Touch Of The Past

Chapter 4

One hand on my hip, I let my expression question them.

The boy is wearing normal civilian clothes, but has a belt around his waist carrying various shiny weapons. I see a couple guns, but they don't look like they have bullets. He also wears a backpack with a thermos clipped to it. He has glasses and some kind of hat covering his hair. Beret, I think. His skin is dark.

The girl has much more weaponry, and looks efficient in it, too, by the way she holds her hands, ready to withdraw it. She has long red hair tied in a ponytail and fair skin. She wears bulky gloves and two utility belts slung in an X on her front, with another around her waist.

The boy looks from me to the girl, apprehension in his gaze. "Um..."

"You're not hurt, are you?" she demands, crossing her arms. I tilt my head slightly to the side before shaking my head. She huffs. "Then I'm not apologizing."

"And you wonder why you're always backup!" he shouts in exasperation.

"So are you going to tell me why you tried to make me plummet to my death, or should I just bring you in?" I ask goodnaturedly.

The boy looks at the girl sternly, but she just huffs again.

"I swear, that was all her. She wanted to get your attention, and I thought if we just waited here, than you'd end up on this building eventually, but when your line attached she just shot it and said 'that oughta get his attention'."

"Well, I guess you got it. What do you want?"

"My friends Danny and Sam have been missing for over three months. We did everything we could to find them, but nothing worked. And I mean everything. So we came here, hoping the whole 'greatest detective' thing wasn't just a myth, and you know, you'd help us."

"I'm flattered, but that's really more of my mentor's thing."

He shrugs. "We got in last night, nobody was out that we saw, and you were the only one we saw tonight."

I sigh. "I can't promise anything, but tell me about your friends."

The girl finally talks again. "Danny Phantom and Samantha Manson."

"Danny Phantom? What kind of name is that?" I ask as I type their names in.

"A hero name," she defends. I look up at her, a question in the tilt of my head. "He's a hero," she says softer.

"Never heard of him." I look back down at my display. "I'm not getting anything."

"They've been erased. I swear they're real, though, we're not making them up." The girl digs a hand in her pocket and pulls out a square of paper. She unfolds it twice and hands it to me.

Taking it, I angle it so I can get it into the light and out of my shadow. There are four people, all in various degrees of a fight.

The boy is holding a device--PDA, I think-- to his chest with one hand and shoving the girl, who has an indignant look on her face as she talks to a girl who's clearly some kind of goth. I mark her as Sam.

Sam is folding her arms, her mouth also open in what I guess is a retort. A white haired kid with neon green eyes is flying, slightly above the three of them with a huge smile on his face and holding out his hands, like he's about to hug them all. That's Danny, I assume.

"You all don't look very happy," I remark.

"We were fighting, and he set up a camera and took a picture without us even noticing. He can turn invisible," supplies the girl.

"So Danny and Samantha are missing and erased?" They nod. "Danny's a hero, and Samantha's what?"

"We're all part of a team. Team Phantom. Danny's the leader, because he started the whole thing with his powers. Sam--by the way don't call her Samantha, she'll kill you-- handles all the weapons, I do all the technology and Jazz here is back up."

"I am not back up!" she cries out.

"Your aim is permanently honed on Danny. Even when you are facing the opposite direction you still manage to hit him!"

"We all have things to work on."

The boy rolls his eyes all the way up into his head.

"They took the leader and the weapons expert?" I prompt, getting them back on topic.

"No, just Danny for what he is. Sam was just with him. After the whole 'kidnap and clone' thing with another enemy of ours he's not really supposed to investigate strange cases without one of us there. But they took them both!"

"Do you know who?"

"Yes. They're a branch of the government. The Guys in White."

"That's a lame name for a branch of the government," I mutter and type them in. I get a lot of stuff, so I begin narrowing it down to just government agencies. Finally, I get results. "Ghosts?"

My voice is so incredulous even I would feel like punching me in the face.

"Don't say no such thing," Jazz warns, looking like she does want to punch me. "We've lived the past two years dealing with it, and Danny is a ghost, so don't you dare say there's no such thing."

"I wasn't going to. I have two best friends who have met a ghost." Of course, she was one of a kind and silent save for the one word "secret", but I'm open to there being more of a population. "Can he say more than one word?"

"Um, yeah..." says the boy, confused.

"Just wondering. What I meant before was, an entire section of the government that hunts them? That's a little ridiculous."

"But it's true," Jazz insists.

"I believe you," I assure. "Promise." I continue looking through my results.

"Can you help us?" the boy asks, hopeful.

"I'll have to ask Batman," I mutter, still absorbed in my screen. "But this is a very interesting case..."

"It is," agrees my mentor, stepping from the shadows. Being accustomed to this, I don't even jump, but I can't say the same for the other occupants on the roof. He stands in front of the two teens, towering over them. "Start explaining."