Sam, Selina, Danielle
Undisclosed location
May 2019
Another day, another month, spent missing her friends and the rest of her family. Sam thinks as she gazes out the window of a coffee shop. She spares a glance at her younger companions then looks back out the window. She would rather be anywhere else than where she is right now. But she needed to be there or so says Gaia.
Life was never really simple for Sam, there was always something going on. Whether it be her doing or her parents, something was always happening. Meeting Danny and then Tucker was the best thing that ever happened to her. Moving to Amity, actually, was the best decision her parents ever made.
Sam watched as Selina and Danielle started stacking the condiment packets at the table to make a makeshift fort. The waitress walked past their table for the 5th time eyeing each of the girls and scrutinizing their actions. Sam knew she was looking for any kind of distress in them, she was looking for signs of abuse or worse.
Keeping a close eye on the waitress Sam shifted slightly pulling her black hair into a ponytail causing it to change from black to green. She pulled out a small compact to make sure there was only green showing and subtly got the younger girls attention. She darted her eyes to the door and slid out of the booth with the girls following. They gathered up the packets they were playing with and stored them in their pockets.
Running away from the upcoming threat felt like a cowardice thing to do. But if Gaia said it was the right decision, Sam would not disagree, not verbally anyway. She wanted to go home. She wanted to see Mr. M, Mama T, Tucker, Gram, and Danny. She wanted to be home, in her bed, not where ever she is now.
'Can we go now? Or at least find somewhere closer to Amity?'
'No. I cannot allow that. Quillon is searching tirelessly for you. We can't let him find you. You would be a prisoner not even the Halfa could save you.'
'I understand why he wants me but I don't understand why.'
' You hold the key to the world ending.'
'I have to deal with this saving the world or its game over shit too, now?! Any chance I can give you back or whatever?'
'Give me back? There is no one else who would be able to do this job. And, I am literally you.'
"Sam!" Selina calls stopping the teen from almost falling into a ditch. "You were doing that thing again." She informs her sister staring at the ground.
Sam smiles gently at her sister, trying to convey her shame by just a look. "Gaia and I were talking about our next move."
"Better make it quick that waitress from earlier is coming this way," Dani whispers, tracking the woman's movement.
Sam eyes the other park goers and crouches down to the younger girls. "A day at the park, how lovely."
"Excuse me!" The woman shouts as she gets closer to the girls. "I couldn't help but notice you guys at the diner and I was wondering where are your parents?"
Sam makes a blank face, "Well frankly, that's none of your damn business. But I'm watching my sisters today and decided to go out."
"Then you wouldn't mind if I asked you to speak with them, then."
"Oh no, I mind. Look lady, I'm gonna ask you to politely mind your own business. Come on guys, let's go." Sam addresses her little companions.
*Line Break*
They walked for a bit coming to a stop at a factory. Dani looked around before leading the two girls to the alley next to the building. She turns them invisible and intangible then flies up into the building. There were not people in the building since it was Manson property but the one thing that made Sam choose the building: no one would look there. No one would ever assume she would stay in a building under her parents name, not an empty factory anyway. It was sparsely decorated with an inflatable mattress, a ratty pull out couch, and sewing machine. It wasn't much but it was home.
It was May, the school year was officially over for the teen, but she had a feeling something bad was going to happen. She had been practicing her new abilities non stop at the request of Gaia, the goddess that is apparently her. She could make potions and spells that help people and change them, she could control plants and talk to animals.
"I feel like a fairy or something. I love nature but these powers are just a bit fairy like."
She turns to the small mirror that was thrown on the bed and picks it up. Gaia looks back at her with silver eyes and a knowing smile. "You are doing well Sam a few more months and you can go back home. Not for the summer but for the next school year. Maybe after Christmas this year."
"That's a long time away," she sighs watching Selina and Dani settle down to sleep. "I want to,-"
"I know, you want to be anywhere else but here. You want to be with Tucker and Danny and all the rest of your friends. But you can't. Sorry. Now there is something important you need to do."
"What is it?"
"You need to find my book."
--Line Break--
Fenton Works
Danny's room
March is 2019
It feels like he's trapped. Stuck somewhere he absolutely does not want to be. Danny thinks glancing around his room in Fenton Works. He doesn't really spend time there, he'd rather be with the Foley's but he had relatives coming to visit or at least that's what Jazz told him.
"Danny," Jazz calls as she opens the door to his room. " Are you gonna mope all day or are you gonna help us prepare for Uncle Neil and the rest of the family?"
"Why are they even coming?" He asks through the pillow covering his face. "Its not a holiday and it's no ones Birthday."
"They just want to see us Danny, so get up and help out." Jazz complains. " You can start with your pigsty of a room."
Danny takes the pillow off his head in confusion. His room was pretty clean since he had nothing else to do when he was grounded for no good reason. In fact he cleaned the whole house when he was grounded. He even cleaned outside the house. When the grounding was lifted he didn't even bother staying at home, he went straight to the Foley's and hasn't been back to Fenton Works since.
"Yeah sure, fine, whatever."
Danny gets up from his bed pulling on a hoodie as he walks pass the threshold of his doorway. The hallway was clean. He walks down the stairs to the first floor. The living room was clean. He walks into the kitchen. It was a mess. It looked like someone had tried to cook and failed miserably. Whatever they were making made more damage with the person's attempt to clean up than cooking it did. "What the hell happened here?" Danny turns on his foot to go back upstairs but stops short when he sees a cameraman standing in the corner of the room. "What happened in here?"
"Bad things, Danny, bad things."
Danny rolls his eyes and heads back upstairs ignoring the camera that was following him. He steps into his room, turns on his heel, and shuts the door. He makes his way back to his bed and decides that he would sit this cleaning session out.
*Line Break*
March 2019 { note: I put this here to show that Danny and Tucker are in the same time frame. But I wasn't at first because I thought it would be stupid to, but after a while I was like, it'll help.}
Tucker was having a weird day. He was getting a strange feeling that something bad was gonna happen but he had no clue when. The first weird thing happened when he woke up, his glasses were missing. Then when he found them they were outside in the treehouse/command center and seeing as he was already there he decided to check for ghost activity. There was a ghost standing right in front of the camera. He had jumped back startled and alarmed. The ghost looked lost, which was starting to be a trend. She was dressed from the period of the Salem witch trials. She was staring blankly into the camera as if she was watching Tucker and waiting for him to do something. Tucker had no clue what to do, so he decided to talk to her. Just as he was preparing to turn on the mic she appeared next to him.
"For Clockwork's sake, you scared the life out of me!" He exclaimed as he watched the ghost float around the common area of the command center.
"You are a mortal in contact with the great Mistress, yes?" She asks scanning him from head to toe. "You will do just nicely, yes you will. May I inquire about her mistress's whereabouts?"
"Um…" Tucker trails off looking around, "She's…gone?" He says unsurely.
"Gone?" The ghost asks. "Where bouts too? Surely the great ma'am has not forsaken her followers and sisters in need."
"She died, I think. My…contact," he hesitates, " Says that she passed on and she is no longer attached to the mortal plane."
"Why yes, yes, of course. We know this. She is still on this plane but not this plane. When will she return?"
"I don't know." He shrugs turning to the computers.
He hears the ghost putter around behind him and keeps an eye on the camera feed. The woman seemed particularly interested in a picture of Sam staring into the camera with a relaxed face.
"You say, she is gone?" The girl whispers softly. "But she is here." She says holding Sam's picture up for him to see.
"Yeah, no, that," he says turning around in his chair to gesture to the picture, "is Sam."
"She is on this plane is flesh only?" The ghost demands.
"I don't know."
"No more games. She is on this plane in flesh only, yes? She has forsaken the spirit. The shadows hath whispered to me the truth. You hath been lying, mortal! She hath been here a while mortal, yes, is that true? Where is she mortal? Is she able to contact the realm of the dead? Does she hathen to know where Phantasma is? Hath he forsaken us to? Quillon is alive and we must be preparing for his return for the veil is weak and we must protect it at all costs. So mortal, tell me, where is the Mistress of the Great Green Earth Gaia and where is the great Spirit Lord Phantasma?" The ghost rages in all of her glory causing things to float around as she interrogates Tucker to the fullest degree.
Danny floats into the command center in Phantom form surprising the ghost. She notices him instantly upon his arrival causing her to gasp in surprise. She bows to him and floats up to meet his gaze. Tucker watches as the ghost flounders for a bit seeming as if she is unsure what to do. Suddenly the ghost flies straight up into Danny's face causing him to take an abrupt step back.
"Tucker, what exactly is going on?" Danny demands. "And who in Clockwork's name is she? And why is she demanding answers from me and mine? Mistress Gaia, of the Great green earth, is not her title. She is the Mistress of Souls." It was as if the person speaking was not Danny. The voice came from deep inside him, a place that he did not know existed. His voice deepened as if he were Dan. He felt unrighteous fury, that was not his own, at the gall of the ghost to question his mistress and himself. "I have no time to answer the questions of an mewling infant who questions the decisions of her ruler." Danny shakes his head clearing himself from whatever spell had taken over him. "Um..Tuck…why is there a ghost in the command center?"
"Oh great Phantasma it is truly a dream to lay eyes upon you visage."
"Okay," Danny says confusedly arching a brow.
"You…" the woman says floating back. "The one they call Phantom. I see it is true what they whisper in the realm. The resemblance is close but not quite. Are you truly dead, young Phantom or are you halfway? Or," she pauses floating closer to his face, "have you not matured fully as a ghost. Hmm."
Danny raised his hands in surrender glancing at Tucker, who shrugs, in confusion. "I thought it was widely know that I was a Halfa."
"So it is true. You can hide from Quillon's gaze."
"I guess," Danny answers floating down to the chair beside Tucker. "What exactly do you want? We have got to stop letting ghosts in here man." He tells Tucker seriously, "Its like they were all shut in a bag of crazy and then let out, lately."
"It's the gods man," Tucker answers him turning back to the camera's. "Whatever is happening is storming some serious shit up in the Other Realm."
"Can I have a day off? Can we have a day off? Do we really have to the save the world?" Danny questions to no one in particular. "Think about it Tuck, there are other superheros who can deal with this shit. Can we recruit them?"
Tucker snorts, "I'm sure Wonder Woman would love to deal with the gods and goddesses of asshole-eerie."
"Will she," Danny perks up like a puppy.
"Excuse she, but young Phantom are you not aware that the Zone has been asking for you?"
"It can do that?" The boys chorus in disbelief sharing a look.
"Yes, you are aware of the connection yes? Your death caused it yes it did. You are the only master-"
"I'll pass." Danny says floating to his station. "I'll save the Zone, but I won't rule it."
"That choice is not for you to make." She says glancing around again. She spots a picture of the trio and examines it closely. It was a picture taken sometime after the back to school games. (Although it was a little late for it to be called that. It always occurred the 2 month of school coming back. {NOTE: This is me trying to clarify and not contradict myself at the same time. It's hard.}) She narrows her eyes tilting her head slightly to the side as she stares intently at the photo.
"That's the second time you've stared at a picture with Sam in it," Tucker notes staring at the ghost.
"She is beautiful, yes?"
"Yes." Tucker answers slightly confused.
"Where is she?" The ghost asked.
"She is away for the time being." Tucker answers glancing at Danny.
Danny makes his way over to the ghost to observe the picture that she was holding. He notices that she is. Focus intently on Sam's hair rather than her face. He picks out exactly what the ghost staring at. The acid green color that you can see, slightly, on the underside of Sam's hair.
The ghost regards Danny with cautious eyes, "You would not lie to me. Would you? Young Phantom."
"I would try to avoid it, yes." He answers hesitantly.
"Your friend said this one's mistress was dead. I said this once mistress walks the earth only in mortal form. Is that form, your friend Sam? Is she the Mistress of Souls? Young Phantom?"
"Look, lady. We technically don't have to tell you anything. I can take a thermos and shove you right back into the GZ. So please keep asking me questions and getting on my nerves so I can place you back where you belong."
"Dude chill. She's just curious." Tucker pacifies.
"What if she is working for Quillan? She's asking an awful lot of questions." Danny says with narrowed eyes.
"You know nothing mortal. And neither do you young Phantom."
"Yeah, well, I didn't really ask for any of this."
"No one asks for their destiny young Phantom. They just accept it." The ghost informed before disappearing from view.
"Am I allowed to unaccept destiny?" Danny turns to Tucker for confirmation.
"I guess not." Tucker shrugs in reply
Anyway have a lovely day, evening, night I'll see you in the next chapter.
L
O
L,
LJ