let the delay begin!

Disclaimer: are without copyright to dp.

Vlad: Personalized gift baskets?
Danny: You're up to something...
Vlad: Oh, you think?

Chapter Thirteen

Jazz cautiously walked towards the other teens in the gym. None of them were in her class, but she knew Sam and Tucker well enough. She could just hang with them until Danny got back.

Everyone stood silent. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz seemed to be having a conversation between the three of them, but with their eyes. Valerie stood alone. Her stance was tense, ready for a fight. That's what months of ghost hunting had done to her. Even with her father's knowledge at her "job" she still managed to get ghosts every night, except that one…

Dash and Kwan, the big lettered jocks that they were, held onto each other for dear life. Starr held onto Paulina's arm. Paulina also stood tense, but from different experiences than Valerie. To be queen bee you had to be the strongest. The strong were not weak, and now was the perfect time to act strong. Her Spanish eyes gazed over the gym, looking for anything that could provide her with power over the others. She noticed a change in their situation.

"Where's your little boyfriend?" she asked the Goth geek.

"He's not my boyfriend," Sam answered back tiredly. She glanced around the gym, searching for her friend. He was nowhere to be seen. She looked at Tucker who was oblivious to his surroundings.

Tucker Foley, techo-geek that he was, had his PDA out and running. A news channel could be heard coming from it. Sam peered over his shoulder to watch how the rest of Amity Park was holding up. A cheery lady in dyed blonde hair was on the screen.

"Shockwaves have been rippling through the city throwing off balances, and crumbling the foundations of some buildings. Now to Lance out in the field," she said. A clip cut to a large man with spoofed up blonde hair holding a microphone.

"Thanks Tiffany," said Lance. "I'm here at Amity Bank where several vaults have been cracking. Builders are here to quickly stitch up the faults. There is no word on when the next shockwave will be." Behind Lance Thunder, many men in blue overalls were on ladders plastering the walls. What few citizens left in the bank could be seen at the corner of the camera being rushed out. "Back to you, Tiffany."

Sam had enough. They needed to find Danny. She jabbed Tucker in his side with her elbow. That got his attention. "Ow," he said. He rubbed the area where he had been hit.

"Tucker," Sam whispered. "Turn that off. We need to find Danny. He should have been back by now." She looked back over the crowd that had gathered in the gym. "Umm," Sam said to the kids. "We'll be right back. Jazz and Valerie, look over them." She grabbed Tucker's collar and stomped towards the exit.

Paulina was not to be outdone for queen around here. "Why are they in charge?" she asked in a snippy tone.

Sam was now thoroughly exasperated with Paulina. She stopped walking and turned to face the other kids. "Because Paulina," Sam said. Her voice dripped with disgust at saying Paulina's name. "We live in Amity Park. Nothing happens in Amity Park unless it's ghostly related. We are best friends with the kid who lives with ghost hunting experts. At the moment he is missing. Now we are going to search for him." She ended her little monologue with a death glare in Paulina's direction. The girl stood there, dumbfounded. That was twice now today she had been stood up to. Sam took this as a message that she understood the lecture she had just given. With that, she once again grabbed Tucker's collar and continued on her way to find Danny.

Tucker had followed Sam through the halls searching for their best friend. She no longer held onto his collar; he walked on his own with his PDA in his pocket.

They opened another classroom door, finding the room empty. "Too bad we don't have the BOOmerang," commented Tucker. "That Fenton invention could find Danny in a snap."

Sam began to get frustrated. The sooner she found Danny, the sooner this ordeal would end, or so she thought. He was her hope during these ghost attacks. She could hold her own one-on-one with a ghost (a weaker one at least), but this Aftershock was a new one to Team Phantom. There was no telling what power this creature held. No telling what destruction it could create….

"We don't need the BOOmerange," replied Sam in a snippy tone. "We need to find Danny."

"More like you need to find Danny," Tucker said. The room was empty. They continued to walk down the halls searching the rooms. "You latch onto him over every ghost problem. He's like a security blanket to you." Tucker threw his arms wildly in the air. Now he was getting frustrated. The three of them had this conversation multiple times and it always ended the same. "More like he's a boyfriend to you," Tucker muttered under his breath.

Sam still heard the last part. She hit him in the arm. "Danny and I are just friends!" she exclaimed. "We're just friends," she repeated a little softer. They walked down the rest of the hall in silence.

The shocks were rippling through the town of Amity Park by now. Every glass wobbled on the shelves. Children's building blocks were thrown to the ground. A normal person would wait the shock out and consider it over. The Fenton family was not a normal family.

Jack Fenton, adorned in his typical day-glow orange jumpsuit, leaped down to their lab (which was actually the family basement) to find his wife, Maddie Fenton, leaning over a metal table. The table was stained the color of ectoplasm: a neon, almost glowing orange. No one in the household saw this green table as abnormal. Most of the lab by now was a slight shade green.

"Maddie!" he shouted excitedly. His voice echoed off the walls of their lab. "There's a ghost loose! But it won't be for much longer once Jack Fenton gets on the streets!" His face was now chiseled to pure determination. One fist was up in the air, physically demonstrating his anger towards ghosts.

"Now hold on just one minute, Jack," said Maddie in a smaller tone. Her voice was sweet and kind, like Judy Cleaver. The main difference was that Maddie was always stocked in her aqua blue jumpsuit. Her hood to the jumpsuit was up, covering her hair and putting bright red goggles over her eyes. "I just had to fix and rejuice some weapons. Grab some and let's hop in the Ghost Assault Vechicle!"

"Oh boy!" said Jack. This was his favorite part. The adrenaline was building in his body and he felt ghost invincible with his perfected Fenton inventions. He bounded up the stairs two at a time after his wife.

Once buckled, Jack turned on the Fenton Ghost Tracker to see where the ghostly menace was coming from. A bleep appeared on the screen above where the Casper Highs were.

"To Casper!" Jack screamed. His foot hit the floor, letting the Fenton GAV leave tire marks and loud screeches behind them.

as i quote the joker from the dark knight (which i really want for xmas!) i assume the beginning of my delay.

"and here we GO!" --joker