#*vlad voice* i miss my wife little badger :'( | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

balshumetsbaragouin · 7 years

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Bittersweet Future: Chapter Eight

Summary:

The clock strikes midnight and Danny faces the consequences...

If Danny Knew the Butterfly Effect…

Waking up the next day was the most awkward time Danny could remember. If he thought living with Vlad, followed by living with his parents was bad; then living with Vlad and his mom after his parents had a fight was some kind of cruel and unusual punishment. He hadn’t slept at all last night, his thoughts wrenching even the most determined wishes for sleep from the fore of his mind. It didn’t help that right below him were the sounds of his mother and Vlad getting along swimmingly until well after midnight.

He wasn’t sure when Vlad had come back into the room, but Danny finally noticed him there as the pink streaks of dawn crossed the sky. Looking at him sleep peacefully, the deep distrust and near hatred Danny harbored for his future enemy came back full force. There were times when he could forget everything that Vlad was, and the reason he was even here in this time. After last night, though, everything was in too bright shades of black and white, and Danny was beginning to miss the gentle moral grey scale he had allowed himself to live in. He rolled over with a huff, the bed creaking under him.

“You awake, little badger?” “No.” Danny threw the pillow over his head, and willed Vlad to leave him alone for a moment. Vlad sighed from his position on the floor near the foot of the bed. “It’s ok; I couldn’t sleep last night either.” Yeah, but likely not for the same reason I couldn’t. Danny realized. “Are ya’ hungry? I know this is a little early for you, but something tells me, it’s never too early for your stomach.” Vlad shifted into a sitting position on the ground, looking up at the still bedding burrowed Danny. Danny was tempted to tell him off right then and there. Who the fuck was he to just get up and cook food in his house like he owned the place? But his stomach and tongue interrupted his mental complaints. His stomach reminded him of the lack of dinner from the night before, and his tongue that Vlad was a pretty good cook. He grumbled at his body’s complete betrayal, and curled up deeper into bed. There was no way he was eating food Vlad made today, on principal. He had to admit, he hadn’t been there during the rest of the fight the night before, but he didn’t need to be. There was no way his father would just leave without some “help” from Vlad to convince him. Vlad has some nerve, making moves on my emotionally vulnerable mom. What a spineless, gutless, no good, honorless- “Daniel? Did you hear me?” Danny narrowed his eyes under the pillow, but otherwise was completely disinclined to respond. He snapped his glare up into Vlad’s face, when he felt the pillow disappear from its position. “Alright, alright. Not a morning person, I get it. I’ll leave you alone.” Vlad dropped the pillow back down onto Danny’s face before stretching. “I’m going downstairs, no use in pretending to sleep when I can’t. I’ll leave you something to reheat later.” Vlad stalked from the room, quietly closing the door behind him. I wish you would actually get it. It would save me so much trouble. Danny moved under the sheets, and felt a distinct tug around his neck. Suddenly angrier than he could recall being in recent memory, he shot up in bed. The time traveling teen glanced down at the gold pocket watch with blue initials with deep distain. It was the only thing tethering him to this time, if he took it off now…No. He cut off the thoughts quickly. He still had a job to do, and as much as he couldn’t stand Vlad at the moment, no longer having him as an enemy would be worth every headache now. Danny was about to tuck the wayward piece back under his shirt when something interesting caught his eye. He hadn’t really examined the thing closely since he got here. Sure enough, he’d seen one up close before, a couple of times, but now that he looked at this one… The watch had a latch on the side he’d never noticed. Maybe it was a new addition, or perhaps he had never noticed before now, but at the moment he was insanely curious. His anger temporarily forgotten, Danny started running the piece through his hands, looking for more grooves or latches, or other anomalies in the previously thought solid smooth surface. Finding nothing but the single latch on the side, Danny decided to satisfy his curiosity. After a few moments of fumbling, the latch clicked and the “front” of the watch opened to reveal the face. Danny carefully studied the new surface. It looked like an ordinary watch. Engraved onto the face were numbers in the typical design of an analog clock. They were bright iridescent blue against the shining gold background, and other than the obvious ghostly glow emanating from the surface, it was a normal pocket watch. Danny was about to close front of the watch again, forgetting all about the uninteresting inner surface, when some movement caught his eye. Glancing back at the blue numbering, Danny watched with mild curiosity as the second hand moved counterclockwise, backwards, across the surface. Now much more interested, he inspected the softly glowing face of the watch. As the second hand wound backwards, it moved the displayed time closer and closer to midnight on the clock face. When nothing else was forthcoming, Danny was about to dismiss the oddity as a minor quirk of its creator’s, when a vague sense of familiarity settled over his person. There was something about this clock face and midnight that was important. Danny slipped from under the sheets and padded barefoot towards the bedroom door, still pondering the new information, when the reason suddenly hit him. The first time he had seen the medallion, it had read midnight or noon, depending on who you asked. Now the hands where winding back down towards midnight again, and Clockwork’s words suddenly came back to him. I have set the Medallion back with enough time for you to do your task. Use your time wisely, Phantom. You will not get another opportunity. The ominous words, so seemingly unimportant at the time spoken, were proving to be another hint in disguise. The clock was running down to midnight, because his time was running out. Great another roundabout clue from Clockwork, too bad I didn’t notice it until now. Danny mulled over the new information while staring at the clock. It was only six hours until midnight, and if his calculations were correct, that would make it exactly one week to the minute he was back in this time. Though that didn’t make exact sense, seeing as the first time he remembered was around 5:00pm on last Sunday, and the time limit pointed to his disappearance being a little after 1pm, there was a good chance he’d spent a few hours unconscious after the time trip. Also great. I find out the exact time limit I’m working with, and I only have a few hours left to use. Would this qualify for a posting on FML? ‘Woke up today, and found out my deadline is much shorter than I thought. Now I have a few hours to fit in a few lifetimes of interaction or my entire trip was a bust. FML.’ Danny finished mentally composing his entry with a grimace. He really didn’t have time to waste on grousing like this. Resolving to put what time he had to use, Danny quickly got dressed and headed downstairs. He couldn’t go ignoring Vlad with so little time left. The sound of quiet chatter ghosted from the kitchen and around the corner to the bottom of the stairs. Danny took a breath and stuffed down his negative emotions, before rounding the edge to the entrance of the kitchen. Vlad sat at the kitchen table, calmly enjoying a newspaper with a strong brewed cup of coffee. Maddie was pushing around the last of the fixing for breakfast, long auburn hair tied back into a high ponytail to cook. Danny slid into a seat across from Vlad at the table, willing himself to forget about his backstabbing attempted wife stealing home-wrecking ways so he could get his mission done with. He was getting sick of this time and the lies staying here entailed. “Good morning Daniel. Did your empty stomach wake you up again?” Vlad flipped another page in the paper, coolly skimming the sparse business section. “Yeah something like that…” Danny grumbled and rubbed the back of his neck. “So Vlad-” “I hope you like French toast Daniel, ‘cause I’m making a bushel of ‘em.” Maddie interrupted from the stove. “Yeah that would be great.” Danny responded before looking back at the reading Vlad. He was about to continue his last thought, when he noticed his sister missing. “Where’s Jasmine?” He voiced his concern. “She’s still sleeping. Seems all the noise yesterday tuckered her out. Knowing her, she’ll be up in a few hours.” Maddie handed Danny a plate filled to the brim with powered French toast. “What do you want to drink?” She asked as she headed for the fridge. She hadn’t gotten much sleep last night herself. Between how upset she was over the argument with Jack, and the resulting “cool off period” afterward filled with campy movies, junk food, cheap beer, and great conversation, she had crawled into bed around 3am last night. Well, more like carried. She thought with a suppressed giggle. Vlad’s a riot drunk; I’m going to have to liquor him up more often in the future. She thought as she grabbed the requested apple juice from the ice box. She walked the bottle over to the table for Danny to fill his glass with. Danny grabbed the container with muttered thanks, still trying to figure out a way to get Vlad alone with him before lunchtime that day. He was coming up short on ideas, but chances were a full belly and another hour to full awaken would bring the idea he needed. Maddie settled into her seat next to Vlad before asking, “Don’t you have to go in at the lab?” “No. I called them Sunday morning. I told them I likely wasn’t going to be able to get in until this Thursday with all of the craziness that happened, so I’m off until then.” “Explains why you’re still here.” Danny said around another forkful of toast. Maddie passed Danny a confused look across the table. “Usually he’s gone well before dawn to get to work. It’s like 7am, and he’s still here, so he must not have been going.” He explained before plunging back into his toast. “Not like I would have had the energy to go anywhere after last night.” Vlad set down the newspaper and headed over to the stove to fix himself a plate of the growing cold French toast. Danny practically choked on his food when he heard that. Admittedly, his mind was probably not working full steam at the moment, but that was vague enough to imply all kinds of messed up stuff. Don’t think about it. Don’tthink aboutit. Don’tthinkaboutit! Danny coached himself. Too bad his imagination seemed determined to send him the worse possible “cannot un-see” material. He had to ask. “What do you mean?” “ Maddie,” Vlad started while sending her a covert glance, “decided last night was a good time to watch crappy old sci-fi B movies and get me drunk.” “Now now, if I remember you were the one who bought the beer last night.” Maddie pointed out reasonably. “What was I supposed to do? Bad science movies drive me to drink. Besides, you were the one who said to pick it up with the Chinese last night.” Vlad returned to the table, another steaming cup of coffee in conjunction with the plate of toast. “Maybe so, but you invented that drinking game. What was it? A swig of beer every time someone used a science term or definition blatantly incorrectly?” Maddie giggled around another fork full of food. “No! It was every time they defied the basic laws of physics while claiming to do the opposite…or maybe you’re right, it’s hard to remember which one we played first. In any case,” Vlad waved off Maddie’s continued giggles, “between the movies and the alcohol, I was in no shape to think this morning.” “You sure? Because you were pretty mentally on the ball at 2am this morning, when you gave me a practical dissertation about how wrong ‘Them!’ was.” “Only after you wobbled your way through an indignant ripping of ‘Ghostbusters’.” Vlad countered. “Oh come on Vlad! That movie was the worse interpretation of ghosts I’ve ever seen.” “Oh no, you’ve convinced me Maddie. It’s sent the public imagining back into the Stone Age. We will never recover as proper hunters because of their poor portrayal.” Vlad held up his hands as Maddie playfully punched him in the shoulder for the comment. Danny was trying not to gag. Their sweet banter was driving him up the wall. It was almost as bad as the first time he had to put up with it last Wednesday. It likely wouldn’t be so annoying, if his father wasn’t in the dog house at the moment. “Oh shut up!” Maddie laughed when Vlad dodged another swift punch aimed at his shoulder. “I, madam, don’t have to put up with this abuse.” Vlad joked while wriggling away from another punch. “So Vlad, I was wondering if we could hang out later, just the two of us?” Danny was more than happy to break up the currently nauseating interaction. If the two of them don’t stop this soon, my breakfast’s going to reappear. Danny thought, willingly Vlad to take his offer straight out. Vlad turned towards Danny, hopping out of his chair to clean off the table. “I don’t see why not Daniel.” He paused when Maddie walked out of the room, the baby monitor springing to life with Jasmine’s cries. “Is there anything in particular you wanted to do?” “I just needed to talk to you, privately, about some matters.” Danny was never good at being vague and evasive about a subject. Talking around things and double speak was something he didn’t really appreciate. Why do it when you could just tell the whole truth? Luckily enough, Vlad guessed as to the subject and continued on undeterred. “I’d be more than happy to help you with your resume for the job search.” He said as Maddie came back into the kitchen with Jasmine balanced on a hip. “I do have more experience with it, so it should be no problem.” Danny silently thanked Vlad’s subtly. He would have never thought of that substitute. “Yeah ok, you want to leave now?” “Now Daniel?” Vlad looked over at the clock above the stove. It was only 8:30am, so he wasn’t sure what the rush was, but maybe Danny had more to share than he thought. “Well,” Danny stalled and glanced over at the clock, the weight of his own time limit clicking in his mind synchronously with the second hand, “I guess it can wait until 11o’clock or so, but I wanted to grab lunch with you at the same time.” “Alright Daniel, I’ll be ready to go then.” Vlad leaned over and kissed Jasmine good morning. Danny was once again struck by how out of place he was in his own house, with his own family. It sparked the buried fire of his anger that he once again had to smother ruthlessly. He’d be back home soon, and not only would everything be back to normal, it would be better. Vlad wouldn’t be kicking the crap out of him and trying to marry his mom, and he’d have his family back. He had to believe that, or the last week of ‘fun’ adventures in past-land would be worthless. Nodding once, Danny left the kitchen to walk back upstairs to get ready. He couldn’t go into this all willy-nilly. He couldn’t reveal too much, but he had to be convincing. But most importantly, of all, he had to do it all before the clock struck one o’clock. This must be how Cinderella felt. Danny considered before he passed the threshold to his future room. The next two and a half hours passed much faster than he had hoped. Danny had a basic plan of attack all laid out, but the details were still a little foggy. He also didn’t have much in the way of retorts or ways to keep the discussion on track, but with the time he had to prepare, it wasn’t too shabby. He saw Vlad lacing up his shoes by the front door from his position at the bottom of the stairs. The teen really had no idea how this conversation would actually go, but he didn’t have the time to contemplate another plan. He’d reopened the watch, to see if it really was counting down, and to his dismay it was. It read out around 3 hours till midnight now, or because it was going backwards, about 3am. Vlad snatched up the keys to the front door before gesturing over to Danny. “You ready to go?” He stuffed the keys into his pocket as he watched an increasingly anxious Danny. No. I’m not ready to leave. I need more time, but life’s never fair. Danny took a deep breath before answering, “Of course I am.” Really, it was now or never.

Vlad and Danny crossed the street heading towards the park from the day before. It was relatively close, and more significantly, likely empty. They had already picked up some cheap Tasty Burger, the predecessor to the Nasty Burger, food. All that was left was a place to talk. With his head in the clouds, work on the best outline he could create for the ensuing conversation, the ten blocks passed in a blink of an eye. It is true; time is relative. Danny pondered darkly. Just earlier this morning, listening to his mother and Vlad flirt, it had barely inched by. Now that he was on a time limit, and he needed more it, time was racing away from him, carrying the proverbial sand away like hurricanes moved dirt. The entrance to the park appeared on his left, the gaping maw reminding him how deep a hole he had dug for himself the last week. There was so much to explain, and nowhere near enough time to do it in. Danny glanced at the timepiece around his neck one final time, before heading inside. It was already 11:30am, and his time was draining from the familiar hourglass faster than he could shovel it back. I hope he listens. Vlad relaxed into the wood of the picnic table across from Danny. The meeting had been sudden on Danny’s part, but he was more than willing to listen if this was about what he supposed it was. He reached into the grease streaked paper sack after his burger and fries, before handing it over to Danny.

Danny leaned over to grab the sack, and the Time Medallion slipped from under his shirt. “What’s that?” Vlad asked curious. Danny looked down at the time piece dangling on his neck before scowling. “Just a family heirloom.” He reached over, grabbed the bag, and began unwrapping the burger before jumping into the conversation he’d been dreading. “I wanted to ask you about your powers. I mean, I haven’t met anyone else with them, so I don’t know what’s normal or not.” Vlad smiled and set down his burger. “Oh just typical ghost powers, invisibility, intangibility, ecto-blasts, solid ectoplasm manifestations, ecto-shields, that kinda thing. I can’t think of anything really unusual, even the teleportation is a rarer, but normal ghost power. How about yourself?” Danny felt himself easing into the discussion. This wasn’t really related to what he needed to talk about, but he needed to work up his nerve about that. “Same. Well everything except the teleportation, and I can’t really make solid ectoplasm. Oh! But I can easily change shapes in ghost form, so like I can make a hole in my middle, or something like that.” Danny decided against mentioning his ghostly wail. It was nearly completely unique, Ember’s own vocal powers notwithstanding, and he didn’t really want questions about it coming up. “Why don’t I make good on that promise to teach you to teleport later tonight? After dinner, when it gets dark, we should be able to practice easily.” “I’d love to! But I mean, I don’t know.” “Don’t worry about anyone seeing us. The Fentons’ only have monitoring devices near their house, and anyone else in this town would be simple to avoid.” “No it’s not that, it’s just…” I’m not going to be here to take up that offer. “I haven’t really said anything about my accident. I mean, mine was more like an explosion,” controlled explosion, “so I was wondering how Maddie and Jack are ok if they were in the same area with you.” “Oh? Well I guess that is rather incongruous isn’t it? Well our proto-portal didn’t explode or anything ghastly like that. The opening to the Ghost World wasn’t really stable. It opened for a few seconds; I could see the green swirling environment inside the portal. It was paradoxically both thick, I couldn’t see anything through the opening, and tenuous, it seemed completely gaseous despite that thickness. I haven’t seen anything like it really. It was more like a very dense green fog.” Vlad paused to finish off the last of his fries. “Anyway, like I said the opening wasn’t stable. It closed in a matter of seconds, but instead of simply blinking out of existence like a natural portal, it…” Vlad stopped searching for the right phrase, “it, the energy needed to hold the portal open flashed outward when it suddenly destabilized. It wasn’t like an explosion, because the structure holding it was sound, unlike I suspect what the Guys in White made; it was more like a focused ray of highly energetic ecto-energy. I was standing right in front of the portal when the opening collapsed and so…” Vlad trailed off, the ending obvious. Danny frowned, he needed to swing the conversation around this way, but he wasn’t going to enjoy it. “Well, I didn’t really have any symptoms of spectral radiation poisoning or whatever, so do you have any idea why that is?” Danny watched Vlad’s shoulder’s square and his eyes narrow. He really didn’t want to go here, but there was only 45 minutes left, and he needed to get this out. “The major symptoms from the accident weren’t from the explosive spectral energy itself. The-Do you know how artificial portals are made?” Danny shook his head no, and glanced down at his wristwatch. He truly needed the Cliff Note’s version of this explanation. “One of the most important components is a filtration system. A lot of the ectoplasm from the Ghost World isn’t pure energy. It’s contaminated with small pieces of otherworldly…DNA of sorts. Other than the energy needed to punch through a natural weak point in the fabric between the worlds, the filtration system is the most important part. Without it, the opening won’t stay stable, the strands of debris block or pinch off the newly formed opening. It’s why the vast majority of natural portals last only seconds.” “Vast majority?” Danny interrupted. “Yes. There are some natural permanent openings into the Ghost World. For example-” “You were saying about the filtration system?” He had to stay on track, half an hour to go. “Yes well,” Vlad looked a little confused with how fast Danny changed subjects, but continued quickly. “In the proto-portal, not only was it not powerful enough to support a stable permanent opening, but the filtration system was compromised.” “How?” Vlad grit his teeth, as the memory of Jack’s extreme incompetence flitted back to the front of his mind. “Jack.” Vlad hissed. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves before continuing, “instead of using the proper filtration fluid, he poured diet coke into the machine. Even if the machine would have held out for a few hours normally, with no filtration fluid, it failed almost immediately, and in the most spectacular way possible.” He crossed his arms and tapped one foot against the ground, wanting to get out some of his agitation about the memory. “Wow. I mean, that sucks and all, but it can’t be so bad. I mean you got ghost powers out of it so-“ “You really think that makes up for losing three years of my life to probing, prodding, and pain? And let me tell you, I’ve finally come to terms with my half-ghost status, but when my powers first showed up I was distraught, to put it lightly. I’ve wanted to hunt ghosts since my freshman year of college, and I’ve always been curious about the supernatural, and now I was very thing I wanted to capture. Worse, I didn’t have any control over my powers. Every second was a constant fight to avoid them manifesting in front of someone else. God knows what they would have done to me if they found out. And to top it all off, that bumbling buffoon had the nerve, the utter gall to court the woman I love right in front of me. That-” “Wait what?” Now Danny was confused. As far as he knew, his dad had no idea about Vlad’s feelings. “When I was first admitted into the hospital, Maddie came to visit me often. I was too sick at first to really appreciate the company, but after the first month there, when I was more awake than unconscious, it was the highlight of my day. At first it was just her visiting, but then Jack got around to seeing about me.” Vlad’s tone turned from soft to nasty in the course of a single sentence. “At first I didn’t want to be bothered with him, but he insisted and wanted to apologize, and did, multiple times. I was still sore about the whole thing, my life being in danger still, but I was willing to think about accepting it. I was about to let the matter go, when he came up to my room late one night, just before visiting hours were over. He said he was too excited to let it wait until the morning, so I let him up. What he said next, ruined any chance for forgiveness from me. He told me, he’d just invited Maddie out to dinner…that he was in love with her. I was speechless. Before I could think of something to say, he storms out of the room, promising all the sordid details when he returned. To make matters worse, every time they visited after that, I could watch them like a time-lapse film, falling deeper in love with each other. It was utterly sickening. For awhile I wasn’t sure what was going to kill me first, the poisoning or the heartbreak.” Vlad’s eyes flashed red, threatening with a look that could set something ablaze. “I’m sure he didn’t, I mean there’s no way he-” “That he what? Knew about how I felt? Are you trying to tell me a 14 year old boy can figure out I’m in love, but my supposed best friend couldn’t?” “I well-maybe! Jack isn’t the most perceptive person on the planet.” “And you’re a mind-reading deep thinker.” Vlad replied drolly. “No! But-” “Why are you defending him?” Vlad practically screamed across at Danny. “This man ruined my life, stole the woman I love, and is apparently more irresponsible than the federal government with a budget. What is there to defend?” “Jack is not a bad person! He may be goofy, and kinda absent-minded, but he’s a great inventor and a dedicated father.” “You said the like you’re related or something.” Vlad sneered. Danny bit his lip to keep from responding. He was “related or something” after all. “All I’m saying is, maybe you should give him the benefit of the doubt.” “I don’t see why I should.” “Because all of that anger and hate is going to drive you crazy. I mean just look at yourself. You can’t think about him without wanting to blow something up, or snapping at whomever is talking about him.” Danny sighed and glanced at his watch, ten minutes to go, and the goal line was still a mile away. “Listen, I know you hate this guy, and I understand, really.” Danny emphasized the last word in response to Vlad’s skeptical look. “I can’t stand my foster father, he’s practically responsible for my parent’s deaths, but even I know I can’t spend all my life hating him. If you feel this strongly about something, it blocks out everything else.” Vlad rolled his eyes. He wasn’t about to be lectured by a kid. “Come on Dan-” “No listen to me.” Five minutes left. He had to hurry now. “I know you say you love Maddie-” “And I do whether or not-” “Stop interrupting!” Four minutes. “Alright, I know you do, but just hear me out. How can you have room inside to hate Jack so much and love Maddie so much at the same time? There’s only so much room in one heart, and on some level you have to have stronger feels for one of them.” “Are you-” “Vlad shut up, damn it!” Only two minutes now; had to make it count. “If it came down to choosing, to picking which of the emotions were stronger, which one is the most important? Would it be hating Jack, or loving Maddie? If you didn’t have a choice but pick one, which one would it be?” Vlad shook his head in confusion. “Daniel, what are you talking about?” 63 seconds… 62 seconds… 61 seconds…I will not fail. “I’m…I’m saying, my existence depends on your answer! If you can’t pick which one is more important, I’ll-I’ll never exist!” “Don’t be ridiculous!” “You know that Medallion I showed you earlier? Well it’s a time traveling device clean out of Back to the Future. That’s where I’m from, and if you can’t forgive Jack, then I’ll never be born, and we’ll never meet. My time here is almost up.” Danny pulled out the Medallion again, clicking the latch to expose the count down inside. His explanation was a bold faced lie, but it was the best he could come up with. The timer was down to only 10 seconds now. “Daniel, I-” Vlad started before Danny began to bleed away. He was turning more invisible by the microsecond. “Alright. I’ll do it, just don’t-” He stopped short as Danny blinked out of existence. “Disappear…” Vlad finished. He hadn’t believed him until he had started vanishing. Suddenly, everything made a crazy kind of sense. He couldn’t tell him about his family, or his hometown, or anything really, because it would reveal the future. His sudden appearance, everything he knew about him and the Fentons’ everything was cast in a new light. Now, he was gone, and as far as Vlad knew, he’d stay that way unless he found it in himself to let a nearly five year grudge die. It was a hard decision. But Danny’s words from earlier made it easier. Which one is the most important? Would it be hating Jack, or loving Maddie? If you didn’t have a choice but pick one, which one would it be?” The decision was easy enough when put like that. If he couldn’t do both, then he’d chose love. He sighed and placed his face into his hands. I just hope this is the right decision.

He was falling, drifting, and getting used to the sensations brought on from waking up after a time traveling episode. It seems his calculations were right on the money about how much time he had left. Danny sat up and looked around him. He was in the Human World at least, and from the looks of it, he was in Amity Park too. He only hazily recognized the area in his still disoriented state, but it was safe to say he was close to his house. Danny looked down at the cool dark green where he was sitting, wriggling his legs to work the feeling back into them, before glancing back up. He was met with the bright wide eyes of a child. That’s when he realized; he was still in the park right next to his own house. Danny jumped back from her startled inquisitive face as she rushed away from him. He rubbed the back of his neck, and noticed the Medallion still settled solidly around his neck. I guess I have to take this to Clockwork in person. Danny thought while pushing himself from the ground. It was only a few minutes’ walk from Fentonworks’, but it gave Danny plenty of time to think. There was so much about home that he missed. He could see Jazz, finally bigger and older like he remembered, sitting around near his window, nervous because he’d been gone all night. He could see his parents, so angry their faces were red promising a grounding like he’s never had. He could already hear his phone being blasted up by texts from his best friends. And despite the fact he knew he’d been gone all night, and that everyone would be furious at him, he was glad for it. Everyone being angry meant that life was how it was supposed to be. In a few days, his parents would be working on their inventions on the kitchen table. His sister would be lecturing him about needing to study and trying to meddle in his ghost hunting. His friends would be laughing and wide-eyed over his stories from the past. Most of all, his life would be normal, and to top it all off, if that trip was even remotely worth the effort, Vlad would no longer be throwing him through walls and trying to marry his mother. Danny rounded the last corner to Fentonworks’ heedless to the multiple devices that blinked to life in his wake. He drifted down the block in a preoccupied daze, before stopping to get a good look at his home. What in the- “Hell?” Danny finished his thought out loud. Fentonworks’ looked nothing like it did when he left. The red brick building had been replaced by a steel and white futuristic piece. Clean and austere lines cut through the now dome shaped complex, a direct antithesis of the rectangular block that used to represent Fentonworks. Gone was the ostentatious neon sign his father had placed on the building. Gone were the Fenton RV and the majority of the normal structures for a building, like windows and doors. The building was also twice the size of the normal Fentonworks’, and Danny was left wondering how he missed the bright white building for so long. A tendril of solid dread slid down his spine and settled into his stomach. Danny bushed it off. It was entirely possible that Fentonworks’ had gotten an upgrade. The building looked high-end and expensive all of the hallmarks of Vlad. Chances were, with Vlad as an actual family friend, instead of just pretending, his parents had the money to make some serious changes. This is actually a good sign. If everything was exactly the same, then my trip would have been for nothing. This is…good. Danny rationalized to himself, trying to calm the ever growing pit of concern in his gut. I just need to see my parents, to see Jazz, or even just to see Sam and Tucker. Everything will be fine then. Everything is fine now. Just a few more steps and you’ll be in an even cooler house than when you left. Danny stopped in front of the only thing resembling an entrance on the pristine white dome. He took a deep breath and reached for the handle… Bright red lights and a deep booming siren echoed from the bright building, its emergency lights rivaled the bathing red of the setting sun in color. Several large crashes issued from within the structure followed by a couple of megaphones shooting from the top of the dome. Ghost alert! Ghost alert! The megaphones announced into the surrounding area. Danny took a few hesitant steps back. What was going on here? Sure some of his parents’ equipment detected him everyone once in awhile, but the “battin down the hatches!” level response had never happened before. Before Danny knew what hit him, nearly half a dozen white uniform clad men had rushed from the domed building. They formed a semi-circle, pinning Danny in between the building and their quickly raised guns. “You’ve got nowhere to run ghost! We’ve got you surrounded.” The apparent leader of the quickly growing group announced. Danny turned his back to the entrance to the dome and backed away from the gun totting men. How in the world do they know I have ghost powers? This must be a mistake. “Ghost? There’s no ghost here.” Denial seemed like the best option at the moment. The leader scoffed and centered the gun’s sights over Danny’s chest. “You must think I’m stupid or something. You may look human, but I know as well as you do that you are a ghost hybrid. So cut the crap brat, and tell me why you’re here.” The tendril of dread that had been steadily growing in the pit of Danny’s stomach now felt more like a burning coal than a twisted knot. He wasn’t sure how or why they knew he was half ghost, but at this point it didn’t matter. Every second he stood here, more men ran up and pointed weapons at him. He had to get out of here. Danny passed his eyes over the white uniformed men, taking a quick judge of their numbers, before turning intangible and slipping through the concrete. He could hear the sharp whine and rattling booms of ecto-weapons being fired right above him, where he had been standing only seconds ago. Despite the fact these men somehow knew about his halfa status, Danny decided to transform under the pavement. Something told him it was important. With only a second more to gather his nerves, Danny rocketed, still intangible, out of the ground, flying off away from the firing men. As soon as the half ghost teen had slipped through the concrete, the men had changed tactics. They dawned goggles to counteract his invisibility, ones that detected the spectral energy a ghost gave off when exerting even the slightest amount of power, and pulled weapons designed to overcome the effects of ghostly intangibility by firing in phase with the intangible ghost. They laid down suppression fire, to keep the ghost distracted, and waited. Soon enough, the ghost had shot back up from the pavement near them, and they were able to take several clear as day shots. Danny cried out when a couple well aimed blasts slammed into him while still intangible. That had never happened before, and quite frankly, while he previously had been nervous, now he was completely terrified. Every time he looked down, there were even more men following and shooting at him. Despite the fact he was both invisible and intangible, he had been hoping to avoid a fight at all costs, they were hot on his trail and continuing to pepper him with blasts that caused damage. Danny dropped invisibility and intangibility, they didn’t seem to be helping in any case, and poured on the speed. If he couldn’t hide from them, then he would out run them, and he was one of the fastest ghosts in the Zone. The leader of the white uniformed men watched impassively from his position inside the center of operations, the white dome. They had picked up readings that a ghost was nearby when the young man had turned down this street, but the thing about hybrids was, they were hard to detect conclusively. They had to be nearly on top of you for the equipment to sense them, all of that human got in the way of proper readings. Still, he’d been leading here for awhile now, and he’d never seen a hybrid just walk straight towards one of the ops centers like that. It was just too damn risky, and he didn’t know them to take unnecessary risks. “Energy report?” He looked over at one of his lead scientists currently crunching the data on the hybrid ghost they had just encountered. “Well, he’s definitely a hybrid alright, and his energy is pretty similar to one we have on record.” “But?”

“But, it’s not an exact match sir. Off hand, I’d say it’s nearly 95%, but that’s well below the margin of error for this machine.” The scientist narrowed his eyes and tapped a few more seconds into the key board. “The most I can say is, he’s likely related in some way to the hybrids we know, or this is a ghost very good at imitating human form.”

“How likely is the second option?” The first option was nearly impossible, considering the creature’s apparent age. They kept great tabs on all of the existing hybrids. “It is possible, but not likely. That old ghost we captured in the human world ten years ago now, Spectra? She was great at imitating human form as long as she could suck energy from human beings, but even that was only to the naked eye. If there were any through scans, like the stuff we can perform, she’d only come out 35-40% human. This ghost on the other hand is a solid 50% on deep scans, which is why we know he’s a hybrid. He also looks nearly 90% on surface scans even with the use of his powers in human form, so it’s unlikely this is a ghost, unless it has talent unlike anything we’ve ever encountered before.” The tech finished his explanation and tapped his chin in thought. “Actually sir, if my energy scans from the battle are correct, there’s no way this isn’t a hybrid.” The leader at this point was keying in a few passwords to contact HQ. They needed to know about this immediately. “Why is that?” “Because from the information I’m getting, this creature is making its own energy, something only hybrids can do.” “Then perhaps it is for the best I contact my superior officer. I’m sure he’d love to know where a brand new hybrid came from. Maybe if we are luckily, the thing will lead us back to the rest of the nest.” The leader turned away from the screen to call in spotting a ghost hybrid. This ought to get me promoted out of this shit-hole piece of nowhere, and into the real action in the Rockies. He finished his call and concentrated back on the live feed in front of him, this little hybrid could prove to be useful. Danny was flying like a thing possessed. No matter what he did, he couldn’t lose the men below him. They were stuck to him like white on rice. Or maybe white on those stupid suits they are wearing. Danny dodged another couple of blasts and shot off in another direction. Everywhere he went, there was still more men. Either they had completely surrounded all of Amity Park, or they were able to predict his flight pattern, and well he thought he was being random. Danny had thought these men were the Guys in White, but they were just way too competent. Not only that, but their weapons were like nothing he’d ever seen before. In between the invisibility scopes, which he’d seen Skulker use before once or twice, and the still-can-hit-you-while-intangible guns-which were new-, Danny was positive this wasn’t the Guys in White he knew. Even if they have the same dorky outfits. He thought while zooming off towards the westernmost edge of town. Flying directly into the setting sun had bought him some much needed time while they adjusted their scopes, and now he was a solid 500 yards away from the nearest gunner. Danny took a deep breath and flew at his top speed. Now that he didn’t have to keep changing directions, he didn’t have to fly as slowly, and he hoped his 200+ miles an hour flight would keep him out of harm’s way. The commander leading the field operatives watched as their target zoomed away. The current operations leader for all of Amity Park was making a mess of things. He had called into HQ to inform them of the situation, but he barely had any information to give them. He had squawked and clucked like an ignorant chicken while their target flew literal circles around them. Now, with how fast it was flying, there was no way to catch it on the ground from their position. Worse, the creature had somehow flown out of the encircled area their men had created to capture it. If they wanted to keep tabs on this creature, they’d need air back-up. She frowned. That would require a call to the men upstairs. Still, this was the best lead they’d gotten in years, and she wasn’t about to just let it fly off. The field commander picked up her solid communicator; the wrist communicator was filled with too much cross traffic. “Command this is Agent J.” “This is communications officer Q, how may I direct your request?” “Hey Quinn, I’m in Amity and we’ve got a situation level five on our hands with a level 7.3 confirmed hybrid. I’m requesting a patch through to HQ for Bravo air support with Alpha support on stand-by.” “Come on Agent J, you know we aren’t supposed to use real names over the non-secure lines.” Quinn scolded. “Whatever. When was the last time me and Head Commander had to be out in the field?” “I…-” “Exactly.” Agent J finished with a dismissive wave. “Is your bogey hostile?” Quinn asked ignoring the quip from several hundred miles away while routing the call through to D.C. “Negative, but that could be entirely contingent on its perception of our threat level. It’s currently flying due west at approximately 105 m/s-” “Jesus Agent J, how are you all keeping up?” Quinn interrupted just as the call connected with Washington. “We aren’t Quinn, that’s why I’m calling for air back up.” “Good luck.” Quinn added just as the call switched over to HQ. “Talk to me.” A commanding voice on the other end of the line demanded. “Head command, this is Agent J; I’m leading the field operatives in Amity.” “Good commander, I was just about to request that incompetent Agent F stand down. You’re now temporary head of operations in Amity.” “Yeah, you’re just lucky I was breezing through town on a routine facility tour. Head Commander, authorize my air support so we can get this birthday cake lit.” The voice on the other end chuckled mirthlessly. “No problem Agent J, but I want it brought back alive at all costs.” “You got it sir, and trust me Commander; you know I’ve got this under control. One last thing, is this line secure?” Agent J had a tech pull up the flight path of her air support. They were coming in hot, two minutes max. “I’ve dismissed the listeners and recording systems, what’ve you got Jill?’ He’d known his second in command and favorite operative for years now, “secure” was her basically asking for privacy. “Commander, the tech’s say he’s a close match and I know that’s what your data screen says, but it’s bullshit. This isn’t Hostile 2nd Priority; I know the creature as well as you do. This is just too damn stupid for him.” “Oh I am well aware Jill, don’t worry about that. Just make sure you capture this new hybrid and await further instructions.” Jill nodded from the other side of the phone as the roar of the jets closed in overhead. “Oh and Jillian? Try to bring back this ghost with all of its limbs still attached. I need it coherent for questioning.” Jill smiled as the modified F-2’s rattled her jeep from the sky. “No promises.” She closed the line as the jets closed in on her bogey. Let’s see you out run these, punk. Danny was closing in on the Amity-wide ghost shield with a vengeance. He didn’t know where he was going, but he knew it needed to be away from Amity. Just as the bright blue glow,-how in the hell did I miss that?- turned purple by the setting sun, became more wall like than dome; Danny heard the rolling boom of two Mach speed fighter jets coming from behind him. He took his eyes off the shield for a moment to glance behind him. The jets were coming in faster than their target would get to the shield. They were sure of it. Most importantly, there was nowhere for it to run; even though hybrids could get past ghost shields, there was nothing but open air space for them to shoot at. Danny suddenly wished he had taken up Vlad on the teleporting lessons; he could really use them at the moment. A quick assessment of the situation later, Danny made a sharp dive heading straight down towards the earth. If I phase through the ground, I’ll avoid the shield and the planes. A burst of static bleed through the cockpit of the rightmost plane, “Air Support one, what is the status of the pursuit?” “We maintain visual confirmation on the bogey; it is currently in a vertical dive towards the pavement. Authorize use of force.” The pilot of the fighter jet responded. “Use of force authorized, please keep in mind gentlemen, the Head Commander wants this ghost captured alive, and in, relatively, one piece. So mind your manners.” “Can do Operations Leader, deploying first round of missiles.” The rightmost pilot pressed a few buttons to ready the armaments and turn on the guidance system. “Alright Air Support two, let’s give this ghost something to actually fly away from.” “Roger that.” The leftmost plane replied, before firing a single missile from its belly. The rightmost plane followed suit, and soon there were two small projectiles head right for Danny’s position. He was closing in on the ground, just a few hundred yards to go. For a second, Danny thought this was too easy, and then he heard the whine and boom of the missiles behind him. He turned just in time to see the projectiles close within 100 yards of him, before shooting up and forward towards the ghost shield again. The missiles performed a stunningly sharp direction change, shutting off their main rocket exhaust and turning on a pair of smaller jets on their belly to slow and change the trajectory of their flight. After reorienting themselves, tail down, the rockets’ main jets switched on, propelling them after Danny.

“You have got to be kidding me!” Danny whined as the missiles refocused themselves on his person. He frowned and executed a series of spiraling dives to throw the missiles off to no avail. They stuck to him like glue, gaining on him fast. Danny flew back towards the center of Amity Park, and then changed directions sharply to the north. Nothing he did shook the missiles loose. “It’s like they’re magnetized to me or something.” Danny noted swinging around towards the western most edge of town, missiles still on his tail. He looked away, just for a second, and when he looked back, the fighter jets were hovering directly in front of him, a thousand yards out.

“This is Flyer T for the United States Governmental Spectral Unit: Air Division. Ghost, you are flying in highly restricted air space and are hereby remanded into the custody of the GSU. Continue to resist capture, and we will be authorized to use lethal force.” “The GSU? Well that answers the question about the Guys in White,” Danny said while glancing back to gauge the remaining distance in between him and the missiles. There was a good chance those missiles were locked onto his signature somehow. “I’d like to apologize to the US government in advance for property damage.” Danny said while heading directly for the leftmost plane. “Property damage? What’s this brat talking about?” the leftmost jet pilot asked. The ghost may have been annoyingly hard to shot down, but it hadn’t thrown a single ecto-blast yet. The rightmost jet pilot gasped, “Tony! The creature’s flying right towards you!” The leftmost pilot let out a barrage of ecto-uranium charged bullets. Danny dived in between the sweeping lines of projectiles, never changing paths from his target. At the last second, he dove away from the cockpit of the fighter jet, and attempted to phase through the wing of the plane. Danny slammed into the wing of the plane, shearing it off, and throwing it and himself into a head spin. Danny regained control of his flight, in time to watch the jet crash into a brick building below. He shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears and started at the sight of the two missiles still shooting towards him. The ghost powered teen shot off towards the edge of the Amity Park shield again, missiles still trailing behind him. Danny had hoped to phase through the wing of the plane, and have at least one of the missiles blow up the wing, but it seemed he couldn’t phase through whatever material those jets were made out of. The remaining pilot hovered for a second over the crash site. “Flyer T, can you hear me?” A foreboding silence pervaded the space inside his cockpit before a static laced replied crackled through his head phones. “Yeah, I can hear you just fine. I’m floating down in my parachute, there’s no way I’m going to be able to get back on this mission. Do me a favor, and light that bastard up for me Flyer G.” The slowly descending pilot from the crashed jet requested. “Can do Flyer T. I’ll send your favorite his way.” The remaining pilot pulled up and away from the crash site. After reorienting himself towards the westernmost edge of the Amity shield, he shot off towards his bogey. He had a little payback to issue. Danny still had two missiles on his trail, but he finally had an idea on how to lose them. Since these things were locked onto his ecto-signature, if it disappeared they should get “confused”- and explode or something-. Not the best plan, but he knew these things were smart enough to head towards the last place they felt a signal. Plus, in order to get through the shield, he needed to transform back into his human form, but he needed to time this perfectly. Danny began building up a ball of ecto-energy in his hands, concentrating it to a bright lime green. The shield was within 200 yards of him now. Let’s hope I have good timing. The last fighter jet zoomed in behind Danny, lining up for the perfect shot. With the glow in its arms, it looked like the creature was up to something, and Flyer G wasn’t going to take any chances. Besides, there is no kill like overkill. He thought with malicious glee, as he primed a new weapon to fire. His finger hovered over the button just long enough to say, “I hope you’ll forgive me Agent J, but this ghost is too dangerous to leave in one piece. Don’t worry though; I’ll leave you enough corpse chunks to have fun with.” A thin projectile fired from the weapons’ cache in the belly of the plane, zipping off towards an unawares Danny. The shield was 100 yards away now, and the concentrated ecto-blast was ready. I just hope this works. Danny gave as one final passing thought, before flipping to fly face up and firing the blast behind and above him. Immediately afterward, the ghost teen transformed, slipping in human form, past the now sun ruddy purple of the Amity Park ghost shield. He began arching down without the control flight his ghost powers allotted him, but he still didn’t transform. Come on… Danny thought waiting for the resonating boom of the missiles detonating. He didn’t have to wait long. Soon, there was a satisfying boom washing through the air. The missiles had made contact with a combination of Danny’s feint ghost attack and each other, and were now floating down to the earth and crumpled up metallic pieces. Flyer G had just gotten the attack off, when the missiles that had been so faithfully following the ghost hybrid veered off their pursuit. Instead, they chased after a fired blob of the creature’s ghost energy and were heading right for him! He barely had time to eject, before the missile, the energy, and his several million dollar jet all went up in a massive smoky explosion. Flyer G jolted in his parachute connected seat, safely away from the crashing fiery wreckage that was his plane. He frowned, not knowing whether or not his last attack had gotten through the explosion, but knowing when he landed Agent J was going to give him an ear full. “Just my god damn luck, and I was up for a promotion too.” Flyer G shrugged helplessly in his seat. Danny couldn’t help the smug smile that tugged on his lips after the sound of the explosion. He quickly transformed to his alternate persona, regaining control over his previously wayward downward flight. He had leveled out just at rooftop level, when he felt a twinge in his lower back. Just as he reached around to feel out what hit him, a surge of painful electricity arced through his body. Before he could react, he found himself writhing in pain on the roof of some old brick building just outside the shield. Soon, though, the effect wore off, and he regained control of his facilities. “Uhg, what the hell hit me?” Danny asked as he reached around for the area he had felt the twinge in before. His sightless groping was rewarded with two inch diameter of something sticking out of his back. He winced before pulling the business end out of his body and brought it around to his front. It was white like the rest of the stuff the GSU used, but other than that, it was completely nondescript. The end of it came to a sharp point that was currently coated in dark green ectoplasm. There was nothing to suggest where the electricity had come from. Danny tossed the offending weapon away and off of the roof. He shrugged himself off of the ground and turned back towards the glowing ghost shield, its color fading back into blue with the final death throes of the sunset. The teen super hero massaged the sore spot on his back before reaching for the cold part of his being that represented his ghostly half…and reaching…and reaching. Danny started as he realized he could no longer feel his ghost half. The more he reached down, the more empty he got, almost as if the energy just slipped through his fingers faster the harder he tried to grasp down on it. It’s almost like- “my powers got shorted out!” Danny voiced the rest of his thought in shock. The dart thing, the electricity must have shorted out my powers like a ‘Plasmius Maximus’. Oh shit, I have no powers and I’m standing on a roof top in a town full of hostile ghost hunters. Not. Good. Danny realized panicked. He raced for the door to the roof; he needed some place to hide.

Agent J slammed her hands against the data console. They had just lost the signal of the hybrid right outside the Amity wide ghost shield. That incompetent fighter pilot not only lost visual sights on the creature, but shot it with a power shorting dart. Now, the ghost was without powers, but they couldn’t pick it up on their equipment either. It would take nearly 12 hours for the dart to wear off in a ghost the hybrid’s strength, and worse, being part human and with no clear visual representation of what its human form looked like, the records of its approach were suspiciously blurry every time they could get a good look at it, it could slip right out of the city unimpeded. They couldn’t very well set up a total blockade of the greater Amity area, and they had no probable cause to search every teenager in the area on suspicions of being half ghost. They had basically lost him, and all because of the dumbass Flyer G. When she got a hold of his superior officer… “Operations Leader?” One of the techs peered into her temporary command center. They had all cleared out when it become obvious they had lost their quarry. The current Operations Leader had a reputation for being hot tempered, violent, and a consummate perfectionist. None of them wanted to be around her when the waste hit the proverbial air circulating device. “The only reason you should be interrupting me is to announce the capture of that hybrid. Unless the ghost invasion apocalypse is happening outside, his capture should have taken place by now.” Agent J hated having her concentration interrupted. There were still ways to track the creature, but she needed time to properly create the net. “Um, no Operations Leader, but I do have a call here from Head Command. They want a status update. I tried to wave them off, but they won’t take anyone but you, and they’re so…” “ Persistent? Yes I’m well aware. Patch them through to this room.” Agent J said as the tech scurried off to avoid the coming shitstorm. “Jill, what the hell was that? I’m getting the data from the last few minutes, and it’s one extended clusterfuck.” “Head Commander, did they send a bunch of rookies out of the closest air field? Those pilots got circles flown around them by some new comer of a ghost.” “Jill, I expected you to keep this situation under control, just what am I supposed to report to the rest of Command? To my superiors in Washington wondering why they are ‘wasting money’ on our Department? There hasn’t been a sighting of ghosts, especially not a hybrid, in years, and my organization bungles it up. Shit. Goddamn it Jill, you said you had this under control.” “I did Head Commander, and I still do. My damn air support was a couple of hot shots who wanted to try out new tech without clearance. Bring it up with the people at Ft. Grayson. Tell them to train their boys better. Listen, I have a plan to get this ghost captured-” “Don’t worry about it. I know the creature’s powerless right now, but that’s not such a bad thing. It can’t cause any problems, but right now it’s vulnerable, and feeling it. It’s going to be lying low anyway, so it won’t leave the area. You don’t have to worry about it getting far, chances are it can’t go anywhere far without using its powers to fly. Most importantly, this gives us an opportunity.” “Just what are you thinking of Commander?” Jill leaned closer to the speaker of the two way video. “We can pull back for now. I’m sure the creature will think we just lost track of it without its powers to follow. Obviously, as soon as its powers return we’ll be able to pick up its signature again, so that’s no problem. However, with no one visibly following it, it will relax into complacency, allowing us to follow it back to its origins without further confrontation.” “You are suggesting we give up the chase for the next few hours to gain stealth later?” Jill leaned back and crossed her arms. It was a good plan, but it still could backfire on them. “Precisely. We’ll use the orbital satellites to track his ecto-signature’s movements, and move in when he stops for any significant period of time. Say anything over 24 hours.” The Head Commander gathered up the pile of paper in front of him. “I have to go give a brief to the Joint Chiefs of Staff about this little incident. Tell Agent F he has command over Amity Park again, and come back to HQ. I could use your support over the next 48 hours.” The Head Commander finished his instructions while placing the last of his data into his brief case. “Alright. I’ll hand over command here and be on the next plane back to Washington. Though Head Commander, before the meeting when I return, I’d like to discuss my observations with you personally.” “Agreed. I’ll see you in a few hours Jill. Make sure the situation is under control, press release, clean-up, hush-up, and the whole nine yards as needed. We don’t need the hybrid sighting getting into any media outlets. You have my explicit authorization for any actions you deem necessary to take.” “Glad to have your trust so unambiguously.” Jill responded lightly. “Just make sure you don’t make me look like an idiot Jill, and you’ll keep getting it. Head Command out.” Jill nodded her farewell and snapped a regulation salute into the visual two-way. She grimaced nearly as soon as the screen faded. She hated dealing with civilians and clean-up, but orders were orders. She strode purposefully out of the temporary field command center, crossing the space between it and the reforming ranks of field operatives in Amity Park. Agent J looked over the disgruntled expanse of officers with a similar feeling of frustration. They hated as much as she did letting a quarry escape. “Gentlemen, I’ve just finished talking with Head Command, and under direct orders we are to disengage from the target from here on out. The operations and monitoring for this creature will be handled at HQ. We are to immediately start on clean up and damage minimizing.” The standing group of officers broke out into a combination of murmurs and frowns. They had never let such a dangerous ghost go free before, shorted out powers or not. “Operations Commander-” “That’s an order men, no room for questioning here. Also, I hereby remand control of Amity Park back to Agent F. I need to control the civilian side of this equation, so if you need me, look for the paparazzi buzzards.” Agent J stepped from in front of the gathered men just as Agent F stepped onto the platform to reassess his authority. She needed to talk to the press, but there was one thing she had to do first. She walked out of the hastily erected tent that signified their meeting place and into the last rays of the setting sun. Jillian looked towards the medical tent where the ejected pilots were getting looked over for injuries, however unlikely their occurrence would be. She stepped inside the tent with a look of thunder fixed on her face. “Just what the hell did you two hot-dogging morons think you were doing up there?” If she had to be stuck with the media all night, she was at least going to get a good ranty bitch out done on those incompetent pilots.

Danny shivered under the darkened night sky. He had a fairly good idea where he was, having visited this part of the greater Amity Park area before on a field trip a few months back. He had quickly jogged down the building he landed on to the street below, and with a few minutes of brisk running, put some distance between his crash site and his current position. Still, he didn’t want to be on the street with all those Guys in White solider upgrades looking for him. So Danny ducked into another building, this one significantly more run-down than the one he had landed on. He needed to stay out of sight, at least until he figured out what was going on. A speeding summary of the last hour rushed through his mind unbidden. The dark interior was covered in dust and damp from the surprising heat. It smelled like mold, mildew, and old unmoved things, but that was a good sign. It meant no one frequented here, and that’s exactly what Danny needed. The exhausted teen wandered out of the moonlit ground floor and down into the dank basement. He slid his right hand along the wet condensation soaked walls as he passed down the staircase. The stairs opened up into a large dark box filled space. Danny quickly leaned against one of the far walls, hidden behind a stack of cardboard boxes. Now that the adrenaline was leaving him, and without his ghost powers, he was utterly drained. Hoping to catch some shut eye, Danny leaned back into his little box and concrete block made cubby-hole, but the day’s events kept replaying in his mind’s eye. Nothing was right, and for the first time in a week, Danny couldn’t blame it on still being stuck in the past. Just as he was about to drift off to sleep, a final thought flitted across his consciousness. What in the world have I done?

…then he might not have changed the past.

#Danny Phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #Phandom #Bittersweet Future #Balshumet's Fanfiction #Balshumet's Baragouin #Chapter Eight

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