Room 2342 - It's Where The DOOOOOOM Is

[gone_byebye]

Ray was really, really, really starting to loathe the sight of Sumerian- sorry, Sumero-Akkadian- spirit containment gridding on the walls. Cuneiform got old fast if you had to stare at it for eight hours a day, every day.

He blinked a few times and wondered whether the fact that the patterns were swimming a bit was necessarily a bad thing.

Then he caught sight of Danny's grinning face and realized the answer was yes.

Comments

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"You look tired, Ray. Why don't you go take a little nap?" Danny suggested in a wheedling tone.

[gone_byebye]

Ray shook himself sharply, pulling his wits back together. "Uh, no," he said. "I'll be all right. How're you doing in there, by the way?"

Where had he left that box K had given him...

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"Still detained, still murderous, still annoyed that you won't let me out," Danny said boredly. "...you really do look tired there, Ray. You sure you don't want to take a nap?"

[gone_byebye]

"Mmmmm... nope. Can't stand naps. They always remind me of President Reagan."

Pause.

"Okay, that... sounded really bad. Did it make any sense to you?"

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"Who's Reagan?" A pause. "Was he the one after Roosevelt?"

There is a reason Danny is a D student.

[gone_byebye]

"Right age group, but no," Ray admitted. "Oldest president in American history, from 1980 to 1988. Well known for many things, among which was taking naps during the workday. Kind of a geezer, though."

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"I don't know, Ray, it sounds like you'd have a lot in common," Danny shot at him.

[gone_byebye]

"Nah, he was a conservative," Ray said, completely oblivious to the intended isnult. "Not really my style. On the other hand-"

He came to his feet.

"I'll be right back, okay?"

If he hurried, he could get to his room for the compensators and back before there was any trouble.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

Danny watched as Ray left and then, only moments later, he heard three very familiar voices at the door, and his heart leapt with a chilling, sinister hope.
And with real hope, because maybe they could help him, maybe they could bring him back...

He threw himself to the floor in a ball, curled up in the corner of the field farthest from the door, the one that was slightly in the shadows.

Danny wasn't able to turn human in his current state--too risky--but he was able to make his hair go from the flames to normal, white hair, and his eyes to go back to the green--even if it was a colder, sharper green.

Mussing up his hair, purposefully scratching his cheek, and tearing his uniform a bit, he lay there very still, eyes closed.

Waiting.

[ilovebearbert]

The door creaked open, and Jazz clutched the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick defensively as she peered around the doorway.

When she saw Danny, she almost dropped it.

"Danny!" she stage-whispered, creeping through the door with her glorified baseball bat at the ready.

[bringnewjokes]

When Sam came through the door, her eyes popped open in alarm.

"Danny!" Sam hissed the same time that Jazz said it.

[fryertuck]

"Danny!" squeaked Tucker, at the same time as Jazz and Sam.

...They did that a lot.

"There's some sort of field around him," he said immediately, eyeing the radiating green light around him and the generators in the room.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

Dan groaned slightly, and blearily looked at the three of them, holding up a hand as if to shield himself.

"No please," he babbled, tearfully, pleading. "Please...please don't hurt me anymore. I'll do whatever you want, I told you. Please."

[ilovebearbert]

"How do we get it down?" asked Jazz. It was a cliche she'd never use, but Danny's voice tore at her heart. She wanted to run to him and pick him up and pretend he was still her little baby brother who she could take care of.

[bringnewjokes]

Dropping the Jack O' Nine Tails, Sam stepped forward, and knelt in front of the shield, resting her palms against it.

"It's okay, Danny. We're here and we're going to get you out. No one is going to hurt you anymore. No one. I promise."

She tried to keep her voice even and strong, but it faltered.

[fryertuck]

"Shutting down the generators to the inner shield," said Jazz. "...This is so strange. It's like a modified version of the our parents' Ghost Shield."

The generators hummed down to silence, and the inner shield faded away.

"Don't worry, Danny, we'll have you out in a jiffy," said Tucker, working on the next one as fast as he could.

He did not like how his best friend looked.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"S-sam?" Danny said slowly, as the green light of the modified Fenton Ghost Shield flickered and disappeared.

One down...

"Tucker? Jazz? But how?" Suddenly he sat up, shakily, alarm all over his face. "You have to get out of here. He's crazy! He'll kill you if he finds you here!"

[bringnewjokes]

"No way! As soon as we get you out, I'm definitely breaking any vows of non-violence I have, and the creep that did this to you is the one who's going to experience it firsthand," Sam said furiously.

[fryertuck]

"Shield two down," said Tucker, pressing one last button, and the generator powered down and hummed into silence.

"I brought the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick, little brother," Jazz put in helpfully.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"You don't get it. If he comes back and find you..."

Danny sighed and explained, still shaking, "It's Ray S-stanz, that scientist that gave us the PKE meters. He was just trying to earn my trust so he stab me in the back--he's a paranormal scientist, like mom and dad, but he's been doing all these...these experiments--" He shuddered visibly. "--on me. To make me more powerful. I can't even become human anymore, and-and I think he was trying to turn me into some kind of weapon, to sell me to the government or something, back in his world."

He hung his head in his hands, tugging at his hair.

[fryertuck]

Jazz started smearing the cuneiform, angrily. She was definitely going to be using the Anti-Creep Stick on the creep.

"These symbols look Sumerian, I think. They must be used to bind spirits, although I've never seen anything like this actually work."

That left just one shield left, although Tucker was having a hard time with it.

"Oh, let me do it," said Jazz stubbornly, after smearing the symbols as best as she could, bat in hand...

[gone_byebye]

The sleep compensators were nothing short of a miracle, Ray decided. Yeah, there'd be a hangover. he knew that. Nothing worked this well without a humongous price to pay. But he now felt like he'd had a full night's sleep, despite having had less than half that. He could think straight, he could see straight- damn, he was gonna owe K big-time.

He trotted down the hallway at a much more cheerful clip and opened the door to 2342....

And there were PEOPLE in there.

Kids.

Meddling kids.

He stared at them, too shocked to speak, but it would not be far amiss to say a whistling sound nevertheless rang through the air.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"Tucker, Jazz, take out the generator, quick!" Dan yelled at them.

[gone_byebye]

.....ooooh!&(@*&)!&@)(.

(Wait, when did he lose the ability to think swearwords?)

Deep breath, concentrate, pull it all together, it worked on John and Snowball-

"Don't do that! That would be Bad!"

And yes. He pronounced the capital B. The one that meant total protonic reversal. THAT kind of Bad.

[bringnewjokes]

Tucker and Jazz immediately froze, even though they didn't actually want to.

Sam, however, didn't, as she was completely resistant to all forms of authority.

"Bad because we'd be setting your ghost-boy, meat puppet for the government free? You don't trap innocent beings in cages! Particularly when one of them is our best friend!"

"And brother!" Jazz chimed in.