'Wake up, Ghostie,' Jack smiled sadistically. The ecto-gun lay comfortably in his arms, the end still smoking. 'We have some questions for you.'
Danny struggled to focus his wandering eyes. They wanted to close. He knew that he was now awake- mostly- and back in his body. His jumpsuit again felt uncomfortably warm, but he could feel his ghostly temperature battling the heat. His father stood by his left ankle, but Maddie was out of sight. That's why Phantom jumped when he first heard her voice, before he once again settled into that strange daze that made his thoughts all blurry.
'First question,' she said, sounding calm and clinical. 'Why are you haunting Amity Park?'
Danny's thoughts were beginning to get muddled. He could hear the words coming from the blue-jumpsuited ghost hunter, but when he tried to string them together, his tired mind failed him. He felt quite delirious and wasn't sure of what he was saying- if he was saying anything. That ecto-blast had really messed him up.
After a few seconds of silence from the ghost boy, Maddie repeated the question. She said it as calmly as before, but Jack could see her getting frustrated.
Phantom's eyes rolled over towards where Maddie was standing, just behind his right shoulder, but they were unfocused and constantly in motion. He looked sick.
'What did you say, Mum?' Phantom asked.
The female ghost hunter's face tightened at being called that, but she ignored it. It was a common mistake, after all. Even Jack did it sometimes.
'I said-' she began, anger lacing her words like poison.
Jack cut her off in his deep, booming voice. 'Why are you haunting Amity Park, spectre?'
Realization appeared to dawn on the young ghost. He began to shake uncontrollably for no apparent reason and his mouth twisted into a large grin.
'Oh!' He exclaimed, talking to a piece of old lab equipment. An expression of pure joy washed over his face. 'That's an easy question. I died here... Sort of.'
Phantom looked at Jack's shoulder. 'Hey-' he grinned, eyes clouded. 'This is fun! Do I get to ask you questions now?'
Maddie scowled. 'No. Second question: what are you doing here?'
'We tied him to the table, Mads,' Jack reminded his wife in confusion. 'He can't leave.'
Danny's mother looked as if she wanted to stamp her foot. She barely restrained herself.
'No,' she yelled, annoyed at both the ghost and her husband. 'Amity Park.'
Danny's happy feeling was beginning to dissolve, and he was fighting a losing battle with his eyelids. Each blink was getting slower, more drawn out. Maddie noticed this. She growled, deep in her throat, and tried to shake the ghost boy's arm. As with Sam, before, his touch burned her. Maddie jumped back in surprise, the glove of her right hand smoking.
'Ahh! The little piece of ectoplasm burnt me!' She screamed in outrage.
Sam and Tucker chose that moment to burst into the lab. They froze at the sight before them. Maddie clutched her hand against her chest, looking ready to kill. Jack had his usual bewildered look, but the thing that shocked both teenagers was the familiar ghost tied to the lab table. He was still conscious, but only just.
Jack noticed the new-comers first.
'Sam! Tucker! What are you doing down here?' He asked.
The Goth was incapable of speech. She had considered the dresses her parents had forced her to wear a form of torture, but this was a million times worse. Quickly assessing the situation, Tucker saw that he would have to be the one to talk them out of it.
'Uhh,' he stammered, searching for something that would get Maddie and Jack out of the labs. 'Danny's missing!'
The ghost hunters exploded into action. Neither noticed Phantom fall unconscious behind them.
'I'll bet it was those darn ghosts!' Jack growled dramatically as he lifted the ecto-gun up a bit higher. Maddie was already racing out the door, her husband and Phantom forgotten in light of her son's disappearance.
Sam and Tucker flattened themselves against the wall as Jack bounded after his wife. After waiting a few seconds, they detached themselves from the doorway and ran towards Phantom's motionless form.
'He's unconscious,' Tucker evaluated. 'Which means he's around here somewhere...'
The pair strained their ears for any sound of their invisible friend. Anxiety was gnawing away inside of both of them. It seemed like forever, but, finally, they heard a groan from near the ghost portal.
'Danny!' They called simultaneously, rushing towards where the sound originated from.
'Are you OK?' Sam asked.
Another groan followed her question. 'Dizzy... What happened?'
The Goth smiled- Danny was going to be OK, she knew it. 'We'll tell you later. Right now, we need to wake you up and get you out of here before your parents come back.'
Thoroughly confused, Danny decided that the best solution would be to follow Sam's instructions.
'How do we wake you up?' Tucker asked. 'Like normal?'
Phantom nodded, then realized that they couldn't see him. 'Yeah. That worked last time.'
Tucker walked up to the lab table and stared at his unconscious friend. 'How do we get you off of this, first?'
'There,' Danny instructed, invisibly pointing to a small switch. 'Under the table.'
It took some time, but Tucker eventually located the release. The binds around the ghost boy's wrists and ankles dissolved, freeing Danny. Sam immediately started to shake his shoulders, ignoring the pain from her burning hands. Phantom winced when he saw his head roll back to an unnatural angle. He felt that, but he still wasn't awake.
'Danny?' Sam said quietly. 'Wake up.'
Tucker, too, tried to release Danny from sleep's tight grasp, but it wouldn't let the ghost boy leave. The Techno-geek had to let go of his friend quickly- his hands were starting to hurt. Phantom's temperature was rising steadily.
Sam turned to look at where she thought Danny was.
'This isn't good,' she said for his benefit.
AN:
Hey! pale-blue11 here!
My computer doesn't like my name- it keeps trying to capitalise it -_-
Anyway, I have some news! I don't know if it's good or bad, so you can decide yourself. Because school started, I have heaps of extra-curricular sports going on! I'm so tired… I slept through my alarm this morning and got to Athletics training late… oops.
So, my news is that the updates for this story have to now be posted on Wednesday, because basketball training has messed up my routine :(
Happy Valentine's Day! Please review, favourite and/or follow! Also, please check out my other stories. I have one that I wrote last night at one in the morning- it might be why I slept in- and I'm hoping to upload that soon.
Have a great week! See you (kinda) on Wednesday!
pale-blue11