Author's Notes: Wow, where are all these readers coming from? Thank you for the overwhelming amount of feedback! And for anybody who actually cares what my story alert count is, it's now 24. I'm thrilled so many of you like this – I'm treading a thin line between reasonable angst and melodrama, I think.
To anybody thinking this is moving slowly; it starts picking up around now. This chapter is mostly transitional and we get some new point of views. It's mostly here to set up the next few chapters. Nice little surprise in here too.
The fact I'm terrible with conversation is probably highly noticeable. Sorry about that.
Chapter Four: A Most Peculiar Phenomenon
Despite his immediately flopping off asleep the previous night, Danny hadn't slept much. He'd been woken practically every hour, plagued by bad dreams of himself and a white-haired, green-eyed youth (who, now that he thought about it, could well be him – but he didn't want to admit that, and he certainly didn't have to like it).
He was scared of losing control. He was scared of hurting the people he cared about. He was scared of whatever he seemed to have become.
He got washed and changed and wearily trudged downstairs, heading for the cupboard and plucking out a packet of cereal and proceeded to make himself a bowl, trying not to yawn.
He sat down and began to eat in silence. He felt like he had eyes constantly watching him – he thought it was probably paranoia, but when he looked up, his family were all inspecting him as if he were some particularly interesting specimen. It was like they were dissecting him with their eyes. He shuddered.
His mother noticed the shudder and said, "Danny, sweetie, are you okay? You didn't look very well last night."
Are you okay? It seemed to be the only thing he was hearing recently – he couldn't breathe without being asked how he felt. It was annoying.
He forced a smile. "Sure, mom, I'm fine."
"What was it that had you so spooked last night?" asked Jazz, the wanna-be psychologist. It seemed that she could be tactful when she wanted to… and then annoyingly pushy when she didn't.
"Nothing!" Danny snapped. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. He felt like he was getting years older with every day – with all this stress recently, he'd probably have grey hairs even before he turned fifteen. "Look, Jazz, nothing happened last night, okay? I just… got a headache and went to bed?" he finished feebly.
Jazz looked at him doubtfully. "If you say so, little brother," she said in a condescending tone that showed that she didn't believe him in the slightest. He was too weary to argue, so let the matter drop. They hadn't stopped staring, though. Danny pushed the cereal bowl away, his appetite suddenly gone.
"I've had enough," he announced, getting up. "I'd better get to school." He practically dashed out of the room. He didn't like them staring at him as if something was wrong… it made him uncomfortable.
Left in the kitchen, the three other members of the Fenton family exchanged glances and shrugged as one.
"So," said Jack slowly, "who wants to see the Fenton Thermos? I think it's nearly done!" And at that, the Fenton household returned to some semblance of normalcy.
(SCENE BREAK)
Well… wasn't this a nice little mystery?
He'd been skulking around invisibly – not to jump out and scare people, that was just childish. He wasn't childish; he was Technus, master of technology! – to try and see why the puny humans were so obsessed with playing a game that was so in need of a graphics upgrade. There had to be something… something that, when victorious, made up for the shoddy graphics and appalling ideas! He would find it out, and he would take it for himself!
It was dull to watch the little humans fire rays of light at each other as if it actually hurt, and even worse to discover that the characters – little weaklings – actually sustained wounds from it! It wasn't that he didn't like a good bit of chaos… but this wasn't even well done; whoever had programmed it had obviously been some kind of amateur!
Then one of the ridiculously puny creatures had fired an ectoblast, and his interest was peaked. The child was boy and ghost? How was it possible? How hadn't he known? ("Create or steal ghost detection device," he noted.)
He was curious. Maybe the boy was just a ghost pretending to be a human? Either way, he may as well find out. It's not as if the floundering mortals had gotten him anywhere nearer to figuring out what secrets the game divulged.
He floated forwards. He'd go and talk to the ghost child, maybe test him –
There was a thud. He'd practically walked into a wall.
- when he'd found a way to get out. Still, it shouldn't take too long… if there was one time when Technus was grateful for shoddy security, it was now. He'd be out of there in no time.
(SCENE BREAK)
Danny was walking home from school when it happened. It was unusually silent – Sam and Tucker seemed to be as a fed up playing the, "you okay?" game as he was, but it was like they didn't want to press him and so weren't talking. He wasn't sure whether or not it was an improvement.
He could still feel their eyes boring into his back.
Then Tucker exclaimed, "Hey!" and Danny spun around. His PDA – the boy seemed to have an infinite collection of them – was floating in front of him, and all three of them felt a strange sense of déjà vu…
"Ghost child!" a voice exclaimed as the Nutty Professor look-alike came into visibility.
"Who's he talking to?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Why is he looking over here?" Tucker countered. "…That can't be good."
Danny was frozen on the spot.
Technus was annoyed. Here he was, trying to find things out, and the child… the ghost… the whatever he was, was ignoring him! He waved his arm and the appliances in the immediate vicinity floated around him in a circle.
"Aw, geez, not again."
"I wanted to ask you a question, ghost child!"
Danny looked up. His eyes widened. Technus smiled. Levitating an active drill in front of somebody's face really did get people's attention – who'd have thought? The boy screwed his face up as if he was thinking hard.
In that moment, Danny wanted nothing more than to protect himself… and his friends. A bright circle of light formed from his waist, split and travelled up and down as if his body was being put through a hula-hoop or two. When it had done so, Danny was wearing a black hazmat suit, his hair had turned white and his eyes were shining green.
"Danny?" Tucker asked, taking a slight step backwards.
"How did he do that?" wondered Sam.
"I think I'm dreaming," muttered Tucker, then yelped when Sam pinched his ear. "Ow!"
Sam looked at him innocently, "Oh, come on, Tucker, you were asking for that one."
"Excellent!" exclaimed Technus, smirking. "Now, you must tell me – for I am TECHNUS, ruler of all things electronical – what-"
Danny was shaking. "Shut up!" he yelled. "I don't want to hear it, you… you… ghost scum!" Even as he said it, he had to admit that it was a feeble insult.
Technus cackled. "You are most amusing! But I want to know: what are you, ghost child?"
Maybe it wouldn't have hurt Danny so much if he had actually known the answer.
"I said shut up!" he yelled, voice raising an octave as he clenched his fist… and again, bizarrely, a green light shot from his fist and collided with Technus, who could only blink in surprise as he was thrown backwards into a building.
Still shaking partly in rage, Danny looked down at his feet… and discovered that he was floating. Panic gripped him. The electrifying feeling went through him again – and though he wasn't looking at it, the rings reappeared until he looked as he had minutes before. He hit the ground with a clatter.
Technus was getting up. He looked less than playful, and is if he wanted to tear Danny to pieces.
Danny turned to Sam and Tucker, took one look at their gob smacked faces, looked back at Technus, then fled.
Sam and Tucker stared as he started to run. "Danny, wait!" Sam called, but he didn't stop. She exchanged glances with Tucker and they both took off after him.
(SCENE BREAK)
It was interesting what things you saw when you were out minding your own business (and finding time to pop in and terrify as many humans as possible). Imagine his surprise – and his brothers' – when they caught sight of an actual transformation!
It was a unanimous decision: they had to tell him. They were sure that he'd find it… most interesting.
The three glowing birds flew through the sky, the hidden spies because nobody ever looked for them. As always, nobody noticed them; that was what made them so invaluable to him, and they were going to prove their worth.
Yes, Plasmius would be pleased.
(SCENE BREAK)
Author's Note: Stupid line dividers not working. I've left them in how I write them in Word.
Ooh, I've created a forum... I'm not exactly sure its point. There's a thread on progress that I'm hoping to update once a week and one for questions about Paradoxical, should you have any that you don't want to ask in a review or something.
Feedback - especially reviews - are much appreciated by the author!