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Danny has spent the afternoon since he got home from the hospital paying much closer attention to his parents, and he’s come to a conclusion. He’ll tell them. Eventually.
It’s not a huge step up, but it’s at least a step up from his former plan of “take this to my second grave.” It had seemed like the best and only possible choice for such a long time. But his parents do seem very different, meaning something Jazz did worked. And telling Valerie he’s Phantom made him realize that sometimes if you give people the opportunity, they surprise you. Valerie immediately accepted that Phantom was different from how she thought, the moment she learned he was him. Maybe his parents would do something like that too.
That doesn’t mean he’s ready, and he thinks that’s fair. He can’t switch from “my parents want to rip me apart molecule by molecule” to “my parents love me for who I am” in half a day. There needs to be a “maybe” phase in there somewhere. But he’ll give it some thought, and try to stop writing it off as impossible.
And he’s definitely not telling Jazz yet. He can’t bear even the thought of the smug look on her face.
But for now, at least, he’s gonna give himself more chances to spend time with his parents and not be totally miserable or terrified throughout. Such as attempting to make edible food with them.
“Danny-boy, add some more garlic to that sauce,” Dad calls from his spot putting noodles in a serving bowl.
“Are you sure there’s not enough already?” Danny asks.
“Danno, as you get older you’ll learn, there’s no such thing as too much garlic.”
Danny snorts. “Alright, more garlic it is,” he says. He shifts on his useless and very annoying crutches to reach for the garlic.
“Oh I’ve got it honey,” Mom says. “Do you think you could go get your sister? We’re gonna be putting things on the table.”
“Sure,” Danny says, heading for the steps and up to Jazz’s room. As soon as he’s out of sight of his parents, he shifts the crutches to one hand and walks up the steps while carrying them.
“Jazz,” he calls along with a knock on the door. “We’re having dinner!”
No response comes from the room, and Danny knocks again.
“Jazz, you there?”
When he gets no response again, he pushes the door open, and finds no one there, though the window is open to let the breeze in.
Danny sets the crutches against the wall, crosses the hall and knocks on the bathroom door, but it swings open with his knock to reveal no one in there.
“Huh,” he says aloud to himself. “Must be in the lab.”
He grabs the crutches and starts for the steps again to head back towards the kitchen. Before he can make it all the way down the steps, however, he hears a set of loud frantic knocks on the front door, so he changes pace and heads there instead.
“Coming!” he calls when the frantic knocks don’t stop. “Sheesh.”
He opens the door and finds himself face to face with Sam, who looks an absolute mess. Her hair is wild and she’s breathing frantically and she keeps fidgeting with the wrist ray he gave her, which he hasn’t seen in ages.
Danny blinks at her. “Sam?”
Sam opens her mouth, but looks at the crutches he’s leaning on and then can’t seem to get anything out.
“Hey uh, look,” Danny says, looking down. “Tucker was supposed to talk to you. I really just need a little bit of time to myself.” He takes a breath and looks back up at Sam. He can do this. “I don’t want to hurt you guys, but—”
Sam bursts into tears.
Danny stares at her for a second, then shakes himself. “Okay, you know what, nevermind, we can talk about that later! Come on, let’s go to my room, we can talk more privately.”
Sam shakes her head, and opens her mouth to try and say something, but it just comes out as another sob.
“Sam, come on,” Danny says gently. He moves the crutches enough to hold a hand out and usher her inside. “We don’t have to do this out in front of my house, let’s go upstairs.” Thankfully, Sam makes her way in, though she stays out of his reach.
“Mom, Dad!” Danny calls, turning towards the kitchen. “I need a minute, sorry! Don’t wait for me!”
“What’s going on, sweetie—” Mom starts, but she stops when she walks in and sees Sam crying off to the side.
“We’ll keep something warm for you,” she says with a gentle smile, and she heads back into the kitchen.
It takes a minute to get them both upstairs and into his room, especially since he has to pretend to use the crutches this time, but they get there. Sam doesn’t seem to be in much of a better state, however. Danny balances himself on the crutches and reaches out to put his hands on her shoulders.
“Okay, what’s going on?” he says. “Come on, you can talk to me.”
Sam shakes her head again, and finally manages to get something out. It sounds like “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Danny says gently. “It’s alright, just tell me what’s going on, okay? I can’t help if I don’t know.”
Sam takes a couple of deep, heaving breaths, and wipes at her eyes. Then she all but collapses back against Danny’s door, and slides to the ground.
“Sam?” Danny says, wishing he could kneel down in front of her without giving the game away.
“I,” Sam says, “I know you’re Phantom.”
Danny goes still. He opens his mouth, trying to come up with something to say, but then Sam keeps going.
“I’ve always known,” she says, burying her head in her hands. “Since— since that night Tucker and I said we got captured by a ghost. We lied. Well, sort of, we didn’t— we— Vlad captured us. He did that and then he somehow pretended to be two people and tried to act like he saved us from this vampire ghost and then he drove us back to the police station and he— he told us you’re Phantom, but he said you were evil and trying to kill us, and I believed him because of that whole thing at Circus Gothica which I don’t even know what the hell happened there anymore but it doesn’t matter anyway because Vlad said he would like, teach us to hunt ghosts and to hunt you and so I said yes because— because I’m just a terrible friend and I made Tucker do it to even though he really didn’t want to and we’re— we’re the new Huntresses working with Valerie that’s us, and Vlad told us about Valerie but he didn’t tell Valerie about us because— well because duh, and so I tried to keep you away from her because I thought you were gonna hurt her or something and I was s-so— so awful to you because I was trying to hurt you because I wanted you to hurt and because I was so scared you’d try and hurt me or Tucker because I thought— I thought you wanted to and because Vlad said that you wanted to and I did so— so many terrible things to you and I don’t know how you can ever forgive me but Vlad— Vlad has Tucker and he put this— this thing on Tucker and my suits that can like, control the suit while we’re in it and he made Tucker kidnap Jazz and I can’t use my suit because he’d do the same thing to me that he did to Tucker but I can’t fight him on my own because all I have is the wrist ray you gave me and that didn’t work the first time against Vlad and I’m sorry I need your help I’m so sorry!”
Sam buries her head in her knees and starts sobbing, and Danny stares at her, feeling a little faint.
“Oh,” he says weakly. “That… would explain a lot.”
Sam tightens her grip around her knees and starts crying harder.
Danny looks at her for another second, then sets the crutches on his bed and kneels down in front of her.
“Sam,” he says gently, “look at me.”
Sam starts to raise her head, but gives up halfway there and just stares down at the floor, shaking her head. “I can’t,” she whispers.
Danny reaches out and gently raises her chin until she’s looking him in the eye.
He smiles gently. “I forgive you.”
Sam stares at him. She blinks tears out of her eyes. “You… why?”
Danny lets go of Sam and she drops her gaze again.
“Well, for one,” he says anyway. “Vlad is an absolute piece of shit who is really good at manipulating people. I know what he’s like, and I wouldn’t put any of what you just said past him. You also clearly feel terrible about this, and you know where you messed up and you aren’t gonna do it again. But mainly…” Danny shakes his head. “God, I fucking missed you, Sam.”
Sam sniffs, and Danny sees her wipe her eyes again. After a second of hesitation, he leans forward and pulls Sam into a hug, mostly because he’s not sure what else to do.
He can feel Sam start to pull back, and he doesn’t want to force her to stay there, so he lets her. Besides, they have other matters to attend to.
“Okay,” he says, pushing himself to his feet. Sam looks up after him, but otherwise doesn’t move.
“You said Vlad has Tucker and Jazz?” he asks. Sam nods.
Danny holds out his hand, and Sam takes it. He pulls her up, and looks at her until she meets his gaze.
“Well, I don’t like that,” Danny says. “You wanna go kick his butt?”
And despite it all, Sam smiles just a little.
…
Sam waits down on the ground while Danny flies up and knocks on the window. It doesn’t take very long before it opens and Valerie sticks her head out, looking more than a little surprised to see him.
“Danny?” she asks, and wow, it’s still weird to hear Valerie say his name while he’s in ghost form.
“Hey Val,” he says with a nervous smile. “Can I ask you a favor?”
“Me?” Valerie asks incredulously. “I mean, of course. But why?”
“So, uh, you know the guy you got the suit from? That was Vlad, right?” He doesn’t really want to phrase it that way, but Sam already mentioned her in between the talk about Vlad, and he doesn’t want to act like he doesn’t know, either.
“Yeah,” Valerie says slowly. “Why?” Suddenly, her eyes widen. “Is he bothering you? Do you want me to go yell at him? I can do that.”
“Uh, no,” Danny says quickly, holding up his hands. “Really bad idea. Listen, I’m gonna tell you a crash course of too much information, but I need you to just roll with it, okay?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time we both did something like that,” Valerie says. “What’s going on?”
So, as quickly as he can, Danny explains everything he’s just learned, from Sam and Tucker, to the way Vlad messed with both of their suits, to the spy cameras in all three suits, which Sam told him about when he mentioned getting Valerie’s help, to how they need to go save Tucker and Jazz now.
When he finishes, Valerie stares at him for a minute.
“Wow,” she says finally. “And I thought our situation was bad.”
“Yeah,” Danny says. “I’m dealing with that part later, though.”
Valerie seems to shake herself. “Right. Okay. So, you said Vlad didn’t put any controlling mechanisms in my suit, right? You’re positive on that?”
Danny nods. “He only took Sam and Tucker’s suits back to do that after you left.”
“Okay. Then I’ll deal with the spy cameras later. He’s bound to know we’re coming anyway. I’ll let my dad know where I’m going and meet you outside.”
She shuts the window before Danny can be surprised at the telling her dad part.
Danny flies back down to join Sam, and sure enough, a couple minutes later, Valerie walks out followed by Mr Gray.
“You promise you’ll be safe?” he says. “And you’ll contact me if you need help?”
“And I’ll let you know if I’m not going to be back after two hours,” Valerie says, only sounding a little annoyed. “Thanks Dad. Now we gotta go.”
“Be safe!” her dad calls, and Valerie gives him a nod and a smile.
“We’ll be safe, sir,” Danny says to Mr Gray.
“You’d better,” Mr Gray says, with a knowing look in his eye that Danny doesn’t have time to worry about. He gives Valerie one last quick hug and heads back inside.
“Okay,” Valerie says, turning to Danny as soon as the door shuts. “We doing this?”
“Yeah,” Danny says. “But first, Sam.”
Sam startles as she turns to him, then looks down and starts fidgeting with her wrist ray.
“You said you took your suit off before coming to talk to me, right?”
Sam nods. Danny wishes she’d look at him. He’s getting a little tired of people not looking at him.
“Then he might not know you’re coming. I think we should keep it that way. Would you mind if I carry you and make you invisible?”
At that, Sam’s gaze snaps immediately to his, and Danny can tell she minds. It’s the best option they have, though, so he doesn’t take it back.
Finally, Sam nods shakily. “Okay,” she says, her voice shaking a little.
She walks over to him, and lets Danny pick her up. He turns her invisible, but not intangible, meaning he feels it when Sam wraps her arms around his neck and digs her nails into the fabric of his hazmat suit.
Danny winces, but tightens his grip on her. “I’m not gonna drop you,” he says quietly.
“Okay,” Sam whispers, sounding like she’s trying to force herself to believe it.
Valerie puts her suit on next to them, and Danny shifts his arms so they look as natural as possible while still being able to hold on tightly to Sam.
“Okay,” he says, starting to rise slowly into the air, and trying to ignore Sam’s quickening breaths. “Do either of you have any ideas as to what we should be expecting?”
…
Tucker thinks that Jazz is remarkably calm for someone with a gun pressed against her head.
To be fair, it is his suits’ ecto-gun, and maybe she has a bit more experience with that kind of weapon. But he wouldn’t be this calm with a gun of any kind to his head, and Jazz has spent the whole time taking deep breaths and looking around the room with obvious intent to learn as much as she can.
Vlad’s remote thing is still making it so Tucker can’t talk, meaning Jazz probably doesn’t have any idea who’s threatening her, unless she’s worked it out some other way. She hasn’t said anything about him, but she certainly seems to know who Vlad is. Not that she’s said anything to him either.
She’s instead looking very intently at all of the consoles spread throughout the lab. Maybe she knows something about them, due to her family? She probably knows Danny’s secret, based on the fact that Vlad went after her directly, and the fact that she’s so calm right now. Her knowing something like this was possible beforehand would definitely help with the nerves.
Vlad, for his part, is standing as Plasmius next to the both of them, looking at a screen on the opposite console that shows Danny and Valerie approaching.
The closer they get, the more Tucker feels his breath start to quicken, which is the only way his nerves can show. He has no idea what Vlad’s going to make him do when they get here. He just has to hope it’s not “shoot Jazz in the head.” He’s pretty sure ecto-guns aren’t lethal to humans, but that doesn’t mean it’ll feel nice, especially not at point-blank range.
Vlad glances up towards the ceiling, which is the only warning Tucker gets before there’s a loud blast and the sound of falling debris. It sounded like a wall was damaged, but none of the walls are falling down around him, so he’s not sure what they hit.
Vlad sets his screen down on a nearby console, and turns to face the door to the lab.
And… nothing happens. There’s a long stretch of time of silence and then staring at the door. It gets to a point where Tucker can see Vlad is starting to get confused too.
But then, finally, Danny and Valerie round the corner. Danny has a hand raised with a plasma blast and Valerie’s holding up her gun, but neither of them fires anything yet.
“Hello Daniel,” Vlad says.
“Vlad,” Danny says, his voice low and tense. But he’s already turning to Jazz without seeming to care much about Vlad.
“Are you okay?” he asks. Jazz nods, though Tucker can feel the slight shake as she does.
“Don’t worry, we’re gonna get you out of here,” Danny says to Jazz, and then he raises his gaze right to Tucker, without glaring at him for some reason.
Vlad chuckles. “Oh, you are, are you? Well my boy, I think there’s something you don’t know—”
“Oh my god, we so don’t have time for this,” Valerie says. Then she points her gun at Vlad and fires.
Vlad gets knocked back a step, then turns to Valerie, looking almost offended.
“Do you normally blast someone in the middle of a—”
Tucker’s not surprised when Danny cuts him off by blasting him in the chest. The opportunity was just right there.
Vlad narrows his eyes and fires back, and then the two of them both fly at him, chasing him away from Tucker and Jazz.
Tucker can’t turn his head to look, so he’s planning on trying to take deep breaths and hoping that Vlad doesn’t accidentally hit the button that makes him kill Jazz.
Instead, his gaze snaps back to the door when Sam sprints out of it.
“What the—” Jazz says, voicing Tucker’s thoughts for him.
Sam shushes her as she runs up to the both of them, then looks over at the fight happening on the other half of the room and pulls Jazz away from Tucker.
Jazz’s breath catches, but Vlad is still distracted, meaning Jazz just ends up facing him in confusion when Tucker doesn’t move his arm at all.
“Can you move?” Sam asks, reappearing right in Tucker’s face. When he doesn’t say anything, understanding blooms in her eyes. “You can’t talk, can you?”
No, how does she know that? How does she know anything that’s going on? Why isn’t she wearing her suit right now, or trying to fight Danny?
“It’s gonna be okay,” Sam says, though her voice is shaking. She goes for his wrist, and the bracelet that holds his suit. Tucker has just enough time to see she’s not wearing her bracelet at all before he hears Vlad snap, “You little brat.”
Then he feels his arm raise and he fires his gun into Sam’s chest, knocking her back into the wall.
Tucker manages a whimper, which does not feel at all satisfying as an expression of free will.
Tucker feels himself spin around and face Vlad, who is now pointing the remote directly at Tucker.
“Hey!” Danny snaps, blasting Vlad in the back of the head. “Pay attention to me, fruit loop!”
Instead, Vlad turns around and shoots Danny in the face, though that’s immediately followed by Valerie shooting him from the other side.
All of which apparently gives Jazz enough time to run around his other side.
“What was she trying to take off?” she asks, clearly having noticed Vlad’s remote.
Tucker still can’t answer, but thankfully Sam appears a second later on his other side, though she’s holding her hand to her chest now and it’s making Tucker’s chest hurt too.
“The bracelet,” Sam says to Jazz. “We have to get his bracelet off.”
“Oh no you don’t,” comes Vlad’s voice again, and this time Tucker’s board rockets kick on, and he rises into the air. Tucker can see Danny coming towards Vlad from his other side, but rather than try and block it, he hits a button on the remote and Tucker’s gun raises and fires at Danny. Since he isn’t looking in this direction, the blast knocks him into the wall behind him.
That doesn’t feel anything like shooting a dummy.
A shot comes from below Tucker, and then Sam runs out in front of him, shooting her wrist ray into Vlad’s face. It doesn’t seem to hurt him, but it distracts him enough that Valerie can shoot him from behind. Vlad growls, spins around, and fires at her, which just gives Danny enough time to recover and blast him again.
Vlad, seeming very irritated, throws up a glowing pink sphere around himself, which absorbs the next blasts coming at him.
As soon as he sees this works, Vlad turns to his remote, and Tucker finds himself raising his gun and shooting another blast at Danny, which at least he dodges this time.
Danny seems to realize the problem the same time as Tucker, though, which is as long as Vlad has a shield up that they can’t break, they can’t get to the remote either. And while they don’t seem to want to hurt him, Vlad has no such qualms about them.
As soon as Tucker starts firing, Danny flies back towards Sam and Jazz and throws up a shield of his own, and Valerie puts up her own that’s connected to her suit.
For a moment, everything stops. And then Sam gets a look in her eye that Tucker recognizes.
She runs out from behind Danny’s shield, raises her wrist ray, and fires it into the ceiling above Vlad’s head. It cracks and starts to crumble, and she fires it again, bringing debris down on top of Vlad’s shield that shoves him towards the ground and knocks the remote out of his hands.
Vlad has just enough time to cry out in surprise before a piece of the ceiling falls directly on top of it.
As soon as feeling rushes back into his limbs, Tucker flies down to the floor and twists the bracelet off, then he takes it off and stomps on it.
He wraps his arms around himself and takes a deep shaky breath, just before Sam runs up to him and throws her arms around him.
Tucker doesn’t have time to hug her back, however, before Vlad cries out in rage and spins around, dropping his shield as he faces Tucker and Sam, raising his arm with a plasma blast.
Sam pushes Tucker behind her and raises her wrist ray again, but before she can fire Danny drops down in front of them and pulls up his own shield that bounces Vlad’s shot off into one of the consoles.
“Back off, Plasmius,” he growls, voice low. “Get out of here.”
Valerie lands down next to him, and Jazz steps forward next to Sam.
Vlad pauses, takes a moment to look at all of them, and then smartly turns and flies off.
Tucker sees some of the tension release from Danny’s shoulders as soon as he does, and then he turns to look at the three of them standing behind him.
“Are you guys okay?” he asks, looking mostly between Tucker and Jazz.
Tucker doesn’t know quite what to say, and Danny seems to pick up on that.
“Hey,” he says, meeting his gaze. “I told you. You need me, and I’ll be there.”
Tucker swallows, and nods weakly. “Okay,” he says weakly. His voice comes out much shakier than he’d like.
“Hey,” Jazz says, drawing everyone’s gaze. “Uh, can I ask what in the world just happened?”
Danny laughs a little. “I’ll fill you in,” he says, walking over to her. “Come on.”
The two of them start over to the other side of the room, and Sam turns immediately to Tucker.
“Are you okay?” she asks, reaching out and taking him by the shoulders. “You— I—” she stops, seeming lost.
Tucker takes in her shaking hands, and the expression on her face, and the fact that she just fought Vlad side by side with Danny and Valerie, and realizes that somehow, she has to know.
He reaches out and pulls her into a tight hug, slumping a little bit against her shoulder. “Thank god,” he whispers.
Sam sniffs and reaches up to hug him back.
Tucker opens his eyes and finds Valerie standing behind Sam, looking gravely at them both.
He opens his mouth, trying to come up with anything to say.
Valerie shakes her head. “We’ll talk,” she says. “We will.”
Tucker nods, and Sam pulls back from the hug to look at her. For a moment, the three of them just stare at each other.
“Okay,” comes Danny’s voice, and all three of them turn to face him and Jazz. Jazz is looking at Tucker and Sam in a way that makes Tucker take a step back.
“So uh, we have to get home,” Danny says. “Our parents are kind of expecting us for dinner. I can drop you guys off first, if you want, but we’ll have to, uh, talk tomorrow.”
Sam looks away, and Tucker glances after her for a moment before turning back to Danny and nodding.
“Don’t worry about it,” Valerie says, stepping forward. “I’ll take ‘em home. You two go ahead.”
“You sure?” Danny asks, and Valerie nods.
So, Danny and Jazz head up the stairs, and as soon as they’re gone, Sam turns to Tucker.
“I want to get out of here,” she says, grabbing his arm. “Please.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” Valerie says, starting past them. “This place gives me the creeps.”
They all start for the steps, and Tucker turns to Sam, who’s looking down at her feet as they walk.
“Hey,” he says, reaching out and squeezing her hand. “It’s okay.”
Sam looks up and gives him a weak smile. She doesn’t really look like she believes him, but they walk out of the training grounds squeezing each other’s hands.