Chapter LXXIV

Danny's eyes opened slowly at the sound of his alarm. On any other Monday morning, the boy would have cursed the small machine for jolting him from the land of dreams. This particular morning, however, actually warranted a speedy awakening. Danny's routine was finished in record time and he managed to make a half decent breakfast for himself.

"You're up early," Jazz commented, looking up from the paper. "What's the occasion?"

"School starts back up today," Danny said with a grin as he tore into his hastily cooked eggs. Sunny-side-up had, much to Danny's displeasure, become scrambled. Still, they were edible. "And I've been getting really bored without it."

Jazz smiled. "I'm glad to hear that you're so excited to go back! I knew you'd come around eventually."

"Don't get any funny ideas about me becoming some kind of psychotic scholar," Danny said between mouthfuls of blackened toast. "I need the organization and structure school gives me. I'm lost without it. I actually forgot what day it was yesterday."

"That bad, huh?"

"You don't know the halfa of it," Danny grumbled.

"The what?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Danny looked at the clock that hung above the kitchen sink. "I better get going. If mom and dad wake up before you leave, tell them I left, that I love them, and all that nonsense." Danny had always been slightly irritated that Jazz's school day didn't actually start until an hour after everyone else. It must have been one of the perks that came with being the school shrink, along with her own parking space in the faculty parking lot.

Jazz rolled her eyes, took a sip of her coffee and went back to reading the newspaper. "Will do, little brother."

Danny left the kitchen and grabbed his book bag on the way out the door. He allowed himself to float into the air and willed the silver-green rings to form and change him into Phantom. As soon as they appeared, however, Danny instantly commanded them to disperse and levitated back down to the ground.

The horribly painful injuries sustained in his battle with what he and Tucker concluded was, most likely, a werewolf had shown no signs of healing, despite his others telling him that progress was being made in the healing process. Danny had checked up on that "progress" on two separate occasions, but each time was transformation was twice as painful as the last one. And the decaying area around the wound seemed to expand exponentially with each change.

And so Danny was forced to live the life of a pedestrian; one he had long since abandoned once he had incorporated secure and discreet flight paths to and from certain buildings, such as the school. The boy sulked and plodded off, having plenty of time to do so before he was in any danger of being late.

"I never thought I'd say it," Mr. Lancer started as he wheeled himself into the classroom, "but it is wonderful to see all of you again."

Most of the students shared a chuckle at the good-natured jab, but some of them had already given into the realization that they were actually back in school. Needless to say they did not appear to be too happy.

"I suppose you all have some reviewing to do, since none of you have been here in over a month. We'll start off slow, but once we get back into the swing of things, don't expect any mercy from me."

Danny sighed and rested his head in his folded arms. He was tired for reasons unknown to him. Perhaps the werewolf venom had different side effects on his human half including, but not limited to, drowsiness.

His sleepy state was whisked away when his ghost sense went off. Danny noticed with a wince, that even the minimal amount of spectral energy his ghost sense used, it still made the pain in his abdomen worsen. The pain quickly subsided, though, and Danny raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Fenton?"

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

"Is it an emergency?"

Danny's ghost sense went off again, prompting a quick covering of his nose. "Uh, yeah. Nosebleed."

"Go ahead, but hurry back! You wouldn't want to miss the introduction to Hamlet!"

"Not on my life, Mr. Lancer," Danny called back as he ran out of the room.

The boy paused in the hall and checked to see if his ghostly offender was anywhere nearby. On some occasions, the mismatched ghost beast was roaming the halls and was swiftly dealt with. This one was either in a different part of the building or . . . worse. Danny swallowed nervously, praying that the werewolf didn't come back to finish his handiwork. After retrieving the Fenton Thermos from his locker, Danny began to search the school for the unknown offender.

"The Late Permian Era was quite fascinating indeed. Long after the extinction of the dinosaurs our mammalian ancestors-"

Sam was too bored to pay attention to Mr. Feluca as he rambled on about prehistoric creatures. The information wouldn't even be interesting on a good day, and today was not a good day.

Danny had been distant after leaving her house on Saturday. When she and Tucker had both called to see if he wanted to do anything, Danny politely declined and hung up on them. The young woman assumed it was the fault of the werewolf's poisonous puncture wounds, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that Danny still felt very uncomfortable around her after the incident at the arcade, even after they had talked about it.

Sam began to doodle in her notebook. The pictures were abstract at first, but before she knew it, Sam was drawing sketches of her best friend in full Phantom regalia. The little margin-sized stick figures quickly grew in size and began to cut in on her note taking space. Sam realized what she was doing, but before she could erase those pictures that had taken over the main part of her page, the paper began to rustle.

Sam eyed it suspiciously. Paper didn't usually move around like that. Spring hadn't fully kicked in yet, and Mr. Faluca was in no hurry to open any windows so the wind was ruled out as a possibility. If a ghost was responsible, well, it would have to be quite bored to be playing around with her notebook.

"Ok, who is messing with my notebook?" Paulina looked around the classroom angrily, trying to assign blame to someone. "Sam? Would you like to stop interrupting me while I'm taking notes?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Obviously it's me, that's why I'm sitting here talking to you right now."

Paulina glared at her peer. "Just because you don't want to be here doesn't mean you have to ruin the learning experience for the rest of us."

Mr. Faluca sighed and motioned to the rest of the class to put their books away. There wouldn't be anymore class today.

"Please," Sam snorted in reply. "You couldn't spell Gorgonopsid to save your life, let alone pronounce it."

"Gorgospits are my favorite Permian Era ani -"

The pretty Latina girl was cut off as her notebook floated up in the air. Sam looked at her own notebook to find that it, too, was levitating in front of her as was everyone else's notebook. The pages neatly tore themselves from the spiral binding and spontaneously folded into intricate shapes. A flock of paper swans gracefully flew around the room. Origami animals of all shapes and sizes began to roam about the classroom, poking and prodding and generally being more annoying than harmful.

"Still think it's me?" Sam hissed.

"It wouldn't surprise me at all," Paulina spat back.

Suddenly, all the paper animals became intangible and fled through the walls. The students looked at each other in bewilderment. Mr. Faluca removed his glasses and rubbed his forehead. "Class, tomorrow we will have a group discussion. Each group will present an argument explaining why using LSD is bad. Group with the best argument gets twenty bonus points."

The whole class murmured amongst themselves in excitement as the bell rang and the students filed out into the halls. Sam looked around for any of the origami animals, but none of them were to be seen. Confused, but still mostly apathetic, Sam made her way to her next class, only to stop as the horrible realization hit her; she couldn't remember which class she had next.

Walker scratched Wulf behind the ears as he watched the live video feed being transmitted to his high-definition, 100 inch, flat screen monitor. At the bottom of the screen were feeds from all the different cameras that Wulf had planted around Casper High following his attack on Phantom. The cameras, along with the equipment to transmit their signal into the Ghost Zone and the unnecessarily large screen to view the signals on were all stolen. Wulf was not only a fearsome and deadly creature, but a stealthy, dexterous, and tech-savvy one as well.

The hulking wraith stifled a yawn as he flicked through the different cameras throughout the school. He followed Danny for a while, then his friend Tucker and after, his apparent romantic interest, Samantha. The pale ghost scowled at the image of the gloomily-dressed teenage female. While Phantom was his main reason for coming to the past, Walker harbored almost as much resentment for the young woman on the screen before him. The ghost switched to a different camera feed, too disgusted by the human girl's presence to continue monitoring her.

Just as he was about to find a more advantageous angle, something caught the weary specter's eyes. Small paper animals were flying through classrooms, halls, and clumsily weaving through student traffic. The origami creatures were not causing any harm, but they did appear to be headed for the same location. Walker's suspicions were confirmed when the video feed outside the art room displayed a small army of folded paper animals marching into the class. The students were ushered out, as if the obviously ghost-controlled paper posed as much of a threat as a puddle of spilled glue.

Walker was about to wake his canine companion, but hesitated. Danny would have to confront this ghost eventually. He was the only human brave enough to do so. Every other fleshling, no matter how much stronger or older than Daniel, would flee in unbridled and absolute terror; a pity that this particular ghost was about as terrifying as a mosquito. Despite the weak nature of this new ghost, any expenditure of Danny's ghostly energy would only hasten the progression of Wulf's venom.

The aforementioned ghost's ears perked up, having sensed his own mentioning in his master's mind. The telepathic bond the two shared grew stronger by the day.

"Don't worry, my friend," Walker reassured his loyal ally. "Even in his weakened state, Daniel should not have too much trouble dealing with the Paper Shredder."

Wulf growled at the mentioning of the ghost's name. It was a newcomer to these parts of the Ghost Zone; nobody knew anything about his origins or his motivations. And, putting it nicely, nobody gave a damn. The Paper Shredder was, quite possibly, the most annoying ghost that he had ever encountered. His spies throughout the Ghost Zone reported identical reactions by such ghosts as Skulker, the Box Ghost, and the Lunch Lady among countless others. Walker did not trouble himself with the lesser beings. Most of them had been killed by the time he was born in the future, and those that survived had gone into hiding.

Walker grinned as more and more paper animals made their way to the art room. This ghost was pathetically weak, even by this time's standards. Still, in a building where paper had yet to be replaced by computers, young Daniel was in for one interesting encounter.

To Be Continued

A/N: I told you it shouldn't be too hard to incorporate slyfoxx's character into this chapter. He actually fits in quite well with this segment.

I also need to clear two things up.

First and foremost, I guess you all think I was actually shot. By an actual gun. Containing actual bullets. In actuality, it was an airsoft gun, and the shooting was filmed for a school project. Still, it hurt like a sombitch.

:P

Article two, those of you who like to hypothesize and theorize about Walker's parentage are WRONG. That is all.

Thanks to my reviewers, especially Musicallity, Last Samurai Ryu-san, dpphan333, Bloxham, Fulcon, TPcrazy, Belthasar, MissMeliss4251, darkbunny92, and Sparky Phantom

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. TELL ME BEFORE YOU USE THE PUNCH!"
 –Blitzwing in the latest episode of TF: Animated