So, today's my sister's birthday. She's eighteen. O_O Dear god, where did the time go.
I have some great news: I'm on tumblr now! ^_^ I'm known as icyandthefrostbites. I sound like a weird band dedicated to Jack Frost or something… But, yeah, I'm on there now. Come see how weird I am, what obnoxious posts I have, and all sorts of goodies you won't get on Facebook or Twitter. Like, awesome info on some future fics that you won't get anywhere else (my circus thingamagig, anyone?).
Follow me! XD
Yeah, not much else besides me going camping this weekend. Dear lord, save me from the bugs. I freak out every time…
Speaking of camping, really people, you should join us for camp! What's better than hanging out with the Phandom's most awesome peeps! And I'm not talking about myself. It's free, you get to work on your writing, you'll get moral support, and a masked man with a chainsaw running after you. Er… wait. Moral support? Ha! More like people who will beat you over the head with a dictionary if you don't meet your daily goal.
But we're nice people. Join us!
Also, one more chapter after this~. Wow, I really don't know what I'll do with myself. *coughliarcough* Really, see above. THAT's what I'll be doing, Camp NaNoWriMo. Everything goes back to that…
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 22
Plans
"You are obvious, boy. You are difficult to miss. If you came to me in company with a purple lion, a green elephant, and a scarlet unicorn astride which was the King of England in his Royal Robes, I do believe that it is you and you alone that people would stare at, dismissing the others as minor irrelevancies." Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book
Jazz took the steering wheel when they got back to the Specter Speeder. She knew that she could get them back in record time. Her mother had programmed the coordinates in when the vehicle had finished being built.
In one corner, she could sense Katherine with her sword — not that the woman needed another one, she had plenty as it was. There were many questions to ask about her, for example: How the hell was she alive?
She shook her head. There would be time for questions and answers later. Right now, she need to focus on getting them home.
Tucker was bandaging Danny's scrapes and bruises badly, according to Sam. The two were bickering, her poor brother slumped against the wall between them. Their voices were hushed, like they usually kept it, and their eyes flicked between her and Katherine every so often.
Shrugging it off, she lazily got them back to the Fenton household. She landed the Speeder smoothly in the basement lab and got out, not wanting to be in the vehicle any longer than necessary.
She left the others downstairs to unload everything. Normally, she would offer to help but her mind was otherwise preoccupied. She was wondering what time it was, how long they had been gone.
Jazz glanced at the microwave clock and gaped at the glowing green numbers — not dissimilar to the hue of the… Ghost Zone and Danny's… powers?
Powers…
What was going on?
The world wasn't… functioning properly. It was if something had knocked it off orbit — off kilter — and there was no way to correct it.
She heard the teens and the woman trudge up the stairs. They held all of the answers. They were the ones who could set things right. They were the only ones who could.
"How long have we been gone?" Tucker said when he saw her.
She glanced at the clock again. Such a weird green color…
"Fifteen minutes." she found herself saying.
She blinked. They really hadn't been gone very long. Only fifteen minutes? It felt like several hours.
"Time moves differently with Clockwork." Katherine said. "He openly defies it and makes sure that no one else does. Besides me, of course. But then again, I am supposed to. If I didn't… well, Clockwork would have a few things to say."
"Yeah, like, 'Stay in your own time.'" Sam said, growling slightly.
"Tut tut. If it hadn't been for me, you wouldn't be here."
"What are you talking about?"
"It's not time for you to know yet." Katherine said, combing her hair back with her long fingers. "Clockwork will let me know when."
"And who's George?"
"Not yet."
"You know," Jazz said, "you are a rather infuriating woman. I don't see how anything gets done with you around. It's near impossible. It's like… It's like life is a circus and you're trying to take over as owner or something."
Katherine smirked.
"Interesting analogy." she said. "I was in a circus once. I was a magician's assistant. Ended up killing the bastard for… well, a few unpleasant things that you children don't need to know about quite yet."
"We're hardly children." Danny said.
"Adolescents then."
"What is wrong with you?"
"Many things, most of which, if properly diagnosed by a professional, would probably have me locked away for a very long time." She turned her back to them rather abruptly. "I had best be going. Many things to do."
She started for the front door, then stopped.
"If you receive a call from the one who got the ampulla before us, do not agree to any of their terms. They are working for an organization that could destroy the world if they got their hands on the sword."
"What's so special about it, anyway?" Sam said, crossing her arms.
"It helped to seal away a very powerful enemy who traveled back in time to kill me. I had him sealed away in that ampulla. The only way to get him out is with my sword. If they were to get their hands on it, Reapers would destroy everything and everyone you ever loved. Which is why I warn you, do not agree to their terms. It will only lead to devastation."
.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.
Jazz found that she had a hard time concentrating on her schoolwork the next day. Her mind was caught in the events from yesterday. The Ghost Zone. The weirdness of her brother and his friends. Katherine. The Clockwork ghost.
It was all so very confusing and she was receiving no answers from anyone. No matter who she cornered and when, they remained silent or weaseled their way out by getting to class.
At the moment, she was supposed to be contemplating over whether or not Hamlet was a tragic hero or tragic villain. She could care less about him and all of his tragic mess. He was a rather whiney thirty-something year old.
"Any ideas, Jasmine?"
She jumped in her seat as the Shakespeare teacher approached her. He smiled sadly down at her notebook. There was nothing from the day's lesson scrawled down.
"Off day?" he said.
"Yeah." she said. "I've… got a lot on my mind at the moment."
"Just remember to read the first act of Hamlet. Friday is Halloween and what better way to kick it off than a play with a ghost in it?"
She smiled. Hamlet, a strange little ghost story with a tragic ending.
Flipping through it, she tried to find a character she could relate to. She stopped on the page where Hamlet learned of Ophelia's death. It was a relatively sad scene. The character lost her brother to distance, her father to an accidental murder, and her lover due to rejection. She lost the ones she lived for, stumbled through life, and committed suicide.
The most tragic character in a tragedy, the victim of everyone around her. She saw things, heard things that no one could understand or interpret if they ever tried. She lost herself to the madness of it all.
Madness which she was still trying to make sense of. Ghosts don't exist. People didn't come back from death. Her brother could not transform into a superhero-look-alike. However, it was all possible. Yes, what madness she lived in.
Jazz's thoughts went back to the dreams that haunted her. Over the past several days, she had a reoccurring dream of a man floating in the sky. His hair was made of fire and his eyes burned red. He was frightening, to say the least.
And yet, he was vaguely familiar. It was as if she knew him all her life and she felt an urge to help him, protect him, from the pain of the world.
Then, in her dream, he would notice her and smirk. He would blast a building, the one right beside her — Casper High School.
She would always wake up at that point, finding herself safe in her room with no one around. Every time, she would cry. For the school. For the people inside. For her. For him…
"Why does it have to be so hard?" she said quietly to herself.
"Hamlet?" her teacher said. "It's considered Shakespeare's greatest. It is his longest, the one with the most characters, and it has the longest soliloquies of an actor's life. I hardly see the appeal to it myself, but it must be read for people to really understand the playwright."
She nodded, hoping he would go away.
"That's an interesting scene." he said. "Do you relate to Ophelia at all?"
"I'm not really sure." she said. "In some ways, yeah, but…"
"There are only two female roles in the play, Ophelia and Gertrude. Hamlet felt betrayed by both."
The bell rung, signaling the end of class. Their teacher called out final instructions for them. He looked back at Jazz.
"Gertrude was an adulterous tramp and Ophelia did nothing. Betrayal comes in many forms, Miss Fenton." He turned away and gathered his things. She waited for him.
"The play would be a lot better if Hamlet just killed Claudius in the first act." she said. "And a lot shorter."
"Or if there was a sassy, gay best friend."
A smiled perked her lips up. So he knew about those YouTube videos.
"Go on, Ophelia of Amity Park." he said, shooing her along to her next class. "I don't want to hold you back any longer."
She waved goodbye and moved on. There would be time for answers later, now was time for school.
.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.
The rest of the day sailed by quicker than anyone could anticipate. Jazz drove Danny's friends home, dropping them off at their respective residences. They made plans to rendezvous at the Fentons later that night.
The siblings spent their alone time together in silence, no need to talk about school when they just got out. Save it for dinner.
What was she going to make for dinner…?
Jazz parked the vehicle on the street in front of Fenton Works, grimacing at the bright, neon sign and the precarious… thing perched atop. Her parents really didn't know when to stop.
Danny lead the way inside, dropping his belonging on the floor by the door. She kicked them gently to the side, depositing her own next to them. She wasn't ready for homework yet.
She needed answers.
She knew one place where she could get some right away. She still had that book from Sam's library tucked under her bed.
It didn't take her long to secure the area and dig it out. It looked just as it did the first time she opened it. She took the same safety measures, being even more careful this time.
She spent several hours reading the tome, losing track of time and completely forgetting about dinner.
It wasn't until there was a knock on her door did anything even begin to register. She hid the book away, quickly tucking it under her mattress, and opened the door.
Danny stood there, holding a box of pizza out to her.
"I ordered your favorite." he said. "Mom and dad went out and left us money. We each got out own, so I thought 'why not,' you know?"
"Thanks, Danny." she said, taking the box from him. She ruffled his hair.
"So, what have you been doing all alone up here? Did you decide to lock yourself in solitary confinement finally?"
"No, I was just… reading a few old things. Reminiscing about our childhood."
"You and those old psychology journals." He rolled his eyes. "We'll be downstairs watching a movie and waiting for… the phone call or whatever. Who knows, maybe we'll get a message via carrier pigeon. We think we'll be getting it soon. You're welcome to join us. I mean, you have been dragged into it and all…"
"What movie?" she said.
"Some 1960s movie Sam brought with her. Carnival of Souls or something like that."
"Sounds… interesting?"
"You want to join us? They won't mind."
"So long as you and Sam don't sneak away to make out, I'll join in."
Her brother's face flushed a vibrant red, clearly recalling the one time that she and Tucker walked in on them. Boy, how much teasing went on after that… And the fact that she could still get him with it? Even better.
"I'm surprised you haven't asked about everything that's been going on." he said, waiting for her as she closed her door. "I mean, you are in this thing for life now. And some crazy things did just happen."
She shrugged, forgetting about how she maliciously tried to question them earlier.
"Talking about Ophelia will change a person's mind." she said, ignoring his incredulous look as they walked down the stairs. "I think I'm back to the 'you'll tell me when you're ready' stage."
"The what stage?"
She shook her head and sat next to Sam.
"Is that veggie lovers?" she said, pointing to it.
"If you want some, knock yourself out." Sam said. "Those two won't touch it. Well, Danny would if he wasn't afraid of me stabbing him with a pencil or something."
"I am not!" Danny said, sitting on the opposite side. "I… just don't want to risk getting yelled at. Like last time."
Jazz cocked a brow but did not question it. There was a lot of things she didn't want to know about, especially the flirtations between the two.
She looked at Tucker, who smiled slyly.
"Do they do this a lot?" she said quietly to him.
"Every five minutes when someone else isn't talking." he said. "It's kind of funny, for the most part. But it's starting to get annoying."
"Can we start the movie now?" Jazz said loudly, interrupting Sam as she pried Danny's mouth open to forcefully feed him a slice of the veggie covered pizza.
"Right, the movie." Sam said, managing to give Danny the slice and grabbing the remote from the coffee table, despite the fact that it has been buried by the pizza boxes.
The movie was terrible. It relied too much on the "special effects" to create the foreboding and uneasy atmosphere than a good script and good acting. Still, as laughable as it was, it was very likable and made the teens jump a few times.
"Sort of clichéd ending." Sam said, standing up and stretching. "Huh, almost eight thirty. Thought it would be later than that."
"And still nothing from the people who want the sword." Tucker said. "Weird. You'd think by now there would at least be something."
He jumped as his phone buzzed and crooned a Katy Perry song. He smiled nervously at them before answering.
"Hello?" he said into the speaker, quickly turning it onto speaker phone. He gently set it down on the coffee table.
"Mister Foley," a deep voice on the other end said, "I presume you are with Mister Fenton and Miss Manson."
"You are correct."
Jazz frowned, scrunching her brow. They didn't know about her. Yet.
"But we also have Jazz." Tucker said.
Sam smacked him on the arm, glaring. She was obviously thinking the same as the aforementioned girl. If they didn't know about her involvement, then they could use her to help them get the ampulla. A sneak attack, of sorts.
But of course, Tucker would go and ruin that. As he always did.
"Jazz?" The voice hitched up in pitch, sounding eerily familiar.
"Danny's… cat."
"Right. Cat."
"You called to get the sword, didn't you? You need it to open the ampulla."
"I have no want or need for the sword personally but my… employers need it for some reason."
"And who are these 'employers,' exactly?"
"A secret government group but I call the Guys in White."
"I knew secret government groups existed." Sam said quietly under her breath. Danny hushed her.
"So, do you know the exact reason those guys need it or haven't the disclosed that information to you?" Tucker said, leaning forward from his perch on the couch.
"I care little for their intentions." the person on the other end said. "I have my own reasons as to why I want to help them."
"Look," Sam said, "if they've got some dirt on you or whatever, my family can easily bust you out of it — government or not. We have… connections."
"Connections to what?" Danny said incredulously. "The mob?"
Sam shrugged and said:
"We know people."
"If we could continue." Tucker said, gesturing to the phone.
"Right."
"So, how do you want to go about this?"
"We settle things in person." the stranger said.
"Name the place and time."
"Casper High, eight o'clock, Friday evening."
Tucker looked at Sam and Danny, and all three nodded. They turned to Jazz, who shrugged. It sounded good to her, besides she was here to… What was she doing with them? Watch a movie, eat some pizza, and make a deal of some sorts that could end the world?
She really needed to ask them what this mess was all about. It was all too confusing. Parapsychology, what a joke! She really shouldn't get any further in this than she already was.
But maybe… maybe they would need her held. They would need someone to act as an outside force, a mediator of sorts. She was good at that, she did a lot of peer mediation at school.
She was taken out of her reverie by her brother's voice.
"So, it's settled then." he said. "Friday at eight. We meet on the football field, where everything's wide open."
"Remember to bring the sword." the voice on the other end said.
"Just bring the ampulla and everything will be good."
"Until then." The person hung up, leaving the room in silence for a moment or two.
"Hey, guys," Sam said.
"Hm…?"
"What's Friday's date?"
"It's the 31st." Tucker said. "Why?"
"Halloween." Jazz said.
"Which means everyone will be in costume." Danny said, frowning.
"Not only that, but there's also a football game."
Valerie hung up the payphone and heaved a sigh of relief. She had to wait for a while. He dad called the house every hour and had one of the neighbors check in on her thirty minutes after each call.
The only reason she had been able to slip out was because she claimed that they were out of milk as she simply couldn't sleep without a warm glass of the substance. She knew the neighbor had a severe caesin allergy, so the little old lady wouldn't have any in her fridge to give the teen.
Instead, she leant Valerie some money to run down to the little convenience store a few blocks down. On the way back, she hit up one of the payphones. The calls would only take a few minutes after all, so what was the harm?
Sighing, she picked up the plastic phone again and dialed the number for the Guys in White. It rang a few times before someone picked up.
"Hello?" the voice said.
"I made a date. We set up a place and time."
"Good. Are you sure they didn't recognize you?"
"Pretty positive."
"Alright. Place, date and time of meeting?"
"Casper High School this Friday at eight."
"Couldn't have picked a better time or date myself. We'll send back up. Just be ready for an ambush on either side."
"Alright."
The hung up first. Valerie stood there a moment, listening to the dial tone, before hanging the phone up one final time.
She walked back home, the milk jug in hand.
Yay, a very Jazzy chapter!
I make a headnod to something that only two or three people really know about for the second fic in the trilogy. They know who they are (my fellow campers, who heard that discussion).
But yeah, this chapter was mostly filler for me. XP I used "And yet…" so many times. Thank god I did a quick read through and edited most of that out.
Now I just need to figure out how to do a mystery and I'll be all set. Er, anyone have any ideas?
XD