Update time!
Shiikun: There will be some great reactions next chapter
ShinyMudkipGal: I always find it really cute when they have that relationship, and if you insist, then I guess I won't deny it
Sophia the daughter of Nyx: Thanks!
Princessbinas: They probably could be, but after next chapter it wouldn't make much of a difference
Phantomfanforever: Okay, swim contest could work. I've always loved swimming :P
TheBoss3254: Added a little more snobbiness in, and there will be more later. Their reaction will, hopefully, be a funny one
Potterheads2016: Glad you liked the ectoplasm thing. Originally, it wasn't going to be anything, but it sparked (hah, sparked. You'll get the pun next chapter) a great idea
Readingandstuff: I am so excited right now, it's fantastic to hear people react like that!
LooneyAces: And the next one, and the next one :P
Argus Drax: I haven't totally decided, but considering something I was having Danny say, I might make it the second thing
Enjoy!
Danny heard the clamour of the Ghostketeers well before he reached the hall. A highly impressive feat, when you considered the fact that there were only seven of them. Of course, Danny concluded, his father was among them, and was a far cry from quiet. For a moment, Danny just stood outside the doorway, listening.
"Ugh, my nail polish is starting to chip, and all this cold air is bad for my skin. I can't let the ghost boy see me like this!"
Danny snorted, and just barely heard Tucker doing the same.
"Paulina, honestly don't think the ghost boy cares."
"Did I say you could talk to me, loser?"
"Yeah, Foley, shut it, or else the only thing you'll be seeing when we get back is a locker door closing on your face."
"Uh, Dash? Maybe you shouldn't say that."
"Mr. Baxter! I don't tolerate my students threatening each other."
"It's just a joke, Mr. Lancer. I wasn't being serious or anything."
"These idiots are the popular kids at your school?"
"Yeah, but that's what money does."
"Wow, poor Sparky. Now I get why he always needs to take out his anger on the Box Ghost."
"Danny does what?"
"Oh, hey Mrs. F. Danny doesn't do anything, what are you talking about?"
"Danny-boy fights ghosts! I knew it, a true Fenton!"
Great. Thanks a lot, Ember, Danny thought as he finally entered the room. Everyone was gathered together at the end of a series of tables closest to the door. The seat at the head of the table was empty and to the right of it were Maddie, Jack, Star, and Paulina. On the left side were Tucker, Dora, Ember, Dash, and Kwan. Danny smirked a little at the arrangement. Even though Dash and Kwan probably only sat with the ghosts so that they could be close to Ember McClain, they weren't so divided anymore. It was a nice sight to see. Of course, it would be nicer if Maddie wasn't sending the occasional glare at Dora and Ember. Jack seemed content, but Danny could feel the emotions rolling off of them. They were worried, scared, and guilty.
Everyone had yet to see Danny, so opted to remain silent until he dropped into the chair at the head of the table, sitting with his legs over the arm rest, and his right arm draped around the back.
"So what'd I miss?" Danny asked when all eyes suddenly shot to him.
"Dipstick, you're okay!" Ember grinned.
"Aw, were you worried about me? I feel so touched," Danny smiled at the rock star sweetly.
"Yeah, worried I wouldn't have anyone to beat up when I'm bored."
"I would say the same, but I believe you already mentioned that's what I use the Box Ghost for."
"So it's true!" Maddie exclaimed, but Danny could tell she wasn't as mad as she normally would have been.
Danny, seeing no sense in trying to hide the small fact since it had now been mentioned twice, nodded. "Yeah. I sort of never told you guys, but that's why your equipment goes missing all the time. I thought that if I told you, you'd all just be really worried and everything, but I'm actually pretty good, so… yeah."
Danny rubbed the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly at his parents, while those who didn't know his secret gaped at him.
"That's also why I know some of the ghosts. Not all of them are bad, and they've helped me out a couple of times." A couple dozen times Danny added silently.
"Danny, that was extremely dangerous! You could have been hurt," Maddie gasped, remember Danny's scars. "You have been hurt. A lot."
"Just a little?" But Danny's statement came out as more of a question. Maddie's eyes narrowed, the focused on his chest.
"Are you okay?" She asked tentatively.
"Mostly, yeah. The Far Frozen is really advanced in terms of medicine and stuff," Danny shifted so that he was now sitting properly in his chair, having caught sight of some yeti's entering through a door at the back of the room, their arms laden in lidded platters.
"Sir Fenton, you should be more careful," Dora's eyes fell on Danny's exposed arms, littered with scars and burns. "I expect to one day find you visiting my castle, and there will no longer be an inch of undamaged skin left."
Danny laughed as the yeti's set down the platters on the table before them.
"I'll try, Dora. I really will," Danny smirked, then leaned forwards when the lids of the platters were removed. One of Danny's favourite things about the Far Frozen was the food. The yeti's, being large beings, needed large amounts of food. They also liked that food to be absolutely delicious. Danny would never mention it to Dora's face, but food provided by Frostbite was his favourite. The platters were piled high with golden pancakes, crispy bacon and evenly browned sausages, succulent fruits, and flaky pastries. Pitchers of fresh juice were set down, along with containers of honey coloured syrup. Between Ember and Dora were two trays covered in similar foods, but seemed off in terms of colour. This, of course, was due to the ectoplasm found within.
Tucker practically dove for the trays of bacon and sausages, ignoring anything else on the table. Kwan and Dash shared Tucker's enthusiasm, and wasted little time being polite. The girls were more conservative, but equally as enthusiastic. Maddie and Jack, however, looked at the food warily.
"It's human food," Danny said, answering their unasked questions. "Only the stuff by Dora and Ember can harm you guys."
Dash, who had been reaching for one of the green tinted pastries, quickly snatched his hand back.
"It's fused with ectoplasm to gives ghosts energy. That's why the colour is weird," Danny explained. As if to show his parents further, Dany grabbed a few things from the trays, and compared them to the 'pure' food. Jack hesitantly reached for a piece of bacon, held it up to the one in Danny's hand, then ate it. A grin split across his face.
"Best food in the Ghost Zone. Second only to Dora's, of course," Danny hastily added. Dora smiled at him, while Ember chuckled.
Danny moved to put the food in his hands back on the platters, but slipped it in among the normal food already on his plate when no one was looking. He eagerly dug into his food, and pocketed a few more of the ghostly foods for later.
Several content sighs filled the air once all the food had been devoured.
"So since Fenton's fine, does that mean that we can go home now? Because I need a hairbrush," Paulina drawled, running her fingers through her frazzled hair.
"I'll ask Frostbite to send some people so that the Speeder can be fixed, you guys should be able to leave here by tonight," Danny responded immediately, cutting off anymore of Paulina's complaining.
"You are in luck, Sir Fenton. I had some of my servants follow behind us. The Speeder is already here, and King Frostbite's men started working on it hours ago," Dora interjected.
"Oh, really? Way to go, Dora. I guess you guys will be home by lunch," Danny smiled.
"You mean 'we', Mr. Fenton?" Lancer clarified.
"I actually don't. I'm not going back, not yet anyways," Danny flashed everyone a reassuring smile.
"Danny, you will be coming back with us," Maddie said sternly.
"No, I won't," Danny countered. His voice was low and commanding. "Sam is still here, and I have to bring her back. I'm not returning without her."
Danny shrugged as if this was the most logical thing in the world.
"Danny, you can't just stay here. We will get Sam, but we should get the rest of the Ghostketeers if we're going to. Those skeleton ghosts were very strong," Maddie continued.
"Yes, Mom, I can. Sam is in trouble, and if I don't meet the ghost who took her today, something bad is going to happen to her. And you were the last person I expected this from! You hate ghosts. You never think twice about going after any ghost, no matter how good they really are. Why are you doing this now?" Danny's accusatory tone surprised everyone at the table.
"Your safety comes first."
"No, Sam's comes first. Always. Everyone's does. In my books, I'm the last person to be kept safe. I'm also the only one truly capable of doing that. I'm not going to leave Sam, especially not after…" Danny hesitated, and withheld the words he was going to say next, continuing on with his argument. "Frostbite and his guards will be with me. Dora and Ember, too."
"Hey, dipstick, I never said I'd go help you get your girlfriend," Ember protested.
"But you will," Danny's eyes turned on the rock star, but again his head remained unmoved. As always, the action was unsettling to every living person at the table. The two ghosts, however, were used to Danny's behaviour that was part of his ghostly persona.
"Yes, we will," Dora nodded for both of them. Ember slumped in her seat, grumbling, but didn't say anymore.
"I can't just leave you here with all these ghosts. I need to make sure you'll be safe," Maddie said.
"Well, you're going to have to, since there's no other way that-"
"I'll be going with you."
Danny's mouth hung open, comically paused in the middle of his speech. "You'll come with us? You, Maddie Fenton, my ghost hating mother, will come with me, and help out a bunch of ghosts?"
"While I'd rather not be helping out these spooks, if it is the only way for me to stay with you, then I will."
"So will I," Jack beamed.
"Me to! There's no way I'm missing out on a good ghost fight. Besides, Sam's my friend too," Tucker smiled at Danny and, while Danny was thankful for his support, he found his fears being confirmed. This is what always happened, both times his secret had been discovered. His friends had helped him, and they had gotten hurt. That went against Danny's very reason for existing as a ghost.
"I can't let you guys do that," Danny shook his head.
"I'm afraid, Mr. Fenton, that you have very little choice in the matter," Lancer smirked.
"You too?"
"Yes, me too. Ms. Manson is my student, after all, and what kind of teacher would I be if I didn't try and protect my students?"
"I'll go." Wide eyes fell on Star DeLisle. "Manson may be a loser like you guys, but I'd love for a girl with that much money to be indebted to me."
Danny, who had suspicions about Star's true personality, accepted her reason. Everyone looked expectantly at the remaining three A-listers.
"Manson is a classmate," Kwan shrugged. "I, uh, may not be the nicest to you guys, but I wouldn't want anything bad to ever happen to you. Not really."
Only Paulina and Dash were left. They looked stricken, horrified that everyone wanted to stay in the Ghost Zone any longer than they had to, until Star made one, simply comment, that set their minds straight.
"If Manson is in danger, chances are a hero will be there to rescue her. So, you know, Phantom might be there."
"We'll go!" Paulina and Dash chorused, their eyes burning with determination. Anything to see their hero. And that's one of the things that worried Danny most.
"None of them will be returning?"
"They've all decided to stay and help us get Sam. I don't really want to take them to Sable, but knowing my parents, they will try and follow us if we leave them behind. They'd probably get lost somewhere, and then we'd just have to go and find them. Or else he might find them first," Danny shuddered. Sam being taken was bad enough, but if everyone else was gone too? It would be just like his future… Danny quickly shook his head, quelling down his rising panic. He couldn't have an attack here, not now.
"I will make sure my yetis stay close to them," Frostbite consoled the young halfa.
"Thanks. Actually, speaking of your yetis, when Snowstorm came to talk to me last week, she said something about you sending guards for me? How come I never saw any of them?" Danny asked.
"Ah. They were careful to stay out of range of your ghost sense, fearing it would interfere with your fighting. Did you not notice that the temperature of your city dropped considerably lower than he should have?"
"Honestly? Not at all. I don't notice stuff like that anymore. Cold core and all."
"Hmm, I see," Frostbite nodded along, but he didn't sound convinced. "Will your companions be joining the strategy meeting?"
"They might as well. I wouldn't want them going in there without any knowledge of the place, especially if we're going to have a plan prior to the meeting."
"Good. We will be meeting in the conference room within the hour. Make sure everyone is there. Oh! And there will be a surprise for you when you get there."
Danny raised an eyebrow at his teacher. Frostbite was grinning from ear to ear which, for some reason, felt like a bad sign to the halfa. The yeti king said nothing more as he left Danny standing in the hallway.
For a moment, Danny pondered on the surprise that Frostbite had mentioned, then turned to more serious matters. Danielle hadn't contacted them yet. At least, Danny assumed she hadn't. Frostbite would surely tell him if his daughter had arrived, safe and sound, or otherwise. Plus, Snowstorm had also assured Danny that Danielle had promised to contact him once she arrived. Danny gave a worried sigh and shoved his hands in his pockets, slowly making his way back to the hall where they had eaten, and where the Ghostketeers' rooms were.
So much had happened recently. Vlad coming to him for help. Danny was a little suspicious about that, especially since he hadn't been able to find the other halfa to tell him what he learned. It was something that nagged at him constantly, but there were more worrying things at the moment. He had told Sam and Tucker his secret, and partially told everyone else. At least they only knew about the ghost hunting, and not about him actually being a ghost. Sam had been taken, the A-listers were actually helping them. Not to mention the fact that they would all have been missing for a day. Danny could only imagine the panic in the human world. What about the ghost attacks? Would the skeletons still be invading Amity Park if Danny wasn't there? Because he had few doubts that they were sent for a purpose other than harassing him. At least Valerie was still in Amity. She may not be as good a ghost hunter as Danny, but Val was certainly better than his parents. She was one of the best ghost hunters in the world. There was Jazz, too. While she claimed her interest in ghosts was only for the sake of her psychological research, Danny had seen her chasing the Box Ghost one of the few times he let the guy just wander around town.
Amity would be fine.
Danny nodded, reassured. They would go to Sable, rescue Sam, and defeat the evil ghost. Everything would go the way that it always does. The way it always had, ever since the day he first got his powers.
In the middle of a step, Danny stopped. His foot hovered an inch above the floor as he stared straight ahead with dazed eyes. He had just realized it, just now remembered it.
Today was the day that I died.
Danny hugged himself as he felt the panic rising in his chest and, before he could stop it, he was remembering that day. Remembering what happened.
I stood in the middle of the lab, focused on eerie silence of the house. It wasn't often, but today was one of the days that I was left with the place all to myself. What better way to occupy my teenage mind then go to the one place I was forbidden?
The lab.
Sure, I had homework I could be doing, but this was the lab. I grinned at the hexagonal hole in the wall. It was my parent's newest invention, a portal to another dimension, they claimed. But it hadn't worked. And they, the Fenton's, had given up on it. I, however, didn't want to. There were any number of things my parents could have done wrong. Sure, Dad wasn't as stupid as everyone was led to believe, but that didn't mean he never made mistakes.
I checked over the consoles and gauges, but, after comparing it to the pages and pages of blueprints, everything seemed to be in order. So the problem was probably inside. I grabbed the jumpsuit my parents had made for me a few years back, just remembering to pull off the obnoxious picture of my dad's face from my chest, and stepped inside. The portal was a little deeper than I expected it to be, and cast in shadow. Clear rods filled with wires lined the portal walls, and more wires were littered about on the floor. I was taking care to avoid them, when something above me caught my attention.
It's funny how everything after that point seemed to happen in painfully clear detail. Some loose wires dangling from the ceiling were what caught my eye. The protective rubber around them had been stripped away for the last inch. I had been staring up at them when my foot got caught. I quickly looked down to see a bright yellow wire caught around my ankle as I started to fall. In a moment of panic, my arm lashed out against the wall to find support. And I did, for a moment. Then whatever was beneath my palm gave in with a slight click, and I tumbled to the floor.
My attention was caught by the ugly green button I had just pressed. Beside it was a red one. A low whirring started up, and I ripped my gaze from the buttons. Green electricity crackled along the wires in the clear tubes, and a green glow started to grow.
Run. That was the only thing I could think. Just run. I scrambled to my feet, but I was moving too slow. The glow was building, the whirring getting louder, and I wasn't moving fast enough.
In reality, it all happened in an instant, but it felt like an eternity. The wires above me crackled, then my world became nothing but bright green light and pain as the electricity found its outlet. Me.
And there was so. Much. Pain.
"Princess Dorathea, do you know where Danny went?" Tucker asked. The princess, who had been sitting regally at the table ever since the plates and trays were taken away, turned to look at him.
"Yes, Lord Foley. He went to convene with Frostbite before the meeting. He should be returning shortly," Dora said.
"Oh, okay," Tucker nodded, almost satisfied. Almost. But Danny had been gone for the better part of an hour, and he had informed them that he would 'be right back.' Tucker trusted the ghosts, but he also knew that Danny wasn't as fine as he claimed to be. Sure, he may have been better, but he wasn't good. He waited a few more minutes before making up his mind.
"I'm gonna go look for him," Tucker announced.
"I'll go with you," Ember said, quickly following Tucker out of the room.
"Not that I'm not loving this, but why?" Tucker asked.
"I can't stand being around those stupid jocks any longer. If they ask me to sing for them one more time, I might just do it," Ember growled.
"But isn't that what they want?"
"It's how I attack. My guitar, I play it, and the sound waves affect humans. And halfas too, I guess," Ember gave a sly grin, remembering the first time she had met Danny.
"Oh, sweet, it affects Danny too? I have to see that," Tucker chuckled, then looked up as they turned the corner. "Hey! Danny, we've been looking for you!"
Tucker ran forwards, but stopped a few feet from his friend. He could see that something was wrong. Danny was standing with his back to them, head stooped, arms wrapped around his chest. He was shaking slightly. Tucker walked around so he could see Danny's face, and gasped. Danny looked pale, really pale, and he was sweating. His eyes, which were glowing a steady green, were dull and glazed over.
"Uh, Danny?" Tucker asked, unsure of what to do. He waved a hand in front of Danny's face, but the halfa didn't even flinch.
"Hey, dipstick, what're you-" Ember yelped, quickly pulling her hand back from Danny's shoulder. She stared at it, and where she had touched him.
"He shocked me," Ember gasped.
"What?"
"Dipstick, he shocked me. Like, electricity," Ember explained. They both watched Danny with wide eyes.
"We have to snap him out of it," Tucker stated obviously. "Danny!"
Tucker and Ember shouted at him several more time, but nothing worked.
"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" Tucker mused as he raised his hand. He gave Danny a sharp slap, crying out as he, too, was shocked. They waited a moment, and Danny stopped shaking. The glow in his eyes faded and eventually the so did the dull look.
"…Tuck?" Danny asked hoarsely.
"Yeah, Danny. What happened?"
"I… I… I don't know. I was just thinking about stuff, and then I-I remembered. The day it happened, I remembered today was my death day and I just…" Danny shook his head, attempting to clear his mind. "We're supposed to meet Frostbite."
"I don't know, Sparky. Maybe you shouldn't go," Ember said.
"I'm going, I have to. Besides, I'm fine," Danny gave them his reassuring the smile, the one that everyone knew was fake, and walked away from them.
So I kinda just realized when writing this that I hadn't mentioned Vlad again, and had sort of left that dangling in the wind. It will come into play later on, but I added that one little snippet to ease your minds a little. I mean, not really, because it wouldn't have answered any questions, but at least you know he's still involved!
Can anyone guess Frostbite's surprise? I'm kind of thinking it should be obvious, but I just wanted to show how clueless Danny could really be.
'See' you next time!
