Chapter Text
Fenton Works, 2:44 PM
Over the course of the interview, the three teens had barely spoken. Mainly they’d added small things here and there, sometimes correcting something the the adults said. The thing they made crystal clear, though, was that they supported Phantom.
“You are inventors, correct? May we see your latest invention?” Arthur asked. Mr. Fenton immediately brightened up.
“Of course!” he said. He stood up to retrieve it from the basement. Vivi reasoned that that must be where their lab is located.
“This is the Fenton Ecto-locator! Once it finds a ghost, it registers it’s Ecto-signature and then we can follow that ghost as long as it stays within the Ecto-locator’s range” Mr. Fenton announced as he emerged from the lab. He handed the device to Arthur and sat down. Vivi noted that one of the boys - Danny, she believes they called him - looked rather uncomfortable.
“Of course, it’s not quite complete yet. We still need to work out a few kinks,” Mrs. Fenton added.
Arthur inspected the device at all angles, trying to figure out how it works. After a while he nodded and handed it over to Mrs. Fenton.
“Thank you for your time, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. I believe it is time we leave,” Arthur stated.
“Oh, of course. If you come up with any more questions that need to be answered, you’re welcome to come back,” Mrs. Fenton said as Vivi and Arthur stood up. They exchanged goodbyes and left.
“Mystery and Lewis should be done with their interviews, so let's head back to the hotel,” Vivi suggested.
“Let's,” Arthur agreed.
~~~~
Jazz was walking fast. She felt that she should let Danny know what had happened. She just had a bad feeling about all this.
Once she was home, she quickly went to the living room. She was relieved to find Danny and his friends sitting there, discussing something.
“Hey, Little Brother. Where’s Mom and Dad?” she asked.
“Hey Jazz. They’re down in the lab, working on the Ecto-locator,” Danny replied.
“Then they’ll probably stay there for a good while. Listen, I need to tell you guys something,” Jazz said.
“What is it? Sam questioned.
Jazz recapped exactly what had happened. Once she was finished, Danny, Sam and Tucker explained what had happened on their side.
“So, two people came here to talk to our parents about Phantom, and two people went around on the street asking questions about Phantom, both duos claiming to be reporters. Somehow, I don’t think it’s a coincidence,” Danny muttered, the others humming in agreement.
“But what do they want?” Sam wondered. Suddenly, her eyes widened. “Jazz, you said that the Pepper guy was tall with purple hair, right?” she asked.
“Um… Yeah?” Jazz responded.
“And what did Mr. Keaton look like again?” Sam questioned. “Give me details,” she added quickly.
“Uh… He was rather pale, but still healthy looking, and he looked Asian… His hair was black with a red stripe on either side of his head. He wore yellow glasses…” Jazz listed, trying to remember everything.
“And his eyes?” Sam pressed.
“I… I think they were brown? Maybe a little red-ish?”
“Sam, where are you going with this?” Tucker asked, confused. Danny nodded in agreement. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by his ghost sense. He sighed.
“I’ll go deal with that,” Danny muttered, transformed, and flew through the wall. The three others watched him go.
“Anyway, why the questions, Sam?” Jazz asked.
“This morning, we ran into a man who was out walking his dog. And considering your descriptions, I’m pretty sure that man and was Mr. Pepper!” Sam explained. “Furthermore, the dog was white with some black and red fur on it’s head. It also wore yellow glasses and had red eyes,” Sam added.
“So, what you’re saying is that Mr. Keaton and the dog are one and the same?” Jazz confirmed.
“Exactly,” Sam confirmed. “We have encountered shapeshifting ghosts before, namely Amorpho and Bertrand. Plus, Danny’s ghost sense did go off a little before we ran into the two. I originally dismissed the thought, but it’s starting to look more and more probable that this “Benjamin Keaton” is a ghost.”
“You know, you’ve got a point,” Tucker agreed. He pulled out his smart phone and started typing. “Anything else of interest?”
~~~~
Danny couldn’t see the ghost he’d sensed anywhere. He knew that whoever it was, they couldn’t have gotten too far. Suddenly, he heard distinctive mechanical whirring. He quickly dodged to the side to avoid the missiles launched his way, turning around to face the ghost in the process.
“Skulker!” Danny yelled.
“Hello, Whelp,” Skulker replied as he aimed at Danny. He launched a net at him, which was easily dodged.
“Really? A net? Don’t you have any new toys?” Danny taunted. He charged up an ecto blast while avoiding whatever Skulker threw at him. “Or did Walker confiscate everything else?” he continued. He paused for a brief moment, blasted one of Skulker’s missile launchers and froze the launched missiles. “Actually, did he arrest literally everyone or something? Today’s been calmer than usual,” he avoided another net and destroyed the launcher, “the only ghosts I’ve ran into are you and Technus. Not even the Box Ghost has bothered me today.”
“Obviously, Ghost Child! Only complete nutjobs like Technus would be crazy enough to come out of the Ghost Zone when the Mystery Skulls are in town!” Skulker barked and fired a ray.
“Well, what does that say about you then?” Danny deadpanned as he dodged the attack. He evaded the rest of Skulker’s attacks, ignoring his angry shouts of how he’s “the Ghost Zone’s greatest hunter”. Once he got close enough to Skulker, Danny kicked him straight down onto the road and proceeded to trap him in the thermos.
“Well, that’s that,” Danny said to himself. “Maybe I should go patrol just in case. But first…” he muttered and turned on his Fenton Phone. “Tucker, come in!” It took a moment, but soon there was an answer.
“ Danny, what’s up? You need help over there? ” Tucker asked.
“No, but I need you to research something for me while I patrol. Skulker mentioned something called “the Mystery Skulls” while I fought him,” Danny informed him.
“ Alright, I’m on it! Contact us if you need any help, ok? ” Tucker said.
“Thanks Tuck, and I will,” Danny agreed, and flew off.
~~~~
Amity Park, Rosilie Street, 4:01 PM
When the Mystery Skulls had regrouped at their hotel room, the two teams had swapped info. That had been a few hours ago, and at the moment they were hanging out near the park. They’d all changed to their normal clothes and Mystery had shed his human disguise. Arthur was sipping the soda he had bought from the nearby convenience store, Vivi had finished hers a few minutes ago.
“No Phantom sightings other than that one this morning so far,” he commented, screwing shut the now empty soda bottle. “Where should we start our search?” he asked. Vivi hummed in thought.
“The most frequent sightings of him are around Casper High, Amity Mall, Nasty Burger and strangely enough, Fenton Works. He’s only ever seen near the school on school days, and he wasn’t near Fenton Works when we were there. Our or the Fentons’ equipment surely would have noticed him if he were,” she said.
“That just leaves the mall and Nasty Burger,” Lewis noted, crossing his arms. “Although I will never understand why anyone would name their fast food place “Nasty Burger”,” he muttered, scrunching his nose. Vivi patted his arm in understanding.
“Were closer to the mall than the Nasty Burger, so I say we start there,” Arthur suggested. The others agreed. “Then it’s decided. Come on, let’s go.”
~~~~
Phantom hadn’t been at the mall, and the gang was continuing towards the Nasty Burger. Arthur was just driving past some flower shop when Mystery, who had been curled up on the middle seat, sat up.
“What it it?” Vivi asked.
“Phantom. I’m rather certain that it’s him I’m sensing. He’s near,” Mystery explained.
“Well, that was faster than I thought,” Arthur remarked. Smirking, he added, “Show the way, Mystery.”
~~~~
Danny had been flying fairly peacefully. Not a single ghost had been sensed and other than a brief run in with Valerie, who had been shaken off a few blocks back, nothing exciting had happened. He was just about start heading home when his ghost sense finally went off. He whipped around, trying to locate the specter. The only thing he could see, however, was a dull orange van driving on the road below him.
His eyes widened. A dull orange van with the words “Mystery Skulls” painted on that was speeding right toward him.
“Oh no.”
~~~~
“There he is!” Vivi shouted, pointing at the figure floating near the rooftops.
“I believe it’s my turn now,” said Lewis. Shedding his human illusion, he flew out of the van accompanied by a small burst of fire.
“Showoff,” Arthur muttered.
~~~~
A broad shouldered figure surrounded by magenta flames shot out of the van, and Danny felt his blood - er, ectoplasm - run cold. He was at a disadvantage in the elemental rock-paper-scissors.
The ghost was drawing closer, and Danny decided that he’d have to book it - while he may have the home field advantage, he’d rather not fight in an area quite as cramped. He noted that the van was still following him, which meant that the ghost hadn’t just hitched a ride.
“Ok, this is fine. I just need to lure them over to that open field,” he said to himself. He sped up a little bit so that the other ghost couldn’t quite catch up, but went slow enough that he wouldn’t lose sight of him. Although, he noted, it was strange that no attacks had been launched his way yet. He shook off the thought, choosing to focus on flying instead.
Once he was at the field, he stopped. The ghost stopped right in front of him and out of the corner of his eye he could see the van pull up near as well. Danny focused on the ghost and narrowed his eyes. Now that he was closer and not busy flying away from the other ghost, he could see more details, like the jawless skull floating above the body (A potential weakspot, he thought) as well as a large golden heart that appeared to be beating. The “hair” seemed to be made pink fire.
“Why haven’t you attacked yet?” Danny asked.
“I know enough about you to know you’re no coward, Phantom. I figured you were just leading me somewhere,” the ghost responded. Something about him was extremely familiar to Danny, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“Well then,” Danny charged an ectoblast, “Shall we?”
Instead of giving a verbal response, the ghost simply let his fists be coated by flames.
“I take it that’s a yes,” Danny commented, and fired.
Only, it missed despite the rather large target staying stationary, because a small, magenta ghost with an antennae on it’s head, beady yellow eyes and a yellow heart on it’s chest knocked his aim off.
“What the...” he sputtered, but quickly regained his composure. He tried again, this time more alert. Once again, the smaller ghost distracted him, although this time his target was moving. Two more of the tiny magenta spirits appeared. Danny tried to focus on what was likely their master, but the spirits kept distracting him. They’d fly close to him, tap his shoulder and immediately dart away, all while moving to some unheard beat. He was pretty sure one more had joined in, and was continuously flying circles around him, sometimes getting a little closer and changing direction. The spirits turned out to be too agile to hit when he tried to. He decided to do his best to just ignore them and tried to locate his initial target.
“Oh come on, where’d he go..?” he mumbled. Soon, the small ghosts scattered and Danny whipped around to find the ghost right behind him. He grabbed Danny’s arm and threw him right down to the ground. Before Danny could do anything, a white blur sped on top of him, and he found himself staring right into the red eyes of the dog he’s met earlier in the morning.
“Great job, Lew!” a familiar female voice called out. Danny felt a sting in his right shoulder just before he blacked out.