Chapter Twenty - Madness or Maddie

Their son was gone. Her sweet baby boy who could name more stars than she could. She finally felt like she was starting to understand and connect with for the first time in years. Fate was too cruel.

Jack and her had looked everywhere and had done everything. Had spoken with the police officers time and time again. For over twenty-four hours, they had not returned home. When they finally had, they found Mr. Gray in their dining room feeding their daughter and Danny's friends pizza. It had been too much, and Maddie had fled upstairs to her son's room, where she hid among his model rockets and teenage comic books and buried her face into a dirty shirt. She cried harder than she ever had in her life. It was so hard that she didn't remember falling asleep.

Her eyes were sealed shut with her tears when she had awoken, and she had to rub them open. Jack was curled around her protectively, and she did not remember him joining her on the twin bed last night. She slid out from his arms and ungracefully landed on the floor. The movement made a model fall to the floor, and she saw Danny's favorite NASA hoodie poking out from in her bed. Her hand changed its course from the model to the hoodie. It had an icy coldness, and her hand jerked back, and she stared at her fingertips. The fluid was not blood. It was ectoplasm.

Now that she noticed the green fluid, she realized she could smell it strongly. Her hands pulled the hoodie up. There was a slash from the shoulder all the way to the bottom of the material. It was a deadly attack, but ectoplasm, not blood-soaked the material. Her eyes jumped to a shirt with red coating it. The white shirt he had been wearing when his cheek had been cut open.

Why was ectoplasm on Danny's favorite hoodie? A hoodie, he wouldn't even let Jazz touch.

The comment Danny had made about deathdays resurfaced. Something about it had pulled her attention then. He had said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, but the only way it could be obvious was to a ghost.

Those ghosts hadn't wanted them. They had been after Danny. And sick as he was, her son had fought back with skill that surprised her, and when he had led them away, there had been a grim resolve.

The white light on his chest, whatever he had tried doing, had failed, but she had never seen that light before. None of them had that happen when they had the flu. She grabbed a pair of scissors from Danny's desk and cut a small portion of the hoodie before doing the same to his blood-soaked shirt. She left Jack snoring and headed down to the lab with her samples in either hand to prevent cross contamination.

The lab was occupied. Jazz was talking to a ghost inside of the Fenton Flusher.

"Jazz?" her voice cracked as she entered the space.

Her daughter had been crying, too. Her eyes were puffy and red. "Hi, Mom. Sorry, these ghosts got sick from the shields being broken, and we had to prevent it from spreading."

"Ghosts?" Maddie asked, though she did not let her attention waver from the samples as she began extracting the DNA from them. "I only see one."

"Oh, I forgot," she wiped her eyes. "Youngblood is a youth ghost. I think you mentioned them once."

Maddie put the samples in the vortex machine to let them spin as she shifted her attention to the Flusher fully, "So there is a ghost in there only kids can see?"

Jazz nodded, "Yeah."

"Your ghost flu got his friend," the young ghost floating beside her gave a glare.

"I am sorry for that," Maddie answered as she pulled out her phone. There is no news from the police station. She had been hoping to see the opposite. She looked up at the ghost she could see, "Are you okay?"

The ghost tilted his head, "As long as I don't use my powers, I'm okay, just tired. I think it is almost over. Youngblood is better, but we are trying to be safe before going home."

Maddie has never talked to a ghost, but she felt like she was the one being analyzed by this ectoentity. She was too emotionally drained to care.

"Just let me know if their is anything I can do to help," Maddie turned and looked to the computer as her machine began to slow.

"Mom? What are you doing?" Jazz asked.

"Running a couple of samples to distract myself," she lied. "Have any of you seen those two ghosts before?"

"I never saw them," the ghost she coup is see responded. "Youngblood saw the fight. That is how he got sick."

"The fight?!" Maddie tried willing herself to see the invisible ghosts. "You saw them fight Danny? Where is he?!"

"Mom," Jazz shook her head as she stood and walked to the edge of the containment. "Valerie found them too. We know what happened. He fell into the river, you know we looked for hours up and down there."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Maddie asked past the ball in her throat.

"We couldn't give up," Jazz whispered, which Maddie could barely hear through the glass.

That made no sense! Jack and her could have helped the girls search the river. The emotion she felt made it impossible for her to talk, and the doorbell rang from above them.

"Stay here, Jazz, we don't need that flu spreading," Maddie turned and, on impulse, grabbed an ectogun. Her eyes settled on the Boomerang that always had been going off on Danny. Her hand closed around it at the memory.

Maddie ascended the steps, hoping to get to the door before it woke Jack. She looked out the peep hole and groaned inwardly as she saw Vlad Masters with a flower arrangement. She debated, ignoring him, but he may have information, so she begrudgingly opened the door.

"Maddie, my dear, you have not been answering your phone!" the man was giving a worried frown.

She was about to respond when the Boomerang flew out of her hand and whacked Vlad in the face, making him drop the flowers. She stared at the Boomerang as she picked it up and did not respond to Vlad. That had been almost exactly what it had done to Danny.

"What is that thing?!" Vlad hissed at it.

"Nothing," Maddie lied as she turned it off and set it by the door. "A failed invention, sorry about that."

"I'm so sorry about Danny," Vlad murmured as he set the bouquet on the table. "I'm afraid I have some rather grim news."

"What is it?" Maddie's eyes focused on the mayor's face.

"I was able to find some surveillance, and I think you should come with me to see it," he gave a hard frown.

"Let me go get Jack," Maddie made a couple of steps towards the stairwell.

"I'd let him rest," Vlad insisted.

"We are his parents," Maddie frowned. "He is just as much Jack's son as he is mine. He should see."

"And he will, Maddie, but I think it would be easier if I showed each of you separately," he explained.

She was drained, and she wanted to see that footage, but red flags went up in her head. She looked at the boomerang and remembered how much Danny hated the man before her.

"Okay," she took a step towards Vlad and grabbed a holster for her gun and her purse in the same motion.

She followed him to his limo and sat before strapping the holster to her hip and sliding her phone into her purse.

"Maddie, that really isn't necessary. As long as you are with me, you're safe," Vlad assured her.

"My son is gone," Maddie hissed angrily. "He was taken right in front of me because I had no weapons. I am not making that mistake again."

Vlad frowned, "Maddie dear, those ghosts were just too strong. Even with a gun…"

"Then how exactly do you plan on protecting us," Maddie gave him a hard look.

"Maddie, I shields and technology that your funding couldn't achieve," he explains with a frown.

"And now you insult our equipment," Maddie gripped her Fenton lipstick in an iron grip within her pocket.

"That was not my intention," Vlad sighed. "Look, we are all emotional. I cared about Danny, too. Perhaps you would like a drink?"

"No," she replied briskly. "What I want is my son… my family. So once I see this footage, I am going home to my husband and daughter."

"The ghost who did this is gone," Vlad explained softly. "She got sick somehow and destabilized."

"Good," Maddie hissed back. "At least that ghost flu did something good other than hurting Danny."

"Ghost flu?" Vlad asked.

"Jack and I engineered an illness of tiny ghost bugs. Danny got infected with it, except it affected him differently than it did us," she explained. "It gave us all ghost abilities, but every time Danny used his ghost abilities, he got sick. Fatigue and fever, he looked terrible. He was still recovering when those ghosts came."

"Oh," Vlad looked grim, and they fell into silence until the limo stopped at his mansion. He hissed angrily, "What are they doing here?!

Looking out, Maddie blinked Valerie, and Damon stood not twenty feet from the car. Maddie frowned. There was no other vehicle in sight. Quickly, she followed Vlad from the vehicle.

"Mr. Gray, kindly leave my property!" Vlad commanded.

The short man glared, "Danny would not want his mother here."

"Danny is not here," Vlad crossed his arms. "I was just about to show Maddie some footage I found to explain what happened to Danny."

"You just can't help yourself," Damon said. "You can't leave Amity alone."

"I am mayor, Amity is mine," Vlad hissed.

"Because it is your haunt?" Maddie asked quietly.

Vlad's arms fell to his sides, "What do you mean?" His face was expressionless.

"You're a ghost," Maddie said calmly, pointing her blaster at him. "Just like my son. And he has not liked you since you moved to Amity Park. Now he is gone, and you want to play hero. I'm not stupid, Vlad. The only way you could know the ghost that hurt Danny destabilized is if you saw them a couple of hours after they took Danny. They were there on someone's orders, yours."

"Maddie, I'm here to protect you," he repeated.

"What did your ghost children do to our son, Plasmius?" she hissed angrily.

"Maddie, maybe we should consider a retreat?" Damon asked.

Maddie froze as she saw the flaming haired ghost boy in her peripheral. Her glare deepened, "What did you do to my son?!"

"I killed his human half. Had his throat sliced open. His ghost half should reform… but I did not anticipate this ghost flu," Vlad answered before his black rings traveled along him, turning him into Plasmius. "Now Maddie, I really must insist you reconsider attacking me."

Maddie stood frozen in shock, and her ears rang. Danny could not be gone.

Suddenly, a blast shot into Plasmius, and Maddie was pulled into a small but strong ghost shield by Damon. The Red Huntress glared as her blaster remained aimed at Plasmius.

"Foolish, we are halfas not full ghosts, Damon. Shields don't work on us," Plasmius put his arm through to prove his point.

Except Damon hit a button and electricity shook the shield as the locked Plasmius into place as electricity. The man screamed as the electricity coursed through his body. The other ghost shot a blast, but the shield just absorbed it, making Plasmius scream louder.

"Val! Get us out of here!" Damon ordered as he pulled Maddie onto the board.

"It worked! It actually worked!" Valerie said excitedly as the shields followed her board in a sphere.

"Danny practically told me it would. Ectoplasm and electricity don't mix," Damon looked behind them as Valerie shot them through the air.

Maddie shook as she looked at Valerie, "You were there, did Danny really?"

Valerie became quiet and didn't answer. Damon put his phone to his ear, "Jazz, I need you to power up that new shield I installed. We are on our way, and I'm not sure Vlad is down for the count or not." There was a pause, and Damon grinned before looking at Maddie, "That's great! We'll talk some more when we get there. Your Mom knows about Masters and Danny now. I don't know how she figured it out. See you soon."

"Dad… what is it?" Valerie asked when he hung up.

"Good news, but I don't want to discuss it out here where Master might have ears," Danon smiled.

Maddie stared at the Fenton Works sign, still feeling numb. Nothing could be good enough news. Her flu, her creation, had helped dissipate her own son.

Valerie slowed as they neared the shield before passing straight through the green energy. Valerie's suit vanished as they stepped off the board, and the door opened for Maddie to be pulled into a hug from Jazz. Her daughter was grinning, and it felt surreal.

"Danny's okay," her daughter whispered.

Maddie jerked her head to her daughter, "Sweety, Vlad said his throat was slashed open."

Jazz looked at the door to make sure it was closed, "It was Mom. Somehow, he managed to survive. He just texted a half hour ago."

"What?!" Val jumped forward. "He's already awake?!"

"He can't talk yet, but he texted," Jazz smiled.

"What's going on down here?" Jack walked down the stairs, looking as exhausted as Maddie felt.

Her daughter sobered as she looked at her mom.

"Are son is part ghost, and apparently he is awake somewhere," Maddie's mouth moved numbly.

Jack blinked once, twice, and then smiled, "He's awake?"

"He's with Auntie," Jazz sniffed, rubbing her eyes. "He was too weak to fight, so we had to get him away. It was really bad, I didn't know if he was going to be able to heal this time. Auntie figured it out, but we were more concerned trying to get him to safety and not letting Vlad find out he was alive to tell you."

"Did you just say Vladdie?" Jack asked.

"Jackie," Maddie called softly, "Vlad is the ghost who attacked him at school. And was the one to order those ghosts to hurt him."

Jack frowned at that information, "Vlad is Danny's godfather he wouldn't try to kill Danny."

"He did," Maddie sighed, "He told me as much."

"What I want to know is how you figured out Danny was Phantom?" Damon asked.

Maddie's head jerked up, "Did you say Phantom?" Everyone became quiet as the man nodded. "I didn't realize he was Phantom… I found his NASA hoodie with ectoplasm on it. I was running DNA samples when Vlad showed up. I was going to bring the Boomerang to see if it could find Danny, but it hit Vlad in the head as soon as it got near him. I realized it did that too Danny and Vlad because they had to both be ghost and human."

"And you still went with him? Mom, what were you thinking?!" Jazz frowned.

"That he had something to do with those ghosts and that he might help me find out what happened to Danny," Maddie wrapped her arms around herself. "Jazz, you said he can't talk. How do you know he is awake?"

Jazz rolled her eyes, "Because no one else would make stupid, morbid puns like him."

She lifted the phone, and everyone leaned forward to read the message.

"What does he mean by we already have one?" Jack asked with a frown.

@LovelyUnknown

Maddie finds damning evidence in Danny's room.