Chapter 3. Please get me an aspirin. I need it. God.

Golden Bells

Jazz sat at her desk, rubbing her temples. She could handle okay days. She could handle busy days. She could handle bad days. What she couldn't handle were days where she was dragged around an apocalyptically redesigned mall with only her and Tucker's nose as the guide. It all gave her a major headache.

Well, she thought, running her hands through her hair, at least something good came out of today. The golden bells still hung in her hair, since she hadn't felt tired enough to sleep (or maybe that would be too tired to sleep...) and they gave her an odd sense of comfort whenever they rang in her ear.

A chill broke her out of her reverie, one that immediately made her clutch her robe tighter around herself despite the fact that she was physically warm. Dismissing the sensation as her open window, she moved to close it when she heard a thud and a muffled yell.

She immediately looked out of the window to see her little brother slamming an ecto-pus into the side of the Fenton Works building. Thinking quickly, she rushed to her bed and pulled a spare Thermos from underneath it. She ran back to the window, aiming quickly. She'd gotten better at hunting since the first time she tried, and the ecto-pus was sucked into the tool with a helpless screech.

Capping the Thermos, Jazz looked up to see Danny panting heavily, his white hair plastered to his head with what could be considered sweat, but she wasn't sure since he was in his Phantom form. He abruptly realized that his target had disappeared and looked up to make glowing green meet bright aqua. Jazz bit her lip. Her younger brother looked so tired...

Danny's voice cut into her thoughts. "What are you doing?" he asked, glaring at his sister. Jazz recoiled in shock, but then quickly recovered and responded with a glare of her own.

"I think I was helping you, Danny!" she snapped, narrowing her eyes. His attitude had been growing worse and worse over the last few days, and when Jazz had finally heard about his sleeping problem she was prepared to be lenient. But this was a bit much.

Danny rolled his eyes at her response and folded his arms. "Well, don't," he barked, green eyes glowing brighter with unfounded anger. "I was doing fine on my own!"

"Oh, really?" said Jazz, tilting her head. "Where's your Thermos, then?"

Danny opened his mouth to respond, simultaneously reaching behind his back, but he cut himself off when he couldn't feel the tell-tale metal sphere behind his back. He twisted comically in air, and Jazz had to use quite a bit of self-control to keep from laughing at him. After several fruitless seconds, Danny finally righted himself and blushed. "I-It must still be in my room..."

Jazz nodded sagely. "And how long were you fighting that ecto-pus already?" This time Danny didn't bother answering, leaving Jazz to again win in a verbal spar against her brother. However, the girl didn't feel much of a victory - not when her brother was still hovering outside mentally dead on his feet. She noted the bell necklace still strapped around his neck, which led her to assume that he hadn't gotten any sleep, either. Jazz sighed inaudibly and motioned with the hand not holding the Thermos. "Come on, little brother. You need to get some sleep, pronto."

"Can't," said Danny immediately, with a tone so oddly urgent that she had no choice but to cut her eyes back to his and listen with rapt attention. "There's something wrong with tonight, Jazz. I don't know what it is, but I know it's definitely something to do with the ghosts."

Jazz shivered again, saying, "What about them?"

"They're nowhere!" he shouted, sweeping his arms around himself in an exaggerated motion. "There hasn't been any ghost to antagonize me since this afternoon except for the weak, stupid ones like the one you just caught. After two weeks of nearly non-stop ghost fighting, for them to just stop like this is just..." Danny lowered his arms as his face finally showed his fear. "Wrong."

Jazz searched her brother's eyes intently. Seeing nothing but the truth in her brother's fearful gaze, she nodded resolutely. "Right. Well then, I guess that means I'm coming out with you."

The ghost boy's expression changed at the drop of a hat. "W-What?" he stammered in disbelief.

Jazz's only reaction was to make an about-face and head deeper into her room. She quickly slipped on a T-shirt and some loose pants while her brother was still paralyzed outside and began to kneel under her bed for her stash of weapons. When she had grabbed everything she felt she needed and turned around to get her coat, she jumped in surprise as her brother's cold grip held her firmly by the shoulders. "Jazz," he said desperately. "No. You can't."

Jazz recovered from the scare and fixed her eyes onto her brother's resolutely. "Yes, Danny, I can. And I will." She moved to walk past him, but the boy's grip was as solid as the iron hanging from his neck. "Danny. Let go."

"No."

"Danny-"

"No, Jazz, you're not getting it!" She was pulled closer to his face and Jazz was shocked to see the terror laced there. "When something is wrong with the Zone, something is wrong with the Real World, too. If something is scaring the ghosts into hiding, then that means that nothing is safe. Especially not humans!"

Jazz's shock was replaced by determination with her brother's last words. "I may be human, Danny, but so are you." She placed her hands on top of his, noting with pride that she didn't shiver from the touch. "Powers or no powers."

Danny shook his head. "Ja-oomph!" She cut him off with a quick hug and held tightly, waiting until he relaxed and hugged her back to speak.

"Danny, thank you. It makes me happy to know how much you care." She used his surprise from the hug to slip from under his now-loose arms. "You do so much for me. Now it's my turn to help you anyway I can. Starting with this."

She felt her brother's incredulous stare burning into her back as she finally reached her coat. Putting it on, along with some tennis shoes, she turned around to meet it with fire in her eyes. She saw the ghost boy visibly recoil at her gaze and after a long moment, he finally bowed his head and sighed.

"There will be no convincing you, will there?" he asked hopelessly.

"Nope!" Jazz chirped, and she giggled when Danny rolled his eyes.

"Fine." The original fire of a protector came back to his eyes. "But I need you to stay with me at all times, got it?" Knowing this wasn't a time to make jokes, Jazz solemnly nodded, and Danny smiled for the first time that night. "Good."

The patrol was a quiet affair, setting Jazz's nerves haywire. She agreed with Danny wholeheartedly; something about the air was just wrong. So when Danny stopped his flight when they were about to pass by the mall and seemed tense, Jazz immediately stopped her scooter right behind him. "What? What is it?"

Danny didn't answer. His look of concentration faded into confusion, and then quickly shifted to panic.

"No!" he screamed, and he suddenly flew down to land in front of her. Before Danny could say anything else and before Jazz could take any action, Danny keeled over, clutching his throat. Jazz watched in horror as her younger brother fell to the ground, turned human with a flash of light, and began to gag and writhe all in the space of two seconds.

The bells in her hair rang in her ears, but Jazz took no notice as she was instantly filled with pure panic. "Danny!" she cried, but the boy took no notice as he continued to choke.

Jazz could hardly think. She quickly pulled out her cell phone, but the only number she knew not to call was 911, due to Danny's genetic nature. Not that it'll mean anything if he dies here and now! she chided herself. Focus! She quickly dialed a random number she knew by memory and hoped they could help. She nearly wept when she heard Sam's sleepy voice drift out of the speaker, but she didn't give the younger girl much time for more than a hello before she started shouting, "Sam! We're in trouble! Big trouble!"

"What? What trouble?" asked Sam, panic now lacing her voice as well. "Jazz, what happened?"

"That's just it! I don't know!" screamed Jazz, fear turning her voice into a near literal babbling brook. "One minute Danny and I are patrolling the town, and the next he just collapses! It's like he's choking on something, he turned human without warning, he's turning blue, oh, God-" Jazz started to hyperventilate. What if Sam couldn't find help in time? What if Sam somehow got hurt, too? What if she got hurt? Then no one would be able to find help! Oh, God, oh, God, oh God-

"JAZZ!" Sam shouted, making Jazz shut up out of instinct.

"Jazz," Sam repeated, "Calm down. Panicking won't help Danny." Danny. Oh, God, Danny. Her little brother, her sweet, brave little brother was choking and writhing on the ground and...

The bells again rang in her ear, and the panic was wafted away and replaced by confusion and curiosity. Jazz faintly heard Sam say something else but didn't hear. She gave a distant "Hold on a moment" and lowered the phone to her side, searching the mall's parking lot for her missing brother.

As she again heard the bells in her hair, she found him. He was laying a few feet away and the confusion made way for relief and cheer. She made her way to Danny as she lifted her cell phone again. "Danny's fine now," she told Sam, and prepared to joke about the close call when Sam's tense voice replied to her.

"What do you mean 'Danny's fine now'?" she growled, giving Jazz pause. Why wasn't Sam as happy as she was? Danny was okay! "You called me at-at 2:17 in the morning and put me in a frenzy about Danny choking on nothing and you turn around and tell me 'Danny's fine now'?"

Jazz was about to reassure the girl that there wasn't anything to worry about when she seemingly read the senior's mind. "If you say anything about me not needing to worry, I will hurt you." There was a beat of silence and Sam went on to say, "I'm already dressed now, so I may as well see if you're alright. Where are you?"

Well, Jazz thought, if you wanna keep yourself in an uptight mood, be my guest. She told the younger girl where they were and heard the acceptance in Sam's voice.

"Okay then. I'll see you in fifteen." There was a loud click that made Jazz wince, but she shrugged unconcerned. She wasn't even worried when she saw a pale girl dressed in white and ribbons kneeling over Danny with a curious, calculating expression. But even in the mindset that everything was perfectly fine, that feeling returned; the feeling of wrong that had so worried Danny, that had felt palpable when the patrol first began.

It was that realization that had Jazz furrowing her brows in worried anger and pulling out a Fenton Lipstick laser to aim at the girl, who had then seemed to finally notice her presence. However, even with the sight of a weapon trained on her, she only smiled and waved her hands deftly in her direction, making the bells in her hair ring.

And that happy, careless feeling returned. Jazz returned the girl's smile and dropped the Lipstick, only faintly wondering why she even had it when there was nothing wrong.

The girl stood up, only stopping to wrap a hand around her unconscious brother's throat and toss him bodily with inhuman strength into one of the mall's windows. The alarms didn't sound, furthering Jazz's resolve that there wasn't anything to worry about. Even the mall itself knew.

But somewhere in Jazz's cheerful mind, she pounded on a solid wall. She knew that the mall's alarms didn't sound because it was haunted, most likely by that girl. She knew she had to run. She had to warn Sam - she was already on her way here!

It was pointless. The walls wouldn't give. And the Jazz outside continued to smile broadly as the girl approached her. The bells began to ring behind her ear, happily, joyfully. Their true owner had come for them.

While the outer Jazz continued to smile even as the ringing gave her a pounding headache, the inner Jazz screamed in fear - for herself, for her brother, for Sam, even for Tucker, heaven forbid he get tied up in this somehow.

The ringing grew louder. Her ears began to bleed. And with a final tone that could only be considered wrong, the bells banged against her head and sliced it apart from ear to ear.

Neither Jazz knew anything more.