"Maybe we should just head home?" Tucker suggested.
"Yeah..." Danny trailed off. The mist formed in his throat and he coughed it out.
He started when Sam cried out, "Oh my gosh!"
He swiveled on his heel to see what she was upset about.
The first thing he saw were black boots, then his eyes moved higher and higher up. A metallic, glowing entity with a green fiery mohawk stared down at them.
Danny paled.
"I meant to catch you by surprise," said the robot-thing, "But the look on your face is worth it."
"What—" Sam began to stutter, the ghost shot out a glob of ectoplasm from a gun on its arm to silence her. His aim was insane. It landed exactly over her mouth. She gave a muffled yell and tried in vain to pull it off.
"Sam!" Danny shouted. He rushed to her but didn't know how to help her. The stuff was like glue.
"I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter!" Introduced the ghost, "Now, for the Ghost Child..."
The way Skulker's intent seemed to be focused on Danny—Danny didn't know how he knew, he could just tell—set the pulsating in his chest in icy flame.
"How dare you touch my friend!" Danny howled. The outrage came instinctually.
Skulker seemed to smile invitingly.
"I'm goin' ghost!"
Where did that come from?
It didn't matter. He transformed in a flash, and—
Skulker cast a net over him.
Tucker, who'd been silent, sputtered, "Dude!"
Danny struggled to break free from the net. "Augh!"
Skulker gingerly picked him up, completely ignoring Sam and Tucker. "Easy catch." He spied the PDA Tucker had dropped on the ground in his fright. "And a trinket, too." He grabbed at the item, barely missing Tucker, who jumped back. He peered at the PDA for a brief moment and then seemed to install it on his arm, which had been giving off small sparks of electricity the whole time.
Something about that ignited Danny. With an extra burst of strength he tore at the netting, creating a hole.
"What?!" Skulker was taken aback.
Danny flew through the opening as fast as he could. A cold adrenaline raced through him.
"Hm. More promising a hunt than I'd thought, it would seem."
Danny scoffed. The fearlessness was acting up again.
Skulker's iris-less, pupil-less viridian eyes narrowed.
This was all in the middle of the street. Danny wished someone would see and call 911. He had a feeling he wasn't that fortunate.
"I—"
The spot on his arm where he'd installed Tucker's PDA suddenly beeped.
Skulker looked at it in surprise.
Then, something in his demeanor changed.
"I must go to dinner." He said in a monotone voice.
What?
A jet-pack, winged-like thing—damn if Danny knew what they were—popped out of his back and before Danny knew it Skulker was being propelled through the sky.
He was gone.
What just happened? All three of them thought, confused beyond belief. Sam had finally managed to claw off the goo from around her mouth.
"I am going home." Tucker said with finality. Reminded of the first ghost attack with the octopuses, Danny let him go. Tucker seemed to be pinballing back and forth between thinking this was all awesome and being terrified. Danny felt sorry for him.
He looked at Sam.
"I..." She tried. "Will you get home safe?"
Why was she so concerned for him? He was touched.
"I'll be fine. I think you need to go home, too." He told her.
She nodded.
The interviewing journalist, Connie, arrived before Danny got home. Jack watched his boy march upstairs presumably to his bedroom without a word. He turned his attention back to his wife.
"A few more questions, Maddie: can you tell our readers what you're working on now?"
"Connie, my primary focus these days is ectology."
"The study of ectoplasmic entities? Such as poltergeists?"
"Yes." Maddie confirmed. Jack could tell from a certain look in her eye that she didn't find this Connie lady all that bright, but she, of course, was Maddie Fenton nee O'Dwyer, and she kept those kinds of thoughts to herself. "Though 'poltergeist' is a common term."
"What is the scientific term?"
Maddie paused, Jack had to stifle a laugh at the brief look on her face, easy to miss if he hadn't been married to her for so long, "Ectoplasmic entity."
"Oh." Connie was contrite.
When dinnertime came around Danny was itching to tell his parents what happened, but something in the back of his mind kept him from doing so. It just didn't seem wise, while at the same time seeming like common sense. He was conflicted. "How did the interview go?"
"Her name was Connie. She was an idiot—"
"Jack, don't be rude!" Maddie stopped her husband, but she didn't really seem to mean it. "She probably just skimmed over whatever information she could find about me."
"She's a journalist, she should do better than that."
"Yes, well...anyway, here are your plates."
Danny took his respectfully, "'Kay...when's the photoshoot?"
"Next week."
"Cool."
The next day at school was pure hell.
Tucker and Danny walked through the front doors of Casper High...
And everything was fine until Danny had to use the restroom in the middle of second period.
Alone in the hallways, he yelped when green glowing chains were flung at him out of nowhere. Seemingly of their own volition, they coiled around him like a snake.
Skulker materialized out of thin air, "I have you now, Child! I—"
The PDA on his arm beeped again.
"I—I must attend class." He flew away, phasing through the walls.
What in the flying hell? No pun intended—alright, yes, pun completely intended. Danny was going a little nuts.
The coiling chains fell to the ground listlessly. Danny left them there as they dissolved and powered on back to class.
At lunch, Sam pressured him into eating something. Who was she, his mother? But for some reason her concern wasn't unwelcome. They sat near the destroyed bleachers, despite warnings from school staff not to go near them. No one was around.
It was utterly unexpected when a blue net was thrown apparently from above at him. It latched onto his face. He cried out and it moved to his neck, choking him.
"Danny!" Sam screamed.
The voice came from behind them, "Now, boy, once again, I, Skulker, shall—"
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Danny watched as it happened again.
"Shall...attend fourth period?" It was almost phrased as a question.
"Alright, what the hell is going on here?" Daniel demanded of no one.
"My PDA!" Tucker said suddenly.
"What?"
"He stole my PDA! And now he's following my schedule!"
"Tucker, that's insane."
"I swear! It's the same exact schedule I have on my other PDA!"
Danny actually considered it.
The collar-thing around his neck vanished.
Once P.E. started, things grew more vicious.
Danny hid in the locker room with Tucker. Tucker never struck Danny as a protective person. It would seem he was wrong.
Skulker ambushed them in the gym lockers.
He physically grabbed Danny and squeezed him.
"Let go of him!" Tucker yelled.
Skulker spat, "You! You and that girl will pay for your interference!" He prepared an ectoplasmic blast in one hand, "I SHALL—" Beep. "—Attend last period class."
He dropped Danny who thumped on the floor hard.
It was indeed last period.
Everybody was gathering their things, bags, notebooks, purses, Danny didn't move. His purple backpack lay rumpled by his feet under his chair. His shoulders slouched inward, blinking exhaustion blearily out of his darkly ringed eyes. His arms were crossed over the tabletop, a little too defensively to be approachable. Usually a girl whose name he didn't remember smiled at him politely when he sat down across from her, today she sat somewhere else. He knew why.
He stunk. He looked unkempt. He was quickly sinking down the social hierarchy as a freak, a guy with too many issues to bother associating with. It made sense, if you thought about it: nobody had anything to lose if he was an outcast. Danny's thoughts immediately darkened. No one, except for his only two friends. His fall from grace was affecting them as well.
It wasn't just his social life throwing the three of them off course.
The last bell of the day rang, freeing them all. Some kids said goodbye to the teacher, a middle-aged woman who was pretty cool and fairly liked. In the past Danny might have nodded to her, his seat was close enough to her desk that she would see it. He didn't. He waited for the classroom to empty before he stood, grabbing his stuff, not bothering to sling the straps over his shoulders. He carried it at his side, it was light. His textbooks and supplies were in his locker.
He had no intention of retrieving them; his homework was in his backpack and he had pencils to write with at home. No big deal. He had a lot of catching up to do...The hallway, despite the crowd, was refreshing compared to the classroom. Sweat marred the hem of his t-shirt, a result of his physical activity throughout the morning. Screaming. Being stalked.
Danny's frown twisted as he walked, laced with pain. Skulker's fingers left digit-shaped bruises on his sides, he checked. His legs moved one in front of the other stiffly, fingers clenched in fists by his side. He hated this. He couldn't begin to imagine how Sam and Tucker felt. He wouldn't have the chance to say 'have a good evening' to them this time, he didn't even run into either of them in the halls. He doubted they wanted to see him, anyway.
Why would they? He dumped countless heap after lump of problems onto them, he was surprised they still dealt with him like they did. He put their lives in danger. He'd never forgive himself for that. The sides of his skull were beginning to throb in a headache. His thick eyebrows knit together, creating creases in his forehead as he weaved through the throngs of teenagers.
He got a call from his mom on his cell.
"Danny? Your father and I won't be home when you get there. We have grocery shopping to do."
"Alright. Where'll Jazz be?"
"At the library, I believe."
"Okay."
They hung up.
He went home. Jazz wasn't there. Went upstairs. Opened his bedroom door. He breathed blue fog.
Skulker appeared in the doorway. He leaned down to say, "Hello, Ghost Child."
A net shot out from the palm of his hand and it instantaneously wrapped around Danny. "A human-ghost child in its natural habitat."
"Who are you?!" Danny quaked.
"I thought I already introduced myself. I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter. A collector of things rare and unique. And you, Ghost Child, are that, and more!" He laughed. No, cackled. "Pity, though, I hoped you'd put up more of a fight."
Danny's jaw clenched.
"Don't worry. I will!" He transformed to ghost form and phased through the net. Why hadn't he thought of this before?! It didn't make a difference now.
He punched at Skulker's chest, who thudded against the bedroom wall. Skulker growled. Danny almost thought, in approval.
The battle was brutish. Danny hit wherever he could find an opening and Skulker smacked him around a few times, soundly.
Eventually they tumbled into the hallway.
"Come, Ghost Boy. Time to see your new home."
He grabbed Danny by the armor of his chest and materialized through the floor, then the ceiling, down and down until they crashed against the tiles of the FentonWorks laboratory.
"W-what are you doing?"
Skulker's grin was wide, "Bringing you back to my world, where I can put you on display."
"What?"
Skulker pressed a button on the Portal (how did he know how to operate it?!) and it opened, the swirling, circular green waves manifesting inside the hexagonal machinery.
"Ha! At last, time to put you in your cage."
Danny screamed, "No!"
Beep.
Skulker glanced down at his arm.
Through the green filtering of the goggles around his eyes, he saw his chance. He kicked Skulker in the chin, sending him like a rock to the ground. Danny must have kicked harder than he thought, because Skulker's head came off.
Disgusted, Danny stared. Until he heard a tiny voice.
"No! I am the Skulker! The Skulker! Do you hear me?! Fear me!"
Little legs squirmed, sticking out of Skulker's neck.
Danny couldn't help himself. He walked forward cautiously.
Then, he yanked the legs out of the dysfunctional head. He held it the tiny 'person' upside down.
Rage-filled miniscule red eyes glared at him.
"I am the greatest hunter in all of Ghost World! You will all fear me!" It made fisty hands as if that was supposed to intimidate Danny. He was sharply reminded of the Wizard of Oz, where the Wizard was actually just a man behind a curtain. Skulker was just a tiny ghost in a monstrous robotic suit.
Good thing the Thermos was on his armor's belt. He'd placed it there and it stayed, it wasn't there in human form. Huh.
He sucked the teeny fella into the Thermos without much quarreling. Though, there were threats.
"You haven't seen the last of me! I will capture you all! You shall all be mine, mine, do you hear?!" Danny could only assume he was talking about his friends, too. Had to keep that in mind.
And Skulker was in.
Danny applied the Thermos to the Portal ejector and whoosh.
He felt satisfied. And exhausted. He flew back up to his bedroom and slept. He'd tell Sam and Tucker about what happened later.