Someone mark this on the calendar. For the first time in like 5 years I have an *actual* chapter. It's shorter than I would like though (alright granted by only a couple hundred words). You all have some of my friends to thank for getting my ass in gear about writing this so Dorian, Iman, Mox; this chapter is dedicated to you. Also a quick shoutout to Jacob Phantom for reminding me I hadn't updated the story here.
"They grow up to be the greatest evil the world has ever seen."
"To save this world we can not allow their destiny to come to pass."
"It's the choices they make that determines how things will come to pass… The path before them is filled with divisions. "
"We already know the choice they make."
"End it now!"
"You understand nothing. You watch and wait and judge. Their fates are not sealed yet."
*Danielle*
"You're mine this time, Phantoms," the Red Huntress growled at them before firing off another volley of blasts with her gun. The pink blasts flew past me, some of them missing completely and others almost grazing my arms. Both Danny and I were weakened from lack of sleep and injuries we had before we went into battle with Plasmius. The vampire-like ghost seemed to enjoy simply causing destruction and chaos, and throwing us into whatever hard surface is nearby. The Red Huntress showed up just before the fruitloop took off, leaving us to deal with the hunter. Blasts of energy flew by me, some nowhere close to hitting, others grazing past. I heard Dan yell as a blast managed to hit him, knocking him out of the air and sending him crashing into a building's edge before hitting the ground. I sped toward him and knelt next to his head.
"Are you okay," I tried, and probably failed, to keep the panic out of my voice. Danny groaned in pain and I saw the rings of light trying to flicker into existence. Before I could think about what to do I placed my hand on his shoulder, turning both of us invisible and intangible. I willed us to sink into the ground. The dark tunnels of a long forgotten subway system provided a temporary haven until Danny was once again in control of his powers. It's alright Dan. We're safe for the time being. It was long past dark by the time we managed to get home, and for once, we were met with the silence of an empty house. We quietly made our way up to our room, and for the first time in a long time we didn't fall asleep in pain.
We should have known that the stroke of luck wouldn't last. On the way to school Red showed up again. The Red Huntress exchanged blows with us until her board was smoking. I charged up another ectoblast and prepared to fire it when the sound of the school bell broke through the relative silence. The energy surrounding my hand dissipated as all three of us looked down to see the school.
"Later for you, punks!"
"We'll be waiting!"
Danny and I went in the opposite direction of Red, splitting up briefly to shift to our human forms and running to our classroom; crashing to Valerie Gray, a former member of the A-List.
"Fenton! Gray! Since you're late you'll be assigned partners for a special week-long Health Sciences project. Mr. Fenton, you're with Miss Walters. And due to there being an uneven amount of girls and boys, Miss Gray will be paired with Miss Fenton."
"So we're supposed to take care of a flour sack and pretend it's a baby?" Dan looked down at the sack in my hands completely confused. Before any of us could reply Starr walked up to us with Paulina at her side and pushed another into Danny's hands.
"Let's get one thing straight: this doesn't make us friends or anything. The only reason I'm even talking to you is because of this stupid project Tetslaff is making us do." The blonde and Latina walked away without saying another word.
"Great… I think I just became a single parent." The three of us laughed at Danny's comment and misfortune.
"Hey! Fenton!" Both of us turned toward the voice to see Valerie walking toward our group. "I already planned out our schedule. I take it until lunch Friday and then you'll take care of it until the project is done on Tuesday." The words took a moment to sink in. Jack didn't tolerate us making noise, let alone an artificial baby. He would completely destroy it as soon as it made any noise.
"No I… I can't take it home."
"Oh no. I am not doing all the work. Either you do your share or I'm asking Tetslaff to trade partners."
I replayed my words in my head and realized that it did sound like I was trying to put all the work on her. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I'll take care of it during the day if you'll take it home with you."
"Uh huh. And why can't you take care of it at home?"
"Um. Well, you know my dad creates stuff right?" Valerie nodded her head. "Well he isn't always the most careful with what he builds, and it might get damaged or worse."
"Alright," she sighed, "I can see what you mean. Fine, I'll take it home at night, but you have it from the moment we get to school until I finish my shift at 6."
"That sounds good. Where should we meet in the morning so you can hand it off to me?"
"Well we have class together first thing in the morning so we can swap there." I internally sighed in relief at the close call. I held out my arms for the other girl to hand me the sack of flour.
"Come here, Sackie." The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them and I ducked my head to look at the floor.
Valerie made a thoughtful noise. "Huh. We are supposed to pretend it's a baby, right?"
"Um, yeah. That's kind of the point of this project."
"Then we should call it something, right? I mean babies have a name." I glanced at the others out of the corner of my eye and saw their faces all had an expression of 'good point' at Valerie's question.
"Yeah, that's a good point… Well do you have any ideas on what to call it?"
"Well you just called it 'Sackie' so why don't we name it Jackie?" I nodded at Valerie's idea and all of us looked at each other as the bell signalling the end of class transfer rang through the hallway. There were a few seconds where everyone processed what it meant before everyone started running toward their next class.
As soon as the door slammed shut I felt something also slam into my abdomen forcing the air out of my lungs. I collapsed to the ground on my hands and knees. It took a moment for my mind to catch up to the events happening. This time he hadn't even bothered taking us to the lab before Danny was pushed against the wall, his head making a dull thud as it hit. I braced myself for the next hit when there was the sound of knocking on the door. Jack's arm froze in midair and he stared at the door. He stood up straight, grabbed one of our arms and half-shoved half-threw us toward the stairs. We wasted no time in rushing to the bedroom.
"V-man!" The excited shout echoed through the house. Danny and I looked at each other questioningly. The last time we saw Vlad was a month ago, right around when that ghost dog showed up.
"Jack," there was a pause before Vlad started speaking again. "Where are the twins and Jasmine? I have some news to share with all of you." Surprise had me jerking as if startled.
"They're upstairs," Jack responded. "Jasmine! Bring your siblings down here." He called up the stairs and moments later Jazz appeared in our doorway and nodded her head towards the living room.
"So what's this news you wanted to tell us?"
"Well I came by to tell you that I've moved to Amity. Wisconsin is a long way away and we have a lot to catch up on." Knowing that Vlad would be around more, I couldn't help the small bit of hope from forming.
Vlad's unexpected visit had left Jack in a good-ish mood and we got off easy with only bruised ribs (me) and a dislocated shoulder (Danny). We flew out the window for patrol when Jack's snoring began to echo through the house. We wandered the streets, well skies, of Amity for hours without anything and decided to turn in. Of course that had to be when our ghost sense went off. The rumbling of an engine could be heard long before we actually saw the ghosts. The couple from before sped past us on the street below. Dan and I looked at each other as if we were trying to figure out what had just happened.
"Shouldn't we go after them," he asked after our minds caught up.
"I guess. They left pretty quickly last time, but it's probably better safe than sorry, right?" We took off in the direction the couple was riding the motorcycle. It didn't take long to find where they had gone and they were a bit preoccupied to notice our arrival.
"So, uh, what are you guys doing here?" Their conversation stopped immediately and they looked toward where we were floating.
"And who are you exactly," the blonde haired ghost asked and moved into a stance ready to defend or attack.
"Phantom," I replied tersely.
"Phantom…" His posture straightened out of the fighting stance enough that he appeared relaxed but still on his guard. His expression changed from hostile to questioning. "That sounds familiar…"
"You're the halfas aren't you?" The other ghost who had been silent until now spoke up.
"Yeah, that's us." Danny rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous gesture at the green haired woman's recognition. Her eyes seemed to light up in a way that had nothing to do with being a ghost.
"I knew it! You two are quite the topic around the Ghost Zone."
"You clearly know who we are but we don't know you."
"Right. Johnny 13." Suddenly the shadow he cast on the ground shifted and lifted itself off of the dirt. "This is Shadow, and my girl, Kitty."
"We've heard a lot about you two. The twin halfas who protect the town, and managed to get the attention of even Skulker and Ember." The mention of our friends - allies? - immediately gave the two - gave Johnny and Kitty - our full attention.
"You know Skulker and Ember." Johnny shrugged.
"Eh. Don't know the hunter that well, but Ember's a good friend." If these two were friends with Ember then I knew that they wouldn't cause any trouble and we decided that we should turn in early and maybe get more than a few hours of sleep. Dan and I bid Johnny and Kitty goodbye and made them promise to go back to the Ghost Zone by sunrise. There was a strange warmth in my chest as I fell asleep that night that I couldn't identify.
It wasn't uncommon for us to be running late in the morning. Whether it was due to a ghost attack - usually the Box Ghost at this time of day - or simply sleeping late, we managed to be on time one or two days of the week. I think at this point Lancer has just given up in giving us detention for being a few minutes late since it's been almost two months since the last time he gave us one. At least for being late. He finds plenty of other reasons to give us detention. Danny, Sam, Tucker and I agreed when we first got our powers that we'd never use them in school unless it was life-threatening, either us or someone else. Which was how we ended up in our current predicament of being locked inside our lockers. Even with my enhanced night vision it was still too dark to see anything except the light coming in through the slats in the top of the locker. We had spent quite a few minutes banging on the locker and calling out in the hopes that someone would have mercy - or take pity; I'm not particularly picky about which - on us. Being stuck inside a locker meant that we didn't have to rush out of class with some flimsy excuse about using the bathroom when our ghost sense went off; the blue mist glowing faintly like a glow in the dark sticker. Both of us changed into our ghost form to find whoever set it off. Lo and behold, it was our favorite fruitloop. He scowled when he noticed us approaching.
"You two again. I have no time for children." He fired a ray of pink ectoblasts in our direction. "I heard there was an actual hunter here, not a bunch of teenagers playing dress up!" The time between ectoblasts got shorter and shorter as he went on. "You're trying my patience! If you continue to interfere I'm finished with playing around with you two!" The statement threw me off just long enough for him to get a solid hit to my chest. I was sent flying backwards into a building, dropping to the ground as my vision blurred and dizziness flooded my mind. I felt more than saw the ring of light appear, disorientation and the blow to the head threatening to take me into unconsciousness. All at once, time seemed to still as Plasmius stopped attacking immediately.
"You're…" The word hung in the air, full of confusion and disbelief. Without saying anything else he took off, turning invisible so we couldn't follow him. Danny helped me up from the ground and we returned to school just as the class ended and students filled the halls. The chaos of the class change gave us cover to come out of the bathrooms without anyone taking a second look.
"Fenton!" The shout came from down the hall as we approached our lockers. "We had a deal," Valerie growled as she forcefully shoved the flour sack into my arms.
"I-I'm sorry. Dash locked me in my locker and I was only let out a few minutes ago." Valerie's expression softened a bit, but she didn't comment further before heading back toward her own locker.
If there was one thing the ghosts were it was never boring. Living in a town that saw ghost attacks more often than rain meant that everyday was interesting. This day for instance had a large dragon as entertainment. We were left down in the lab overnight and said dragon came through the portal.
"I want to go!" The dragon zeroed in on us almost immediately. It lunged toward us and we instinctively changed into our ghost halves. For its size the dragon was faster than it looked as it grabbed Danny in a fit. He turned intangible and phased through its fist. The dragon looked at us surprised and growled as it breathed a stream of green fire at us. The enclosed space didn't give us room to dodge and the flame scorched our suits, thankfully not doing enough damage to hurt us. I fired a blast of ectoenergy at its face and it reeled back in shock. Dan quickly followed up with another blast. Let's drive it back. I nodded at his plan, charging up another blast. My attack wasn't fast enough and the dragon sent another wave of fire at us that we both managed to dodge. A misaimed ectoblast struck the side of the amulet, breaking the chain and causing it to clatter on the floor. Barely a second passed before the dragon started to shrink until it turned into a girl. She looked to be our age with her blonde hair pulled back into a braid. Both of us looked between the amulet laying on the floor and the girl standing in front of us. "All I wanted was to go to the Princess Costume Ball. And my horrid mummy won't let me," the ghost wailed and flew back into the portal. Neither of us dwelled on it too much and Danny turned around to head upstairs. I looked toward the thick gold chain and gem. It felt slightly heavy in my hand when I picked it up. The amulet shone where the light hit it. The clasp and chain were still in perfect condition even though it was hit with an ectoblast. I raised the necklace to my chest and fastened it behind my neck. I turned and headed up the stairs, tucking the amulet into my shirt.