Tucker did not make it easy for the ghostly children to drag him down the hallway. He kicked. He shouted. He tried to punch despite their firm grips on his biceps. Had they approached his mouth; he would have tried to bite them. They may be children but Melinoe was in danger and that was all Tucker cared about. He had watched that girl grow up, practically helped Sam raise her. Whenever Sam needed a babysitter, Tucker was the first person she tried. If Sam was ever having trouble looking after Melinoe on her own, Tucker was there. If Sam needed a night off from being a single mother, Tucker volunteered without complaint. The girl may not be his flesh and blood, but he cared for her as if she were. And he knew that Melinoe saw him as something akin to an uncle, maybe even as a father figure. And she needed him right now.
The ghostly children paused at a random door, which they pulled open and shoved Tucker inside without a word. Tucker yelped in surprise and fell to the ground, hitting his cheek and knocking his glasses askew. Tucker groaned softly as he pulled himself to his knees and straightened his glasses.
"Tucker?" a voice called in confusion. Tucker blinked, instantly recognising that voice. He surveyed the large room, filled with empty chairs cluttered around tables. At the far end of the room a counter displaying empty food trays sat with a door presumably leading to a kitchen behind it. In the only occupied chair in the room sat Danny Phantom, an arm wrapped protectively around his middle, frowning at Tucker with worry. Tucker clambered to his feet, casually dusting his thighs as he approached his friend.
"What are you doing in- is that blood?" Tucker began before he noticed the floor streaked with green. Danny nodded and shifted in his seat with a wince.
"Yeah. It's not a big deal," Danny muttered. Tucker gasped and rushed to his friend's side.
"Dude, are you hurt? Let me see," Tucker exclaimed, recalling Sam's reassurances when she was trying to convince Melinoe to leave the orphanage. He had heard that Danny got hurt but he hadn't realised that it was this bad. Reluctantly, Danny moved his arm away from his wound and Tucker hissed in sympathy. He knelt in front of his friend and peered at the injury, trying to decipher how badly hurt the halfa was.
"It didn't hit anything important. I'll be fine. I just need to let the ectoplasm do its thing," Danny remarked.
"As ghost. You don't know that it didn't hit anything major as human," Tucker corrected fearfully.
"Which is why I'm staying Phantom Tuck. Trust me, as long as I stay ghost and let my ectoplasm naturally re-shape my body, I'll be fine in a few minutes. Then we can go after Sam and Mel in the speeder," Danny reassured.
Tucker blinked at the comment and glanced up at Danny's calm gaze. Tucker bit his lip anxiously and dropped his gaze back to the wound.
"I still think we should bandage you up," Tucker muttered.
"Tuck, is something wrong?" Danny asked and Tucker mentally cursed himself. He was useless at keeping secrets, especially from Danny and Sam. They had known him so long that they knew all his tells.
"No nothing dude," Tucker lied, his voice rising an octave which Tucker cringed at. Tucker ran away from Danny, disappearing into the kitchen beyond the food counter. He banged around in the sparkling metal kitchen for a few moments before emerging with a knife and an armful of tea towels.
"Tucker, what's wrong?" Danny pressed as Tucker dropped everything he gathered on a nearby table.
"Nothing," Tucker squeaked and gritted his teeth as he pulled a couple of tea towels out of his pile and the knife. He shredded the tea towels into long strips of fabric that he then used to bandage up Danny's oozing wound. Danny grunted in complaint when Tucker tugged too tight on the makeshift bandages and grumbled about the fuss being unnecessary. Tucker breathed a sigh of relief once he was done and before Danny could ask what happened again, Tucker disappeared back into the kitchen.
"Tucker!" Danny yelled from in the cafeteria angrily.
Tucker breathed a calming sigh and leant against a counter anxiously. He pulled off his hat and scrubbed his nails through his short hair. He had to calm down. He couldn't tell Danny what happened until the halfa had at least healed a bit. He knew Danny was right, it wouldn't take long. Full ghosts could heal in minutes. Since Danny was half ghost, his body composition was a bit more complex and took longer to reform, especially for bigger injuries like his current wound. But if Danny knew that Leto had Melinoe, the halfa would run off before his body recovered. Tucker slid down the counter to sit hunched on the floor. This was all his fault. If he had told Sam or Danny when he found out Melinoe was Danny's daughter, this might not have happened. Danny and Sam would have been prepared for this.
"Tucker get back here! What's going on?!" Danny shouted from the cafeteria. Tucker flinched at his friend's voice. But obediently, the inventor rose shakily to his feet, shoving his hat back on.
Tucker edged into the large room and avoided Danny's frustrated and confused gaze. Tucker chewed his lip and pulled a chair away from one of the tables and dropped heavily into it opposite Danny.
"Is it getting better yet?" Tucker mumbled.
"It'll take time Tucker. But it shouldn't be much longer," Danny answered evasively. Tucker raised a sceptical eye but quickly dropped his gaze to the green stained grey floor.
"Tucker. What happened?" Danny repeated, a warning growl to his words. Tucker shrank in his seat.
"I think we should wait until you're better," Tucker muttered carefully.
"No Tucker! Now!" Danny demanded angrily. Tucker flinched at Danny's raised voice and looked up warily. While Danny hadn't moved off his chair, he was leaning forward with burning green eyes.
"Leto has Mel," Tucker relented.
"What!?" Danny exclaimed and instantly tried to heave himself out of his seat, an arm around his middle and his face contorted in pain.
"Danny, stop! You'll just hurt yourself more!" Tucker interjected.
"I don't care Tucker! Mel needs me," Danny snarled but Tucker managed to shove the halfa's shoulders down and Danny dropped back into his chair.
"You can't help Mel like this. Take the time you need now and then we can both go after Mel and stop Leto," Tucker urged.
"But-" Danny began.
"It's not like we have to go far dude. This is Leto's orphanage," Tucker added. Danny shook his head.
"No. Leto is gonna take Mel back to Amity Park," Danny retorted.
"What makes you say that?" Tucker asked, confusion replacing his determined scowl.
"Leto told me. If I ever want to see Mel alive again, I have to meet her where Kendis faded. At sunset," Danny answered. Tucker's eyes widened in alarm.
"Unless we stop her before she takes Mel to Amity Park, we might not make it back in time Tuck. We're pretty deep in the Ghost Zone and on the other end, we've gotta get past my parents. And that's assuming the speeder isn't gone," Danny added.
"Gone?" Tucker repeated in confusion.
"My mom is gonna activate the magnet remember. That'll pull the speeder from anywhere in the Ghost Zone back to Fentonworks. And trust me, I know it works. If mom turns it on, before we get to the speeder, then we're gonna have to find our own way out and that'll take even longer," Danny explained.
"I completely forgot about the magnet!" Tucker exclaimed realising what Danny was saying. Danny nodded and tried to get to his feet again but hissed in discomfort and dropped back into his seat.
"You've still gotta take it easy dude. You're not gonna be able to do anything to help Mel like this," Tucker reminded the halfa. Danny nodded reluctantly.
"Did Sam get away at least?" Danny mumbled sadly.
"She got to the speeder. Whether she drove off, I doubt it. And I also kinda doubt that she'd sit in the speeder and wait for us," Tucker admitted. Danny nodded in agreement, his eyes unexpectedly turning blue as he activated his ice powers.
"Is it really bothering you that much?" Tucker whispered. The inventor knew that the wound would be hurting his friend, but he had seen his friend injured like this before without resorting to his ice powers to numb any pain.
"I was stabbed with an anti-ghost knife Tuck. It stings a bit," Danny confessed. Tucker's eyes widened in alarm, knowing that elements within anti-ghost metals could leave lingering side effects which explained Danny's pain and why it was taking so long for the halfa to heal. Tucker chewed his lip anxiously, glancing to the door. Sam was far better than him at first aid. She actually took regular courses. He knew how to look after a burn or a cut from videos online when he managed to hurt himself.
As though she had heard his silent pleas, Sam's head poked into the room and she slipped inside soundlessly. She sprinted to them, her bare feet slapping on the cold wood. Danny looked up, having closed his eyes, and stared in disbelief at Sam. She wordlessly knelt beside Danny and pulled his arm away from his stomach.
"Whose stupid idea was it to use tea towels?" Sam asked with a scowl. Tucker nervously raised his hand with an uncertain grin. Sam rolled her eyes and started pulling the makeshift bandages off.
"Am I seriously the only one who bothered to learn some first aid?" she grumbled.
"What are you talking about? I bandaged him up to avoid blood loss," Tucker protested. Sam flashed a glare at the inventor.
"Firstly, you don't use tea towels instead of bandages. You use clean rags, a ripped-up sheet or shirt. These are just gonna absorb the blood and might get the wound infected. Second, that's human first aid. Not ghost first aid. We want the ectoplasm to pool. It's the only way to get enough ectoplasm in the wound to allow it to reform itself," Sam retorted. Danny put a hand on Sam's hand as she went to pull the last tea towel strip away.
"What are you doing here? You should be going after Leto and Mel," Danny interjected.
"Helping you. What does it look like? We can all go after Mel when you're okay. The old team Phantom will have a better chance than if I went on my own," Sam reasoned. Sam pulled her hand out from his gentle grip and pulled the last makeshift bandages away. Her purple eyes softened when she spotted Danny's wound.
"Tucker go get some water and some clean rags. Not tea towels," Sam ordered and encouraged Danny to lay back down on the floor.
"It took me ages to get in that chair," Danny complained while Tucker rushed off to do as Sam instructed. He opened a cupboard and found a large cooking pot which he dropped into a sink and turned the tap on. Tucker then searched through the drawers and found a pack of paper napkins. He hummed thoughtfully to himself before dropping them on the worktop and returned to his search. He soon found some faded white tablecloths. He grinned and grabbed a handful. He balanced them all on his shoulder, propped the napkins under his arm and heaved the full pot out of the sink. He wobbled out of the kitchen and back across the cafeteria.
"Leave it alone Danny. And stop numbing it. You're stopping the ectoplasm flow," Sam scolded.
"It was an anti-ghost knife Sam. It stings," Danny retorted.
"Suck it up," Sam growled, and once Tucker reached them and handed her what she asked for, she left the halfa's side and began shredding a tablecloth into manageable strips. Tucker smirked as he dropped into his seat, watching his friends interact. Danny was impatiently fidgeting on the floor, his eyes occasionally flickering blue when Sam wasn't watching. Sam on the other hand kept scolding him for using his ice powers while she shredded the tablecloth and dropped the rags in the pot of water. He had missed this.
Sam knelt beside Danny and wrung out a dripping rag in the pot. She then calmly began to clean the wound, ignoring Danny's soft hisses of discomfort. Sam discarded the rag and grabbed another. After a further seven rags, she dropped the rag in a pile beside her and leant back.
"Still stinging?" she asked. Danny blinked and frowned in concentration and shook his head.
"No. Thanks Sam," Danny muttered with relief.
"Good. Now stay still and we can let your ectoplasm do the rest," Sam instructed and crossed her legs beside him.
"How do you know ghost first aid?" Danny wondered, turning to her curiously.
"I asked Frostbite to teach me a few tricks when we were kids," Sam answered.
"When?" Tucker interjected.
"Remember when Danny nearly lost his eye when that pride of ghost lions attacked?" Sam offered. Tucker and Danny nodded, Danny putting a gentle hand to his left eye at the memory.
"Well while the doctors at the Far Frozen helped Danny, I went to Frostbite and asked him to teach me," Sam concluded with a shrug.
"Why?" Danny mumbled.
"Because I never wanted to feel as helpless as I did back then ever again. If you were gonna keep fighting and potentially getting hurt, I was gonna learn how to patch you up," Sam admitted with a loving smile at the halfa. Danny chuckled and dropped his hand from his face to grab Sam's hand.
"Thank you," Danny returned.
The three old friends sat in silence for a few minutes before Sam sighed. Danny opened his eyes, having shut them while they waited for his ectoplasm to reform his body and heal his wound. He squeezed her hand worriedly.
"How did Leto find Mel?" Sam whispered, glancing at Danny. Danny turned his head to Tucker.
"Turns out Mel takes after me more than either of us knew," Danny admitted. Sam frowned in confusion before turning to Tucker like the halfa. Tucker blinked in surprise and grinned nervously.
"Why are you looking at me?" Tucker asked.
"Because you figured it out," Danny retorted. Sam's eyes narrowed dangerously, and Tucker gulped nervously.
"I told you, I didn't say anything because I didn't want to hurt you guys," Tucker began.
"What didn't you tell us?" Sam growled. Tucker got out of his seat and spun around it to use the piece furniture as a shield. Sam glowered at Tucker and got to her feet as well.
"What have you hidden from me?" Sam snarled. Tucker chuckled nervously.
"In my defence, I didn't know why you guys broke up," Tucker attempted. Sam crossed her arms and glared down her small nose at the inventor. He gulped as he was subjected to the full force of Sam's infamous glare.
"Mel has ghost energy," Tucker blurted out. Sam's glare faltered as her eyes widened in shock.
"What?" she gasped.
"Turns out Tuck learned of that little fact when Mel was really young and has been monitoring it. In fact, he's tested his tech on her," Danny added from the floor. Sam's glare returned and intensified, fire burning in her hard eyes.
"When he says testing my tech, he means hiding her signature from weapons," Tucker corrected fearfully.
"You're dead! And if you come back as a ghost, you're dead again!" Sam hissed as she sprinted after Tucker, Tucker screamed and knocked over his chair as he ran away from the furious woman. This was exactly why he didn't want Sam to find out what he figured out years ago. Another reason why he shouldn't have kept his mouth shut.
He used every table as cover as he ran away from Sam, soon panting breathlessly as a stitch began to stab into his side. He pulled over chairs and slid across tables to keep as much distance as possible between him and the infuriated woman chasing him. Suddenly Danny was between them holding Sam back.
"We need him alive right now Sam," Danny called.
"He caused this! He let Leto find her!" Sam shouted.
"I didn't know she was in danger!" Tucker argued. Sam glowered at him and clawed at Danny's firm hands to get at the inventor.
"Sam! I know he should have told us. I've already shouted at him. He knows now that he should have told us. Right now, Mel matters more. We gotta put aside all that and save Mel," Danny reasoned.
"Thanks dude," Tucker sighed when Sam calmed down and stepped back, stiffly folding her arms with an angry huff.
"Oh, don't thank me yet. Once Mel is safe, our truce is over," Danny corrected with a frown. Tucker flinched.
"I didn't know!" Tucker moaned.
"You should have told me that my daughter had ghost energy," Sam growled, but she didn't try to attack him again.
"So, you're okay now?" Tucker asked, changing the subject eagerly. Danny nodded.
"Really?" Sam pressed and made to punch him in the stomach. Danny hastily ducked away and put a protective arm around his healing wound.
"Okay! Okay! Maybe not one hundred percent but enough to go after Mel," Danny admitted. Sam nodded and led the way towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Tucker called.
"To find Leto," Sam retorted.
"I know where we'll find her. I'm more worried about getting there in time," Danny informed her, easily catching up to the woman and Tucker scrambled to join them.
"Where?" Sam prompted, turning worried eyes to Danny.
"Amity Park's park. The big fountain near the middle. It was where Kendis faded. We have to get there before sunset," Danny answered.
"Amity Park?" Sam repeated and Danny nodded.
"How are we gonna get there? The speeder's gone!" Sam exclaimed fearfully. Danny breathed a sigh in disappointment.
"Looks like we missed the bus home," Danny mumbled.
"What are you talking about?" Sam demanded.
"My mom agreed to let us come after you in the speeder as long as we were back by dinnertime. Mom and dad developed a failsafe for when they decided to start exploring the Ghost Zone, the Fenton Magnet. It can pull the speeder out whenever and mom told me she would activate it if we weren't back on time," Danny explained.
"How are we gonna get to Amity Park?" Sam gasped. Danny shook his head helplessly.
"Looks like good old Tucker to the rescue then," Tucker cheered, flexing his fingers proudly. Danny and Sam turned to him with confused frowns. He grinned at them. While Danny had gone right and found Sam and then Melinoe and Leto found them, Tucker had stumbled upon a number of ghostly children playing in a gym of sorts. While he had occupied the children to avoid them raising the alarm, he had the chance to see what they were capable of. While several of the children were new ghosts having difficulty controlling their intangibility, flight or invisibility, they were powerful. Tucker had seen kids capable of forming ghost rays, some who could duplicate and some who could teleport. Tucker would bet that there was at least one ghost kid in the orphanage that could form portals. All they had to do was find that kid.
"These kids have a lot of powers collectively. I bet Leto will be using one of them to get from here to Amity Park. We can do the same," Tucker suggested.
"True. Except these kids all fear us since Leto will have warned them not to help us," Danny pointed out.
"Maybe. But maybe not. They're still kids and kids can be persuaded. All they seem to want is to find somewhere in the Ghost Zone they belong. If we can help with that, then I bet they'd help us in a flash," Tucker reasoned. Sam frowned thoughtfully before Danny grinned and snapped his fingers.
"I know just the ghost kid," he announced.
"Who?" Sam prompted.
"Rosie! I already know who her new parents can be," Danny realised.
"How?" Sam pressed.
"Er, I may have seen her when Clockwork tried to kill me. She called herself Box Lunch, daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady," Danny admitted. Tucker and Sam's eyes widened in surprise before they grinned excitedly.
Finally, a plan surfaces but will they get to Leto and Melinoe in time?
How will they save Melinoe from Leto?
Let me know what you guys think of the story so far.
So someone asked if Vlad was around in this story or if Leto just hadn't heard of him.
I am confirming that Vlad is still around, if quieter than when Danny was younger. (There might just be a sequel in mind focusing on the older halfa whiche explains why he's been quiet). Leto was in the Ghost Zone with Kendis for a while before leaving and exploring the real so lead kinda an insulated life, all that mattered to her was her son. I also don't think Vlad would have made it general knowledge what he was in the ghost community to ensure he could use it against any ghosts meaning to hurt him.
Until the next chapter.