Chapter 7
Danny took a sip from the orange juice Jazz had just given him, repositioning on the sofa so he was sitting up right.
"You're telling us some ghost thing drained you?!" Sam exclaimed only to get shushed by the two boys.
Danny looked up, trying to see through the window between the kitchen and living room only to relax as Jazz continued whatever she was doing. He turned back to Sam and hissed, "Not so loud, Sam."
Sam's lips tightened into a straight line before she continued in a whisper, "What I mean is, if that thing's that powerful…" she let her voice trail off.
"It looked like he couldn't drain me when I changed back." Danny pointed out.
"Sure, but you can't fight him as Fenton." Tucker said.
"Hey Danny." Jazz announced as she walked into the living room. "I've gotta head over to the library. Don't jump out of any more windows, huh?"
"I'll be fine, Jazz." Danny smiled up at the girl as she walked out the front door. She closed it behind her, getting Danny to sigh. "I'll be hearing about this for a long time."
"What else were we supposed to tell them?" Tucker asked, eyeing his friend.
"Point." Danny sipped at his orange juice only to remember something. "Shoot. The Box Ghost is still in the thermos."
"He's going to be mad." Sam smiled, getting up from her seat on the sofa. "Where'd you put it?"
"On the kitchen table."
Sam walked into the adjacent room only to call back, "You sure?"
"Ya, why?" Danny started to stand up only to lose his balance and fall back into his seat, getting a worried glace from Tucker.
"It's nowhere in the kitchen." Sam said, sticking her head through the window to look at the boys.
"Check the fridge." Tucker subjected.
Sam sighed as she pulled herself away from the window and opened the refrigerator only to shriek away. "When are your parents going to get rid of those ghost-wieners?!"
"Dad sort of adopted them." Danny smirked.
Sam closed the door before reappearing in the living room. "Nope, not in the fridge."
"Great, so where'd the Box Ghost get to?" Danny sighed only to gasp as a wisp of cold air escaped.
"Oh no. You're in no condition to fight anyone." Sam said, putting a tight grip on Danny's shoulder to stop him. "Your parents are still out looking for the ghost from earlier, they'll get the new one."
"Beware, for I am the Box Ghost!" the blue man called out, appearing through the floor with almost a mountain of boxes floating behind him. He stopped short, staring at the ghost boy still sitting down. "Huh? Stand up! So I can Pumble you with my many boxes of Doom!"
"How did you get out of the Thermos?" Danny asked, keeping his seat.
"I told you! No Cylindrical device can Contain ME!" the Box Ghost called out, curling his hand into a fist before his face.
Danny pointed a finger at the Box Ghost, the tip glowing green as his eyes lit up.
"Alright, he called himself an Alien Hunter." The Box Ghost reliantly said, dropping some of his boxes to the floor. "That kid you were with this morning."
"How dare you!" Maddie's voice exclaimed as the door flew open. She swung her gun towards the Box Ghost as Danny quickly extinguished the ectoplasm from his eyes and finger. "Get out of my house you Ectoplasmic Manifestation of Post-Human Consciousness!" She fired a blast, hitting the Box Ghost in the chest and sending him backwards as his boxes fell down to the floor.
The Box Ghost quickly recovered and levitated as many of his boxes as he could before fleeing through the wall with both Fenton adults crushing after him.
"Well, that explains how he got free." Sam said, sitting back in the seat. "Your mom must've sold the thermos to Daniel by mistake."
"But Alien Hunter?" Tucker asked, scratching his head. He slowly dropped his hand as he turned to look at the two. "If aliens really do exist, don't tell Lester."
"Aliens don't exist, Tuck." Sam sighed.
"That's what you said about ghosts when we were little." Danny smiled.
A knock at the door got the three's attention. Tucker got up and opened the door only to step back in surprise.
"I need to talk to Danny." Daniel stated as he walked into the house. "And I'd rather while his parents are still trying to get the Box Ghost."
"I've got some questions too." Danny said, sitting down his cup on the coffee table. "Like, what does an Alien Hunter do?"
"Probably the same Danny Phantom does." Daniel said.
Danny's face dropped as Sam and Tucker instantly moved to protect their friend.
"Don't worry, I'm a good guy, just like you." Daniel said, smiling. "The Box Ghost told me."
"Let's… go up to my room." Danny said, still surprised that the Box Ghost told his secret like that. With Sam and Tucker's help he got up to his feet and led Daniel up the stairs to the second story bedroom.
Daniel closed the door as Danny, with the help of his friends, sat down on his bed. Daniel turned around and Danny knew the teen noticed how weak he was.
"Let me guess, Cigna drained you?" Daniel asked, leaning against the door.
"So that's the pug-faced ghost's name." Danny nodded.
"He's not totally a ghost." Daniel admitted. "He's a ghost eater. And now I know why Mr. Ledwidge was aggravating you in class earlier."
"Wait, where does Mr. Ledwidge come into all this?" Tucker asked.
"Ledwidge's his human alias." Daniel explained. "He's a shape shifter."
"OK, pause." Sam ordered, holding up her hands. "Start from the beginning, please."
Daniel pulled out Danny's computer chair and sat in it backwards, facing them, showing Danny it would be a long story.
Daniel cracked his jaw before starting. "My parents came to Earth as Alien Hunters. Protectors of humans from a list of evil aliens. When I was three an alien by the name of The Prayer killed my parents, leaving me to take the family business, you could call it." Daniel laughed at a personal joke that left Danny.
"So is Ledwidge an alien from that list?" Tucker asked.
"Ya, Number 17 on the List of Outlaws on Terra Firma." Daniel nodded. "He's jumped higher in the List in the past month because of all the ecto-energy in your town."
"So he was aggravating me to get my ecto-energy while I was human." Danny realized. "Any clue how to get rid of him?"
"That's why we need to work together." Daniel admitted. "As a rule, I hate involving humans but-"
"Well, your rule won't be broken." Danny pointed out, a ghost of a smile on his face. "I'm not one hundred percent human anymore."
"Ya, how does that quite work?" Daniel asked, leaning his chin on the back of the chair.
"Got electrocuted half to death." Danny admitted, figuring he owed the teen that much of an explanation. "So what is Ledwidge, Cigna, whatever you wanna call it."
"Other than alien." Sam commented.
"He's from Sinva 2, called an Otopian." Daniel explained. "An army of them wiped out the majority of three species in the Ghost Zone-"
"Hold it, species in the 'Zone?" Tucker interrupted.
"Ya, you didn't think it was just the flip side of only Earth, did you?" Daniel asked, genially surprised. His face dropped as he continued, "The flip of Sinva 2 was Zimm."
"I'm guessing "was" is the key word." Danny suggested, seeing the expression of sorrow on the other teen's face.
Daniel nodded before smirking at an unknown joke. "Actually, before we found out you were half ghost, we thought you were part Zimmion."
"We, who's we?" Danny asked, panicking that more people might know. His panic grew into concern and confusion as four teens appeared out of nowhere, getting his instincts to battle his tiredness as his hands created fists. Beside him, Sam and Tucker got to their feet, ready to protect him.
"Hey, don't shoot." The skinniest of the two boys exclaimed, putting up his hands.
"They don't have guns, Joe." The brown haired girl pointed out, putting her hands on her hips.
"You know that doesn't mean anything." Joe defended.
"Willy, Joe, Dana, Emma, here's the famous trio." Daniel introduced, motioning respectively. "Danny, Sam, Tucker, my friends, sorta… I have the power to create."
"Oh, so they're like imaginary friends." Tucker realized, moving forward to poke Willy. "But, you're solid?!"
"The power to create." Daniel repeated, eyeing the African American with a duh expression. "I can rearrange things on a molecular level. They've even got their own DNA and everything."
"Danny?" Maddie's voice called as her footsteps sounded up the stairs.
Before Danny's eyes, Daniel's four friends blinked out of existence right before the boy himself disappeared.
The door opened, getting Danny and his friends' still stunned faces to turn towards the door. Seeing his mother, Danny tried to relax his features. "Ya Mom?" Danny asked in the most normal way possible.
"I was just wondering where you were." Maddie admitted. She looked over at the windows and noticeably sighed in relief at them being closed. "It's almost dinner time." She reminded, looking at the two friends.
"Right." Sam said, grabbing her bag as she stood up. "I gotta go."
"Me too." Tucker said, following Sam's lead.
Danny caught their eyes and nodded just slightly for them to see but not his mom. He knew they'd want to be kept in the loop of information, and if he didn't, he didn't know what Sam would do.