I was sick yesterday but the chapter's finally out! Tell me what you think, criticism or no I appreciate it.
It was even worse than a nightmare. The mere thought of awakening to Tucker's face directly next to hers was enough to cause her to cringe, and his closeness resulted in a loud scream. Sam leapt up, brandishing her fists like weapons and slapping him across the face as a natural reaction. He winced in pain before pushing her down to the ground. "Are you nuts?" He squealed, and Jazz turned to face the both of them in awe and confusion.
"Wakey-wakey Sammy." She teased, flourishing a needle and strand of string in her right hand. "I'm almost done refitting that suit for you. You'll look like an X-Man in no time." She promised, tossing two grainy sorts of breakfast bars in her general direction. Caught off guard, Sam only succeeded in swatting them at Tucker.
"Hey!" He shouted obtusely, throwing them back at their intended target before pouting. "Why don't I get a fancy jumpsuit?" He questioned with an expression so laughable that both Sam and Jazz broke out into peals of giggles, which he did not appreciate. "I'm in an abandoned building with two hot girls-" The objects of his scrutiny blushed. "And still they'd rather laugh at me than flirt with me!" He whined with only partial seriousness, which was good for his ego when the pair made no attempt to apologize.
When Sam grew tired of the 'emasculate Tucker' game she finally spoke, "What about the rest of the gang, is there anyone else around who comes down to headquarters?" Her sarcasm was noted and rewarded with a frown by the alpha-leader herself.
"A lot of them are incognito, but we have a few field-agents who report back via some of the FentonWorks paraphernalia, the nasal walkie-talkies, the poltergeist-pager, stuff that can keep us off any radar that he might have laid out for us." She was grim but concise. "You'd be surprised at our arsenal, if he knew what we had, I doubt he'd be playing complacent specter." She commented with a touch of pride that was easy to identify. "If we still had…" There was an uncomfortable beat in which both Tucker and Jazz exchanged a 'should we tell her' look that disappeared the instant Sam noted it. Tuck even began to whistle innocently while Jazz twiddled her thumbs.
"What?" Sam questioned evenly, her ability to contain her emotions and compose any and all telltale expressions that may betray her curiosity. The two ghost hunters looked at one another before glancing at themselves and simultaneously mouthed 'moi?' Sam was sick of playing coy. "Okay, what happened? I get that you won't tell me about Danny-" They flinched at the name, reacting like one in JK Rowling's universe may respond to the mention of Voldemort. "but whatever is going on that you've been walking on eggshells over can't be a secret anymore." She was a master of persuasion, though she rarely had to use this talent when she could always threaten and pummel before.
Tucker glanced at Jazz helplessly and she glanced at him softly before he spoke. "It was over a year ago, when all of this started to get serious. Valerie went up against him, but Jazz really didn't want her to. She…wanted to take him out, and thought that she could with her ghost-suit and cool Green Goblin glider. She didn't even last three minutes before she…" He trailed off and, taking the cue, Jazz continued.
"We don't know if she's still alive or not, but last we saw she was pretty much lobotomized, a mindless servant that did her master's bidding whenever he wanted. We haven't seen her since and…that's when I called Tucker in to duty." She was surprised. Sam had expected from the emotion in his voice that he had relayed a past event that he himself had witnessed, but she supposed that the residual attraction he harbored for Valerie must have held some withstanding.
"We have some people getting info for the cause, but I thought it was better if we kept the main circle…limited." Jazz continued on cheerfully, pushing the Valerie incident to the back of her mind. "You, of course, are in." She said, gesturing to Sam. "Tucker has insight, but his position of neutrality definitely bars involvement. Until he shows some sort of aggression that may cause alarm, he's pretty safe. They've got to suspect that he's practically our single source for information, but right now the bad guys have bigger fish to fry than some geek with a PDA." She stated grimly.
"Hey!" Tucker cried, though made no sort of argument for his undisputed coolness.
Sam ignored his indignation and continued to search for some basic knowledge. "What's their current goal, are they stocking up or trying to get roots in politics?" She questioned curiously, wondering how they intended to continue with whatever 'take over the world' plan they might have hatched.
"Right now it's just gathering Intel from reliable sources, trying to make allies. They've turned the Ghost Zone inside out searching for recruits; they basically have every ghost imaginable fighting for their team, plenty of them are in there because of…him, but that doesn't matter. They go where the power goes.
"The rest is guesswork and so far Dash and I have settled on the idea that once their 'army' is complete they intend on not actually using it at first, just threatening us, policing the streets. Practically a total dictatorship, but they're worse than Stalin or Hitler, they can infiltrate technology-" Technus. "Go invisible, search houses, and confiscate any anti-ghost equipment that could cause them trouble. We don't know what's going to happen from there, but it's not going to be pretty." Over the resentment of rightly being named a geek, Tucker agreed.
"We'd be under total control. He's united them, where the ghosts couldn't succeed on their own; now they can in numbers. He's organized all of this, and we're going to be little slaves on the sidelines if we don't do something about it."
Sam smiled, licking her currently unpainted lips. "All those years of teenaged rebellion are finally going to count for something!" She exclaimed nervously. "So what are we, the last resistance?"
Jazz sighed before nodding in accordance. "With all the other evil dictators that took over, there were limits. Minds were holy ground, and now that's violated. Even Tucker can't do to computers what that technology-guy can, nothing will be sacred anymore, free will completely out the rhetoric window." Sam brightened at this briefly while Tucker frowned deeply at the mention of that fiend Technus.
"Wait, free will? Hmm, could Danny just be controlled like when he was with Freakshow?" She wondered aloud, suddenly excited. The unchanging expression on her two comrades faces deterred her.
"I thought that too, at first, but it looks like he's doing this the Celine Dion way, all by himself." If it weren't for the solemn significance of this Sam would have laughed at the reference. "There's no signs of foul play, but by now I think that it would be evident if he was being controlled by someone or thing." Samantha nodded, but was hungry for more answers.
"Have either of you…seen him, or made contact?" She wondered aloud.
Jazz shook her head and Tucker nodded simultaneously. "No-"
"Yes, he came to see me after I moved back, found it kind of funny that I was stupid enough to come back. I told him that I wanted to help and he laughed in my face, but he warned me to stay out of it…"
Sam smiled slightly, "A warning that you really didn't listen to?" He blushed slightly but nodded in agreement.
"Exactly, I'm not going to let some ghost boy tell me what to do…" As though by preplanning at this blue lights began to flash in a seizure-causing pattern as a massively rusted barrier dropped from the ceiling and closed the group of three in. Sam gasped and Jazz took a more productive measure of action, rolling to the ground and scooping up three high tech looking weapons, tossing two of them to her comrades and keeping one gun of choice for her own use.
"Aim to capture, not kill boys and girls." She bellowed despite the fact that there was only one of each gender excluding herself. "Ghost barrier, activate." She barked, a wall of intangible matter forming around the cafeteria. "Only shoot if it's an ND, nothing else. Tuck, call for back up!" His PDA was in his hand, at the ready as he quickly selected several options from a list.
"What's an ND?" Sam asked, struggling to steady her weapon and aim toward…well, anything.
"Not Danny," He muttered, casting his own protection aside. He was not a violent sort of person and never had been inclined to be so; his technology was all he needed. "Try to sprinkle tracking devices to any you can't hope to capture, get articles of clothing and hope they don't phase out of them." Both Tucker and Jazz were entirely different people in battle, and this did nothing but worry their newest companion.
"Surrender your defenses to the APPS immediately and no harm will come to you." Despite his deepened voice and perpetual stance of indifference Sam could identify Danny from a mile away.
"Go to hell, Ghost Boy!" Jazz cried out, certain he was preparing to breach the perimeter. A tense pause followed as Sam spotted a flash of green out of the corner of her eye.
"Tucker Foley, neutral 718, if you yield the tourist your position of inaction will be regained." He was teasing them now, mainly his two old friends.
"You're not getting Sam, not now not ever." He shouted, in response, wielding his PDA like a deadly weapon.
"Have it your way." This was Skulker's easy to identify voice, and Jazz whirled her own anti-ghost-ray in that direction.
"Hey, Fenton, if you want me, come and get me! Just leave Tuck out of this!" She roared, not even realizing that it was she who had spoken until the words had left her mouth. At this the crimson shield flickered cautiously as an irritatingly growing buzzing sounded all around them.
"If that's what you want," And this was the last thing Danny said before everything went dark and Sam could not help but wonder what she had gotten herself into.
FINALLY! It's took me three days to get this chapter out, it was harder than I thought it would be. Reviews, flames, constructive advice, all is welcome!