- The Usual Suspects.
"Attention, everyone, please, pay attention… Johnson, stop playing with that ball in here!" Casper Elementary's Principal directed to the children at the school's hall. The children were particularly eager to leave since the rest of the classes were cancelled to have this meeting, so once it was done they could go home, or the arcade, the park, or wherever they wanted… or so they thought.
"Okay, now that I have your attention," the man cleared his throat once the children were calmed enough, "the reason of this meeting is to discuss certain security's issues. I'm sure that, by now, most of you are aware of the mysterious disappearances in our city that started last week. It hadn't been confirmed yet, but it's possible that ghosts are involved."
The teacher's last sentence made about every kid and teacher at the hall to give him full attention. Freddy, who was sitting just a few lines away, took out a little tape recorder and turned it on; if the principal was about to talk about ghosts, he would probably mention Phantom, and to the kid, that was worthy enough to get recorded.
"Anyway, this is just a possibility, but, just to be sure, in a couple of days, and once we discuss it with your parents, the local ghost hunters, The Fentons, will start the installation of several alarms at certain spots in and around the school to detect ghostly activity; they suggested it to our Mayor this morning, and he approved, so, once everything is settled and the experts start doing their job, I'm asking you to not bother them or mess with their equipment. This is for your own security."
Freddy got a thoughtful expression, and sighed after a few moments. Even if they were trying to capture Phantom, the kid had seen images of The Fentons fighting evil ghosts (actually, he had a lot of them), and knew they were good people, and that the alarms were for his and his classmates' security; however, those alarms meant that Phantom would never approach the school, as Freddy hoped he might do someday (he even looked up in the sky several times a day to try spotting him), because his hero would be in trouble if the hunters detected him.
"Besides this caution, we are asking you to follow several rules. None of you must be at the street alone, and, at home, try to stay with your parents or legal guardians at all time. We'll have another meeting tomorrow with them to share information and more rules; I know this is very annoying, but it's for your safety."
"Yeah, right," Billy, one of Freddy's friends who was just next to him, groaned in annoyance while the principal continued talking, "If a ghost is robbing kids, there's nothing you can do to protect yourself; they should just close the school and give us vacations so we can get out of town until the bad guy or ghost gets caught."
"That would be cool," Freddy commented to his friend, "but it wouldn't last. Phantom is going to catch that ghost and rescue everyone in no time, and we'll forget about the rules then."
"I know he is your hero, Freddy, but please, don't be a party-popper and let me dream, okay?" Billy sighed while Freddy just shrugged and turned back to listen the rest of the speech.
"I don't know why everyone is so worried," Freddy thought, "if we have Phantom to protect us, and nobody can beat him."
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"I'll finally beat you, kid!" Technus snapped at Danny while using his latest creation, an electric blaster, to shoot at the halfa. Danny blocked the attack with his shield, and then turned invisible.
"You fool! You're in my lair, and in here I know wherever you are, invisible and all!" Technus grinned while pointing exactly as the spot where Danny was located. Danny avoided the shot by mere inches, and then turned back to visible while dashing against Technus.
The technological spirit tried to blast Danny again, but the boy was faster and shot at the weapon, destroying it. Then, without lowering his speed, Danny charged at Technus, hitting him with both fists, stunning the ghost and sending him several feet away. Technus shook his head to recover and moved his hands to summon another of his gadgets, but Danny stopped him with a good blast at his chest. Danny then placed in front of the almost defeated Technus, and aimed at some of his computers with his right hand, glowing with ectoplasmic energy.
"I just want to ask you something, Technus, and then I'll leave; if you don't cooperate, I'll turn every single machine in your lair into techno-junk, understood?" Danny talked in a stern tone. Technus decided to give up for once, and nodded in reply; Danny then asked him about the kids, and if he knew of any ghost that probably could have kidnapped them.
"Nope, sorry; I have no idea about what happened to those children, boy." Technus confessed, "You know that I only work with technology, not with kids, and I have no idea about who might have done it since I had spent the last three weeks working on that device at your left."
"What it does?"
"Oh, it's my greatest invention!" Technus said proudly while looking at the huge machine, that at this point looked like a gigantic half-built computer, "Once it's finished, I'll be able to control any single machine on Earth without leaving my lair; of course it's quite complicated and advanced, so making it demands my full attention."
"I see… and, if it gets damaged, will you be able to rebuild it?"
"I don't think so; the components are extremely rare and delicate. If just one of them gets broken, it might take me years to make a decent replacement." Technus commented casually and then gulped in realization, "I just did it again, right?"
"Yes, you did," Danny smirked at the ghost, and then shot a freezing ray at the device. Once it was deep frozen, Danny shot a powerful blast, breaking it in thousands of pieces. Technus got a shocked expression while Danny dusted off his hands, and directed to the lair's exit.
"Thanks for the information, Technus. One suggestion; to get rid of the pieces, try a garage sale… of course, you'll need to build a garage before that."
"He just doesn't learn, uh?" Danny heard Sam's voice, thanks to the Fenton Earphones he was using so she, Tucker and Jazz could monitor him from Fenton Works.
"Fortunately; without his loose tongue, he might be as dangerous as Vlad." Danny commented while closing the lair's door, one among thousands in the Ghost Zone.
"That problem might come from an obsessive craving for both attention and people recognizing his merits by showing off his intellect at any possible chance," Jazz, sitting next to Sam inside the Specter Speeder, with Tucker at the driver's seat tracking Danny, started making her own analysis of Technus' psyche, "He certainly is in serious need of some therapy to get rid of his emotional charge and control his impulses so eventually…"
"Which part of 'without his loose tongue, he might be as dangerous as Vlad' you didn't get?" Tucker said to Jazz as he and Sam gave her a blank look (and Danny pretty much got a similar expression), making her to sigh and shut up. As much as she wanted to help, sometimes Jazz' eagerness to learn about ghostly psychology and the specters' motivations blinded her to some details that were vital to Danny's survival.
"Well, at least I got something positive from this visit; the rest of the afternoon had been an almost total failure." The trio heard Danny's tired and slightly frustrated voice, and Sam, always trying to keep his spirits (no pun intended) up, sighed and then talked to him in a calmed tone.
"I know it sounds weird coming from a Goth, but see the bright side, Danny. At least you're narrowing the suspects' list, and that's much better than just flying through The Ghost Zone opening random doors."
"Not that visiting extremely vengeful and hideous ghosts is a much better idea, but it's better than nothing." Tucker commented, making Jazz and Sam to slap their own foreheads and Danny to roll his eyes.
Danny had been visiting ghosts for almost two hours now, and was pretty tired, not to mention more than slightly in pain because of some of his battles; part of him was relieved for not finding the children caught in a lair at the mercy of a dangerous specter, but another was getting anxious, angry, and frustrated with every failed search and interrogation; plus, even if these ghosts were dangerous, Danny knew that acting like Dash and bully them for answers didn't make him much better. To make things worse, the list was larger than Danny expected, since he and his team had to consider not just the modus operandi of his enemies, but those who were vengeful and clever enough to become kidnappers just to get even on him.
Danny started with Klemper, because, as Jazz deduced (thanks to the information Danny, Sam and Tucker had gathered about his enemies), since the gelid ghost's main motivation was searching for company and friendship, he probably could have kidnapped the children to get it; the ghost resulted innocent, and totally clueless about the criminal's identity. Youngblood was next, with the possibility of him doing it to get playing partners and the antecedent of him hating adults, but he had been practicing both his cowboy and pirate's tricks for the last month without leaving his lair. Walker was a strong suspect, considering his hate for Danny and that this stunt would make him and about any other ghost pretty unpopular in Amity Park; Danny didn't fought him directly, but caught and interrogated one of his guards, confirming the warden ghost wasn't responsible, and reminding Danny that Walker's prison was pretty useless to hold humans, who could just phase through walls just like ghosts do it in the human world; luckily, the guard also told Danny that The Ghost Writer was still Walker's prisoner, eliminating another suspect. Finally, Skulker, with both his hunting obsession and, according to Sam's thought, not beyond using someone as a bait to lure Danny into a trap, gave Danny a major fight, but eventually Danny defeated him, and then searched at his lair/island, confirming he wasn't the kidnapper.
On the bright hand, Danny could talk with both Dora, the dragon-morphing damsel, and Frostbite, the yeti ghost, and, even if they had no idea about the kids' whereabouts, promised Danny to stay alert and tell him if discovering something, basically focusing on watching the ghosts Danny hadn't met and obviously had no idea about their powers or motivations. Surprisingly, Poindexter, Danny's nerdy enemy, was pretty cooperative and even accepted to be alert and be his informant as well; when Danny asked him why he was agreeing to help, the ghost reminded him about how much he hated bullies, and a kidnapper is basically an extremely mean and dangerous one, so giving a lesson to one of them was pretty appealing to Poindexter.
"I'll try one or two more lairs, and then return home." Danny informed his sister and friends, who agreed with his idea, as Tucker guided him to the closest known lair.
Danny found the large black door with a blue flame painted on it after a few minutes, and decided to knock, expecting, if not a friendly welcome, at least having the chance for a civil talk and maybe avoiding a fight. He moved a couple of feet away from the door the moment his ghost sense detected the lair's owner.
"Looking for someone, Dipstick?"
Danny turned, realizing too late that Ember Mc Laine wasn't inside her lair, but behind him.
THHHHUUUUUUUNNNNNNNGGGGGG!
The sonic attack hit Danny's directly, sending him through the door and inside the lair. As Danny expected, the place was filled up with several instruments and an 80's style decoration. The boy shook his head, and activated his ghostly shield to protect from another sonic hit from the punk ghost's guitar.
"What are you doing here, Dipstick? You should know by now that I don't like you at my concerts, and especially at my house!" Ember smirked while setting her guitar on a special note; the moment she attacked again, the sonic waves formed a large fist that shattered Danny's shield that luckily resisted the impact.
"And you should know by now that I don't like you calling me Dipstick!" Danny groaned as he deactivated the shield and flew away to avoid another musical punch, "Now, I'm giving you something so you can remember my name!"
Danny's fists glowed with a bluish energy, and then shot a freezing blast at Ember, covering her in ice from the neck down. Ember's skin became even paler, and wide opened her eyes in anger and pain.
"I'll release you the moment you decide to stop fighting so we can talk, Mc-Lame." Danny said, hovering in front of Ember. The ghost glared at him, her eyes glowing fiercely.
"Your tricks might be cool, Dipstick, but mine are flaming!"
Ember's pony tail got an erect position, and turned into a gigantic flame; Danny jumped back to avoid getting burned as the fire covered Ember, melting her icy prison. Danny knew the girl wasn't that strong without people cheering her name, so this enforced the theory of her using the kids as, ironically, a captive audience, to feed her power. As Ember prepared her guitar for another attack, Danny's fists and eyes glowed, preparing a more powerful attack.
"STOP!"
Danny and Ember turned at the lair's door, spotting a huge werewolf in green sweatshirt (the sleeves partially ripped), and pants.
"Wulf!" Danny smiled at the arrival of his pal, who dashed next to him to give the boy a mighty embrace. Ember, sighing, moved a few steps back, abandoning her battle stance.
"Friend. Good. See. You." The ghostly lycanthrope smiled at Danny when releasing him. Danny then noticed he was talking English (at least, enough to be understood) instead of Esperanto.
"Same here, Wulf; and is a good thing now I can understand you better."
"He still has problems with verbs. We are working on that; I still can't believe that befriending a nerd when I was alive and learning Esperanto from him would be useful someday." Ember commented while rolling her eyes. Danny became pretty surprised at both her attitude and the fact she stopped fighting the moment Wulf arrived.
"You two are friends?"
"Ember. Nice. With. Me." Wulf nodded while the former rock star sighed and moved next to the werewolf, knowing Danny wouldn't keep fighting with him there.
"Yeah, we met at the last Christmas party; he arrived shortly after you left," Ember explained to Danny; that party was one of the reasons the boy got to like Christmas for the first time ever, since all ghosts quit fighting that day, and his enemies weren't just friendly, but supportive with him, "I have a deal with him, Dipstick; Furry here hears my music and, since he really enjoys it, his emotions are good enough to fuel my power… not like a full audience, but since we met I had been gaining a lot of strength without risking facing you at the human world. In exchange, I give him English lessons and a place to hide from Walker, and, well…" Ember hesitated a little, not knowing if giving Danny all that information was a good idea, but continued when Wulf nodded at her, "I use my music to help him with his problem."
Ember moved a few steps back and motioned Danny to do the same. The female ghost then made a new adjustment to the guitar, and started singing a tune Danny found slightly familiar.
"Son of Man, look to the sky; Lift your spirit, set it free; Some day you'll walk tall with pride; Son of Man, a man in time you'll be…"
As Ember continued, a white light emerged from her guitar, and covered Wulf. Then, to Danny's surprise, his friend slowly morphed into a strongly built teenage human ghost, with pale blue skin and blond hair, about a foot and a half shorter than his animalistic form. Ember stopped singing after a minute or so, and Danny approached his friend.
"You… used to be human?"
"Well, duh! That's why it's called a 'werewolf' and not 'freakish large semi-talking mutt', don't you think?" Ember said to Danny, who frowned slightly at her.
"Me. Stuck. In. Animal. Form. When. Dying." Wulf, obviously used to the girl's sarcasm and therefore ignoring her comment, explained Danny, "Ember. Helps. Me. Back. Human. Short. Time. I. Very. Grateful." The teen looked fondly at Ember, who couldn't avoid a slight pale blush appearing at her cheeks; even if Danny was a little clueless about his own love life, he wasn't with the others', so understood immediately that the ghosts were more than just friends by convenience. This also eliminated Ember as a suspect; Wulf would never let her hurt or kidnap children.
"Just a doubt left; if you guys don't leave the lair, how did you attack me from the outside?" Danny asked Ember, who shrugged at him.
"I like my lair, and Furry is a cool roommate, but even I get bored to just be here after some days, so we go for a walk/flight every two weeks or so; besides, I get enough energy from his emotions, but Furry here needs ghostly food once in a while; we get it with The Lunch Lady… her cooking isn't too tasty for most humans or ghosts, but is perfect for him." Ember explained, "Anyway, what are you doing here, Dipstick?"
"First of all, I'm sorry about the fight… in my defense, you shot first. And don't worry, I am not looking for troubles, I mean, what I would do against you here; get into a thermos and release in The Ghost Zone?" Danny chuckled slightly, while Wulf smiled and Ember relaxed a little and grinned at her enemy. "I'm just looking for some information, and it's a good thing I found the both of you."
Danny started explaining the situation at Amity to both ghosts, while the rest of Team Phantom lowered the volume of their communicator so Danny couldn't hear them.
"Ember and Wulf?" Tucker got a surprised yet amused expression, "Talking about The Beauty and The Beast!"
"Yes… but I don't know who is who in this case." Sam gave her companions a sly smile, making them to chuckle.
"Okay, another name got erased from the list; let's see which ones are left." Jazz sighed, and checked down the names from the vehicle's computer screen, "Hmmm… you guys really think Spectra can get energy from kids' emotions as well as she does with teenagers?"