Viral Attack - Chapter 6
Good Fortune Is Best Seen in Hindsight
The car, a mid-size Chevy, five or six years old, tore through the intersection with all the speed and conviction of a man who knows he has the right of way, only to be T-boned by a black Taurus traveling through a green light. The security cam at a parking lot on the corner captured the accident, and happened to be positioned to catch the lights hanging over the intersecting streets. Both lights were plainly green.
The TV station cut to a stand-up by their reporter, a chunky black woman with a Farrah Fawcett-like blonde wig. She was describing how this accident was only one of many in the city of East Gatriot due to malfunctioning traffic lights. The head of the city's traffic department was there to explain that they had no idea how this could have happened but they were going to fix the problem within the next day. The reporter threw it back to the station who them reported on a strange case of cell phones being connected to the wrong parties. Often with hilarious results.
T'Keisha, nibbling the last bit of meat off a chicken wing was fascinated by the erratic blinking of the traffic light during the first report.
"Girl, what's the matter with you?" her father barked from across the table. "You've barely touched your meal. You got a problem with your Mama's cooking?"
"No, the chicken's great. It's just this thing about the traffic lights."
"Ahhh, It's probably just crappy parts from China or someplace. None of this would happen if people bought stuff made in America."
"I know," T'Keisha answered without really listening to her father. He was always going on about parts made in China. He worked as a repairman at a local factory so the lack of good parts was always a part of his life. "It's just that the green light was blinking all during the newscast. Only green lights never blink, just the red or yellow lights. And it wasn't blinking at a steady rate. it was ill-regular but not exactly erratic, and it seemed like it was repeating itself...."
"What are you talking about? It's just a machine."
T'keisha nodded.
"Tragedy struck today," the TV was saying, "When a man calling his wife was connected to her lover instead. The enraged man drove across town and shot his rival before returning to his home where police arrested him trying to kill his wife."
"Sad, sad news," the perky anchor commented.
"What are the odds of that happening?" her co-host asked.
"What indeed?" T'keisha thought, cleaning up her plate before her father complained again. Tucker had warned her to be on the look-out for anything weird happening. Was this 'weird' enough?
"What a weird day at work," her father said as he savored his after-dinner cup of coffee. "We had machines turning themselves on or off, or going in reverse. We'd tear them apart and nothing was wrong. Crazy, crazy day."
Her father started asking her mother about her day while T'Keisha was helping clear the table. It seemed like a Sign, not that she believed in 'signs.' It wasn't just traffic lights and cellphones or ATM machines -- the news was reporting on some strange going on with them as well -- but when her father has strange things going on as well, that made it official. The TV station re-broadcast it's 5 O'clock news show at 5:30. This time she was going to tape that blinking stoplight and see if it really was blinking out some code.
***
"Hey Danny," It was Tucker on the phone, "Can you fly over real quick. Something's coming up I think you should know about."
"Tucker, it hurts too much to make the charge. I can be over there in 20 minutes on my scooter. Can it wait that long?"
"Yeah, man, I guess. But no sidetrips, this is pretty important."
Danny closed his phone and grabbed his pants out of the laundry. He give them a sniff, shuddered and threw them back in. Spaghetti stains on his Tee shirt sent it the same way. From his dresser he pulled an identical pair of jeans and tee shirt, pulled them on, stuffed his feet into tennies and raced downstairs. "Going to Tucker's" he announced as he grabbed his helmet from a peg by the door. If his parents had objections they were too slow making them as he raced down the steps and unlocked the storage shed under the steps. With a kick his mo-ped started and roared off into the night at a breath-taking 15 miles and hour!
Tucker was waiting for him at the door and lead him upstairs to his bedroom. There he was surprised to find a blurry web-cam'ed T'Keisha peering out of one of the monitors.
"Hi?" He said uncertainly. "Did you get your computer fixed?"
The girl shook her head. A rattle of beads in her cornrows rustled from a speaker. "I picked up this old computer for Salvation Army for twenty bucks. Had to replace the hard drive and one of the RAM sticks but it's working OK for now. I'm surprised my web cam works OK with it, but it's nice seeing you guys instead of just hearing you over the phone."
"T'Keisha thinks Technus is still around," Tucker butted in.
"What makes you think that," Danny asked. He had a sinking feeling she was right. As he had thought back to that night they'd first fought Technos 0.7 it seemed like two copies of the viral villain had been created but only one defeated.
T'Keisha was holding up a newspaper to the camera lens. "This, can you make it out?"
Danny squinted at the small, blurry image produced by the web cam. " 'ATM PLAYS PRACTICAL JOKE'," he read slowly.
"Right," T'Keisha dropped the newspaper and pushed her face in close to the web cam. "The article says that an ATM at a Second City National bank began printing out Chinese fortunes on receipts whenever anyone tried to withdraw money. It debited the money from their account but didn't dispense it. The bank hasn't been able to find out where the money was re-deposited."
"Boucou Bucks, I'll bet," Danny suggested.
"Who?" The name was unfamilar to T'Keisha. "But there's more. The fortunes would say things like 'Good Luck Is Best Seen in Hindsight' then print five lucky numbers and three, 3-letter words. Someone noticed that one string of numbers was today's winning Lotto number and I've been able to identify that most of the other numbers are winning Lotto numbers in some state somewhere."
"Wow, that is a cruel joke," Danny said.
Tucker nodded in agreement. "But that's not all. 'T' tell Danny the rest,"
T'Keisha flashed a smile when Tucker said her name and picked up the newspaper again. She opened it and folded over the pages so she could hold one section in front of the Web Cam. "Can you see this picture of one of the receipts?" she asked.
Danny squinted again and hesitantly read off "FDR", "SJP" and "USX." I don't get it. Wait, Isn't USX a company, US Steel or something. That's how its listed on the stock market. FDR's of course Roosevelt but SJP?"
"Sarah Jessica Parker," Tucker furnished.
"Ok, a president, an actress and a steel company. That doesn't make any sense at all."
"I thought so, too. Then I decided to Google combinations of the three words. Turns out FDR and SJP are also legitimate stock initials, too. So the ticket was giving out the names of three companies on the stock exchange."
"...and?"
"They all went up the day the ticket was printed. Not a lot but if anyone had invested in these three stocks that day they would have made some money."
"If they had known to invest in those stocks," Tucker explained.
"How did it know the stocks would go up?" Danny wondered.
"A whole lot of people at the FEC would like to know that," Sam said, causing Danny to start. She was coming in Tucker's bedroom door, a mo-ped helmet under her arm.
"Where'd you come from," he gasped.
"Tucker called me right after he hung up on you, said to come on up if he wasn't at the door. "What's this about an ATM machine that can predict the stock market?"
"Technus," Tucker said,
"Ah. Anything else Technus been doing?" Sam asked. "Hi, T'Keisha," she called when she noticed Tucker's friend on the monitor.
"There's been reports of malfunctioning traffic signals, caused a lot of accidents. Some were pretty serious."
"What makes you think Technus was behind those?" Sam asked. She dropped her helmet on Tucker's bed and pulled up the only chair in the room near the monitor.
"The green lights were blinking. I thought I saw a pattern."
"What kind of pattern?" Tucker asked, leaning over Sam's head.
"There was a pattern of six blinks followed by a paused and then repeated. Only they weren't random or consistent."
"?" Danny grunted in confusion.
"Well, first there were four quick blinks, a short pause followed by another short blink and then a longer blink. After another pause it would repeat.
"Sounds like Morse Code." Tucker suggested.
"That's what I thought, too, so I looked up the code. Four dots means 'H' while a dot and a dash is 'A'..."
"Ha?" Sam murmured quizzically.
"More like 'ha ha ha ha'," T'Keisha replied.
The traffic light was laughing?" Danny burst out.
"Kinda...maybe..." T'Keisha said, defensively.
"Man, that is Technus, for sure." Tucker came to T'Keisha's defense.
"Anything else?" Sam asked, pushing Tucker aside as he continued to loom over her.
"Did I mention the cell phones?"
"Not to me," Sam answered. "What happened?"
"A man tried to call his wife and got connected to her lover instead. He killed the guy and tried to kill his wife."
"Oh--" Sam replied sympathetically.
"I don't know if we can blame Technus for that," Danny said. "How would he know who the woman's boyfriend was?"
"Phone records," Tucker suggested. "All Technus would have to do was look up who the woman had been calling and connect her husband to the most frequent number called. Nine times out of ten it would be harmless, a mutual friend or some such. But if you did that often enough you're likely to hit a number than the wife--"
"--or husband --" Sam interjected.
"-- wouldn't want her husband to know about."
"T'keisha," Danny asked in the silence that followed that, "when did the traffic light incident happen? Was it in the morning, afternoon, or did it happen all day long?"
"I don't know." She looked through the newspaper hurriedly. "It says these happened early today. The cell phone outrage happened around noon and the ATM thing, ah -- towards quitting time. Why?"
"I was thinking -- this is Technus 0.7. I -- we've -- fought Technus 1.0 and 2.0, so I was thinking that maybe he had to learn how to do stuff."
"Like controlling traffic light switches?" T'Keisha wondered.
"Yeah?"
"But wouldn't ATM's come before the cell phones?" Tucker asked.
"Not necessarily," Sam objected. "What you said about looking up most-frequently-used numbers makes a lot of sense, and wouldn't be that hard to do. Screwing with ATMs would have to be a lot harder, security codes and such to prevent people from hacking in. And what happened to all the money? Someone set up an invisible account on the system That takes a bit of work."
"There's one other thing about these ATM receipts," T'Keisha spoke up. "At the very bottom of every one there's a string of letters. It's always the same seven letters but it doesn't make any sense on any language I've tried it on. 'Ubhqvav.' Does that mean anything to any of your guys.
"Let's see," Danny asked. The black girl fumbled on her desk for a moment, then picked up the newspaper picture of an ATM receipt and held it near the Web Cam. Center and on the last line before the cutter snicked the slip from the roll were those seven letters, centered, uncapitalized, and not marked off with any other special characters, parenthesis, brackets, or stars.
"Tuck and I have been brainstorming cipher ideas but we haven't hit on anything yet.
"There are so many ways to encrypt a message I don't know if we will ever break this," Tucker sighed.
Sam was still squinting at the letters displayed on the Web Cam. "Maybe not."
"You know what it means?" Danny gasped.
"Hardly but think about it. The receipt says good fortune is best seem in hindsight, then offers you're the winning Lotto number and three winning stocks but because you're not thinking about Lotto tickets or the stock market these tips just seem like gibberish. Once we figure out what 'ubhgvav' means it will be so obvious we'll be slapping ourselves on the forehead going 'D'oh!' "
Tucker put his head next to Danny's ear and whispered, "It's your call, D-Man, but we seem to have a loose ghost down there."
"D-Man?' Danny whispered back.
"Look, it you want to talk about this among yourselves, I can cut the Web Cam connection and you can text me when you're ready." T'Keisha offered.
Danny shook his head. "I'd feel like I was talking behind your back, even though it's your suggestion." He paused for a moment. "Tucker's right, there's a ghost loose back there that we're responsible for. We need to come down and get it. But I don't think we can do all that in the couple hours we'd have if we stole the Specter Speeder again. We'd need to be down there a couple days, I think, but I don't know how we'd convince our parents to let us go. We need a plan and I'm fresh out of ideas."
"Could we convince your parents to take a vacation in Chicago?" Tucker suggested. "We could hope the rail system and be down in East Gratiot in no time."
"Probably, but why would they take you and Sam along? And how would we get away from them after we were there."
"Vacations are the worst for getting away from parents," Sam said. "They seem to think it's family bonding time so they stick closer to you then when you're at home." Sam appeared to be speaking from personal experience.
"So what sorts of things do parents let their teen-age kids go to without supervision?" Danny wondered.
"Summer camp." Tucker answered.
"Been there, done that, killed the ghost," Sam quipped.
"Besides we'd need something that's set inside the city, like a music camp."
"I play the clarinet," T'Keisha offered.
"Danny can't play anything and Tucker has no rhythm."
"Hey!" both boys protested.
"What other kinds of classes could one find in Chicago?" Sam wondered. "Yachting?"
"Do either of us look like we could afford a sailboat?" Danny objected.
"You can rent them, but it doesn't sound like a god idea. Art appreciation? Do you two ever appreciate anything?"
"I appreciate a good pizza," Tucker declared.
"There is a computer club that meets monthly," T'Keisha offered.
"I like it, but we have computer clubs in Amity Park so I don't see Danny's parents letting him go to Chicago just for that."
Danny had wandered around Tucker's room while they were talking. He finally sat down on the edge of his bed and picked up a comic books lying in the nightstand. He flipped through it casually since it was an issue he had read already. He plopped it back down on the night stand, then happen to notice the ad on the back cover.
"Ah, guys. This might work." He picked the comic back up and waved the ad at them.
"ComicCon?" Tucker asked, confused.
"Yeah, a comics convention! Parents are always letting kids go to comics conventions."
"Out of town?" Tucker asked.
"That was held last month," Sam objected.
"But this is a really big convention, lots of guest stars. It's something that only happens in a big city, like Chicago, and is worth going to. And the date doesn't matter because none of our parents would know differently? All we have to do is make up some convincing looking flyers set for the upcoming weekend, and convince them to let us go."
"By ourselves? To Chicago?" Sam shook her head. "They'd never agree to that."
"What if we gave them a chaperone?"
Sam looked up, "Who?" she asked.
"Jazz! She'll drive us down, run interference for Mom and Dad. It'll work."
"Why would Jazz help us?" Tucker asked.
"One word. Miracle Mile."
"That's two, Danny," Sam objected.
"It will work, Jazz drives us down to the city. We check into the "convention hotel." She disappears for a weekend of shopping and we have all the time in the world to ride out to East Gratiot and hunt down this other Technus. How does that sound, T'Keisha?"
"I guess it will work," but she sounded uncertain. "I just don't like you lying to your parents even if it is to help me."
Danny and Tucker couldn't think of a reply to that. Sam didn't seem concerned one way or the other.
"Look, I'll get Jazz to help us. Tucker, you work on photoshopping that flier and Sam..."
"I'm not making sandwiches if that's what you think. Maybe I'd better help Tucker with the flier."
"Sandwiches?" Tucker wondered, "Why would you need to make sandwiches, aw, now you've made me hungry..."
***
It took Danny longer than he expected to convince Jazz to help them. She was still mad at him for scaring her when she was driving Sam and Tucker out to help him with Sid's Technus attack. Since she'd only just gotten her driving license she wasn't a confident driver yet and Danny's little joke had hit her a lot harder than similar jokes he'd played on her around the FentonWorks.
He had appealed to her desire to help him fight ghosts and gotten no where with that. He waved "The Miracle Mile" before her but for some reason she wasn't as interested in shopping as he'd hoped. Perhaps because there weren't as many unique stores there that didn't have outlets in places like Amity Park. He even offered to cough up spending money for me, knowing that he would have to hit up Sam and Tucker for part of the money.
In the end, and totally desperate, he mentioned that Sid would be there helping them. He had to prod Jazz's memory a bit for her to remember who Sid was, and then mentioned how he thought she was "hot." Jazz had laughed at that but a few minutes later brought their conversation back around to Sid. Realizing that he had hit upon something Jazz was interested in, Danny had to figure out how to make Sid more attractive; a challenge since he had no idea what his sister found attractive in boys. In the end he played up Sid's troubled past and his problem with authority. Jazz was always trying to help people (whether they wanted it or not) and the more troubled Sid seemed the more Jazz would want to help.
Of course now that he had bribed Jazz with promises of Sid he had to get Sid to come along, which, fortunately, wasn't so much of a problem.
Tucker and Sam had photoshopped the ad from the back of the comic book so that its date was now the coming weekend. They printed out a bunch of copies, mailing some to themselves so that it looked like they were getting flyers from the convention. They mailed some to T'Keisha so she could show them to her parents in case she needed an excuse to go into Chicago.
Danny's parents proved to be more difficult that he had thought. Suddenly 14 was 'just a child' and 16 year old Jazz was way too young to chaperone... So Jack Fenton volunteered to go along to provide adult supervision. That, of course, was the last thing they wanted. Danny had to change tack -- and fast. So suddenly the convention was going to be dull and boring and without a speck of anything to do with ghosts. Danny's father hadn't considered that a weekend at a comics convention meant a weekend without ghosts. There were some things he could put up with, like being without fudge or cheese pizza, but a weekend without ghosts... Suddenly Danny and Jazz were old enough to take care of themselves afterall.
Once they had the Fenton's approval, Sam and Tucker's parents were easy to convince. Hotel reservations were made. Danny choked when he saw how much the per night fees were. His parents let him charge it on the Corporate credit card but still he knew he would be doing extra chores for them for months to come. He might even *gasp* have to get a part-time job!
***
Danny, of course, had been keeping Abigail Farley-Symthe-Hyde updated on all this, as he was still asking her questions to check out. Sam, Tucker and he had been going over the papers Abigail had downloaded from the Guys in White's mainframe and occasionally something would come up that called for a deeper look. Danny hadn't told them how he had gotten Abigail to cooperate; he didn't think Sam would take it well.
***
The trip started off in high spirits. The kids were excited at the adventure ahead, and by the thought that they had pulled one over on their parents. By the time they reached Chicago and started inching through traffic they were barely speaking to each other. Even for four teen-agers a Chevette was a small car, and with the load of ghost fighting equipment they needed as well as their clothes they had suitcases not only piled up in the trunk of the hatchback but also on their knees and under their feet. It as with a sigh of relief that Jazz pulled into a slot in the hotel's garage, turned off the motor and slowly, painfully crawled out of the car. The others followed.
"Next time, let's spring for a van," Tucker suggested, pulling his sticky tee shirt away from his body.
"What next time?" Sam wondered. She was feeling every bit as soggy as Tucker but refused to do anything so uncouth as to pull on her clothes. Instead she leaned against the car door and did some stretches, hoping that when they started to walk she wouldn't appear as crippled as she felt.
Jazz lead the way into the hotel, pulling her suitcase on its wheels behind her. The others followed, loaded down with suitcases, various gym bags and briefcases filled with ghost fighting gadgets "borrowed" from FentonWorks.
The blast of cool air as they crossed the lobby doors felt bone-rattling arctic. They had barely come to the middle of the lobby when someone called to them from off to the left, a lounge area filled with chairs and couches.
Sid, tall and lanky, was standing up and heading their way. Jazz straightened up at the sight of him. Next to him, also rising was a girl in her teens, dressed all in black with candy pink, short-cropped hair. Glints of light reflected off a number of body piercing on her face. That was Altheria, another friend from Camp Sleepy Hollow, who had help fight the ghost there. She and Sam had become good friends. She had also taken a shine to Sid so either one of them could have invited her. "Yo," she called as she followed in Sid's footsteps.
T'keisha had all but leaped from her chair and was racing over to embrace Tucker, who for once was too exhausted to meet her half way. Danny had called Sid, of course, and arranged for him to meet them here. T'Keisha he had expected to meet them at the train station tomorrow in East Gratoit. He was surprised her father had let her come so far downtown by herself.
What Danny hadn't expected and dreaded seeing was the last member in that group to stand up, a pretty red-head dressed all in white. Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde of Falls Church, Virginia. "Hi!" she squealed before hurrying over to join the rest.
"What is she doing here?" Sam demanded coldly.
"I don't know," was all he could whisper.
Jazz looked down at Danny and asked, "who are all these people? Are they all staying with us?" She didn't sound happy.
"This is Sid, Sid Hanley. You remember I said he would be here." Danny emphasized the last heavily. "And this is T'Keisha. She's the one we've come to help. But I wasn't expecting her to meet us at the hotel...."
"I couldn't wait to see Tuck -- you guys -- again so I told Daddy there was a comics convention here, showed him the flyer you guys made and he let me come down by myself. But I have to be back by eight."
"So you won't be staying in the room with us?" Jazz asked. Danny was beginning to see that Jazz was more concerned about the size of the hotel bill she would be putting on the Fenton Corporate credit card than the number of people come to meet them.
"This is Altheria," Danny continued the introductions.
"I called her," Sam volunteered. "Altheria lives close to Chicago so I thought it would be fun to see her again."
"Are you staying or commuting?" Jazz asked tactlessly.
"It's only an hour through traffic..." Altheria began.
"I'll pay her share of the room," Sam cut in.
"OK, then," Jazz replied. "And that leaves..." she nodded in Abigail's direction.
"Abigail Farley-Smythe-Hyde. She was at camp. Her father's a Guy in White." Danny recited in a monotone, then cringed, waiting for the inevitable harangue.
"Pleased to meet you," Jazz said politely, "Aren't the Guys in White based on the East Coast? What brings you all the way out to Chicago?"
"The ghost, of course. Danny told me all about it," Abigail gushed. "A ghost as a computer virus, who knew? I just had to come see it?"
"Aren't you, like, grounded for life -- or something?" Sam growled.
"Oh, that. Well, technically, but the old man's not home this weekend. So I snuck out."
"How did you get here?" Danny asked, genuinely confused by that part.
"I remembered your--" she caught Danny's sudden glare and stopped. "I remembered that the old man had one of the Guys in White's Strato-cycles in the shed out back, so I borrowed it. I've got it cloaked in the parking lot."
"Won't he notice all the missing fuel the next time he uses it?" Danny asked.
"Nah, he never notices stuff like that."
"Won't your mom notice you missing?" Danny couldn't stop asking questions thought he could tell that Sam didn't want him even talking to Abigail.
"I asked her if I could stay with my Aunt Beulah for the weekend. She lives up in Silver Springs, Maryland. It's on the Metro so Mom wasn't concerned about me traveling by myself. I went out the front door, walked around the back, climbed into the Strato-Cycle and here I am.
"Here you are indeed." Sam muttered darkly.
Jazz pulled Danny aside and whispered, "Do you think it's wise involving the daughter of a Guys in White? What if she finds out you-know-what?"
"I didn't ask her here, Jazz. I don't want her here. But she's here. We're going to have to live with it."
"And what if she finds out?"
"She's not. Don't worry about it."
"Danny, I'm responsible for you. I have to worry about it."
"Jazz, you're sixteen. When have you been responsible -- for anything."
Jazz growled but couldn't think of an answer. "Let's check in before anything else bad happens," Danny suggested.
Jazz sighed. They were going to need larger rooms. She pulled her suitcase over to the desk. "Jasmine Fenton and party," she announced. "We have a reservation."
"Yes, M'am." the clerk typed in her name on his computer. "Party of four, two adjoining rooms. How are you planning to pay?" he inquired.
Jazz handed him her Fentonworks corporate credit card.
"Could I see some ID?" he asked.
"Oh sure," Jazz was used to people not taking the corporate credit card at face value. She handed over her FentonWords ID card.
He looked at the card, compared her picture on the card to her, nodded, then handed it back. "Could I see a driver's license," he asked.
"Oh, sure." Jazz pulled out her wallet and dug out the card.
The clerk started typing in her driver's license number, then he stopped and frowned.
"You're sixteen?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," Jazz said proudly.
"Are your parents with you?"
"No."
"Any other adults in your party?"
"No. Why, is there a problem?"
"I'll have to talk to the manager," the clerk said and walked around the wall behind him to the offices on the other side.
Jazz frowned and tapped her fingers nervously on the countertop.
The clerk was back after just a minute. "I'm sorry," he said, "Unless there is an adult in your party we can't rent rooms to you."
"What?" Jazz demanded. "It's the credit card, isn't it?"
"No, M'am. It's against the law."
"The law?"
"Yes, M'am. The manager was quite clear about it. We're not permitted to rent rooms to unattended minors."
"But, but," Jazz sputtered. "That is so unfair,"
She stalked back to the group.
Danny appeared to be a rather intense conversation with Sam.
"For the last time, Sam," Danny was saying, "I didn't invite her."
"There's something you're not telling me." Sam accused.
"Danny!" Jazz interrupted "We've got a problem."
"Now what?"
"They won't let us have any rooms. Because we're minors. You've got to do something."
"What?"
"You know what." Jazz was refering to Danny's ghost power to 'over-shadow' and get them to say and do what he wanted.
"Oh." He paused "I can't. I told you I got blasted a couple days ago. It hurts like heck to change. I don't want to do it unless I have to."
"They're not going to give us any rooms unless you can convince them to, to overshadow them. I think this is important enough to do that."
"But..."
"Or we could go back home and tell mom and dad we lied to them."
"Maybe we can figure something out."
"I don't think T'Keisha's parents are going to take us in. You got any other ideas?"
"Hey, dudes, what's go on?" Sid ambled over to where Danny and Jazz were talking.
"They won't let us have rooms because there's no adults in our party."
"No problemo. I've got my fake ID right here." He held up a small plastic card.
"Nice," Altheria snatched it out of his hand and held it up to the light. "Mike Watowski? Guess we can tell what's your favorite movie." She handed it back to him. "I admire the workmanship. Do it yourself?"
"Nah, I paid a guy fifty bucks for it."
"It'd pass scrutiny in a dingy tavern where the bartender doesn't really care but here -- 'Mike' -- under good light it won't do at all."
"Thanks for the offer, Sid," Jazz said, touching his sleeve.
His face lit up. "Glad to help."
Jazz waited until they had wandered out of earshot. "Danny, see? You're our only hope."
"Ok. Where's the restrooms around here. I'll change and give you a sign when I'm ready to do this."
Jazz found herself surrounded by the others as Danny left. Sid had told the others what the problem was. They waited for Danny to return. Off in the distance was a cry of pain and moments later a cool wind blew pass Jazz's ear and a ghostly voice whispered, "let's do this."
Jazz went back to the desk. The clerk she had talked to early came over. "Something we can do for you, Miss? He asked. He stiffened for a moment then winked at Jazz. A really big, cartoon like wink. Jazz rolled her eyes. "We'd like to check in," she said, handing over her credit card.
The clerk looked at the computer in front of him as well as the various other gizmos there.
"What's the problem?" Jazz asked.
"I don't know how to do any of this."
"Just let the clerk do it."
"But -- Ok."
The clerk froze for an instant, then shook his head and asked,"How can I help you?"
"We were checking in," Jazz prompted.
"Of course, Miss Fenton. Could I see the adult in your party?"
Inwardly Jazz cursed. She had thought Danny could leave some post-hypnotic-like command to check them in. Instead the clerk remembered they were all minors.
"Get Sid," a cool breeze whispered.
Sid ambled over at her gesture. "This is our chaperone," she explained.
"Dude."
"You're the chaperone for the Fenton party?" the clerk was dubious.
"That's right, man."
"Could I see some ID?"
Sid brought out his fake ID and handed it over. The clerk frozen briefly while taking it, winked ludicrously at Jazz and said, "Fine. Thank you, Mr. Watowski." The clerk twitched again.
"Were you still using the FentonWorks credit card or Mr. Watowski's?" the clerk asked. Jazz hand over her corporate card and watched as the clerk slide it through a gizmo, typing in obscure numbers. Then typed in stuff on his computer before typing in some other numbers on a third machine than popped out door pass cards. She realized just what a problem Danny had faced when overshadowing the clerk. There was a lot more to running a hotel then they had thought. Fortunately Danny only had to overshadow the clerk long enough to accept Sid as an adult. Once the clerk had heard himself call Sid an adult it was fixed in his mind that there was an adult in the party, irrespective of how youthful Sid actually looked.
Soon Jazz had their room assignment and four entry cards. She herded the group into an elevator up to their room. The two adjoining rooms were kind of interesting. There was only one door from the hall, it opened into a six by six vestibule from which two doors opened into separate rooms. Jazz sent the boys off to the left room while the girls to the one on the right. Each room had two king-size beds. Jazz took the bed nearest the window while Sam and Altheria quickly dumped their things on the other bed, leaving Abigail looking unsure where she was sleeping. T'keisha, unaware of the undercurrents in the room, went to the window and threw open the curtains.
Their room have a great view of a vast expanse of roof, with assorted air conditioner units, vents and access doors. Somewhere off in the distance was Lake Michigan.
"For what they're charging I would have expected a better view,"Jazz said as she joined the black girl at the window.
"It is next to the convention center." Sam joined them.
"Which we're not using because there's no comics convention there."
"It was part of our cover."
"Maybe we should have just told Mom about this ghost thing. This is starting to run into a lot of money. FentonWorks may have the market on ghost detection and eradication but it doesn't bring in that much money and Dad, of course, is always spending it."
"On new technology," Danny said, coming into the room. "You gotta spend money to make money he always says. Swell digs, huh?"
"For what it's costing it'd better be."
"So what's our plan?" Abigail asked. She was hanging up a number of shirts in the room's closet, all full sleeved. Under her shirt her body was a maze of pinkish, healing scars.
"In the morning I figured we'd take the train out to T'Keisha's, split up into teams and criss-cross the city looking for the ghost. There haven't been any further signs of activity, has there?" Danny asked.
T'Keisha shook her head.
"When are we going to eat?" Tucker asked as he followed Danny into the girl's room. "I'm starving."
"There's always Room Service," Altheria suggested. She found a menu on the corner desk and started reading it out loud. "Surf and Turf. $34.95! What do they do, butch the cow personally?"
"No Room Service!" Jazz said. "No!"
"Touchy," Altheria muttered. "Here's a hamburger with fries, pickle spear and coleslaw. Sound delicious. $15.76? My god, this is like highway robbery."
"I'm sure there's a restaurant downstairs." Jazz suggested.
"In this hotel? I think it would make room service sound cheap," Sam said. "There's a coffeshop here, though."
"Good." Jazz said. "That sounds cheap."
"Right, if an eight dollar hamburger sounds cheap." Sam replied.
"Why didn't we think to pack some food?" Tucker mourned.
"It's OK, Tuck," Danny said. "I think I can afford to split an order of fries with you."
They kids got up and headed towards the door, except for Jazz who was still looking out the window.
"You coming?" Danny asked.
"It's OK. The hotel has a spa and I thought I'd have a long soak in their hot tub."
"Sounds cool," Sid said, "Mind if I join you?"
"Did you bring a swim suit?" Altheria asked tartly.
"Oh, uh."
"I'm sure the gift shop has some bathing suits," Jazz replied.
Altheria grumbled, then said, "fine," before joining the others in the hallway.
As they rode the elevator down Sam nudged Danny and asked, "What's going on with Sid and Jazz?"
"I -- uh -- may have mentioned that -- uh -- Sid -- uh --"
" 'Uh' -- what, Danny?"
"Imighthavesaid Sidhadathingforher," Danny blurted out in a single breath.
"You threw Sid at Jazz just to get her to drive us here!" Sam exclaimed.
"Thanks, jerk," Altheria slapping Danny on the shoulder, hard.
"Danny, that's despicable," Sam added.
"She wasn't going to help us otherwise. I had no choice. Besides it won't last."
"How do you know?" Altheria demanded.
"Because she's always going out with jocks and they never last more than a couple weeks," Danny explained Altheria didn't look mollified. "Oh, please don't tell me you two were dating."
"Well, not officially." Altheria confided. "I just kind of like him and he seemed to like me despite everything and..."
"Oh, great! I've screwed up again. I can't do anything right." Danny whined.
"It's OK. It's probably better to learn about it now than later." Altheria didn't sound sincere as she said that.
Danny found himself walking alone from the elevator when they reached the ground floor. And had no appetite for the hamburger he ordered.
T'keisha left after the meal, having to catch the train home before her father's curfew. She would met them at the train station in the morning. Jazz and Sid eventually returned from the spa, wrapped in towels, Laughing cheerfully. Altheria suddenly discovered she needed to go to sleep, kicking Sid out of the girl's room to do so. The boys watched TV for a while but the hotel's selection was heavily into business and political channels. They, too, decided to turn in. Tucker was soon snoring softly from his side of the big bed but Danny couldn't sleep. Altheria was mad at him, and Sam was, too. So again he had screwed up. He meant well but always it seemed he screwed thing up. Silently he cursed the day he had ever stepped into the tunnel of his parents ghost portal and had been changed into Danny Phantom.
***
Morning came inevitably. Jazz was off to go shopping, Sid trailing along like a puppy on a leash. The others filled backpacks with Fenton Finders, Spectrocorders, assorted weapons, bottled water and bagels filched from the Continental breakfast the hotel provided. Altheria had applied more rings and pins to her face than Danny had ever seen before, lined her eyes with so much mascara she looked like a raccoon and had washed the pink out of her hair and replaced it with what smelled and looked like grape kool-aid. Abigail was dressed all in white, of course and was rubbing sun-block into her face and wrists when Danny knocked on their door and entered. Sam came out of the bath room just then, giving Danny a bit of a jolt.
She was wearing a forest green undershirt, sleeveless and with a large scoop in the front. Over it was a brown mesh vest that matched the brown suede pants she wore. A woven belt run through her pant loops looking a bit like ivy leaves. Danny wanted to say how stunning she looked but the words stuck in his mouth.
Altheria looked up from what she was doing and said, "great outfit."
And then it was too late.
To say anything now would just make Danny sound like a suck-up.
***
The doorman gave them directions to the train station. It was a bit of a hike away, but they were young and excited. Altheria took to being the tour guide, pointing out various highlights as they passed, or as was more often the case, became visible in the distance. They picked up a couple maps of the region at the station and studied them on the long journey out to East Gratiot.
It was a sign of how low Danny was feeling that T'Keisha's happy grin when they -- or rather Tucker -- stepped out of the train actually made him feel better. The train station was only several blocks from T'Keisha's house. She lead them to the play ground where only a few nights before they had hide the Specter Speeder when fighting Technus 0.7's first appearance. On a picnic table there they spread out a map and T'Keisha pointed out the various places where the ghost had manifested itself. There seemed to be no apparent pattern to the ghost's movement.
Danny suggested they split into groups and head off in different directions from the park, it being as close to the center of Technus' activities as any place. They would call the others on their cell phones if they got any positive response on the Fenton Finders.
"Ok," T'Keisha agreed. " Tucker and I will go south, towards those ATM machines...."
"Wait," Altheria objected. "I don't know how to say this, but, ah, maybe T'Keisha and Tuck ought to be part of two separate groups."
"Aww," Tucker complained.
"It's like this, Snowball and I," Altheria jerked her thumb toward's Abigail, "kind of stick out. No offense intended but a couple of white girls running around here are going to stick out."
"But if I were with you, it would be OK?" T'keisha asked.
"I can take care of myself," Abigail objected.
"Because I'm black?" T'keisha said. She didn't sound happy.
"Yes. No. This isn't coming out right."
"Your saying you don't feel safe here because you're white?" T'Keisha accused.
"I'm saying...."
"I think she has a point," Danny injected. "No offense, but a bunch of white kids running around here would stand out. But if they've in the company of you or Tucker people won't think anything of it."
"Nothing would happen to you here. This is a nice place," T'Keisha insisted.
"Yeah, but let's not take any chances."
"Fine, I'll take her." T'Keisha pointed to Abigail.
"OK, I'll take Sam," Tucker said.
"Why don't you take Altheria, instead," Sam suggested. "In case Danny has to..." She didn't say what but Tucker nodded and said "Oh, yeah."
"We'll call every hour on the hour if we don't find anything. Call immediately if something turns up." Danny directed as they got up and left the park.
***
Danny and Sam were walking west towards a business district. Danny had the Fenton Finder out. He was going through a number of settings. The display continued to show a flat field, absent any ectoplasm.
"Here's the intersection where the lights went crazy," Sam told him. They stop and scanned the intersection first with the Finder and then with the Spectrascope. The latter picked up some residual ectoplasm but it was so weak and diffuse that they could learn nothing from it.
"Let's try a couple blocks over," Sam suggested, "that's where another traffic light acted up."
But even there the specter traces were too faint to tell them anything.
Sam was trying to find where another traffic light incident has occurred when their cell phone rang. Tucker and Altheria were reporting in. They hadn't found anything yet. Tucker had barely rung off when T'Keisha and Abigail called, also to report nothing. With a sigh Danny closed his phone and dropped in his pocket. Sam had located another traffic light incident and they trudged off.
"I probably could cover a lot more ground as Danny Phantom," he suggested.
"Go ahead. This walking around is boring."
Danny didn't do anything.
"Aren't you going to go ghost?" When Danny still didn't say anything Sam asked, "Is that burn still hurting that much?"
"Yeah."
"Have you tried staying Danny Phantom so it might heal?"
"I haven't had a chance. People keep expecting me to be me. And even if I did have a couple hours when I could be Danny Phantom...it just hurts too much making the change. This sucks."
"Does it look like it's getting any better?"
"The times I've had to go ghost haven't been exactly time when I could take a leisurely gander at old wounds."
"All the more reason for you to change now before any emergency so we can take a look at it. If we do find Techus 0.7 today you're going to need to change, so do it now so we can do this other thing."
"You're starting to nag like my mother."
"It only sounds like nagging because I'm right."
Before Danny could think of a good answer his cell beeped. "Yo, Danster," Altheria boomed, "We're found Technus! We're at -- uh -- 146th and Richard Daley. What now?"
"We'll be right there," Danny replied. "Keep him in sight but don't try to provoke him. He can be pretty dangerous."
"Saved by the bell," Sam quipped.
"Hardly. Now I've got to chance for sure. I'll -- go behind that dumpster. Warn me if anyone comes around."
"The streets been empty all day," Sam said rolling her eyes. "Go ahead, knock yourself out."
There was a brief flicker of light as Danny went ghost, and a very loud cry but moments later invisible hands picked Sam off the street and whisked her towards where Altheria and Tucker were.
Danny dropped Sam off a block away then spend on to find Technus.
He wasn't hard to miss, floating above a small shopping center, causing the electric lines to whip through the air like sparking snakes, and laughing crazily.
Seeing Technus, Danny just lost it. All the angry, the self-criticism, doubts boiled up inside. Danny speed full-tilt towards Technus, crashing into him with hammering force. Technus crashed to the parking lot with a thud that left a dent in the asphalt. Danny turned and hurled towards the ghost. He raised a ball of green ectoplasm in his hand and flung it on ahead of himself. It caught Technus in the face as he was just getting off the ground. Then Danny plowed into him, knocking Technus across the small lot into a beat-up Bruick parked on the street.
The car fell into pieces as the ghost climbed out of it. A bumper levitated into the air and hurled towards Danny. He easily dodged and laced more fireballs of ectoplasm towards the ghost. Technus snarled and sent the electric lines whipping Danny's way but bolts of ectoplasm cut them down before they got in his way. With a curse the ghost sprinted into one of the stores in the shopping center.
Danny followed in pursuit, phasing through the storefront as it it weren't there. The room was dim, obscure following the bright afternoon light outside. He couldn't see Technus anywhere.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Danny blanched. The store Technus has run into was an appliance center. He was floating in a room filled with hundred of technological devices, any one of them a weapon at the hands of Technus, Master of all things Technical!
Slowly Danny drifted down the aisles looking for his enemy. At any minute he expected a washer to launch itself at him, or for some fancy hi-end headphones to leap off the wall and try to strangle him with their long cables. Where could Technus have hidden, Danny wondered.
"Looking for me?" a chorus of voices suddenly queried on his left. Danny spun and gasped as he saw fully a half-dozen Technus 0.7's rising above a counter filled with computers.
"You're good, child. Very good, but Technus 0.7 is better, smarter, faster," the cloned ghosts were saying in eerie unison. As Danny watched in horror, more ghosts were oozing out of the computers.
Danny realized, with a terrible chill running down his spine, that if those computers were connected to the internet Technus would be able to spread throughout the world. That, he had to prevent, above all else. With a scream Danny launched himself towards the flock of Technuses. A monitor rose to smash into him. Keyboards slapped at him like awkward bats. Mouses darted about him like mosquitos. Danny was painfully driven back. But not before one burst of ecto-plasmic fire burst a computer. The Technus emerging from the computer wailed as it de-rezed and vanished.
Danny made another charge and again was driven back. The room was beginning to become crowded with Technuses. Some were starting to drift out of the building to look for more technology to harness to their will -- whatever that goal was.
Sam had found Tucker and Altheria. The three of them were waiting across the street from the shopping center for some direction from Danny. T'Keisha and Abigail were hurrying to join them. When the first of the Technuses emerged from the building Tucker nailed it with a shot from a heavy-gauge Fenton Blaster. It popped like a balloon, as much to their surprise as its. The other Technuses turned towards Tucker and slowly began to advance. Tucker fired again but this time the Technus it hit didn't explode, disappear or drop from the sky. It was bowled over and driven against the side of the building but after a moment picked itself up and resumed advancing towards the four teen-agers.
"What the heck happened inside?" Altheria cried. She had fumbled out a Fenton blaster and was trying to hit a ghost with its beam of supernatural energy.
"Where's Danny?" Sam asked.
A burst of shots from the side caused four Technuses to implode. T'Keisha and Abigail had arrived.
Abigail was using something that looked like a giant .45 automatic, something she have swiped from her father office before coming to Chicago. It was more powerful than the blaster that Tucker was using but the way a spent cartridge was ejected each time she shot it, the gun wouldn't be useful for very long, its limited supply of bullets spent.
"I thought Danny said there was only one ghost here?" She demanded petulantly.
"Didn't he mention that it cloned itself from an email?" Sam snarled back.
"Not like this he didn't."
"You should have stayed in DC, where you belong!"
"And miss out on this?" Abigail popped a clip out of the butt of her gun and slammed a fresh clip in. "No way!"
"Idiot." Sam muttered.
She was going to say more but suddenly heard a faint keening sound rifling through the air. A sound she'd heard before. "Cover your ears!" Sam shouted.
"What?" Abigail began but then the thin keening turned into a deep throated wailing, a roaring like a million tornados. The front of the appliance store exploded out, smashed into a million splinters. Abigail was thrown to the ground and covered with debris. When the horrendous wailing ceased she slowly pulled herself out from under the rubble. She wiped her hand across her face and stared in anger at the globs of red blood she found there. "Not again," she cried petulantly.
Sam was also climbing to her feet. She grabbed Tucker's heavy blaster and started running towards the store.
"What are you doing?" Altheria called.
"Danny's in there."
"Are you crazy?" Altheria demanded from Sam's side. "There must be a million copies of Technus in there."
"He needs our help."
"The frigging building just exploded. I don't think anyone can help him now."
Sam paused at the front of the building. "You don't have to be here," she told Altheria.
"Come on, we're best buds. I'll go anyplace you do. I just don't know why you think this is such a good idea."
"The ghostly wail completely drains Danny. he won't be able to protect himself from the Technuses."
"Oh, Danny Phantom! I thought you meant the Fenton kid." The smoke was beginning to clear out. Sam cautiously stepped over the rubble into the building.
"You know, one of those two ought to change their name," Altheria was saying as she followed Sam into the building, "so people won't keep confusing the two."
"Yeah, right," Sam absent-mindedly replied. "Look for white hair and glowing eyes. The black suit of his doesn't help much right now."
"What are the odds of two people having the same first name like that?" Altheria wondered. The Technuses were spilling out of the building, there being no appliances left for them to use.
"Just look for Danny," Sam snapped.
But a moment later invisible hands grabbed both Sam and Altheria and flew them out of the building and across the street to where Tucker, Abigail and T'Keisha were waiting.
"Danny," Sam was calling, "Are you all right?"
"You don't want to know," the invisible voice answered, fading away even as he spoke. Moments later Danny became visible behind the ranks of Technuses, unloading as wall of fire on them.
The wall was weak, the Technuses numbered so many that it barely affected them.
Danny tried another maneuver, blasting the top off a fire hydrant and directing the fountaining water into the mass of ghosts. But the ghosts had evolved beyond where water could affect them.
The crowd of Technuses became disassembling the cars parked along the street, sending the parts hurtling at Danny. As he dodged them he took small comfort in the fact that they hadn't gotten the idea yet to reassemble the car into a giant robot. The other Technus, the real Technus had, and those spectral robots had been hard to defeat. Perhaps another Ghostly Wail? But already he knew that he didn't have the energy within him for that.
Think! Think! There had to be some way to defeat even these dozens of Technuses...
Was it time to call in the big-guns, the pros? His Dad and Mom could there in under an hour with the Specter Speeder, the Guys in White would be rather longer since they had farther to travel. But could even they be enough? Sam and Abigail was already using the best of their weapons. And even if every Guys in White showed up they were still be out-numbered twenty to one.
Even as Danny circled the cloud of Technii picking off stragglers with concentrated ectoplasm fire the answer was coming to him. It was wild. It was crazy. It was breath-takingly audacious. And the more he thought about it, the more it seemed like the only answer. Fight fire with fire. Fight Technus with...
Danny swooped down next to Sam. "I've got an idea," he told her. "But I'm going to need some help."
"Sure what do you want me to do?"
"I want you to organize a safe withdrawal. It's going to take me a couple hours to get what I need, so you've got to keep the Technuses engages so they won't think about infecting another computer and spread across the Internet, but don't get them so worked up that they actually attack you."
"I thought you said you needed help?"
"I do. But I'm going to take--" Danny looked around the small group. Abigail and Altheria were standing shoulder to shoulder, watching each other's back at they carefully picked off Technuses who wandered too close. Tucker was standing next to T'Keisha globbing ectoplasm from a Fenton bazooka. T'Keisha -- T'Keisha held a blaster in a shakey hand. From time to time she'd push the trigger but because her hand was shaking so much she had yet to hit anything.
"--I'm going to take -- that girl!" He pointed at T'Keisha.