Disclaimer: I don't own... well, you know what, so no point saying it.
Chapter 4: Deja Vu.
[Amity Park, Fenton Works, 11:00pm]
"Daniel James Fenton, you are in so much trouble!"The stern voice of Maddie Fenton chastised. Next to her, her husband, Jack Fenton, matched the glare directed at their second child, Danny, who, once again, was arriving after his curfew.
Neither Maddie nor Jack could understand why Danny kept on disobeying them. It was the fourth time that week that he had arrived late, and it was barely Friday!
Danny, on the other hand, looked as he had spent every second he was out there losing a fight against a bush; his hair was a tangled mess of leaves and branches, his face was scratched and muddy, and if their parent's weren't half as self absorbed in playing the 'authority figure' game, they would wonder why their son's pants were painted with once-wet cement.
To their credit, though, it was quite dark and they had long become used to their son coming back a mess.
Of course, is not like they didn't understood how it was to be young and want to experiment with stuff that could blow in their faces at any time, but they were still upset that Danny acted like they couldn't understand what he was going trough.
Bah, teenagers.
"Go to your room. No dinner," Maddie pointed to the stairs. Danny, not mustering the strength to fight, settling to mutter something uncomplimentary-sounding under his breath. "What was that?" She fumed, looking at his youngest.
"Nothing, mom. I'm going to my room," Danny replied dejectedly, looking at her eyes with such a defeated, tired look that she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt in her heart. She stood firm, though. This was for Danny's own good. He ought to learn responsibility. One day, for sure, he will thank her for it.
Not saying anything more, Danny silently made his way upstairs. Maddie kept her eyes on him, not even realizing that she forgot all about all the ideas of punishment she had thought for the fifteen years old.
"Oh, Jack, I'm so worried about Danny," she leaned on the huge, orange jumpsuit of the man he had been married to for so many years.
"Don't worry, Mads. Danny is a Fenton, we are made of strong stuff!" He declared happily and bringing a small smile to her lips.
Still... maybe she would slip Danny a sandwich latter.
[Danny's room, a minute later]
Danny Fenton barely closed the door to his room, before unceremoniously flopping to the floor. He was so horribly tired. First, it had been the Lunch Lady who was unhappy with the cafeteria's Halloween menu; then, Youngblood had brought back his pirate ship and tried to 'booty' the candies of all the kids out there. It would have been a easy battle if not for the Box Ghost popping in the worst time possible, distracting him, and being the cause of a huge cannonball to hit Danny in the face, sending the halfa flying through the park and destroying several trees.
Sam had given him an earful for that -worrying for the poor trees instead of him, go figure.
To make things worse, the cinema they had been planning on going to see a monster movie marathon for the festivities had closed out for the night by orders of Major Master.
In hindsight, maybe Danny shouldn't have made so much fun of the billionaire for actually getting a cat.
Still, he could not have stopped himself. It was just hilarious, and just a tad creepy, the way the cat owner and his cat had glared at him with twin foul expressions.
Of course, the movie marathon would have been no excuse to been late, and Danny could have made it home at 9:00pm after seeing the movies... if no ghost attack had happened.
Letting out a groan of pain as his abused body meet the floor, Danny let his ice core supply some relief to the pain he was feeling all over. He stayed there for about ten minutes before standing to the ground and wobbling on the way to the bathroom for a much deserved bath.
The rewarding hot shower could not come fast enough, Danny made himself go intangible and all the debris and foliage on him fell to the floor instantly. His clothes, on the other hand, he decided to take of the usual way (more out of habit than anything) and had stripped all the way to his boxers when he felt the world around him shift faster than he could say 'crud'.
He suddenly found himself in the streets of an unfamiliar town, with a familiar enemy staring down at him.
"You!" Danny growled at seeing the Fright Knight, the very same ghost he had released exactly a year ago, and that had costed Tucker a year´s worth of Halloween candy.
Danny was not happy at all to see him again. It took the halfa (still in human form) three seconds to even notice the small, big-toothed ghost on the Knight's hands.
[Dimsdale's street 11:35pm Timmy's P.O.V.]
Timmy stared at the newcomer from the ghost's grip. It was kind of disappointing, actually: he had been expecting a cool muscular hero, a Real Life equivalent of the Crimson Chin; not some lanky teen that, if you narrowed your eyes a little, kind of resembled Chip Skylight... wearing nothing but boxers.
Yep, not what he had been expecting at all.
The only thing that told him Franken-Wanda had not made a mistake when calling forth... whoever the teen was, was that the way said teen growled in recognition of the ghost, not backing down an inch. The way the Fright Knight echoed this guy's 'you!' and let go of Timmy was also a dead giveaway of the two meeting each other before.
Before Timmy's butt hit the ground, the Ghost of Halloween had leaped towards the teen, who rolled out of the way and managed to look somewhat imposing despite the fact that he was wearing only a pair of underwear.
Instead of jumping into an epic fight right away, the teen -who he soon learnt was named 'Phantom' when he was addressed by the ghost- looked around as if to check for something. Seemingly satisfied with his inspection, the teen bumped both his fists in front of his chest "Hello misplaced aggression."
An all consuming flash of light had Timmy shielding his eyes and, as he opened, he noticed that the teen had been replaced by a white-haired, green-eyed ghost with decidedly more clothes on that the other one.
It had taken a very few moments for Danny to form a mental list of what he was to do. One: make sure no one was around (the little ghost kid didn't count since pretty much all ghost knew who he was at this point); Two: beat the Fright Knight to Kingdom's Come, and Three: make his way back home and try to get some sleep. Thankfully it was still Saturday and he might be able to pull a decent enough grade on his English assignment to pass that class.
Really, it was a world wonder that he had managed to pass every class on his freshman´s year.
He came quite close on failing all of them, though.
Danny had to shake his head to shake away his stray thoughts. He had to put an end to his little abduction experience, and make it fast... Not that he couldn't use the chance to vent his anger. He was deeply frustrated with how his day had gone and, at least, there were no chance of having his parents chase him around in a foreign town.
It spoke volumes of the weirdness in Danny's life that he took randomly pooping in a foreign place in stride.
A year and a half ago, before he got his powers, he would have borderline hyperventilated upon such a development. But, after several kidnappings, being thrown in a parallel dimension, time traveling, and other crap, Danny was no longer easily surprised.
He also came to the conclusion the fates had peeked him as their favorite chew toy; so, for the sake of his sanity he had stopped dwelling on things.
Which is not to say he would take the stuff that came to him. "Hello misplaced aggression," he 'greeted the Fright Knight', then called forth the familiar rings of light into the human-free street.
A blink latter, the Fright Knight had jumped to attack, only to be stopped by a hastily formed ice sword. "It must be destiny to have a rematch with you the day I take control of the world, halfa. Now I can have my revenge before the down of my victory!"
"Dude, it seems you have one hell of a sucky memory. This won't end much different from last time, you know, when I beat you and sealed your sorry butt?"
"AAARGH!" The Fright Knight yelled anew, and sword met sword once again. The force propelled the two fighters backwards in the air. As if by guided by some unspoken rule, they spent a moment weighing each other down before jumping into the fray. Swords clashed, beams were fired, and one Timmy Turner looked with his mouth wide open to the encounter taking place on the sky.
"Awesome!" Timmy breathed. It was just so cool. He couldn't stop himself from cheering for the white-haired fighter.
He would have wondered what the teen was (the transformation being a giveaway that he wasn´t completely human or ghost) if he wasn't so busy been awed. Then, a moment latter, he remembered that the clock was ticking.
Ten minutes to twelve.
"We are running out of time!" Timmy searched for the pumpkin he had wished for before. He was not finding it. Pure adrenaline was now surging on his veins as he whipped his head this side and that... "There!" He breathed and sprinted towards certain innocent-looking, orange vegetable. He had almost forgotten about the pumpkin.
Much to his charging, the fighters up there noticed his reaching for said pumpkin.
"Kid, get out of there!" The Fright Knight launched forwards and Ghostly Timmy would have been impaled if not for Phantom popping right in front of him by what only could be called teleportation.
Phantom took Timmy in a hug of sorts and teleported away, hidden in the shadows between two houses.
"Urgh," Timmy eloquently resumed the feeling of nausea caused by ectoplasmic-powered teleportation. He had never felt remotely as nauseated when his godparents took him from one side of the globe to another.
"YOu" pant "oK, kiD,?"
"YOu" pant "oK, kiD,?" Danny barely managed. His voice strained and wheezy. The fight he was having was very evenly matched, and maybe he could even claim to be winning, but the moment the Fright Knight was about to stab what he was pretty sure was an innocent ghost he acted.
Now, Danny wouldn't have been able to reach the kid before his enemy by simply flying since there was too little space, both were about as fast, and the Fright Knight had a head-start; so teleporting had been Danny's sole choice of action.
Normally, teleportation left him only nauseated; but after fighting so many ghosts earlier that day, he was running out of juice, and using a technique he had yet to fully master always took his toll.
"I'm fine," the kid assured rapidly, "but there is not much time! We have to trap him before-"
"Before midnight, I know, I fought him last year... so, mind telling me who freed our deary pal over there?" Danny pointed with his thumb to the now-ragging knight that was attacking mailboxes and innocent pumpkin decorations all over the place.
"Well," The big-toothed ghost fidgeted, "There was this contest. We had to make a scary haunted house and I thought getting the sword would be a god idea..."
"Hang on, so you are saying that you freed an ancient, extremely powerful ghost to win a stupid contest?"
"Basically," he agreed guiltily.
Hearing the reason he was brought to Dimsdale -Because having a huge cartel with the words 'welcome to Dimsdale' was enough to clue him where he was-, Danny couldn't help to draw parallels.
Who would have thought someone other than himself would unleash the mighty Fright Knight to win a stupid Halloween contest?
Truth being told, Danny was more amused than he was angry. "Well," his lips twitched "that seems as good as any reason to free him."
The kid looked incredulous at his response, and Danny figured the kid must have been expecting to be nagged for being irresponsible or whatever. "Right," Big-Tooth agreed flatly, "Anyway, we have seven minutes to defeat this ghost or we are screwed."
"Sure, kid-"
"Timmy," he hasty corrected.
"Sure, Timmy. Look, I would usually tell you to stay here while I handle things... but I don't think I can take him on my own right now and, against my better judgement, I'm going to be asking for your help. I will fight him and keep him busy. I need you to stay hidden and protect the pumpkin until I can snatch his sword away from-"
"TWERP!" A sudden, feminine yell from the street made the two of them look to the street despite themselves. An orange-haired teenager with pink eyes, "You thought you could build a better ghost-house than mine and take away MY PRIZE!" She grabbed Timmy by the hem of his pink shirt.
"Um, Vicky..."
"What!" She yelled into his panicked face and Danny couldn't help but face-palming. He was pretty sure even the yeti's of the Far Frozen Zone had heard her yell.
A cold chill ran through Vicky's blood and she looked behind herself to the frightening knight behind herself. "Oh, and let me guess, you also hired some pathetic clown to beat me in the contest," she let go of Timmy and poked into the Knight's chest with her dainty finger, much to the horror of the dumbfounded Timmy and Danny.
Not missing a beat, Danny took Timmy and wisely moved backwards into a strategical retreat.
"Oh, no, Vicky!" Timmy yelled as his baby-sitter was slashed by the sword and vanishing for sight.
"Now is your turn!"
They had exactly three and a half minutes until midnight.
To Be Continued...
*Bonus*
[Amity Park, Fentonworks, 11:35pm]
"Sweety, can I come in?" Maddie Fenton knocked the door to her son's room, carrying a platter with a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. Sure, it was not a healthy thing, but Danny loved to eat those, and Maddie wanted to have a peace offering on hand for the talk she was planning on having with her baby boy.
Maybe if she extended an olive branch Danny would tell her what he had been doing? His closing up could be proof that she was been too harsh on him.
"Sweety?" Maddy called once more, then opened the door slowly. She took a couple of footsteps to look into the bundle of the bed she was sure was her son.
It wasn't.
Danny's bed was empty.
"JACK!" Maddie yelled and Jack Fenton materialized by the door.
"Where is the ghost!" Jack's bazooka whirled to life.
"There is no ghost, Jack. Danny sneaked away from home!" She exclaimed indignant.
"A ghost must have taken him! TO THE RV!"
"No, Jack, wait!" And so, Maddie was dragged all the way to the garage before she could drill the point home... then again, maybe it really were a ghost who took her boy."
Five minutes latter, two eccentric ghost hunters could be seeing going around Amity Park, using a megaphone to call for their most-likely-kidnapped son, angering all their neighbors as they did.
*End Bonus*
AN: We are getting closer to the end. I hope you have enjoyed things so far. I sure have. See you on the next one, sweeties.