So the first update in a while is here! I thought I'd have more time to write over winter break than I did, but this chapter is now here, so I hope you enjoy. We're almost done!
I've cut a bit of the planned storyline because I'm beginning to get sick of this story and want to make sure I finish it. Therefore, the ending comes sooner! There should only be one or two more chapters after this one, depending on whether I do epilogues or not. Would you like epilogues? And if so, for both main characters or just one? I will probably decide what to write based on feedback from you guys.
Also, you guys are awesome. Since the story isn't over yet, it's a bit early for weepy, overly sentimental things in the AN, but thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. You guys rock.
I do not own Hanna is Not a Boy's Name or Danny Phantom.
Chapter 13 - Case Closed?
Nothing.
They were left with nothing.
They'd woken up at an ungodly hour, driven to the school well before sunrise, and screened dozens of students, all in hopes of finding Phantom.
It was the zombie who'd come up with the plan to screen the students before they entered the school, reasoning that Phantom would want to lie low and keep his human cover intact by entering through the front doors. But even if they hadn't been forced to leave by that overzealous teacher, the plan never would have worked. Phantom could have passed through the walls and into the building directly. They'd all known that, but they'd tried screening the students just in case. It was their last hope. The idea that Phantom was a student was the last possible solution, the last lead to follow. Now they had no leads, no clues, no way to find more. Nothing.
Everyone was sad, to some extent. But Hanna took it the hardest. Phantom being a student had been his idea, and he had been overly attached to this case from the start, so the fact that he had failed almost destroyed him. He had trailed behind as the group had walked from the school to a nearby park, chased away by the balding teacher.
"That's it, then," Hanna says. "There's no way to solve this."
"Yeah, it looks that way," Toni says.
"So we're leaving Amity Park?" Veser asks.
"I don't know why we would stay," Hanna says.
The zombie rests his hand on Hanna's shoulder.
"You did your best. Not every mystery can be solved," he says.
Hanna laughs, but softly, not in his usual energetic way.
"You sound like a fortune cookie. But thanks," Hanna says. He sighs.
"I just wish we could have figured it out," Hanna says. "Not even for the money, just to know how a ghost like Phantom manages to hide so well."
The air chills as a strong wind sweeps through the park, sending a few fallen leaves swirling in midair. The light in the park suddenly dims and becomes tinted purple, almost like what happened in the mall's food court, right before the ghost showed up.
The ghost.
The five turn in almost-unison to the source of the wind, a fountain sitting in the park that appears to be spewing clouds of pale green gas.
"Was it doing that when we got here?" Veser asks.
Hanna pulls his magic marker out of his pocket, but before he can use it, a female voice that seems to be coming from the fountain speaks.
"So you have wished it, so shall it be," the voice says.
And out of the fountain comes another ghost, the first female ghost that Hanna has seen in Amity Park. Her skin is green, her eyes are red, abut the most inhuman thing is that instead of legs, she has a long, rippling tail. She floats in the air above the fountain, smiling down at the five, but at Hanna in particular.
She throws her hands out to the sides and they begin to glow.
Hanna realizes that he's dropped his marker, and starts scanning the ground for it, unable to find it. Instead, he feels an unearthly chill behind him, and turns only to see the ghost is now merely inches away, smiling, her eyes meeting his.
Until a black-and-white blur knocks her away.
She hits the fountain, but still manages to smile as she floats back into the air to face her attacker - who turns out to be none other than Danny Phantom.
"Desiree," he says. "What brings you out of the Ghost Zone?"
They're talking now, bantering or something, which Hanna has come to realize is pretty typical for these encounters. While both ghosts are distracted, he searches the ground again, running his fingers through the grass until - finally! - they brush the smooth plastic of his trusty marker. Hanna stands again, ready to take out the ghost if need be.
The female ghost - Desiree? - looks strangely triumphant. She raises her hand, which begins glowing again, and Phantom throws up a green shield as she sends her glowing energy straight at him. But for some reason, the shield doesn't seem to work. For an instant, Hanna can see the surprised look on Phantom's face, but then the ghost is sent sailing back through the air. He hits a tree some hundred feet from where Hanna is and falls to the ground, into some bushes. Hanna can see a flash of white light, but nothing else. Apparently this Desiree was more powerful than the other ghosts Hanna has encountered so far.
Now Desiree is laughing, head thrown back and everything, and all the while Hanna is wondering why Phantom isn't up and about yet, if that white flash was more significant than it seemed, if it meant Phantom had passed out or died again or what.
And she's laughing.
Hanna uncaps his marker, scrawls a rune on his palm, and turns his hand to face the green ghost. She doesn't see it coming, and she also gets sent flying back into a tree and disappears from sight.
Hanna caps the marker as the others, who had tried to get away from the ghost fight, come back to where he's standing. Toni looks to the bushes where Phantom fell.
"Do you think he's okay?" Toni asks.
"I think we'd better find out," Hanna says.