"Clear on the west side of town." Sam called in. Her voice rang in the ear piece that they used to keep in touch during patrols. Once every few days Tucker, Sam, and Danny would patrol Amity Park, looking for ghosts that had managed to leak out of the ghost zone.
"All clear over here too." Danny replied. "Think we should call it a night?" They'd been scouting for ghosts for nearly two hours now. It was well past dark, and the temperature was decreasing quickly. The cold wind seemed to cut through any article of clothing, chilling anyone to the bone. It was definitely not the best weather for patrol.
"I thought you'd never ask." Tucker interrupted with a deep yawn. A slight static rang through the ear pieces, sounding that Tucker had dismissed his ear piece for the night.
There was a silence for a few seconds before Sam finally spoke up. "It's getting late Danny. I think I'll be going now too."
"Wait!" Danny exclaimed. His sudden remark startled not only Sam, but even himself. "Do you need me to take you home?" It was dark, and who knows what could be lurking in the shadows at this time. Although even with this reason he still felt nervous asking this of Sam. She was much more equipped to fight off a predator, compared to someone like Paulina.
He heard a fit of laughter on the other side of the line. "Danny please, you should be more worried about yourself. You're like a beacon for those kinds of things." She managed to say at last. "Besides, my house should be right around the corner anyway." She added.
Danny sighed. Luckily for him, Sam wasn't bothered by such remarks that Danny almost died with embarrassment saying. He heard the faint sound of her fiddling with her ear piece, before a slight static went through the line that announced that she had turned it off. Danny followed suit to also turn off his ear piece.
He was in mid-flight, heading home, until a small vapor smuggled out of his mouth. Ghost sense. "Guess I over looked a ghost during the patrol." He assumed as he flew past the surrounding buildings to look at the street from a bird's eye view. Once again, the streets were abandoned with no one else in sight. This was the second time today that his ghost sense had failed him.
"What the hell is up with my ghost sense?" He mused.
He shook his head as if to rid the thought before continuing to glide to his house. He soon reached his bedroom window. He phased through the glass, careful to be silent, not wanting to wake up the rest of his sleeping family. Phasing was one of the many ghost powers he had found the most helpful, along with intangibility. Phasing made using doors more of a hindrance than anything else. Using these powers was not only useful against ghosts, but occasionally for his personal benefit.
He once phased his way into the girl's locker room during gym. More like he was forced to go in there, but he went in there all the same. He and Tucker had skipped gym class to spare themselves the 'prep talk' the gym coach usually gave. His prep talks were mostly full of how worthless they were in life and gym class was somehow a way to prove that they were in fact valuable. No one liked these lectures, but sometimes they were more annoying than usual. Tucker and Danny weren't the only ones who skipped this sometimes; even the star football player, Dash, liked to skip this class occasionally.
He and Tucker were safe in the comfort from behind the bleachers. The sound of the gym coach's yelling rang through the air. Luckily the class was on the opposite side of the field from where they had decided to hide, that way it would be harder for them to be spotted by the teacher. If they did get caught it would ultimately result in detention or worse.
Tucker was messing on his PDA, while Danny had found a good enough spot on the ground to sit down. Danny could hear a murmur of voices rounding the corner to the bleachers. The faces that matched the voices soon came to view. Dash and Kwan shut up as soon as they spotted them. Eyeing their prey, they marched closer.
Being the tyrant that Dash is he said "Look who we found skipping class. I'm sure the principal would love to hear this." He stepped closer. "Maybe we should give them a proper punishment." Kwan added. Dash formed a fist into a punching motion, hitting the palm of his hand. The space between the groups grew dangerously close. Dash grabbed Danny by the collar. Kwan did the same with Tucker, except less harsh. Kwan wasn't a bad guy, unless he was around Dash. His personality made a complete 180 when he was.
"What do you want Dash?" Danny said annoyed.
"Just trying to find something to pass the time."
Without words Danny and Tucker gave each other the let's-get-the-hell-out-of-here look. Running wasn't the most courageous thing to do, but it wasn't like Danny could go ghost on them. Danny kneed dash in the gut while Tucker stomped on Kwan's foot as hard as he could. They both released them immediately to tend to their injuries. Tucker ran one way, and Danny ran another. Danny could hear Dash behind him, yelling about what horrible things he was going to do with him. Danny kept running, and soon came face to face with a brick wall. He could hear dash cornering him quickly. It was either stay here or phase safely though the wall. Without a second thought he phased through it easily only to find he was in a locker room.
Giggling could be heard from the other side of the lockers that Danny was at. He wasn't in just any locker room, but he was in the girl's locker room. He quickly turned intangible as Paulina and Star came around the lockers. Paulina was wearing gym shorts that seemed a little too short, but that could have just been Danny's imagination going wild. Either way, Paulina's legs were mostly exposed. This was a rare sight, since she usually wore jeans that covered them up. The view was innocent enough, but that was another story to a high school boy.
At the time Danny was blushing and embarrassed. Later he thought it over; He had escaped Dash, and saw Paulina in shorts all in one day. It was a win-win situation due to intangibility and phasing.
Every time he thought of that day, he couldn't help but grin.
Danny glanced towards the alarm clock near his bed. Stumbling around the house at night wasn't the smartest thing to do if he was trying to be quiet. He placed his ghost thermos on his desk. Depositing the ghosts he had caught today would have to wait until tomorrow morning.
. . . .
"What does that jerk think he's doing ordering me around?" Technus grumbled to himself as he passed through the ghost portal into an intricate laboratory. The laboratory was filled with technology that Technus would die to get his hands on; unfortunately he would actually die if he did. Vlad specifically forbid him to lay a hand on any of it, or else he'd kill him.
After Vlad had kidnapped Technus from the ghost zone, he brought him here. Here, as in Vlad's own laboratory in the human world. The lab was underground and connected to huge mansion. When he first brought him to the lab, he gave Technus an errand to do.
"Why can't you do this yourself?" Technus had questioned. Vlad stopped in mid-sentence to eye the ghost.
Without another word he walked over to a small table, pausing only slightly to pluck something off of it. He confiscated it behind his back, making sure it was out of Technus's line of sight. "I promised you the fall of the ghost boy didn't I?"
"I am the master of all technology! I can easily do that myself!" Technus snapped. He refused to acknowledge any attempts Vlad used to try and persuade him.
"I tried being civilized, but you leave me no choice." The half ghost sighed coldly. Before Technus had time to react excessive pain shot through his side, making him cripple to the ground. His hands cradled his side. A bit of green blood leaked over his fingers. Technus lifted his hand to see a small incision in his side.
"What did you do to me you filthy hybrid?" Technus peered up at Vlad. The half ghost was holding what looked like an altered Taser gun.
"A small device is now racing somewhere in your blood stream. If you defy me, and refuse to do what I ask of you, I will then activate the device. Thereafter it will send a shock throughout your body that would kill most humans." He paused and the edges of his lip curled. "But you aren't human are you?" He ended before exiting the lab and heading to the comfort of his mansion.
Technus assumed that the device wouldn't kill him, but at least leave him critically injured. He gripped his side remembering the moment. His side didn't hurt anymore, but he could still feel the device flowing throughout his body. It was probably the only piece of machinery that he didn't admire. The thing acted like a parasite; restricting him and forcing him cling to Vlad's every word.
Ever since that experience he'd been examining the ghost boy, just as Vlad had told him to. The only other thing he had ordered was for Technus to report in every so often.
Vlad was in his study absently examining a document. The document had long since lost his attention; it might as well have been blank at this point. Instead he was thinking about how much time was left until he could put his scheme into motion. The gears were already turning, but the ending was distant.
A ghost phased with ease through the study's floor. "I've been following the ghost boy like you ordered." The ghost made an attempt to leave immediately, but Vlad caught his attention before he was able to.
"One last request" Vlad added.
When Technus remained silent Vlad continued.
"Along with keeping a watch on our favorite ghost boy, I want you to steal something, the ghost shield mechanism. It's not much extra work really. It's at his residence after all."
Technus was baffled at first and a thousand questions seemed to wash over his face. However he could only muster up two simple quick questions at the time. "You want me to steal something in the ghost boy's own house? And a ghost shield of all things?"
Vlad expected a reaction like this. He even admits to himself that this might seem like a foolish request. To save a few extra unneeded questions from the technology ghost, he explains his reasoning further. "True, I could just have you build me one; though that would take time and money to collect the parts. I find it more amusing to steal it from Danny's idiot father instead."
He seemed to go back to the document and resume what he was doing. Technus took this as a silent way of being dismissed and to stop asking questions.
With that Technus left the study to find the laboratory once again. Safe from ear shot of Vlad he cursed at him.
"Does he think that I, Technus, am not capable of making a ghost shield myself? I could have something simple like that done in a day!"
Technus hit the ghost portal's button which made the doors open, allowing him to travel back into the ghost zone.
The ghost zone was vast, but at the same time quite simple. Each ghost had their own fragment of the ghost zone. Most ghosts kept within their own sections without coming in contact with each other. However, there were some ghosts like Skulker, who like to capture rare and valuable ghosts, and Walker, who imprisoned any ghost he could get his hand on; other than them, ghosts mostly secluded themselves.
Technus eventually came to the other ghost portal, the one that belonged to the Fenton's. At the moment it was closed, but it would have to open eventually. In the meantime Technus would have to wait until then.
. . . .
Danny awoke by the sound of a fist pounding at his door.
"Danny! Get up now or you won't have enough time to get ready for school."
Danny groaned in protest to Jazz's wakeup call. She was already half way down the stairs and didn't hear his exhausted pleads for more sleep. He knew she'd be back in another 5 minutes to make sure he didn't fall back asleep, so he reluctantly got up.
He sat up and blinked a couple of times to take in his surroundings. The first thing he laid his eyes on was the thermos that still needed to be emptied.
After some time trying to wrestle on a shirt he grabbed the thermos, and headed downstairs toward the kitchen.
Jazz was at the table with a text book open trying to cram every bit of information she could into her head. His dad was tinkering with another one of his inventions, while his mom peered over his shoulder once in a while. Danny placed the thermos at the table, and got himself breakfast.
His father noticed the thermos on the table and couldn't help but remark "I see you've been catching ghosts! Maybe we could even go ghost hunting together, I could even give you a few tips." Jack grinned.
His dad went on about the two of them doing some father-son bonding time. This lead his dad to explaining his new ghost catching machine he had been toying with all morning. "We could even test out this-"he held up the machine "- and slice open the ghosts one by one."
Danny started to stutter. Fortunately this was when Jazz chimed in "Hey, hurry up and finish getting ready." She then started to stuff her textbook into her bag.
Danny glanced at the thermos next to him and remembered that he still needed to empty the thing. He raced downstairs and began disposing of the captured ghosts. The ghost portal opened for a short second while depleting the thermos.
Little did Danny know that in the short while that the ghost portal opened, a single ghost managed to escape.
Danny shivered and let out a frozen breath.
"Damn it, not again." He said as he looked around. Once again there wasn't a trace of anything in the room but him-self.
"I must be going insane…" Danny uttered. He heard the faint murmur of his sister's voice calling him. He looked around the room once more, before exiting.
Danny's day was mostly filled with himself feeling paranoid while looking around every corner expecting to see a ghost. Seeing any form of ghost at this point would've put his mind at ease. However, there was absolutely nothing.
This lead Danny to think over what might be wrong with his powers. It was almost all he could think about throughout the day, it had taken over his thoughts like a plague. Not even Paulina could distract him. Despite when she leaned over and whispered if she could borrow a pencil. Any sort of communication between them would usually send Danny with deep red blush. However, today he only blankly stared at her while he handed over an extra pencil. He was so involved with his inner thoughts that he didn't seem to notice when Sam gave him concerned looks throughout the day.
"Okay Danny, what's wrong?" Sam said as she and Tucker took their seat at the lunch table.
Danny snapped out of his thoughts with a "What?"
"You've been acting weird Danny." Tucker replied.
"Weird?"
"Spaced out, deep in thought…" Tucker trailed.
"It's because my ghost senses has been going crazy!" Danny threw up his hands in frustration.
Sam mused over what Danny said for a moment before saying "Are you sure nothings following you?"
Danny nodded "I would've seen them if there were."
"But what if the ghost doesn't want you to seen them?"
For the rest of the day, even as he went home, he considered what Sam had said. He walked into his house. It was dead silent. There were sounds of bickering from his parents and Jazz had gone to the library after school ended.
Everyone must be out.
Danny was about to trudge up the stairs, until a huge crash could be heard from somewhere in the house. He narrowed his eyes as he came into the kitchen "Mom? Dad? Are you home?" The kitchen was deserted, so far there didn't seem to be a soul in sight.
Bang!
It came from downstairs. Danny cautiously moved forward to the stairwell. It was dark and not even a light was on down there. He silently advanced down the stairs.
Danny felt his way on the surrounding walls for the light switch. His fingers brushed over something protruding out of the wall. It felt like the light switch. He giggled the switch a few times, yet the basement continued to stay dark. Only the green glow of the ghost portal poorly lit the basement.
Wait…the ghost portal? It's not supposed to be open.
Danny began to step over to the portal to close it. The electric box, that contained the hardware for the ghost shield to function, was rattling and radiating green. The rattling became worse, and then it fell to the ground when the bolts gave away. Danny jumped back, startled at the sudden movement. Danny exhaled and could see his own breath. He stretched out his arms, as white rings engulfed his body; turning his clothes into a black and white body suit and his hair snowy white.
A vapor started to seep out of the box and form into a figure. The figure became solid and complained "I still think it would've taken me a much shorter time to build one myself."
"Technus. What are you doing with the ghost shield?!" Danny commanded.
The ghost turned around shocked, but quickly recovered. "Crud, He's going to be angry now that you've seen me." Technus mumbled to himself, but still loud enough for Danny to overhear.
Danny readied a glowing fist at Technus "Now that I've seen you?...Have you been following me?"
Technus stepped back towards the electric box, before he had any chance of escape Danny released a glowing fist at him; causing him to stagger a few feet. The ghost slammed a palm against a nearby counter full of ghost hunting equipment. The equipment burned green as he swept his palm into the direction of the ghost boy. The equipment flew at Danny, giving him only seconds to react and get out of the way. With Danny distracted Technus attempted to make his way over to the ghost shield again. Before he could reach it Danny shot a ghost ray in Technus's path, causing him to stop in his tracks.
"No way, are you getting to that." Danny shouted as he formed an energy ball.
Technus glanced quickly around the room for something, anything to throw at the ghost kid. His eyes landed upon another table of large electronics. He flew the electronics at Danny, and pinned him against the wall with it. Technus flew over to the electric box and possessed it. He levitated the box and escaped with it into the ghost portal.
. . . .
Authors Note: Phew, I wanted to get this done before 12-21-12, as sort of a "I doubt everyone's going to die, but if we do, here's my parting gift~!" kind of joke. But, as expected, nothing happened. At all. No raining balls of fire coming from the sky, or zombie apocalypse. I was actually a little disappointed it was such a calm day. But since I didn't get it done before dooms day, I guess this will be more of a "Happy Holidays!" gift.
Without further ado, Happy Holidays!