Friends, whether you have them or not are a very important part of every person's life. Almost everyone has some sort of contact with someone else every day, and the more contact we have with one another, the more like it is that friendships will form. Most of the strongest friendships are forged from years of interaction and effort on the parts of all members.
Then there are some friendships that require hardly any time at all to become even stronger. Sadly it's all too common for old friendships to be left by the wayside.
That wasn't going to happen to Tucker Foley, no way. It was the perfect chance to solidify his position. Nicolai Technus was stomping around in a robot suit made from contents of the Axion research lab he'd gotten hold of before they'd gotten the chance to interrupt him.
"I'll never be defeated! With all of this 'radical' technology, getting into the mainframe and taking over transmissions will be a 'snap'." He threw back his head and laughed maniacally. "And the best part is, when I leave I'll have all recourses to take over the world!" He flung out his arms, losing his grip on the Fenton thermos, sending it bouncing around the room before crashing into a wall and onto a shelf of junk. "Oh." He stopped abruptly them rushed towards the sealed lab doors.
"Oh no you don't!" Danny Phantom flew at the ghost, lighting up the dim room with a volley of bright green ecto-blasts. "I've seen enough of that face to know I don't want it on T.V for the rest of my life."
The ghost laughed and wrapped the hero in a tangle of wires, then slammed him around, cracking lots of the expensive looking machinery before throwing the boy through a glass window.
"A child like you will never stand against the might of my awesome electronic fury!"
Danny shooting back through the window like a bullet, and slammed full force into the ghost's midsection. Technus laughed and fired a bright beam at the boy. Danny crashed into a wall and slid down, headfirst to the ground besides Tucker, who was frantically typing on his PDA.
"How long is this still going to take?"Danny frowned up at his friend.
"Do you have any idea how advanced his tech is?" Tucker turned away with a scoff. "It'll be amazing if we get through at all." He grinned. "Then again I am pretty amazing." He turned back only to find that the hero had been dragged away by the ghost without Tucker noticing.
"Hurry it up Mister Amazing!" Sam yelled from where she was scaling some shelves in search of the Fenton thermos. "Gotcha!" She raised the piece of equipment triumphantly.
"That won't do little girl!" Technus grabbed the thermos out of her hand and knocked her off the shelf. She fell, with a bunch of tools clattering to the ground around her. "Technus, master of all things electronic, cannot be defeated by an electronic device!" The thermos rattled in his hand. "Quiet you." He shook it violently.
Tucker couldn't help but laugh at the storm he imagined Red was swearing up. Danny pulled himself up off the ground and helped Sam to her feet, then charged at Technus again, reaching for the thermos.
"Tucker!" Sam called, picking up a metal rod, she wacked away a cord that had almost gotten to the techno-geek.
"Almost got it!" Tucker ducked under one of the sturdy metal tables, hoping he'd be safe there for the few more minutes he needed. Danny was thrown into a similar table and it was bent almost in half. Tucker shivered and doubled up on his typing.
The Fenton thermos rolled out of his hands and Sam grabbed it. "No!" Technus screamed, Danny few in front of him, firing blasts at the ghosts face.
Sam wasted no time in opening up the thermos, releasing the a stream of reddish smoke. Seconds later another ghost was kneeling on the grounds, fury burning in his bright red eyes.
"Piece of cruddy freaking filth!" Red screamed and ran forward.
Technus screamed and swung at him with a bunch of cords. Red flipped into the air and landed lightly on the cords and began running up. Technus tried to shake Red off and launched the boy into the air. Unfazed, Red twisted, using his fall to deliver a powerful kick. A loud CLANG echoed through the room, along with a cracking sound.
Reds landed and immediately went for Technus again, twisting out of the path of the beams and wires flung at him.
Tucker turned away from the fight to focus again on shutting the ghost down, ignoring the curses and clanging. Almost done, he was almost… There was a loud scraping sound and Tucker looked up again. Red had gotten hold of a wrench and a pliers. He was charging at Technus again.
Tuckers PDA beeped. "Got it!" He called, leaping out from his hiding place just in time for the giant suit to fall apart.
"I'll get you for that you…" Technus yelled as Danny sucked him into the thermos.
"Treat me like a freaking pokemon." Red wiped a bit of oil of his cheek with his hat. "Freak."
"That was awesome!" Danny yelled, throwing an arm around the ghost's shoulders. "I never knew how great having a sidekick would be."
"I said you were the sidekick." Red pushed Danny away, an annoyed frown on his face. "He bent over a little, hugging his midsection. "Why was there so much shaking in that thermos?" He groaned.
"I almost had it." Tucker said, grumpily tucking away his PDA.
"Of course you did." Sam said. "Anyway, it's getting dark out, I have to get home. Seeya tomorrow."
"Whatever." Tucker sighed. "Hey Danny, mind giving a guy a…" He looked up to find himself alone in the room. "…lift." He groaned and headed home himself. He'd almost had it.
.
.
.
It was a bright sunny day in the city of Amity Park, swimming pools were filled to capacity and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was the perfect day for ice-cream at Elmer's with friends. It was just the three of them, no ghosts. There was a new video game at home waiting for him, but now he was just glad to have some down time with his friends.
Three bowls of iced cream were put in front of him, Danny, and Sam.
"Where is your ghost pet now?" Tucker asked, scooping up a huge bite of ice-cream.
"He wondered off again." Danny said. "I didn't even notice till I got here."
"Why… You know what, I don't wanna know." Tucker said. "I'm just gonna eat this…"
"Tucker wait!" Sam called.
"What?" He shoved the spoonful of ice-cream into his mouth and immediately spat it out. "What was that?" He shuddered.
"Tofu." Sam said curtly, pulling the bowl away from and pushing another at the boy. "Milking cows is just inhumane, how would you like it if everyday there was a machine hooked up to your…"
"Guys." Danny interrupted them. He took a bite of his desert, head turned away from the two of them. "Even the waiter is laughing at us."
Tucker scanned the few waiters working that day, and sure enough, there was a dark haired pretty boy nearly doubled over with laughter.
"If I were him, I'd be laughing at myself." Tucker snarked. "I mean look at that uniform."
Sam chuckled and Danny looked as though he was about to say something when a pale blue vapor escaped his lips.
"Gotta go." Danny leaped to his feet and ran off.
"Come on." Sam tried to pull Tucker out of his seat, but the boy just took a bite of his ice-cream and stayed put.
"What's the point, Red will probably take care of it before we can do anything." There went his perfect, ghost free day, maybe he'd just go home to his new video game after all.
Something that looked like a radioactive cross between a crocodile and a person crashed into the door, smashing the glass and sprinkling Sam and Tucker with the sharp shards and knocking them out of their seats when they ducked for cover too fast. All the frightened customers ran screaming out of the ice cream parlor. Sam and Tucker's exit was blocked when the ghost locked onto the teens and charged at them.
On the other side of the road, Red, his face partly obscured by his baggy red hoody, did a flip of a street light and planted a kick on the things face, then spun around and held it tightly around it's throat. It shook its huge head, knocking the ghost off, but he landed on his feet and grabbed a broom, breaking off the edge, he pushed the monster out of the door and led baited it away.
"You two okay?" The waiter who'd been laughing came over to help them back. Tucker's first thought was that the guy had guts for sticking around.
"Don't worry," Tucker took a look at his nametag, "Richard, were used to it."
Danny rushed back into the Parlor, back in human form and with the thermos held loosely in his hands.
"Are you guy's alright?" Danny huffed, leaning against the door to get back his breath, while Red came up calmly behind him.
"Fine." Tucker said, stepping past the hero. "Just fine."
"Where are you going?" Danny asked, his face screwed up in confusion. "We could still…"
"I'm just gonna go home." Tucker sighed, he was too tired to pretend they could still have a normal Saturday.
"Wait." Danny called. Tucker turned reluctantly to face him. "I'll see you at the fair tomorrow, right? It's hard enough getting Red to come along at all and I still can't convince him to ride the destroyer…" He shrugged uncomfortably, at Red's scoff.
"Carnivals are trouble magnets." The ghost took one look into the wrecked ice cream parlor and stepped away from the door, choosing instead to lean against the same street light he'd leaped of only a few minutes before.
"Sure." Tucker shot a look at the ghost and kept going. He heard Danny talking to Sam, checking her over, but he felt Red eyes fixed on him until he turned the corner, sending and almost painful chill down his spine.
The feeling didn't last long and as he felt one kind of tension draining away, another quickly filled it's place. He'd tried not to let it bother him before. Not when Danny hadn't come to visit him when he'd been grounded for helping out in the ghost-zone, not when Danny had left him at the creepy hospital, not when Sam had taken Red with her to her stupid club without even bothering to ask her other friends.
It had been fine, because Tucker knew he was there best friend. Even when all either of them talked about was how they would help Red get better, or how he was so dangerous, so scared and confused. How he could do things with barely any powers that even Danny couldn't do. It had been fine, because Danny still needed Tucker, he was the one who pulled Danny through. Him, Tucker and not the freaky ghost kid. It had never been 'Tucker please show up incase my other friends gets distracted' before.
"Oh Red can dismantle robots," Tucker mumbled, "Red can kick ghosts in their faces and help Danny with his homework. Every day it's something else. Mister perfect, pretty Red."
As he approached his house he noticed someone waiting for him outside. A very surprising and unusual someone that a few months ago he would have loved to be there. Just as he'd been about to snap at Valery about what she wanted and why she thought he'd have it, she spoke.
"We have to talk about your ghost friend." She crossed her arms and blocked his path.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Tucker said, ignoring the icy wave of fear that had washed over him. She couldn't have found out Danny's secret, there was no way, she would have gone straight to the Fentons, first thing.
"Don't play dumb Tucker." She rolled her eyes. "I knew Red before he came here and I know all about him." Her face softened. "It's important."
"Come in." He muttered. Great, someone else who wanted to talk about Red.
.
.
.
He'd have kissed Valery if she hadn't left the house right after saying her piece. The next day was just as bright and sunny as the last, but this time Tucker had the mood to match. He sped to the fairgrounds as fast as his scrawny legs could take him, ignoring the bright poster advertising the five hundred foot roller coaster he and Danny had been hyped for all week.
It was only once he'd already gotten there that he remembered he was supposed to wait at home for his friends do they could all walk together. He was going to head back home when he glanced at his watch and decided that his mom would have told them he'd already left. They would already be at the carnival looking for him.
Danny and Sam were near the petting zoo when he just barely heard her complaining about the cramped enclosures over the excited squeals of other girls. Danny was nodding along while he scanned the crowds.
"Tucker!" He called, a huge grin on his face when he ran up to his friend. "Man am I glad you showed, I was getting worried the line for the destroyer would be…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Tucker placed both hands on Danny's shoulders to get Danny's full attention. "Never mind that, I've got something big to tell you, where's Red."
"He saw a clown and now he's looking for bombs." Danny tuned his eyes skyward and shook his head.
"Don't ask." Sam said, just a little edge to her usual monotone.
"But he wasn't going to ride it anyway." Danny grabbed one of Tuckers arms and began pulling his friend back towards the long snaking queue for the coaster. "If we hurry we can still get there before they cut off the line."
"Not now." Tucker pulled away. "How long do you think it will take for Red to get over this freak-out?" He asked, he had and he was going to get it done.
"Maybe he'll show up later." Danny said, some other emotion clouding over the excitement that had filled his eyes before. "What's the big deal?"
"Yeah Tucker." Sam said, leaning between the boys, her eyes narrowed condescendingly. "I thought you wanted to ride the oh-so-awesome five hundred foot tall pile of shoddily thrown together metal."
"It'll still be there tomorrow." Tucker said. "We need to find your ghost friend, and fast." The bespectacled boy ran off, keeping his eyes peeled for the red hoody.
"What's going on?" Danny asked, coming up behind him.
"Someone's looking for him." Tucker said, the burning in his lungs making him regret not taking it a little slower.
"Like a ghost someone?" Sam asked softly.
"Like his Dad someone." Tucker said. "I'll explain when we find him."
.
.
.
Across the street from the bustling carnival, Dick Grayson broke into a sneezing fit. Another waiter might have dropped the breakfast dishes, but he just kept moving across the restaurant floor. His Alfred impersonation almost matching up to the original until he set a short stack of pancakes in front of a pretty red head.
"Is there anything else I can get you?" He asked, leaning in with his most charming smile and gesturing at her empty coffee mug. A pretty pink blush spread across her cheeks and her friend giggled. "Or maybe you'd like to give me something, like a string of numbers maybe.'
"Johnson, get back to work!" The manager screamed from his office door.
Dick let out a partly exaggerated sigh and bowed with a regretful look on his face before going to pick up the next order. The girl's exited chattering followed him as soon as they thought he was out of earshot. His eyes drifted to the carnival visible through the window, it had been tricky getting a new job so soon, but carnivals, fairs and festivals were, in his extensive experience, trouble magnets. If a super villain was hatching a plan and there were any of those things nearby, chances were they'd use it to their advantage. Jason would know that, and he'd be watching.
A child walking down the street with her parents clapped her hands and giggled happily when a clown bend over to give a balloon animal. He had steel himself to keep from tackling the entertainer to the ground and calling a bomb squad. He wasn't in Gotham, and he hadn't so much as a mugging during his patrol slash search for little wing the previous night.
Smiling politely he took another order, unable to keep his main focus off the street and the noise across it. He had a feeling it was going to be a long, stressful day.
.
.
.
When they found Danny he was leaning on a post near one of the game booths and watching with disinterest as some people tried to win it while he distractedly sipped on a slushy.
"'Sup." The ghost muttered looking at them with half lidded eyes. "You ride your destroyer yet?"
"The queue was too long, we'll have to do it tomorrow." Danny grinned. "Maybe by then you'll be less of a chicken."He couldn't help but feel relieved when he saw that his friend hadn't gotten into trouble, even if he looked pretty tired.
"You know you can fly, right?"Red caught sight of Sam and Tucker heading towards them and straightened up. "Hey Sam," he tilted his head at the game booth. "See anything you want."
"Those are rigged." The girl said, folding her arms and ignoring the angry glare shot her way by the man behind the counter.
"Come on." He smiled. "I'll bet I can get anything."
There was some snickering and Paulina walked by with Star, who waved at Red. Paulina whispered something in Star's ear as they stopped nearby, and Red tensed up. The slammed some money on the counter, startling both girls. Danny didn't want to think about where red had gotten that money from.
"So, uh Red." Tucker finally caught up with the rest of them. "I needed to tell you about…"
"Hold it." Red said, picking up one of the three balls put in front of him, then faster than Danny could follow he bounced each ball once on the counter, then threw them at the targets. Each one hit a perfect bulls eye, and Red smugly presented Sam with a basketball sized green spider plush.
"Thanks." Sam said, looking from the face of the shocked man to Red, then the other girls.
"Psh." Paulina scoffed. "I would have asked for the Sayonara Pussycat doll."
Red grunted and turned back to a frowning Tucker. "What did you want."
"Uh, yeah." The frown slipped off Tucker's face. "I was talking to…"
"Wouldn't you get it for me, Todd?" Paulina, stepped in front of Red, blocking off Tucker.
Danny had to push down the momentary excitement of having Paulina going so close to them, and on her own. By the look in his face, so did Tucker.
"I can get it." Danny blurted out and immediately wanted to slap himself for it.
"Really?" Paulina said excitedly. "Maybe I've been wrong about you."
The effect was kind of ruined by Red watching bemusedly and slurping loudly on his drink. Danny paid the man, who though skeptical, handed over the brightly colored plastic balls.
"Hey Todd." Star said.
"Test the weight before you throw, boss." Red said.
Danny nodded and bounced one of the balls the way Red had, though it didn't look half as impressive when the halfa did it. He didn't feel any more confident after that, but told himself that it was just like aiming his ecto-blasts. The balls flew from his hands, sailing for their targets… but only one hit it, and the other two bounced clanked onto the ground.
"Ugh," Paulina groaned. "I should have known. Come on Star, we have to get away from them before someone sees us."
"Wait, Paulina." Star tugged held Paulina in place and shot a look at Red. Paulina groaned again and put her hands on her hips, but stood in place.
Red's attention was back on Tucker. "I was talking to Valery, someone wanted you to meet…"
"I need to talk to him." Star said pushing past the techno-geek.
The next four things happened very fast: Danny's ghost sense went off, then Red pushed Tucker aside and threw his half finished slushy at the large ectopuss that appeared behind the girl.
"Run!" Danny shouted, then grabbed Red by his hood and pulled him along in search of somewhere he could safely transform. In the little time that took, two more ectopusses had shown up and the fair grounds were emptying fast.
"Distract them while I get everyone out." Red said, running to the center of the chaos, quickly disappearing in the wave of people.
The hero forced down his anxiety and charged at the nearest ghost. It tried to wrap itself around him, but Danny had fought these things enough times that beating them wasn't exactly hard work. With most of the people gone and no risk of any getting hurt, it only took a few minutes for Danny to knock the ghost out of the sky. It screeched right up until it crashed into the ground.
Before it got back up Danny sucked it quickly into the Fenton thermos and went after the next one. There were only a few stranglers still in the park, so spotting Red was easy, and so was the ectopuss closing in on him.
The young ghost was kneeling by one of the booths, trying to coax someone out from under it. He noticed the ectopuss just as it shot out one of its tentacles. Red barrel rolled away and ducked underneath another booth, but the ectopuss just went intangible and pulled the boy right through anyway.
"Oh crud." Red twisted, trying to loosen its hold while the monster began flying away. "Hey boss, airlift!"
Danny shot after the ectopuss, fists glowing a bright green, he rammed into it making it drop the young ghost and sending it right across the street where it crashed into a table in from of a restaurant. Danny gave chase and dropped Red right on top of it. Red swung off the rails of a balcony and launched himself at the other ghost, kicking it back across the street and away from the frightened people, then he followed after.
Danny quickly looked over the property damage he'd inevitably be blamed for, then hurried back to the fight. An ectopuss was trying to make off with his friend again, and Red was trying to beat it off with a metal beam.
"Adopt if you want one." He charged at it, firing off his ecto blasts. "There's plenty more in the Ghost Zone!"
He laughed off the rude gesture Red flashed at him, and didn't notice how intently the waiter was looking at them.
.
.
.
Dick helped the customer up off the ground and into the marginal safety of the restaurant, his mind swimming. He barely heard the thanks he got before he sprinted outside and into the abandoned carnival where all the trouble had started. He didn't want to get his hopes up too high, that was one of the most dangerous things to do on any search mission, but it was hard to care.
There weren't many people who could pull off those moves, and only one who was so young. It had to be his Little Wing, and it looked like he'd gotten himself in trouble again. He tried to remember that this place had its own heroes, there was no guarantee it was him. Dick kept repeating to himself that there was no guarantee.
Then he heard the string of curses erupting from the boy's mouth and any pretense was thrown right out on its face. That was Jason, it had to be. He sped towards the voice in time to see the boy being pulled off his feet by the giant glowing octopus.
Dick charged at the monster, but it was vaporized and sucked into a flask by Danny Phantom, who waved at the other boy before flying off. The boy got back to his feet, his hood tipping off his head, revealing his shaggy, snowy white hair. Blood red eyes followed the flying hero and he boy grumbled something about flying.
He looked different, taller, paler, his hair longer, shaggy and the coloring was all wrong, his bright blue eyes gone Red, his posture was even off. But that face, that scowl was the same one Jason always sported when he was annoyed and frustrated on the training mat. He pulled the hood back up and scanned the area.
"Hey!" He called to Dick. "What are you doing here? Get lost."
What? Dick approached slowly, like he was getting near a skittish kitten. Whatever he'd been expecting, that wasn't it. Dick was there o save him, were things so bad between them that he thought his big brother wouldn't come to save him? Then again, Dick had never called Jason that, never said that he felt that way about Jason at all.
'I shouldn't have come,' Dick thought, 'he wanted Bruce to come, I should have let Bruce come.' Still he moved closer to the boy whose face was changing. Irritation melting away to something softer, kinder.
"Hey man, you okay?" The boy asked, his body language becoming warmer more opening.
If he wasn't so sure what it really felt like, Dick would have thought he was having a heart attack, it was Jason, in front of him, not dead and standing right there. There was a lump in Dick's throat, it was hard to breath and when he tried a sob escaped his throat.
Jason let out a surprised shout, and backpedaled. "Don't worry about it, Phantom'll get them gone. Do you need a doc…"
Before the boy could finish what he was saying Dick lifted his Little Wing off the ground in a hug that was both the tightest and the most gentle he'd ever given in is life. Jason was there, safe and alive and solid in his arms.
The he wasn't, and Dick was left holding only a bundle of fabric. His eyes shot up, dreading he would find that he was alone and he'd just hallucinated, and there was Jason, in a checkered while shirt with a J at the left of his chest.
"I'm sorry." Dick said, that had been weird, he'd bee weird and he'd probably nearly given Jason a stroke. "I'm so glad I found you Little Wing. You changed your hair, is that part of your new costume?" he took in a deep breath. "Alfred's gonna swarm you with the scissors when he sees how long it is."
"What?" Jason's eyes were so wide and he had to open and close his mouth a few times to get the next words out. "I, what are you talking about?"
"Red!" Phantom called and swooped past, lifting the trembling Jason off the ground and flying away with him. "GAV incoming."
While he watched them disappear. Just to be sure, Dick flipped on the tracer it on and watched the tiny little dot that was Jason move farther away, then the dot was gone, replaced by a glaring SIGNAL LOST. It had been Jason, there wasn't any doubt, but he'd been so tense and afraid.
Something had happened, and whatever it was it'd hit Jason hard, hard enough that Jason had let Dick see him scared. Dick put the tracer away and instead took out his own transmitter. He sent off the first of the it's three messages and the new that the target had been located flew back to Gotham.
Whatever was going on, Dick would get his little brother out of it, he would fix it, and when they got home, would make sure that Jason never looked like that ever again. He left the fairgrounds much less emotionally than he had entered them, his mission wasn't riding on hope anymore, now that he knew Jason was nearby, Dick wasn't going to let anything get on his way.
.
.
.
Red looked pretty shaken up when he and Danny caught up to Sam and Tucker.
Tucker wanted to try talking to the ghost boy again, but Danny pulled the techno-geek aside before he had a chance and walked far ahead of the others with him.
"Don't say anything about it now." Danny said, peeking back at where Sam was trying to make conversation. "Something's wrong."
Tuckers heart sank, but he nodded anyway. One look at Red and even he could tell the ghost was one push away from his next freak out, and Tucker didn't want to be responsible for that. Not like it was Red's fault he had issues.
"Didn't you fight those things before." Sam asked, still holding onto the spider plush. "It kinda looked like they were a little too interested in Red."
"Great." Tucker groaned. "Something else that's interested in Red."
"I'm just that special." Red smirked. "Don't be jealous Tucker."
"I don't need to be special." Tucker said, he pulled out his PDA and held in affectionately against his cheek. "I'll be fine as long as I have my Carol." He was also fine with not being thrown around like a ragdoll by giant ghost octopuses.
The ghost chuckled with the rest of them, but pulled his hood lower over his eyes, and looked back in the direction of the carnival.
"Don't worry about the ghosts." Danny said, nudging Red with his elbow. "I've beaten them plenty times before."
"Psh." Red scoffed, "I'm not worried, that place just creeps me out." He grinned. "I just really hate clowns."
.
.
.
It the depths of the Ghost Zone there was a bright flash, that lit up the islands surrounding it and chased several ghost poffs into hiding. A glossy, spherical object appeared and raced through the other worldly atmosphere.
It rotated fast enough that very few would have noticed that it was embossed with a stylized bat symbol.
In Batcave, the red and gold was gone.