Chapter Text
Sam groaned as she threw her pencil down and leaned back in her chair. “That’s it. If I have to do one more chemistry diagram, I’m going to scream.”
Tucker looked up from his own notebook, holding his place in the text with the tip of his finger while he watched her spinning her chair in a circle in front of her desk. Sitting in the middle of her bed, he was currently surrounded by his notes and a battered and torn copy of Othello. He’d decided to work on his English while Sam was focused on Chem, and for the past little while the only sound in the room had been the scratch of pencils on paper and Sam’s CD player playing Evanescence’s My Immortal quietly in the background.
But if she had hit her breaking point, then so had he.
“You ready for a break?” he asked eagerly.
“Yes,” she agreed, slamming her textbook shut. “I need a palate cleanser, we’ve been at this for…geez, has it been an hour already?”
Tucker glanced at the clock. “Wow, yeah. I think that’s a new record.”
“Anything from Danny, yet?” Sam asked, gesturing towards the PDA Tucker had sitting next to him on the nightstand.
Tucker picked it up, checking the program that would notify him once Danny returned from the Ghost Zone. It showed no updates. “Nah, looks like he’s still out there.”
Sam let out a frustrated sigh. “Like, I get it. Sometimes he’s got to do ghost stuff on his own. But man, I would so rather be helping Dora with tracking down whatever the heck ghost turkey thing they lost instead of this.” She gestured to the textbook on her desk with disgust.
“Yeah,” Tucker agreed with a sigh. “You said it.”
Sam also looked frustrated for a moment, but then she suddenly brightened. “Wait! Actually, this is perfect! There’s been something I’ve been meaning to show you that I can’t show Danny.”
Tucker gave her a startled look. Something that she could only show him? What the heck could that even be? They shared everything with each other! “Huh?”
She pushed her chair back decisively and hopped to her feet. “Come on, it’s down in the greenhouse!”
Before he could even think to protest, she grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him out the door.
When they reached the greenhouse, she led him to the far corner, where several hanging baskets had become so overgrown they practically created a curtain of leaves. She pulled them aside, revealing a small area cut off from the rest of the greenhouse, where the light overhead shone a sickly green. Recognizing an ecto-light when he saw one, Tucker frowned and gave Sam a wary glance.
“What the heck is all this?” he asked, eyeing the various pots spread around them on several mismatched plant stands.
“My new ghost garden!” Sam announced, throwing her arms wide with pride. “You remember Undergrowth?”
“The giant plant ghost that tried to kill all humans and turned you into his mind-controlled slave?”
“Yeah, that guy!” Sam said brightly.
“Okay, yes, I remember him,” Tucker replied. “I don’t want to, but I do. Why?”
“Oh, we’re penpals now,” Sam told him absently as she started inspecting some of her plants. She pulled a shrivelled leaf off of one that looked like a cactus and a chainsaw had a baby. “He’s been sending me some cuttings and seeds, just so I can try growing a few things from the Ghost Zone here in my greenhouse, and some of them are coming along nicely, check it out!
She gestured to her collection of odd-looking plants, naming them off as she pointed to each one.
“I’ve got Shriek Orchids, two Howling Tangles, the Ectus just started sprouting last week, and look at this!” She held up a pot that was so large that she had to strain to lift it with both arms. Inside there was a tree-like plant that had several twisting branches ladened with tiny little white fruits that looked like they were just starting to grow. “Ecto-pears! Danny’s favourite! Once they’re ready, I’m going to surprise him, so you better not tell him!”
The glare she gave him as she set the large pot back down on the floor was intense enough to make him back up a step. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he chuckled nervously.
She snorted, and leaned back against a rolling cart, the surface speckled with dirt and various gardening tools. “Good.”
Taking a chance to look around, Tucker moved a bit closer to one of the plants that seemed to be the most familiar. Aside from an electric blue stripe running up each blade, it almost looked like a regular snake plant. He gave it a poke, watching in amazement as it shuddered and curled up each leaf like a fern at the touch. “Okay, this is actually kind of cool. I mean, I’m a little suspicious of all of them, given you got them from a plant ghost who declared he was going to try to take over the world with plants, but they do look pretty awesome.”
“Eh, I’m sure it’s fine,” she dismissed with a shrug. “Though I do have a makeshift flamethrower on standby in case any of them look at me funny.”
He glanced over at her just in time to see her wiggle a barbecue lighter and a can of hairspray at him.
“Oh yeah, that seems like a fool-proof security method.”
“Hey, it’s already worked once,” she told him. And then she suddenly perked up. “Oh wait, I haven’t even shown you the coolest ones!”
She slapped the lighter and hairspray back down on the rolling cart, before diving into her garden of ghost plants, digging around for something near the back. He could hear her grunting and cursing softly under her breath, but it didn’t take long until she was emerging from the collection of plants with a pot held aloft over her head in triumph.
“Duh da duh da!” she cheered, mimicking the item get song from Doomed. “Check it out!”
When Tucker saw the blood red flowers blooming in her hands, his mouth dropped open in shock. “Wait, are those blood blossoms?!”
“Yup!” she confirmed cheerfully.
“I thought those were extinct!”
She shrugged. “I think Undergrowth can grow anything, whether it’s still around or not. Honestly, I didn’t even realize what the seeds were when he first sent them to me. I only figured it out when the first flower showed up.”
“Dude, why do you even have that?” Tucker cried in dismay. “Don’t remember what those things did to Danny?”
“Of course I do!” she frowned at him, placing one hand on her hip while clutching the potted blood blossoms with her other arm. “Trust me, it’s hard to forget those screams.”
“So then why are they here?” Tucker demanded, frowning right back at her. “If Danny gets anywhere near those things, it could kill him!”
“First off, I had them tucked away in the back corner for a reason,” she said, turning to place the pot on the rolling cart. Once it was set down, she whirled on him and crossed her arms stubbornly. “I’m not letting Danny anywhere near those things. Second, Danny’s not the only one who would be affected by them. I was thinking it might be nice to have a few more options in our arsenal to deal with ghosts, rather than always ‘borrowing’ stuff from Danny’s parents. What happens if we’re fighting someone like Technus, and he messes up all of our gear? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have something on hand that we can use to fight back that doesn’t require a battery?”
“I don’t know, Sam,” Tucker said, eyeing the blood blossoms warily. “I mean, those can be used against Danny just as much as against anyone else. What happens if Vlad finds out you have them? You think he won’t try to do something evil with them?”
For a second, her face fell, as if she hadn’t even considered that possibility. But then he saw her expression harden, her usual stubbornness rearing its ugly head. “Vlad won’t find out about these,” she insisted.
“I still think it’s too dangerous,” Tucker told her.
“Well, what do you know about plants?” she huffed in annoyance, scooping the blood blossoms back up.
“In general? Nothing. About that plant? Plenty,” he said flatly, crossing his arms and staring her down. “Come on, Sam. You know what our luck, what Danny’s luck is usually like. That is absolutely going to come back to bite us somehow.”
She glared right back at him, clutching the pot defensively to her chest. They stood there staring at each other for a long moment in a stalemate, neither willing to back down.
And then to Tucker’s surprise, he saw Sam’s face crumple a little with guilt, before she glanced away. Her hold on the pot tightened a little, almost like she was clutching it for comfort.
“Well, I don’t know what you want me to do with it,” she grumbled. “I mean, it’s already here.”
“You just showed me how you deal with plants that turn dangerous!” Tucker cried, throwing his arm out to gesture towards the lighter.
She glanced at the lighter as well, her jaw tensing, and then looked back down at the plant. One of her hands came up to gently stroke the dark purple leaves. “I…I don’t know. What if…what if burning them just releases more fumes or something?”
Tucker fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Well, then, how else are we supposed to get rid of it?”
She bit her lip, looking down at the plant, and then back up at him with a meaningful look in her eyes. It took him a second to understand what she wasn’t saying.
“Wait,” he said, beginning to back away with his hands raised defensively. “Wait, no. No, no, no, you’re not putting me through that again.”
“Come on, Tucker, you’re the one who was worried about them!” Sam snapped. “You think they’re that dangerous? Then you can help me get rid of them. We at least know that method works to destroy them without leaving something behind that could hurt Danny.”
“Sam, do you have any idea how many of those things you made me eat last time?!”
“There’s only, like, ten blooms here!” she argued. “And three of them aren't even that big yet.”
“Noooo, I don’t want to!” he whined.
“Look, you do this, and I’ll…” She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “Do it, and I’ll…burn the rest.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “Promise?”
“I promise,” she said, staring down at her plant sadly.
“...fine,” Tucker groaned, holding out a hand. “Give ‘em.”
Choking down the blood blossoms was just as awful as he remembered. They tasted like rotten artichokes, something he’d actually eaten once thanks to some of the A-Listers playing a prank on him. He chewed them as fast as he could and tried to swallow, the bulk of them going down like a chunk of wet cement. By the time he’d finished eating all of the flowers that Sam had plucked off of the plant, he was sweating and gagging, his stomach churning in protest.
“There,” he panted, feeling flushed. “Done. Now get the hairspray.”
“Later,” she hedged, putting the pot back down on the rolling cart. “I don’t want to do it while my parents are still awake, they might see the fire and come running.”
“Sam!” Tucker cried in disbelief.
“Seriously!” she shouted right back. “If we burn it now, my parents will definitely see, and they’ll put a stop to it before we can finish. Trust me, it’s better to wait until they’re asleep. I’ll do it then.”
Tucker just gave her a dark look. “You better. If you back out now, after you just made me eat -- urck!”
A hand flew up to slap against his mouth as Tucker’s stomach suddenly clenched hard enough to make him jerk a little. His eyes were wide as he struggled to hold down the bile that had started trying to climb up the back of his throat.
“Tucker?” Sam called to him, her brow pinching in concern. “You okay?”
“Uugggh,” Tucker groaned, clutching at his stomach. “I don’t think that last blossom went down right.”
“Shoot. Maybe you should have some water,” she offered. She moved to stand next to him, not quite touching but hovering nearby with her arms outstretched, ready to catch him or support him if he needed it. “Come on, let’s get you back to the house. Do you think you can walk?”
“Yeah,” Tucker said shakily, standing frozen in place for a second as he waited for his stomach to rebel again. But as the moment stretched and it didn’t clench again, he began to tentatively hope that the nausea he’d felt had been a bit of a fluke. Much more confidently, he repeated, “Yeah. I think I can walk.”
Even though he was feeling better, Sam still walked at his side with one arm resting on his shoulder the whole way back up to the house. They paused in the kitchen, where Tucker downed a full glass of water.
“Ah,” he sighed as he set the empty glass back down on the counter. “That’s better. I was just thirsty, I guess.”
“You sure?” she asked, looking unconvinced. “You were looking really rough back in the greenhouse.”
“Please, Sam. Don’t go doubting the Foley Cast-Iron Stomach, patent pending. It can handle anything.”
She rolled her eyes, but his joke had served its purpose; a bit of the tension around her eyes had lifted after hearing his usual egotistical humor.
“Alright, Kirby. Let’s see if that cast-iron stomach can handle studying geography.”
They headed back up to Sam’s room to get back to their studying for a while longer.
They made it through another half hour of work without incident. Occasionally Sam would glance up at him from her notes with a worried frown, but Tucker would just roll his eyes and distract her with a study question. By the time they’d finished up the last of their practice questions, Tucker’s back was hurting from sitting bent over a textbook on Sam’s bed, and his eyes were starting to go crossed.
“Okay, I think I’ve hit my limit,” Tucker declared with a groan, throwing down his pencil. “My head is starting to spin with all these population density maps.”
“Same,” Sam sighed, shutting her books as well. Glancing at her alarm clock, she added, “It’s getting pretty late, anyways.”
Tucker checked the time as well and winced. “Yeah, I should probably head home.”
“Want me to call the driver for you?” Sam offered.
“Nah, I brought my scooter. Should be fine.”
“Suit yourself,” she said with a shrug.
She did make sure to help him pack up his backpack and walk him to the door. As he was pulling his shoes on, she leaned against the wall, watching him. “Think there’s any chance Danny will actually be able to join us for a homework sesh on Friday?”
Tucker paused in the laces on his boot to think about it. “Knowing him? Nah. He’ll get attacked by Ember on the way over or something and get dragged into a ghost concert.”
Sam sighed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. We should start making up another set of cheat sheets for him.”
“I’ll do English if you do Geo.”
“Deal.”
Throwing his backpack over his shoulders, Tucker headed down to where he’d left his scooter against the front of the house. With one last wave goodbye, he kicked off with his feet and started rolling down the sidewalk away from her house.
As soon as he was out of view of her front door, however, his whole body slumped over the handles of his scooter.
“Phew, that was too close,” he muttered to himself, finally letting the nausea he’d been feeling ever since Sam had made him eat the blood blossoms show on his face. He’d been hiding it for as long as he could, reluctant to admit that his self-proclaimed ability to eat anything had finally been challenged. Sam would have never let him hear the end of it if she’d known. But right at the end, he’d finally hit the point that he felt like he might actually throw up, and he’d barely been able to keep it together until he’d been safely out of sight.
He made it a whole two blocks before he had to pull over, dropping his scooter carelessly as he leaned heavily against the brick wall of the apartment building on the corner. He squeezed his eyes shut, taking slow, even breaths through his nose as he tried to fight down the nausea. His skin felt like it was covered in crawling ants, and his head was pounding. The dizziness and vertigo were so bad that he was pretty sure that the only thing holding him up was the wall he was resting against.
Despite taking several deep breaths, his symptoms didn’t seem to be getting any better. If anything, they were getting worse. The itchiness was so bad it was becoming painful. With his eyes still closed he pulled up one sleeve to scratch at his arm, only for them to suddenly fly open in alarm when his fingernails brushed against something warm and slimy.
He looked down, and immediately gasped in horror. Covering his arms, from his wrist to his elbow, were glowing green boils, their insides shiny with fluid. Pulling up his sleeve a bit further revealed that there were more hidden under his shirt, and he started frantically tugging at his clothes to check on how far they had spread. His panic only grew when he discovered that they seemed to be covering every inch of him, from his shoulders down to his calves.
In his hurry to pull his pant leg back down over them, he caught one with the corner of his fingernail. It split open with a wet burst, spilling the green ooze inside down over his leg and making him yelp in pain. Holy ancients, that had hurt.
He froze for a moment, riding through the sting of the blister bursting. And then he finished fixing his pants with a bit-back hiss. Okay. Don’t poke them. Message received.
But when he tried to stand back up from his kneeling position, he felt something pop and give way on the bottom of his feet, more burning pain hitting him. Cursing, he tipped to the side, unable to catch his balance, and landed hard on his arm and hip. The impact caused more of the blisters to break, and he gasped at the wave of agony that hit him. For a moment, all he could do was lie there on the sidewalk, trembling through the pain. He was too scared to move in case he agitated any more of the blisters.
After a few seconds of just focusing on his breathing, Tucker shakily lifted his free hand up to his eyes to inspect it. He was dismayed to find that the boils seemed to be spreading right in front of his eyes, new ones having already popped up along his fingers. He turned his hand to study it, back and front, and noticed that the veins along his wrist had gone black, like some sort of poison was spreading through them.
Oh shit. Oh shit, that was not good.
Whimpering a little, he tried to put his hand back down, only for the shift to cause one of the blisters on his hip to break. He jerked, and the whimper turned into a short scream of pain as several of the blisters all popped open with the movement.
“Tucker?!”
He could tell he was crying, because when he looked up at the sound of Danny’s voice, everything was blurry. “D-Danny?”
“Tucker, what happened to you?” Danny asked, aghast. Tucker watched as a white and black blur landed next to him in a crouch, gloved hands reaching out.
“Don’t touch me!” Tucker quickly yelped, shifting away from Danny on instinct. Then he was forced to choke back more cries as yet again he jostled the blisters coating his body.
“Shit,” Danny cursed. “Okay. Okay, I’m not touching you. But Tucker, what happened? Did you get hit with something?”
“I don’t know,” Tucker admitted. “They just started showing up out of nowhere.”
He thought he saw Danny looking around. “Where’s Sam? Is she here, too?”
“No, she’s at home. We were just studying there. She…she seemed fine when I left.”
But Danny was already activating his Fenton Phone, trying to connect to Sam. Tucker didn’t have his in at the moment, so he could only hear Danny’s side of the conversation, but it sounded like Sam was fine, at least.
“Okay, at least she’s alright,” Danny said tersely as soon as he’d disconnected the call to Sam. “But you are definitely not.”
“Understatement,” Tucker choked out.
He blinked until his vision cleared a bit, tears rolling down his cheeks. When he focused on Danny, he found his best friend staring back, looking like he was deep in thought as he chewed on his lip with one sharp fang.
“I don’t know what to do,” Danny admitted after a brief pause. “Should I take you to the hospital? Those blisters look like they’re pretty ghostly in origin.”
He reached out and dragged a finger through a little bit of the fluid leaking out of one of Tucker’s boils with a grimace, before bringing it up to his nose to give it a tentative sniff. His face wrinkled, and he quickly wiped his finger off on the front of his hazmat suit. “Yeah, that’s definitely ecto. Smells like it’s gone sour, though.”
“That…can’t be good,” Tucker wheezed out, starting to feel like his throat was getting itchy. “Why am I leaking ecto?”
“No idea,” Danny told him with a frown. “But I know someone who might be able to figure it out. Sorry, Tucker, I’m going to have to pick you up.”
Tucker whimpered, but didn’t protest as Danny reached towards him. He tried his best to be strong, biting back his flinches as Danny’s arms slipped under his knees and shoulders, but he couldn’t stop a pained moan from escaping when Danny lifted him. The places where Danny was touching him felt like they’d been set on fire.
“I’m sorry, Tucker. I promise I’ll try to make this quick,” Danny told him gently, already rising into the air.
Tucker could only turn his head and bury it into Danny’s shoulder, a few tears leaking out. “Just…hurry.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Danny muttered, as he raced them across the sky and back to the Fenton Portal.
=====
The icy chill of the Far Frozen should have been a cooling balm on the burning feeling running across his skin, but Tucker found no relief in the home of the yetis. If anything, the closer they’d gotten to their destination, the worse he’d felt, until he’d gotten to the point he’d almost thrown up all over Danny and himself.
Frantic, Danny hadn’t even stopped to say hi to any of the yetis that tried to greet them, simply flying straight for the yeti hospital that he usually visited whenever he was sick or injured.
“Help!” he screamed as soon as they entered. “Please, Frostbite! My friend needs help!”
“Danny?” Frostbite called, appearing from one of the halls. “What is it?”
When he spotted Tucker in Danny’s arms, his eyes widened in alarm, and he quickly gestured for Danny to follow as he headed back into the facility. “Come, quickly. We must get him to an examination room at once!”
Getting Tucker ready for the examination was nothing short of torture. Even when Frostbite tried to help out by cutting Tucker’s clothes apart so that they could get him down to his underwear with minimal movement, his body was still jostled and shifted enough to pop his boils every few seconds, sending wave after burning wave of pain racing through him. The backs of his legs felt like they were more open wound than flesh at this point, and when Tucker glanced down towards them, he could see that there was bright red blood starting to get mixed in with the leaking green fluid pooling under him. His hands were so covered in the blisters now that every twitch of his fingers caused at least a few of them to rub against each other, leaving him basically completely helpless. He couldn’t even lift his arms without wanting to cry.
Once he was bare, he was left sitting on the edge of the exam bed, trying to avoid touching anything as much as possible. Frostbite took a big step back to study him, brow furrowed. Danny remained next to the bed, hovering close like he wanted to hold Tucker’s hand, but knew that he couldn’t.
“Well?” Danny asked, glancing nervously between Tucker and Frostbite. “What’s happening? Can you fix it?”
“I have some suspicions, but I will need to run some tests to be sure,” Frostbite informed him, already turning to gather supplies from a nearby cupboard. “Until then, Danny, I need you to go request more aid. The more hands we have, the quicker our work will be. Go ask for our toxins specialist, I believe her expertise will be needed.”
Danny rushed off to take care of his task. As soon as he was gone, Frostbite approached Tucker with what looked like a long q-tip. He swiped it through some of the fluid leaking out of one of the many burst blisters across Tucker’s body, before inserting it into some strange handheld scanner.
At this point, Tucker felt like he was more blister than skin. He could feel them starting to grow across his face, one swelling beneath his eye and squeezing it shut. He tried to ask Frostbite what was happening, but he could feel one starting to form on the tip of his tongue. Worried he’d burst it and end up having to choke down whatever the hell was in the blisters, he carefully kept his mouth shut.
After the swab, Frostbite took some blood, and then started scanning Tucker with various devices. By the time Danny came back, a smaller yeti in tow, Frostbite had finished collecting whatever samples he needed, tapping away at the holographic projector set to the side of the small clinic room. Danny zoomed over to Tucker’s side right away, but the new yeti joined Frostbite at the projector.
“You require my assistance, Frostbite?” the yeti asked in greeting. She spoke in a deep, soothing contralto, her expression calm and placid.
“Ah, Snowscape! Yes, I am in need of your knowledge and experience,” Frostbite agreed, tapping a few buttons. A 3D image of Tucker’s body appeared above the table, various parts labeled with tags written in ghost script. Tucker had no idea what any of it said, but he couldn’t help but notice that there was a whole lot marked in red, which…probably wasn’t good.
While Frostbite and Snowscape put their horns together to discuss the results of the scans, Danny drew his attention by hopping up to sit next to him on the exam table.
“Hey, man. How are you doing?” he asked quietly.
Tucker just very carefully opened up his mouth, flashing the blister on his tongue. At once, Danny winced in understanding.
“Man, I am so sorry, Tucker. I wish there was something I could do,” Danny told him sadly, shoulders slumped in defeat.
Tucker couldn’t do much without risking more pain, but he managed to give Danny a weak smile.
Just then, Frostbite and Snowscape looked up from the hologram projector they’d been conferring over. Tucker did not like the grim looks on their faces.
Danny clearly didn’t either, because he immediately asked, his voice full of dread, “What is it?”
“This is a very curious situation indeed,” Snowscape murmured. She tapped a few buttons on the projector, and a slim tablet popped out of the side of it. Pulling it free, she lifted it up to her snout and ran a claw along its surface as she read through the display. “I have only ever seen case studies like this.”
“What is it?” Danny repeated, only growing more worried. “What’s going on?”
Frostbite didn’t answer straight away. Instead he stared at Tucker intently, as if he was studying a particularly fascinating insect. His paw came up to rub along the underside of his jaw as he hummed thoughtfully.
“Frostbite!” Danny cried, getting fed up. “Please, just tell us what’s going on!”
Danny’s shout seemed to startle Frostbite out of his musings, because he blinked at them in surprise. “Ah, forgive me, Great One. I am just trying to decide where it is best to start.”
Sighing, Frostbite waved his ice-coated arm, and a frosty chair formed on the floor next to the bed. He sat down in it while Snowscape continued to tap at her tablet, muttering to herself as she wandered off towards the far side of the exam room. Frostbite’s expression was quite serious as he planted both of his paws on his knees and leaned towards them.
“Your companion has been by your side for quite some time, would you say, Great One?”
“Uh…yeah?” Danny confirmed, taking a second to understand the question. He glanced over at Tucker, and then back at Frostbite. “I mean, Tucker’s been my best friend since we were, like, babies.”
“So he has been closely involved in your more spectral adventures, yes?” Frostbite prompted. “Present for many of your battles against other ghosts? Accompanying you to the Ghost Zone on a regular basis?”
“That’s right.”
“As I suspected,” Frostbite said with a nod, his expression growing more grim. “As I’m sure you are aware, Danny, humans do not typically come to the Ghost Zone. Nor do they normally interact with ghosts as much as you do. While the people of your town may see more spectral activity than most, their exposure is still quite limited.”
He gestured towards Tucker with his paw. “This is not the case for your friend here. He has had regular exposure to ectoplasm and ectoenergy for some time now, especially yours. While nowhere near as significant as the amount of exposure you received during the accident that turned you into a Halfa, the long-term contact with this energy has had similar consequences.”
Danny just started at Frostbite for a moment, clearly baffled by what Frostbite had just said. Tucker was feeling a little confused too, but he couldn’t exactly ask Frostbite to repeat himself, since he could feel more sores starting to form inside his mouth.
Thankfully Danny asked for him. “Come again?”
Frostbite sighed. “Simply put, your friend here has been exposed to so much ectoenergy over the years that he has started to become part ghost himself, to a small degree.”
Danny’s jaw dropped open, and Tucker gasped hard enough that one of his blisters broke open. He gagged as a taste like acid hit the back of his tongue, and he quickly leaned forward so that the fluid drained out of his mouth onto the floor, rather than down his throat. Danny reached out and almost started rubbing his back on instinct, but thankfully managed to restrain himself at the last second. Still, Tucker’s movements made a few more of the boils burst, and he moaned as a fresh wave of pain hit him.
“Shit, Tucker, careful!” Danny cautioned, before looking back at Frostbite incredulously. “Are you saying Tucker’s turning into a Halfa?! Is that what’s happening to him?!”
“No, not at all!” Frostbite quickly reassured them. “Nothing that extreme! He is still almost completely human. But a small amount of his DNA has been altered to give him more ghostly traits. Perhaps nothing that can be observed physically, but the change is certainly there.”
Danny glanced back at Tucker again. “Uh, Frostbite, you might need to get your eyes checked, because I can definitely observe some changes right now. There’s changes all over him!”
“Ah,” Frostbite grimaced. “That actually brings us to the second part of the results. I believe that Snowscape would be better suited to explain this bit.”
Snowscape approached, looking up from her tablet.
“It appears that Tucker is experiencing toxic ectodermal necrolysis,” Snowscape explained carefully. “That is what is triggering the blisters and swelling all over his body. He has ingested a substance that has caused damage to the spectral parts of his cells, and they have begun to break down. The body is attempting to remove the destroyed cells through the skin, but the damage is extensive, and therefore the symptoms are widespread.”
Danny gaped. “Are you saying Tucker’s been poisoned?!”
“Essentially, yes,” she confirmed, “Though I have no idea how. There are high traces of blood blossom in his system, but such a plant has been extinct for centuries in your human realm.”
Danny made a sound of frustrated confusion, but Tucker felt his one good eye go wide in understanding. Shit. He knew that plant was going to be trouble.
“I mean, we have run into them before, during the whole Infi-map mess,” Danny told them, rubbing his chin. “And Tucker did eat a bunch. But that was ages ago. Why is this happening now?”
Frostbite and Snowscape shared a pained look.
“It shouldn’t,” Snowscape confirmed. “Any trace of blood blossoms should be long gone from his system by now.”
Realizing that they weren’t going to be able to figure it out on their own, Tucker started carefully waving his hand. His muscles were so sore that it hurt to even do that much, but thankfully they seemed to notice, and they all focused on him right away.
“What is it, Tucker?” Danny asked. “Is it something else?”
Tucker cupped his hand and raised it to his open mouth, doing his best to mime eating.
Danny frowned, watching him with intense concentration as he tried his best to understand. “You…wait, you did eat blood blossoms again? When?”
Tucker pointed to his wrist, as if he was wearing a watch, and then down at the ground with both fingers.
“...I don’t know what that means,” Danny admitted.
“Are you trying to say that you have consumed blood blossoms more recently?” Snowscape asked.
Tucker nodded.
She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “It must have been very recent. Within the past day, for the levels to be so high in your bloodstream.”
Tucker nodded again.
“How, though?” Danny demanded, looking to Frostbite and Snowscape as if they’d have some sort of answer.
“It doesn’t matter, that is a mystery that can be solved later,” Frostbite dismissed with a wave of his paw, before frowning at Snowscape. “What we need now is treatment. Snowscape. Do you have a plan? Should we prepare a healing tank?”
Her jaw tightened, and her ears went back. “I’m afraid not, Frostbite. He must be sent home.”
“What?” Danny shrieked. He looked at Tucker, and then back at her. “Are you kidding? Just look at him! You can’t send him home like this!”
“I’m afraid we must,” she insisted. “His symptoms are being exacerbated by the ambient ectoenergy of the Ghost Zone. The ghost-like parts of his body are absorbing it in an attempt to regenerate, but that only creates more of a reaction with the blood blossom toxin in his body. If he stays here, the cycle will continue, and his symptoms will worsen.”
Well that didn't sound good. Things were already awful enough, he didn't even want to think about them getting worse.
Danny seemed to be in agreement, because he turned to Tucker at once. “Sounds like I should have taken you to the hospital after all. Damn it, I just made it worse!”
Tucker tried to shake his head. There was no way Danny could have known!
Frostbite seemed to agree, because he reached out and placed a comforting paw on Danny's shoulder. “You did the best you could with the knowledge you had, Great One. And at least now we have a diagnosis. But yes, you must take your companion home now, with much haste.”
“Right,” Danny nodded decisively, quickly shaking off his guilt. Or, knowing Danny, shoving it down for now so it could haunt him later. Tucker's vision was starting to get fuzzy in his other eye now, so he couldn't see Danny's face that clearly, but he could tell that Danny was facing him now. “Alright, Tucker. I'm going to pick you up again. Brace yourself.”
He tried his best. But even with Danny being as gentle as he could, Tucker still whimpered and yelped with every tiny movement. Eventually Danny seemed to realize that moving slowly was only dragging out Tucker's suffering, because he abruptly scooped Tucker up into his arms, cradling him against his chest. Tucker could feel him flinching with every pained noise that slipped out of Tucker's mouth.
“Here, Great One. To at least provide him some modesty.”
Tucker felt something heavy and soft get draped over his body. It was cool to the touch, which actually provided a tiny bit of relief to his tortured skin.
“Thanks, Frostbite,” Danny murmured. “I'll try to bring it back as soon as I can.”
“Do not worry about that,” Frostbite dismissed. “I have plenty more cloaks. Focus on helping your friend.”
“I will. Thank you both for everything.”
Tucker felt them both go weightless as Danny rose up into the air. And then they shot off like a rocket. The rushing wind burned against the abused skin on his face, so Tucker turned and did his best to bury his nose into Danny's neck, choking back sobs as every movement left him trembling with pain.
“Just hang on, Tucker,” Danny murmured against the top of Tucker's head, his arms tucking Tucker's body more securely against him. “Almost there.”
=====
Their desperate flight through the Ghost Zone was a complete blur to Tucker. His other eye finally swelled shut, leaving him completely blind, and the wounds in his mouth had multiplied to the point that he was constantly drooling that awful acidic fluid out from between his lips. All he knew was pain, and the distant sound of Danny muttering curses to himself.
He felt it the moment they emerged through the Fenton portal and back into the lab. It was subtle, but there was a tiny decrease in the pain coating his body, which offered support to Snowscape's theory that the Ghost Zone itself was making his symptoms worse. It was enough to let a tiny bit of the tension leak out of his shoulders, at least.
But then he noticed that the tension in Danny's body had gotten worse.
At the same time, he heard a familiar boisterous voice shout, “Ghosts! Maddie! Look, it's the ghost boy!”
“I see him, Jack,” Maddie Fenton confirmed, sounding much closer than her husband. Tucker heard the familiar buzz of a Fenton weapon charging. “And look, he brought another ghost out with him!”
Another ghost? Had someone followed them out through the portal?
“It looks like a nasty one, too,” Jack agreed, also grabbing his own weapon from the sounds of it. “Look at it, leaking ecto all over the place! What do you think it is? Pustulent Poltergeist? Gangrenous Ghoul?”
Oh. They were talking about him.
“Hard to say until we catch it for testing,” Maddie said tersely.
“No, no, please!” Danny quickly protested, clutching Tucker a bit closer. “He's -- !”
The Fentons didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence. Tucker felt his body jolt as Danny suddenly threw them both to the side, the sound of ectoblasts hitting the metal wall close by ringing through Tucker's ears. Danny let out a short curse, already bursting into motion as more blasts headed their way. Tucker could only try his best not to pass out as he found himself suddenly being whipped through the air at high speeds.
“Wait! Please wait!” Danny cried, but it was no use. The Fentons couldn’t hear him over the cacophony of ectoblasts firing and the sharp ringing of each shot hitting the various surfaces of the lab around them.
Finally, getting fed up, Tucker heard Danny growl to himself. “That’s it.”
The familiar icy sensation of turning intangible washed over Tucker’s body. He had expected that it would have provided some relief from the pain, given he was no longer touching anything, but instead the cool wash of Danny’s power was followed up by a wave of searing heat, like every single one of his nerves had been set on fire all at once. He cried out, more ecto-like fluid spilling out of the corners of his mouth and trickling down his chin.
“Shit! Exposure to ectoenergy!” Danny hissed in dismay. “I forgot, my powers will make this worse!”
Tucker could only thrash his head, too overwhelmed by the agony to be able to offer any sort of response.
“Shit, shit, shit, just…Just hang on, Tucker, I’ll get you out of here!”
“The ghost boy is trying to get away!” Jack shouted.
“Oh, no you don’t ghost boy!” Maddie exclaimed. Tucker heard a beep, and then her cry of triumph. “Ha! The tracker is working! Now there’s nowhere you can hide from us!”
Normally this would be where Danny would make some sort of sarcastic comment or cheesy pun. But he didn’t waste any time on that. Tucker felt them pick up speed, and a few seconds later, the quality of what little light made it through his swollen eyelids seemed to change. He thought he heard the sound of a car driving by, followed by a dog barking in the distance; Danny must have brought them outside.
Danny dropped his intangibility. Tucker’s entire body slumped like a puppet with cut strings as the burning pain that had been overwhelming him abruptly dimmed back to just the constant sting of his abused and blistered skin. He let out a low moan, in too much pain to even lift his head.
“Tucker, I’m so sorry,” Danny murmured to him, carefully laying Tucker’s body down. While Tucker was sure he was trying to be gentle, every single motion jostled Tucker’s abused flesh. Worse, Danny set him down against something hard and rough, the surface digging into his blisters despite Frostbite’s cloak wrapped around him.
“My mom scanned me with one of their new trackers,” Danny explained hastily. Tucker could hear his boots scuffing against the ground as he stepped back. “If I stay here with you, they’re going to find us. I’ll need to lead them away and try to figure out a way to fool the tracker. You stay here. I just messaged Sam and she’s already on her way over. She’ll come pick you up and take you to the hospital.”
What? Danny was leaving him?
Almost as if he’d heard Tucker’s anguished thoughts, he heard Danny let out a frustrated noise. “I don’t want to leave you like this. But -- ”
Tucker heard the front door of the Fenton household slam open, Jack’s energetic shouting already audible.
Danny swore loudly. “They’re already here! I…I gotta go! Don’t go anywhere, okay?”
Where the heck was he supposed to go, Danny? He couldn’t even open his eyes!
He could hear a steady beeping sound approaching their position, likely the tracker that Maddie had been using. But before it got too close, there was a whoosh of air nearby. A second later he heard Danny calling out in a sing-song voice from somewhere further away than he had been just a second ago.
“Oh hey, nice new pager you got there! Does it play mp3s?”
“Ghost boy! Get ‘im, Maddie!”
The sound of ectoblasts filled the air again as the Fentons began enthusiastically chasing after Danny, but only a few seconds later it started to fade. Danny must have already been leading them away from wherever he’d stashed Tucker. Pretty soon the sounds of their chase faded completely, and there was silence.
Tucker didn’t know how much time passed. He was left slumped there, against what he assumed was the alley wall next to Danny’s house. He could hear a few cars passing by in the distance, but otherwise things were rather quiet. It left him with little to distract him from the pain, and he could only try his best to stay as still as possible. Everything hurt, but it was starting to become background noise to him, his nerves so overstimulated that they’d gone completely around and come out the other side at numb. He just focused on his breathing, in and out. In and out.
And then. The sound of heavy footsteps. Sam? No, she didn’t walk like that; slow and deliberate like a predator.
“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice drawled. “What do we have here? One of the whelp’s little companions?”
Tucker felt his blood run cold. He knew that voice. That was definitely not Sam.
Skulker let out a chuckle of satisfaction. The sound of heavy boots grew closer, but then suddenly paused. Tucker heard Skulker make some kind of noise, though he couldn’t tell what it meant.
“Ancients,” Skulker muttered. A second later, Tucker felt something nudge him. “Are you even…is this a body?”
The nudge had not been gentle, and Tucker whimpered as his aching body was jostled. A few more blisters might have popped, but at this point he couldn’t pick apart the various pain signals his entire body was sending to be able to tell.
He heard Skulker jump back in surprise, before letting out a thoughtful hum. “Still alive, I see. What happened to you, human?”
Tucker just moaned, more fluid spilling out of his mouth.
There was a brief pause. Tucker had no idea what Skulker was doing, but he could tell that the ghost hunter was still there.
Eventually Skulker’s boots scuffed the ground again, right next to where Tucker was lying. He felt hands slip under his body and lift him, though with much less care than Danny had used.
“Well, every great hunter knows that the key to catching one’s prey is having good bait,” Skulker mused to himself. “And what better bait than one of the whelp’s companions?”
He chuckled darkly, and then Tucker felt them go weightless. Skulker must have lifted them up into the air, turning them intangible in the process. The light behind his eyelids changed, going darker, and then brighter with a greenish tinge. A few seconds later the green light grew even brighter, and he felt what little skin he had left start to burn.
No. No. Skulker was taking him back into the Ghost Zone!
He tried to protest, but all he could do was make a soft choking sound. Skulker jostled him a little, and Tucker quickly froze, feeling like he was seconds from passing out from the pain.
“Hush, human,” Skulker chided him with surprising gentleness. “Don’t bother speaking, it will only make things worse for you.”
His eyes were too swollen for tears to leak out, but he still let out one last sob.
And then the pain became too much for him, and Tucker felt his mind go dark.