The hover zoomer came to a scraping halt on the edge of a hole. The bottom grinding against the gravel "Danny!" Tucker shouted. He saw his best friend in Fenton form laying at the bottom of a crater battered and bloodied. With water pooling around his face. Tucker dropped into the pit then hoisted Danny upright, he was still out cold but he had a pulse "come on Danny, I don't have any upper body strength buddy you have to help me here" Tucker groaned. He struggled pulling Danny uphill only to stumble over his feet.
"Tucker! Danny!" came Huntress' voice from up top "what the heck happened?" she jumped into the pit taking Danny's limp body from Tuckers feeble grasp. "I got him tucker, go grab the Zoomer" she hoisted Danny over her shoulders into a fireman lift and began climbing out. Tucker tweaked the Zoomers elevation allowing Huntress to lay him on it without dropping him too far "what happened? One minute he was online and fine next minute he's down and out did Ember do this?"
Tucker turned on the Zoomers magnetized towing allowing Huntress's board to tow it back to Fenton works. They just started moving when a voice from behind caught Tuckers attention.
"Tucker! Tucker!" Sam shouted but she was barely within shouting distance to be heard even more so after the hover board started moving widening the distance between them and Tucker. "That blasted Valerie she did that on purpose" Sam growled as she continued to chase after them on foot.
Huntress had brought Danny and Tucker back to the lab where Maddie and Dani had prepared the Fenton immersion healing pod. After fitting her brother with the oxygen mask Dani made Danny intangible long enough to slip through the tank wall into the ecto gel. "Isn't this a bit overkill mom? His scratches look like they're already healing" Dani asked.
"the scratches are dear, but it's the electrocution damage that has me worried. Your brothers' burns and blisters indicate serious damage even his ghostly healing might need some assistance… more to the question at hand who did this?" Maddie's voice laced with rage as she watched her son floating in the tank.
"We don't know" Valerie replied. "We separated to check on a few ghost signals which turned out to be nothing and when we regrouped Tucker found Danny in a crumbled heap in a crater…" Valerie was cut off by loud banging on the front door,
"Sam, what are you…"
they heard Jazz start to say only to be cut off "look out Jazz Danny and Tucker have some explaining to do" came Sam's voice from upstairs. At the sound of her voice both Dani and Valerie stepped toward the lab stairwell to block her from barging in. "Tucker! Danny!" Sam shouted as she charged into the lab only to be met with Dani and Valerie "move you two" she ordered trying to push passed them, however Valerie had more muscle mass than Sam did upper body strength and Dani had planted her feet firmly.
"you don't get to barge in here and make demands Sam" Valerie told her "Danny's hurt so whatever you have to say you can say to the rest of us"
"I don't have anything to say to you space invader" Sam snapped.
"Uhm. What?" Dani quizzically asked.
"Space invader" Sam repeated glaring back at Valerie "it's what she does, she invaded our group when she thought we could teach her ghost hunting stuff, she tried to invade again when she found Danny interesting, and now she's at it again invading in on my place with team Phantom and latching onto Danny on a rebound! We just broke up and you thought you could dig your nails into him? You had your moments Val but I never expected you to act like Paulina!"
Valerie's eyes narrowed as she took a single step toward Sam, who didn't flinch, "watch your mouth Manson! Calling me Paulina is one thing but don't you dare accuse me of going after Danny as rebound, you two were split up for a month! As for your place on team Phantom, no I haven't stolen your spot! Despite your horrible attitude Danny still wants you around as his friend and that means on team Phantom, if you answered your beacon, instead of sharing a meal with Danny's cousin, you would have been involved."
"That's enough! Both of you!" Maddie snapped "Danny is in no shape for this childish fight!" she rounded on the two teen girls whilst Tucker had backed away, he knew better than to try and intervene when Mrs. Fenton got angry. Crossing an angry red headed woman was nearly a certified painful death. "Samantha you don't get to be jealous of Valerie, you ended things with Danny and by your own actions are the reason you two haven't been able to patch things up yet"
Sam scoffed and looked over at the wall opposite Valerie who was smirking smugly "and you Valerie, you need to be nicer when dealing with sensitive problems like this. Sam feels like your edging her out so of course she's going to be angry about it instead of instigating an argument try calmly explaining what's going on" she stiffly ordered before turning back to the control panel "now if you can't be civil down here take it somewhere else"
Faint footsteps started down stairs followed by a repeating summons "mommy, mommy" came soft little voice. Maddie took a deep breath then her anger faded as little J.J crept down the stairs in his blue footie pajamas. His bright orange hair acting like a dimly lit flame in contrast to the shadow of the stairwell.
"Mommy's over here sweetie, did your daddy forget he was supposed to be watching you?" Maddie softly scooping J.J up in her arms. "Let's get you back into your play pen the labs not a place for babies to play" her attention turned back to the collective teenagers in her lab "all of you upstairs now"
Spike and Thorn were sitting with Joanie, Jack and Evelynn in the den, Jim and Bethany had called it a night already. "Jack did you notice J.J had gotten into lab?" Maddie scolded him.
"Sorry mads it's just… this freaky weather caught my attention the storms getting worse and a news bulletin says it's going to get worse"
"that may be true Jack but it's no excuse for not paying attention to your son"
Spike walked over to Sam and the two started whispering. "Care to share?" Jazz asked.
"just asking where D was" Spike retorted "Sam said he's been on the butt end of a butt kicking"
"he's recovering" Dani chimed in" next time he'll have back up cause I'll be going with him"
"I'd be happy to help" Spike said "juice me up on ghost powers and we're good to go"
"It doesn't work that way Spike!" Jazz snapped "we don't know the circumstances that gave Danny his powers and replicating the accident would be far too dangerous, we've told you this multiple times"
"Then Explain Danielle's powers!" Spike snapped back. He hated this exclusion attitude that everyone gave him when he brought up having powers. "You gave Danny and Dani powers surely you can do it a third time!"
"Enough!" Jack barked "we don't know how Danny got his powers and Danielle was experimented on by a mad man so stop trying to make her feel guilty about it spike I've been patient with your constant badgering about getting ghost powers but that's because I know it can't be easy being compared to your cousins but if you remember correctly until Danny revealed his secret you were constantly talking down to him. Danny endured a lot of hardships as Danny Phantom for over a year because of what his powers allowed him to do, you wanting them just because you want to be like Danny isn't even remotely close to a valid reason to jeopardize your life!"
The room fell silent this was the first time Jack ever raised his voice to either of his sisters' kids and frankly, it was scary. Spike looked like he wanted to throw something, everyone else was too stunned to speak. "Ghost powers are not an option and right now Danny needs to recover so no more of this" Maddie added.
Spike wanted to say something but Joanie placed her hand on his shoulder. Staring daggers at Jack. "There was no need to raise your voice Jack a simple explanation would have done"
"The first twelve were simple Joanie" Evelynn cut in "Spike wasn't accepting it Jacks not wrong in raising his voice Spikes nearly 20 he needs to start acting his age"
"Whatever" Spike grumbled shrugging his moms hand off "See what I mean Sam everything is done for Danny precious Danny"
'Slap' Evelynn slapped Spike across the mouth silencing everybody. "Don't you dare try to pretend Danny gets special treatment and you get ignored just because he has something you don't! Danny was nearly killed in his accident and repeatedly put his life at risk with these ghost attacks. You want his powers because people appreciate him and girls like him, Spike your being selfish in what you're saying and in what you're doing. You don't deserve pity or sympathy because your cousin has a good thing" she told him.
Spike proceeded to the door "screw this I'm going home" he slammed the door behind him yet again rattling the pictures on the wall.
"Is no one going to stop him?" Sam asked.
"He does this a lot" Thorn replied "he'll walk around the block blow off some steam and come back"
"And this is acceptable?" Sam asked "Spike has legitimate complaints about how unfairly he's treated and everyone just tells him to buck up and get over it"
"What conversation was she listening to?" Dani chimed in.
A loud crash of thunder flickered the lights on the whole block "this storm is getting nuts" Tucker spoke up "the streets are actually starting flood"
He then turned around caught a glimpse of Sam and Valerie still glaring at each-other "Valerie, Sam this needs to be snuffed out whoever laid that beat down on Danny is still out there and when he's up and active again he'll need the whole team, all of us working together"
"she's not a part of the team Tucker, she's just a tag along" Sam hissed.
"Get over yourself Manson, I've proven to be a better asset to the team than some self-righteous hypocrite with image issues" Valerie shot back.
"if you want to start something"
"I didn't start this but I will damn well finish it!"
"both of you shut up!" Danielle snapped "god enough of this. Sam you haven't been replaced, Val's told you, mom has told you, Tucker has told you everybody has told you the only person who believes your alienated is you and its by your volition…" she took a second to pant and catch her breath "Danny has said he wants to be friends and has asked us not to be mean to you despite your crappy ass attitude!"
"Danielle language!" Maddie exclaimed.
"what gives you the right to move in on Danny when we just broke up" Sam snarled.
"the fact the I've liked Danny since the middle of freshmen year, the fact that we get along as well as we do and the key fact here is the part where you two were split for over a month. You tried you didn't work out there's no law that says he off limits to every girl" Valerie replied. "Danny speaks of how you use to be a good person and better friend before you two started dating what flipped?"
"you wouldn't understand" Sam grumbled.
"Not if you're not willing to share why" Evelynn stated.
Another thunderous clap shook the house rattling the tv on the wall and knocking loose pictures to the floor. "Storms getting worse might even be a state of emergency declared." Evelynn said.
The rain assaulted the ground, the winds howled with rage and the thunder shattered the skies reminiscent to an old biblical tale. Something wicked was coming.