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The parts of the ghost gabber were spread around the workbench as Jack stared at them in exasperation. Again. He’d tried fixing it every way he could think of, but it was still registering Danny as a ghost, and adding “Fear me” after everything he said in English to boot.
It didn’t make any sense. The ghost gabber was specifically designed to pick up the subvocalization of ghosts, the pulsing and vibrations that humans were incapable of understanding. He and Maddie suspected that there was a more intricate communication system that they hadn’t been able to capture a sample of yet, but they had no proof.
No, all they had right now was a machine that would repeat whatever their son said and add “Fear me” onto the end. What a useless hunk of junk.
The thing was, Jack was fairly certain it worked on other ghosts. Earlier that day, he had found a few ectopodes near the park one day and crouched in a bush to watch them. It was only luck that they hadn’t seen him.
There were no other people around and it seemed like a good time to test out the newly reassembled ghost gabber. The ectopodes had just been messing around with a paper bag. It would flutter off in the wind and the eight-tentacled ecto-entities would chase after it, competing with the other to catch it. A warbling hum resonated between them, pulsing and writhing in the chill air.
Jack had pulled out the ghost gabber as he watched, planning the notes he would write as soon as he had caught the two ghosts. The ghost gabber beeped, once, twice. “Play us,” it said to him at the lowest volume he could turn it to. It had surprised him, but he and Maddie had speculated that ghosts could, in theory, have non-aggressive behaviors in their natural environment. They were like animals after all, they just didn’t belong in the real world. The fact that they could have non-aggressive behaviors in the real world and not just in their natural habitat was unexpected. But, he supposed there were no humans around. It was well known that ghosts were most aggressive when around people. An innate hatred for the living was part of their very existence. Maybe they would need to refine that theory to only include living people, or living animals, instead of just all living things.
Regardless of the theory, it would be good to have a video recording of ghostly communication in addition to whatever the ghost gabber collected. Jack took a small step back to take out his phone. A branch snapped. The two ectopodes turned to him in rage. “Fear me,” the ghost gabber repeated. Jack took out an ecto-pistol, taking aim as the ectopodes rushed to the sky to gain the high ground. It was amazing the kind of fighting instincts ghosts had.
Jack had only managed to catch one of the ectopodes, and he would need to go out and find the other one with Maddie, but the ghost gabber had clearly worked.
Later that evening, the ghost gabber had said “Dad, could you pass me the remote? I am a ghost. Fear me.”
And now, the gabber lay in pieces on the workbench. For some reason it still registered Danny, and only Danny, as a ghost. Danny wasn’t a ghost, that much was obvious. Jack would know if his son was dead.
Maddie was doing some reorganizing when she found it. Maddie and Jack had gotten new jumpsuits, better ones made with materials she had designed. They were sturdier and easier to clean, but still lightweight enough to move it. She’d decided to get a few for the kids as well.
They had never worn their old ones much. Jack and Maddie had tried to insist at first, when they first started letting the kids in the lab. It hadn’t stuck. They were too stubborn and Maddie could admit to herself that lab safety wasn’t her strong suit, or Jack’s really. They had gotten better after the accident with Vlad in college, but still… Well, no one had ever gotten seriously injured after that, so it was fine.
That didn’t mean that she couldn’t get the kids new suits. They had almost certainly outgrown their old ones and with all the ghosts around, they might actually wear them. It would make Maddie feel better if Danny would wear at least some protective gear when cleaning the lab, especially with the ghost portal right there.
So, she was in the lab storage closet looking for the kids’ old suits. They would need new measurements of course, but it was good to know what they had now. Jazz’s suit was a pale purple and very obviously too small. She could fit into Maddie’s jumpsuits now and this was clearly for a preteen, not the teenager Jazz was. It had been far too long since she had gotten a new suit. Maybe if Maddie asked Jazz what color she would like or added more pockets in would help.
Maddie had to hunt a bit to find Danny’s suit. It was folded neatly, but shoved it to the back of the closet. The material looked off. Maddie took it out and unfurled it and froze.
The suit was half melted and charred. The insulated, protective fabric was deformed all along the left side. There were tears in the left arm and gloves. All over, the fabric thin and stretched, like a great weight had been left on it for days. What on Earth had Danny been doing with it?
He certainly couldn’t have been wearing it when this happened. Whatever had caused this would have killed him.
Danny never wore his suit. He hated the thing. Every time she made him wear it, he complained that it was stuffy and ugly and they were around ectoplasm all the time so what did it really matter anyway. Jack and Maddie had made half-hearted attempts to get him to wear it, at least while in the lab, but had never pushed the issue. He was right, afterall, there was ectoplasm everywhere in the house. And lab safety had never been a Fenton strong suit.
So, why did he have it out? What could he have possibly been doing that would make him put that thing on? No, not put it on, taken it out. He wouldn’t have survived whatever did this if he had it on. And she would know if her son was dead.
Maybe he had been showing it to his friends for some reason, either complaining about the “lame” suit or even showing off a little. Maybe they had knocked something over or caused a fire. An ectoplasm fire could certainly do a lot of damage, and the jumpsuits weren’t hazmat suits. They were basic PPE, designed for basic ectoplasmic contaminants and spills. Sturdy jeans and good gloves would be almost as good. The suits just made decontamination easier really. Maybe he had thrown it on the fire in hopes of putting it out.
But Maddie didn’t remember any fires or other accidents.
Except…
Danny and his friends had turned the portal on. There had been a loose wire they happened to find. Maybe the initial power burst had expelled some ectoplasm. The portal in college had shot a blast of ectoplasm straight into Vlad’s face. Maybe something similar had happened this time and it had made some sort of mess that the kids had thrown the suit on in a panic. Yes, that would make sense.
But, why didn’t they tell her and Jack? It would have been invaluable information. They would need to know if they ever turned the portal off for maintenance. Turning it back on again would be hazardous. The kids should have told them. But, kids sometimes did things in a panic and they had been so scared when they showed Jack and Maddie that the portal was on. They had obviously expected to be in a lot of trouble.
But, why did Danny put the suit back in the closet? It was an odd thing, but teenagers often did odd things. He probably panicked and then forgot about it. She’d seen him do similar things with papers he’d gotten bad grades on. He would put them neatly on his desk and then purposefully forgot about them. Maddie would never know unless she got a call asking why the paper hadn’t been returned with a parents signature.
That must have been it. She could just ask Danny, but, well, she didn’t need to stress Danny out more than he already was. Things had been rough for him for a while now. She suspected bullying, but he wouldn’t tell her anything.
For now, she would just get new measurements. He hadn’t really grown much, but he needed an upgraded suit anyway. Maybe she needed to get him a different color this time. Maybe something red. Or yellow. Or green. Just not white, she thought as she looked at the mutilated white suit in her hands. She would know if her own son was dead.
“Danny, sweetie, you can talk to me,” Maddie said to her son as he sulked on the couch. He had been out past curfew again and there were bruises all along his arm. Something was wrong. Something had been wrong for months. Danny huffed and ignored her. He knew she knew something was wrong. He just refused to open up about it.
“No matter what’s going on, I love you. We’ll get through this. Just, please talk to me.” If only she could get Danny to open up to her, they could do something.
“I told you,” Danny said, arms crossed and sinking further back into the couch, “It’s nothing. I just fell off my scooter on the way home.”
It was a poor excuse and certainly did not match the hand shaped bruise on Danny’s arm. At all. Maddie suspected bullying. She knew there had been trouble with some of the other boys in middle school. Danny could be, well, a little abrasive and he was small enough that he made an easy target. Danny refused to talk about it.
She had talked about it at length with Jack. They couldn’t think of anything else. At least nothing that made sense.
Jack had briefly suggested some sort of gang, but they both dismissed it. It would explain how much time he spent away, but she was sure he spent all his time with Tucker and Sam and neither of those two would do something like that. Sam was much too uncompromising and Tucker wouldn’t do anything he felt was unsafe. More to the point, Danny wouldn’t do something like that. He sought approval from other people, sure, but he wouldn’t do anything he truly felt was wrong. And, frankly, Maddie didn’t think any gang would let him join.
They had thought about drinking or drugs as well. It would have explained the odd hours and some of the bruising. If he had been having problems paying, he could have been getting beat up. But, he never came home high or drunk. There was no drug paraphernalia in his room. And he was always hanging out with Sam and Tucker. Sam had a rebellious streak, but also common sense. Tucker, again, wouldn’t do anything he didn’t think was safe. Maddie doubted any of those three would ever get involved with that.
That left bullying. Maddie didn’t really understand it, but Jazz said that feeling unsafe could lead to acting out. And looking at the hand shaped bruise on his arm, Maddie doubted Danny could possibly feel safe. And maybe that was what was happening, maybe he didn’t feel safe anywhere. He was always tired. He always seemed to be looking over his shoulder. Maybe bullying was the problem.
But then why was Danny spending so much time away from home?
Surely, if there was bullying going on, he would feel safer at home than he would outside, right? Maddie always worked to make sure that her kids felt safe. She and Jack had ghost proofed the whole house for that exact reason. They made sure that their kids were always protected. She always wanted them to trust her.
“Danny, you need to talk to me,” she tried again, “I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on.”
“I told you it’s nothing,” Danny bit out, glaring hard at her, “Why won’t you just leave it.”
“Because I care about you! I care about your safety!” she exclaimed. “You’re my son. I love you and I want to keep you safe!”
Danny glared even harder. Maddie could have sworn she saw his eyes flash green. He opened his mouth like he was going to shout, to let out everything that Maddie needed to hear, needed to know in order to help him. Except, at the last minute he deflated. He slouched back into the couch and muttered “Whatever.”
Maddie’s heart sank. She just didn’t know what to do , and, frankly, his attitude was anything but helpful. She just wanted to keep him safe.
“Well, until you decide you want to tell me what’s going on, you’re grounded.” It would ease her worries a little if she just knew where he was.
“What!? You can’t do that! I didn’t do anything wrong!”
Maddie narrowed her eyes. “I don’t appreciate being lied to and that is all you have been doing this entire conversation.”
“I’m not lying!” Danny yelled, looking ready to jump off the couch, “I really did hurt my arm falling off my scooter!”
“Falling off your scooter doesn’t leave hand-shaped bruises, young man.”
Danny glared again and Maddie knew she saw his eyes flash green this time. She just knew it. He opened his mouth, obviously preparing another argument, another lie, when mist slipped out of his mouth. He immediately clicked his mouth shut and got up.
Maddie took a step back, startled. What was going on?
“I’m going to be in my room,” Danny said quickly and immediately turned to run up the stairs.
“We’re not done with this conversation!” Maddie called after him, but the only response she got was a slammed door.
Maddie let herself slump down on the couch. What on earth was going on with her son? What had happened to her baby boy? This just wasn’t like him.
The mist slipping from his mouth brought her mind back to drugs. Maybe he was just hiding them really, really well. That just didn’t sit right with her. He’d been sitting right in front of her when she saw that mist and he had been for the past ten minutes before. She would have noticed if he had taken a drag of something. And she didn’t smell anything either. Even vapes usually smelled of something fruity, right?
And what about those green eyes? Danny’s eyes were blue not green and they certainly didn’t change color. And Maddie was sure she saw them change color. Glowing ectoplasm green was hard to miss. Her own eyes widened.
Maybe she didn’t see anything. Her son’s eyes were blue, they must have reflected off one of their inventions that was lying around to give them that ghostly glow. Afterall, only ghosts had eyes that color and Danny wasn’t a ghost.
She would know if her son was dead.
Jack was sitting at the kitchen table trying to untangle the Fenton Ghost Net when he overheard it. A piece of fudge was halfway to his mouth and he was seriously startinig to think about getting scissors… or the garden shears from the back since he wasn’t sure if scissors would do anything more than get bent up and/or possessed.
He heard the door bang open and Danny coming in with his friends. It was a very regular occurrence. Sam and Tucker hadn’t needed an invitation for years and the three were inseparable. Frankly, it was part of the background noise more than anything else. Conversations tended to drift over him more than catch his ear if he wasn’t making a conscious effort to pay attention.
Nonetheless, the conversation between Danny and his friends caught his attention.
“I’m just so sick of it,” he heard Danny grouse, “I spent an hour getting out of that net last night! An hour!”
“Hey, I mean, at least you got away from them before that,” Sam replied with a forced chuckle, “It would have really sucked to be stuck in a net with them that whole time.”
“Yeah, I spent an hour untangling myself from a net, but at least I didn’t spend an hour listening to how ghosts are the scum of the Earth and all that.”
Jack froze. He’d caught Phantom in a net last night. It had been a rare stroke of luck catching the ghost boy off guard like he had. He was nearly impossible to catch most of the time. The only other time Jack had been able to catch him, really catch him, was when he had appeared in the kitchen when that whole million dollar reward thing was going on.
“How did you get out of that anyway? I thought they re-enforced the line,” Tuck asked in a way that was much too blasé for talking about his best friend getting caught in a net.
“I pulled really hard and then booked it as fast as I could. The line might be unbreakable, the grip on it, not so much.”
Jack looked down at the bandage on his hand. Last night, Phantom has thrashed about like a wild animal, pulling this way and that, trying to break free. The line remained strong. Finally, Phantom had whirled around him, building momentum before he was off like a shot, pulling the whole net apparatus with him. It had left a stinging rope burn as it left his hands and a different kind of wound on his ego.
“To top it off, I couldn’t just get the net off by myself. Oh, no, it couldn’t be that easy. No, I had to use a tree as an anchor to unwind it. A tree!”
Jack had found his net in a tree later that night. It was tangled beyond even the Fenton Fishing Line go into, but it was otherwise unharmed. Jack had taken it as a sign that the new materials Maddie designed were able to stand up to a ghost's full strength. He had thought that at least one good thing had come out of that night.
Sam and Tucker laughed at their friend’s over the top complaining. “I hope you didn’t damage the tree, Danny,” Sam teased, “I might have to do something about that.”
Danny snorted and Jack could just imagine the sarcastic side eye his son was giving his friend. “Not to worry, Lady Nightshade, the tree is unharmed.”
What was all this about? Danny was describing exactly what happened to Phantom last night, down to the last detail. And there was no reason for Danny getting caught in a net ever. Jack could feel his mind trying to draw conclusions he didn’t want and he tamped them down. His son was alive in the next room over, talking to his friends. There must be another explanation.
“At least Dash left you alone today, right?” Tucker asked in a conciliatory tone.
“Yeah, I think he saw the rope burns when I was changing for gym. It made him lay off for a bit.”
Jack felt relief flood through him, then guilt at his relief. His son was being bullied. That was the explanation for all of this. Maddie had talked to him about in the week prior; something about a handprint. It was horrible. Some boy had trapped his son in a net. Danny had rope burns from being trapped in a net. The only reason this boy had “laid off” was because he saw said rope burns. That wasn’t okay. He would talk to Maddie again. They had to do something about this.
But at least Danny wasn’t dead. Jack would know if his son was dead.
Jack watched in horror from his hiding spot behind a bush next to the school parking lot as his son approached a ghost in broad daylight. The ghost was strong and humanoid. It registered a five on the scale. Did Danny not see it? How could Danny not have seen it? Jack readied his bazooka, lining up a perfect shot. He would take it down before it even had a chance to hurt his son.
“Would you just go the fuck away, Skulker!” Danny yelled up at the ghost. Jack stared in shock. He’d always thought Danny was afraid of ghosts. It was a problem according to his teachers. Danny would just run out in the middle of class if there was even a hint of a ghost attack.
Danny was very obviously not running away from the ghost in front of him.
Jack’s eyes widen as the ghost says something in ghostspeak. He’d never heard spoken ghost speak before. He’d only seen ghosts communicate in a true language, only in a pulsating light and vibrations. Those base features were overlaid with sound and rhythm. This wasn’t just an animal growling. This was a language.
Danny rolled his eyes and shouted something back in the same strange language. It crackled off his tongue like static given life.
“Hmf. You’ve gotten better,” the ghost said. Its glower turned into a smirk as it continued, “You’re still lacking control I see.”
“Yeah? You want to talk about lack of control? You work for Plasmius! He’s way worse than I am.”
The ghost laughed, loud and booming like thunder given death. “I’ll give you that welp. But, right now,” he said, guns and missiles erupting from what Jack now recognized as some sort of shell made from hardened ectoplasm, “I’m here for your pelt.”
Jack saw Danny glance around furtively as the missiles shot toward him. Jack should have shot sooner. He shouldn’t have gotten distracted. Danny was going to die because Jack was too stupid to just shoot the ghost when he had the change.
Danny jumped behind a car and the missiles hit the spot he had been in seconds prior. THe ghost cursed. Jack could see Danny was looking around frantically as a flash of light started to appear near his hip. Did Danny have a weapon? It didn’t matter. Danny wouldn't need it. Jack would protect him.
Jack fired his bazooka. It went wide and the ghost only moved towards Jack as the shot sailed five feet in front to its rear. Jack cursed, jumping from the bush and running towards the ghost. He started getting the fishing line out to try and at least contain it. He hated using the fishing line since it always got tangled, but this time, it had to work.
Just as he was starting to cast, he heard Danny growl, “Fuck this, I have a test in 30 minutes.” and a tunnel of blue-white light nearly blinded him. The ghost made an ear-rending wail as it was stretched and compressed at the same time. A few seconds later, Danny popped the cap on what Jack recognized as the Fenton Thermos. The Fenton Thermos that they still hadn’t gotten working, but that didn’t matter right now. Danny had just fought a ghost. “Danno!” Jack called, running up time, “Are you okay? You just fought a ghost!”
Danny looked everywhere but Jack’s face, seemingly more nervous talking than fighting an actual ghost. “Yeah, Dad, I’m fine,” he squeaked out.
Jack beamed. His son was alright and he had just caught a ghost! “I didn’t know you had it in you, son! I always thought you were scared of ghosts! But here you are, catching ghosts just like your old man. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Danny rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah, Dad, I just caught a ghost. I’m still scared of them though! No need to take me hunting or anything! I just wanted to be able to defend myself.”
Jack deflated a little, his visions of ghost-hunting family-bonding trips dissipating like fog in the morning sun. Still, if Danny could hunt ghosts just to defend himself, that was a good first step to hunting ghosts as a hobby, right? There was something else, niggling at the back of his mind though. What was it? Oh, right!
“How did you get the Fenton Thermos working anyway, Danny-boy? You mother and I have been trying to get that thing working for ages and never quite figured it out. How’d you do it?”
Danny laughed. “It just wasn’t turned on, is all. As soon as I flipped the switch and powered it up, I was able to push the button and it worked.”
“Really? I was sure there was something going on with the ecto-power source. I was going to try flooding it with ecto-energy to get it working next. Who knew it was just a power button.”
“Yep,” Danny said, glancing towards the doors of the school, “It was just turned off. Now Ihavetogotakeatest. Loveyou. Bye.” And before Jack could say another word, Danny ran back into the school, Fenton Thermos still tightly in his grip.
Jack shrugged and made his way back to the GAV. That was obviously the ghost his sensors had picked up earlier. It was time to go back to the lab. He would need to ask Danny for the thermos when he got home from school. There was a ghost in there that needed to be studied.
And he had questions for Danny too. Why did he have the thermos in the first place? What was he doing out in the school parking lot in the middle of the day? How in the world had he learned ghost speak?
And the ghost had said Danny was getting better. Which raised a whole slew of other questions. Had Danny interacted with this ghost before? Why was he learning ghost speak at all? What was the thing about pelts?
It was the last one that really had Jack stumped. As far as he knew, only ghosts could speak the language of the dead. But there was definitely a verbal component that Jack hadn’t known about that humans were definitely able to learn. After all Danny could speak it, and Danny wasn’t a ghost. Jack would know if his son was dead.
Danny shuffled his feet in front of them and Maddie’s hands felt clammy. Jazz leaned against a wall like a stoic bodyguard. Maddie couldn’t remember a time when she had seen her son look this nervous. It was concerning to say the least.
She exchanged a look with Jack and could tell he thought the same. It wasn’t all that odd for Jazz to shepard them all into one room for a conversation, but well the rest of it - the way Danny wouldn’t meet their eyes, the way Jazz looked ready for a fight, the distrust emanating from both of her children - something was wrong.
She didn’t want to push, not if Danny wasn’t ready. She wouldn’t be the one to break the silence. Judging by the lack of words at her side, neither would Jack.
Danny just stood in front of them rubbing his arm. The oppressive tension was broken by Jazz clearing her throat. If Maddie had been asked, she would have said it was just a response to the awkwardness in the room, but Danny took it as a que.
He took a deep breath, seeming to stall for another second before beginning, “So, um, I tried to tell you this when it happened, but things just kept getting in the way. Then you thought Jazz was a ghost and your reaction wasn’t great and I really wasn’t sure how to tell you. And I wanted to tell you after too, when things started getting deep, but I wasn’t sure how. Now, I really don’t think I can keep hiding it and-”
“Danny, what are you trying to tell us?” Maddie asked, gently cutting off his rambling. It didn’t sound good, whatever it was. She had hoped he was coming out and just had some unfounded jitters, but he was saying something had happened. That was too specific. By the stiffness in Jack’s posture beside her, he felt the same way.
Danny breathed in deeply, muttering something Maddie couldn’t quite hear as he breathed out.
“Do you remember when the portal turned on?” he asked.
Maddie nodded, not quite understanding where this was going.
“You know how I said Tucker, Sam and I found a loose cord and tightened it and the portal worked?”
Maddie nodded again. She hadn’t been thrilled with that explanation. Messing with the lab equipment could be dangerous. She knew they weren’t the pinnacles of lab safety, but still.
“That's not really what happened,” Danny said, pausing, seemingly trying to gather his thoughts, “I was well inside when it turned on.”
Her thoughts flashed to the half melted suit and her breath hitched. Jack grabbed her arm like a life preserver in the middle of the storm.
“There was a button on the inside or something, I don’t know, but it turned on and, and,” his voice shook, “and I got shocked. Bad. I think I died? Half-died? I’m a ghost.”
Maddie’s heart sank as she exchanged a glance with her husband. They would have known if their little boy was dead. Wouldn’t they? Her Danny couldn’t be a ghost.
“It’s okay. I’m still half-alive! I have a heartbeat and everything,” Danny said with a nervous smile on his face.
Maddie felt a wave of relief crash over her. Being “half alive” was impossible of course. Ectoplasm, ghosts, didn’t work like that. They just didn’t. That could only mean that this was a bad case of ecto-contamination. Danny was just confused. He couldn’t be half-ghost.
Her son was still alive. She could still fix this.
“It’s just now,” Danny continued, jolting Maddie out of her thoughts, “I can do this.”
There was a bright light and suddenly Danny wasn’t standing in front of them. Phantom was.
The only thing Maddie could feel was the first tear falling from her eye. The only thing she could hear was her heart thudding in her ears. Her little boy looked like a ghost, a ghost she had tried to hunt, a ghost she had tried to hurt .
There was another flash and Danny was standing in front of them again. He looked scared. “Do you hate me now?” Danny whispered and Maddie’s heart broke. How could he think they would hate him? He was her son no matter matter what.
“Oh Danno, no,” Jack said, pulling Danny into a hug, “We could never hate you, no matter what you are.” Maddie joined in, as did Jazz. She could see the tears running down her daughter's face. Everything would be okay. She would make sure of it.
Danny said he was only half ghost. That wasn’t possible. But her son wasn’t dead. She would have known. They could still fix this.
“Danny,” she breathed, barely able to speak, “I love you so much.”
Danny nodded, tears of relief falling freely. Maddie dreaded what she was going to have to ask next.
“Would you-” she started, stopped, breathed. “Would you be willing to come downstairs?” Danny stiffened and the look Jazz gave her screamed betrayal.
“It’s nothing bad, sweetie,” she tried to assure him, “We just want to make sure you’re safe.” She pulled back so she could look Danny in the eyes. Jack pulled back as well. “I want to make sure whatever this is isn’t hurting you.”
She didn’t know what could cause such a human to mimic a ghostly form like that. Something had to be very wrong for something like that to happen. This level of ecto-contamination was unheard of.
“What the hell,” Jazz asked and there was venom in her tone that Maddie had no idea what to do with. “He finally works up the courage to come out to you and the first thing you want to do is run tests!? He’s not an experiment, Mom!”
Maddie was taken about. Of course this wasn’t what this was about. It wasn’t about tests or experiments. It was about Danny.
Before she could respond, Danny spoke up, “It’s okay, Jazz. I get it. They just want to make sure I’m not, like, actually dead right?” The way Danny looked up at her, with tired, hopeful eyes broke Maddie’s heart. She nodded.
It was fairly easy to get the lab set up. All she and Jack wanted to do was take his vitals and give him a general sweep with the ghost scanner. She just wanted to make sure he was safe and she was sure Jack felt the same.
Danny sat calmly in the same office chair he played video games in, while Jazz glowered from where she was leaning against the specter speeder. Both of them had insisted that Danny was fine, that being “half-dead” didn’t hurt him. She still wanted to make sure.
Danny’s vitals were lower than they should be, just in general. His temperature was low, his blood pressure was low, he heartbeat was about 50% slower than it should be. It was worrying. If this really wasn’t hurting him, his vitals should be fine, right?
Jack was looking him over with the ghost scanner, when Maddie heard his breath hitch. She looked over to see what her husband had reacted to. Her heart stopped. The ghost scanner was registering a large cluster of ectoplasm right next to Danny’s heart. No, not just a cluster of ectoplasm; it was registering as a ghost, a fully formed ghost.
Maddie felt like she had been punched in the gut. There was a ghost in Danny. Danny wasn’t “half-ghost”, he was possessed. There was a ghost possessing her little boy. And it was tricking him. It had her sweet Danny thinking he was some kind of superhero, she was sure of it. She was sure he had never suspected there might be something sinister at work.
She exchanged a glance with Jack, who was looking grim. The lower than normal vitals could signify a decline in health instead of just an odd part of Danny’s biology. The ghost was making her son sick. It could be killing him. They had to get it out of Danny.
The ghost catcher was less than ten feet away.
“Everything alright?” Danny asked, fidgeting in his chair.
“Just some odd results, dear,” she said, almost absent-mindedly. She flicked her eyes over to the ghost catcher. Jack followed her gaze and then gave a slight nod.
“Yeah, I guess the results might look a little odd. There’s a lot of ectoplasm in me.”
Maddie didn’t grimace, but she would admit her voice was a bit strained. “‘A lot’ is an understatement.”
Jack had grabbed the ghost catcher. It was a bit unwieldy. It had been meant to stay firmly on the ground. But Jack was big enough that he could pick it up like it was some sort of staff.
Danny chuckled. “I guess so. It’s kind of crazy, you know?”
“Oh?” Maddie asked, her eyes trained on her notes, while Jack moved closer in her periphery.
“Yeah, you guys are taking it pretty well. I was really scared for a while that-”
Three things happened all at once. Jack started to bring the ghost catcher down over Danny’s head. Maddie moved to block the exit from the lab to the rest of the house. Jazz grabbed her brother’s chair and flung it towards the specter speeder.
Jack brought the ghost catcher down on empty air as the wheels of the office chair skidded across the floor. Danny was gripping the seat like his life depended on it, his eyes blown wide.
Jazz stood between her parents and her brother. “Danny, get in the specter speeder,” she said, voice firm. Danny nodded shakily and started scrambling into the cockpit.
“No,” Maddie called, desperate to save her child, “Danny, there’s something in you. It’s making you sick. We need to get it out.”
“No,” Jazz said, as she started climbing in after her brother “You don’t. There’s nothing wrong with Danny!” Jack broke from his shock and started heading towards the kids. Jazz kicked the office chair back into him.
“Yes, there is! There’s something inside of him and it’s registering as a ghost,” Maddie shouted trying to get her daughter to see reason. Her son, Jazz’s brother, needed help. She didn’t answer.
Jazz sealed the cockpit door of the specter speeder and shot into the ghost zone.
Maddie fell to her knees. Jack was still wheezing from the chair that had gone directly into his stomach.
How could this have happened? Surely Jazz could see they were just trying to help her brother. He was sick or possessed or… or… or something! There was something inside of him that was hurting him. They needed to get it out.
Danny wasn’t a ghost. After all, Jack and Maddie would have known if their little boy was dead.