"This is getting extremely frustrating!" growled Jack, as they lost Phantom for the umpteenth time. He had just used his new favourite trick of phasing through something extremely solid. Next he would somehow disappear from their ghost detecting equipments view, to escape once again. This time it was a brick wall. Last time it was a tree. Jack still wasn't sure how he hid after passing through a tree, but hide he did.
It had been two weeks from the time when they had first spoken to Phantom. And despite their new and improved Phantom Finder™, they had yet to catch up to the ghost boy since. Not that it was the fault of their invention, of course! It was an altered version of the Fenton Finder, designed specifically to detect abnormally high concentrations of ectoplasmic energy, which pretty much meant Phantom. And it worked wonderfully! It was able to track powerful ghosts while ignoring weaker ones, such as the Box Ghost. Over and over. No, the problem wasn't in the equipment. The problem was Phantom himself.
You see, Jack and Maddie no longer wanted to destroy Phantom and examine the remains and so on. They want to talk to him. After cornering phantom that first time, they had gotten to thinking, what if he wastelling the truth? It'd make a surprising amount of sense, in hindsight. So they set out with the intention of finding the other side of the story.
Now the problem is that Phantom doesn't want to talk. For a long time now, he's had to work at fighting ghosts and defending against ghost hunters, often at the same time. So when he sees the Fenton's trying to catch him now, he can't be sure if they are simply hunting with new vigour. His parents have been strangely quiet about the whole thing, and Danny Fenton can't ask too much without raising suspicion. So now he has to deal with three human ghost hunters crashing his fights, and he is not very happy about it. So he runs.
Maddie looked at the Fenton Finders screen, waiting for what she knew would happen next. After a few moments of losing him through the wall, sure enough, Phantoms dot vanished from sight.
"How does he do that? No other ghost is able to hide from this one; it's the best we've made yet!" Maddie tapped the machine despondently.
"But you have to admit, no other ghost hangs around long enough for us to test that thoroughly. Phantom gets them all so fast. How does he know where they are?" wondered Jack.
For two weeks they had been asking themselves the same questions over and over. For inquisitive minds like theirs, not getting answers was pure torture.
"Technology perhaps? Like the Red Huntress?" she replied. But her heart just wasn't in it right now.
Once again, they drove home without the ghost boy. Jazz was in the kitchen when they arrived. Unfortunately, she was cooking dinner.
"Hi mom, dad! Ho luck, huh?" she said in greeting. Of course she already knew that they hadn't captured Danny, he'd already come and gone after his parents latest attempt. Danny said that he was going to Tuck's to stay the night. He told her there was slightly less chance of food poisoning that way.
"Hey Jazzypants. What's cooking?" asked Jack, priorities as straight as ever.
"I'm afraid not honey. We don't know how to catch him, we just never know where he'll be until he's there. If only we knew where his haunt was!" sighed Maddie wistfully. She shook her head, "In any case...is that the new type 3 ecto-sample on the stove?"
"Nope! That's in the fridge next to dad's backup fudge. It came in today after I got home from school. I'm trying a new recipe. That's the pea and avocado puree...or was it the potato and parsley paste?" Jazz drifted off while trying to remember what it was she was trying to cook again.
"Sounds great!" enthused Jack. Well, no one could say he wasn't an adventurous eater, that's for sure. "If you need us we'll be in the lab. We're working on our latest invention to catch Phantom!"
"As usual. Maybe D-Phantom doesn't want to be caught and torn apart, have you thought of that?" she asked seriously. She had seen how stressed Danny had been lately, and knew it was because of her parents. To herself, she added "And where are the fire extinguishers, they used to be in the cupboard in a box under the pasta?"
"Don't worry, we'll ask him after we catch him, princess!" replied her dad, missing the point completely, as he walked downstairs.
"Fire extinguishers are under the sink now, the old boxes kept going missing for some reason." Maddie told her. "And we don't want to destroy him anymore sweetie, didn't we tell you?" She kissed her daughter on the cheek and joined Jack in the lab.
"Oh, no you didn't." said Jazz absently as she turned back to stirring her bubbling...whatever it was.
Then what her mom said hit her. "OH!"
The cars sped around the corners of the mountain. It was a close race. But the three had been driving for quite some time now, and it was beginning to show in their delayed reactions. The engines thundered on.
One driver miscalculated badly, he turned far too wide around a bend, sending him careening over the edge of a canyon that was impossibly deep. If the other drivers heard his anguished cry, they ignored it. The remaining racers drove on; they were nearing the end of the race, last lap, two corners to go...one...
"Ha! I win again boys!" came Sam's triumphant cry as she claimed victory yet again.
Danny threw down his controller in defeat, while next to him Tuck mourned the loss of his favourite car.
"I always fall over that one corner! What is about that one specific, stupid corner!" he griped. "I was coming second too..." He had gone sailing over that cliff in the same place for the last two games so far.
The friends laughed together, it was times like these when they could relax where they noticed how seldom they did.
Danny had opted to spend some much needed time with his friends, in light of all the recent action Phantom has dealt with. His parents were getting really persistent, and he didn't want a repeat of the last time he spoke with them as a ghost. He really had said far too much. So it was decided that there would be a video game and junk food marathon night at Tucker's, because it was a Friday night and Jazz was cooking at home.
"Play again?" challenged Danny. As expected, the challenge was accepted with a grin from Sam and a determined smirk from Tuck.
"I pick the course this time!" He crowed. "Get ready to crash and burn!"
After the obligatory competitive trash talking, the three settled into a peaceful silence with only the occasional explosion interrupting the quiet. But all good things don't last, and eventually the subject of Phantoms troubles was brought up.
"So Danny, how are you coping?" asked Tucker with a grimace as he scraped the side of his car on Sam's. There was no need for Danny to ask what he was talking about.
"Not great," he replied with a frown. "They did say that the 'not destroying me and picking at the remains' thing was for one night only, but I also think Sam's right and they aren't shooting to kill anymore," His car ran over a pickup and he fired a rocket at Tuck. "But I still don't want a repeat performance of that last time."
Tuck dodged the rocket deftly and it hit Sam, sending her spinning off track and out of the lead. She swore quietly and the boys rushed past her.
"Why you little… Fair enough. But they are getting more determined every night. You said they spend more time than usual in the lab, figuring out more ways to track you…" she trailed off as she tried to regain some ground on the boys.
"Yeah, how come the new ghost tracker can't find you when you're human, dude? It's more powerful than the regular one right?" Tucker zigzagged across the road so Sam couldn't pass him. She fired a laser beam at him and it fried his car for a few moments, letting her zoom through.
"More powerful, but way less sensitive," He replied. "It's strong enough to track Phantom across town, but as a human I register less than the Box Ghost standing next to Pariah Dark." And with that, he was bumped off the edge of a cliff by Tuck and had to wait for the race to finish without him. He sighed, "Which is good actually because I'm sick of setting off the ghost alarms in the fridge for getting a midnight snack."
"Ha, take that!" Tucker cheered as he and Sam raced neck and neck for the last stretch of the track. His little driver tossed a mine into Sam's car. "Success!"
"No!" she moaned in dismay as her car exploded in a pixellated fiery doom. "So they've switched all of the alarms to the new ones?"
"Yeah," Danny nodded.
"Wow," Sam mused out loud. "So now they want to talk to you, huh? A pretty far cry from the 'destroy! Destroy the evil ghost boy!' motto against Phantom before. And all you had to do was get smashed through a wall by Vlad!" Sam and Tucker laughed, but Danny just rolled his eyes.
"'His grand frootyness' has been hanging around more lately. I'm worried about whatever he's planning next. All I got is the generic 'kill Jack, marry Maddie' plot-vibe and...I just don't know."
"Could you use their help then? Just call a temporary ceasefire or something?" inquired Tuck, "It does seem like your parents are easing up after all. And you mom kinda kicks butt."
"Yeah…But what if it's just an act? I don't know for sure and they gave me lots of funny looks last time I tried to bring it up." Danny looked sadly at the controller in his hands, as if it could give him the answers he wanted. "How do I know?"
"Well, maybe-," whatever Sam was about to say was cut off by Danny's ghost sense. He sighed in resignation.
"I'd better get this," he said to his friends.
"If you're not back in an hour, we'll assume you parents have caught you and we'll come to your rescue, okay dude?" Tuck joked with an easy grin.
Danny laughed at that, it was great to have friends like them who would stay by his side, for better or worse.
"Thanks," twin rings of light passed over him, and suddenly Phantom was standing in front of them. Tuck handed him his thermos. "I'll hold you to it."
"Go kick ghost butt. We'll be waiting for you."
Tuck and Sam sat together as Danny flew out through the wall. He'd be back, they knew it.
The game sat forgotten with 'Game Over' flashing obnoxiously on the screen.
The wind flattened his hair back as he flew fast to where his ghost sense pointed him. There didn't even seem to be much screaming in the streets, so it probably wasn't a huge threat this time. Danny was relieved, this meant he could quickly get in and get out.
He arrived on the scene, it was just a weak ghost terrorising the corner store in town. Throwing merchandise around and pulling scary faces and the like.
"Easy," he murmured to himself. The weak blob of a ghost looked up in what might have passed for dismay as Phantom rushed at it.
Just as he had predicted, it was a short fight. He had the ghost captured in all of ten minutes and now all he had to do was-
"Phantom! Stop right there!"
He groaned aloud and his shoulders slumped. Twice in one day? I'm going to find Murphy's ghost and kick his intangible butt.
"Hmm," Danny pretended to think. "Nope. Bye now!"
He turned in the air and flew towards the wall that faced the back alley of the store. Maddie pushed the conspicuously large red button on a shiny new invention, it came to life with a beep and a quiet humming sound.
You can't follow me through here, there's no door, Danny thought. And it'll take you forever to drive around the block. So long-
BANG!
Danny crashed headfirst into the not-so-intangible wall and slid to the floor with a shower of plaster and brick chips raining on his head.
"Ugh," he moaned verbosely, rubbing his aching head. "What hit me?"
"Gotcha!" Jack cried as he ran towards Danny and grabbed his arm. "It worked Mads!"
Danny phased through Jacks hand, nothing happened. Wait, that's not right...
"I can't go intangible!" Danny shouted. He yanked his arm out of Jacks grip and flew back a few meters. At least he could still fly.
Thanks to his failed escape plan, his parents were now in-between Danny and the only exit. Hurray.
"You think he should be moving after a hit like that?" Maddie said to Jack, looking at Phantom critically.
"He was going pretty fast," agreed Jack. "Hey, ghost kid, you alright?"
"I can take a hit, as you should well know since you're always shooting at me!" Danny shrieked. He was a bit upset, to put it mildly. And his head hurt. "What the hell did you do? I can't phase!"
"It's our newest invention! It runs on the principal that ghosts as unstable ectoplasmic entities are able to utilise their instability to alter the molecular structure of their chosen form and thus phase through objects, so if we send out our counter-phase pulse with our anti-ecto frequency generator it forces a ghost into a state of temporary stability which won't allow the ghost to change form or use intangibility until we say so!" Jack declared proudly, somehow all in the one breath. Danny just stared blankly at him.
"I'm fourteen, did you expect me to understand any of that? At all?" he asked, "You lost me after 'It's our newest invention'."
"It prevents you from turning intangible," Maddie translated.
"Well, duh. I figured that much out on my own thanks." Danny droned sarcastically, as he inched around the hunters.
"So, you're fourteen?" asked Maddie conversationally. She had noticed Phantom moving, and moved too.
"What? No I'm not! Who told you that?"
"You did, just then?" Maddie sighed, "Are you always this bad a liar or did you just hit your head that hard?"
"Oh, no," Danny said, shaking his head and crossing his arms over his chest. He saw where this conversation was going to end up. "I am so not going through this again. One interrogation was plenty thanks. I am outta here!"
"Won't you just stop for a minute and hear us out?" she asked him, "We've been trying to get you to stop and listen for a fortnight now."
"Why should I when you never did?" he shot back with a defiant stare. His parents flinched and Danny felt a tendril of guilt worm its way into his thoughts. They are my parents and I don't really like seeing them so bummed. I might as well tell them 'back off' nicely than keep running off.
Before Danny opened his mouth to make clear to his parents; thanks, but no thanks, Jack answered, "Because we're trying to fix it now." The sincerity in his tone stopped Danny in his tracks.
Danny ran his hand through his hair, there was no way he could in good conscience just say 'no, bugger off' now. He sighed. Damn.
"There's a very good reason I don't want you guys around me, okay? Take my word for it. Trained ghost hunters or not, it's too dangerous for you."
"And it's not for you? We see some of the hits you take," replied Maddie. She looked at Jack and added, "Yes, even the ones we gave you."
"Difference is, I'm dead and you're not. I'd like you to stay that way, okay?" Danny absolutely hated bringing out the 'dead' card, because he really didn't think he was dead. Just a ghost sometimes, is all. He insisted there was a difference, and his friends agreed.
"Aw, didn't know you cared ghost kid! Can't you just answer a few questions?" appealed Jack. "Please?"
"No. Why should I? What could it possibly accomplish? What's in it for you?" Danny asked them "And my names not ghost kid." He really wanted to get out of there quickly, because his resolve to keep his mysterious alter ego mysterious was fading fast. I wish they had switched sides on me before Vlad came into the picture. It's so complicated now!
"Knowledge, of course!" Maddie replied at once, as if it was obvious. "We are scientists and are driven to find all the answers we can, surely you can relate?"
"Huh?"
"As a ghost, you put off passing on because of your obsession, right?" Jack tried to clarify, "It's what keeps you going, just like the search for answers does for us."
Oh great, now they're trying to relate to a 'ghost' Danny thought, this is so incredibly weird. "Uhh, right. But can't you find your answers somewhere else? Try the internet?"
"Why are you so secretive?" Maddie asked him.
"I'm not secretive" He denied, "You're just too inquisitive."
"Hey, g-" Jack hesitated for a second; he had been about to cal Danny 'ghost kid' again. "Phantom, what is your obsession anyway? As strong as you are, it has to be a big one, right?"
I've never really thought of it, but I can't tell them that. Time to bluff, hope they buy it. Danny hated lying. "Don't you know it's rude to ask a ghost that? It's kinda personal, you know."
"No actually, we didn't." replied Maddie, shaking her head. "See? This is the sort of thing we want to learn."
"So why do you have to learn it from me?" Danny knew he was dangerously close to whining, but he didn't care right now.
"Well, can you direct us to the other benevolent, sentient ghost who haunts Amity then?" Maddie asked dryly.
"Hm. Touché." admitted Danny. Wait, they think I'm benevolent now? He gave in a little. "Well then, hypothetically, if you were to ask me questions, what would they be about?" Jack and Maddie beamed at each other, and Danny hurriedly added, "Not that I'm agreeing to anything here! Just hypothetically."
"Right now, all we want to do is understand you. Why do you protect Amity when you are obviously capable of destroying everything here? And why do you fight the other ghosts?" offered Maddie.
"And more technical stuff too, like what are the average, and the above average range of ghostly abilities you can tell us of, stuff to help us improve our inventions." Jack added. "And where the heck did you get one of our Fenton thermoses?"
"Well, you see, most of that is private. It's not like you would go about spouting your capabilities to a stranger right?" Danny asked them, looking down to the floor so he wouldn't have to meet their eyes. "Can't you just understand that I don't want you knowing some stuff?"
"Well what about not answering questions about you, then? Just other things?" asked Maddie hopefully. She was actually a bit disappointed that they didn't seem to be getting any closer to learning more about Phantom, but hey, you take what you can get.
"I...need to think on it," he said, then he gasped and his head shot up as his ghost sense went off for the third time in as many hours. I never thought I'd be so thankful to have to run off like this. "I gotta go. Really."
The blue vapour coming out of his mouth hadn't gone unnoticed by the Fentons.
Jack spoke up, "Hey! That's how you know where ghosts are, isn't it!"
Danny grimaced, but nodded. He'd have to me much more careful about his ghost sense when he was in human form now. "Yeah. Will you turn off that thing so I can get out of here?"
"You mean the Fenton Phase-no-more?"
Danny laughed at the name, "Wow. Fitting."
Maddie nodded and focused on the device for a moment. It beeped again and the humming faded.
Danny checked that he could phase by passing his hand through a shelf next to him, and nodded, satisfied. He waved to his parents then flew through the wall and off to his next fight. They stood in silence for a moment then walked out of the store together, collaborating what little they knew about the mysterious ghost boy.
"So," began Maddie. "He was fourteen before he died, less than a year ago."
"He can sense ghosts, and seems to have a wider than documented emotional range for a ghost." continued Jack. "He laughed and looked sad while we talked."
"He is also quite powerful, the ghosts he fights are older than him, but Phantom is stronger. With Plasmius doubly so. Plasmius's strength can be attributed to his age, but Phantoms? His obsession, perhaps?"
"I agree, unusually powerful. A ghost so young shouldn't be that strong. I wonder what makes them different? Phantom is reasonable, and responds well to non-violent conversation."
"All in all, we still know nothing about him," sighed Maddie. "Do you think we should go and find him again right now?" She looked at the Phantom Finder where Phantoms dot had moved off in the direction of the docks.
"Nah. He probably wouldn't be too impressed. On the bright side, the Fenton Phase-no-more works brilliantly!" Jack cheered. He leant over to look at the screen Maddie was studying, "The docks? Box ghost again, huh? You think he gets tired of fighting useless ghosts like that one?"
"Most likely. But he still does though."
Authors note: Some people have asked to continue this from a oneshot, so I decided to give it a go. I have a vauge idea of where I want to go now, which I didn't when this was just going to be a oneshot. I love feedback, so all reviews are loved. If you see a typo, or some funny grammar or punctuation or anything, feel free to tell me and I'll fix it up.