Chapter 15

"Tech therapy is just what you need right now!" Tucker said, playing the video game sample at the tech store.

"Any updates on your dad?" Sam asked, sipping her soda from The Nasty Burger.

"Nothing good," he shrugged. "His blood pressure has been really high even with med –" His ghost sense went off, and he looked around, unsure of the source.

Suddenly, the entire store's power went out. Then sparks flew, and a big green face showed up on every screen. "Haha! I am Technus, Master of Technology! Prepare to face your doom!"

"Right, tech therapy," Danny shook his head.

Technology began to float in the air and latched onto the big screen TV in the center of the store's back wall, creating a sort of armor. People started scrambling as the ghost began to raise an arm of laptops, remotes, and monitors, and pounded it down.

Danny gulped, rushing to the bathroom. Sam and Tucker ran out of the building but realized that Danny was going the other way.

"Danny!" They both yelled. They went back into the store and looked around.

"You know, Technus wouldn't be such a bad name for maybe a band, but Master of Technology? Isn't that a bit too obvious?" Danny - in ghost form - quipped from above with his arms crossed.

"Whoa," Tucker said. Sam yanked him down to hide behind a shelf.

"Who dares speak to me this way? I'll show you!" Legs began to form out of hard drives and circuit boards, finishing the creation of the large armor as Technus began to rise up.

Danny backed away before trying to hit him. The electrical arm came quickly towards him and decked him square in the jaw. He went flying back through the glass windows.

"Ow," Danny moaned as he pulled himself up from the glass shards.

Technus walked forward, breaking the rest of the glass. Everyone fled from the parking lot to the grass median.

"Haha! You are no match for the great Technus!"

"Anyone ever tell you it's weird to talk in the third person?" Danny said, crossing his arms and rising back up in the air.

Then he flew with a punch at the big screen where Technus's face was. The thing didn't even falter; though a small dent was made in the screen. Danny shook his hand out.

Technus slapped him down with the mechanical arm, sending him flying to the left. Danny hit the asphalt so hard, it made a dent beneath him. He wiped blood off his jaw.

The gravity of the situation was dawning on Danny as he realized just how big this thing was. How is he supposed to defeat that? It was too bad Vlad was such a bad teacher…

"Um, ghost boy?" Tucker said.

Danny swiveled around. "Um, hello citizen. Please let me handle this," he said, deepening his voice.

"I just wanted to say that - well, I know tech, and there is no way there isn't a power source!"

Danny widened his eyes, "A power source! That's it! Thanks Tu—civilian!"

He darted his eyes back and forth, searching for anything that could be powering it.

Then he spotted it: four mega-sized gaming computers attached to the back of the large TV face. Danny cracked his knuckles. "Time to put these ecto-balls to the test."

He went behind the machine and thrust his hands forward. Nothing happened.

"What's wrong?" Now Sam was there.

He grimaced, turning slightly toward her. "I - um - I'm kind of new to this," he admitted, embarrassed.

"Oh. So you, um…died recently?"

He chuckled a little. "I guess you could say that."

Danny raised his hands again. Despite being nervous to reveal himself in front of his friends, having them there gave him some comfort and confidence. He breathed in and out and tried to form ecto-balls. Instead, ecto-rays shot out his hands. As the gaming computers exploded, Sam and Tucker shielded their eyes.

"Aghhh! What is this? I cannot move," they heard overhead.

Danny grabbed his thermos and ran to the front of the mechanism, but it was too late. The ghost was gone. He looked around, but Technus was nowhere to be seen.

"Another ghost got away," Danny muttered, kicking the ground.

Sam and Tucker ran around and frowned. "He must've left," Tucker said.

"He'll be back," Danny said.

"So - um - who were you before - you know…?" Tucker asked.

Danny began to rub his neck but stopped himself. Uncle Vlad had said that was a dead giveaway.

"I…can't remember."

"Did you go to Casper High? You look and sound pretty familiar," Sam said.

Danny's eyes widened. "Can't remember. I've gotta go- uh - do other ghost duties!" He exclaimed, then flew off into the sky.

"Ghost duties?" Tucker said, narrowing his eyes.

Sam shrugged her shoulders.

When Danny got back home, he face-palmed. "Ghost duties?"

"Danny, is that you?" Jazz called out.

"Oh crud," he muttered, attempting to change back. It didn't budge.

He rushed into the bathroom under the stairs. "Dan—" He slammed the door behind him.

He swallowed hard. Did she just see?"

"Danny? What's going on?"

Without triggering it, he transformed back into his human form.

"What was that flash of light? Danny?"

"Can't a guy have his privacy?" He said, coming out the bathroom.

"Sorry. I just thought I saw…I mean, it looked like - oh, never mind."

Danny chuckled then sighed. "Any updates?"

Jazz frowned. "Things are stable, but the doctor said there isn't much they can do to help him at this point."

"What does that mean?"

Tears came to her eyes as she looked away from him. He swallowed hard, closing his eyes. She hugged him, and he started bawling. They cried together for a while.

"Where can I find answers?" Danny said to himself after Jazz had left. She was doing homework at the library. It was the only way to get her mind off of everything that was going on.

But Danny couldn't get his mind off of it. He needed to figure this out. And for some reason, he felt like he was the only one who could.

He opened the fridge and got out one of his dad's drinks for a pick-me-up. He popped the top and drank some.

"Whoa," he said, suddenly wobbly. Then his whole body felt electrified, as if he was a machine that had just been plugged in. He felt his eyes change to green, but he couldn't shut them off.

Placing the drink down, he leaned over the kitchen sink. "Come on, you can control this," he told himself.

Then he couldn't hold back and yelled. A strange energy burst out of him as he did and burnt a part of the wall.

"Oops."

He picked up the drink again and tried to read the ingredients but couldn't find anything.

A weird thought popped into his head, as he rushed down to the lab and placed a drop of the soda onto a slide. He peered into the microscope. He zoomed in on it and gasped. He backed away in shock.

It was filled with ectoplasmic particles.