Chapter LVI
"Guys, you're not going to believe what happened last night!" Danny announced as he saw his two friends approaching his locker. He noted the worried expressions in their faces and forgot what it was he wanted to say. "What? What's wrong?"
"Danny, I know you've been trying real hard to keep this super hero thing under the radar for a while," Sam said cautiously. "But I think the secret might be out."
Danny gasped. His eyes widened from shock as he looked between his two best friends. "You guys promised . . . you promised you'd never tell anyone!"
"What? Oh, no, dude, we didn't tell anyone," Tucker corrected hurriedly. "I think someone oversaw you change."
"W-who?" Danny asked shakily. He looked around the halls of Casper High, trying to find anyone giving him strange looks.
"I don't think telling him is going to make him feel any better," Sam warned as Tucker opened his mouth to answer.
"You guys can't just come up to me, tell me someone else knows my secret and expect me to be perfectly fine without knowing who it is," Danny growled.
"Dude, you're going to flip out when we tell you," Tucker sighed.
"Just spill it!" Danny exclaimed.
"Yoo-hoo, Danny!" called the unmistakable voice of Paulina Sanchez.
"I think she just did," Tucker replied sadly.
Danny's jaw dropped. "Oh no," he muttered. "Oh no, oh no, oh God, no, NO!"
"Danny, relax," Sam said firmly. "We can force her into secrecy. Or," she said with a devious grin. "I can get Uncle Skulker to take her out and get rid of the body. Nobody would suspect a thing!"
"I've killed enough people, thanks," Danny said glumly. "The last thing I need is more guilt."
"Well you have to do something!" Sam said angrily. "Paulina has the biggest mouth in the school-"
"Bow-chik-a-bow-wow," Tucker chimed in.
"She'll talk without giving it a second thought!" Sam finished, ignoring Tucker.
Danny covered his face with his hands. "She won't give it a first thought either," he said sadly.
Sam giggled, despite the gravity of the situation. "Alright, seriously now, here she comes," the girl said as Paulina rounded a corner at the other end of the hall. "Just lay down the law and set her straight."
"No, Danny, don't set her straight! What the hell is wrong with you, Sam?" Tucker asked exasperatedly.
"Alright Mr. Perverse Innuendo, what do you have in mind?"
Tucker cleared his throat. "Firstly, Sam, you leave your sentences wide open to it. Either learn better sentence structure or don't talk. Danny, take into consideration that Paulina might not actually know who you are."
"Dude, she saw us, hurry up!" Danny hissed.
"Don't incriminate yourself," Tucker said curtly. "If she knows something, she'll tell you about it. Trust me."
Tucker ushered Sam away as Paulina finally reached Danny. "I've been looking all over for you!" she said happily. "I wanted to tell you something, about your friends."
Danny looked at the Hispanic girl in confusion. "O-okay," he said uneasily. This was not how he saw the conversation going. In fact, seeing as how Paulina was so infatuated with Phantom, he thought he would've been dragged into a broom closet by now.
"Well yesterday, after you left the cafeteria, I followed you and those other two to make sure you were ok-"
"Wow, that was really thoughtful of you," Danny said sincerely. "Thanks!"
"Yeah, sure, whatever, now listen, I was trying to find you when, all of a sudden, I saw the ghost boy floating in front of Sam and Tucker. I thought they were with you the whole time, but I think they're up to something."
Danny found himself looking into the eyes of an all-too-serious young woman. He fought with every fiber of his being not to burst into laughter.
"Well," Danny croaked out, managing to turn his attempt to hide mirth into apparent distraught. "I'll definitely have to talk to them about it. Thanks for the tip off."
"Don't mention it, Danny." The girl gave him a winning smile before walking off.
"Now class, if you'll please open your textbooks to page-"
"M-Mr. Falluca," Danny said from the doorway. He was bent over, one hand on his knee and the other on the door frame to keep him steady. Second period was biology for Sam and Tucker, and Danny had managed to weasel out of History for five minutes. He was not winded because he was tired from running; he was tired because he had been laughing to himself so much since the beginning of the day. "C-can I borrow Sam and Tuck for a second?"
The short, stout man looked over the boy with concern, not understanding the situation. "Is something wrong?"
"No, no, nothing's wrong," Danny had to pause catch his breath. "I just- I just need to tell them something. Please? It'll be real quick, I promise."
"Foley? Manson? Make it quick. Neither of you can afford to miss too much of this material."
The two students got up from their desks and hurried over to their friend waiting outside the door.
"What's so funny that you had to drag us out of biology?" Tucker asked as he pulled out his PDA and began skimming through information.
"Knock it off, Tucker. You can afford not to go to school period." Sam looked at Danny, who was leaning against a row of lockers, trying to stifle laughter while simultaneously trying to prevent his lungs from collapsing. It looked painful.
"Guys," Danny sighed as his latest laughing spell had died down. "P-Paulina doesn't know," he sighed. "She thinks you and Phantom are plotting something behind my back! Isn't that hilarious?"
He went into a fit of giggling again, leaving Sam and Tucker to look at each other in confusion. "Ok," Sam said slowly. "So she has everything wrong, as usual. You're allowed to be happy that she doesn't know, but seriously, you're overdoing it."
"I didn't think it would be as funny to you guys," Danny said between ragged breaths. "But I had to tell you so you wouldn't worry and stuff."
"Well, you know, thanks for that, dude," Tucker said as he placed his PDA in his pocket. "But we need to get back to class. See you at lunch."
Danny sighed with a grin and waved goodbye as his friends reentered the biology room. When they were gone he made his way back to the history room.
"What was so important that Daniel had to pull you out in the hallway?" Mr. Falluca asked as Sam and Tucker took their seats.
"To be honest, I don't even think he knows," Sam replied.
"Of course, typical Danny Fenton behavior," the teacher replied as he looked back into his book. "Now, page three forty five, section five-"
"Bow-chik-a-bow-wow," Tucker whispered so Sam could hear.
The girl looked at Tucker with disdain. How is that sexual? she mouthed to him. Tucker rolled his eyes and pulled out his calculator. He typed a small equation on the device and handed it over.
345/5? Sam pressed the button and rolled here eyes as 69 blinked on the screen. You're disgusting, she said with her lips. Tucker made the American Sign Language motion for the words thank you. Sam sighed and focused on her biology book. Her friends were very strange indeed.
At the Fenton residence, Jack and Madeline Fenton were hard at work on some sort of fishing pole. Jack had compared the Ghost Portal to a hole in an iced over lake. The ghosts were attracted to it, if the increased sightings were any indication, and Jack wanted to attempt to catch them using unconventional methods which, strangely enough, seemed to work best.
Oblivious to the world around them, the couple went about making some sort of ghost-proof resin that would coat the already durable wire, making it nearly indestructible and no doubt valuable to fishermen when the Fentons decided to go commercial.
Their ignorance allowed a black blob of ectoplasm to evade detection in the kitchen area. It had taken hours for the mass to climb the stairs, finally reaching the top at dawn. It had taken shelter underneath the stove and rested to recover its strength as the family had prepared for the day. After being dormant for so long, it was a bit rusty with its movements, but it was quickly making up for the lost time. An added boost of energy had come in the form of a mouse that had settled into the woodwork of the household. It had been a curious mouse, and its curiosity had cost it its life. The black liquid slithered across the floor of the kitchen, careful not to leave a slimy trail behind it.
After escaping the kitchen, the puddle found a whole new predicament. Carpeting. Rather than ooze across the fibers of the rug and leave an obvious trail, the blob snaked up the wall and curved up to the second floor. There was a pause as the ghostly formless goo discovered the carpet was also up the stairs and on the second floor landing as well. The puddle wrapped dozens of tentacles around the banister and pulled itself up on top of the railing. A clear view of the doors graced its vision, but there was a problem. The mass of ectoplasm could not discern which room belonged to the boy. There were several doors, and choosing the wrong one could mean hours of arduous work in trying to reach the other one. Sticking to surfaces was a limited ability and it would be very irksome to try and gather any particles that were trapped by the carpeting.
Suddenly, the puddle felt the vibration of footsteps. The heavy man in the orange clothing was approaching rapidly, which is to say as rapidly as someone of his bulk can approach. Regardless, the puddle hugged the railing and altered its pigmentation to match that of the steel beneath it. As if by magic, the black ooze disappeared from sight.
"Ecto-torch, ecto-torch, where-oh-where is that ectoplasmic blowtorch?" the man mumbled to himself as he entered one of the doors. The man sifted through an assortment of gadgets and pulled out what looked like an average blowtorch. A closer examination would reveal that was not the case, as green letters spelled out the word Fenton on the side.
"Was it in our room like I said it was?" called the faint voice of Maddie from the lab.
"Yes, it was," Jack answered loudly with a hint of resentment. "Excuse me for thinking it was in with the rest of the repair equipment!"
The burly man was about to return downstairs when his face contorted. "Whoa, those breakfast burritos go right through you!"
The man turned around and entered another door, closing it behind him. Several minutes later, a flushing sound was heard followed by the soft sound of water pouring from a faucet. Jack exited the restroom and wiped his soapy hands on the towel hanging from the door. He placed his black gloves on his hands and hurried back downstairs, leaving the puddle to its observations.
The man had been in a room looking for something and the woman had referred to it as their own. That ruled out one door. The man had also used the facilities in another room for excretory purposes, ruling out that one as well. The black goo shifted its attention to the two remaining doors, both of which were only slightly ajar.
Not having many other options, the creature coiled its smaller tentacles and attached two larger ones to the frame of the door closest to it. With much effort, the blob flung itself from the banister to the doorknob, using its ghostly properties to stay away from the carpeted floor in the hallway.
The momentum of the blob's flight pushed the door open and sent the creature onto a hardwood floor in a decidedly girlish room. Pink walls with motivational posters dominated all four sides of the room and a fluffy, light blue comforter sat atop the bed. The blob quivered in frustration. The wrong room. While deciding upon the next course of action, the puddle caught something on the edge of its vision. An air vent! It slithered over to the structure and seeped through the cracks, entering the vent. There was a vertical drop that led to the air conditioning or heating unit somewhere in or around the house, but the vent also opened up on the other side of the girly room. The blob carefully exited the other side while avoiding the sheer drop off and exited into what was unmistakably the right room. A sea of clothes littered the carpeted floor along with other miscellaneous material possessions. The blob snaked over the mounds of dirty laundry and managed to reach the bed. Or would have if the last anchoring point had not given out, spilling the puddle to the floor. Its edges passed over what felt like a book of sorts.
Curious, the blob wrapped a tentacle through the spiral metal cord that held the pages together and moved it out into the light while painstakingly removing its own sticky bodily contents from the off-white rug. The cover of the notebook was flipped open and the blob looked through the contents. Pictures of people, places and things were scribbled on the pages. There was one of a man in a chair with wheels holding two guns and shooting a dragon in the spine. More pictures showed a boy with a hat holding something in his hand while flying through space next to a meteor. Other pages were filled with drawings of a wide assortment of strange people fighting each other. The blob continued to flip through pages and discovered that over half the notebook was filled with pictures of the ghost boy himself in various heroic poses. His costume was radically different in most of them and he also appeared to be much more muscular. Intriguing.
The last page was covered in strange designs. Most of them were variations of the letter P. The ectoplasmic ooze committed all the images to memory for future use, closed the notebook and slid it back under the bed. After removing the comforter from the boy's bed and making sure it was safely hidden away, the blob reformed itself to look identical to it. It settled itself on the boy's bed and patiently waited. Tonight would mark the end of its hunt.
Danny arrived home at the end of the school day with the traces of a smile still on his face. He acknowledged that he might have over exaggerated the comedic element a bit, but only Danny could ever find the situation so hilarious. He walked into the foyer, but stopped as his ghost sense streamed from his nose. The boy waved his hand to disperse the green mist. His good mood left with it. Danny walked around his house, hoping that the nasal warning was triggered by the capture of a ghost by his parents.
A note telling Danny that his parents were at the grocery store quashed his anticipation. The teenager transformed into Phantom on the spot and flew through the house, leaving nothing unchecked. He entered his room after turning the house upside down and sloppily righting it and grew angrier as his ghost sense went off again.
"I'm supposed to like short weeks," Phantom growled.
Phantom shuffled through his disastrous room in search of the ghostly fugitive. After the place appeared to be spotless, the ghost boy yawned from fatigue. He reverted back to his human form and sat on his bed. Looking around his room brought another smile to his face, as he had not realized that he was, in fact, cleaning it. He saw his actions more akin to organized searching.
Danny reached under his bed and pulled out his note book. He reveled in his own artistic abilities and finally reached the last page. He thoughtfully looked at each of the drawings on the page, looking over each and every one with undivided attention. Unbeknownst to him, a black tentacle had formed behind his back. It stretched up behind his shoulder and looked at the page. Danny snatched a pencil off his nightstand and slowly circled one of the many designs. It was the letter P, as were almost all the other doodles, but this one had ghostly waves coming from the side. The letter itself was a bit misshapen to add to its ghostliness. Danny slid the notebook back under his bed and stood up. The black tentacle fell back against the rest of itself, blending in once again.
Danny cast a wary glance at his bed before leaving his room. It was not even four o'clock yet and there were things to do.
The center of Amity Park was very busy. Large modern skyscrapers stretched into the air, ending in strange formations in the sky above. The Amity Park was almost as large as New York City and no less busy. So many innocent people lived and worked in the location, most of which were unaware that their beloved city was one of the few places on earth that once contained a natural dimensional portal to the Ghost Zone. In ancient times, shamans and other mystics from long forgotten civilizations managed to shift the fabric of space and time to allow them to commune with those on the other side.
With modernization the gates were lost, but those areas had been bombarded with ectoplasm as a result of their gates. They were natural weak points in the human dimension, which allowed ghosts easier access to the physical plane. It was the reason why Jack and Maddie Fenton had moved to Amity Park before starting their family. It was the reason for Amity Park's unequaled revenue in the tourism industry. It was also the reason Amity Park's Huntress was standing atop one of the largest of all Amity Park's skyscrapers, the Hartman Complex, and scanning the town for any action of a ghostly nature.
Valerie had chosen the name for obvious reasons. She was a woman who hunted, obviously, and it was easy enough to remember. After a few corny one liners such as "That'll teach you to mess with Huntress!" and "Huntress has no mercy!" the name was broadcast on the news and eventually stuck.
She had hoped to capture the public's praise, but they seemed to think that Phantom was a hero. The people of Amity Park were more uncertain about Huntress, as she directly instigated a fight with Phantom. Her face contorted in disgust as she realized her approval ratings would skyrocket if she was seen working with him.
Of course, working with ghosts rather than extinguishing their afterlife would not be too far of a stretch.
"Vy do you keep bringing us up here?" Harold spat as he flew in from the darkening evening sky. "Ve have orders from Plasmius to vatch you, not to serve you."
Valerie looked at the condor with contempt. "You shouldn't argue with a woman who has a gun," she cautioned. "I might have Thanksgiving dinner early this year."
"What in the blazes is this all about?" Hank shouted in his familiar Australian accent as he approached with Hans not far off. "Croikey, a gust of wind blows us back five meters and you two are already at each other's throats! Plasmius has to be insane to make us toady about with an angsty human girl."
"Alright, let's cut the crap," Hans said darkly as his massive form landed on an edging of the towering building. "I'm tempted to kill you all where you stand. Or float," he added after receiving menacing stares from his comrades. "What do you want, kid? We're not a babysitting service."
"I haven't seen Phantom in a while," Valerie said coolly. "Any idea where he is?"
"No, and to be honest, ve don't give a hoot," Harold answered. "Vhat the ghost boy does is his business, not ours."
"I'll have you know that Phantom's business is my business. Go get him for me."
Hans snarled at the girl and Harold looked as if he was about to explode. Hank held up a wing to quiet them. "Need I remind you just what it is you do?"
Valerie glared at the ghost bird from behind her visor, her mouth hung open in astonishment. "Don't you dare try and tell me who I am," she whispered. "I could kill you right now, because that's what I do."
"Now that we've got that outta the way," Hank continued unfazed, "how do ya think your approval ratings would fare if passersby witnessed their ghost hunting Sheila protecting three ghosts from the town hero?"
Valerie pondered it for a moment. The ghost made a good point. "Once Phantom's out of the way, there won't be a problem. I'll be the only heroine to save anyone. These people will have no choice but to see me for what I really am."
"Don't get too caught up in this vengeance act," Hans said. "Or else you'll end up becoming the very thing you swore to destroy," and then added slyly, "I can guarantee it."
The condors took flight, preparing to seek out the ghost boy, leaving Huntress to her thoughts. "That won't happen," she said as she pulled her collapsed sled from her back. The push of a button and it unfolded into the sleek, angular jet sled she was still getting used to. Valerie jumped on it, smiling as the magnetic bottoms of her boots connected with the sled's panels. Huntress flew off to wait for her prey. The entire city was the war zone, and it was also one massive booby trap.
"Danny, you're shooting at nothing," Sam said from her seat next to the boy. "He moved."
Danny cast an angry glance at Sam before focusing on the television again. She was right, the enemy had moved. Switching the sniper for the Lancer, Danny maneuvered his character out from behind the ruined car he had been using as cover. Making a wide sweep, Danny moved to the base of the central platform and slowly crept around to the stairs.
Danny was becoming annoyed. "Where are you, Sam?"
"I got blown up by that jerk with the boomshot, remember?"
"Oh, right." Danny remembered Sam's demise early in the round when a member of the Locust Horde had sent Sam's character to kingdom come. "Guess I'm going solo."
"Maybe you should just fly into the X-Box," Sam offered as she leaned back. "You know, fly around without game engine restrictions. You could totally go invisible and sneak up behind that guy, maybe snap his neck or shoot him through the heart."
"Sorry, Miss Morbid, I don't think my special abilities extend that far. That would be Technus' forte," he finished with an edge of bitterness in his voice.
"Maybe, or maybe Technus isn't the only one with computer powers. Go on and try, please?"
"Even if I could, the GIW said I'm not allowed to use my powers for unfair advantages over humans."
Sam laughed sarcastically. "Oh come on, it's a video game! The government doesn't care about Gears of War, Danny."
"Also, that would be cheating. I'm not a cheater."
Sam elbowed him in the side, causing Danny's character to leap out of cover prematurely. His enemy spotted him and opened fire with a shotgun. "You're such a little liar!"
Danny revved up the chainsaw bayonet at the end of the Lancer and charged. The Locust adversary barely had time to scream as the rotating blade cut into its shoulder and brutally ripped through the other player. Once the chainsaw reached the designated point, the body exploded into various pieces spraying excessive amounts of gore across the area. Another COG victory.
"Alright," Danny said, setting the controller down. "There might have been that time when I might have had some help from Tucker on the Algebra test-"
"You mean the PDA disguised as a calculator that had every answer to the test programmed into it?"
"Ok, so I do cheat sometimes. But I use my average boy powers for that," Danny looked on as a new round started up. He noted with a grin as Sam made haste for the boomshot. Danny took cover in an elevated platform, providing his friend protection from the shadows as she went for the weapon that had destroyed her last time. "I haven't used my ghost powers to cheat on anything so far."
Sam cursed as a grenade landed next to her just as she retrieved her weapon. It detonated before she could roll out of the way and painted her screen red.
"I hate this game," she muttered.
"Finally a game where I can beat you?" Danny asked with fake shock. "Maybe there's hope for Tucker as well."
"Speaking of which, where is our brother in arms? Did he finally grow some horns and ask Star out?"
Danny laughed as he took the head off of the same person that had killed Sam. "Don't count on it. He's at home trying to rip the electrocution generators from my jacket."
"What a geek," Sam huffed.
"Seriously."
Danny soon found himself facing off against the last three opponents alone as his allies had been killed. A scowl appeared across his face as he looked at his inventory, which consisted of one bullet in his sniper, a smoke grenade and depleted ammo for everything else.
"Can you please try to go into the game?" Sam begged. "You can't beat all three of them alone."
"Watch me," Danny replied defiantly.
"Just once?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"Nein."
"Come on!"
"Negative."
"I'll do something for you," Sam offered.
"Probably won't work," Danny answered monotonously as he set his trap.
"I'll give you a thousand bucks."
"Honestly," Danny said while taking aim on his first target. "What would I do with a thousand dollars?"
"A million?"
"Money isn't everything," Danny said. A smirk of satisfaction appeared as the head of the first target exploded. The other two saw the shot and closed in on him.
"You can have unlimited access to everything in my house."
"I'm here right now," Danny answered smartly as he deployed his smoke grenade.
"I'll give you whatever you want for your birthday."
"Your bargaining posture is highly dubious." Danny quoted Unicron as he assaulted one of his enemies and beat them to death with his empty sniper rifle.
It was obvious to Sam that Danny would most likely emerge from his predicament alive and victorious. If he wouldn't win by entering the videogame, then she'd have to make him lose.
"I'll let you feel me up."
Danny's eyelids widened. He slowly turned to his friend and was about to say something when his controller vibrated. He looked on in horror as his character was blown to bloody bits as he was introduced to the barrel of a shotgun. He might have won the last round, but the latest Locust victory had cost him the match.
"That was your fault," Danny complained with a scowl.
"Hey, you could have just blown that off like everything else I offered you," Sam said in self defense.
"You, uh," Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "You weren't being serious, right?"
Sam grinned seductively. Time to add insult to injury, she thought. "Well, you could have flown into the 360 and masqueraded around Gridlock as Phantom, letting me see something awesome. In return, you could have, well, you know," she traced the outline of her shirt. "In the end, it would have been an amazing experience for both of us, but you chose to play by the rules." Sam got up off the couch and stretched. "Ah, well, your loss."
Danny chuckled. "Guess so. Well, its getting late so I'm gonna vamoose. See you tomorrow for the last day of the week?"
Sam nodded sleepily. "Wednesday it is."
Danny transformed into Phantom. The silver-green rings did their work admirably, as Sam could attest upon seeing her friend in skintight spandex. He floated up off the floor and up through the ceiling, turning invisible to avoid detection. Once outside the house, Phantom turned in the direction of his home and was about to fly off when his ghost sense went off.
Phantom spun around and saw three glowing green forms approaching from the downtown area. He quickly recognized the center one as the large ghost condor that had almost killed him several months ago. Its sunglasses and black leather vest almost made it look funny. Almost.
"Well, look who decided to show up!" Phantom said cheerily. "You turkeys fly all the way from Wisconsin to get your feathered butts handed to you again? I'm honored, truly, I am."
"You better shut your mouth before I rip it off," Hans growled.
"Ooh, that's so scary coming from a big dead pigeon," Phantom said mockingly. "Tell me something, what's with the biker get up? You lose a bet in the past life?"
"Watch yourself," Hans warned menacingly.
"Or what? What can you three possibly do? I almost killed you last time we met," Phantom gestured to Hans. "What makes you think I'll hold back this time?"
The three birds looked at each other, nodded, and flew off back the way they came. Normally, that would have been perfectly fine, but the direction they had come from was the highly populated urban area.
"Man," the ghost boy sighed. "I would've made curfew tonight."
Phantom flew off in pursuit of the birds. The two smaller ones went for the top of a building while Hans plummeted down into the streets below.
A young woman screamed in terror as the massive ghost condor descended from the darkening night sky like a demon bird. Seconds before the girl would have become a human shish kabob, Phantom slammed into the ghost's side and smeared it to the pavement below. The boy backflipped off of his foe and fired at it with ghost rays.
Hans took most of the hits without registering the pain. He roared and lunged from the ground at Phantom, who dodged to the side as the bird's massive talons raked through the air barely centimeters from the boy's head.
"Attacking innocent people? That seems a bit superfluous, don't you think?"
"Don't try to confuse me with big words, kid," Hans shouted. "I've eaten babies with bigger vocabularies than you."
"Dude, that's disgusting," Phantom said as he fired more energy beams at his adversary.
Phantom wound up a punch and delivered it, full force, to the condor's head. Hans was sent sailing through the sky into a window. The glass shattered inward and the large aerial ghost managed to scare the pants off an entire office full of people. Grinning, or making a facial gesture as close to a grin as he could make, Hans grabbed one of the employees with his clawed feet and flew back out the broken window where Phantom was waiting.
"And now it comes to this. The public opinion of Phantom changed from hero to villain in one . . ." Hans chuckled. "Fowl swoop."
"Aw, dude, that was awful!" Phantom shouted.
"I thought it was quite funny," Hans said matter-of-factly. "Then again, I do have a strange sense of humor. Take this innocent civilian, for instance," Hans gripped the middle-aged man by the shoulders tighter. "I think it would be pure comedic gold if he was to plummet down from fifty stories high and do a bit of redecorating on the sidewalk. What do you think?"
"I think you'd have a very short lived career as a stand up comic," Phantom replied. "But what do I know? I never was one for show biz."
"Oh don't worry, you'll get plenty of coverage after this gentleman decides to bite the dust. Well, cement, but you get my meaning."
"Uh, excuse me?" the man dangling underneath Hans spoke up, albeit very uneasily. "Don't I get a say in this?"
Hans looked down at the man in his talons. "No, no you don't."
Phantom took the opportunity to fly in and deliver a fierce uppercut to the ghost bird's jaw – beak – dazing him. His grip on the man loosened and he began his fatal descent.
Phantom was close on his trail, but he realized that it might not be enough to save him. His sister had done a study on suicide and had related the little factoid that most cases where the one committing the act jumps from a building, they die before they hit the ground. The man might not have fallen intentionally, but the memory of that bit of information did not settle well with Phantom
"Sir, can you hear me?" Phantom shouted. The wind whipping around him made it difficult to hear anything.
Much to the ghost boy's surprise, the man flipped around in mid air and was now falling backwards, facing the ghost with a scared smile.
"Just like skydiving!" he called. "Only without the 'chute! Hurry up, kid!"
Phantom did just that. Speeding at the ground faster than he thought possible, Phantom noticed that his vision was blackening. The exertion was becoming too much, but he could not just give up. He had to go faster. They were now dangerously close to the ground.
Come on, just a little bit more-
Suddenly, a flash of red and silver caught his peripheral vision. The blur snagged the man just before he hit the ground, leaving Phantom to deal with several concussive blasts that had been sent his way.
He hit the ground at breakneck speed, went through the ground via intangibility and took almost half a minute to circle around and resurface. Phantom looked around, seeing no signs of the flash of colors. Of course, if the blur had slowed down, the ghost had a pretty good idea of who it would be.
"Throwing people out of buildings how you get your kicks?" Huntress asked.
Phantom completely emerged from the ground and took a fighting stance. "No, actually, I get my kicks out of hammering amateurs like you."
Phantom lunged forward and punched Huntress in the stomach. She cried out and was sent flailing through the air for several feet. She landed in a heap on the sidewalk.
"That's for Casper High's roof," Phantom said angrily. He floated over and picked her up by her wrist. "And this is for attacking me when you let the real threat get away." Phantom kneed the girl in the stomach again. She fell to her knees, holding the area tenderly.
"Well then," Huntress started. She stood from the ground, wincing as pain rippled through her body. "Allow me to reciprocate."
Phantom didn't have time to turn around. The sled came too quickly and slammed into Phantom's back. The sharp edge managed to stab through him and protrude out the other side. The ghost screamed in pain as the board shot onward for another several yards before slamming into a brick wall. Instead of turning intangible, Phantom aimed his arms behind him and fired twin blasts of energy at the board's engines. Without the force holding him to the wall, the ghost stumbled back. He dislodged the device from his back and threw it out into the street. He then followed the object, so furious that he didn't even feel his wound heal.
"You're gonna pay for that, spook," Huntress hissed.
Phantom turned to find himself staring down the barrel of a rather large gun. He saw a bright pink blast charge up and turned intangible at the last second. The shot went through him without damage and slammed into a building.
"You're gonna pay for that!" Phantom grabbed the gun and violently yanked it away from the girl, causing her shoulder to pop out of its socket. He squeezed the weapon until it broke in half and then grabbed Huntress by her good arm.
"You like flying around the city playing hero, do you?" Phantom ascended through the night sky to the top of the tallest nearby building. "Well, I think I can fix that."
Huntress laughed humorlessly. "You're gonna kill me?"
"Yeah, right," Phantom mumbled, "that's just what I need right now." The ghost floated at the top of the building, admiring the architecture of the peak for only a moment. He hovered up to one of the four arching points that sprouted from the top of the building and hung the ghost hunting teenager there by the back of her top.
"I think this'll teach you a lesson."
"What lesson would that be?" Huntress spat as she struggled to get down.
"This is my city, and the people here are under my protection." Phantom brought his face uncomfortably close to the Huntress'. "If you try to screw me up on the job again, we're not going to be talking so pleasantly."
"This is not your city!" Huntress bellowed. "This is not your city!"
Phantom ignored her and made haste for his home. He couldn't wait to crawl underneath the sheets and drift off to the sweet reveries that sleep offered.
His sheets couldn't wait either.
To Be Continued
A/N
I think you'll all be pleased to know that my chapters are getting longer. A lot longer. This one had 15 pages on Word!
Yes, I realize this is strikingly similar to the whole symbiote ordeal in the Spider-Man comics. Consider this an homage to the web-slinger for his upcoming 3rd motion picture. You'll find out that there are plenty of differences between the black puddle that eventually becomes Danny's enemy and the symbiote that became Spider-Man's enemy.
Speaking of Marvel, I believe I arrived at a permanent solution for the crossover. I can guarantee that none of you (excluding HiddenAuthor) will be able to figure out what it is before it comes up. Just know that it's going to blow your minds. Hopefully not literally, as I still wish to entertain you all. It might get complicated to do so if your heads explode.
535+ reviews and almost 40,000 hits? Im exercising the McDonald's and Burger King slogans at the same time! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially The Halfa Wannabe, Night'sBullet, HiddenAuthor, mushroomcloudslooklikebroccoli, leadfoot 352, Pterodactyl, TDG3RD, Last Samurai Ryu-san, Tevagirl16, Andrew Laplante, darkbunny92, Skye-chan, Warrior of winds and follow-ur-heart.
YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!