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"They should just cancel school." Maddie said as she slammed around the kitchen making coffee. "They're calling it the storm of the century!" Danny silently agreed, not because he hadn't studied for his Spanish test, or because Skulker had kept him up half the night trying to get his pelt (still gross) and he wanted an excuse to go take a nap. No, it wasn't anything like that.
Okay, maybe it was exactly like that.
"Mads, only Lance Thunder is calling it that." Jack didn't look up from the device he was building.
"Mom, we'll be fine." Jazz said, making herself a cup of tea. "School is the safest place for us. There is a reason the town's tornado shelter is in the school gym."
"I don't know." Danny said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “I think we should stay home. Isn’t there a flash flood warning?” Before he could take even a sip of his coffee his mom plucked the cup from his hands.
“No coffee until you are eighteen, Danny.” she said, before drinking it herself. “I would feel better if you kids stayed home.”
“But it’s only a few weeks until finals, and we need all the time we can get to study. Danny especially.” Jazz said. Danny scowled at her
“What do you mean, ‘especially?’ I’m passing all my classes.” B’s and C’s were still passing, and he was doing much better than his freshman year. Jazz ignored him and continued with her speech.
“And, Yale could revoke their scholarship if I don’t do well on my finals, or if I miss too much school.” Danny couldn’t help it, he snorted at that.
“Nothing is going to happen to your scholarship, Jazz, but if it means that much to you, you go to school, and I’ll stay here where it’s safe.” he said with a smug grin. Jazz just rolled her eyes.
“No, I’d rather you two stay together. Go to school, and we’ll see you tonight.” Maddie kissed her kids on the cheek and sent them on their way.
It didn't take long for Danny to turn to his sister in the car. “You're such a kiss ass.” Jazz didn’t answer. Her knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. They could barely see ten feet in front of the car. “I hope your perfect attendance record is worth driving to school in this.” The rest of the trip was silent.
They should have just cancelled school. That was the general consensus among students and teachers. When the National Weather Service announced a tornado watch fifteen minutes before first bell he thought surely they would be sent home.
Danny’s first period was English. Mr. Lancer let them read whatever they wanted, as long as they were quiet. He sat with Sam and Tucker in a back corner of the room with books opened to a random page on their laps. Paulina was asking, for the third time, what the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning was.
“So, like, a tornado watch is when you need to watch out for a tornado? And a tornado warning is warning you that someone has seen a tornado?”
“Yes, that's right, Miss Sanchez.” Mr. Lancer said before taking a big sip of his coffee.
Danny shook his head and looked out the window. Paulina had been asking the same question every time there was a tornado watch since kindergarten. Rain was splattering against the window, running down the glass in streams. He couldn’t see anything past the end of the school yard. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled and he jumped.
“Ha! Fenturd, are you scared of thunder?” of course Dash would have seen that. Danny groaned and put his head down on the desk.
“Are you alright, Danny?” Sam asked. He nodded without picking his head up.
“He’s hiding from the dangerwous thunder.” Dash said, and it would have hurt Danny's feelings if lightning hadn’t struck again, causing the power to go off at that exact second, pulling a scream from the quarterback. He laughed, but the sound was swallowed up by a chorus of ear splitting 'BEEP's as everyone's phones received the same emergency notice. Danny pulled out his phone and wasn't surprised to read the notification.
Emergency Alert
National Weather Service: TORNADO WARNING in this area until 12:25 PM CST. Take shelter now in a basement…
"Alright, everyone, don't panic." Mr. Lancer said as all the kids in his class leapt from their seats "Leave your bags and form a single file line, and we will walk calmly down to the gym." He hadn't even brought his backpack today, as a sort of protest for having to go to school with the weather the way it was, so he stood with Sam and Tucker and waited for everyone to line up. They marched single file down the halls to join the rest of the student body in the relative safety of the gym. They were broken up into their homeroom and told to sit quietly until the all clear was sounded. Being with their homeroom class meant he was separated from Sam and Tucker, and was stuck with...
“Wes.” he greeted when the redhead sat down next to him. Early in the year, when they were going over safety precautions and what to do in case of an emergency, they had all been assigned ‘safety buddies.’ Your safety buddy was someone who shared all your classes, and that so happened to be Wes Weston.
“Danny.” Wes greeted coldly. Wes didn’t like Danny. Everytime a ghost attacks, Danny disappears and Wes gets in trouble for losing his safety buddy.
Danny didn’t like Wes. He had spent half of freshman year trying to convince everyone that Danny was Phantom, even going so far as to threaten to tell his parents. He still wasn’t sure what had convinced him not to, but he had a feeling that Jazz had something to do with it.
The wind shook the building, and there were hushed whispers among the students. “Hey, Fentone” Dash yelled across the gym, “your parents are on the news!” Danny’s heart leaped to his chest. They were on the emergency response team, of course they would be out in a tornado warning. He pulled out his phone to see what was going on.
The scene that he was met with was...not good. His parents had driven their RV into a flooded road to get to some people who were trapped in a building on the other side. The building was on a high area, but if the river rose anymore it would flood. Lance Thunder was speaking off camera. "It seems the Fenton's are here. Again, there are five people trapped in the apartment- is that?" He trailed off pointing behind the camera man. The camera spun and he watched helplessly as a tornado touched down and started heading straight for the RV. He was aware of the gasps of his classmates. Wes was saying something to him, grabbing his arm, pulling him back, he wasn't aware he had even stood up.
He shook the other teen off and ran to the locker room, vaguely aware of Lancer yelling at him. He didn't stop, just locked himself in a stall, transformed and flew out of the building.
He knew that apartment building; Val lived there now that her dad had gotten a better job. He flew as fast as he could, turning intangible so he didn't have to deal with wind resistance (thank you, Mr. Kirk, for that bit of physics info). He saw the tornado before he spotted the RV. He couldn't fight the tornado, but he could protect his parents. He had to.
He overtook the tornado and spotted the RV. His parents were in the building, they hadn't seen the tornado. He found them on the third floor trying to convince Old Mr. Palmer to evacuate.
"Jack!" He yelled as soon as he saw his dad's bright orange suit. Both his parents turned toward him, and Maddie aimed her ecto gun at his head.
"Phantom? Get out of here, we have enough trouble right now without you around." He said harshly.
"There's a tornado that touched down a mile away, headed right towards us." He said, ignoring the sting his dad's words had caused. "We need to get everyone to the basement."
Maddie crossed to the window and looked out. "I don't see a tornado."
"It's coming from the other way, we don't have time for this." Mr. Palmer struggled to his feet and joined Maddie at the window, peering out.
"I think the ghost kid is right. It's way too still out there." Mr. Larry Palmer was one of those old people who could tell the weather just by how stiff his joints were. The people who knew him trusted him more than Lance Thunder. "Well, let's go down to the basement, kid." Danny took the old man's arm and flew with him down to the first floor where he landed with a splash. The building was starting to flood.
"I think the basement is out, kid. Any other ideas?" Mr. Palmer asked.
"Yeah, plan B, the RV can withstand the tornado." He picked the old man up and raced out to the vehicle. He set the man down gently in one of the seats and tried to activate the spikes that would tether the RV to the ground, but a shock ran through him, knocking him on the ground.
"Ow" Danny rubbed his arm, he hated being electrocuted. It always threw him off for hours.
"You okay, kid?" Mr. Palmer asked, leaning over him. He didn't get a chance to answer. A computerized version of his dad's voice rang out through the RV "Ghost detected, activating anti-ghost measures" Danny watched as the steering wheel, as well as the dashboard disappeared under a titanium sheet.
"No!" Danny banged on the metal, tried to reach through it, but his parents must have coated it with anti-ghost resin, because his powers had no effect. "Okay, plan C." He jumped out of the RV and started freezing the tires to the ground. He was finishing up on the last one when he spotted his parents, Dad with a kid in each arm, running toward the RV, followed closely behind by Mrs. Wall.
"What are you doing?" Maddie asked before shaking her head. "Nevermind, everyone get in." Jack set the kids down inside the RV before standing back and letting Maddie and Mrs. Wall into the RV. He climbed in behind them, but Danny hesitated. He would be fine in the storm, but Jack had other ideas.
"You, too, Phantom. I don't want you out here when the storm hits, ghost or not." Danny followed him in and Jack shut and locked the door. Maddie looked up from where she was working at the front of the RV.
"Jack, I don't think having him here is a good idea." She said, glaring at him. "There's no telling what he tried to do to the GAV." She gestured to the locked up controls as if to prove her point. Danny didn't get a chance to respond, the wind started howling.
There was a quiet ting ting ting as small debris hit the side of the GAV. The ground was shaking. Glass shattered and the wind started whipping around, throwing debris. Someone screamed. Danny threw his hand up and created a shield around the GAV. The tornado was right on top of them now. The sound was deafening, and it was getting hard to maintain the shield. He could feel all the debris hitting it, draining his energy. Then, as suddenly as it started it stopped. He let the shield drop and collapsed.
"Phantom, are you okay?" A familiar voice said, somewhere above him.
"Dad?" He said before he realized, he said Phantom. His eyes shot open and he sat up.
"Ha, he lives! You had us worried there for a minute." Jack said, boisterously, clapping him on the shoulder.
"I'm okay. How is everyone?" He asked, looking around. Mrs. Wall and her kids looked shaken, but unharmed, and Mr. Palmer was as unflappable as ever.
"I didn't know you could do shields like that, son." Mr. Palmer said. "Don't know what would have happened if you weren't here."
"Put a pause on the celebration, we have a problem" Maddie said, looking out the broken front windshield. The river had risen, and the rain had started up again after the tornado passed.
"I can dissipate the ice on the tires, then you can drive us out." Danny said, standing beside her.
"I could, except you locked up the controls, the only way to unlock them is to manually reset the system, which we don't have time for." Maddie sighed deeply and ran her hands over her face before turning to him. "You're going to have to fly us out."
"Right." Jack said. "Take Mr. Palmer first."
"No, I'm an old fashioned man, Women and children first." He declared, leaving no room for argument.
Danny held one kid in each arm and carried Mrs. Wall piggy back style. He had to fly quite a bit to find a place that wasn't flooded. Finally he found where Lance Thunder had retreated to and set the family down next to him. He ignored the meteorologist's calls as he took off toward the RV.
The water had risen fast, already it was halfway up the side of the vehicle. Jack startled when Danny flew back in, but settled quickly before turning to the older man. "Alright, Mr. Palmer, You're next."
Mr. Palmer grumbled "I still think you and the Mrs. should go next." He said, but accepted Danny's arm.
"I'll be back soon." He said to his parents before flying out without waiting for an answer. He dropped Mr. Palmer off with the Walls and turned to fly back to his parents.
"Phantom, wait!" Lance Thunder grabbed his arm.
"I don't have time!" He said, shaking the man off.
"The levee is leaking, badly. If it bursts, this whole area is going to be under water fast. We're going to load everyone here up into the news van and go to higher ground." Danny just nodded before taking off as fast as he possibly could go.
He spotted his Dad's unmistakably orange jumpsuit a ways off, even through the rain. Jack and Maddie had climbed up to the roof when the water started filling the cabin. "Come on." He reached out to grab his parents' hands.
There was a rumbling, like rolling thunder. For half a second Danny stupidly thought the tornado had come back. His Mom and Dad were looking behind him, faces pale.
Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Danny turned, saw a wall of water headed straight towards them. He reached out, grabbed their hands, and flew up.
The water hit him, full force. His parents' hands were ripped from his grip. He could see spots of orange and teal tumbling in the water, pulled farther and farther away from him. He could still get to them. He could.
He had to.
He flew out of the river, the water was murky with silt, and he couldn't see anything. He scanned the surface for any hint of orange or teal.
The storm ended, the sun set, and rose again, and Danny searched.
The first thing he noticed when he woke up was that he was warm and dry, snuggled deep into a soft blanket and comfortable bed. He must have fallen asleep in Sam's guest room, because his bed was nowhere near this comfortable. He didn't want to get up, but he was hungry. Starving, really, like he hadn't eaten all day. He groaned in frustration.
"Danny?" Jazz said from somewhere next to his bed. She sounded congested, like she had been crying. Why would Jazz be crying? "Are you awake?"
"Yeah." His voice came out thick, and his throat felt raw, like he'd been screaming. He sat up slowly, his head was pounding.
"How do you feel?" She asked, handing him a glass of water.
He gratefully drank half the glass before answering. "Like I got hit by a truck. What happened?"
"I was hoping you could tell me." She said, putting her hand on his knee through the blankets.
"I don't know." He thought, glancing around the room. He knew he wasn't at Sam's, her parents decorated in creams and pastels, not deep burgundy and gold. "Where are we? Where's mom and dad?"
"You don't… Danny, what's the last thing you remember?" She asked.
"Um.." he remembered getting up for school that morning. Mom wanted them to stay home because of the storm. "The power went out at the school, everyone was sitting in the gym because of the tornado warning." Everything after that was blank.
Jazz took a deep breath. "That was three days ago."
"No"
"You were found on the bank of the river after the flooding went down." Jazz swallowed and rubbed her eyes "We were afraid you were… Well, Vlad said you would be alright. Do you remember how you got there?"
"What does Vlad have to do with it?" He glanced around the room again, as if the man would appear as if summoned, but they remained alone in the dark room. "Is this Vlad's house? Where are mom and dad?"
"Danny." Jazz said, tears streaming down her face. "They were found with you on the riverbank. They were… they didn't." Jazz sobbed. She didn't say it, she couldn't.
She didn't have to.
Danny knew.
He felt it to his core.
They were gone.