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"Literal Graveyard Shift! Isn't that exciting, boots?" Kenneth Jones asked his rookie as they drove part the old Graveyard as sarcastic as he can muster. "But hey, at least I got the rookie who is used to ghosts." Danny just rolled his eyes. "Don't be so serious, boot, I know you can actually handle ghosts, unlike your parents."
When Danny first joined the police force, everyone was worried if he will be a proper policeman or act like a crazy ghost hunter like his parents.
The first six weeks, Orientation and Phase 1 Observation, didn't really give much of a chance to disprove that assumption. The two weeks of Orientation were spend with classes on local codes, first aid, gun qualifications and just paperwork. The first phase wasn't much more exciting either, as the rookies just observed their FTO doing all the work.
But Phase 2, Engagement...
The first week with FTO Jones hasn't even really started - meaning the Monday lunch break hasn't passed yet - when a ghost crossed their paths.
While Ghost Hunters are supposed to handle ghosts, you can't exactly avoid ghosts, so cops have some lightweight gear to handle ghosts. Some catching gear, a few tiny blasters and maybe one shielding unit. Enough for self defense and emergencies when no hunter is available. Which never happens as Amity Park is over-saturated with hunters.
But this was the situation where no hunter came for them, so Danny and Jones had to handle the spook.
So while Jones struggled to get a precise high-power shot at the ghost, Danny just turned the blasters' setting to stun. Stuns use the same amount of power - mainly because his parents see no point in toning power down and as they are the founders of the field, everyone - including the manufacturer of the issued blasters - copies their philosophy. Just because nothing else was proven to work.
While stuns are the same power output, the exiting energy is less focused and spreads more. While this means it does less damage, it also means it stuns.
And a stunned ghost is less likely to overpower the capture gear while a hit ghost will just be angry and fight back out of spite.
So while Jones' pin point shots passed the ghost, Danny's energy spray grazed the ghost enough to stun him, allowing Danny to take his capture cell - a tiny device inspired by the Fenton Thermos - and pull the ghost in.
Jones looked at him surprised. He expected him to go ghost crazy like his parents.
Danny just glared at him, "I'm not my parents."
"Of course you aren't! You're a better driver than them." Jones replied.
And now they were watching the Graveyard. The cops in different cities may watch cemeteries to counteract vandalism or watch out for teens who use the empty area to do illegal stuff, while the cops on Amity Park watch them to chase off cultists or other occult perps. No one sane stays in a graveyard longer than necessary when it is the prime spot for ghost manifestation.
Due to the later, no one does the graveyard shift literally.
"If we see a ghost, you handle it." Jones decided. "Understood, boot?"
"Understood." Danny said, eyes on the street as he was driving.
"Good." Jones replied with a slight smile, "My last rookies complained when I delegated anything ghost on them."
Danny wanted to answer something, but then he felt it: his ghost sense was going off and it wasn't a newly formed, weak ghost triggering it. Judging by the intensity, he sensed it was a stronger foe.
As Danny snowed their Ford Victoria Crown, his FTO realized something was off. "Boot, did you see something?"
Then a ghost became visible in front of their windshield. A ghost Danny knew too well.
The ghost in question was nothing more than a massive skeleton donning a coat straight out of the Prohibition era, aside from the stark white color.
Jones' yes we're trained on the ghost as his hand moved to the emergency button that had been installed into the Ford Vic to call for ghost hunters. "We can't handle that one. Even Phantom struggled against this one before he vanished..."
Danny wanted to disagree but he could not. He just wondered, louder than he meant to, "What is Walker doing outside of his prison?"
"Prison? You know his name?" Jones asked, eyeing his rookie.
Walker floated closer to the Vic Crown and told Danny why he was there, "I heard rumors that you of all people joined Law Enforcement, Punk. I needed to see that for myself. And it looks like the rumors were true." Walker crackled, "Quite the redemption arc, Punk. You're an officer of the law now, I need a new nickname for you."
Kenneth Jones looked between the ghost and his rookie. While the prior smiled proudly, his rookie just looked bored.
"You know him, boot?" he asked.
Danny just sighed. "Yes. Side effect of having a ghost portal in the basement: as they pass through the portal and subsequently the house, you meet ghosts. Albeit with Walker it was a bit different."
"As in?"
"In High School, I entered the Ghost Zone. Like, do you really think a bored teen with access to the portal and Specter Speeder won't check out the other side?" Danny clarified. "Anyway, in there I had a run in or three with Walker."
The Ghost in question huffed, "One way to phrase it, Daniel. You ended up as an inmate in my prison."
"Daniel!" Kenneth gasped.
But his rookie just rolled his eyes, "Calm down, the laws he enforces do not matter. Not only don't they matter here, they don't matter in the Ghost Zone. The Observants - think of them as the Ghost Zone's governing body and high court - decided his laws have no bearing. And many go against the actual laws of the Zone." He then eyed Walker, "On that note, the Observants won't be happy to hear a certain someone broke the rule about dimensional traversal again. Walker, do you have a permit to be here?"
"No..." the ghost replied, called out in his hypocrisy.
Danny huffed, "And you call yourself a ghost of the law, Walker. Listen, leave or get souped." He reached for his capture unit as he left the cruiser. "As my shift hasn't even really started yet, you would be stuck for a while."
Walker floated a bit away. "Okay, I'm leaving, I'm leaving. I just wanted to say I am very pleased with your redemption, Daniel." He then left into thin air, leaving the police officers alone.
"Stupid Walker." Danny muttered as he got back into the car. "And whoever told him..."
His FTO just asked, "What was that-how-why-was he proud of you?"
Danny sighed. "Yes. You see, ghosts, they... their obsessions... if they manage to pull someone else into their obsession, it is basically bragging rights for them." Danny explained further, leaning into the driver's seat, "With Walker and me it is a bit different as, frankly, we're kinda enemies, so, I suppose going by his words he considers me going into Law Enforcement is some sort of redemption to him."
"Huh." Kenneth voiced. "Enemies, eh? So you're not foes with some ghosts?"
"Yeah. Back in High School, I was assigned a locker haunted by a ghost, Sidney Poindexter. After a while we got along." Danny explained, "My parents won't acknowledge it, but... ghosts aren't evil by default. And many, like Sidney used to be human. Dead people, ya know? Walker for example was Eustace Daniel Walker, a police officer turned prison warden back in the Prohibition era."
Jones blinked. "How do you know that?"
Danny, instead of answering, showed him a picture on his phone. It was an old picture, black and white, yellowed paper, a photo of a photo in a small box.
"Walker is my great grandfather." Danny admitted, "I discovered this when working on a family genealogy project back in Sophomore year. Considering mom's maiden name is Walker, not that surprising."
"Does Walker know?"
Danny shook his head, "I hope not. He is already annoying enough! If he is this excited about my career choice, I don't want to know how he acts when he discovers we are related! Egh!"
His FTO just laughed at his misery. "Knowing your luck that might just happen! Oh god, someone needs to film it when it happens!"
"Oh screw you, Kenneth."