I like this chapter a lot, it offers some more insight into the characters and has a few surprising developments. Please tell me what you think in a review!
Sam flinched as a bony arm reached for her face. "Night vision goggles," Jazz whispered into her ear, proceeding to use one hand to secure Sam's and another to secure Tucker's. With the glory of her jumpsuit and the goggles strapped across her eyes, Jazz looked horrifyingly similar to her mother, so much so that Tucker gaped at her.
The room was silent, and the ghost shield was seemingly broken beyond repair. "Raise it to the level of your eyes," Sam advised to Tucker, whose years of 'Mortal Combat' had not seemed to improve his direction or form. He took her advice, closing one eye in hope that it would provide steadier aim. "No, you have twice the chance of hitting your target with both eyes open." She could not help but be overwhelmingly relieved that she had received the cheap birthday present of a week's worth of lessons at the local firing range two years before.
"Assistance is on the way." Tucker stated proudly before snapping one eyelid open and aiming into the vast nothingness. A cold sweat broke out on Sam's hairline and she attempted to stay calm, reciting the lyrics to one of her favorite angry-Goth bands inside her head.
"Last chance for surrender hostiles." Skulker warned, but not a one of the three warriors desisted. Jazz pressed a mechanism on the side of her mask and Sam followed suit, finding her world of night vision suddenly brought into sharp focus. She saw Jazz habitually reach over and adjust Tucker's as well, and he seemed unsurprised by the advance…she had a few questions to ask the two of them.
The overused and incredibly dramatic word of 'fire' was never issued, though they all figured that there was some sort of signal seeing as in less than twelve seconds they were under a total and complete siege, courtesy of the one and only ghost boy…er, man.
Sam dodged a badly aimed ray with ease, lifting her weapon and firing three consecutive shots in the direction of the initial attack. An otherworldly shriek punctuated the inhuman silence as the ghost was temporarily terminated. She glanced over her shoulder long enough to see Tucker dive for Jazz, knocking her to the ground and helping her evade a beam of glowing green light.
She smiled briefly before leaping to her feet, firing in several directions and finding her unseen targets twice. The ghostly wails intensified and Sam purposefully dropped to her knees and scooped up a pair of pink earmuffs, weighing the embarrassment factor over her own safety, choosing to preserve her precious eardrums over her still-standing black obsession.
A ghost had finally approached them, no longer lingering in the sanctity of deep darkness that even the night vision goggles could not find. Sam and Tucker suddenly learned what the switch they had activated accomplished…they could see a ghost despite it's intangibility. Menacingly the creature fired a shot aimed for Tucker's lifeline…his PDA, but Jazz interfered by kicking up a small, compact mirror that deflected the shot and reversed it, causing its molecules to explode.
There was a ringing in Sam's head that she could not ignore as she fired off into the murky distance, realizing that this was her cell phone nearly a moment too late. She dove to the ground and discarded the hideous earmuffs as she turned on the device, dodging an attack and terminating yet another specter. "Hello, Sam Manson's phone." She stated professionally, knowing whom it was already.
"Where in God's name are you? You receive a promotion and test my patience by flying halfway across the country on some…some wild goose chase?" Her editor was furious, she could nearly see the smoke pouring out of his ears like in some sort of Wiley Coyote cartoon.
"I am incredibly sorry that I didn't report this before, but my cell died on me and I'm staying at a hotel with incredibly steep…er, phone rates." It sounded good, in theory. "But I have a possible lead, a woman named Jasmine Fenton keeps interesting house." An explosion sounded in the background and before he could comment she added quickly, "and she is an awful cook, but everything else is wonderful!" Not wishing to leave Jazz and Tucker to fend for themselves she covered the receiver and fired three shots, certain that at least one of them made contact with ectoplasm.
"Smile pretty for the camera, Miss Fenton!" She said sweetly, allowing her editor to hear the whir of her gun before it fired and the creature wailed. "Turn off that damned TV, it's distracting!" She called out, returning to the conversation at hand.
"You're not authorized to take pictures!" He was desperate for something to complain about and she was rather overjoyed that she could roll her eyes noticeably without consequence.
"I'll let Dana Photoshop them, alright? I have to go, duty calls!" She sang in a mock gleeful tone, shutting off the cell phone and firing once more into the darkness, joining her two friends.
"Was that call a matter of life or death?" Tucker mocked the tone he knew that Jazz would use and both girls blushed.
"I'm really sorry, it's just I can't have my…ah!" She shot at the creature quickly approaching and found her gun to be apparently out of whatever material it ran on. Improvising she thumped the ghost over the head, relieved that the gun in itself seemed capable of physically touching intangible ghosts. Until that point she hadn't realized that 'full' ghosts could actually faint. Jazz finished the poltergeist off with a single blast, though this time there was no sound emitted from the quote unquote victim.
A purple blast of light shone overhead like a glistening star, followed by several others. Sam caught the brief flash of a victorious grin that covered her face as three others stepped into the cafeteria, entirely covered in gear and holding weapons unlike their own. Tucker shot Jazz a look that mirrored the jealousy Sam wore proudly whenever Danny mooned over girls entirely out of his league…though this did not seem to be the case.
Dash emerged, his blond hair short and cropped and his muscles even larger and more toned than before. His fears of the reality after high school seemed to have been all for naught, he did not exactly seem like the sort of 'rings or fries?' man he had originally envisioned. Sam found it regrettably easy to realize why Jazz's eyes seemed to roam over his body and why Tucker and his scrawny figure could hold some sort of envy over her attention.
The next was a woman in her mid-thirties; ebony hair hacked off and eyes like dull mica, shining weakly. She was of a bigger build than both Sam and Jazz combined, but she looked powerful and menacing.
The third attacker surprised Sam to such an extent that she had to refocus her eyes twice to make sure that it was not sort of mirage caused by the anxiety of the situation, but there was no denying that the last of the three was the same out of shape, middle-aged teacher that they all knew and hated.
"Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring!" She muttered under her breath in remembrance of Mr. Lancer's famous book title exclamations in a time of crisis. Before they could say anything to each other Sam whirled around and continued to battle, taking this on before facing the other disturbing reality as well. Out of the corner of her eye she swore that she saw Tucker take hold of Jazz's arm and pull her away from the approaching Dash before picking up his own discarded weapon and handing it to Sam.
This was going to be a long eternity.
Ha, gotcha there, didn't I? Next chapter will have Banny (bad danny) dialogue and such, it just didn't seem to fit in this one. Tell me what you think and if there is a beta out there, please tell me in your review, seeing as my own no longer returns my e-mails. Thank you!