Hello again! Hope you enjoy this chapter. Sadly, this particular story in the Adventures After a Mistake series is unusually short and only has one chapter left. Do not misunderstand me, I am still writing more stories for Shadow. I know when I usually write that the story only has one chapter left, people start screaming at me not to stop writing for Shadow, but that is not the case. I will make it blatently obvious when I'm completely done with Shadow. Just putting that out there.
Jake got home moments before the rest of the half ghosts. He changed upstairs and then raced down, his Dad, aunt, and sister all walking through seconds after.
"Hi honey, who was it this time?" Sam asked Danny.
"There were tons of ecto-pusses. How there came to be that many, I don't know. Last time I checked, there were only a few." Danny replied.
"But no ghost is a match for us." Dani added.
"Yeah, we beat them single-handedly." Abby bragged.
Danny glared at her. "Fine. Shadow helped a little." She admitted sourly. She knew that he was evil, no matter what anyone else said.
Jake smiled to himself, no one noticing his odd smirk.
"Who's ready for dinner?" Sam asked.
All of the hungry half-ghosts raised their hands.
"What are we having?" Danny questioned.
"Pizza." Sam replied.
"I'll have veggie!" Jake responded happily.
"Pepperoni!" Danny, Dani, and Abby shouted joyfully.
"Apparently, liking pepperoni pizza comes with being a Phantom." Sam murmured to herself.
As everyone was settling down to bed that night, Jake sensed a ghost. He glanced around to make sure that no one was looking. His covers still resting on his lap, he summoned up the two black rings, turning him into Shadow. He leaped out of bed, floating in the air, and flew out of the house via phasing through the roof.
Shadow took his usual position, hovering a few feet above the roof and gazing around.
"Beware!" a small voice came from behind him. He shot a bolt behind his back without even looking. He heard a small yelp before turning around to suck the annoying little ghost girl into the thermos.
When he glanced behind him, not only was Boxed Lunch there, but the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady as well. The Lunch lady looked the same as she did when Danny had first fought her, but the Box Ghost looked much different. He now had an eye patch, no shirt under his overalls, and a more rough face. He had also gained a lot of muscle mass. The two parents gave the teen ghost death stares as they held their crying daughter. This made Shadow gulp nervously.
"Uh, oh." Shadow mumbled.
"You will pay for this." The Box Ghost told him darkly.
"Prepare to face your doom." Lunch Lady added threateningly.
Shadow put on his tough face, grew serious, and fired ghost zappers at both of the parents. They writhed in pain as the electricity surged through their bodies. Boxed Lunch flung a box at Shadow's back while he was preoccupied.
"No one messes with my parents!" She shouted protectively.
"Fine, then I'll mess with you." He cracked.
He zapped her with a ghost ray and sucked her into the Fenton Thermos 2.0. The red light surrounded her as she was pulled in. Shadow smirked until he was nailed in the back by the parents. He was sent hurdling onto the roof of his house. They were about to destroy him when they were shot by green beams. Shadow looked to the side to see the shooter. It was his Aunt Dani.
"You alright?" She questioned him.
He nodded. He didn't usually talk a lot around his family, hoping that they wouldn't recognize his voice, but so far, no one noticed. He pulled himself back up into fighting position. The two fired numerous ecto-blasts at the ghostly parents. Eventually, they were weak enough to be sucked into the thermos. Shadow whipped it out again and the ghosts disappeared inside of it in a flash of red light.
"Nice job!" Dani complemented.
"Thanks, you too." He politely responded.
"So, you're the Shadow I've been hearing so much about." Dani noted.
"Yup. Well, gotta go. See ya!" he rushed, making a break for it before she realized it was him.
Dani just stared at the odd ghost. He reminded her so much of Danny.
The next morning, the family was sitting down to a breakfast of pancakes.
Jake was eating his pancakes quietly. He was a little tired from last night. After the fight, he had done a little patrolling until he was sure that his aunt would be asleep and wouldn't see him come back in. His hair was messy and he had dark circles under his eyes.
"Jake, you look a little tired." His Mom commented.
"Huh? I guess I just didn't sleep well last night." He replied drearily.
His aunt eyed him suspiciously. "Why?" she asked.
"I heard a bunch of noise last night." He lied. He could pin this whole mess on the fight.
"Oh, sorry. The Box Ghost, Lunch Lady, and Boxed Lunch attacked last night and we were probably the ones making the noise." Dani apologized. She still looked suspicious though. "You know what else happened last night? I met that Shadow ghost that you guys were talking about." She tested, keeping her eyes on Jake. He looked up immediately from his food once he heard the name Shadow.
"Did you think that he was evil?" Abby blurted, earning one of the don't-go-there glares that she was now getting constantly from her Dad.
"No. He was pretty odd, though." She answered, still eyeing Jake. She was keeping close track of his reactions. So far, when Abby asked her if he was evil, he seemed to get annoyed and mad, but quickly tried to disguise it. He was paying full attention to the conversation now.
"Well, I'll give you that." Danny said, not paying attention to his alerted son.
"You know who he kind of reminds me of?" She asked, still watching Jake closely.
Right now, Jake looked as if he was about to burst out of his seat. He was fidgeting uncomfortably and you could tell that he was praying that she wouldn't say that Shadow reminded her of him.
"Who?" Danny questioned.
"You. When you were around his age." She responded. She saw the squirming boy relax a little. Now she was extremely suspicious.
"Really?" Danny inquired.
"He acts a little like you when you were younger." Dani explained.
"Yeah, I kinda noticed that too." Danny admitted.
Jake let out a small smile. He was happy to be compared to his father like that.
"I still think that he's evil." Abby muttered. Luckily, her Dad didn't hear her.
Later that day, ghost senses went off all around the room.
"This is really getting boring you guys. Can't you take one day off from ghost fighting?" Sam asked bored.
"I don't know. Why don't you bring it up with the ghosts?" Danny snapped, but with a joking manner.
"Don't worry guys, I'll handle it." Dani said as she noticed Jake slip away.
Outside, a giant ecto-puss was floating around and Shadow was already there. The ghost seemed stronger. Man, where were all of these things coming from?
"Could you use some help?" She shouted over to him.
"The more the merrier." He replied.
She rushed over to help him. She delivered a glowing green punch to the ghost. It turned to her and flung a tentacle. She dodged it.
"Nice aim spooky, but you missed me!" She shouted, aggravating the monster.
The green ecto-puss used full force and started going after her. Shadow conjured up a ghost zapper and shot it at the beast. It wasn't as painful to the monster, but it was enough to get its attention.
"Hey! Over here!" he shouted.
The ghosts spun around and knocked him to the ground with a tentacle. He couldn't move, but he tried to hang on. He watched as his aunt used a ghostly wail on the giant. It burst into a million of the creatures. Dani then sucked it into an old fashion Fenton Thermos.
She immediately made her way down to him. He felt like he couldn't hang on any longer. His muscles gave way and he fell into unconsciousness. Dani arrived by his side the moment he passed out. She watched as dual black rings appeared around the ghost's waist and separated, just like hers. As the rings moved apart, his jumpsuit gave way to a black sweatshirt with a green oval and dark blue jeans. His red boots changed into black and green sneakers. As the ring headed upward and reached his head, the bandanas vanished and exposed paler skin and spiky black hair. As Dani had guessed; laying there in the place of Shadow was now Jake Fenton.
"Just what I thought." She said to herself, staring down at the unconscious boy.
Yay, dramatic twist! Although, I bet that at least nine out of ten of you saw this coming. Review please!