Ectoplasmic Secrets

Meet My Crazy Family

Summary: The trio hangs out afterschool at the Fenton household and it's Sam's first time meeting the infamous Fenton parents.

It was just past three o'clock on a school day in mid fall. Loads of students could be seen crossing the street from the elementary school, heading towards the residential area of the town. One such group consisted of three eighth graders as they began their walk to the farthest edge of the neighborhood where one would start to see some stores and smaller shops nearby.

"So it just occurred to me that this is the first time I'll have actually been to your house." Sam began, sounding borderline cheery in comparison to her rather dark taste in apparel. "I mean, we usually just go to Tuck's place. Not that I'm complaining," she added, turning to Tucker, "your mom is an awesome cook. Plus, she's always remembered about my vegetarian diet, which is pretty considerate compared to my own parents."

Tucker mumbled something about meat under his breath before finally tearing his eyes off his phone for the first time since they'd left the school grounds. "That's cause when we go to my place, we don't have to worry about the basement causing some sort of nuclear explosion." he pointed out.

"Ok, I know they've got some pretty crazy stuff down there, but I don't think they'd actually have anything too radioactive or explosive." Danny said, but after thinking a moment he also added, "…at least I hope not."

Sam scuffed the heels of her boots on the dull sidewalk as they walked. She wouldn't admit it, but she was really curious to see what the rest of the Fentons were actually like. After all, the name was known throughout pretty much all of Amity Park and even through ghost hunting organizations worldwide.

As the trio turned another corner, they were greeted by a row of about a dozen houses facing a small field on the other side of the street with a couple little trees covered in red, yellow, and brown leaves.

After a short silence Danny had decided to ask, "Are you guys sure you want to work on the project at my place? It's just that…it can be kind of loud sometimes. And distracting."

Sam glanced back at Tucker to find he was, as per usual, typing away on his phone. He must not have had to think too hard about whatever he was doing because he apparently heard and replied to Danny, "My Ma's got work friends over, and she" he nodded towards Sam, "said she doesn't like being at her place."

He's got that right, she thought. What, with her overbearing, pompous mother scrutinizing everything she does and says and wears. Not to mention that I never really told either of them I'm pretty loaded. If they saw the kind of house, scratch that, mansion her and her family lived in…

Danny shrugged, "We could always go to the library or something." Sam swiftly caught on to what he was trying to do, "Danny, the library is another twenty minute walk in the complete opposite direction. Besides, what does some noise matter? We're always blasting some Dumpty Humpty album while we do homework and stuff anyways." Danny just sighed as they continued walking, "Don't say I didn't warn you…"

As they kept walking, Tucker began talking about the new Doomed update, rambling on about which characters got the best new skins, weapons, and whatnot. Sam listened for about a minute when her attention was stolen away by a single wet drop hitting the bridge of her nose. She wiped it away roughly and turned to look up to the sky. The gray clouds were thickening and she could tell there were some even darker clouds headed in their way if the winds' direction had anything to do with it.

Oh well, a little rain never killed anyone. I'll still be able to walk home later, she thought to herself. However, it seemed karma had it out for her today as just a moment later the three of them could clearly hear the roll of thunder off in the distance.

"Yes! Man, I love thunderstorms!" Tucker seemed to be the only one perked up by the sudden change in weather. "Yeah? How about being outside in them?" Sam asked in a low tone. Tucker just shrugged, "Hey, I'll live so long as I've got this nice waterproof case right-"

Tucker had taken off one shoulder strap of his backpack and had it pulled around in front of himself. He unzipped it and began rummaging through his stuff, becoming increasingly panicked. "Shit! I left it at home today! C'mon Danny, bro we've gotta run for it!" Danny groaned a little in response, "Tuck, your phone will be fine. The storm isn't even here yet and we're almost there anyways."

Tucker grumbled something about not having any respect for his baby Charlotte and proceeded to pull open a weather radar app on his phone. "According to this, it's supposed to start raining any minute now."

As if on cue, the sidewalks began to appear littered with small raindrops and a distant flash in the sky was all the motivation the trio needed to pick up the pace a bit.

Tucker quickly held his phone close to his chest and wrapped his arms around himself in an attempt to keep it dry. Both Sam and Danny went to pull the hoods of their jackets up, although it did little to help. Within just minutes the once small droplets of water morphed into a heavy rainfall. Combined with the wind, the sound of raindrops hammering the rooftops, sidewalks, and streets became loud enough that the trio had to yell just to hear each other.

"Well this was sudden!" Danny yelled, nearly getting cut off by another bout of thunder. Sam pulled her black hood farther over her head, "Duh, that's mother nature for you!" She crossed her arms and looked ahead where, even through the thick layer of rain, she could see the neon sign reading Fenton Works. Yep. Real subtle there.

By the time they were in front of the…house?...Sam was able to see the rest of it. The somewhat old fashioned red brick, the tall, narrow windows, the fucking UFO with probably close to fifty satellite dishes on it! As they walked up the steps to hide under the porch from the rain, Sam could practically feel the electric buzz radiating from the neon sign above.

The three of them stood, huddled on the porch and Danny grabbed his keys out from his backpack. Sam took to observing the storm, trying to ignore the few shivers that ran through her. As if it wasn't already cool outside, being drenched from head to toe isn't really helping. Her eyes caught sight of a lightning bolt as Danny was fiddling with his keys, trying to find the right one. Apparently, it had been closer than it appeared because the resounding boom was nearly deafening and practically shook the air itself. Sam couldn't control the flinch she let slip from the way her heart had skipped a beat, but seemingly she wasn't alone as Tucker had taken to swearing loudly and Danny had dropped his keys again.

It was a bit of a miracle when Danny had finally gotten the door open, seriously, Sam had considered just hitting the doorbell. The three of them at last rushed inside to be greeted by much warmer, dryer air.

The first thing that registered in Sam's mind was that everything was so shockingly, well, normal. A normal living room with a couch, armchair, and TV. A normal open, eat-in kitchen. A normal staircase leading to the second story. And a normal- wait, nope that's not normal. Sam glanced over the strange door with multiple heavy duty locks and red warnings all over it, quickly coming to the assumption that that must lead to their lab.

A middle-aged woman with short red hair came down the stairs just then, carrying a basket of laundry. She noticed the trio standing by the door after a moment, "Oh there you kids are! I was just about to call to see if you needed a ride home because of this storm that just decided to come in. So how was school today?"

"Boring as always!" Danny yelled from the kitchen where he'd began just collecting whatever good snacks he could find in the pantry. When he couldn't hold anymore he tossed some to Tucker, who gladly accepted. "And when were you going to introduce me to your new friend here?" Danny closed the pantry door and came back in the other room again, carrying an armful of snacks, "Oh, right, Mom, this is Sam. Sam, this is my mom."

Tucker began going upstairs carrying some of the snacks and his backpack. "Oh, so this is the Sam I've heard so much about!" Danny's Mom said. Sam felt her cheeks get a little hotter, oh god, am I blushing? Why though? That's just cringy. And awkward. It better not be noticeable.

"-OKAY we'll be upstairs working on a school project for the next few hours if you need us!" Danny exclaimed as he went to follow Tucker up the stairs. Just before following her friends upstairs Sam stopped for a moment, "It's nice to finally meet you Mrs. Fenton, or, sorry but do you go by Doctor?"

She smiled, "Please, just 'Maddie' is fine. And it's nice to meet you too Sam."

When Sam made it to the top of the stairs it wasn't hard to find Danny's room, just the first door to the left. She entered and found it was actually pretty close to what she would've expected. Light blue walls, random posters littering the walls, little star stickers all over the ceiling that looked to have been there for at least ten years, and overall fairly messy. Yep. That's typical Danny.

Out the window Sam could see the storm was raging, with frequent flashes of light and the wind and rain beating against the window. Inside, Tucker had pulled out the papers for their school project and scattered them across the floor. All the snacks the two had carried up were also strewn about.

"So, your mom seems pretty nice" Sam commented offhandedly. To her surprise it was Tucker that answered, "That's because she was in her "Mom Mode" when you met her. When she gets into her "Ectologist/Ghost Hunter Mode" she can be pretty damn scary. Makes me glad I'm not a ghost."

Of course, Tucker didn't mean it too seriously-not in this time, at least- so, the three of them shared some laughs. Sam took off her jacket that had been soaked in the rain and sat down on the floor. After popping a few grapes in her mouth, they started on their group project…

…and two and a half hours later they didn't have nearly as much as they should've had done. The time had unintentionally been used more for talking and joking, watching stupid videos online and attempting to hack Dash Baxter's Instagram than actually getting any schoolwork done. Not that any of them had really expected anything more from themselves. The project wasn't due for another week and a half so they didn't care to worry too much about it at the moment.

By now it was nearly dark outside and it seemed the storm still hadn't let up. A door opened downstairs followed by a loud, "Pizza's here!". About ten minutes earlier Maddie had announced she was going to pick up a pizza for dinner and had asked everyone what toppings they liked.

"Finally! I'm starving!" Tucker exclaimed, throwing his hands up for emphasis. Danny chuckled a little, "Dude, didn't you just eat like that entire bag of chips?" Tucker glanced at the empty bag of Tostitos, "There's no protein in those. Which is why I'm looking forward to that pepperoni-sausage slice of pizza." He said and promptly got up to head downstairs. Sam followed suit, "And I am looking forward to that pineapple-spinach slice."

Downstairs in the kitchen Sam finally got to meet Jack and Jazz Fenton who had been downstairs in the lab and in their room reading respectively. Jack, in Sam's eyes, was everything her own father was not. Friendly, loud, and boisterous. Jazz reminded Sam a lot more of her own parents, but she still definitely seemed a lot kinder than them.

As they all began to finish their slices and the leftovers were put away, Jack suggested something that would soon change much of how Sam thought.

"So, do you kids want to see what we've been working on recently?"

Jazz picked up a few textbooks off the counter and headed towards the stairs, "Not me, I've got homework to do that's due next week."

Danny was about to come up with an excuse for the three of them when Tucker came in, "And have the chance to see some brand new Fenton Tech? Heck yeah!" Danny barely resisted the urge to facepalm as the trio found themselves getting whisked away to the lab.

Sam found that she had to fight not to gape at the lab they'd just entered. Everything looked to be cutting edge technology. The top of the line. Half the stuff she saw in there, she didn't even know was possible yet. There was nearly one whole wall that was covered in various sleek looking models of different ectoguns. On the other side of the room were a few counter spaces full of notes, beakers, and test tubes. However, despite how interesting these other things may look, there was really one thing that truly stole Sam's attention.

There was a rather large hole on the back wall where loads of wires were twisting around in every direction inside it. Looking closely one could also see a multitude of small flashing lights lining the walls, ceiling and floor of it. All in all, it looked like something straight out of some crazy sci fi movie.

"Okay…wow…" Sam said breathlessly, finally admitting defeat in that she couldn't deny this was pretty cool. Neither Jack nor Maddie seemed to take much notice of the goth's astonishment and instead waved the three over to where Jack was holding a small device.

"This baby right here is our newest model of the Portable Ecto-Detector. It can tell you where any rank ghost within a mile radius of you is and give you an approximation of its ranking." Jack said, showing off a handheld device with some unidentifiable buttons, a screen and a funky looking antenna.

"I thought you already had something to do that." Danny said, not sounding so impressed. Jack didn't hesitate even a moment, "Oh we do! But you see son, we've been using the satellites on the op's center to locate ghosts around the city in the past. Now with this," he gestured to the machine, "We can find them from anywhere in the city!" Maddie chose that moment to add, "So now when we're going after a ghost, we can both go and help each other out, instead of one of us having to stay here to keep tracking its location."

Tucker was practically drooling over the device at this point, "How does it work? Atmospheric testing? Energy wave detection?!"

"All good ideas, but not exactly. It uses a type of sonar using a very specific wavelength only affected by ectoplasmic properties." Jack said.

Tucker's jaw dropped even further, "Sweet…"

"Exactly. We're still working out some of the bugs, but using this entity we've been able to get most of the major programming done." Maddie said gesturing to- oh my god I didn't even see there was a ghost sitting there, Sam thought.

It was a tiny little thing really, barely holding onto any sort of form. It looked more like a floating glob of glowing green jelly with eyes and a mouth. it was contained within a clear cube sitting on the counter and as he floated around within the box Sam noticed he appeared almost like he was limping, if that was even possible. Poor little guy…

"Yes, it looks like we might have to file a request for a new test subject from the GIW. This one doesn't look like it will last much longer." Maddie said casually.

"So…you're gonna release this guy back into the Ghost Zone to heal, right?" Sam asked hesitantly. The way Maddie had talked about him…there was something unsettling about it to Sam, which was further confirmed by Maddie's next response.

She chuckled a bit, "Oh, Sam…well it's good to know you're a sensitive type of person-" Wait, what? What is she talking about? "-But really, you should know that these creatures, they aren't like people. They're imitations, mirror images even, of past life. They can't feel any real pain, only create illusions of a response to it."

Sam's mind was scattered. Here she was, listening to one of the world's leading ghost hunters and ectologists, spewing out facts about the beings that invaded their town on a daily basis, and all she could remember was that night.

A child ghost had been spotted in the mall. Sam was nine years old at the time, with her parents and Grandma Ida at the mall. She remembered seeing some people in suits running past, pulling out shiny silver guns, running down the escalator. She remembered seeing the ghost twisted up and caught in some special net. She remembered seeing a face so similar to her own, yet so different as their features were twisted into a horror filled shock. She remembered she saw the first agent fire their gun. She remembered the pain filled screams that echoed throughout the entirety of the mall as her parents forcefully dragged her away from the scene.

"So you're just gonna let him die just because he can't feel it?" Sam eventually asked, still watching the little glob creature limp around in the air. "Well, you see it can't truly die seeing as it's not even alive in the first place. It will fade out of existence, but die? Not possible." Maddie said with an almost eerie sense of calm.

There was a short silence during which Sam could feel the eyes of her two best friends on her. Another bolt of lightning struck nearby and the thunder practically shook the whole house. A few of the lights flickered for a fraction of a second, however, most of the ones in the basement stayed steady. After a thousand thoughts ran through her head, Sam came to a bit of a realization and her amethyst eyes narrowed slightly.

Her two friends seemed to have caught on because not a moment later they were making up excuses for the three of them to go back upstairs. They didn't talk about what happened. Not that day.

Sam found herself distracted the rest of the evening. She couldn't focus on anything else. Not the game of Doomed they'd decided to play for a while, not when she got a ride back home, not even as she found herself sitting alone in her room with only the sound of the storm outside to comfort her.

The next day at school she nearly got caught on her phone five times, which wasn't that usual of behavior for her. She couldn't focus on any lessons that day, she just needed answers. During class, at lunch, and all through recess Sam scrolled through webpage after webpage only to find herself becoming more and more disgusted by people she'd originally been told were geniuses and heroes.

By the end of that week her view of ghost hunters had shifted entirely, and she wasn't going to put up with it anymore.

A/N: Another chapter for today! There's a chance I'll get about one or two more up today, so again, stay tuned! I'm only posting so many so quickly because all of these early chapters were all in the original ES and I only have to revise them!

Thank you for reading, and feel free to drop a review if you have a little time! :)