I think it should be known that sort of this was written while I was a little buzzed. I am twenty-two, so I'm not doing anything stupid. It was also at a kid's birthday party. Alcohol was needed. Blargh. And while everyone was eating cake and ice cream, the birthday girl and I were eating pita chips. (She had an upset stomach and I'm lactose intolerant. I also have never been a big fan of cake.)
Cool fact, my aunt went to school with the older brother of one of this season's contestants on Face Off. She also goes to church with his mother. Apparently he's in the final three. And, another friend of the family went to school with another competitor. Go, Kris! Go, Anthony!
Another cool fact, I know someone who went to school with Melissa McCarthy. She was apparently a Goth as a teenager. A very perky Goth...
Yeah, I hang out with a pretty nifty group of people.
Anyway, to samansonreplica, don't worry I'm not offended by your question. In fact, I'm more than happy to answer it. No, I am not a Witch, Necromancer, Soothsayer, Alchemist or any other race mentioned in this story. The reason I know so much about the supernatural is because I've over ten years learning about this stuff. I've always been interested in magic and the like, ever since I was a little kid. I have a love of it and a love of writing, combining the two is what comes natural to me. I am glad to hear that you, too, believe that people can see into the future (as weird as it seems to many people out there). I'm glad you asked and I would like to let everyone out there know that I never feel threatened by other's curious natures. If you ever want to know something, please do ask. I will undoubtedly respond to your inquiry.
I don't know if anyone noticed, but on my profile there is a list of interesting things about me. I got bored one afternoon and I made it.
Summary: Samantha Manson, or Sam, has many things to deal with; her parent's disappointment, she knows all of the police force by name and face (and not because she wants to), moving to a new city, her grandmother's slowly dying, her Necromancy is getting stronger, she has no instructor to teach her, and she's not exactly the most popular girl in school. As she learns about this new city, she learns of its mysterious secrets and as to why so many haunts happen there. While trying to find out how to help this city, she finding that she slowly crushing on a kind of cute geeky boy whose parents hunt supernatural things. AU. She eyed the yellow tape, daring it to keep her from the school grounds. After a moment, she decided to ignore the forbidding warning of the black DO NOT CROSS letters.
Disclaimer: I do not hold any legal rights to Danny Phantom or to any of the characters you are going to read about. This story, however, is my own original idea, with a nod to Meg Cabbot's Mediator series and Kelly Armstrong's Darkest Powers trilogy for inspiring me somewhat.
Do Not Cross
Chapter 9
Thermos
"You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room." Dr. Seuss
Training started that afternoon, mostly with Danny. They occupied Mr. Lancer's classroom and a part of the gym when that season's sports team left. Sam helped, mostly by being the unwilling target. Who knew he could shoot beams out of his hands and fingers... and his left toe?
Danny also learned how to use his Mind's Eye, which would be very useful in the future. He took the time to study the glows of the gym's other occupants.
Sam's was a swirl of purple and pink. It was pleasing to look at, and it was comforting despite her harsh Goth appearence. He wondered if it had to do with her being a Necromancer and him being surged with ectoplasmic energy.
Tucker's glow was brown and green. It reminded him of the earth. There were streaks of dark and light gray that would shimmer in and out at various points. His glow wasn't as comforting as Sam's but it was peaceful.
Mr. Lancer's glow was white and gold, with spinning fizzles of amber splashes. It was exciting to watch and Danny found himself wondering why the teacher wasn't as exciting.
Danny wondered what his own glow looked like. He wanted to ask but he didn't know how to go about it. He didn't want to make a fool of himself by outright asking – it might be considered inappropriate. Was a person's glow a very personal thing? He really wished he had a guidebook like Tucker and Sam did.
When they finally took a break, Danny collapsed on the floor by the wrestling mats. He didn't dare touch the things; they reeked of dirt and sweat, and they were undoubtedly carrying some sort of disease.
Sam sat down next to him, offering a cool water bottle dripping with condensation. He took it and drank greedily from the plastic container. Both teens were grateful for the rest. He could feel his sweat cool his body and form a tacky layer that made his shirt stick to his skin.
"Hey, Sam?" he said.
"Yeah?" she answered.
"My glow..."
"What about it?"
"Can you tell me... What does it look like?"
She blinked at him before bursting out laughing. Mr. Lancer and Tucker glanced at them, curious as to why they were suddenly making noise.
"You didn't have to laugh." Danny muttered bitterly when she started to calm down.
"You want to know what your glow looks like? Hi-larious." she said, wiping away a tear. "What, you can't see yours?"
"No."
She frowned. He watched as she blinked, her curious violet eyes glowing slightly. She tilted her head off to the side, her frown growing bigger.
"Your glow is very weak. Kind of like your dead. It's faint but it's there. It's sort of green and gray, from what I can see. Kind of creepy looking."
"Thanks...?" Danny said, unsure of how to answer. "So, I'm creepy looking."
"It sort of fits. Ghosts are the only beings that can truly predict the future. Soothsayers are somewhere between the living and the dead. They die for five minutes before coming back to life, carrying some sort of ectoplasimic energy with them. Most of the time, Soothsayers who were created were Necromancers. Necromancers, Alchemists, Soothsayers, and Witches were one race at one point. At least, that's what it said in my book."
"Weird."
"I know."
"Are you two lovebirds done flirting?" Tucker called to them.
"We're not lovebirds!" Danny and Sam chorused. They snuck a peek at one another and turned away, blushing. They had training to get back to.
Danny hissed as he eased himself into a warm bath. He could already feel the bruises forming. Training had been harsh, especially going up against Sam. She was a tough fighter and obviously knew what she was doing. He found himself growing more envious of her.
A knock on the door startled him. It was Jazz.
"You okay, Danny?" she asked through the door.
"Fine." he said.
"You came home looking a little stiff. Not to mention late. What were you doing?"
"Sam was showing Tucker and me some self-defense techniques."
"She knows some self-defense?"
"She did live in the city." Danny said, rolling his eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Alright." Jazz said. She paused before continuing. "Do you want some ice? It's supposed to help the muscles or something."
"I'm good. Thanks, Jazz."
"Okay. G'night, Danny."
"Night, Jazz."
Danny listened as she walked to her room, and he sighed when her door clicked shut. He rested in the warm water for another ten minutes before draining the bathtub and taking a cold shower. Jazz said ice helped muscles, so why would cold water be any different? The shower didn't last long, he got too cold too quickly.
He came out, shivering, and he quickly dressed in warm pajamas. He checked his computer to see if Tucker or Sam was on. Neither of them was. He looked at his math homework, which was almost done thanks to Mr. Lancer, who wrote everything down while Danny sparred with Sam. It had been interesting, getting him to multitask while fending off the friendly assault.
"It'll help you in future battles." Mr. Lancer had said. "We'll continue doing thus everyday until you are able to do not only both but several other things as well."
Danny wondered how much one person can do while fighting. Women, he knew, could multitask very easily. Something about more connections in their brain or somewhere along those lines. Men were capable of focusing on one task and completing it sufficiently. At least, that's how it was supposed to be, he thought.
He quickly polished off the three problems he had left and then reviewed his other work. He didn't have much right now. He would have more work closer to the end of the semester and midterms. He wondered if Mr. Lancer was going to be a bit more lenient with him, knowing his secret. He hoped so.
A knock on the door, interrupted his thoughts. It was his dad.
"Hey, Danny boy, how was school?" Jack asked.
"Fine. I like all of my teachers this year." the teenager replied.
"Want to see what your mother and I have been working on?"
"Er..." Danny watched as his dad pulled out a thermos.
"This," Jack said, "is the Fenton Thermos. It catches ghosts and it holds them. Pretty neat, right?"
"Yeah, pretty cool."
Jack snapped to face one corner and he pushed a button. They waited for it to do something. It beeped but didn't do anything else. The man signed and set it down on Danny's desk, frowning down at it. He was clearly disappointed.
"Another failed project."
Danny picked it up, inspecting it.
"Maybe it's like the portal." he said, offering it to the man. Jack took it, thinking about what his son said. "It probably just needs a jumpstart."
Jack nodded and turned to leave.
"Goodnight, dad."
"G'night, Danny."
Danny watched as his father dejectedly closed the door and left. He sighed and continued on with his schoolwork for another forty-five minutes.
Yawning, he set his homework aside and climbed into bed. He slept for some time when he jerked awake. He looked around wildly, trying to figure out what was going on. It wasn't until he felt the mist float out of his mouth that he realized what was happening.
"Hello?" he called. No response. "I know you're there."
Again, he received no response. He slid out from under the blankets and looked around. He didn't see anything, but he most certainly felt something. He closed his eyes and focused on the negative energy that ghosts naturally gave off.
He learned that was Sam earlier. Ghosts were barriers of extremely negative energy. Necromancers had extremely positive energy. Naturally, ghosts were attracted to Necromancers. Soothsayers, being somewhere between life and death, carried a more negative energy than humans or any other beings and thus could feel the repelling negative energy of ghosts.
He felt the ghost to his left, outside of his bedroom window. At least he thought is was outside his window. It faded into existence in his room, startling him.
"Hello, dearie." the ghost said. She looked like a rather stereotypical lunch lady – only with red eyes and green skin. She was on the borderline of terrifying and just plain freaky looking.
"Hello." Danny said cautiously. She smiled kindly at him.
"Do you know the girl who doesn't eat food on the school's lunch menu?"
"You mean Sam?"
The ghost's smile turned malicious, showing of shark-like teeth that hadn't been there seconds before.
"Sam." she said, fading away.
"Oh crap." Danny said. What should he do first? Warn Sam!
He dove for his phone and quickly hit the six. The line rang a few times before she answered.
"Hello?" Sam said groggily.
"Sam! Um..."" Danny paused, trying to think of what to say. "I might have accidentally sent a ghost to you."
"...What. Danny, it's, like, three in the dealing morning. I can't deal with a ghost right now."
"I'm sorry, okay. I'll be over in a couple minutes. Hopefully with something that can help."
"Fine." Sam muttered hanging up.
Danny quickly dressed in the previous day's clothes, looking around for anything that could possibly help them catch a ghost. Had his parents ever invented anything that could hold one?
The thermos!
He quickly snuck downstairs and looked around. No one was up. He could hear his father snoring above him. His mother was sound asleep next to him, no doubt. Jazz was undoubtedly in R.E.M. sleep by thus time, as he should have been. He was a growing boy after all and the loss of sleep could stunt his growth! Sam was lucky she was his friend; the only other person he would do this for was Tucker. Plus, they were both like him, not human. This new world was rather exciting.
Danny slunk into the basement, looking around for the thermos. He found it on one of the counters, looking innocent and altogether incapable of holding ghosts. Maybe this one wouldn't attack him like his parents' inventions did.
He grabbed it and listened for any movement upstairs. He heard Jazz call out to him.
Invisible, he pleaded with his powers. Invisible, invisible, invisible. Turn me invisible. I can't be caught by Jazz.
He disappeared just as Jazz stepped off the last step of the stairs. He held his breath as she looked around, confusion written on her features. She had clearly been expecting him to be down here.
"Please don't be involved with a gang." he heard her mumble.
Why would he be involved with a gang? Who would want to be involved with a gang in the first place? All of those initiation tests he'd seen in the movies always ended with the new kid in jail and ending up in trouble with their parents. Weren't they also involved in drugs and stuff?
Actually, he really had no idea what gangs did all day. Did they go to school? Probably not. Danny might not have been the perfect student, but he was usually in the top fifteen in each of his classes, a little over halfway. He tried hard and that was all that mattered to him and his parents.
Jazz was just being Jazz, an overprotective busybody who liked to stick her nose into everything she thought was immoral. Not that Danny blamed her, she was worried and that was the way she had been raised. Their father was usually in the hospital for some kind of burn treatment, their mother was usually wrapped up in their father's shenanigans, and Danny was an annoying younger sibling most times. She had to be the responsible one.
He sighed, turning visible again. Sneaking out would be a lot harder if Jazz was awake. What could he do? Fly through the house invisible?
"Anything's possible." he said. He closed his eyes and focused on changing, which happened much quicker this time around. He then turned himself invisible once more. Now how did he fly last time? He wasn't really sure about that one, but when he opened his eyes he was outside and floating above the Emergency Ops. Center.
Smiling, he flew off in the direction of Sam's family mansion. When he arrived, Tucker was outside whispering up to Sam. She must have called him while he tried to think of a way out of his house.
"Need a lift?" he asked, scooping up his friend. Danny wasn't sure what to expect when he picked Tucker up, but he certainly did not count on his friend weighing as much as he did. Thankfully, the flight upwards did not take long. Danny landed on Sam's floor, depositing his friend, puffing for a decent breath.
"What's wrong with you?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Dude," Danny huffed, "you need to lay off the double cheeseburgers with bacon for a while."
"Sorry." Tucker said. "I didn't think you'd have to carry me up."
"I was just about to throw down my house key to him." Sam said. Danny noted that she was still in her pajamas, unlike him and Tucker. He tried his hardest not to stare. She broke him of his thoughts when she started speaking again. "So, why did you call? Something about a ghost?"
"Yeah, this ghost woke me up." Danny said, sitting cross-legged on the plush carpeting. "She wanted to know who the girl was who didn't eat off the normal lunch menu."
"…That was it? Seriously? You woke us up for that? Danny, I'm going to be cranky tomorrow and it's going to be all your fault."
"So this ghost," Tucker said, "what did she look like?"
"I don't know, a lunch lady?"
"A deceased lunch lady hunted you down to ask you that? You seriously have problems."
"Well, just in case she comes, I brought this." Danny said, holding out the thermos.
"Soup? You brought us soup to fend off the dead lunch lady?" Sam said, not amused. "How the hell is soup supposed to defend us from a crazy dead lady?"
"It's called the Fenton Thermos. My parents just invented it. It's supposed to catch and hold ghosts."
"It could be useful." Tucker said, taking it from his friend. "Does it work?"
"My dad tried it earlier before I went to bed. I think it needs to be charged or something."
"Is the power button turned on?" Sam asked. "We don't want another portal incident."
"Was it really that bad?" Danny asked.
"I nearly wet myself when I remembered we didn't unplug the machine." Tucker admitted. "Neither of you are to share that with anyone outside this room, got it?"
The other two nodded, holding back a laugh or two.
"So, what do you want to do?" Danny asked. "Obviously, we got here before the ghost did."
"I don't know," Sam said. "Hang out?"
None of them lasted long. In fact none of them realized they had fallen asleep until Sam's blaring alarm woke them up. Danny's mind and heart raced, thinking it was the fire alarm rather that the clock. He cursed and willed his heart to slow down.
"Sorry," Sam grumbled. "I can't wake up to anything else. A ghost once threw me out of a window in Chicago. I didn't even realize until I woke up in the street and a truck honked at me. You have no idea how scary that is. Not to mention I had to fend it off in ridiculously skimpy clothing. What? It was a really hot night and the air conditioner broke earlier that day."
"What time is it?" Tucker asked, rubbing his eyes.
"A little after six."
"Crap! Jazz wakes up around now." Danny said, looking around with a panicked expression. "I forgot she heard me sneaking around last night. She's going to think I was with a gang all of this time."
"Why the hell would you join a gang?" Sam asked. "What gang would want you?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sam."
"You're welcome."
"But what am I going to do? She checked on me last night, I know she did. She saw my bed with me not in it…"
"Just say you decided to sleep under your bed last night."
"Not going to work." Tucker said. "Have you ever seen how messy his room is?"
"That's so if a burglar ever breaks in, they die trying to get to me. See? My logic doesn't fail me there."
"But what if there's a fire and you're trapped?" Sam asked.
"Duh, intangibility? I don't think fire can hurt something that's intangible."
"It's no use trying to argue with him now, Sam." Tucker said. "After a wakeup call like that, his mind is freaky alert. It's like he's had 500 cups of coffee or something. I don't know, I'm still tired so I have no idea what I'm talking about. Ignore me."
"Well then…"
The stood around, looking tired and confused. Sam cleared her throat.
"I need to get ready." she said.
"We better leave then." Danny said. "Come on, Tuck, I'll sneak you in."
Danny yawned throughout most of the second day of school. He happily counted the final minutes left of the day before he could go home and take a nap. His dreams were foiled when Mr. Lancer reminded him that he, Sam, and Tucker needed to stay after for some "tutoring."
"It won't be that bad." Sam said. "Besides, you need it more than anyone else. Actually, Tucker probably needs it more than you, but you're that abnormal Soothsayer, the fighting type. Your training is the most important."
"What about your training?" Danny asked quietly as Mr. Lancer was going on about what needed to be covered for the month's upcoming Casper Enquirer, the school paper. Sam had volunteered to write a welcome back to school article before class even started. Danny hadn't offered to take any work yet, but he supposed that he should very soon.
"Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer said, "please do not disrupt my class. You are the only one who hasn't agreed to take anything yet. We need some photos of this Friday's game. Do you think you can do that?"
"Of course, Mr. Lancer." Danny replied. Photos of the game? No sweat. The photographer for the school paper always had one of the easiest jobs. Plus, it helped that his parents had really good cameras that were capable of capturing things in motion very easily.
"Good. Remember, we have tutoring after school. Remind Mr. Foley of that, would you?"
"Why do you need to be tutored?" Valerie asked when Mr. Lancer went back to prattling off about something or another.
"Danny's terrible at writing." Sam said. "I offered to help him and Tucker get better. Mr. Lancer's really just around to make sure what I'm teaching them is relevant to what they have to do."
Danny was again fascinated by how easily Sam lied. It certainly was an art form that she had perfected over the years. And she always did it so convincingly. Her body language was faultless, her eyes never shifted in the wrong direction, she maintained the proper amount of eye contact. He found himself once again wondering how she did it.
The bell rung. Danny knew the real work was about to begin.
Whew, most of this was written in one night. I've been procrastinating this week far too much for my liking. My workload is much easier, though, at the moment so I'm hoping to stay ahead. All I really have to do is read two acts of Henry IV, Part 1 by tomorrow and take a quiz. Easy.
I thought about pushing the upload date to a later day in the week and then I remembered that there are only seven days in a week and there is just as much time to procrastinate as ever. (-.-) Not happy about that revelation. My updates will still place on Mondays, for those who are worried. I promise, I'll be consistent as always.
For those who are interested in reading some webcomics, check of Gallows Humor, Strays, and Namesake. All three are wonderful. Gallows isn't updated as often as the artist would like but she has a marvelous job in the publishing business as an illustrator, so one can't blame her. Strays is updated every Friday (rarely later, and they always announce if they're going to be late). Namesake I started reading on Friday evening and finished sometime on Saturday. Wizard of Oz lovers are going to go crazy over it. If you'd like a link to one and you can't find it, let me know. I will kindly point you in the right direction.
For those who didn't notice, the chapter is just over 3000 words. I met my mark again and it makes me happy. I'm really trying to keep it there, with only a few chapters so far falling below it. Here's to keeping a good thing going!
My poll closed a few days late, but the votes are in. The DNC collection of one-shots will be written! I do have a small list of ideas so far. I'm not taking any requests at the moment, but sometime in the future I will. That will be sporadically updated, as some things I have planned I can't do anything about them until later on in the story. (I have some order to it already, lawl.)
Thank you once again to all of my readers and reviewers. You are all very lovely little creatures. :-*