Chapter 13:
A Question Of Sanity
After chasing Danny around for ten minutes, trying to get him to eat kim-chee (Cure #87), Sam and Tucker had given up on the food cures. They'd already forced Danny to eat and/or drink a whole list of things.
Crushed ice (Cure #1592)
Popsicles (Cure #536)
Dill pickles (Cure #38)
Marshmallows (Cure #45)
Lemons (Cure #46)
Honey (Cure #256)
Hard candy (Cure #119)
Tabasco sauce and lemon juice (Cure #120)
[He had, literally, breathed fire]
Room temperature soda (Cure #150)
Ginger tea with honey (Cure #163)
Pepperoni pizza with honey mustard (Cure #499)
[That one was, actually, pretty good.]
Tomato juice (Cure #501)
Dry bread (Cure #88)
Mustard (Cure #93)
Sour candy (Cure #601)
White vinegar (Cure #500)
[Never. Again.]
Potato chips (Cure #998)
Hot soup (Cure #1100)
Pudding (Cure #1284)
Grape Gelatin (Cure #1285)
Dark chocolate (Cure #774)
None of which had helped, at all. And, the still-hyper half-ghost was not about to add kim-chee to the list. Hiccups, or no hiccups.
Now, they were trying the opposite. Sam had slipped some kind of plant (nobody wanted to ask what it was or where she'd gotten it) into the boy's water. Now, he was leaned over a toilet, upchucking a lovely mixture of the list above, and hiccuping more than ever.
Quite some time later, after Danny's stomach had stopped attacking him, Jazz had woken up, and the coffee the rest of Team Phantom intensely regretted giving the young half-ghost had worn off, (or been thrown up, no one was quite sure which,) Danny had collapsed onto his bed and fallen asleep (still hiccuping). Tucker had followed closely behind, taking Jazz's chair, which was still in Danny's room.
Sam, having, finally, gotten enough sleep to not want to kill anybody, (well, not more than usual,) had stayed up to plan out more cures and keep an eye out for Danny's parents. Jazz joined her. After looking through the list, and seeing only a handful of cures that weren't too similar, Sam had an idea. But, the ghost-boy was not going to like it.
*Pop*
The paper bag Danny had been breathing into burst. (Cure #638) "What!?"
*Hiccup* (Phantom)
"Hear us out." Sam said, making calming gestures at the frazzled halfa.
"Sam! Are you-"
*Hiccup* (Fenton)
-crazy!?" The spider-loving girl tried to explain her plan, but the sleep-deprived teen was too far gone. He began to pace, as he continued his half-to-himself, half-to-everyone-else rant on just why this was 'The Worst Idea In The History Of Ever'.
*Hiccup* (Phantom)
Tucker looked almost ready to join him, but without the hiccups punctuating every third sentence. "Dude, I gotta go with Danny on this one. I mean... Do you really think that's a good idea? Our luck has held out longer than, like, ever, so far. And, I-"
*Hiccup* (Fenton)
He glanced over at the pacing half-ghost, then turned back to Sam. "-expect it to come crashing down around our ears, any minute, now." He reasoned, his best friend still going in the background.
"That's the point, Tucker." Sam said.
*Hiccup* (Phantom)
"Our luck can't last much longer. And, it will never hold out, if Danny has to go to school, like this." Jazz explained.
"We've got time left." Tucker said, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
*Hiccup* (Fenton)
"Tucker," Sam said, grabbing Danny's alarm clock off the nightstand, and pointing to the time. They'd been incredibly fortunate that Danny's parents were busy playing with their new toy, and had hardly left the lab, all day. "It's 11:30 pm, on Sunday. School starts in less than eight hours, and we're no closer to curing Danny's hiccups than we were Friday afternoon."
Sam had gone home hours ago, while Danny and Tucker were still asleep, just to placate her parents. She had eaten dinner and, almost immediately, snuck back out. They were running out of time.
*Hiccup* (Phantom)
"We can call in sick." Tucker tried.
"All of us missing school? At the same time? The same three kids who are always running out of class, for no good reason? Yeah. That's not suspicious." Sam snarked.
*Hiccup* (Fenton)
Tucker shrugged. "We could skip. Wouldn't be the first time."
"WHAT!?" Jazz started, dropping the book she'd been rereading (for the fifth time).
Sam waved her off. "We don't skip just to skip. We skip-"
*Hiccup* (Phantom)
-to fight ghosts. Some of which would destroy the school, if we didn't." Jazz calmed, somewhat, but still looked none-too-pleased.
"Well, then, we can call Danny in sick." Tucker pulled them back to the previous conversation.
"And, leave him to deal with this, on his own? Tucker, what if his parents see him!?"
"He could wear a hat, to hide the change."
*Hiccup* (Fenton)
"...A hat?" The other two asked, together. Even Danny paused in his ranting, to stare at the techno-geek.
"...And, contacts..."
"Tucker," Sam was getting tired of this.
"We could hide him!"
"He's transforming so much, he looks like a turn signal."
*Hiccup* (Phantom)
"We could tell his parents it's because of the machine that got him unstuck from the floor."
"And, have them run tests on him?"
"We'll take him to school with us."
"Yes. Because, the people at school are-"
*Hiccup* (Fenton)
"-going to hear that a child was attacked by ghosts, then left home alone, where he was hurt by one of his already-believed-to-be-crazy parents' inventions, and-"
*Hiccup* (Phantom)
"-nobody's going to call Social Services. Great idea." The sarcasm was palpable.
Tucker paused, thinking. Sam raised an eyebrow at him.
*Hiccup* (Fenton)
By this point, Danny had stopped ranting and walked up next to Jazz, to watch his friends go back and forth. Tucker, finally, found his voice again.
"...Yeah, but... Vlad?"
AN: Aren't I evil? ;) A fine fit for a chapter 13 on Friday the 13th, don't you think? :)
So, tell me what you think! Take the poll on my page and leave your guess :) Will Plasmius have the cure, or is it a waste of time?
Special thanks to my friend, scaehime, for Cure #638: Breath in and out of a paper bag.
To Fluffyearedpuppy: I would've sent you a message, but I didn't get the option to reply. Thank you, so much :)) I definitely will, but it'll be in the sequel :)
