Jason in the Ghost Zone

Bad magic trick

“I don’t have time for this!” Danny ducked away from another of Valerys shots. “Do we really have to do this every time we see each other?”
“Quiet Ghost-Kid!” She kept firing as she groaned in frustration. “And stay still!”
Danny shot her hover-board and laughed when it began spinning out of control, he checked to make sure she landed safely before waving and flying off laughing a little harder as her screams of his villainy followed him. Fighting off ghosts was both harder and easier with her around, and he couldn’t bring himself to be mad at her, even if that one shot had almost blown his arm off. Would those grow back if he lost the in his ghost form? He hoped so, but wasn’t gong to be testing that theory any time soon.
He changed back to his human form a block away from Tuckers house and began walking the rest of the way. It was a nice day out, the sun shining over Amity Park, only one fairly week ghost had shown up earlier, so the only thing keeping his Saturday from being peaceful so far had been the fight with Valery. The young hero enjoyed the peaceful walk as much as he could. Slowly making his way to his best friend’s house where he’d left to deal with the candy ghost that had popped up.
Walking under Tuckers house he could already hear the kid from the Ghost-Zone complaining. Danny grinned as he knocked on the front door, delaying the inevitable by not flying strait to the room.
“Hello Danny.” Tuckers mom answered the door with a smile. “I didn’t even notice you’d left.” She said stepping aside to let him in.
“Oh, just my folks called me to take care of some chores I forgot this morning.” He said sheepishly.
“Tuckers still in his room, with Sam and your new friend.” She said heading back to the kitchen. “Tell him to let me know if you kids want some snacks.”
“Will do, thanks Misses F.” Danny went up the stairs and heard the kid before he even made it down the hall.
“Aren’t you done yet?”
“Sit still, you’re going to mess it up.”
“How long can this possibly take?”
“Longer if you don’t sit still, but if Tucker were helping…”
“Don’t involve me in this, I tried the goth thing once remember, you to can play with makeup alone if you want.”
Danny opened the door to find his friends just like he’d left them, trying to make Red look human. While the hero had seen ghosts like Jonny Thirteen who could make there ghostly auras disappear at will, that wasn’t something the ghost-kid had been able to do. They’d found a failed version of the anti-ghost foam that would disguise the kids glow, there was just a little problem.
“Again?!” Sam complained. “Come on, we just need half an hour.”
Red studied the green puddle on the floor that had grown noticeably since Danny had seen it last. “Is this really necessary?” The ghosts face was blank when he looked at the hero.
“If you don’t want Val and my folks shooting you on sight.” Danny said.
The ghost groaned and pulled his hat over his face, after a second he noticed what he was doing and threw the hat out of the window.
“I still don’t get what you have against it, it’s just a hat.” Tucker said smirking.
“It’s possessed.” Red said matter-of-factly, tugging up his hood. He looked down at his white gloved hand. It had been easy to keep his hands in the goop for long enough that it wasn’t glowing anymore, but the rest on his refused to remain tangible long enough for it to work. “This is never going to work.”
“Sure it will.” Sam pulled the hood down and began covering the ghost boys face in the green goop again. “Stay still.” She said with a smirk that said that she was clearly enjoying the ghosts discomfort. “By the way, we still need another name, you can’t really go by Red Hoodie, it doesn’t have to be your real…”
“Todd,” the ghost said petulantly, His eyes flicked between the three kids in the room and he tensed up in a way that Danny was already starting to get used to after the few days since he’d taken the kid from the Ghost-Zone.
“If you say so, looks a bit better on paper, even if it doesn’t suit you too well.” Sam said.
“Yeah, we should call you something cool. If I could pick my own name, it would be epic.” Tucker said.
“Like what?” The ghost was sitting dead - no pun intended – still, like it would keep him from phasing off the stuff on his face.
“Like Destroyer Foley, or Emperor Foley.” The nerd said, he ignored the laughs of the others in the room and carried on, “Terminator Foley, Hercules Foley…”
“Yeah, don’t think those would work kid.” Red looked like he wanted to shake his head.
“Not for you maybe, but someone like me could pull it off.” Tucker said leaning dangerously in his chair. “Not everyone can be as…” There was a loud clang as he tipped off the chair and crashed into his desk.
“How about Tucker FALLey.” Danny laughed, earning him a glare from his best friend.
“Whatever.” The geek pouted and went back to typing on his computer, you’re lucky I don’t change your name to that.”
“I doubt a kid like you has the skill to really do something like that.” Red said, his face skewed in concentration.
“Oh and I bet you could?” Tucker said rolling his eyes.
“Aha.” Red drawled distractedly.
“Psh, get real, sometimes it’s like you think you’re some kinda secret agent or something.” Tucker clicked a few times and hit printer spat out a few pages, he plucked one from the pile and looked it over. “Good enough to look like a copy at least.” He set it down.
“Great, thanks Tuck, Sam.” Danny said patting his friend on the shoulder.
“You’d be totally useless on your own.” Sam said. “Hey, only a few minutes to g…”
“Darnit!” Red threw up his arms and face planted into the desk he was sitting near. The ghost belted out some words that were thankfully too muffled to here before lifting his head and leaning it in the palm of one hand, his expression blank. “This is never going to work, there’s no way your school security can be that bad.”
***
“I can’t believe your school security is this bad.” Red said with a frown. “How is it still running?” What he knew of schools was lots of paperwork, and lots of money being thrown around to push the paperwork through. That all it took was an obviously fake birth certificate to get in was worrying, even if it was convenient for the time being.
“You kidding, you should have seen who they hired as teen therapist last year, this was nothing.” Sam said.
He shook his head and looked down at the schedule he’d been given, the name Todd Reed printed neatly in the corner. Hoe he was even standing there made about as much sense as the place he’d come from, so he memorized the days schedule and shoved his hands in his pockets, resolving to deal with it the same way – by not thinking about it too much.
“Don’t forget to show him where his locker is Mister Fenton.” The principal nearly gave him a heart attack when she poked her head out of her office.
“I will, Principal Ishiyama.” Danny said dragging the other boy away by the strap of his backpack. “Er, what number is your locker?”
Red felt like an idiot when the ringing of the school bell made him jump, he had the feeling that somewhere there was someone very disappointed in him.
“You okay?” Danny asked.
“I’m fine.” Red adjusted the straps of his plain green backpack and resolved to be more observant of his surroundings. “I’m still not sure why I have to be here though. I hate school.”
“You don’t know that, have you ever been?” Danny asked.
“Of course I have!” Red sighed, “Can we just get this over with.”
“You’re gonna get in trouble if you don’t calm down, sheesh kid.” Danny turned a corner with Red following close behind. He tapped the locker. “The jocks here are gonna go into a frenzy when they find out there’s fresh meat.” He turned to look at the other boy and his face fell. “Oh no.”
“What now?” Red asked already having an idea.
“Yeah, what now Fentoad?” A cocky voice came from behind the red eyed boy.
“Shouldn’t you be in class, Dash?” Danny said.
“Hall pass.” Red caught a glimpse of a slip of paper out the corner of his eye. “I wanted to meet the new freak you’re hanging around, give him a proper welcome.”
Yeah sure he did. Red turned his head just enough to make out the size of the kid behind him, tall, muscular, a sport jacket. “Yeah, I’m not in the mood blondie, go run across a field or something.”
“What did you just say to me?” Dash balled one hand into a fist and hit the other threateningly. It wasn’t as threatening as the jock probably thought it would be.
“What? You got dirt up your ear or something, maybe you should get that checked out, I think it’s filled up your head as well.” Red said, keeping his face blank.
“You…!” The jock growled, picking red up by the front of his hoodie. “Look at that, you really are a freak.” He laughed
“Sure, real clever kid.” Red patted the taller boys head. “I’m sure mommy’s real glad to have such a clever boy.”
“See you try to talk when you don’t have a face!” Dash pulled back one large fist and swung it for the smaller boy.
Red quickly twisted out of his grip, dropping to the ground in a crouch he stuck out one leg and spun around, knocking the jocks feet out from under him. Five seconds later the jock was still too shocked to move. Red bent over him and nudged his head to the side.
“You okay there? Jeez you don’t look so good, need me to help you find the nurse? I just got here myself, but you know, brains.” Red stuck his hands back in his pockets.
“What?! Red, what did you…? Argh.” Danny groaned, scrapping a hand across his face. He grabbed the other boys backpack and dragged him away.
“I’ll get you for that, freak.” Dashes voice followed them as they entered the classroom.
Sam and Tucker were both there already, and Red just shrugged at the identical exasperated looks they sent, jeez it was like a they had some kind of creepy mind link going on there.
“Late again, Mister Fenton.” The overweight teacher turned away from the board, setting down the only piece of chalk, to greet them. “And who’s this?”
“Sorry Mister Lancer.” Danny said. “I was just showing Todd here his locker, he’s new.”
“I see, Todd, was it,” He addressed Red.
“Sup.” He raised a hand in greeting. It felt wrong being called that, but at the same time familiar, like it was something people only called him when he was in trouble or something.
“Yes, sup as you kids say, would you be so kind as to introduce yourself to the class Mister…”
“Reed.” Danny said.
“Right, Mister Reed.” Lancer gestured to the front of the class. “And tell us all something about yourself.
Red shrugged and walked to the front of the quiet class. “Todd Reed everyone.” He pointed at himself with his thumb, he smirked as an idea came to his mind and he heard the thump of Danny smashing his head into his desk. “Anyone wanna see a magic trick?” Huh, a few idiots actually put there hands up. He grinned wider and picked up a piece of chalk, already knowing that this was a really bad idea that could go horribly wrong.
He held the chalk so the whole class could see it, he closed the chalk up in a fist and raised his arm high. He turned his hand intangible, dropping the piece of chalk into his one sleeve and sliding it to the other, catching it with the hand that was still in his pocket. He opened the now empty hand and some of the kids gasped when they saw it was gone, another jacket wearing jock and a few others scowled, whatever.
“Yes, that was an interesting trick, Mister Reed.” Lancer clapped softly. “Take the seat at the back there,” He pointed to an empty seat. “You’ll have to put down your hoodie while class is in session.”
Red gave him back the piece of chalk along with a fake note he’d also shown at the office. He grinned at Dannys scowl when he walked past the other boy, grateful that his seat was on the other side of the classroom. Wasn’t like he cared about the school beyond being able to keep an eye on the little hero boy. He didn’t even have to be there to do it.
***
“How far along are we with the calculations Babs?”
“Around 48%.
“You sure it’ll work when were done?”
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
“He’s not gonna like that.”
“He’ll come around.”
“I trust you, Nightwing out.”