My friends gathered their backpacks and walked out of my room. Well, Sam more stomped, but that might have been because her boots were heavy. Or she was still peeved at the conversation.
"Oh, wait a second, guys," I said just before we walked out the door. I ran downstairs to the lab, where Mom and Dad were busy with some new invention to make my life miserable, though in their defense, it wasn't on purpose. I reached for a few small ectoguns that were in a box next to the stairs. With any luck, they'd be too busy to notice me.
Something beeped. Dad turned around, brandishing a new weapon, and Mom was close behind him. I froze. Just my luck.
"Ghooost!" Dad shouted. "Oh. Hey there, Danny boy. What are you doing down here?"
"Um," I stammered, thinking fast. "Just getting some guns for... target practice. Yeah."
"This late at night?" Mom said, lowering her own giant gun.
"Mom, it's only seven."
She looked at the ghost-themed clock on the wall. "Huh. Well, go have fun! It's good to see you and your friends take an interest in ghost hunting."
I gave a wide and uncomfortable smile, then dashed back up the stairs.
"But what about the ghost?" Dad said from behind me, sounding disappointed.
"Danny ate a ghost cookie, remember, Jack?"
That was all I heard before shutting the door. I juggled the guns in my hands - not literally. Sam and Tucker were waiting on the porch, their argument about burgers resumed. I ignored them and opened Tucker's backpack to slip the guns inside. He gave me a funny look.
"Why the guns?" he asked. "Unless I'm wrong, Sam's got enough weapons hidden under her jacket for all of us."
"For my fries," I grinned. "Easier to sneak the 'plasm in the gun than just the tubes or something." Tucker nodded, accepting my explanation, and hopped down the stairs. I followed him, Sam right next to me.
"I don't get this weird new quirk of yours," she said quietly to me. Tucker happily led the way, PDA shining on his face. I watched our feet.
"What weird new quirk?"
Sam shoved my shoulder and I stumbled. "You know. Actually digesting ectoplasm. It can't be healthy."
"Tucker's fine. My dad's fine. I'm fine." I shrugged. "And besides, I think... I think it's necessary now."
She didn't reply for a moment. When she did, she was hesitant. "Do you think you're addicted to it?"
I almost stepped up the curb again. The question wasn't a complete surprise, since I had wondered the same thing a dozen times. But something told me that no, it wasn't quite an addiction.
"No. At least, I really don't think so." I took a deep breath. "I thought that, too, at first. But I tested it. I was able to go two weeks without eating anything weird, but my powers were getting weaker and I always felt hungry. So I had some more. And it went away after a while, just like I would expect my normal hunger to act."
"So..." Sam said, drawing out the sound to give her time to think. "Do you feel normal hunger while you're Phantom?"
"Yeah."
"And the injuries you get while fighting ghosts don't magically disappear when you transform back, right?"
"... Right," I agreed slowly. "But they do heal."
"That's not the point. The point is - your two halves blend together. You're still one person," Sam explained, though she didn't sound completely sure herself. "If the human needs food, the ghost feels it. And I guess it's true vice versa, too."
I blinked, realizing where Sam was going. "And since my ghost side is displaying new powers and whatever, it might need its own sort of food, too."
"Exactly." We kept walking in silence. Tucker continued obliviously on, until we turned the last corner. The Nasty Burger's neon sign lit up the dying day, but it was the new lights that stopped us in our tracks.
"What do we do about that?" Tucker asked, referring to the unexpected ECU squad setting up an ectocontamination detection doorway.
I sighed and dug around in my pocket. "Are you guys okay if we eat out here?" After a few emphatic "yes!"s, I smiled ruefully. I didn't like being the reason to change plans, but it wasn't that big of a deal. We'd eaten in the park before.
"Here, Tuck, get me my normal double burger with fries." I dumped a handful of dollar bills into Tucker's hand.
Sam waited for Tucker a few steps away, and he shrugged out of his backpack and bounded away after her. "See you soon!" He called back at me. I waved and slung his abnormally heavy bag onto my back.
"Ugh, Tuck, what do you put in this thing?" I grumbled as I made my way to the park bench across the street, though the weight didn't actually bother me too much. Cars passed in front of me, and I stared at the Nasty Burger, watching people in the lit windows moving around. Stupid ECU. I seriously hoped this wasn't permanent.
Somebody cleared their throat, and I jumped. Anna, that annoying girl in charge of the school's decontaminatin earlier that day, had snuck up on me. At least I knew she wasn't a ghost, I thought bitterly. My ghost sense would have gone off. Too bad I didn't have a dangerous human sense.
"What do you want?" I asked, not very kindly. I was still wary from our last... encounter.
Anna got right to the point. "Why didn't you go in with your friends?" She gestured to the Nasty Burger with her gun.
That wasn't her business, but saying so might put her on guard. It would make her think that I was trying to hide something.
So I shrugged. "Didn't want to cause another ruckus, I guess. And I didn't think you'd let these weapons in," I added, thinking that the guns in Tucker's backpack were a better excuse than my first one.
"We'd have to let you," Anna said grudgingly. "Just like I let your girlfriend in with her abnormally large arsenal." I scowled in protest of the word 'girlfriend', but Anna interrupted again. "Why do you both need blasters, anyway? Do ghosts attack you?"
I almost laughed. Yeah, ghosts did attack me, but that wasn't what the guns were for. "Sometimes," I replied, pretending not to notice Anna's mocking tone. "But we're just out for target practice tonight." Hey, if it worked with my parents, it would work with her, right?
"Well..." Anna hummed. I rather thought that she wanted to get me for something, but couldn't find a good excuse yet. I'd have to tiptoe around her in the future. Great. Just one more thing to worry about.
Luckily, she was interrupted by the arrival of Sam and Tucker, holding three bags of greasy Nasty Burger between them. Well, Sam's was less greasy, but the smell of tofu canceled that out.
"Hey," Tucker said, slightly out of breath. Had they run over? "Whatcha doin'?" He attempted a flirtatious smile. Anna looked repulsed.
"Establishing an anti-ghost perimeter around hot spots," she said formally. Sam gave me a worried look.
I raised an eyebrow. "Why the creepy doorways? You could just use a ghost shield." Pleaseusetheghostshield pleaseusetheghostshield. I could get through those really easily.
"Eventually, we will have set up shields, contaminant detectors, and ghostly activity sensors around all of the big haunting spots - here, Casper High, the mall, and some government buildings that require extra security." Anna looked proud.
"I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other, then," I sighed dramatically. She gave me a questioning look, so I added, "I eat a lot of cookies."
"Speaking of," Sam interrupted. "We can't let these fries go cold!" She shook the bag to illustrate, then grabbed my arm and backed away. Tucker followed reluctantly. "It was nice meeting you! I'm sure we'll see you around! Bye!" We dove behind a clump of trees, out of sight.
Please remember my initial warning - this is a bunch of hcs squished together with no real rhyme or reason. Here I go, trying to explain something to myself again. Oh well. I'm sure somebody out there is enjoying this.