A/N: HELLO! I'm sorry that my update speed is slower than ever...but! BUT! I have a neat little outline penned out for this story...and I'm estimating about twelve more chapters to go! HEY! OUTLINE! YAY! I had one from before I went on hiatus, but I didn't know where it was. So...some things have probably changed, but OH WELL! Please remember to read/review/fav! And recommend to friends!
Chapter#21: Decisions
It's a rather solemn gathering at the Fenton home, the silence as heavy as the response center upon the roof. Danny tightens his grip on Sam's hand, and she squeezes back encouragingly.
"We're going to have to be really careful," Maddie finally says, making eye contact with each of her halfa children, "No going ghost for now. The G.I.W. will be here tomorrow morning to shut down or confiscate the ghost portal, so we'll have to rely on whatever portables we have."
"But Plasmius's armies aren't going to politely sit by and wait until the quarantine is over, Mom!" Danny protests, "The Ghost Zone needs Phantom!"
"We'll open portals with the guns and you can transform once you're through. If they're following their playbook - which, being who they are, they will - they'll have this city blanketed in sensors. The moment either of you go ghost, they'll lock on you. It won't take too much investigation for them to figure it out."
"No ghost powers, no cell reception, no internet, and yet school is still going," Dani grumbles, "Oh, and don't forget curfew. I'm going to die of boredom before any war happens!"
Not to mention that, upon the quarantine being declared, Cujo was sent to stay in the Far Frozen for the time being. Valerie has to admit that she felt bad, knowing that even Dani's dog has been - even temporarily - removed from her.
"You have your boyfriend, don't you?" Tucker teases.
"He's not my boyfriend!"
"Oh, we've heard that before, haven't we, Val?" he snickers.
"It's not complete," she replies wryly, "We'd need him here, denying it in the same breath."
The mood has lightened a little at the halfa's expense, and she groans again, burying her face in her arms.
They razz her for another minute before Pamela, tapping her foot impatiently, clears her throat.
"What about the wedding?"
Sam glances up at her fiancee before speaking, "We don't think that right now is the time," She continues as Jeremy catches his fainting wife, "We want to celebrate with everyone without a war hanging over our heads. For now, the wedding is postponed," It hurts to say it, but it's the decision she and Danny had come to after hours of discussion. They had considered signing the paperwork and just having a small party, they'd considered going through with it as it was...but in the end, they'd decided that postponing it until the situation settled a little was the best option.
"I can't say I blame you," Jeremy nods, propping up Pamela's feet, "It'd be...difficult to take a day easy in these circumstances."
"I'm sorry," Danny whispers.
"It's the decision we both made, Danny," Sam leans against his shoulder, "Together."
He smiles a little - a comforting sight - before continuing, directing his question at the Fenton couple, "What else have the G.I.W. told you about the quarantine?"
Maddie answers, "As I said before, they're confiscating the Fenton Portal, so we'll need to use the porta-portals."
"What about Vlad's?" Valerie interjects.
She shakes her head, "It was torn down in the process of the Masters-Plasmius investigation. They carted it off to test it and never returned it, seeing as its owner was…"
"And I can't open a portal of my own in this quarantine, can I?" Danny asks.
"No."
"I'm suddenly wishing I'd brought my gun with me," Jazz bites her lip, "It's sitting next to my TV."
"You couldn't have realized that this would happen," Tucker assures, "But what I want to know is how we'll monitor Vlad's forces once the G.I.W. confiscate the lab equipment. We don't have any Mortal-Ghost-realm communication devices."
"We'll see what Maddie and I can throw together tonight," Jack finally speaks, his expression more serious than usual.
"Alright," Danny nods, "When they come, I want you to try and get as much information out of them as possible. It's the only advantage we have right now. Tuck-"
"Yes, Sir!" He replies, giving a mock salute.
"...not funny. I want you to team up with Burgess and see if you can get past the quarantine. Try to bring attention to what's going on. We want to pressure the G.I.W. from the outside."
"Got it."
"Val, you have a reputation with them. I want you patrolling. If they ask, you're keeping an eye out for ghosts, but I want you to track what they're doing too. Let's see if they have any blind spots in their system that we can exploit."
"What am I doing?" Dani looks up hopefully.
"Same thing as me."
"Really?" she smiles.
"Yeah. Keeping our heads down and doing our best to avoid attention," he laughs.
"You're no fun, Danny!"
"Girl, you're just the butt of all the jokes tonight, aren't you?" Val snickers.
"Ugghhh. I should've just kept traveling!"
*********BREAK*******
The Fentons had worked all night to backup and destroy any research pertaining to halfas, hiding it all on tiny flash drives that they hid in I revealed places. After doing so, they managed to create a crude communication device to keep in contact with Frostbite.
People make fun of the Fentons all the time, but Valerie admits that they are far more competent than even she had realized. She worries absently what they could do with the proper motivation as she flies overhead on her board.
The Guys in White have started making rounds of the town, holding conferences and stomping down on any ghost that dares to raise its ectoplasmic head. Their first stop had, naturally, been the Fenton residence. The halfas had made themselves scarce, and when the agents commented on the large amount of ecto-contamination, the Fentons had simply dismissed it. They research ghosts, after all; it' only natural that there would be traces of ectoplasm in the home.
They would never suspect that it's from half-ghost teens bleeding on the couch.
The familiar static hisses in her earpiece, "Val? Any updates?"
"They're trying to keep quiet, but they're like little white roaches," she retorts, "How are you doing, Babe?"
"They've got it shut down, locked, and threw away the key," he growls, "If it weren't impossible to do so quietly, I would think they've completely isolated any and all circuits leading out."
"Is the pirate not earning his pay?"
"Don't blame me," Burgess protests, his voice still the same, bored drawl as always, "It's your government."
He has a point, she decides, "Well, as long as you earn your keep."
He chooses not to respond.
"Hey," Tucker begins, "do you think you could get the radio frequency off of one of them? Make it someone important. Someone who will know what's going on."
"I thought I saw Agent O out there…"
"That should do."
"Mission accepted," she grins, whipping her board around.
"After all, information is half the war."
ZzzzzzzBREAKzzzzzzZ
He's not sure if his timing is impeccable or the worst. Of all the times he could've planned a short trip to Amity Park, he's ended up with a quarantine following behind.
Talk about bringing your work with you, he thinks to himself as he hides around the corner of a building, eavesdropping on the agents nearby.
"That was easier than we expected," one mutters.
"Well, why would the Fentons oppose?" the other dismisses, "They're ghost hunters, through-and-through!"
"I'm not so sure it's that simple…"
That's...Agent S and Agent M, huh? he recalls, nearly rolling his eyes at the G.I.W. Director's sense of humor. Just an hour ago, he'd seen Agents P, B, and J, but what was that about the Fentons?
"I mean, that portal is their life's work. Why would they hand it over so easily?"
The portal?
"We did tell them it was only temporary."
"No...they're hiding something…"
Yeah, I got that feeling too, he admits. There was something in the way Jasmine Fenton would pause before answering that told him she was hiding something. He hates to think that she may have something to do with the current state of events.
She's brilliant, funny, beautiful to boot...he'd happily go on another date.
But she is definitely hiding something, he fights the urge to sigh, and it has to do with Phantom.
She'd speak freely about any other ghost, but she always seemed somewhat reserved when pressed about Amity Park's most famous spectre. It was as though she had to be careful of what she said, as though her words, the secrets she knew, could hurt him.
Why would she care?
He slips through back alleys towards his hotel room, deep in thought.
Who would care about a ghost?
He squashes his own sense of self-loathing, reminding himself of one thing; he is human. He bleeds red. His heart beats steadily in his chest. He takes a deep breath, as though confirming this.
Conversely, he muses darkly, does having no one who cares make me a ghost anyway?
"Welcome back, Mr. Blake," the doorman greets.
"Working? Even with everything going on?" Darren asks incredulously.
"Well, I'll need the money when it's over to get out of here, won't I?" he smiles back cheerfully.
"What, quarantines not your cup of tea?"
They share a brief chuckle, and Darren continues on to his room. His phone - which he'd left behind - blinks ominously from his bedside table. He scrolls through the missed calls, wondering how many he can ignore without getting in trouble.
...Agent O
...Agent K
...Agent S
...Agent R
...Agent S
...Agent L
...Agent Y
...Agent A
...Agent N
...Agent S
...Agent W
...Agent R
Instead, he removes the battery and tosses his phone into the air, into the sink. Though he can hear the glass screen shatter, he wonders if he shouldn't run water and soap over it to finish it off. He decides that such a thing would be overkill, and instead remains reclined on the bed.
"I guess...I haven't decided yet."
A/N: So, a lot of y'all kinda predicted Darren...but I don't think you have the full picture. He's actually a mysterious guy, huh? ^^ GW or Blake? Which will Jazz choose?