Maddie lays across the steering wheel of the Ghost Assault Vehicle as she observers her son in his ghost form discuss with his friends and it doesn't seem like they are too happy with their agreement on joining patrol.
"Maybe this is too soon?" Maddie asks in a whisper, her husband in the passenger seat giddy with the chance to bond with Danny over something they both enjoy.
"Nah, it's fine. Danny would've said something."
Maddie thinks for a moment, the eggshells that he'd been all morning, as if saying something outrageous that they'd turn around and return to their ways. She doesn't blame his hesitancy to release information, after realizing that they never even listened in the first place, hell, they never took the time to just sit down and talk. They always assumed after the first few times that he'd just walk away, but now she gets they'd been flimsy excuses to get them thinking in another direction.
Jazz was right, they never actually noticed what her children needed, and that was to listen.
She's a great scientist, reading between the research to connect the positive and negative test result, to know what should be changed for a separate outcome. She just never used that same skill in her personal relationships with her children, the skill that she used to better understand her husband.
She failed.
As a mother, and her children proved that she failed as a scientist.
A knock on the window, had her rolling it down, just for Danny to hand over a Fenton Phone, and quickly explain how to change it over to the GAV communications.
A scoff from Sam came through, "He would've phased through the ceiling."
Danny's shoulders dropped, arms relaxing, causing his arms to hang. "Sam." he warned.
"Whatever."
Danny sighed before flying off, hovering into the air for a moment as he spoke.
She knows it could be coincidental, but he stayed closer to Sam and Tucker than his own parents.
It hurts.
They've done so much damage, that her son can't even be close to them without the fear of being shot at.
"Alright. Sam head to the park, Tucker head to the mall. Mom and Dad follow me."
Her son sounded so formal, so in control, so used to the fact that they are out late at night hunting for ghosts.
Sam and Tucker split off in separate directions, the GAV roared to life as the tracks rumbled through town, kicking up dust and loose gravel.
"Be watchful of animals, there's been swarms of them a few nights ago." Danny says over the communications.
"Natural portal?" Tucker asks, "The stable portal is closed, right?"
"I had closed before we left."
"It's not gonna stop them." Sam countered.
"It'll deter them hopefully."
Danny sounded tired.
"The blast doors are shut Dann-o! No ghost is getting through."
The comms seem to quiet after that, and Maddie can't help but think that maybe the portal isn't secured as well as they thought. "We tried to get our papers offline," she began, "but they said that the government paid big bucks to keep them."
"Of course they did." Sam snipped, "Those jerks are the reason behind nearly destroying both planes."
"What?" Beside her Jack paled. "When?"
"It's, uh," Danny slowed down above them, "remember when they paid us real well and we were rich for a while?"
Maddie nodded, only confirming when she realize that only Jack could see her right now.
"They attempted to use a missile to destroy the Realms."
"Idiots." Tucker echoed Sam. "It's in the name."
"Why would they do that?" Maddie scrubbed a hand through her hair, "The worlds are connected."
Danny hummed, "The government do hate ghosts, could never really figure out the whole situation. Never stayed long enough when they arrived to find out."
"Are they behind the swarms?"
"Nah, it's gotta be a natural portal. If this is the Idiots in White, there wouldn't be any."
"That's-"
"Not really that much different."
"Sam."
Maddie groaned, eyeing Jack's hurt form, "She's right, I'm happy we found out this way. Any other and we might not have had our eyes opened."
"The portal has to be close-by anyways, if we can find it in two hours."
"Did it open over an animal shelter?"
Sam chuckled at that, "A ghost animal shelter?"
"Amity does keep their pets close for a reason." Danny replied, "Had to instruct someone why a panther was a bad idea."
"Wasn't that Wendy?"
"Wait? Wendy?" Tucker muttered, "Isn't that the little girl who tripped you into a puddle?"
Jack and Maddie laughed at the image.
"Yeah, let's not go there."
"How many times was it?" Tucker directed the question towards Sam.
"Four."
They quieted down again, but even Jack felt uncomfortable, as he shifted in his seat for the second time. The kids are keeping them at a distance, only selling tidbits to the crazy scientists. A lump formed in their throats, before pulling up a scanner to maybe track the portal location so everyone can get back and to be.
Unfortunaly, they still had their weapons coded to shoot at any ectoplasmic entity, a shot straying just off from Danny just before they could shut it off.
Danny froze, facing them as he stilled in mid air, frozen, waiting for another shot.
"Danny, we just managed to change the settings, we didn't mean for that to fire."
He nodded once, a mumble coming over the speakers that sounded like a mantra of a mistake.
"What happened?" Tucker asked, sighing for a moment.
Danny glanced back at his parents, "Nothing. Don't worry about it."
Jack hunkered down, before determination set on his features, "We wanted to turn on the scanner to maybe find the portal faster, but we may have forgot that the code was to shoot when a ghost is in range."
"You okay, Danny?" Sam's aggravation carried over despite her attempt to do the exact opposite.
"I'm fine, missed anyways."
Maddie thought for a moment. If there was any actual real danger, then they'd need the equipment to function to be able to ignore Danny especially in the mists of a fight. Her mind jumped between blueprints and code, looking fully over to her husband, his bright eyes gave her the acknowledgement that he's thinking the same direction. They both nodded once.
"Found it! It's behind the mall." Tucker stated, "Looks like there's a humanoid ghost here."
"Keep your distance."
This is so hard, watching your child take control of a situation that shouldn't even been theirs to handle. Sam and Tucker being a part of this since the beginning, "Do your parents know?" she asks suddenly, the question slipping out before she can stop it.
"Mine are not finding out, they'd never let me leave the house." Sam grumbled. "Huh, he looks like a professor."
"Maybe he has an understanding then." Danny replied.
"Mine don't, but they suspect something. They have enough trust in me to speak up if there's actually a problem." Tucker revealed, "There's these looks that mom gives." he shuttered.
"If either of their parents found out we'd attempt to get them to agree to stay quiet, if not I'd reveal myself first to them to hopefully get them to understand why it needs to stay quiet. Worse Case, I'd reveal to you guys, and if it goes wrong, I've got a go-bag hidden in each of our rooms."
They were Worst Case Scenario.
"Where would you go?"
"Can't completely leave Amity helpless with hunters who don't understand, probably be right outside the city limits. If necessary, the next town over with back-up plans of shutting down all the stable portals."
The three of them arrive in the back parking lot, to not see the humanoid ghost.
"Sam, Tuck, where'd he go?" Danny landed on the ground, his parents exiting the vehicle. "Guys?"
Sam peaked out from where she was hiding, "He's inside the mall, somewhere."
"Alright. Just reverse the polarization, and…" he aimed the thermos back at the natural portal and released the energy beam. "that's it."
"That was my way back ghost boy." the ghost held up a fist.
Maddie and Jack both aimed a pistol at him in a pure habitual reaction that made the ghost narrow his eyes.
"Working with hunters?" he flew towards him, but only missed when Danny dodged out of the way.
The shots began to fly from behind him, and the ghost in front of him tried to tackle him down through the ground.
At least he's able to escape the grip, he phases back to the surface to find, his parents arguing with Sam and Tucker, he could only sigh in frustration.
"That ghost attacked my son!" Maddie shouted.
The professor returned, head peaking out from under the ground and observed. The adults, concerned and scared for the safety of the child, and the child who looked tired from the adult's reactions. So maybe not a full partnership? He fully removed from the ground, the expectation of the ghost child to turn to him and start fighting had died.
"Die ghost!" the big oaf shouted, aiming a gun in his direction.
A green shield have been erected by the ghost child.
"Enough! Mom, Dad, stop shooting!"
"Oh."
Danny turned to the ghost, "What?"
"Your parents are the hunters?"
"They found out a few days ago."
Maddie tilted her head at the conversation, and lowered her weapon, "What are you doing outside the Ghost Zone?"
"Can't do a little sight seeing?" he waved his hand at them, "Have the living always been this pretentious?" he raised a hand under his chin, "Have I been the same?"
"Some of them." Danny answered.
"Most of them." Sam echoes.
Jack also lowered his weapon, "Well, uh, mister ghost professor, our son revealed some information that our research is in need of an update."
"Ah." he nodded in understanding multiple times, "The sciences are ever changing. Then I bid you good luck." and he flies off back into the mall.
An alarm rings between them, and Tucker picks up his PDA, "Ugh, midnight."
"Then you two head home and get some sleep, I wanna check some of the high points first." he glances to his parents, "Alone."
His parents nodded, "There's something we want to check in the lab yet, stay safe Danny."
"I will."
Maddie and Jack pushed away all of their equipment on the work bench, some parts fell on the floor and wires barely held onto the edge as their very first tracking device got slammed onto the table. They stared at it for a few minutes before pulling out the blue prints, smacking it down onto the table and removing the motherboard from the back.
They thought it could take moments to figure out how to get the equipment to ignore their son's ecto-signature, but despite the countless hours in the lab they allowed their heads to either slam into the same desk that they'd been working on (Jack) or just hold their head in their hands with the temptation to throw the entire thing against the wall (Maddie).
Upon the 8th day in, Jazz had come down with concerns of them spending time in the lab. They explained: if they could reconfigure one device they could figure out more. Get all their weapons and trackers to ignore Danny for whenever there's a serious threat.
"It actually might be a good thing to keep at least one tracker keyed to him." Jazz, with her hands clasped together against her chest, hesitantly suggested. Her eyes flickering away from them before turning back around to the stairs to head back to the kitchen. "Danny's a little…anxious that you've been down for so long."
"Don't worry sweat heart, we'll tell him once we succeed!" Jack shouted, messing around once again with a brand new motherboard.
Jazz huffed.
Maddie's eyes narrowed, "When did you need to find Danny?"
"There's been," she spun back around on her heel, "a few times where he's gone for days at a time without telling people. It's not always his fault, but, um, some ghosts aren't always contained in Amity."
Jack turned on the chair he'd been working on, "What kind of ghosts?"
Jazz felt cornered, they never actually spoken much on the whole Vladdie situation. While they would ultimately understand and accept his ghostie side, they're unsure on how Maddie would react to all the scheming. It upset herself to no end, considering he tried to pit her against Danny, but Vlad's reaction against the whole knowing may either make it better or just make his state of mind worse.
She's had theories, but without something significant, like Vlad's reaction to secrets being out, they weren't sure on how to move forward.
"It's just some minor thing here and there, right?" Maddie asks, arms now crossed, "Like earlier?"
"Yeah, sometimes, I guess there's forums online that has Danny worried of being true." her voice pitched at the end, almost like her statement had sounded more like a question. "I'm not sure how he really goes about it." she hurries up the steps, closing the door quickly behind her and sighs.
"What are they doing?"
Jazz's head snaps up at the ceiling, where her brother hovers in ghost form, "You're gonna give someone a heart attack doing that."
"Hey, I get to be Phantom in my own home for once without the threat of the weapons engaging." he floated down until his feet hit the tile floor, transformation rings appearing for a moment then switching off. "They're not experimenting down there? Are they?"
Jazz bit her lip for a moment, she knows that it's meant to be a surprise for Danny but this is too close to like before. "They're trying to get the auto-weapons to ignore your ecto-signature." she walks passed him to the living room, picking up a book that had been on the table. "If they come to you with anything…weird, just roll with it."
The light from the rings appeared and replace him as a human, "What did you do?"
"Nothing. Just an excuse that doesn't give them any hints on Masters."
"I know, but…" his hand raised to rest on the back of his neck, "Vlad might…"
"I know, little brother, but at some point we're gonna have to." she flips open to the page she had book marked before attempting to get her parents out of the lab, and left the kitchen.
Leaving Danny to glance back at the door to said lab then to the floor as if he could see through it to them, concern and a pit formed in his stomach of all the what ifs that could happen under the understanding that he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it. Blocking it out, he allows his abilities to surround him, and returns to his room by phasing through the ceiling.
