Chapter 8 -- Home Invasion

Jack Fenton was humming to himself as he entered the lab in the FentonWorks basement. He was looking for an thingamajig to fix the framinstat. Jack knew what he needed he wasn't always clean on what exactly it was called.

He walked pass the empty cradle for the Specter Speeder to a workbench where he opened a deep drawer and fumbled around in it for a moment before extracting something looked like a cross between a hand clamp and a dentist's drill. He spun the drill a couple times to test if the battery was still charged and turned and walked back to the stairs. As he was putting his foot on the first step he looked back at the room, puzzled. Something was misplaced. The box of half-eaten pizza? No, he's finished that earlier. Had he left the barrier to the Ghost Zone Portal open -- again? No, that was tightly shut. Had he left his Packer's sweatshirt in the Specter Speeder? He looked over to the empty cradle. Hmmmm?

Jack went upstair to the kitchen where Maddie, fully encased in her hazmat uniform, hood pulled over her wavy auburn hair, goggles fixed over her eyes was pouring a kettle of pasta into a strainer in the sink.

"Ahh, spaghetti-- " Jack savored the smell of hot starch-laden water. Then he remembered why he came up stairs. "Maddie, love, do you remember where I left my Packer's sweater? There's a practice game on the cable and I want to be ready."

"I saw it in the Specter Speeder, Sweetie." Maddie added a stick of butter to the hot pasta and swirled it around to coat all the strands.

"The Specter Speeder's gone. Did one of the kids borrow it?"

"You told them to stop taking it out on joy-rides, remember."

"That I remember. But it's still not here."

"Well, it must be here, Jack. The kids are at that comics convention so there's no one who could possibly have taken it."

"Ah, yes, the comics convention. I remember going to my first ghost convention... I met you there..."

"Jack, sweetie. We met in college, at Professor Bushrod's class on Ectoplasmic physics."

"Ah, yes. It was love at first sight."

"I was the only girl there. And had gone out on two dates with Vlad Masters before you even noticed me."

"And you married me anyway."

"Vlad was always way too controlling. And he never made me laugh like you did."

"And you were the only one who laughed with me and not at me." Jack reached over and kissed her.

"Oh, Jack," she purred.

"None the less the Specter Speeder is missing."

"Well, that's just not so. Come on, I'll show you." Maddie turned the heat down on the sauce and lead Jack back to the stairs.

***

Danny's stomach was growling by the time he saw Amity Park raising in the distance. Not that he ever eat or drank while in his ghost form. It seemed not to need conventional food. But he still got hunger around lunch and dinner time, as if his regular body was still there, somewhere, sending him reminders. At the moment he was bone tired more so than he was hungry. He found the brightly lit FentonWorks sign ahead and, taking the Speeder intangible, swooped through the walls of the brownstone building and into the basement. Carefully he sat the craft down on its cradle and began shutting down the systems. He closed his eyes for a moment, knowing that it would be a long trip flying back to Chicago.

His eyes popped open just as quickly as he heard his parents coming down the stairs. He turned invisible just as they entered the room. His father looked flabbergasted. "It wasn't here a minute ago," he argued.

"Of course it was, honey," his mother was saying. "You know how absent-minded you are. let's get your sweater and go have supper."

"But I could have swore..." Jack insisted, then followed his wife into the Speeder. He found his sweater wadded up on the floor. Maddie picked it up and shook it out. It feel into several pieces. "Now that's strange," she muttered. "It looks like it's been through a war."

Danny decided he didn't want to find out what they thought of that, and speed out of the building and back to the sunset and Chicago.

***

Danny flew straight to the hotel, changed into his human self in an empty bathroom and rode the elevator up to their room. Despite the time spent traveling to and from Amity Park returning the Specter Speeder, he arrived only a short time after the other had. He had worked out a story, lame as it was, about staying behind to make sure all the Technuses had been captured and the scene was safe until the Guys in White appeared. He'd also been guarding the back of the appliance store to deal with any Technuses who tried to get out that way.

He hated lying to his friends, especially when it was such an unbelievably lame effort, but they didn't seem to question him, which was a relief. It was a pain in the neck working with a 'Team Fenton' that didn't know he was a ghost. It was so much easier just doing things with Sam and Tucker. He never had to explain to them where Danny Fenton was while he was being Danny Phantom. It would be so much easier if he could explain to the others who and what he was, but as long as Abigail was a part of the 'team' and as long as she was determined to be a Guy in White, he could never afford to let her know he was a ghost.

They'd picked up some pizza on the way back to the hotel. Danny had a slice then laid down. Without his ghost form's supernatural sources of energy, Danny was suddenly exhausted. He was asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

***

Some time later a clatter of voices from the other room intruded on his rest. Apparently Jazz and Sid had returned from their day of shopping.

Jazz asked, casually, how they day went.

Altheria replied, "Haven't you heard the news?" as if someone shopping kept one ear to a radio.

Jazz must have looked baffled because after a pause Altheria went on, "half of East Gratiot is up in smoke."

"Oh, my god!" Jazz exclaimed. 'Is your family alright?" This was clearly addressed to T'Keisha. Danny couldn't hear her reply. Tucker cut in, though, to say that the destruction was confined to only a few blocks and that it wasn't nearly as bad as all that.

T'Keisha must has said something else because after a moment Danny could hear Tucker speaking softly and not intelligible in the boys room where Danny was pretending to be asleep."There were hundreds of Technuses. They kept pouring out of this appliance store. I thought we were going to be over-run." That was Altheria, dramatizing events.

"There were only eighty to a hundred." Danny held his breath as Abigail spoke. "And their numbers stopped increasing once the store exploded. What did you say that was?"

"The Ghostly Wail," said Sam as if the words were being tortured out of her.

"But they were more than we could handle," Abigail continued, "and were driving us back."

"And taking stuff apart like a kid exploring a tinker toy town," Altheria, still not sensing how upset T'Keisha was about having even a part of her town destroyed.

"Danny brought in Technus to shut the clones down," Tucker spoke.

"He brought Technus to Earth!" Jazz shouted. Even in the other room Danny kind of winced at that. "Where is he?" Jazz demanded.

"On the desk."

"That's a Thermos. Where's Danny?"

"Ah," that was Sam, trying to sound a warning to Jazz. "Your brother is sleeping in the other room. Ghost boy is returning the Specter Speeder."

There must have been a snarl from Jazz but before Danny could be sure his sister had stormed into the boys room, slamming the door behind her. She threw the light on and shook him roughly by the shoulder.

"What?" Danny asked, pretending to be just waking up.

"Why did you bring Technus here?"

"There were too many clones, Jazz. I never expected them to start multiplying in that appliance store and then it was too late to do anything but destroy the store so they couldn't make any more."

"You couldn't call in Mom and Dad? Or the Guys in White?"

"Not enough man-power, not enough time."

"He was in Walker's Prison! How did you get him out of there?"

"I sort of blew it up."

"So we've got Walker coming after you -- again! And a megalomaniacal ghost in the next room?"

"No, Vlad is in Wisconsin. Technus is only maniacal."

"He could have used that clones to take over the world.!"

"He tried. That's why he's back in the thermos."

"Grrrrr," Jazz got up and stormed around the room for a bit.

"And you borrowed the Specter Speeder? Why did you have me drive all you down here if you were going to steal the Speeder?"

"I didn't think we would need the Speeder but when I had to get Technus it was the fastest way to get back here with him."

"What if Mom or Dad find it missing?"

"I think maybe Dad did."

"WHAT!"

"Keep your voice down," Danny warned. 'I think Dad may have seen it missing but I'm counting on his absent-mindedness to explain it away."

"Dad is absent-minded," Jazz thought for a moment. "So why didn't you throw Technus back in the Ghost Zone when you took the Speeder back?"

"Because he tried to take over the world. We had an agreement. No taking over the world today. He broke the agreement, so he's spending a couple days in the Thermos."

"Are you insane? He's dangerous!"

"Relax, Jazz. No one has ever escaped from the Fenton Thermos. Not me, not Vlad, Dark Dan and certainly not our so-called Master of all things technical."

"Danny, you're just inviting trouble. I want you to get rid of him immediately."

"Jazz, I've already flown to Amity Park and back once today. I'm not doing it again."

Danny rolled over and closed his eyes as if to say 'this interview is over,' but Jazz grabbed his shoulder and rolled him back to where she could look him in the eye. "Ohhhh," she growled, "and to think I bought you a souvenir."

"Really?" Danny shot up in bed, "what is it?"

Jazz pushed him back down, "You're not getting it now because you're being such brat!"

"Aww, Jazz..."

"Brat!" and she stormed out of the room.

***

Danny tried going back to sleep but it wouldn't come. He got up and wandered into the next room to see what everyone else was up to.

Jazz was piling up empty pizza boxes in corner by the door, picking up empty pop cans and tossing them into the bathroom trash can and otherwise straightened up the room. Danny couldn't recall ever seeing her being that fussy at home but maybe she was trying to compensate for not actually being part of the group.

"Is there any pizza left?" he asked. "I only had a slice earlier."

Silently, Jazz handed him a box from the desk. It was vegetarian, with a lot of olives, which Danny hated. He picked out the olives then nibbled the cleared areas. He'd never had broccoli, cauliflower and carrots on a pizza before but it wasn't bad.. He knew this had to be Sam's pizza. Fortunately she wasn't one of those vegetarians who shunned milk and cheese as well. Plenty of cheese had been piled up on this one.

Sid was ensconced in the one padded chair in the room. He had his shoes kicked off and looked tired. From the way he was constantly moving about in the chair and wiggling the toes of his feet Danny guessed he was sore from all the walking and standing around he and Jazz had done that day. Tucker and T'Keisha sat on the end of the first bed, Tucker with his arm around the girl, T'Keisha laying her head on his shoulder. Every so often she would sniff and wipe her eyes.

Sam, Altheria and Abigail were scattered around the other bed, sometimes watching Tucker and T'Keisha, sometimes watching as baseball game Sid had turned on and sometimes watching Jazz fuss about the room. Sam must have showered after they came back because she was wearing her different clothes -- her usual plaid skirt and dark belly Tee. Altheria must also have showered. The grape was gone from her hair, which was a surprising honey blonde. The sort of blonde so many girls would die for. Trust Altheria to hide her prettiest feature under some weird kool-aid dye job, Danny thought.

Abigail had put on a short sleeves Tee and was rubbing lotion onto her arms. Several band-aids were stuck on her face but overall she didn't look as bad as she had when hit by the ghost they'd fought at Camp Sleepy Hollow.

The last trash picked up, Jazz sat down at the room's desk and began removing stuff from her shopping bags, unwrapping them and admiring the things she'd bought. There were a couple of shirts, a skirt and a dress that looked like it was only half there. Danny could imagine the fight that would spawn the first time Jazz tried to wear it. From the way Sid was blushing maybe she already had. The girls, of course, were cooing over it -- well at least Abigail was. Altheria didn't look like the type who would ever wear a dress, Sam preferred things in dark colors and this was a kind of bold peach color that matched Jazz's hair. And T'Keisha was too upset over the damage done to her city.

Jazz proceed to unwrap and rewrap several small figurines. Danny thought one of them was a paperweight bust of Sigmund Freud. There was some jewelry, which Alteria did find interesting, earrings, a necklace. Jazz folded one bag over something that looked like an over-sized book, apparently the souvenir he wasn't getting.

Afer wrapping all her purchases up and packing them carefully in a couple of the pricier shopping bags, Jazz turned to Danny.

"What are you guys planning on doing tomorrow now that you've caught your ghost?"

"Rest. I think we all had a pretty hard day today," Danny suggested.

"I was thinking of going to Navy Pier,' Sid said. 'I hear it's pretty awesome."

"If you like ferris wheels," Alteria said, "And that kind of childish stuff."

"What's wrong with liking ferris wheels?"

"I thought we could go to the Science and Industry Museum," Tucker suggested.

"Art Institute." That was Sam's suggestion.

"I think you ought to work on your alibi,' Jazz said.

"What alibi? No one saw us today." Danny asked, confused.

"Your so-called Comics Convention. There may not actually be one this weekend but Mom and Dad think there is and they will be surprised if you come back without any convention goodies."

"Oh," Danny was surprised that he hadn't thought of that before. His mind was flying with questions, where was he going to get souvenir bags, logoed caps, autographed comics, the sort of stuff one tended to pick up a convention.

"If you just need some comics I know a pretty good shop near my home. It's close to the train station so you should be able to get there from here easily enough. It also has figurines, manga, some movie posters and they always have flyers all over the place for other conventions.""Nothing says convention like flyers for other conventions," Tucker quipped.

"I've got to go out in public looking like this?" Abigail groused.

"You don't have to come, if you don't want to," Sam reminded the red-head cheerfully. "This is really just for Danny, Tucker and I since we're the ones who told our parents we're going to a comics convention."

"And sit around in this hotel all day? No way. I'm coming." Abigail looked like she wanted to stick her tongue out at Sam but thought wiser of it.

"I should go, too," T'Keisha said, "If my Daddy will let me. I told him I was going to a convention, too, so I should pick up some comics."

"Great," Tucker exclaimed, not realizing before that T'Keisha might be grounded because of the troubles in her home town.

Sid said he'd go, too. Jazz didn't seem too affected by his desertion. Danny guessed that Sid hadn't been prepared for Jazz's all day marathon shopping.

"Ok, what time do we want to go?" Danny asked.

"Time? Oh, no!" T'Keisha suddenly exclaimed. "Daddy told me to be home by nine O'clock and its already eight-thirty. I'll never get home in time. He is going to be so mad."

"No problem," Danny suggested. "I'll call Danny Phantom. He can fly you to your home and get you there well before nine."

T'Keisha looked at Danny intently for a moment, then looked away. "No, don't bother. I'm sure he's very tired. I'll just call home and tell them I'll be late."

"It's be no problem. I'm sure he's rested up from today, and would hate to see you get in trouble with your parents." Danny argued.

Tucker was looking at her funny, as well. "What's the problem?" he asked.

"It's nothing," she protested.

"Does the flying bother you, because the first couple times it did me?"

"No that's not it," she said but she wouldn't elaborate.

Danny hopped from his seat and grabbed her hand, "Come on, lets get you home," pulling her towards the door before she could argue.

She resisted for a moment before finally giving in, afraid to make a scene in front of her new found friends. But when Danny lead her to a secluded area near the vending machines on their floor she pulled free and said "You don't have to pretend, Danny."

"What?" Danny pulled up short, confused.

"You're not going to 'call' Danny Phantom -- because you ARE Danny Phantom."Danny blanched. Icy fingers tickled down his spine. His vision actually darkened for a moment. He put a hand on the hall to steady himself.

"No, I'm not. Do I look like a ghost? Do I look anything like him." Sam and Tucker had frequently reassured Danny that as a ghost he neither looked or talked anything like he did normally. There was some kind of spectral aura that changed people's perception of him.

"I don't know about that but I just spent all afternoon listening to you, never looking at you, just listening and I realized that you talk just like you do when you're not a ghost. I was constantly confusing what 'Danny Phantom' was saying with what Danny 'Fenton' would said."Danny leaned back against the hotel corridor's wall, then slowly slide to the floor. He was just shaking his head and softly muttering 'god' over and over.

"Just say you are and take me home, OK?"

"You just guessed? By listening to me? How many other people know? Did you tell anyone? I am so screwed!"

"I'm sorry," T'Keisha said after a moment, in embarrassment. "I didn't know it was so important to you. I mean it seemed so obvious to me." After a moment she added, "I haven't told anyone. I thought about maybe telling Tucker because I thought he already knew, then I thought maybe I should talk to you first."

"Thanks. I appreciate that." With an effort Danny got to his feet again. "Oh, man," he said to no one in particular, then wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I can't believe I'm crying like a girl." He looked up at T'Keisha and hastily added, "No offense intended."

"You know, crying is one of the ways the body dumps excess hormones out of the brain." "Really?"

"That's why crying is good for you."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Danny wonder. T'Keisha just shrugged.

"Man, I can't stop thinking about what all this means." Danny was walking in circles, muttering.

"I won't tell anyone if that's what you want. Honest I won't."

"Thanks.' Danny waved his hand uncertainly. "You -- home -- we've gotta do that first. I've got to change. Would you rather I went around the corner to do that?"

T'Keisha nodded.

"Ok -- ah -- the screaming isn't normally part of the process so don't pay any attention to it."

"Screaming?" But Danny had already vanished around the corner. There was a brief flash of light followed by a deep groan. When he came back he was dressed in a black jumpsuit with the letter D on the chest. "I must be getting better," he mumbled, "That didn't hurt nearly as much as it did this morning."

"Are you hurt?" T'Keisha asked even as she turned away from Danny's face.

"Got blasted a couple days ago. I was beginning to think it wasn't ever going to heal. Must have been all the time I spent today as Danny Phantom."

He paused. "How do you want to do this. I can levitate you with just the touch of your hand."

"I think I'd rather ride on your back. I'd feel safer that way."

"Fine by me. Just -- no choking, OK?"

Danny found himself almost swallowed up by T'Keisha's long legs and arms as she climbed on to his back. When she was settled Danny phased through the hotel walls and unto the night sky. He got his orientation and took off towards East Gratiot. As they flew he told her about how he have been turned into Danny Phantom and that indeed Tucker and Sam and Jazz all knew about his double life.

He let her off a block from her house and stayed long enough to see her go in. A look at his watch showed that it was three minutes to Nine. Cutting it kind of close.

Danny pushed himself into the air and drifted back to the hotel a lot slower than he had come out. He was still in shock over T'Keisha guessing his secret. If she could guess it after knowing him for such a short while, how many other people knew or at least guessed than Danny Fenton was also Danny Phantom.

***

As he neared the hotel Danny found himself reluctant to return to their rooms. He looked to the north where the downtown was ablaze in lights. He considered cruising through there seeing what all the excitement was all about. But he didn't want to do it as a ghost, invisible to all others. And he didn't feel like changing, even though it hurt a lot less than it did before. It still hurt -- a lot.

The top of hotel was divided into a number of sections. One area was all vents and air conditioner units, another was filled with numerous lights, small tables and lots of people milling about. Danny guessed that was a patio for a bar. Off to the side was another area, set off by fencing, filled with larger tables. The restaurant's patio, closed now for the evening. He found a spot as removed from the bar's patio as possible and settled down on the wall surrounding the restaurant area and brooded.

"There you are?"

A girl's voice cut through the night some time later.

"Sam?"

"No, it's me," Altheria said, walking up to Danny. "Why did you think I was Sam? Were you expecting her? Do you two have some secret thing going on? Does Fenton know? 'Cause he seem to have a thing for Sam, too."

While she was speaking Altheria had grabbed one of the painted iron chairs from a near- by table and drawn it up next to the wall, which was chest high. Higher than normal for a wall, anyway, to keep people from falling over. Before Danny knew it, she had humped her butt up on the wall and was starting to swing her legs over the edge.

"What are you doing? Don't. It's too dangerous up here."

"I bet the view is wonderful. Why else would you be sitting on a wall out here?" Altheria had both feet dangling over the edge of the wall now. Swinging them with carefree ease. "Not as great a view as advertise. But straight down -- now that's a view!"

"Be careful. You could fall."

"So could you."

"I'm a ghost. I can fly." Danny explained.

"Then you'll catch me if I fall."

"We're not up high enough,"Danny complained. "You'd probably hit the ground before I realized what was happening."

"I'm sure you can react faster than that." Altheria continued to look through her legs at the ground below. After a moment she asked, "You ever hear voices, when you're up high someplace, looking down, telling you to jump?"

Danny spun and grabbed an arm and held on to it tightly. "The only voices I ever hear are the ones telling me not to do stupid stuff."he said.

The girl shook her arm but Danny wouldn't let go. "I'm not going to jump," she said. 'I tried that already. It wasn't fun."

"You jumped?"

"Naw, tried to cut my wrists." Altheria held out her wrist for Danny's inspection but in the dark he couldn't see anything. "Did it all wrong according to the experts in the loony bin. Superficial cut with lots of blood. Mom rushed my to the hospital then threw me in the looney bin. Now there's a place that will depress you. You go in thinking no one in the whole world could be as unhappy and messed up as you are, only to find that compared to all the other inmates, you're the normal one."

"I'd love to be normal," Danny muttered quietly, but Altheria heard him anyway.

"Don't you like being a ghost?" she nudged.

"It's no fun."

"Not even the flying part, because I would love to be able to fly? What wouldn't I give to be able to soar above the cloud, to see the world from a thousand miles high and put all the cares and suffering behind me. Isn't that worth being a ghost?"

Danny looked at the punk girl for a moment, wondering where all that had come from. For a moment he had felt a connection with her. While being a ghost sucked since all it meant was fighting one ghost or another all the time, he did have to admit that the flying part was nice. But then his spirits fell. "There's nothing up there," he answered, "No air a thousand -- even ten -- miles up. Eventually you always have to come back down.

"Yeah? Bummer. So they put me on Valium and Prozac afterwards. The Valiums made me loopy in a pleasant sort of way; the Prozac just seemed to be feeding the darkness. Then I heard on the news that Prozac was linked to teen-age suicides. I flushed them down the toilet and never went back."

"Did that help?"

"I'm sitting on the wall of a hotel seven stories up talking to a ghost. I have so much metal stuck in my skin that I can set off metal detectors without ever walking through them. Does that answer your question?"

No, Danny thought, but he didn't care for this topic at all. "Why would you want to talk to a ghost?" he asked instead.

"Curiosity, of course. What's it like being dead? What was it like dying? Cutting my wrists was painful. Does dying always hurt? Does anything change for the better in the afterlife?"

Danny almost blurted out "I'm not dead" to stop her asking these questions, then remembered that if he told her that, he would have to explain how he could be a ghost but not dead. Searching for an answer he thought back to the day he did become a ghost. 'It hurt. A lot. I've never felt such pain before or since. It was like I was being pulled in two then had salt rubbed into every pore."

"Ew! How did you die," Alteria persisted. "Did you fall off a building? Get hit by a truck?"

"It was an electrical thing."

"Shocking." She said, then started laughing. "O, God, I'm sorry. That must not be very funny to you. 'Shocking'." She continued laughing.

She was bent over laughing so hard that Danny was afraid she's lose her balance.

"Altheria, If I come down off the wall, will you come down, too?"

Altheria sat up but instead of swinging her feet back over the wall, she suddenly leaned in to Danny and kissed him, hard, full on the lips.

She caught him by surprise and in a bit of a panic Danny tried to scramble back away from her -- and fell off the wall to the patio floor. Altheria caught herself as she fell into the space where Danny had been a moment before. She looked at him lying on the patio floor looking as shocked and dismayed as a ghost could and asked, "What was that all about?"

A question Danny himself was asking.

Altheria swung her legs over the wall and slipped down to the floor, then swatted beside Danny who was still too shocked to move.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah," Danny grunted then started to sit up.

"What happened? You acted like you'd never been kissed before?"

"Not like that," he said getting to his feet.

"You died before you'd ever been kissed by a girl? That is so sad."

"What were you thinking? You could have knocked us both off?" Danny complained.

"I just wondered what it would feel like to kiss a ghost."

"You could have warned me."

"You would have said no. Besides you never warn someone when you're about to kiss them. It takes all the magic away."

" 'Magic?' On top a seven story building I think a little warning would have been a good idea." Danny complained.

"Oh, come on," Altheria persisted, "don't tell me you didn't enjoy it."

"I think I've had enough human company for the night," Danny said, starting to walk away. He paused and turned around. "Did you -- enjoy it?" he asked.

"A girl never kisses and tells," Altheria laughed.

Danny walked a way a few paces and turned invisible. He waited till Altheria left the restaurant patio and rode the elevator down to their rooms. He watched her slide the card pass through the door lock and enter. He waited a good ten minutes before drifting down to the vending machine alcove, which was empty and changed back to Danny Fenton. He walked back, slide his pass card through the lock and found his bed. He dropped his jeans and shirt on the floor and crawled in but sleep eluded him for some time. His lips tingled from Alteria's touch.