrive healing the damage.' Maddie speculated. "No dear, but I suppose I could start on it now if you're that hungry. Hamburgers ok?"
"Yeah, that sounds good. I could go for some protein."
Maddie nodded. "You want to run that errand while I'm cooking Jack?"
"As a matter of fact I think I will."
While Danny set to work on his unfinished math homework, and man was it hard to remember the procedure after having his brain fried, and Maddie went about fixing dinner, Jack went to the alley several houses down where he had last seen Phantom's ectosignature.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary; there were garbage cans and a dumpster, some trash on the alley street and graffiti on the walls. The EMF Jack had brought was beeping strongly indicating a healthy field on Phantom's behalf. 'If he didn't fade what happened to him?' Jack wondered deciding to go home.
xXxXxXxXxXx (Next day at school)
"Mr. Fenton, are you alright? You never made it to the auditorium yesterday."
"Yes Mr. Lancer, I'm fine. Those two ghosts grabbed me while I was running but Phantom rescued me and sent them packing before anything happened." The night before, Danny had decided to go with that lie in case Lancer had questions about his disappearance. It was reasonable and plausible and chances were it would satisfy the teacher.
"I see. Well I'm glad you're alright and it's nice to know there's at least one ghost around here who's not trouble." Danny smiled. "I'll see you after school?"
Danny stopped and though about whether or not he wanted to stay after what had happened the last time. "Actually I think I will see you after school today. I'd be nice to get back into the swing of things."
xXxXxXxXxXx
The rest of the week passed without incident and life went on. Danny still stayed with Lancer thirty minutes after school and Sam and Tucker, like the good friends they were, dutifully accompanied him. On the weekend Maddie had Danny work on self control and analyzing the consequences of any action he performed, even away from martial arts practice. While Danny ran through sets on his own and Jack tinkered with more sensors for the town wide ghost detector, Maddie snuck up to the ops center and swiftly started on a mini project she had been trying to implement all week.
Pushing the flash drive into the USB port Maddie uploaded the coding she had spent the past several nights working on. The instructions told the system to withhold readings on Phantom if they were coming from inside the house and to send the data directly to her personal computer in the lab, which had a few password protected folders. The added feature was meant to hide all the little ghost acts Danny pulled while inside FentonWorks which could be incriminating and when the information came rolling in Maddie was surprised at how many daily things Danny's powers seemed to appear in.
xXxXxXxXxXx (School- Lunch Time)
"Karate going well?"
"Well, my mom seems to think I have pretty good punches and kicks and she says my reflexes are great. She's having me work on control over the power I put out." Danny looked around and quickly found he table Tucker had gotten. It was by the very edge of the eating area under an ancient green maple that gave the weathered table and any occupants under it refuse from the sun.
"You brought lunch today?" Tucker asked noting the brown bag in his best friend's hands. "Dude, today's one of those few days where the school lunch is actually good."
"That's what Sam keeps telling me."
"It's true. They have organic salad that was grown here in Amity. It comes from the green house my parent rent."
"Your parents rent a green house?"
"The florists sometimes need extra room, since the town shop is so small but it's mainly for people with apartments that have no yard and still wanna try growing some of their own food. The elementary school also rents the front section every year for their sciences classes. Dr. O'Donnell loves doing environmental experiments in a controlled environment."
"Your family is unbelievable." Danny remarked.
"Thanks, but I think yours still has me beat… So getting back to your lesson.'
Tucker grinned. "Tell her about the salt water."
Danny blanched. "That was more torture than lesson."
"Why what happened?"
"Remember I was telling you about?" Sam nodded. "Well my mom also wanted to introduce me to restraint. I had to break a wooden board with a nail in directly over a water balloon. The point was to have me just creak to the board in two. Any more than that and the nail would pop the balloon's thin rubber skin."
"That doesn't sound so bad. A little tricky to get but how is that torture?"
Tucker looked at Danny expectantly. "I don't know why you find this so funny!" Danny cried. "Everytime I broke the balloon I had to take a shot of salt water. I wasn't allowed any regular water till I broke the board perfectly, then I could have the water in the balloon."
"How long did it take you?"
Danny held up four fingers. "Four tried?" He shook his head. "Four hours? How many shots did you take?"
"He stopped counting after 50."
"I'm never going to be able to go to the beach again without giving the ocean a dirty look." Danny pulled out a turkey and tuna sandwich out of his bag and went to take a bite only to get cut off by his ghost sense.
"Ughhhhh." He groaned
Tucker and Sam looked at him. "It's been quiet all day and you said Skulker was the only ghost you ran into on the weekend. This is a slow day compared to normal, why are you complaining."
"Because I want to eat my lunch in peace! The ghosts can wait till after I'm fed." He said taking a defiant bite out of sandwich.
Loud barking drew the trios attention. "That sounds like Cujo." Sam looked past the maple tree in the general direction of the noise. "I think your lunch can wait for him, he's not much of a problem."
Danny sighed. "Fine. I'll go take care of the little guy. How much longer is lunch?"
Tucker looked at his watch. "You still have a good 15 minutes, plenty of time to thermos your dog and scarf down lunch."
Ducking behind the tree Danny shifted to ghost form and flew off in the direction of the barking.
xXxXxXxXxXx
Maddie looked up the spectral dog scowling down at her. How had it gone from the size of a cuddly puppy to that of an elephant?
"I think we might need a bigger needle Mads." Jack said to his wife.
"That's not what I'm worried about this instant!" Maddie hissed. "Nice doggy, good doggy. We don't want to hurt you and you don't want to hurt us." 'I hope not.' Maddie raised her hands in a non-threatening gesture inadvertently flashing the small syringe in her right hand. The giant dog stared at the gleaming metal a second before opening his mouth and giving a warning growl.
"I'm no expert but I think he doesn't like anything resembling a shot."
"No Jack, you think?" Maddie said dryly.
Maddie got out her lipstick blaster and leveled it her opponent. "I'm warning you mutt, I don't want to fire but I will if provoked."
The ghost stepped forward and Maddie, taking that as an attack, hit the neon green button on the side of her weapon. A small plasm bolt flew straight at the head only to bounce off an energy shield.
"What are you guys doing to Cujo?!" Maddie looked up and amethyst met emerald. Danny gave his mom an annoyed glare before he turned to Cujo. "Down boy. Heel." He commanded sternly. The ghost dog quit growling at Maddie and tilted his head at Danny. Recognizing Danny Cujo sat down, tail wagging. "Aw, who's a good boy?" He cooed scratching him under the chin. Cujo panted happily a moment then popped into his miniature form and jumped into Danny's waiting arms.
"Is he yours?" Jack asked as his wife stared in disbelief. 'Since when is he good with animals? He accidentally killed Jazz's goldfish when he was 4!'
"Uh… he's not really mine per se but since Cujo listens to me he kinda is my responsibility." Danny looked at the needle. "What were you guys planning on doing to him?" He asked a bit defensively.
"We were going to take a small core sample so we could have his ecto-signature on record. Nothing lasting or lethal."
"You need core plasm to get an ecto-signature? Don't you have other devices that do that like the Boomerang?"
"That does store ecto-signatures but the Boomerang can only hold one at a time." 'and it's currently keyed to yours which I'm not willing to overwrite in case of an emergency.' "It's also hard to transfer the data to FentonWorks main system." Maddie reached into her hazmat suit and pulled out a thin notebook sized rectangular device that looked to be made of glass.
Danny floated down to the ground. "What's that?" He asked having never seen the device.
"It's an ectoplasmic density scanner." Jack said
Maddie looked at Danny's questioning face and clarified. "Think of it as an X-ray machine for ghosts."
"Ah."
"A ghost's core is typically central much like a human heart for even distribution but the position can and does vary slightly from ghost to ghost. If you could hold your puppy for me Phantom this'll only take a second and I promise he'll be fine." Maddie took several steps forward closing the distance. "Trust me, I won't hurt him." She said at Phantom hesitant looked.
Danny looked between Cujo and his mom trying to gauge the best thing to do. 'She did just save my life. I guess Phantom does owe her.' "Just make it quick. I'm not sure how long he'll sit still for even me if you're stabbing into him."
Maddie nodded and held up the transparent screen to the puppy in her son's arms. 'Amazing. It's all there, even his heart.' Maddie thought staring at the images of Phantom that were picked up along with Cujo.
"You staring at him or me?" Danny asked raising an eyebrow at Maddie awestruck face.
"Just hold him still." She replied instead of answering. Her eyes roamed the screen searching for a darker spot in Cujo's silhouette on the screen. 'Found it.' "I need to get to his belly, can you flip him over?"
Phantom sat down and rolled Cujo over to his back once the ghost puppy was in his lap.
"Alright, that's good… it might be better if you keep his attention on you." Maddie suggested inching forward. She squatted down and set the scanner down before giving Cujo a belly rub to help him get more comfortable with her. After a minute she carefully aimed the needle and with steady hands sunk the sharp metal into the firm ectoplasm withdrawing a small amount- about half the size of what she had taken from Phantom. In less than two seconds the syringe was out and Maddie had her prize.
"See, no harm done." She scratched Cujo's ears and the ghost dog rolled over and crawled onto Maddie's lap. Danny stared at his dog and mumbled 'traitor' under his breath.
"How'd he come to be yours anyway? You didn't go out looking for a dog did you?" Ever since he was little Danny had always wanted a dog of his own. Jack and Maddie had calmly explained to him that with all the happenings of FentonWorks pets, or at least ones that couldn't be kept in a cage or tank (like a hamster of fish), weren't safe. Despite being young Danny had, after reviewing several times where he and Jazz had almost ended up in the hospital after some experiments gone wrong, agreed any animals would probably fall victim to his parent in a few weeks and wisely dropped the subject.
"Cujo was a stray. He used to be a guard dog at Axion back when he was alive, but the company replaced him and all the others with electronic security systems. I'm not positive but I think he was put to sleep after that. I caught him haunting the labs and threw him into the ghost zone but he kept getting back out. Eventually I found out he was just searching for his favorite chew toy, but in the mean time Sa- ah, a friend of mine suggested training him since he was showing up so often. She said it might make capturing him easier. I read a few books on basic commands and when I went to teach him I found out he was already trained.
"Soon after that I stumbled upon his chew toy. I gave it to him and he disappeared for a while but one day he showed up again. I figured he was lonely so I spent some time playing with him before sending him back and well, it became a routine- Cujo drops by for some attention then goes home. He's a good boy." Danny gave his parents a pointed look. "He is a perfect example of when not using force pays off. Most people see him and freak out, they attack and then he fights back. When he leaned forward he was giving you a back off warning in response to you brandishing your weapon; he wasn't attacking. And by the way, I don't think aiming at his head was necessary. There are plenty of other nonlethal yet crippling spots to go for."
"I may have acted a bit rashly." Maddie admitted.
"Neither one of us knew." Jack defended. "You might have been able to tell but I couldn't. If he had been getting violent that would have given us time to get more weapons and prevent injuries on us. Are you telling us to wait until the ghosts attack first to start fighting back?"
"Yes. If you give most ghosts the benefit of the doubt they'll go peacefully because they don't want to fight. Known trouble makers are a different story. For example Skulker is never here sight seeing and neither is Technus or Ember but-"
"I don't know who they are." Jack interrupted.
"My point is if the ghost in question has a reputation for being a problem then go in expecting a problem and try to prevent it if you can but don't go in guns a blaze every time you hear a blip in your sensors because that's only going to make the interactions between our two sides more violent. If you go for a more diplomatic solution life will be easier on everybody and you'll be amazed by what you can get out of the interspecies relations."
A bell rang in the distance and Phantom groaned. "You guys wouldn't mind watching him right? Cujo shouldn't cause any problems and he seems to have taken a liking to Maddie. I'd drop him off in the ghost zone or play with him but I have something I have to get back to."
Jack stared at Phantom. "You're asking us to pet sit?"
"Think of it as getting a chance to interact with another ghost who's not me but is still good natured. I can stop by and take him off your hands around…" 'I get out at 2:35 and can leave Lancer by 3:00, allow 20 minutes for surprises and to get home so-' "3:20. That's only a few hours. I'll even give you permission to do any non invasive tests provided they do no harm physically or psychologically."
Not wanting to miss a chance Maddie decided to further the bargain. "I think that sounds reasonable but if we watch him there's one thing we need you to do."
"And that is?"
"You run into ghosts on a regular basis and after you capture them you come by FentonWorks to put them back into the ghost zone. If you could restrain them so I could take a sample before you deposit them that'd be great."
"You want me to do this with every ghost I get my hands on? Do you have any idea how many I thermos in a week? And I do this at all hours of the day, I don't think you'd appreciate getting woken up at 3:00 in the morning."
"No I wouldn't. That's why I was going to suggest you fill the thermos during the week and we have an extraction session during the weekend. That should be fine right?"
Phantom crossed his arms. "I'm not spending my week hunting down ghosts just so I can spend my free time on the weekends handling those same spooks. I have a life you know."
"It wouldn't be the whole weekend or even a large portion of it. Me and Jack have other things to do as well. It would only be a one or two hour session on Saturday and Sunday."
"No, I'm only working one of those days. I want a ghost free day if I can get my hands on it."
"But you're a ghost!" Jack exclaimed.
"I meant a day where I don't have to deal with other ghosts!" Phantom snapped. He looked back of the direction of the school and then at his parents. "I'll give you three hours on one of the days; that should cover the three hours of today. Whatever you want to do with that time is up to you. Now I need to get going before I'm late." Phantom bent over to Cujo. "I need you to be a good boy and behave for Maddie. Listen to what she says and I'll play with you later alright?"
Cujo barked happily at him in agreement.
"Such a good boy. I'll see you in a bit." Phantom said patting Cujo on the head before taking off towards Casper High. The late bell sounded a minute later and the two remaining Fentons decided to get going.
A/N:
If anyone wants to shoot me for this getting out so late then go ahead. Just know that if I'm dead there will never be a chapter 8.
So, I got back on Tuesday from my graduation cruise to the Bahamas. It went much better than expected and I didn't get a single sunburn which is unbelievable since I'm so pale. Tonight I'm going to a Taylor Swift concert with my big sis and tomorrow I leave for Williamsburg and I'm staying there for a week. Guess who also got there license on Friday? ME! My sister's wedding is August 9th so this summer is going to be super busy. I'm not sure when I'm going to update next. Also for those of you who look at my ff profile for update status I don't have internet at home and 's mobile site is kinda limited so I have made a tumblr account (May Rene) and I will be giving the chapter statuses on that more frequently, so check there.
Side notes:
1) SAILS- Specter Analysis Identification Locating System. This is the name I have decided to give to the town sized ghost detecting web. Alright, so I've been discussing some ghost theory with Serulium and we've kinda established that ghost's can be tracked by one of two ways- ectosignature which is ghost specific and energy wise which is much broader but non-specific.
The reason Phantom's signature 'disappears' is because it has been weakened or masked so much that the sensors Jack spread around can't pick it up. These are on an industrial scale and are meant more for quantity (to cover a whole town) than quality. If Danny was standing right next to one there's a high probability it'll read his ecto signature but unless he's in close proximity he's below the radar.
2) What Jack says about using electricity to change light reflection/absorption is actually a thing.
3) I think Danny wanting a puppy is canon but I'm not sure.
Please review. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Have a fantast night or day (if it's day when you're reading this).
~May Rene