Danny wanted to practice projecting the portals—gates—whatever—immediately, but Sidney wouldn't let him.
He made Danny lie down and rest while he talked—or sit up and eat and drink while he talked, depending on how long it had been since he'd last gone to steal some food. Danny wasn't up to arguing either point, mostly because he could tell that he was feeling better because of it.
Sidney's explanations about stuff still weren't great, but Danny was starting to get the hang of how he described things now, and it was starting to make sense.
The portal wasn't stuck inside of him. Well, it was, and Danny was pretty sure being labelled a gatekeeper meant he was never going to get around that, but all he needed to do was coax it out, spin it into existence in front of him, and this whole gatekeeping thing would suddenly be a boon instead of a curse.
He didn't know how to spin it into existence in front of him—he couldn't even get something cool to happen, like sparks flying from his fingers or his eyes turning green again—but it was possible. It would be possible. He could do this.
Eventually.
The focus was enough of a distraction from the pain that he didn't realize the pain had gone until he twisted in a way that should have hurt and didn't, which in hindsight had probably been Sidney's goal all along.
"Thanks," Danny said, and Sidney shot him a quizzical look. "For everything."
Sidney gave an awkward sort of shrug, rolling his shoulders as if he were trying to loosen them. "You don't need to thank me. You called. I answered."
"You didn't have to."
Sidney pulled his glasses off his face and started to clean them on his shirt. "It's, you know, something anyone would've jumped at the chance to do. Maybe not if they knew a shifter was involved, but still. A favour's a favour, and it's not like we've been cooking with gas this whole time. You don't need to thank me."
Wait.
"What favour?" When had this become about favours? He'd never mentioned favours. Johnny had. Sidney had not.
…Right?
Sidney was focusing all his attention on cleaning his glasses and very studiously not looking at Danny. "Well, this place, it's not, well, it's not…. Being here isn't exactly a reward for me. I can't go down the street and get an egg cream, and the shifter might have my scent. Things over there weren't exactly a walk in the park for me, but neither is this, and it's not…. I guess I thought you'd be willing to do me a favour because I'm helping you now."
Danny swallowed.
He hadn't realized that Sidney had always been approaching this from the idea of it being a transaction of some sort and not the beginnings of friendship. Of course, now that Danny thought about it, Sidney had straight up asked him if he thought he wanted to be here instead of over there, and he had kinda implied that he needed to help, now that he was here, even though he'd threatened not to….
"It's not that I didn't want to help you—I did or I wouldn't have come—but it's not— I mean— A shifter isn't someone to be underestimated. They aren't all dangerous, but when they want to be…."
"Yeah. I get it." Sidney was out here taking all kinds of risks for him, and he hadn't known anything more about Danny than Danny had about him before he'd come. It shouldn't come as a surprise that he expected something in return.
Danny wasn't against the idea, not really, but the expectation of it hit harder than he'd thought it would.
Sidney was the first ghost who'd stuck around and gotten to know him, and Danny had thought— He'd thought—
Danny blew out his breath and tried not to think about it. He'd been wrong. He had to accept that—and everything it meant. "Do you know what you want?"
Sidney cleared his throat and wouldn't look Danny in the eye. "It's silly."
Danny didn't want to beat around the bush; he was still too exhausted for games. He wanted to know what he was getting into. "Please just tell me."
"I mean, I'm fine with coming up with something else later. That is, a favour to call in when I need it. I figured that's what you'd want, since this might not be, well, something you'll consider. But the truth is, I was hoping— I mean, if it's not too much to ask—" Sidney bit his lip and finally chanced a glance in Danny's direction. "Can we be friends? Can I call you my friend?"
The knot in Danny's chest loosened and melted away altogether. "We're already friends. You're my friend. You should call me your friend, too."
"You mean it?"
"Of course I mean it! You helped me, even after I'd snapped at you, and where would I be without your help and your horrendous explanations?"
Sidney's expression, which had been stretching into a grin, faltered back into an uncertain smile and froze closer to a pained grimace.
"That was a joke." Mostly. Kinda. Danny coughed to clear a tickle out of his throat and added, "But, seriously, we're friends. I didn't think we would be at first, because my experiences with other ghosts have not been great, but you've been awesome. If you want a favour in the future, you are more than welcome to run it by me because we're friends, and then I'll see if it's something I can do, and if it's not, I'll try to help you work something out. How's that?"
Sidney's grin returned full force, but his agreement was barely out of his mouth before Danny saw something move out of the corner of his eye.
He panicked.
He jumped to his feet and hit the ground running, heading from the nurse's office to the gym because that should be open with the game on even if nothing else was. Sidney flew behind him without question at first, but after he caught up to Danny, he glanced over his shoulder and kept opening his mouth even after Danny shook his head at him.
"Save it till we're safe," Danny hissed as he cut a sharp right past the band room. Danny wasn't sure where he needed to go, but not here sounded great, so he kept waving his right hand in front of him to try to turn that not here desire into an actual portal.
His stomach swooped suddenly like he was on a roller coaster ride that had started a steep drop, and he stumbled.
He did not stumble through a portal but rather into Sidney, who must have flown in front of him to catch him. Rather than picking him up and flying away like last time, however, he just steadied Danny, and his grip tightened when Danny tried to pull away.
Above his thundering heart, Danny slowly became aware of the sound of footsteps running down the same hall he'd just left.
The shifter wouldn't have needed to keep up the pretense of being human when Danny doubted there was anyone else inside the school right now.
Oops.
"Nice instincts, kid," came Johnny's voice, "but you should vary your path a little more if you decide to run for it."
Danny looked up just in time to see Jazz coming around the corner by the band room. "Do not scare me like that again," she hissed at him, sounding distinctly less out of breath than he was. "And you hate toast."
Truthfully, Danny wasn't entirely sure what Jazz was talking about. Not the toast part—that had to be her way of proving who she was, though Danny wasn't sure that was exactly the best thing to use, considering how long the shifter had been around, but he hadn't exactly told her all the details about that yet. He sincerely doubted she knew all the details of what had just happened with the shifter, either—she wasn't freaking out as much as he thought she'd be if she did—but he knew better than to say that, so he just gave her what was probably a rather sheepish smile. "Sorry." He was sorry for worrying her, at least, even though he knew that was inevitable. Jazz and worry practically went hand in hand.
Sidney stepped back so Danny could stand on his own and cleared his throat. "The important thing is, how did you find us?"
Danny's eyes flicked back to Johnny in time to see recognition dawning on his face. "Poindexter, isn't it?"
Sidney gave a single sharp nod in response, and Johnny let out a low whistle.
"You two know each other?" Jazz asked.
"By reputation," Johnny said mildly. "There can't be too many people who went to this school who didn't know about him. I'm sure you know of him, too. From before now, I mean."
"This isn't about me!" Sidney snapped. His hands had balled into fists, but he kept them at his sides. "Now how did you find us?"
Johnny's grin went crooked. "You've got more fight in you than I thought. I figured you just saved that for bullies."
"Are you incapable of answering a simple question?"
Danny suppressed the urge to snort at that and kept his thoughts about pots calling kettles black to himself. Besides, it wasn't that Sidney didn't answer questions, exactly; that happened, sure, but mostly he just didn't answer them well.
Johnny didn't bother trying to swallow his laugh. He tilted his head in Danny's direction and addressed Sidney as he said, "This guy told me he was on the run, avoiding friends and family but not having any sort of destination in mind. I thought he might run to familiar territory to recover and restock before moving on. Considering I now know you're involved, I'm even less surprised. Few ghosts know these halls as well as you."
Sidney frowned. "If you can figure that out, so can the shifter."
"Does the shifter know you're involved?"
"Might. Might not. Which means we need to cut the gas and scram."
"Okay, but, before you run off—" Jazz dug something out of her pocket, and when she held it out, Danny realized it was a simple black flip phone.
Sidney leaned closer to peer at it, his earlier anger seemingly forgotten. "What is that?"
"It's a burner," Jazz said. She must've caught the look of confusion on Sidney's face because she added, "A cell phone. So we can keep in touch. I already put in my number."
"That has bad idea written all over it," Sidney said. "You're just asking for the shifter to take advantage of that." He looked at Johnny. "You didn't tell her?"
Johnny shrugged. "She didn't listen. Insisted we stop so she could get her stuff. What was I supposed to do, let her draw attention to us? I don't want to mess with a shifter, either."
Danny blinked. "So. Wait. You bought this? Just now? How much cash do you carry with you?" Truthfully, he had no idea how much a burner phone cost or what kind of pay-as-you-go cards or plans or whatever you could get with them, but he knew it would be more than the five bucks he had on him when he was lucky.
"Enough. And more when I think I might need it in an emergency."
"You can't predict an emergency! Besides, you didn't even know I was still in town."
"And you don't think I'd consider you suddenly going missing an emergency?"
Fair point.
"Besides, unlike you, I don't eat at the Nasty Burger at every possible opportunity. I actually have some extra cash."
"You know that's because I don't trust the food at home."
"It's also because it's food, you're a teenaged boy, and you're always hungry. Now take this, okay?"
Danny took it, flipping it open and checking the contacts. There was only one. "You have your number under S? Why?"
"For sister."
"Should've been BS. Y'know, for big sister."
Jazz slugged him, but Danny didn't even try to move out of the way. He was still looking at the phone. "This isn't your number."
"I got a burner for myself, too. You think I want to let some crazy ghost know that you told me everything after they threatened you?"
"Having contact is too risky," Sidney hissed. "Her knowing anything is bad enough."
Danny glanced at Jazz before looking at Sidney. "If Jazz is willing to take this risk, I'm not going to stop her. She'd just try to find something else to use and it would be even riskier." He bit his lip. "I'm assuming Mom and Dad haven't conveniently invented something useful to use instead, huh? Maybe we can float that idea."
Jazz shrugged. "If they have plans for some long distance communication device that's going to work where a cell phone won't, they don't have prototypes yet. Home is my next stop, though. I'm going to get the Fenton Finder. I can just turn the sound off so it doesn't warn me about Johnny every three seconds. If I tell Mom and Dad I need it for a school project, they'll be too thrilled that I'm interested in their tech to wonder what class it could be for."
"Can you two put a lid on it so we can go already? We've been here long enough as it is."
"This really is your first stop?" Johnny asked.
Sidney pulled a face but nodded.
"Don't beat yourself up about it," Danny murmured to him. "You and I both know that I was going nowhere fast." He'd needed every moment that Sidney had given him to recover.
"You think about the fact that we might not be the first ones to find you?"
Jazz's brow furrowed as she looked at Johnny. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that most shifters are patient," Johnny said. "It means I agree with Poindexter here when he says we shouldn't stick around chit-chatting. It means that for all you know, for all we know, the shifter's already been here, found out where you are, and is just biding their time."
"No." Danny wasn't sure how he was so confident in that, but he was. "They might be patient, but they don't have any reason to wait. I mean, why let me rest up and regain my strength? That's, like, the exact opposite of how they want me." He glanced at Sidney. "You're great and all, but I don't know if I'd put money on you in a fair fight."
Sidney snorted. "You think the shifter would be fair?"
Johnny raised an eyebrow. "They'd wipe the floor with you even if they didn't cheat. And kid?" His gaze flicked back to Danny. "They want you under their thumb, which might involve carrying out one of their little threats so you don't toe the line or run again."
It was a very real possibility and very much one that Danny did not want to think about.
"I'll check on Mom and Dad and Sam and Tucker," Jazz assured him. "Discreetly. Just— Can you tell me a little more about this before you go, if you have to go?"
"We don't—"
"I have a proposal," Johnny said, cutting off Sidney. "Poindexter, you know more of the story than I do. You go with Jazz here and tell her all about it. I'll stick with the kid and find him a new hiding spot. We can touch base once the coast is clear."
Danny narrowed his eyes—he sincerely doubted Johnny was making that proposal out of the goodness of his heart—but before he could say anything, Jazz agreed for him.
She correctly interpreted his shock, as she added, "What? I need to know more than what Johnny's already told me—and what you've already told me, clearly—if I'm going to be able to help you. This isn't a bad idea."
"You have a history of suggesting terrible ideas. I don't think you should get a vote."
"Save your breath," Sidney said. "I don't mind going with her. If push comes to shove, I'll find you again. I did last time."
"Give me some credit," Johnny said. "It's not gonna be like last time. You think I'm going to let him put out a general call again? I don't want a shifter on my tail."
"Fine, whatever." Maybe Johnny would give him a straight answer if Danny asked the right questions. "Sid, watch Jazz's back for me, okay? And vice versa. Some of Mom and Dad's stuff works."
And some didn't, but he didn't plan on taking anything out into the field again without testing it first anyway. He'd learned his lesson about trying that.
"Be careful, little brother," Jazz said.
Danny smiled. "You, too."
He didn't even fight to get free when Jazz hugged him; he just hugged her back.
Once Jazz let Sidney shoo her away, Danny looked over at Johnny, who hadn't moved. "So where are we going?"
Johnny pushed off from where he'd been leaning against the lockers. "Away from here." Danny shot him a look, but Johnny wasn't fazed by the exasperated expression. He smirked and started walking, forcing Danny to catch up to him. "I'm not going to say anything when we might be overheard."
"The shifter's not here!"
"Unless you're holding out on me, we don't know that."
"Well, then there's nothing stopping them from following us if they are here. Did you think of that?"
"Shadow will watch our backs. He's good at seeing things I miss, and he'll warn us about the shifter."
"He didn't help me earlier," Danny muttered.
"He warned me when he sensed the shifter," Johnny said, "and he's the reason your sis and I left when we did. Would you rather he stay and help you next time instead of help her?"
Danny fervently hoped there wouldn't be a next time, but instead of saying that, he shook his head. "No, I guess not." It wouldn't have killed Shadow to let him out of the room before leaving it—or, at the very least, give Danny the same warning about the shifter before departing—but Danny didn't think it would do him any good if he pointed that out now. Besides, for all he knew, Shadow had cleared out to follow Johnny and hadn't stayed with the motorcycle in the first place. "Hey, why did—?"
"Save the questions for a few more minutes, will you? Poindexter's right; the longer you're here, the more likely it is that you'll be found, especially if the shifter's figured out that he's helping you."
Danny huffed but bit his tongue. They were helping him, and beggars couldn't be choosers. If Johnny would give him some answers, Danny could afford to wait for them.
Johnny had parked his motorcycle around back in the lot that was already full of cars belonging to people who'd come for the game. It was in the opposite direction from the nurse's office, which might mean he and Jazz had looked in a different part of the school first. Knowing Jazz, she'd have thought to check the school library in case he was still looking for resources. If they didn't know what the shifter had done to him, he couldn't really fault her for that. Hitting the books was one of her first instincts when something went wrong.
They stuck to the streets as they rode—maybe because Johnny was trying to blend in; Danny didn't ask—and it wasn't until they'd been on the road for a few minutes that Danny realized where they were going.
At least, he realized they were going back in the direction he'd first run from, back towards the place where the shifter had held him in that shipping container thing, and there was no way he was going to—
Johnny's grip around Danny's waist tightened, possibly in response to Danny going tense, but he wasn't stupid enough to jump off a moving motorcycle going who knew how fast. Faster than whatever the speed limit was, probably.
"Can we not go this way?" Danny shouted back to Johnny.
"Isn't it one of the last places you'd run?"
Well.
Danny couldn't argue that one.
He didn't try.
But when Johnny pulled over into the alley where they'd first met, Danny didn't tell him where he'd come from, either.
He just jumped off the motorcycle as it stopped and started to walk the opposite way.
"Kid," Johnny called as he put the kickstand down and moved to follow. "Use your head. The fact that you don't even want to come in this direction makes it a good place to start."
Danny stopped and rounded on him. "Start what?"
Johnny looked at him for a beat, and then he said, "Poindexter's trying to help you figure all this out, isn't he?"
"Yeah? So?" There was no point in denying it. Besides, if Johnny was going to offer to help, too, Danny was hardly in a position to turn him down.
"He any good at it?"
Danny frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"I'm willing to bet you can't afford to gamble that the shifter might be making empty threats," Johnny said, "and I figure I might be more useful to you than a kid who's smart but ain't that good at explaining things to anyone else."
Danny raised an eyebrow but kept his mouth shut.
"I'll teach you how to control your own gates," Johnny said, "if you agree to bring Kitty over as part of that."
"I said—"
"This is win-win," interrupted Johnny. "I want her with me. You need to figure out how to control your gates. Consciously opening one specifically for her will help you do that."
Okay, Johnny wasn't wrong. Sure, Danny knew full well that he just wanted to be with Kitty faster than he figured this would take otherwise, and he'd clearly seen an opportunity and was going for it, but he was also right. Trying to figure out how to do something on purpose was exactly what he needed right now. Along with, well, a whole host of other things.
One thing at a time, right?
"Are you going to stick around and help if I do bring her over?" Danny asked. "Whatever Jazz pretends, she has less of a clue about what's going on than I do, and that's saying something. The Fenton Finder is only going to help her so much when it comes to dealing with a shapeshifter. I'm not sure she gets how good they are at mimicking people yet. I think she just thinks she knows, and she…. She doesn't."
"We can do a proper negotiation if you want practice at that," Johnny said, as if Danny had just passed some sort of test. "I teach you how to open a specific gate, you bring over Kitty. Kitty and I will stick around and help you out for a bit, and then we get to see a few of our old haunts before heading back home. No harm, no foul."
"Define a bit. Maybe define help, too."
Johnny smirked. "You wanna open a window so I can confer with Kitty before making agreements on her behalf?"
A window. Like the viewing portal Sidney had mentioned? Danny had been envisioning something more like a two-way mirror when Sidney had said that, but this made it sound more like talking through a screen door. Maybe communication portals were a thing? Or could be a thing, if he could figure out how to do it? He had no idea what the limits were.
He wasn't convinced Sidney knew, either.
Danny chewed his lip, trying to come up with something that wouldn't backfire on him. He really had no idea at this point how likely ghosts were to keep their word, and he had the feeling it was exactly the same as with humans: there was never a guarantee. Was he being cautious or overly suspicious if he didn't want to say Johnny could teach him how to open some kind of communication portal so they could talk to Kitty before doing this? It wasn't like he had a guarantee that Johnny wouldn't teach him the other sort of portal instead and let Kitty just walk right through.
Then again, having a ghost walk right through a portal rather than claw their way up his throat might be worth the trade.
It was definitely worth the risk.
And it's not like Johnny had outright lied to him so far, at least not that Danny had noticed.
Could he really afford to be so suspicious of the ghosts he was calling his allies?
Danny didn't need to think about that one for too long. The answer was no. He might get burned, a bit, but not to the extent that he would if he didn't accept what little help they would give him.
He had nothing against Sidney, really, but he couldn't turn down more help when he was up against this shifter.
"Okay," Danny said, "if you tell me more about windows and gates and portals and stuff, we can talk to Kitty and make a deal with her before anyone goes anywhere. But if you aren't going to help me with Jazz, I don't want to renegotiate anything else. She has a target on her back and needs more help than I can give her."
His help might actually make things worse for Jazz. If the shifter found out she knew the truth—
"How about I help you with this for, say, three days, if you need that, whatever Kitty says—but you give the two of us some free passes the next few times we want to visit."
That might not be a smart deal to make. Even to Danny's ears, that sounded suspiciously vague. "Free passes to do what?"
"Come over. Tour around. World domination isn't on our agenda, and we don't plan to intentionally destroy stuff. Me and Kitty, we just want to get out there and see what we never got a chance to see the first time around." Johnny tilted his right hand from side to side in a considering manner as he hummed a note before adding, "No promises not to pull some relatively harmless pranks on some guys who deserve it, though. No maiming or anything. Just a good ol' fashioned haunting."
"Right." Would it be in poor taste to make a joke? "Not much new happening in the world of the dead, I guess."
"Eh, depends where you are. Mostly, haunting people is fun. And some people deserve more than we give 'em."
"Okay, but only if you check with me first so we can coordinate times or something. I don't need you trying to force your way through because I said you could when I'm in the middle of a math test or something. I need to figure out this portal projecting thing so that never happens again. And—and I reserve the right to send you back if you cross the line."
Johnny grinned. "Sure—if you can catch us."
Danny was pretty sure Jazz wouldn't have given Johnny an exhaustive list of all the inventions their parents were working on, even if she had talked about some stuff like the Fenton Finder. "Okay. You teach me how to work the gates and windows or whatever, and we talk to Kitty and bring her over if she agrees, but you help me with Jazz either way, and in the future you two can come back if you don't do more than harmless pranks."
There were worse deals he could make.
"Deal," Johnny said, holding out his hand.
Danny shook on it, and then a thought occurred to him. "Wait. Sidney said that he couldn't really teach me how to do stuff because gatekeepers and ghosts aren't the same. Why are you different?"
Johnny smirked. "Haven't you figured it out yet, kid? I don't always play by the rules."