Augmentation
Chapter LXXX
Vanessa's eyes snapped open and she jolted upright in her bed. The woman was considered to be a light sleeper, and even the tiniest nightly disturbance could jostle the woman from the land of dreams. Regardless, the loud crash that echoed up to the fourth floor of her rather spacious castle all the way from the underground laboratory could have woken Rip Van Winkle.
Vanessa sighed and transformed into her ghost half. The black-purple ring formed at her waist and traveled along her body as she moved out of her bed. The forty two year old woman who had lazily plodded from her luxurious bed was not the same person that exited the bedroom. Plasmius, the vampiric ghoul that was more commonly known as the Wisconsin Ghost, looked down the expansive hallway to her left, then to her right. She levitated off the ground with a yawn and slowly descended down through the floor. Once on the third level she repeated her halfhearted search, looking down the hallway she had entered. This continued until the ghost woman had arrived on the first floor of her castle.
She knew it would take much longer to perform a thorough investigation of her estate if there was indeed a ghastly intruder about. Being that it was somewhere around four thirty in the morning, Plasmius just didn't have the drive to care. After discerning that there was no ghost in her green and gold foyer, she concluded that there was no ghost anywhere on the first floor of her residence, or on any floor above it for that matter.
The half ghost became intangible and fazed through her floor yet again, traveling underground to her laboratory. Cautiously poking her head through the wall, the sight that greeted her solid red eyes was enough to wipe away all traces of dreariness. Her lab was in an extreme state of disrepair. Equipment was strewn on the floor, most of it broken. Computers were sheared in half, documents littered the floor and the Ghost Portal was . . . open.
Plasmius grimaced in anger. There were few ghosts powerful enough to open her portal with brute force. If one of them was responsible, she knew that the ghost would not be raiding her laboratory. Other weaker ghost had some unknown way of creating their own portals or, in several cases, causing hers to malfunction. Still, as with a brutally powerful ghost, a weaker specimen would not be so dead set on tearing her lab apart. It was possible that this ghost activated her portal through different means. Even Plasmius, with her extensive knowledge of the Ghost Zone and its inhabitants, did not know everything.
The intruder was opting to remain invisible, for whatever reason it had for doing so. Plasmius would have none of that. When the invisible hand lifted a beaker for closer inspection, the ghost woman aimed a blast of pink energy at where she determined was the ghost's center mass. She grinned as a black cloak became visible before slamming into a reinforced wall. A pair of green and decidedly feminine legs stuck out from under the ghostly cloth as it fell to the ground.
"I suppose hiding my portal behind a large pink football doesn't work very well in the Ghost Zone, does it?" she asked as her hands began to glow with ectoplasm.
The ghost righted herself from the ground and floated in place. Her hood had fallen back, revealing a disarmingly beautiful face. If Plasmius was a man, she might have been momentarily distracted. But the green skin and wildly spiked hair acted as something of a deterrent. However, Plasmius was quite sure she was heterosexual and the blasts of energy struck the intruder right in the face without hesitation.
The ghost recovered from the attack and raised an arm. One of her many tattoos sprung to life and slithered from the appendage. Plasmius looked a large serpent in the eyes before decapitating it with her ocular beams.
"You don't speak, do you?" Plasmius asked as she fended off more ghostly tattoo animals. "Perhaps you don't understand words either." Plasmius split into two copies. "But if you do, then here's a message." One of them punched the intruder in the face. The other fired a wide blast of energy into the ghost as she was propelled across the room. "STAY OUT OF MY HOME!" The attack knocked her into the Ghost Portal.
Plasmius recombined and sighed as she looked around her lab. It was quite a wreck. But she determined that nothing was missing. Nothing except-
"No!" Plasmius rushed over to the chemical vault; the disaster proof door had been opened. Inside the chilled atmosphere were several vials of liquid. They contained several instrumental and vital substances, such as Danny Fenton's human blood before his accident, his blood after his accident, his ghost blood at various stages after his accident, the sample of mid-morph DNA Technus had stolen from the GIW, a sample of the shadow ghost that had been attached to Phantom and the last vial . . . was gone. Plasmius roared in anger and slammed the door shut behind her as she stormed from the vault, intent on following the intruding harlot into the deepest depths of the Ghost Zone.
It wasn't until her head was cleared did she hear the blaring alarm coming from across the room. The ghost woman gasped in horror at the digital display on the Ghost Portal's status.
"WARNING," a digital voice said. "ECTO-FILTRATOR HAS REACHED MAXIMUM CAPACITY." Plasmius looked at where the filtrator was supposed to be. The diagnostic report was incorrect. The device was not full, it was destroyed. "CORE MELTDOWN IN FIVE SECONDS."
"Oh butter biscuits!" Plasmius turned intangible as the Ghost Portal violently exploded. The entire castle was engulfed in ectoplasmic fire, effectively leveling the structure.
�
Danny Fenton looked at his test paper with unbridled glee. A B was scribbled at the top of it in Mr. Lancer's handwriting.
"Good work, Mr. Fenton," the teacher said quietly as he rolled past, handing out papers as he went. "I'm glad to see that you're getting reorganized."
Danny smiled. "I just had some stuff I needed to figure out, Mr. Lancer," the boy replied in a hushed tone. "It's good to be back."
The teacher gave his pupil an approving nod and continued on his way. Danny leaned back in his desk, clasping his hands behind his head. Ghosts had been appearing less frequently as of late. Danny was starting to wonder if Plasmius had run out of bizarre mutants to throw at him or if word was finally getting back to the Ghost Zone from the few survivors that were returned there that Phantom was not happy about their presence. Whatever ghosts did show up were usually dealt with by Valerie, who was quickly becoming more skilled as a ghost hunter.
The thought wiped the smirk off Danny's face. True, he was strong enough to deal with whatever Valerie threw at him as the Huntress, but he couldn't help but notice that his ex-girlfriend was always just a smidgen faster, stronger, and all around better with each passing encounter. The ghost boy worried that he was losing his touch. It would be very unfortunate if he was ever bested by the young woman in combat. For the longest time, Danny only engaged the young woman to keep him on his toes. The tide was slowly but surely turning against him and if Valerie ever did manage to beat him, she wouldn't vacuum him into a thermos and hand him over to the authorities. She would kill him. It was that simple.
Although Valerie would eventually be on par with him one day, eventually could be a very, very long time. Danny decided not to worry about it. Ever since he had stopped appearing in town as often, only to deal with the bigger ghostly offenders, his approval ratings had actually increased. He wasn't too keen on the reports that said PHANTOM LEARNS HIS PLACE and the like, but it was better than being unanimously hated.
Danny was jarred from his reverie by a piece of paper that hit him in the forehead. It fell to his desk and sat there, waiting to be opened. Danny glared at it before glancing around the room. Tucker was too busy paying attention to Lancer's lecture on the Victorian Age and Sam was doodling in her notebook. Slightly confused, Danny opened up the note anyway.
Danny, it read, what is up with you?
Danny raised an eyebrow. The handwriting was clearly Paulina Sanchez's, but he had no idea why the girl would bother to throw notes at him. He looked ahead in the classroom. The girl in question was two seats ahead of him in the row over. He grinned as he saw the girl's book bag was opened wide enough to catch any stray pieces of paper that may happen to pass by.
Danny uncapped his pen and turned it on the ample amount of room left on Paulina's note.
I'm fine, he scribbled. Why do you ask?
He folded the note back into a tiny square and flicked it at the girl's open bag when Lancer's back was turned. Casually, Paulina reached over and retrieved the piece of paper. She scribbled another message down and tossed it at Danny's head. The paper hit him in the face again and fell to his desk.
You've been acting normal lately. Is something wrong?
Danny rolled his eyes.
Not that you care, but I managed to get my life under control. Now I have time to be normal.
The note was again passed up to Paulina.
Don't say that! I do care! It's just that you were acting different and I wanted to make sure you were ok!
Well thank you. I am fine, no thanks to Dash and those guys.
Don't let them get to you. Dash just doesn't like to be dissed.
I never dissed Dash! Not when we were friends, anyway.
He thinks you did. When you ran away to go find the ghost boy at his parties and stuff, he thinks you just freaked out and ran away.
Danny rubbed his chin. The right words could, potentially, get him back in good standing with the A-List crew. Ok, think about it this way; your parents are obsessive ghost hunters. If there was a ghost attacking, would you really want to be there when they showed up?
That's exactly what I told Dash! The return note said. He didn't buy it completely, but I'll tell him you said that. Don't you worry, Danny, I'll patch things up between you two and you'll be back at our table in no time.
Wow, that's really nice of you. Thanks!
Don't mention it. Besides, I kinda miss sitting next to you in that big comfy chair at Dash's house.
Danny felt his face warm up. Before he could etch his response onto the piece of paper, a petite, slightly pale hand with black nail polish reached over and grabbed the piece of paper off Danny's desk. The boy stared at Sam Manson, who had taken a sudden interest in his conversation. The girl read through the note, made several disgusted and mocking gestures before writing her own message on the paper.
Are you crazy? Sam's neon green marker made Danny's eyes hurt. Do you WANT Walker to happen?
Danny sighed. Was it going to be like this from now on with Sam?
"Mr. Fenton? Miss Manson?" Mr. Lancer said, interrupting his lecture. "Would one of you care to bring that note to the front of the class and read it out loud?"
"Just some class stuff," Danny said, shuffling the papers around on his desk and handing another one to Sam. "Making sure I have everything."
Mr. Lancer rolled his eyes and returned to his discussion. Using the diverted attention to his advantage, Danny grabbed a page and crinkled it into a ball before throwing it into the air. Mikey, his long time friend from grade school, saw the incoming projectile and swatted it into the trash can.
No more note, no more problem.
"Very impressive," Mr. Lancer commented upon seeing the shot. "But let's try not to do that from now on, ok? If you miss, I'll be forced to give you detention."
Danny air-fived Mikey before returning to his book.
Samantha does have a well-rounded point.
Yes, but Paulina has two well rounded-
Stop with the innuendo, you idiot! You have gone nonstop with that banter for two weeks!
We all know she is superior to Sam in almost every aspect!
Be that as it may, Daniel has more important things to worry about than beautiful Latino women.
So you agree!
I never disagreed, but I want Daniel to have his priorities in order. Education is his primary focus.
Tell me why that is, again?
Education will ensure that you can live a normal life, should you choose to. It will probably be best to lay low once you reach adulthood.
Laying low is for COWARDS! Daniel should be outside RIGHT NOW painting this town red with the blood of his enemies!
Yes, because murdering what few human enemies he has and splattering their gore over Amity Park will do wonders for his public image. Bravo.
Thank you.
THAT WAS SARCASM!
I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL!
Guys, calm down. My head, my rules, remember?
I apologize for THAT ONE'S behavior.
Yes, perhaps SOME OF US should learn when to be silent!
You guys could both learn a lot about that. Now please, let's try to let me have a normal day. We almost got through one yesterday without blowing it.
How did we fail?
When you guys go on and on, I lose track of whether I'm supposed to think at you or yell at you. I ended up threatening the Home Ec. teacher, from what I was told.
That wench should learn not to interrupt!
Well until she does, can we keep it down? We're all in the same head here; we don't have to be so loud. And normal humans just don't get it when I tell them I'm going to purge them from my mind molecule by molecule.
"Hey Danny," Paulina's voice cut in. The boy was grateful for the reprieve. "You never sent that note back."
Danny noticed the class was slowly filing out, headed to their next class. "Oh, yeah, sorry," he caught an angry glare from Sam before she left. "Sam kinda grabbed it off me and wrote something," Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "It's nothing, really. She's just, you know, being Sam."
Paulina sighed. "I don't know why she hates me so much. I never did anything to her."
Danny felt the strings of pity pluck inside him. "Don't worry about Sam. She just hate's the cool crowd."
Paulina smiled and walked with Danny as he made his way to his class. "You think I'm cool?"
Danny was taken aback by the question. "Well yeah, I mean, you're a cheerleader, you're nice for the most part, you're pretty, I don't know what else there is that defines cool."
"For the most part?" she repeated.
"Oh, well, you know," Danny cleared his throat. "I mean, you're nice to me, anyway. I guess Sam just gives off the impression that you're not nice to anyone else."
"And you believe her?"
Danny stopped by the stair case. "You know, I never really gave it much thought. You're definitely not shallow and manipulative like she says you are . . ."
"She says what?"
Danny mentally smacked himself. "Look, I think you're nice and I like you. Don't worry about what Sam says; she's just, you know, different."
Paulina seemed to think about his statement for a while. "Is that why you like her so much?"
"Wha- oh, well, I mean, I don't like her like that," Danny stumbled over his words. "She's my best friend and I've known her ever since I can remember. She's independent and all that stuff and that's what makes her, well, her."
"So you don't like her?"
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Not like that, no."
"Then do you wanna do something this weekend?"
Danny's jaw dropped slightly, but he felt the influence of his others pull it back up. His heart rate leveled out to what was normal for him and his cluttered mind was cleared.
"I don't think that's a good idea right now."
"Oh," Paulina looked at the floor dejectedly.
"It has nothing to do with you or Sam or anyone else," Danny added quickly, his voices keeping him quick on his feet. "Its just that I'm still getting over that Paper Shredder ghost attack and my parents have been following me around a lot." Not the total truth, but not a total lie either. "I wouldn't want them getting in the way or something."
Paulina smirked knowingly at Danny. "Alright," she said finally. "But we should soon. Summer will be here before you know it."
"Why, what happens during Summer?"
Paulina shrugged. "I don't know, I thought we'd lose touch or something."
"Well here," Danny scribbled his cell phone number down on the back of a piece of paper. "Now we don't have to worry about that."
The bell rang and Danny cursed himself for getting caught up before rushing to class. Mr. Falluca was usually late to his room for bio labs anyway, but Danny was still trying to be on time more often.
Paulina stood in the stairwell after Danny had hurried off to class. The piece of paper that Danny had given her his number on was actually their note from the last class. Curious about what Sam said, she flipped it over and read down to the bottom.
Are you crazy? Do you WANT Walker to happen?
The young Hispanic girl read the bright green lettering over and over as she walked to her study hall. The teacher was friendly and didn't really care if students came in late. It was, after all, a study hall. But Paulina would actually be studying during the class. The curious question Sam had asked Danny surely made Walker to look like a bad thing, whatever it was.
But then, it seemed anything and everything associated with Paulina was bad in Sam's eyes. If this Walker thing had anything to do with her, Paulina decided it was probably a good thing. And if Sam didn't want Danny to be around her, then perhaps the two were connected somehow.
Paulina grinned after folding the paper and sliding it into her book bag. She didn't see herself as shallow and manipulative, but the Pseudo-Goth obviously thought otherwise.
Alright, she thought. She wants to dance? I'll grind her into dust.
To Be Continued
A/N: You know what I said? "This chapter is too short!" I said. I looked through it, read it and said "Way too short!" Then I looked at the page count. 8 freakin pages! Every time I do a contemplative chapter that focuses on�character development, it always feels like it's too short because, in real time, nothing is really happening. But it does give you something to think about, I suppose. Don't worry about that happening too often this segment, though. Guess what? 2 new OCs! Well sorta. The one definitely is, but the other is only halfa OC. Lol, I hate that word . . .
ANYWAY, Paulina's undeveloped feelings for Danny are showing! And she found out about Walker! Egads! Will she ever really know that Walker is, in fact, a who and not a what? And that the what, which is actually a who, is her son from the future? Hmmm.
This is mostly a redo of Million Dollar Ghost, but I'm going to tie in elements of Parental Bonding as well. But no dances this time! What is it with Casper High anyway? There's a dance, like, almost every segment! Yeesh!
As an aside, some of the episode names make no sense at all. There was minimal bonding in the episode Parental Bonding. It was Danny taking a yuppie to a dance, and then dancing with another yuppie after it turned into a dragon. And Tucker almost danced or did dance with yet another yuppie. God, when will it stop? Oh right . . . the series got cancelled. Maybe now we know why? Misleading episode titles and yuppies coming out the yahoo? Yeah. Think about it.
GAH! 907 reviews at the time this chapter was finished! You're all wonderful, especially Fulcon, MissMeliss4251, Goldamon X, Bloxham, Sapphire Wolf Master, dpphan333, Coppa-Cola, darkness over day, darkbunny92, Musicallity, GeekGirl2, and StoneSeraphim.
An egotistical PS: if this story can hit 974 reviews and get over 677,560 words (at the time of this chapter's posting) then Ultimate Danny Phantom will become the most ultimately-ultra-ultimate Danny Phantom fan fiction EVER created! Actually, that just means it will be the longest and most critically reviewed Danny Phantom fan fiction ever. Not the "best" because I've read stories I like better than mine. But still. It's up to me to get past that 677,560 (Boy is THAT ever daunting. Thanks a LOT, Green Tima. I've got my work cut out for me now!), but I'm counting on you guys to put me over that 974 mark. I'll NEVER hold my story hostage for reviews and I'll continue to post this until it's finished. But it would be AWESOME if UDP earned a different kind of U.
DON'T CHANGE THE COLOR OF YOUR HAIR