Danny Pantom Unlimited
Chapter 23
Phantoms of the Heart:
Wendigo, Part 2 of 3
Third Act: You know you know (I love you)
That night…
("I'll surely die" by The Rubens still playing in Danny's radio)
"…You know maybe… is time we… go for it."
"Aaaah… you want to play fetch?" He asks confused.
"Danny I'm not playing! I'm serious."
"Well, I don't know what you're talking about. I can't get the meaning when people beats around the bushes, you know that."
Sam sighs looking prone, mustering the courage to say the words that so vimly elude her lips.
"I think… maybe is time for us… maybe we should… do it."
Danny stares at her in shock, his brain barely processing what was happening. Never he thought he'd live to see the day in which Sam would ask such thing herself.
"…Yo-you mean… do it? Like… like in… sleeping together?" He asks muddled.
"Danny, I… I've thought about this a lot and… we've been together for so long, and after all we've been through I feel that…" Once again the words she's looking for elude her lips. "What I'm trying to say is… I love you, and I think-I know you are the one."
"The one?"
"Yeah, you know, the one I want to be with."
"To be…?"
"Together! Together-together. Not just one night, but… you know, all of them. I want a life with you, I want to be with you forever."
"Woa… Sam, I… I didn't know you feel that way." Damn!, he thinks.
"Danny, I love you, of course I feel that way. Don't you feel that way? Don't you love me?"
"Of course I love you. You are the one I love the most. You know you know I love you… don't you?" says staring into her beautiful violet eyes.
"I do. But…"
"Are you sure that's what you wanna do? That you're ready for this? Because that's not a game, that's a very big step. It's no child's play."
"I am…" replies dropping her gaze.
Gently, Danny takes his girlfriend's hands, touching the graduation ring he gave her two years ago when professing his love for her, still standing in her right hand, "Sam… you know I never asked you to do any of this, don't you?" He asked tilting his head as he held her chin as kindly as he could. "I never pushed you to do anything, if anyone that's always you."
"I know."
"And this is your idea, you want to do it."
"…Yes…"
"Then, why do you look like you're not totally convinced of what you're saying?" he points out.
"I am. Danny, I love you and I want to be with you, now and forever. That's how I feel, how I've always felt."
"I know that. And because I love you and I don't wanna hurt you I'm asking you again: are you sure you're ready, that's what you wanna do? That this isn't too much for you?"
"…Danny, I love you." States holding his hands tighter. "And if there is one person I want to be in this world, or any other, is you… And we're gonna have a future together, right?"
"…Right."
"So it will happen sooner or later. Why not sooner? Besides it will bring us closer, won't it?"
"Well, it sure works for my parents."
"Then… do you want to do it?"
"Sam, I'm a guy, I always want to do it," says apporting a glowing condom he keeps in his wallet into his left hand. "See?"
"Wait! You just carry one of those things around? Like why?"
"Wishful thinking? You always come around, we spend a lot nights together with no adults around…" He replies almost jokingly with a grinn.
"God, guys are all the same."
"What, responsible? Look, ever since the bomb I try be more precaucious about everything, thinking ahead and preparing myself for any situation, even this. I'm just being responsible, ok? I thought you'd appreciate that."
"Yes, I do," replies glancing at him, somehow upset he was that ready. "Fine, then in order to move our relationship forward, as it will eventually, and taking it to a new, deeper level… we're sleeping together… for the first time. Just the two of us… preparing ourselves for our future… right now."
"Wait, really? I mean, right now? Are you sure?" He asks no longer goofing.
"Why you keep questioning? You sure you want to sleep with me! 'Cuz I'm sure I want to. Of course, there's the issue of... you know."
"Right, well… my parents won't be at home all night. They're too bussy at Axion Labs." He points out. "And Jazz is out in a hot date so she won't be back until later, that means… we'll have the entire house for ourselvers… Are you sure we are not rushing into this?"
"I'm not running around town with a neon birth control device in my purse."
"Hey, I've been a good guy about this. I want to make sure you really want this. You think this is the best for us. You say you're ready, so I try to be conscientious and now you criticize me for that? Make up your mind! And it's not neon! It's just… the extoplasm.
"…Ectoplasm?" Asks Sam baffled.
"You know, for… my… ghost baby juice. Wouldn't like to spill it over by accident."
"So you're saying…"
"It's a Phantom Condom, I made up myself!" He says grinning proudly.
Sam sighs deeply placing her hand flat across her face. "…unbelievable…" she wispers. "Ok, let's do it."
"You're sure?"
"Positive. Are you… ready?"
"If you think this is the right thing for us to do, then I'm down with that," says getting a coy smile from Sam.
Leaning on Danny, she kisses him in the lips, wrapping her arms around his neck, as he touches her small waist. The smell of her perfume strikes his nose, so sweet and inciting, her cursing lips, as smooth and tender as a child's lips, had never kissed him that way before, so lewdly and coated in such passion…
Not giving it a second thought, she straddles on Danny's legs non-stopping the kissing. This is it, she was finally going to make love with Danny, she was ready to sleep with the man she loves, she thinks.
Danny slowly slithers his right hand beneath her shirt, lowering his left hand into her legs, the condom floating over his head waiting to be used, is not until he reaches and unclenches her bra clasp single-handed that she-
Abruptly she jumps off of him breaking themselves apart.
"I can't, I can't do this." Says jumping out of his bed holding her bra with one arm.
"Sam… what's wrong? Di-did I touch something I shouldn't have?"
"No. Is… I'm sorry. I should never have brought that up." Sam says as she gets out of the room, weeping, wishing she had never done any of that.
Days later…
Northern Minnesota.
September 11, 02:17 PM Local Time
Inside the Fenton RV parked in front of a Tasty Burger, the young couple finds itself in that same situation of two nights ago.
Sam straddled on top of Danny who was sitting on the driver's seat, kissing-bitting his lips, in such a lewdly way, ready to finally give herself to him, only to pull him back, regretting her decision again.
"I-I'm so sorry," she says pushing herself away from Danny. "I don't know what came over me," she apologizes for this unique and salacious sudden act, this uncharacteristic lapse of reason from her.
"Sam, wha-? What was that?" He asks baffled.
"A mistake, that's what it was," says unable to look at him in the face.
"Sam…"
"Danny, I… I really don't want to talk about it."
"Yeah well, you're gonna have to," he said firmly, locking the doors of the RV by thought with his arms folded. "Sam I brought us here so we can talk about that night, about why you ran off like that. Not just to play the FBI." Danny explains to her, "Why did you avoid me for an entire day? Why can't you just look at me and tell me what's wrong with you?"
"Because it's something stupid, ok? Everything-all of this is stupid! Look, when I say I don't want to talk about it, I don't."
"You know, after all these years together, I believed you'd be more honest with me about your feelings."
"Me? How about you? Are you honest with me?! Do you ever tell me how you truly feel?! When something is wrong with you? When was the last time you ever told me truth?!" She yells weeping.
"Oh, so now you want to put it on me? Now I'm the one who has secrets?"
"Yes, you are." She responds loudly.
"You're changing the toppic, that is not the problem here, Sam. And whatever secrets I have, if I had any, is irrelevant to our relationship."
"So you admit you're hiding things?" She added.
"No, I'm not. And if I had any secret, they're not for you to know. That's why it's called a secret. Just tell me what's wrong with you? What's the problem?"
"Oh, so you're fine with keeping things to yourself, but you're not going to have the same courtesy to me and let me have my secrets? You're so full of crap!"
"Oh. Am I now? Ok, if you want another conversation, we'll have another conversation." He adds getting up and walikg around the RV. "You say that I'm full of crap because I'm pushing you to do something you don't want, something that should be beneficial to us, ike if you have never done the same shit to me?! And is not even something that benefits us both, but rather something that you want done simply because you are a spoiled brat!"
"What do you mean with that?!"
"You hate it when I use my powers for my own gain like winning a poker game, but whenever you think of a way to use them for your own gain it's all 'Danny you should totally do this, no matter how illegal it is, and no, I don't care if you agree with me or not, I just want you to do it because I'm your girlfriend and I strongly believe I'm always right and I'm better than everyone, no matter what others think or feel, or how hard my mistake is slapping me in the face.' You always ask me to do things I don't want to do or even agree with and take zero consideration of my saying in the matter. That's how you always are."
"Name one time I have-"
"What about the three times you wanted me to destroy a steak eating contest just because you don't like meat, completely oblivious to how much I do? Or how about when you asked me to overshadow Principal Ishiyama just to force the school to eat that ultra-recyclo vegetarian crap, by the second time, completely forgetting what happened last time? Or the time you tried to convenceme to stop a construction worker from ripping and 'killing' a dead three that has been dead for ten years, stopping the expansion of a hospital! Simply because you don't like it when progress gets in the way of nature regardless of how much good it brings or how dead is that nature. Sure the more dead, the better to you right?"
"That's it?"
"Those are only the few times I haven't thought of breaking up with you, just because I'm too busy thinking on how stupid your whims are," Danny speaks blunt and honest without thinking, unaware of how much he could hurt his girlfriend with his words.
Holding her tears she asks "Is that how you truly feel?"
"That is how you make me feel sometimes."
"Let me out of here." Says holding her tears.
"What?"
"I said LET ME OUT!" She cries out loud.
Avoiding her eyes, Danny pushes the button that opens the door of the RV, right next to it.
Sam runs out of the car sweeping her tears as she whimpers.
"This is how you make feel sometimes," she cries before slamming the door with all the might of her little arms.
"Just one more glorious victory for Danny Phantom, yaaaay," he says to himself as he leans on the door, regretting everything that happened in the last ten minutes.
Now…
Inside the cave where Danny, Sam and the Extreme Ghostbreakers are held prisioners, and where the later tries to help the young couple with… questionable counseling skills.
"Wow… that was quite the fight, dude" says Brenner."
"So… it is fine from you to ask your boyfriend to do thing he doesn't want and he shouldn't do, but is not ok from him to ask you to talk about something you should talk about just because you don't want to? This is unprofessional to the extreme but you're so full of crap, dude." Sullivan said to Sam.
"Thank you!" Danny says from his cell. "And you know, this isn't even the first time we fight like this, whatever toppic she always finds a way to turn that into a fight, no matter how insignificant, she'll always have a saying that will end up in yelling and crying… and tears with yelling."
"That's not true," Sam argues.
"Like hell is not!" Danny says on the fence of his cell. "I could spend the entire night talking about all the fights you started just this week."
"Like what?"
"Let's see: you bitched on monday about how a burning building causes more damage to the ozone layer and you don't give a fuck about the lives that are at risk, on tuesday you cried and ranted about how unfair it was to use pigeons as messengers during the war and you gave me and Tucke an F on history."
"Well somebody has to think about it."
"People is dying in those fires, why would anybody think about the ozone layer?"
"You know, having this many fights you should ask yourselves: why are you still together? What brought you there in the first place? And most important, why do you want this relationship to go on?" Brenner adds.
The questions sinks deep into the young couple's heads.
Danny mulls on the question whereas Sam promptly replies "Because I love him, I'm crazy about him. Even though sometimes he makes me feel that way he is also the one who makes me happy. Danny I… I can't imagine a life without you, or with anybody else. You're the greatest guy I've met, and even though… I can be a brat sometimes, I admit that, you're always great with me, always so considerate and thoughtful and as understanding as you can be with me, even this stupid trip is just that. You just wanted to understand what's wrong with me, it wasn't your brightest idea, but you always try to do your best to make me feel better. The things that you do… I'm out of my mind in love with you."
"Haha, you just quoted a Drake Bell song, dude," Sullivan says. "Sorry," says feeling his partner giving him a dirty look. "What about you Danny? Why do you hold onto that relationship?" Sullivan adds.
"I… I don't know," he says after thinking the question all the way through.
Fourth Act: Tell-tale Heart.
Now…
"What do you mean with you don't know?" Sam asks sounding even angrier than before.
"It means I. Don't. Know. That's what it means. I dont have a reason"
"You are-"
Promptly Brenner cuts her off before she can say anything that would start another fight asking "Why don't you tell us how did you get here? After that fight, I'd believe each one would take separate ways."
"Fine!" Sam said.
Northern Minnesota. Bate's Motel.
September 11, 03:17 PM Local Time
After his heated argument with his girlfriend Sam, Danny decides to grab something to eat and asks for double meat burger with extra chesse and onion, cheesy on the onions. The smell of the burger was downright the most delicious smell that has ever crossed his nose, and the taste was…
"Mmmm… this is one tasty burger," he says feasting on the wildfire of flavors burning his tongue. The juicy meat, the crunchy bread, the delicious sauce… "Gas, you gotta add this place to my 'I must eat here every time I can' list," he orders while chewing his food.
"On it, sir."
"My glob, this meat is delicious," says taking anoter bite.
Danny floats over his motel bed playing the video of Dick's video call from his chest using his suit's holographic projector after enhancing the quality of the videoto make it High Quality.
"This is beyond baffling…" He adds as the video ends.
"What sir?"
"This guy's name is Richard, but he preffers to be called Dick. It's just… intresting. How would one choose to be named Dfick?" He asks taking a handful of fries into his mouth. "Play it again."
"Sir this is the twentieth time you play that video, what do you expect to find there?"
"I don't know. A clue. Something. Anything that tells me what are those things. They don't look like any ghost I've see, but then again ghost come in all forms and shapes." Danny moans distraughtly. "Damn ghosts, sometimes I don't know why do I do this. It was easier when they just came to me and I got to punch their faces not giving too much of a damn about what do they want, or trying to figure out what are they, or… what do they want."
"Well, this is what being a hunter truly means, if you stay around and wait for them to come to you so you can hunt them rather than actually looking for them, then you're not much of a hunter as much as you are a pray."
"Spiders wait for their pray to come to them."
"They're passve hunters and got traps for that. A real hunter goes out for his pray to well, hunt it. He follows its traces, studies its habits, its usual whereabouts, he learns everything about his pray, even how it thinks, that's how real hunters and ghost hunters (at least the originals before the zapping guns era we live today) do. Our pals here they knew that well."
"Yeah, and look how well it turned out for them." Said bitting his burger. "God, this is delicious."
"Sir, you have an incoming call."
Swallowing his food he says "If it's Sam, pose as me and thell her if she's not going to apologize, then I don't wanna talk to her."
"No, is the girl from a while ago, Sandy."
"Oh, put her on speaker."
"Hello? Danny?" She asks. The phone call was being made through Danny's suit and the voice came out of him as if he was a giant speaker.
"Hi Sandy, what's the matter?"
"Is… what you said earlier. About those creatures possibly being a Wendigo."
"Ah yeah, I remember. Sandy, that's just a theory, he-"
"I know, I know. Look, when you left I started to remember stories my grandfather used to tell me when I was a child, stories of this big evil spirit that devours human flesh and… well he once told me he saw one when he was a child."
"Did he now?"
"Yes. Well I never truly believed him but-"
"Is he still alive? I think I might like to have a chat with him."
"Yes, he is."
"Good. Eh, where does he live?"
"He lives with me. He was out when you passed by but he must be back in a hour."
"Great, tell him I'm gonna pass by. You might wanna keep the half-ghost hero thing a secret, old people don't react well to that."
"Don't worry. I think you aren't the weirdest he is seen."
"Great. I'll see you later."
"Sir, do you truly think it could be a Wendigo?"
"I think anything is possible and as things are, am open to all the possibilities."
"Buit Wendigos are not ghosts."
"Technically they are described as evil spirits, not to mention in our universe werewolves are ghosts, dragons are ghosts, krakens are ghosts… or giant squids. Pandora herself is a ghost, pretty much anything found in folklore, myths and legends is a ghosts."
"Then why not going after them now? If at the end of the day they're just ghosts, shouldn't they be like any other ghost you've fought?"
"Like Sun Tzu said: Know thy enemy. I can't just barge into battle and slugout things having no idea what I'll face, I must go prepared, caculate and wage all the options, possibiliries and outcomes. I learned that the hard way."
"Sir… you suck at math."
"Then ii's a ood thing I got you."
Danny gets on his feet taking his car keys with his telekinesis and walks toward the door only to find with Sam on the other side.
"Ah… You're back."
"Of course I'm back, I'm staying here." She replies discontent.
"Still angry?" He asked.
"What gave it away?"
"I'm not apologizing."
"What makes you think I came here for an apologize?"
"Just saying."
"I came here because we got a work to do, so… no matter how much I want to kill you right now, we still gotta finnish that job."
"Well, I was going back to Sandy's. She thinks her grandfather might know what these things are. I mean other than a ghost."
"Yeah, well, before that… I had to walk a lot to get here, so…"
"You gotta take a shower first?"
"Yeah."
"Go ahead, I'll wait."
04:16 PM
Sam comes out of the bathroom with a towel on her head and clean clothes, her own goth clothes.
"What took you so long?" Asks Danny sitting on the bed.
"It's called personal grooming, you should give it a try one day."
"Hey I wash my hair at least twice a week, how do you think I get it to 'wave' in the air when I fly?"
"Right…" says throwing the towel on the bed.
"Anyway, Sandy just called in, her grandfather is home already," says snapping his fingers, taking them to Sandy's home, "and so are we."
"Damn it Danny, stop doing that!" she cries, "Couldn't you just drive us here?"
"Nah, this way is faster." Says knocking the door.
Sandy opens the door and invites them in, her grandfather was sitting in the living room waiting for them. Danny goes human before stepping into the house. The man inside waiting for him was heavyset, with a deeply wrinkled face and dark russet skin. An elderly Algonqiun man with white long hair draped on his back, with the exception of two locks at each ear and gray eyes. His face was squared with a small chin, and a large flat nose.
"Hello Mr…?"
"Blackwood."
"Mr. Blackwood. I like the sound of that," Danny says. "So, Sandy told me you've seen a Wendigo before."
Slowly, the old man begins to pull off the sleeve of his red sweeter revealing a deep scar, four slashes carved deep into his arm's flesh.
"I haven't seen them, I've lived them."
"Ok… I'm sure there is a cool story behind those scars, right?" Danny asks nervously.
"Sit down, please," Mr. Blackwood asked. Danny and Sam sit in the sofa next to his chair. "What do you know about Wendigos?" He asked.
"Wendigo is an Algonqiun word. It means 'evil that devours', or… something like that." Danny said promptly getting an affirmative gesture from Mr. Blackwood. "It is like an evil spirit, or a demon of sorts. They're hundreds, thousands of years old, like humanity. Each was once a man, sometimes an indian, or a hunter who during some harsh winter, finds himself starving, has no supplies and no help in the way and becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp… If you eat enough of it you become possesed by the Wendigo spirit and over the years, you become this less-than-human thing. You become a fiend and you're always hungry."
"You're most right, young man. Certantly more wise than I was at your age."
"I'm 17. And for the record, I didn't get that from the internet."
"Good. Now listen, the story I'm about to tell you happened a long time before you were born-"
"Oh, can we make a fire? I always wanted to hear one of those stories next to a fire," Danny says getting a glare from Sam.
"Danny, we're inside a house, we can't set a fire in here," she scolds him. "Please, ignore him."
"Your boyfriend is quite the vivid spirit, isn't he?"
"You don't know the half of it," she replied.
"I can see you are quite full of emotions and mixed feelings among… other things," he said to Danny. "You on the other hand… you seemed repressed, you hide them from yourself. None of which is healthy for either of you. Now, as I was saying before I get awfully interrupted," he says glaring at Danny, "this happened before you kids were born…"
November 23, 1958
…For countless generations my tribe would sit around the fire and tell children stories, stories about the spirits of the earth, about travelers from the sky, but above else stories about the Wendigo spirit. Stories of how a hunter would get caught by the dire winter with nothing to eat but his own kind, the most hideous and despicable ac of all. When eating your own kind, the Wendigo spirit would possess you and turn you into a monster with no traces of the man you once were, with a hunger for human flesh that can't be pleased, always craving for more, just as you said.
We are taught at a very young age that suicide and death are preferable and more honorable choices than recurring to something as cannibalism.
When I was a child, my father and grandfather told me these same stories. Unlike most of the children in my tribe, I always believed it was an old bed story… I always was what some would say a rebel, always going against their teachings and warnings, not wanting to believe what they had to tell me and my lack of faith would cost me dire.
One night when going far too deep into the woods with my brother, he and I found a dead deer, the poor animal torn in half. They told us it was the act of another animal, a bear or a wolf, but no animal I knew could do this, no animal could tear another that way, and its skin… torn apart. No animal from this world was responsible for such a thing.
During a whole week the men in our tribe hunted the "animal" that did this, but I knew then that it was something far more dangerous. They told us to stay at home after the sunset and every night they'd go out for it, but I was so curious, I followed them, always careful not to steep on any stick, not to do anything to draw their attention always so stealthy and supple, though now I think they just ignored me and let me follow them to teach me a lesson, and as always my big brother would follow me, keeping an eye on me. He was always my keeper.
For six nights they got nothing, they would always find a dead end. But at the seventh night, that night they found a cave in the deepest of the woods.
"It's a bear cave," my naive brother said, but what slept in there, it was no bear, it was far worse than anything we could ever imagine.
When the first man came in, the ugliest sound I've ever heard followed him. Up to these days I can't get the sound of his screaming out of my head, and I will never hear something like that again, let alone something worse. Never I thought I'd hear a man cry and scream with such pain and fear in his voice. What came after that it is something I'll never forget. The tales of the Wendigo are all real boy, I learn that that night the worst way, just as they said it was a slender creature like a man who hasn't eaten in months, with long sharp claws, and fangs and a mouth like that of a wolf, with his arms and legs covered in fur naunced with blood and filth and an unearthly glow.
It was fast and strong, it torn them in half in a matter of minutes, and they couldn't do anything to save themselves. They tried to shoot it down, but it would always disappear the moment they attacked. It was as if it was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And it wasn't the darkness that made it hard to see it, it was a clear full moon night, but instead the creature, that Wendigo seemed to coat itself in darkness of its own. It was as if it could turn invisible.
My brother and I stood there scared, we didn't know what to do but to watch helpless how it ate everyone. We stared at that thing for hours as it ate the men from our tribe waiting for it to leave, and when it seemed to be done, when it ate the last one of them… it turned its big red glowing eyes sucked deep into its skull right at us. Its eyes… never I've seen something like that, and I pray I never have to again.
And as soon as it looked at us it pounced over us. My brother told me to run as he stayed back to fight that thing, so I did. I ran and ran as fast as I could as my brother, the bravest man I ever meet, shrieked in fear behind me. When the crying stopped I knew I'd be next and I was right. That creature appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my arm, and if it wasn't because of the dawn, I wouldn't have made it out alive. But even till these days, I can feel it. I can feel its claws digging into my flesh, its filthy paws holding my arm… the warm blood of my brother in its fingers… in my arm. The stench of blood and putrid flesh coming from its mouth… and the penetrating stare of its eyes looking through mine, looking deep into my soul as I looked back staring at nothing. I beg no one ever has to look at those eyes so lonesome and greedy. There was not a soul in them, all I could see was its endless hunger for human flesh glowing in them, I could see the spirit's desire for killing, it desired the death of everything that falls within its sight, but over all… it its own death.
When I told my parents this story they went to the same place, and they would only find their bones buried in the bloodstained snow…
"…I never knew if they ever caught the monster who did this… but I can tell you one thing, it is not from this world."
Danny and Sam were aghast with the story. "Ah… Mr. Blackwood, did that… did that Wendigo look anything like this?" He asked playing the hologram of the video with his hands.
When looking at the creatures, the eyes of the old man that remained almost shut down during the entire time turned wide open. Fear gleamed from them.
"That is, that is the Wendigo," said startled, pointing at the video.
"Ok, I'm guessing we're hunting a Wendigo then," Danny said to Sam. "I got no idea how to kill a Wendigo, they're not part of the big three of Hollywood, the only way I know how to kill them is by calling the Winchester brothers so they torch it up." He explains to his girlfriend who only glares at him, "Any idea on how to kill it?" He asks Mr. Blackwood.
"Guns don't work with it, I know that much, neither do knives…"
"Well, I'm guessing we'll have to follow their teachings and torch this sucker," he said to Sam.
"I wanr you, this creature is a predator, the perfect predator. It is fast, and strong and some even say it can control weather at will. It is known as the spirit of the wind in some tribes. If there was an apex predator, this would be a strong number three."
"Number three?" Sam inquired. "Ok, you first say it is the perfect predator and now you say it's a strong number three? Could you at least make up you mind? After what you told us, how could there be something worse than that?"
"There are things worst than them. I believe you two know that."
"Don't worry, I'm a hunter spirit," said with a grin. "Thanks a lot for sharing this with us, I think I might have an idea of who is behind all this now and… I'm sorry for your loss. I know what it feels like to lose your brother."
"It's ok, I've had time to adjust."
"Well, I think it's time we leave. Danny." Sam sounded.
When stepping out of the door Sam inquired "What was that?"
"What was what?" He asks.
"What was that 'I know what feels like to lose your brother'?"
"Oh, that. That's called empathy, you should give it a try sometimes."
"That's really nice, Danny" she sounded sarcastic.
"Yeah, it actually helps to know what other people feels."
"What do we do now oh great hunter spirit?"
"Well, they come out only at night, going out to look for them now would be a waste of time so…" Danny snaps his fingers one more time taking them to their motel room. "We stay here untill the sun goes down and figure out who's yanking the strings."
"Does your great empathy help you to feel when somebody hates it when you use your 'zapping away' trick?"
"Yeah, it feels great. But back to our case, it all makes sense now."
"How comes?"
"Well, Mr. Blackwood said the Wendigo was the perfect predator, number three candidate for the title of the Apex Predator. Now who do we know who is obssed with hunting and uses predators to hunt?"
"Skulker."
"Exactly, and last time he came at me with those mechanical Hellhounds, and it wasn't the first time he used a better predator to hunt me for him. What if this time he decided to go for something more vicious and… predatory to do his bidding? Something that excelled him on everything he can't do…? Which is hunting."
"So you think he's building up an army of Wendigos to hunt you down?"
"Not an army of Wendigos, a pack of Wendigos. They're beasts, so it would make more sense to call it a pack."
"How comes our lives came to the point where a sentence like 'not an army of Wendigos, a pack Wendigos' actually makes sense?"
"I think it all started when you told me to step into the portal."
Sam stares at him arm folded not saying a word for almost a minute.
"You're still missing one thing." Sam points out.
"What?"
"The Wendigo spirit possesses you when you eat human meat. How does he get them to do that?"
"Maybe that's where the campers come in. Knowing Skulker, he would want his pack to have the strongesst predators, which means he must feed the campers to the hunters. I mean they already have hunting skills. With the Wendigo curse, they must be boosted about ten times. He probably forced them to eat or die… or be eaten, or maybe he just gave them human flesh without them knowing what it was."
"Then how do you plan on beating those things?"
"Well, he said sunlight scared the crap out of him, that is something we can work with."
"Do you have sunlight in can?"
"I got something better, I got ghost powers, a super high tech futuristic suit with plenty of cool gadgets and apps that seem to change according to the situation, and the most important thing, a new array of ghost hunting equipment he's never seen," he said with a smirk.
07:53 PM
With the sky darkened and the crescent moon high up in the sky, Danny and Sam prepare themselves for their hunt listing all of the weapons they had to hunt this pack of Wendigos, spread all over their motel bed.
"Ok, so we got acid ghost goo," says. Danny shaking a crystal container that almost seemed like a hip flask with a thick green substance inside, "this thing burns whether you are a human or a ghost so be careful with that, the Fenton Bracelets, ghost grenades, ten for each but I won't be needing them so you can take mine, the Fenton ecto-guns, you got six of them. It seems a bit of an overkill but I intensified their potency so they'll be four times as powerful, that way they're most likely to tear a ghost molecule by molecule or at least limb by limb, but since that upgrade eats to much battery they come with twenty to forty rounds each one so you gotta be careful with that too," Danny explains. "Now, these are a new favorite special of mine: The Phantom Trapped bullets ecto-guns, I made those myself too along with the acid goo and… almost everything else here," says grinning as he points to the three guns with all the glimmer and shining of a weapon concocted by his parents but with something different and unique in their design that made them feel out of place when lying next to all of the other Fenton gadgets getting a weird look from Sam. "If the lasers won't take them down, these babes come with ghost-shield generator bullets that would trap them within a ghost shield generated from the inside out. They pretty much would be trapped inside their own bodies… or they will explode, whatever happens first, I haven't tested yet."
"Wait what?" She asks baffled by his statement.
"Also here we got the Phantom Trackers, we can use them to trace those suckers if they escape to find their lair," says pointing to a plastic rod with ten little silver spider-like devices lined up inside, "you just gotta aim and fire, and if this babies hit them we'll know where they live, and here it is the Phantom Goggles, so far they only come in three light spectrum: normal, night vision for the night and infrared spectrum for the invisible specters, they last only about an hour so don't overuse it, it's more for when we're actually facing them but they want to hide their ugly faces," said pointing to a large metallic set of goggles with six red circular lenses that resembled to the multiple eyes of a spider, "oh, and how to forget about my Ghost Killing Knife or Ghost Blade if you want, never leave the house or sleep anywhere without it." Said taking his ectoplasm laced bowie knife.
"Yeah, I remember."
"Although I'm still not sure if it can kill ghosts, but it sure as hell will hurt," states staring at it with a worried and somewhat confused look.
"And the bat?"
"You mean… The Fenton Anti-Creep Stick," said pointing to the bat next to his pillow.
"Right… And what is that?" Sam asked unable to understand the only piece of equipment that didn't really seem like anything contrived by Fenton Works but rather like something he jury-rigged in his garage.
"It's an EMF meter. It reads electromagnetic frequencies. It's like the first prototype of a ghost detector."
"Yeah, I know what an EMF meter is, but why does that one look like a busted up old walkman?"
"'Cause that's what I made it out of. It's homemade!" Danny said proudly. "It's like my first invention, well I didn't invent them, but it's the first thing I made in my parents lab."
"Yeah. I can see that. And why do we use this and not a ghost detector? This is like from the 90's and is not that reliable."
Danny looks offended and offended he walks away from Sam.
"Where are you going?"
"The wheel in my head got stuck between peeing and hating you and now it says 'I gotta pee on her', but you wouldn't like that, would you?"
"Ok…" Sam says confused and with a hint of risibility in her voice.
"And for the record it might be outdated but at least it won't get mixed signals from residual ghost energy and since we're in the woods we'll have no problem with other electronic devices," he sounded upset at Sam.
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry," said almost laughing and muffled by his words. "It's your first invention, I got it. I shouldn't have been so mean. But just to be clear, you actually made all of this?"
"Well, most of them, yeah." Yells from the bathroom.
"Wow, is just, I must say I never thought I'd see the day when you actually make your own equipment, why and when did you do all this?"
"With mom and dad working at Axion Labs all day and all night with Mr. Gray now they barely touch the lab so I got time to actually do some stuff of my own to suit my specific needs with my own… specifications. Not to mention they won't let me use the weapons they make there so they'd pretty much forced me to make my own stuff."
"That's been like that for almost a year, why do you make your own equipment just now?"
"Because just now I realized I should have done that a long time ago."
"Same to say because you got your butt handed to you last month."
"…Shut up!"
A risible sound escapes from Sam's lips which she quickly covers with her little hands.
"So… are we done here or is there anything else you'd like to brag about?"
"Actually yes," says getting out of the bathroom, "since we don't know how to kill them 'cause no one knows how to kill a Wendigo, or a ghost for that matter, and Wendigos are just way too dangerous to be left around in the ghost zone only so they can come back to earth like… every ghost we capture, we'll have to destroy them the best we can and for that we're gonna need this: the Ghost Gun Flares," says apporting onto their bed four gun flares that seemed like another ecto-gun with a transparent handle that made visible the six rounds each gun had.
"Ghost Gun Flares? Seriously?"
"Yep. You'd believe they're just another ecto-gun for how they look, but they're not quite. I wanted to make a flare that would work in the ghost zone and earth, one that wouldn't stop burning, that way if one of us gets lost we can leave a trace of flares in the air so we can find each other, but for some reason they won't stop bursting in my face."
"No, seriously?"
"Luckily I knew it would actually be helpful in a hunt, like portable flamethrowers only but… with just six shots. So if everything else fails, we got these."
"And we're not taking a Fenton Thermos?"
"As I said, we're hunting to kill, no to trap. The world is better of without those creatures, but… if you don't feel like doing it, I can call someone else and zap them here to take your place."
"No, it's ok. I'm fine, I mean these… these are not animals, they're monsters, they're evil ghost and we're ghost hunters. Hunting things and killing them is what we do, or at least is what we do now. It's just… Danny they used to be people, you know. People that made poor choices I don't approve… and now they're not humans anymore, and now we gotta kill them? What if they're not like the chompers, what if they can be saved? I mean if they're possessed they can be exorcised, I've seen you do that plenty of times. So… do we really have to kill them?"
"Hey, of course I had that in mind, what do you think the Phantom Trapped bullets are for? I'm just prepparing myself for the worst casescenario, in case we can't separete them from the Wendigo spirit, in case the transformation is irreversible and there is nothing human left to save… If we can't save them, this will save many live," Danny says fondling her shoulders. "Now, I know it's hard, I wish I can save them, but I must be mentally prepared should that not be an option, and I know it feels weird, shoot to kill is not exactly what we're use to, but things are different now, things have changed, the world has changed, and we gotta change with it. There is a war at our door and we got to adapt to the situation if we want to win, we go to prepare for it. And you know this is just the begining, right? Things will get worse."
"I know, and apparently you have changed too, you sure know how to adapt to the situation…"
"Hey, I'm trying to change for the best. Be the best hero I can."
"Well, just don't change who you are, ok? Always remember that you are the hero, don't you ever change that."
"You say that as if you think I'll turn evil."
"Right. What was I thinking?"
"I don't know, but I think we got a communication issue."
"My God! Again with it?! This isn't the time to talk about it. Wait-what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about your Fenton Headphones. They're broken. I try to connect to them but nothing. Did you do something to them?"
"Aaahh, that… Tucker did it. He started playing with then and he brooke them."
Danny stares at her peeved and disappointed "Tucker did it? That your best excuse?"
"Fine, I might-might have forgotten to take them off when I was on the shower last week. Sorry. Sometimes I forget they aren't real earings."
"Luckily for you I was also working on my own set of Phantom Headphones," Danny says apporting a blue set of headphones on her ears similar to his parents' only but with a more futuristic design as he made them at a New Milenium Foundation lab, as well as some of his new gadgets. "So far they work as the Fenton Headphones only but with Bluetooth and it comes with a six miles radius, but when I get them done they'll be Technus-proof and we could use them for long distance calls… for free! Or we can charge the call."
"Cool. Can I play music on them?"
"Last time you and Tucker used them to play music you didn't listen to my calls when I told you 'watch out, giant three headed dragon on your backs', and then you two ranted about that, so no music!"
"…Well, since you put it that way."
"Ok, I think this it." Says snapping his fingers, putting all of their weapons and equipments inside his hockey bag.
"Wow, that is really time saver," Sam says putting the bag on her shoulder and moving towards the door.
"Wait, I've been thinking this through and we can't go there like this," Danny says halting his girlfriend.
"What now?" She asks exasperated.
"This," said taking the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick sticking out of the bag. "This is a bat, this can't kill a Wendigo, assuming it can be killed."
"Hey, don't look at me, you are the one who brought that thing."
"I think this could use some upgrades," says holding the bat with his telekinesis, plucking out all of the nails from the door's frame with it, then nailing them into the bat's head with a simple hand shake. "There! Now it's a 'Phantom' Anti-Creep Stick-wait," says streaming a beam of green light from his finger tip changing the word Fenton for Phantom and adding his colors to the tag. "Now it"s a Phantom Anti-Creep Stick."
"Really? A nail bat? That's your great upgrade?"
"Well… this are actually titanium nails, see? And I made it with my telekinesis. Now let's get out of here before someone notices I took their nails."
"You're putting them back in their place, right?"
"Sure, you can count on that."
"You're not giving them their nails back, are you?"
"No."
Walking down the hallway with a bag full of weapons and a spiked bat, they take the elevator were an old lady looks at Sam's revealing goth clothes and her shoulder bag in a judgmental way.
(Elevator playing "Women's Wear" by Daniel May.)
For almost half a minute, Sam had to put out quietly with the old woman giving her that look that said she thinks of her as the craziest whore she's ever seen whereas Danny was laughing in his head putting a superhuman effort not to laugh for real.
Fifth Act: Run to the hills.
September 11
Leech Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota.
08:22 PM Local Time.
Danny and Sam arrive at the crime scene, has he called it, and sneak into the reservation unnoticed thanks to Danny's powers.
"I still don't understand, why couldn't we fly all the way here?" Sam asked.
"Ah yeah, that. I try not to abuse my powers that much so I don't fly unless I have to. That's why I drive around and use my teleportation all the time which is easier. Also I cant teleport somewhere I haven't been, specially if it's over a radius of three miles. Now, let's go get these posers and go home."
Joining his hands as if he was praying, Danny summons six clones. "Ok, let's split up, (see what I did there?). You guys, you know what to do, float into the deepest of the woods just like any idiotic teenager from any slasher movie that doesn't know there is a monster on the loose, search for any cave, or anywhere where sunlight intolerant ghostly monsters might dwell as well as any remains of human bones, blood, anything that says Wendigo, and do not engage them alone. I repeat do not fight them, if any of us finds one, you send a signal so we can all go get them. Specially if Skulker is with them,"
"Sir, yes sir!" His clones yell, standing straight and taking their hands to their foreheads like soldiers.
With that final order, all of his clones go ghost and spread themselves, flying into the woods.
"I'm impressed. You're pretty much your own one man army."
"Well, I do what I can."
Using his homemade EMF meter, along his suit's ghost scanner, Danny begins to scout the area looking for the Wendigos with Sam walking behind him, holding the bag of weapons, but hours after searching the woods for any Wendigo or Skulker, thinking they'd finish this case before dawn, they become dissapointed for their lack of success.
Now tired and vexed, Sam begins to complain as always.
"I was curious to see when you'd give up on your own and drive us home, but it's been three hours Danny, three hours! And we got nothing, that EMF of yours is not picking up anything, so clearly there is nothing to pick up here, assuming it can't actually pick up something in the first place, I'm sure your clones are sleeping, I'm getting tired and sleepy, this bag is too heavy and my feet hurt."
"Oh, poor thing," says after swallowing a handful of Vicodin without Sam noticing anything. "That must be so much worse than having a heart condition!" He replies sarcastically, criticizing her pity complaints as he had bigger issues than her, even though she doesn't know of his condition. "Gimme that," say taking the bag from her shoulders. "And for the record my EMF works, why do you think I'm not ghost now?"
"Oh please. You ain't have any heart condition… do you?"
"What do you care about? Not like you are a doctor."
"Why are you being so mean with me now? If you're upset because we haven't caught anything yet-"
"This got nothing to do with the case," Danny cuts her off, "this is about-" Danny gets himself cut off by his own EMF meter beeping wildly as his ghost sense streams out of his mouth and his ghost scanner sounds in his head.
As sudden as his ghost sense steams, dozens of red eyes appear around them.
"See? I told this thing works!"
"Are those…?"
"Wendigos, ain't that great?!" He exclaims as the pack makes itself visible.
"Great? We're surrounded by a whole pack of human eating monsters, how is that great?" She asked.
"Because that means my weapons will finally get a proper field test worth of their greatness."
"You got the most sophisticated battle and hunting suit ever made by man. The most advanced equipment ever possessed by a ghost-hunter, and you prefer to use your own untested toys to fight monsters you've never faced before? You hurt my feelings sir, you really do." Gasper sounds in Danny's head.
"Shut up," he thinks to Gasper. "Now, take as many guns as you can," he says throwing the bag back at Sam.
"Hey, careful, you got a bat with nails in here!"
"Oh please, you've got worst than a nail in your arm," says going ghost, apporting his Phantom Trapped bullets guns onto his hands.
Excited for the opportunity to use his new customized and self-made equipment, Danny faces the pack of Wendigos that surrounded them as Sam grabs his nail bat and one of his modified ecto guns.
"You sure they'll work?"
"Only one way to know," answers pouncing at them, the most heinous creatures they've seen so far.
The Wendigos were gaunt to the point of emaciation, with that ghostly glow onto their green desiccated skin with purple stains, pulled tautly over their bones, with them pushing out against this. Their glow was the ash gray of death, and their eyes glowing red as blood and pushed back deep into their sockets. The Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave with a large head that was not human but seemed more like that of a wolf or a coyote instead, with huge tattered ears and filthy fur covering their arms, legs and back. What lips it had were black, tattered and bloody. Unkempt and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigos gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption coming from the thick beige ooze that poured from their stains.
That odor alone made their presence unbearable, but luckily for Danny his holographic bubble mask was not only for space travel but also for any place or moment where the was no air or it was simply unbreathable just like now. Sam on the other hand, didn't have a high tech filtering holographic mask and the stench was killing her nose.
"I bet you wish you had anosmia right now," he mocks.
"Shut up!" She yells slamming the head of a Wendigo with the nail bat, smashing it with all her strength.
The green blood of the ghostly monster is spread all over the place along with its brain and its broken jaw.
"Hey, this thing does work," she claims exited.
"See? What did I tell you?" Asks Danny as he shoots the Wendigos the ran at him with his Phantom Trapped bullets, leaving them paralyzed just as he expected. "And my Ghost-Shield bullets work like a charm."
The new "Phantom Weapons" seemed to be as effective as anything else crafted at Fenton Works, but as good as they were, the Wendigos soon begin to overwhelm them with an ever growing number. Even worst, they begin to dodge his bullets, the Wendigos were smarter than Danny expected.
"Danny! They're too many, call your clones!"
"Can't. They're down."
"Then make more."
"I don't think I can make that many, and it's too tiresome," explains shooting at the evasive Wendigos.
"Don't be so lazy."
"You don't get to tell me what to do!"
Danny rolls on the floor avoiding the swift claws of a Wendigo, reaching for his gun bag as he fires his last Phantom Trapped bullet missing the shot.
"Just how many hunters went missing again?!" Sam asked.
"Not nearly enough to build this pack," said pulling out his modified ecto-gun. "To build a pack like this… this had to be going on for years!" Said blowing the head of a Wendigo with a single shot.
With Wendigos jumping from the trees all around them, Danny and Sam start firing at will, anywhere they saw them, but the speed of these monsters allowed them to outrun the blasts, jumping from tree to tree, running and swaying swiftly around them and before they notice they're are left unconscious.
So, this was meant to be 2 issues as I said before, but as I said my frst time "I can only get any longer!"
OK, ok, that joke was hanging way too low even for me, anyway,
Here Sam gets a glimpse on what's inside Danny's heart, and when speaking honestly... not even he is sure what he feels
Now, this was meant to focus on Danny and Sam but the more I write it the more I realize the wendigos need more spootlight in the story, as much as the relationship itself, they're not a mcguffin, and that writting teen drama SUCKS!
It's hard as hell
do you guys think I'm getting it? cuz I don't