Chapter 6: Multiple Encounters

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"WHOA!" Danny yelled, as he dodged a blast from Klemper. The attack boomeranged back around and would have given him a haircut from the neck up if he had not phased through it. He gave the ice ghost a look of shock, "Where'd you learn that?"

"Ember said she wouldn't be my friend but she'd teach me something new if I'd leave her alone," the ghost said, smiling with a blank look in his eyes. "Would you be my friend?" he asked for the umpteenth time while attacking Danny.

"For the last time, NO!" Danny said blasting him across the iced over school rooftop. "You're too clingy!" Danny added as he whipped out the thermos and sucked Klemper into it.

Danny could see tears form in the other ghost's eyes as he entered the thermos and heard him say, "I'm clingy?"

"Yes!" the ghost hybrid told him in a definite tone. "Sheesh. You'd think he would've learned that by now." Making sure the cap was secured, he phased through the school roof, absently noticing that the ice was beginning to melt, and into a janitor's closet.

Still invisible, he stuck his head through the door to see who was in the hallway. Seeing no teachers, he changed back and left the closet. No one gave him a glance, after all, Fenton had been coming out of closets, quite literally (not figuratively), all year long.

Danny opened his locker, exchanging a few books for some he was going to need for a homework assignment that night. "Well, today has been an interesting day," he told himself. Actually, today was fairly typical now that I think of it.

He heard the cracking of knuckles behind him, "Well, then, I guess today is going to get even more interesting for you, Fen-tard!"

Aw crud. Danny felt himself be shoved into the locker. Darkness descended around him as Dash slammed the locker shut with laugh. "That always makes me feel better. But I still am going to have to have my jacket dry-cleaned and that's going to cost a bundle," Danny heard Dash say to someone else. Probably Kwan. Kwan seems to follow him around like a shadow.

"Yeah, too bad about the jacket," Danny heard Kwan say. He smiled grimly to himself, Yep, Kwan. Guess I won that bet with myself.

"Hey! Look at that nerd over there! He looks like he needs some 'help'," Kwan said, trying to help Dash feel better in his own way.

Danny heard the pair run off after the poor nerd. Then he became aware that someone was turning the combination on his locker. The door opened and revealed Tucker and Sam looking in with concern.

"You okay?" Tucker asked.

Danny almost said something about the standard question but changed his mind. "Actually, I am okay." Danny stepped out of his locker with the grace of someone who had done it man, many times, "All he did was shove me in my locker. I'm surprised he didn't beat me up some."

Sam looked over her shoulder, "He seems to be taking out his frustration on all of his usual targets. He beat up about six guys before he got to you. He's been working off his juvenile anger on whomever he sees fit."

"So, what do you guys want to do?" Tucker asked.

"I have a poetry reading this evening but I'm free up until then," Sam said.

Danny looked a little downcast, "I promised my parents to come straight home to do my homework, so I can't do anything right now. They found my last test." His friends heard him mutter, "That's also assuming there aren't any ghost attacks." He gave them a lopsided grin, "Guess I'd better get home. Call you guys when I get done."

"Okay. See ya later, Danny," Tucker said, waving at his departing best friend.

He turned to Sam, "Want to go to the arcade and play some mindless video games so we can recuperate from Monday?"

"Sure, why not?" Sam shrugged. "What is a better way to kill time than to kill fake bad guys?"

Danny felt bad about bailing on his friends but, if everything worked out, he would get to go to a poetry reading. Not that I really like poetry but it makes Sam happy.

"You don't like poetry?" asked a female voice as his ghost sense triggered.

He whipped around to see Bookworm, with her arms full of books (surprise, surprise). I said that last bit aloud? he asked himself.

She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and sniffed, "No wonder you couldn't see the beauty in poem that Ghostwriter saw you fit to star in."

"You leave him alone, ghost!" yelled another female voice. Bookworm yelped and ducked an ecto-blast. Valerie, in her ghost-hunting garb, swooped around overhead. She yelled at Danny, "Get out of here!" Danny stood gaping a moment at her before he looked one last time at the bookish ghost. "I'll let her handle you today. But she isn't as nice as me," he said, running off down the street.

Bookworm gave a squeal of fright and flew off as fast as she could from the ghost hunter. Danny could hear her wail, "I just wanted to checkout some library books! I was going to go back to the Ghost Zone right afterward!"

He stopped in mid-run, "She was checking out library books? How does a ghost get a card to do that? I thought you had to be alive."

Bookworm zipped down the middle of the street, phasing through traffic as she went. "Leave me alone!" she wailed. An ecto-blast passed close to her bag of books. Her eyes turned a malevolent green and she stopped dead. "You almost destroyed my books," she said flatly.

"You aren't getting away from me ghost!" shouted the ghost hunter.

Bookworm turned to face Valerie, "Who says I'm running away now? Anyone who shows disrespect for books, especially library books, needs to be taught a lesson."

The ghost flew high in the air, with Valerie following her. She stopped and went straight at the ghost hunter with a powered up drop kick. Her clumsiness caused her to miss the ghost hunter but not the hover board.

With a resounding crack, the board broke and began to spiral downward, out of control. Danny watch in horror as Valerie headed straight for the rooftops. He hardly stepped into an alley before he changed to Danny Phantom and flew up to save Valerie.

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Posted: 2-17-06