Hey peeps! Long time no see, amiright? Heh heh...
...Sorry.
Life's been...complicated. I had one paid project, finally, which may lead to more contracts. I also spent a month developing example work for another firm in the Netherlands as part of my application, so I put off developing chapter 6 so I could devote all my energy to that. Unfortunately, that didn't work out in the end. And THAT, unfortunately, tanked my self-esteem and creativity which delayed chapter 6 even further.
But, I want the story to move forward despite everything since this is the one area of my life which I can control at the moment. This, and doing Zumba workouts more consistently. (Yes I can move my hips now and kill it at any Latin dance styles, thank you very much.)
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. It's a huge weight off my chest to be publishing again. Thank you for your patience :)
General Notes
"This is dialogue."
"This is alternative dialogue, meaning whispered or spoken from a distance such as on the phone."
'This is thought.'
This and THIS and *this* are emphasis. The *this* emphasis is more along the lines of the snarky or sarcastic.
[This is digital text, such as notifications on a computer or smartphone. It also represents A.I. voices, such as Karen or F.R.I.D.A.Y./"Friday" (because I really don't feel like typing out the full acronym with periods every time she comes up).]
I do not own Danny Phantom nor Spider-Man.
Ch. 06 originally published: Friday, January 22, 2021
FIRE WITH FIRE
06 — Nightmares
Forest Park, Queens — Saturday, September 10, 00:10
Jazz's VW Jetta rolled to a smooth stop as she gaped out of the passenger window. She double-checked her phone's GPS before putting the car in park with a disbelieving huff.
The Toomes' front yard was absolutely pristine, in complete contrast to every movie Jazz had ever seen involving a high school house party. The crisp lines of the landscaping almost dared her to mess with it; she had never encountered a yard so subliminally tyrannical.
Jazz finally reached the front door of the futuristic mansion and rang the bell. The door swung open to reveal the last stragglers of the party milling about behind Liz.
"Oh, you!" Liz greeted. "I didn't know you were Danny's sister when you auditioned for the decathlon team! Though I guess you guys are, like, the only new kids at Midtown. Jazz, right?"
"Yeah!" Jazz replied. "You have a beautiful home, Liz."
"It's alright, I guess," the tall senior conceded, embarrassed. "Come on in. Danny's in the living room. I'm sorry you didn't get an invite to the party yourself; I completely forgot when we met."
"It's fine. It's not really my *scene*."
Liz stepped back from the door and let Jazz inside.
"Danny wasn't too much trouble, was he?"
"Euhhh…" Liz trailed off with a scratch to her eyebrow.
"Ned! NED! Look, I can disappear! Ssh ssh ssh, watch watch watch…" / "…" / "…" / "….You're literally just standing in the middle of the living room." / "Not when I don't move. Iz' like- i'z like I've mastered the art…of standing so incredibly still…that I become invisible to the eye. Watch." / "…." / "Ow! Hey, watch it! I'm standing right here!" / "How can we tell? You're…*invisible*."
"Guys, check out this MMA move I learned last week! Flash, get over here, I need a partner." / "What?! No way, Dennis!"
"Hey Betty, how many pizza slices do you think I can fit, stacked, in my mouth, at once?" / "Is that really relevant information right now?" / "Don't judge me!"
"Your hesitation is worrying me," Jazz groaned.
Liz led her into the living room which was in shambles. The floor had been swept, though, and a lone, undamaged couch stood proudly in the middle of the room. Danny slept, drooling, oblivious to the noise of the departing partygoers around him.
"He offered to help clean up after the ghosts destroyed everything," Liz explained. "Although it was to vacuum the ceiling, so I'm not sure how useful he woulda been."
"No, you don't get it. I can FLY! It's no trouble!" / "Who cleans the ceiling after a party?!" / "No, like, LITERALLY, I can-"
Jazz struggled to keep a straight face. "Probably a good idea you didn't let him help, then."
"Well, anyway, it took us a while to get him to stop shouting and trying to show off," Liz continued. She wiped some sweat from her forehead.
"So what happened, anyway?"
"He fell off the roof right after Danny Phantom defeated the wraiths, and he seemed pretty shaken up. I thought Flash had some water; turns out he'd just raided my parents' liquor stash for some straight vodka, and Danny slammed the whole thing."
"Oh, boy," Jazz said.
"Thank God my parents aren't home. If they knew ANY of us were drinking alcohol…"
"No, I get it," Jazz agreed. "How am I supposed to get him home without tipping off Mom and Dad? Danny's never drank before, and our parents aren't THAT oblivious."
"Do you wanna, maybe, stay the night?" Liz offered. "Who knows what he'll do if he wakes up again," she added with a chuckle. "My mom won't be back until super late, and I don't even know if Dad will be home tonight."
"Well…I guess," Jazz agreed.
"Anyway, I figured I'd just get a blanket for him and leave him there on the couch. But we have a guest room upstairs you can take."
Jazz sighed. "Thanks. I guess I'll tell my parents you invited us over so we don't risk encountering drunk drivers this late or whatever."
"Good cover."
"What's gonna be yours?" Jazz asked, gesturing to the destroyed room around them.
"The truth? A bunch of people were live-streaming so I can prove I'm not just BS'ing to cover for a house party gone wrong," Liz assured with a chuckle.
"Get out of there, Danny!"
Danny pounded the off button with a vengeance, but the system's automated startup had already initiated. He whimpered frantically, wrestling against the cord which had ensnared his ankle and trapped him inside.
"Come on, dude! This is not how you die!"
"No! Stay back!" Danny shouted, and Tucker stumbled back out of the mouth of the machine. Danny returned his focus to the cable, even trying to undo his boot, but it was to no avail.
Pmmmmmmmmmmb-
A bass-noted pulse assaulted Danny's gut. He stopped struggling, stopped fighting fate. He could only gape. Danny tried one last time to press the off button.
His muscles froze. He could do nothing when the pain struck a millisecond later. Millions of volts of foreign energy coursed through him as a grounding and scorched the panel under his palm. Danny could barely scream as an outlet for the pain, building, compounding, intensifying-
His scream echoed through the entire house.
"Danny!" they screamed.
"DANNY!"
"KID!"
Danny's seized muscles released, and he gulped for air. He shot up on the sofa despite two hands grasping his shoulders and came face to face with a man he didn't recognize. Wide-eyed, the boy quickly appraised his surroundings and found himself in a barren living room which he also didn't recognize. "Wh-who are you?!" he croaked.
"I'm Mr. Toomes, Liz's father," the man calmly explained and released Danny's shoulders once he saw the boy was in the present again.
"M-m-mr. Toomes?" Danny repeated, heaving for breath. He pressed a hand to his damp forehead as the nightmare's adrenaline rush subsided.
"And who are you?"
"D-d-danny, sir. Friend of Liz."
"Are you alright, Danny Friend of Liz?" Mr. Toomes asked.
Danny's vision blurred. He realized it was from tears.
Mr. Toomes shifted to a more comfortable position beside Danny on the couch. "Sounded like one hell of a nightmare."
Danny sniffled but refused to respond. "I-I'm sorry I woke you up, sir."
"Don't worry about it. I just got home a few minutes ago and was in the kitchen when I heard you start screaming."
Hand shaking, Danny felt for his phone and woke it. 3:34am. The loss of adrenaline revealed the throbbing pain of a killer headache.
"Try to go back to sleep, bud. Doris makes a killer Saturday breakfast, and there's no way we're letting you escape before then," the man said with a jokingly sinister grin.
Danny tried to force a huff of a laugh.
"Dad! You're home!"
The two men turned to see a pajama-clad Liz hovering by the kitchen with her cell phone in hand.
"Hey, Gumdrop, what are you doing up?"
She scoffed. "Ugh, I had the worst nightmare about… well, anyway. I woke up screaming."
"Just like your friend Danny here. Are you sure you like that Peter kid? You and Danny apparently have a lot in common," Mr. Toomes teased.
"Dad-uh!" Liz whined, eyes darting between him and Danny. "You can't just *say* things like that! I do not like Peter."
"If you say so, sweetums," her father acquiesced with a cheeky wink at Danny.
Liz scoffed again.
"Why do we have a houseguest anyway?" Mr. Toomes asked.
"Danny wasn't feeling well and seemed kind of tired, and his ride left early, so I said he could just crash here for the night. Are you feeling a little better now, Danny?"
"Headache," Danny grunted.
"Dad, why don't you get Danny some pain medicine?"
"Sure thing, kiddo." With a quick affectionate pat to Danny's knee, he stood and went in search of medicine.
"I'm sorry about him," Liz said as she took her father's place on the sofa. "It's like he's actively trying to embarrass me."
"At least he doesn't do it publicly."
Forest Park — Saturday, 08:40
Danny jolted into consciousness at the sound of Doris Toomes' coffee mug clinking against the countertop. He heard the mother's hushed conversation with someone and soon identified Jazz as the other speaker. An early fall breeze crinkled the hastily-duct-taped-together garbage bags covering the missing glass panel overlooking the courtyard. The fatigued boy rolled over and tried to ignore the last tendrils of the concussion- and alcohol-induced headache fighting against his accelerated healing.
Life slowly oozed into the Toomes household. Soon, both Liz and Mr. Toomes joined the others in the kitchen, so Danny's times of playing dead were over. He stretched hard enough that he lost balance and rolled off the sofa onto the floor with a muffled 'oof.'
"Hey, look who decided to rejoin the land of the living!" Doris Toomes teased as she approached with two mugs in hand. As Danny righted himself, she held out one of the mugs. "Hope you slept okay. I don't know why Liz didn't take you up to one of the guest bedrooms."
"I didn't want to wake him!" Liz blurted. "He was really *tired*." She made eye contact with Danny, visually urging him to catch onto the cover story from behind her mother's back.
"Oh, uh, yeah, Mrs. Toomes," Danny added. "It's just been a long week at the new school in a new city, and then the wraith thing drained all my energy. Honestly, I could've slept on the floor."
"It freaked me out. You know this is the second time I've seen them? There were a few ghost things that ambushed us at the Last Night of Freedom barbecue that Betty had right before school started."
Danny's brow furrowed.
"Your guys' parents are ghost nerds, right?" Liz asked Danny and Jazz. "Would they know if these wraiths are targeting me? Or…us?"
Mr. Toomes came meandering in from the kitchen too. "Y'know, I have a hard time believing it was a ghost that destroyed my living room and not some rowdy teenagers."
"It was a wraith, Dad," Liz insisted. "At least that's what Danny Phantom said."
"This 'Danny Phantom' character you won't shut up about?"
"If you don't believe me, watch all the videos from last night. They're trending on Twitter."
"V-videos?" Danny croaked as he followed everyone into the breakfast nook.
"Well, obviously, Danny," Jazz chided then continued with clenched teeth, "what do you expect when an out-of-town hero shows up at a random high school house party?"
"I don't know, Jazz, maybe some gratitude that he bothered to show up and help?" Danny hissed back.
"What do you kids think of Danny Phantom?" Doris asked the Fenton siblings.
Danny and Jazz shared a look. "He's alright, I guess," they chorused.
Atlantic Airspace — Saturday, 12:50 Mid-Atlantic Time (GMT -2)
"Friday, please tell me Peter isn't going after people that might've killed his folks and doesn't even know it."
[Lying is contradictory to my programming, boss,] the A.I. replied. [I've analyzed the video feed from Peter's suit. He looks like a black market dealer, street name: the Vulture.]
"Ugh," Tony moaned. "I can't take the kid's suit away; he'll just go back to using his pajamas and get himself into even worse danger."
[Not to mention he'll wonder why you're suddenly so protective of him.]
"We gotta stop this Vulture before Peter gets hurt. Quietly. Tell Happy to monitor Spider-Boy's movements in the meantime."
Sunnyside, Queens — Saturday, 11:00 Local Time (GMT -5)
"Man, it was awful," came Ned's moan over the cell phone's speaker. "I hate thinking about Dad blowing out his knee in that race. I still refuse to exercise to this day because of it!"
Peter rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the weapon he'd retrieved after pursuing the Vulture the night before. "Ned, you can't let someone else's injury be your excuse to not work out."
"It's not an excuse!" Ned insisted. "It freaked me out! It scarred me!"
"You weren't even there!"
"I was five! If my former-Olympic-hopeful dad runs and blows out a knee, what can I expect to happen to me?!"
"Dude, I've been hit with a tanker truck, and I walked away. I don't think you'll hurt yourself if you go for a freakin' workout."
"Well you *also* have super strength," Ned huffed. "And you know it, too. I was wondering why you always loop that stupid video of Spider-Man catching a car."
"I-I'm studying my form! Stopping a car isn't easy, you know." Peter prodded a connection on the weapon with his soldering iron, unintentionally creating a short and shocking himself. "GAH!" he exclaimed and fell out of his desk chair.
"You alright in there?" May called from the other room.
"Fine, May!" Peter shouted back. He plopped back into the chair and stared it down. "I think I'll have to wait till shop on Monday to take this thing apart."
"Good idea. Then *I* can see how it works, too!" Ned agreed. "…Whoa, this is so weird."
"What?" Peter asked.
"Michelle just texted me. She had a nightmare at 3:30am last night, too. She's the 6th person to tell me. And Liz and Danny both had nightmares at the same time too!"
"That IS weird," Peter agreed.
"Seems like EVERYONE at the party had a nightmare. You didn't have one, though?"
"Naw, I didn't," Peter mused. "But- wait a minute, I'd already left when the wraiths showed up."
"Huh…"
"But I DID have a nightmare that night after a wraith chased me on my birthday."
"Oh, so *that's* why you were so freaked out that day!"
"What if being near a ghost makes people have nightmares? Is that, like, a ghost side effect?"
"Well, it didn't happen that time I met Danny Phantom. Maybe it's just wraiths."
"I'll text Danny. I bet he'd know since his parents are ghost scientists."
Danny's phone buzzed. He peeled his face from the car's passenger window and checked it.
Peter: [Hey do ghosts give people nightmares?]
"Hey Jazz, do I give you nightmares?" Danny asked.
"W-what?!" Jazz sputtered with a laugh and merged onto Queens Blvd. "No, of course not! Maybe an occasional migraine, but…"
"No no, *ghost* me. Danny Phantom. When you're near me when I'm ghosted up, do I give you nightmares?"
"No? Why?"
"Peter's asking if ghosts give people nightmares."
"Why?"
"I dunno."
Danny: [Lol no why]
Peter: …
Peter: …
Peter: [What about wraiths specifically? Seems like everyone at Liz's party woke up at 3:30am because of a nightmare]
"Everyone there last night had a nightmare, myself included," Danny told Jazz. "Actually now that I think about it, the last time I got up close and personal with a wraith, I woke you guys up with a nightmare."
"Well, you said Sam said wraiths feed on negative emotion and evolved to elicit more fear for better feeding, right?" Jazz recalled. "Their auras must target the amygdala."
"The what?"
"Amygdala," Jazz repeated. "The part of the brain that activates your fear response. It sends out adrenaline and cortisol to the rest of the body to make it freak out so you'll get out of danger. It's like a mushroom boost in Mario Kart."
"Oh, that makes sense," Danny said. "So, what does that have to do with nightmares?"
"The amygdala is also usually overactive when experiencing a post-traumatic nightmare, more so than just a normal nightmare."
"And every time it's been the portal for me…" Danny pondered.
"We've got to find the source of these wraiths, and fast, if only to save everyone's sleep schedules."
Danny: [Wraiths feed on bad emotion specifically and target the fear part of the brain. I forgot what it's called but Jazz says it's the same part that causes nightmares]
"For once, your annoying psychology obsession is coming in handy," Danny quipped to Jazz as they turned onto 43rd Street.
"Ha ha."
Midtown Manhattan — Wednesday, September 14, 15:45
"No, Peter and Jazz are in DC with the decathlon team so I just came by myself," Danny spoke into his phone as he entered Avengers Tower's lobby.
"Too bad Jazz couldn't come to help cover," Tucker replied.
"With her complete lack of chill? Probably best I come alone," Danny chuckled. He felt the phone's vibrator pulsate against his cheek and checked the screen.
[Incoming call from: Toaster]
"Oh, Jazz is calling so I'll update you later once I've got the tech." He saw an open elevator and got in as he switched calls. "Hey, Jazz, what's up?"
"Danny! Thank God, Mom and Dad aren't answering!"
Pressing the button for his parents' 94th-floor lab, Danny heard screaming in the background of the call. "Jazz? Is everything alright?"
"We're in an elevator in the Washington Monument that's-AAAHHH!" A large metallic thump interrupted her. "It's gonna fall!"
Danny's nerves chilled.
[Mr. Hogan, we've got a perimeter breach,] Friday announced to the security head.
"What?!" Happy burst out. He left his office's windows and sat at his desk. "Who the hell would be stupid enough to break into Avengers Tower?"
[I'm getting an ectoplasmic energy signature in the south elevators and ambient temperature drops.]
"Wait wait wait, there's actually a ghost in Avengers Tower?" Happy clarified.
[I've already alerted Mr. Stark, who is still off-site. He requested immediate security staff response since the shield and updated defenses are still offline.]
"Where's it going?"
[It's approaching Stark Industries' retained laboratories on the upper floors.]
"Where's my security camera feed?"
"Danny I just wanted to say-" another thump "-that I love you, an-and Mom and Dad, so much—"
"W-what?" Danny pulled at his hair and stared blankly at his reflection in the elevator's mirrored walls. "No…you can't go this way…"
"-B-b-because I might not-"
"Flash! Don't worry about the trophy!" someone shouted in the background.
"Jazz, don't talk like that!" Danny blurted. "I need you! We all need you! You'll get through this!"
[Temperature is now subzero, boss, and approaching fast!]
"All this from a ghost?" Tony spat and veered out of the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan.
[The Fentons mentioned the barometric effects of aural spheres-]
There was a metallic snap, and Jazz started screaming. A tense moment later, and everything went quiet.
"…Oh my god…" Jazz whispered.
"What? Are you alright?!"
A louder snap, and then more screaming followed. There was a tremendous crash, then a beat of silence.
"Spi-?" Jazz began.
The screaming resumed before halting once and for all.
"J-Jazz?" Danny hesitantly asked.
[It's at level 80… 85… 90…] Friday announced to Happy.
Maddie burst into the office.
Happy looked up and demanded, "Where's your husband? Shouldn't he be there?"
"He went for coffee!" Maddie replied. "He probably hasn't even heard the alert!"
Happy grabbed a walkie talkie. "All S.I. lab security: converge on the south elevators, now!"
"Spider-Man just saved us," Jazz shakily whispered.
Danny released a huge sigh of relief. "Oh thank God."
The elevator arrived at the 94th floor. Its doors slid silently open, and a dozen black-uniformed security guards aimed their ectoplasmically-charged weapons at Danny.
The boy paled. "Uh…Jazz? I'm gonna have to call you back."
Vacuum.
"We've got it cornered, Mr. Hogan!" Happy heard over the radio.
The security head gaped at his monitors. "No, you don't, you've got the Fentons' kid cornered!"
"No, I don't think it's the kid, sir…"
"Where's the ghost?" Maddie demanded.
"It's no ghost, it's your son, Dr. Fenton. Everyone, stand down!" Happy barked into the radio. He returned his attention to the newcomer. "Do you have any ideas why your son would be tripping our new ectosensors? Is your tech not reliable or something?"
"Of course it's reliable!" Maddie snapped, outraged. "Jack and I must have forgotten to program them to ignore Danny. He's triggered our gear ever since he got lightly zapped turning on the portal. It's just residual, low-level ecto-radiation. Like bananas."
Some shuffling and general chaos came through on the radio. "Not the kid! NOT the kid!" a guard panted.
Maddie and Happy looked back at the screen to see the feed blocked by something black and ominous.
Kid, get down!
Danny couldn't hear what the armed guards were shouting; he barely noticed them at all with another wraith hovering directly over him. However, he finally registered the flailing arms of the guards motioning downwards and forced himself to drop to the floor, lying face-down with arms crossed protectively over his head.
All of the weapons glowed bright green before soundlessly blasting at once. The energy blasts pierced the wraith's invisible aural barrier and screeched through the air above Danny and into the beast. It vaporized into thick black smoke and engulfed Danny before vanishing harmlessly into thin air. The aura dissipated to reveal the guards' labored yet relieved breathing, and the temperature began climbing back to normal.
"Threat neutralized, Mr. Hogan," one guard said into her earpiece before offering a hand to help Danny get off the floor.
"For once, I'm relieved you all have a 'shoot first/ask questions never' approach," Danny quipped.
"Hey, when a defenseless kid is in harm's way, we can't just stand back and hope for a miracle."
"Heh. Um, can you show me to the Fentons' lab please?" Danny tried to ignore the chill left clinging to his skin.
"Threat neutralized, Mr. Hogan."
"All agents stand down and return to your post," Happy ordered. "No more signatures detected."
"Damn it!" Maddie snapped. "Now we still don't have a specimen to study!"
"Your own son was at risk, Dr. Fenton!" Happy replied, incredulous.
Maddie huffed. "No, you're right. I'm glad Danny's safe. But these wraiths have been popping up everywhere and we don't know enough about them to figure out why they've all of a sudden started showing up in New York."
Danny found himself alone in his parents' lab. He meandered as casually as possible, trying to not too obviously study the security camera's angles. He finally registered the glass-faced cabinet brimming with ghost hunting tech that had a camera directly on it.
Danny huffed before regrouping. Just on the other side of the wall…
'Storage closet!'
[Mr. Hogan, I'm registering another blip of ectoplasmic energy within the Fentons' lab.]
"Oh, what now?" Happy griped. He and Maddie looked at the video feed showing Jack blissfully sipping a coffee as he stared out the window.
"Uh, Friday?" Maddie asked the office. "Can you pinpoint the exact location in the room?"
[By the storage closet, Dr. Fenton.]
"Oh, Dad!" Danny exclaimed and kept his back to the cabinet behind him.
Jack turned from the window. "Danno!" he greeted and came over, crushing his son into a hug. "Come to see our fancy new lab?"
"Yep," Danny squeaked out. He heaved for air once his dad released him.
"What were you doing in the closet?"
"Oh, just, uh—" Danny self-consciously readjusted his t-shirt to cover the protrusion in his back pocket. "Needed a…paper…towel?"
Jack glanced at the fully-stocked paper towel dispenser mounted next to him, looked back at Danny and then quirked an eyebrow.
"This is getting ridiculous," Happy complained. "Friday, can you remember the kid so he doesn't trigger the alarm every two seconds?"
[Doing it now, Mr. Hogan. It appears the signature already has an existing, unlabeled entry in my database which has not yet been assigned to an identified profile.]
"I guess we programmed Danny's in after all and just forgot to assign it to him."
"Dr. Fenton," Happy asked, "has anyone ever told you that your family is weird?"
No real Easter Eggs this chapter that I can remember. If you spotted something, please feel free to point it out! I'm kinda out of it, all things considered. Just a couple notes instead: [EDIT: a couple of Easter eggs have been found]
- "Not when I don't move. Iz' like- i'z like I've mastered the art…of standing so incredibly still…that I become invisible to the eye": referencing Drax's incredible line in Avengers: Infinity War
- Danny offering to vacuum the ceiling is a callback to the Prisoners of Love episode when he does in fact vacuum the walls and ceiling in the hopes of preventing divorce.
- When Maddie compares Danny's low-level ecto-radiation to bananas, this is referencing the fact that bananas naturally have extremely low levels of radioactivity. *Fun* fact: you'd die of radiation poisoning if you eat ten MILLION bananas at once, or suffer chronic symptoms if you eat 274 bananas per day for 7 years.
Stay tuned for more fun, and I'm always open to feedback! Thanks for bearing with me as I try to get my real life in order.