The Field Trip and a Secret Identity

Chapter 16

Maddie wasn't waking up. She wasn't dead. She had a heartbeat and was breathing. Good signs, all of them. According to the health and safety manual that covered all sorts of precessions supplied by the government for the trip that was brought down from the Speeder, she was was only in a state of unconsciousness. She should be waking at any moment.

But she wasn't.

Danny didn't sign up for this. He sat tense in his seat on the couch next to his dad. Lancer was pacing, and didn't look to be stopping anytime soon. Maddie was laying on another couch pulled close, motionless other than the rise and fall of her chest.

Danny didn't like how still she was in the land of the dead. He didn't like how a wish rendered his mom into this. He didn't like why his mom was in that much pain in the first place. It was suspicious and he didn't get it. His nerves were stacking up one each other and the stress was going to be the thing to finally do him in at this rate.

"-anny? Danny, my boy."

The ghost boy jumped up in shock, refocusing his eyes for a moment. Turning his head to the left, Jack was looking at him in confusion and maybe a hint of concern. His body was tensed up and Danny almost felt guilty for just drifting off right now. His mom just went into an unexplained sleep and for all Jack knew his son could be going into shock.

"Sorry, Dad, what did you say?" Danny was hunched and his voice quivered a bit. This trip was killer on his nerves. Jack looked like he wanted to ask something, but let it go.

When Jack took a second to long to answer, Lancer took over. "While you were drifting off, Ghost Writer gave us advice for where to head next for safety. He recommended Princess Dora's or Pandora's domains, saying they were mostly hospitable." Danny nodded his head in understanding. Those were allies and they would help.

"When will we be leaving?" He asked them, ready to go then and there if necessary.

"Preferably in the hour," Jack spoke with a tone of the usual seriousness. Age was beginning to calm his father down, and what happened to Maddie right now... he might not have the energy often attributed to the large man. Even yesterday in the Far Frozen his dad had more pep. His sober mood was unsettling. "If it would not be too much hassle, we would also like to have you drive the speeder. I remember you teaching Phantom how to use it a few years back, during the Disateriod. You probably would drive it better than me..."

The crows nest could be filled by someone else, and Jack really was a terrible driver. Especially when emotional. He just nodded his head. There wasn't a need for a verbal answer.

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Leaving was uneventful, Ghost Writer not even looking as they walked out the front door. Sam took the crows nest, and Tucker sat with Dani, Valerie, and Small Bob (his name is so inconsistent its Small Bob I'm leaving it at that), a thick silence born from awkwardness between the two humans. The cockpit was soon situated to have a makeshift bed behind the seats, Lancer watching over Maddie as Jack and Danny set in coordinates for the ghost princess's ecto signature.

Playful laughs could be heard behind them, but a growing unease settled in Danny more so, cementing doubt and worry into his mind.

"Dad..." The word fell out of his lips without permission and without thought. His hands were clenching the wheel tighter than they needed to be as they left the island. He didn't seem to have an inkling of what he had wanted to say in that moment, but his eyes met his father's for just a second and Jack seemed to understand perfectly.

"Your mom... She's... strong. She'll be okay. It's probably nothing serious." Let it never be said that Jack Fenton didn't try his best. His son needed him to be strong now, and like heck will he not be for him.

Danny continued to keep his eyes in front of him for a bit after that. It was quiet in the front as around twenty teenagers fooled around without a care in the world just a few feet back. To be that care free. What would he give?

The silence grew from tense to awkward. Still, what was there to say? Words of comfort that could possibly mean nothing in the long run? It would be nice to hear anyway.

Seconds of silence turned into minutes to hours of silence, but after long last, a ghost appeared into sight. The sound of a motorcycle told Danny and Lancer who it was before a shape was fully distinguishable.

A radio on the dashboard crackled a bit before Sam's voice was heard. "Hey, Danny. Jonny 13 is on his way to us. Want me to do something about him?"

A sigh escaped his lips and he slouched down into his seat.

"I think we'll be fine for now, Sam. He usually doesn't look for a fight." He rubbed his thumb and pointer over his eyes, pressing hard enough to see spots, and moving his hand to his forehead after to look at Danny's next issue.

Faintly glowing, dirty blonde hair fell flat around a sickly pale face. A fingerless glove lifted up to rub at the pointed nose and loudly sniff as if he even needed too. Jonny 13 seemed to match the image of careless but concerned perfectly in the moment though. The eyes gave it away.

The full ghost looked away for the teen's gaze, looking at Jack instead. A nice, warm, loving, completely sarcastic and sassy smirk graced his face. "Hey, Pops. Remember me?"

Anger and offense entered Jack's being. He was halfway between pouting and snarling. It was quite the look if you asked Danny, and he would have laughed if he wasn't too tired for this right now. "Where's my Fenton Bat?" His father's voice startled him out of his zoning out and the half ghost looked on as his father proceeded to look around the cockpit for a baseball bat with the word Fenton on it. The two ghosts made eye contact again as his father kept throwing items around as he looked for his "number one weapon".

Johnny wasn't ashamed in the slightest as Danny said, "Wow, thanks, you broke my dad."

"No problem, Kiddo." The pale ghost's smirk fell, one of the most serious looks Danny had seen of him adorning his face. "We've got a problem, Kiddo."

Jack stopped scrabbling around in the back, straightening himself back to his full height. He never really had a good poker face, and his confusion was as clear as day. "A problem? Is this a new problem? Do you know about the first problem?" He crossed his arms and almost looked intimidating with the glare he sent at the biker mid-questions.

Johnny put his hands up, the universal sign of 'I mean no harm' not fully believed but trusted for the moment. "Chill your roll, Pops. All the ghosts know about the problem as you call it. But nah, man. This is a new problem." His shadow lounged itself across the man's back a blank face for once.

Who the hell thought this trip was a good idea?

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Wow.
Me:*Crying in happiness people still care enough to read and comment on this*
Me: tHank YOu

SO LONG MY CHICKEN ARMY,
YOUR LEADER,

-Bella