...Lots of commentary at the end.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Jake sighed, staring up at the stars from his perch on the doorstep. His violet eyes looked troubled and tired.
"Hey," Tori said softly, coming out from inside the house. She sat next to him. "You worried about Matt, too?"
"Yeah," Jake admitted. "I guess I always imagined it'd be either you or me to get captured. Never Matt."
"Me, too," Tori agreed.
"And there's no new news on this Sylvio guy," Jake added.
"He'll come back, though," the huntress decided. "And when he does we'll be right there to kick his butt."
Her best-friend-since-forever chuckled. "Definitely."
They both went back to staring at the sky. The stars twinkled, some hidden by the lazily drifting clouds. The moon shown as a crescent; its dim glow providing just enough light to see the shadowy outlines of Amity Park at night. Not to mention a dark figure lurking silently through the streets.
"Jake, do you see that?" Tori asked, pointing to said figure.
"Uh-huh," he agreed. "Looks kind of suspicious with that cloak and all. Should we go check it out?"
"Absolutely."
Jake grabbed onto her hand and turned them both invisible. They creeped up on the night stalker without notice. The closer they got, the more familiar the being became. Shaggy black hair and dark skin made him identifiable even under the swaying black fabric hanging from his shoulders and the dark sunglasses.
"It's Matt!" Tori whispered.
"He's possessed," Jake noticed. "So we probably shouldn't-"
Matt's head suddenly snapped up and he stared directly at them.
"Does he know we're here?" Tori breathed.
Their controlled best friend lurched forward with animalistic instinct and swiped at both of them, catching Jake by the arm and rendering him visible.
"I'll take that as a yes," the boy replied.
Matt clawed his former best friends again, narrowly missing.
"Easy does it, Matt," Jake soothed, hands up in front of him. "We're your friends, Jake and Tori. Remember?"
He growled and bared his fangs. Jake had to pull quickly out of the way as Matt jumped at him again.
"Looks like you can take that as a no," the Huntress commented. "Which means it's time to gear up."
Giving her a curt nod, Jake activated his ghost powers just as she forced her Blue Huntress suit to form around her. Now that both were powered up, they easily flew upward to dodge the next strike. What they didn't expect was for Matt to climb a tree and launch himself at Tori's board.
"Ah!" she screamed as he hung onto the edge. His hand pressed on the speed-up pad and they rocketed off. Shadow chased them and caught up just in time to see the board careening downward toward the park. He raced forward and grabbed Tori just as Matt shook her off. The board collided with the ground, spewing up dust. When it cleared, Matt was crouched stealthily on the ground. His sunglasses slipped off of his face, revealing two vicious red eyes.
Shadow landed them on the ground and stepped protectively in front of Tori. Sternly, he said, "I don't want to have to hurt you, but I will if you make me." Matt growled at them and lunged. Shadow's eyes narrowed further. "Have it your way."
The possessed boy hit a red shield. Bouncing off, he shook his head angrily. Tori recalled her board from where it was and swiftly jumped on, flying out from behind Shadow to grab Matt by his shirt. He struggled, but her suit's enhanced strength made breaking free too difficult. She threw him into the fountain, saying, "C'mon, you stubborn idiot! Wake up!"
Matt slammed against the old concrete fountain and sat there in temporary paralysis as water dripped from him. It didn't last too long before he was shocked violently. It was too long before it ended and Matt's head lolled back.
Eyes wide, Tori retracted her helmet and Shadow changed back to human. Both raced up to their friend.
"Is he okay?" Tori asked quietly.
Jake bent down and checked Matt's pulse. Relief filled him. "Yeah, just unconscious."
His hand jerked back when Matt began to stir. With a soft groan, his eyes opened. His totally normal, human, green eyes. Groggily, he mumbled, "Wha…?"
Both of his friends were relieved to see that the fangs were gone as well. Smiling slightly, Tori stepped forward and grabbed his arm, helping him to his feet. She let him lean on her a bit for balance.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Jake asked, raising three.
"Dude, I can't see that far," Matt mumbled.
"Yep, that's Matt," Jake confirmed.
"Nice to have you back," Tori told him. "How about we explain everything after you've woken up? And you have your glasses back?"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Two hours after Matt was returned found the whole group in Danny and Sam's living room. "The whole group" consisted of Danny, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, Abby, Jake, Tori, and Matt. The digital clock turned to eleven o'clock.
"It's getting late," Valerie noticed. "I think the kids should probably be getting home now. It's been a long day for them. I can come back after I drop Tori off."
"Same here," Tucker agreed, glancing at his son who was already half-asleep on the couch.
"But we want to help plan!" Abby protested.
Sam put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "There's not much you can do right now. Valerie's right, you should all go to bed now."
"But what if those ghosts attack again?" the half-ghost girl asked. "What then?"
"Abby," Danny scolded.
"No, she's got a point," Valerie agreed. "We'll have to take a few precautions. I know everyone here knows at least basic ghost defense, but would it really be safe to leave any of them alone? And I know Tucker probably wants to keep an eye on Matt in case they try to take him back."
"Darn it, she's right," Danny agreed. "Alright, they can all bunk upstairs for now. Girls in Abby's room, boys in Jake's."
"Thanks, dude," Tucker said gratefully.
"No problem," the half-ghost father assured. He moved his gaze over to the four teens on the couch. "C'mon, you four. Upstairs."
Abby pouted a little, but did as her father told her. Jake, Tori, and Matt followed closely behind. Once they reached the top of the stairs, Jake whispered to Abby, "Gonna try to spy on them?"
She smirked. "You know it."
Tori followed the guys, temporarily avoiding Abby. She sat at the base of Jake's bed and yawned. "This is crazy."
"Try being a ghost-vampire-slave," Matt retorted, sitting backwards on a chair.
"I can only imagine."
"Well," Jake said, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted."
"Ditto," Matt agreed.
"You can have the bed," Jake offered. "You need it more than I do."
"Thanks."
The dark-skinned boy climbed up onto it was asleep before Jake and Tori could blink. They both laughed softly. Jake joined her by the base of the bed.
"So, are you going to head off to Abby's room, then?" Jake wondered.
"Eh, in a minute," Tori replied. She leaned back and let her eyes close a bit. "I'll just wait…until…"
"Tori?" Jake asked, but the girl was out like a light. He smiled gently and quietly wished, "Goodnight."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Do you think they're actually asleep?" Valerie wondered.
"I'll go check on them," Sam volunteered. She went to Abby's room first and found her daughter lying still on top of the bed. "You're not going to fool me. No more spying, Abby."
"Darn it," Sam heard after she left. One corner of her mouth tilted up.
She moved on to Jake's room, being as quiet as possible when opening the door. The only words she uttered were a whispered "Thought so."
All three were passed out with Matt's arm hanging down and Jake and Tori up against it. Sam backed out of the room without making a sound, closing the door carefully behind her.
"How are they?" Valerie wondered.
"Rocks look awake compared to them," was her response.
"Good to know." She turned back to the group. "So where were we?"
"Keeping lookouts around the edge of the city," Danny informed.
"I could beef up the ghost shield and extend it to cover the town," Tucker offered. "I bet I could add a warning system, too, to alert us when any ghost touches it."
"Cool," Danny agreed. "I'll talk to the mayor about issuing protocols to the city as a safety measure."
"And now we know that a bad enough shock could snap someone out of the mind-control, but I doubt zapping half of Amity would be a good idea, so it could be a last resort." Sam then said, "Also, I think I'd like to read up on a bit of vampire mythology. This Sylvio seems to be following the lines pretty closely, so it's possible he'll be prone to the same weaknesses."
Danny gave her a nod. "Check."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Valerie asked. "Let's get to it! I'll take the first patrol."
The huntress started up her gear and was on a board and into the night before anyone could blink. Sam scurried off to do her research and Tucker headed down to the basement. Danny let out a heavy breath.
"This is definitely going to call for a truckload of coffee."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Jake was woken up by inconsistent thudding noises. He cracked open his eyes to see Matt up, but stumbling backwards as he held his arm up in front of his eyes.
"Matt?" he yawned.
The boy in question bumped up against a wall, unable to go back any further. He sunk to the floor. "Jake," he rasped, "the sun!"
Accordingly, Jake glanced over to see that the shades on his windows were wide open, an uncommon thing, and pouring bright daylight into the room. It didn't take long for it to click. Jake leaped up and tore across the room, closing the blinds as fast as possible. Matt relaxed as darkness closed in around them once more.
"What's all the noise about?" Tori wondered, waking up at last.
"Looks like Matt's vampire problem isn't over yet," Jake noted.
This was only proved as Matt's eyes opened up, revealing a piercing red where the green should be. Jake knelt by his best friend.
"Jeez, your eyes are as red as mine are in ghost form. How are you feeling?"
Matt blinked, his eyes regaining their old color. "Fine, it's just that the sun hurt."
"But not like you're under control again?" Tori wondered.
"Nope."
Jake stood and stretched, offering a hand to help Matt up as well. "I guess we'll have to avoid that then, huh?" he yawned again. "Well, seeing as we're all up, let's go get some breakfast. It's not like we'd be able to go back to sleep after that, anyway."
Tori followed immediately behind him, but Matt hesitated at the door. "You guys go ahead," he said. "Um…I'm not hungry."
"Matt, you're always hungry," Jake quipped, then realized what the problem was. "Don't worry, I'll go ahead and shut all of the blinds first."
His still slightly vampiric friend smiled. "Thanks."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sam walked in to a room with all the shades closed and only dim lights on. She saw the three teenagers sitting innocently at the table with bowls of cereal in front of them. She raised an eyebrow.
"Jake, I obviously don't mind dim places, but you're sort of wasting electricity here." She went to go open one as she said this, but Jake ran to go stop her.
"No, Mom! Don't-!"
Too late. Matt fumbled again as he tried to retreat. Sam looked at him with blank confusion as Jake rolled the blinds back down. Matt stopped the odd behavior instantly and let his hand fall from his face once more, showing off his temporary red eyes.
"The sunlight still hurts Matt," Jake explained. "He's not being controlled like last time, but apparently there were some side-effects."
"Okay…" Sam said slowly. "That's probably because the electric shock only snapped him out of being controlled, not the effects that went with it."
"Sounds reasonable," Jake agreed. "So, just in case, let's avoid anything else like that."
"Mrs. Fenton, have you guys been up all night?" Tori suddenly wondered.
"Just about," Sam replied. "We're trying to prevent another onslaught, but it's taking a ton of work. Danny's at the mayor's office right now, trying to get some safety precautions out to the rest of Amity Park."
"What about my Dad?" Matt asked, his eyes back to normal.
"Downstairs fixing the ghost shield generator. Tori, you're Mom is out patrolling."
"What can we do?" the girl wondered.
"Finish eating breakfast first. We might need your help down in the lab later."
Danny chose that moment to walk in through the front door. "The mayor said yes," he informed. Then he blinked and surveyed the room. "Hey, why are all blinds down?"
"Don't," all four other occupants replied at once.
"We'll explain later," Jake promised.
"Alright," Danny responded, looking as baffled as had a few minutes earlier. "Anyway, I'm going to relieve Val from patrol. We're really going to have to hurry, though. Everything has to be prepared before night."
"Why?" Jake asked. "What happens at night?"
Danny's face went serious. "Possibly? The next attack."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Here's where we can add the "Dun, dun, DUN!"
My brain has kind of exploded. Ouch.
And...
One more review until I hit 700! (screams)
In other news, I may or may not tack Sylvio's background story to the end of this episode just to further explain the whole vampire thing. That section, however, would be T rated for violence. Also, the side-story of all the stuff I found in my notebook has officially been voted as a "no," so I'll just stick to trying to base a few episodes off of instances or ideas that were created in the alternate versions.
If you're not bored of reading my ever-growing author commentary yet, then I do have a question. I have two episode "plans," both of which are sort of fillers. (Hey, I need something before I can skip to anything major). I probably only have the attention span to do one, but might be able to do two. Since I'm very indecisive and not exactly thrilled about either, I'll stick the summaries down below and let you guys choose which one to do. If you want both, say which one you want first. (There is A LOT of voting in this fic, huh?)
Option 1: Jake sticks to his promise of visiting Chris during the summer, so he's off for a little camping trip. While there, campers are "ditching" their groups. At the same time, some pretty freakish animals have started to turn up, all led by two opposing ghostly forces. Separated, can Jake and Chris escape being the captives of these two spirits? (Tons of character development).
Option 2: A new environment protection company has started up nearby and Sam instantly tries to get a job being as it's what she always wanted to do. When she goes off for the interview, a ghost attack occurs led by Undergrowth...and Vortex? Ice nor fire can work when these forces of extreme nature are joined. So what can? (Very little character development if any. Mostly action).
Okay, now commentary is over.