Negative Feedback (Danny Phantom Fic)

Chapter 7

The next day was a Saturday, as luck would have it, which meant Danny, Sam, and Tucker didn't have school to get in the way of our "mission." When I awoke from my nap, which was really all it was when it lasted just over two hours, I sat up slowly on Jazz's bedroom floor and stretched my arms high over my head.

"Oh, man..." I murmured after yawning noisily. "Stiff neck, ouch..."

Jazz must have woken up before me because her bed was empty and neatly made. It brought to mind the messy state of Danny's room, and I yawned again. 'Definitely says a lot about their personalities... I wonder when we're gonna go into the Ghost Zone, like he mentioned before.'

That made me think about what had happened just a couple of hours prior. It felt like a lot longer, so it was weird to realize I had nearly been kidnapped— ghost-napped?— so recently. A serious frown settled on my lips. 'If Skulker wanted to take me there, do I really want to go to that place? What if it's not safe for me? I think I heard something about me being rare, too. If I go to the Ghost Zone, will I be targeted by other ghosts as well? Oh, no...'

I wanted to be confident, to be able to easily tell myself that I had little to worry about. It was just a silly wish, though, because I doubted that would ever happen. Sitting on the floor, with my arms wrapped around my knees and my breathing shallow and erratic, I struggled to fight off the same sort of panic and anxiety I was cursed to constantly deal with.

'Calm down, Camry. Calm down. Calm. Down. This is a terrible place and time to break down. You have to be strong, if just for a little while longer. Danny is going to help you, and then things may be able to go back to the way they were before. Or maybe this is all just a really long, really detailed and vivid dream. Yeah, maybe that's true. Wouldn't that be nice? To be back home, sleeping in your own bed and not on the floor, looking forward to going camping with Mom and Dad and Saoirse and her family—'

"Camry?" Jazz whispered when she came back into her room. She walked to her vanity and used the mirror to see me, so I had to smile and act like nothing was wrong. "Danny's up, and I think he wants to leave soon. Sam and Tucker are on their way."

I nodded, then gave her a thumbs-up for good measure. 'Jazz is nice... It would be cool if we could actually talk to each other. I bet we'd have the best conversations.'

Still, there was work to be done. I stood up and adjusted the hem of the sweatshirt, preparing to walk out the door, when Jazz stopped me by grabbing a sleeve. "Don't go out there with this on," she said quickly in a hushed tone. "I'll put it on and give it to you down in the lab."

I couldn't argue with that logic, so I slid out of the jacket and handed it to her. The air was chillier outside of the sweatshirt, and I hugged myself for both warmth and comfort. Now that it was the beginning of my third day away from my home and family, and I was starting to feel the negative effects of being separated from them so suddenly.

'I just have to make it through until we find someone who can give us answers. Hopefully this Clockwork guy can help me. I want to go home so badly...'

~

It was a miracle I didn't get caught by Danny's renowned ghost-hunting parents with all of their technology and expertise. I didn't wear Jazz's sweatshirt, which was a good start, but every time I saw either of them I would instinctively hold my breath and stand perfectly still no matter what.

"I don't think you needed to act like a statue whenever they walked by you," Danny said to me when we finally made it downstairs and into the subterranean lab. "They didn't notice anything."

"S-Still makes me nervous," I replied absentmindedly while looking at some of the equipment laid out on the worktables. Some of the jars were filled with luminescent green goop that I wasn't sure I wanted to know the identity or origin of.