EPISODE THREE 'One of a Kind' pt.3

As Tucker got back up off the floor, he realized that his glasses were off. He felt around on the floor, but couldn't find them. His PDA also laid on the floor, undamaged. The ghost picked it up. "That technology is so sleek, so...advanced." The ghost looked at the hunk of computerized metal protruding out of his arm, then back at the PDA. "Hmm...I wonder..." He ripped off the old circuit board and replaced it with the PDA. Tucker found his glasses just in time to see the wires of the two interconnect.
"HEY! I've got three more payments on that!" The ghost looked at Tucker, then back-handed him easily across the room.
"Marvelous." The ghost was admiring his new software. Danny flew into action, just in time for the ghost to blast him with a green ray. I watched Danny fly backward and slam against the wall. His hands and feet were bound with the same green energy that was around my mouth last night. Well that's just fantastic. As if this guy weren't already a bother as it is.
"Way to go Tucker. You just made the bad guy more bad!" Tuck was still kneeling on the floor.
"How was I supposed to know my PDA was ghost-compatible?"
"Say goodbye to this world, child!" The ghost pointed his fist toward Danny. His arm started ringing like it did to tell Tucker to check the schedule. The ghost checked his arm. "What? Fly to library to get a book on the eating habits of the purple back gorilla?" The ghost's jet wings popped out involuntarily. He started to blast off. "No! Stop! The hunt is not over!" The ghost turned intangible and flew through the ceiling. Danny's binds disappeared.
"What happened?" I helped Danny up. He rubbed the back of his head.
"Who cares? At least I got a minute to relax and figure this out."
"Danny, where are you? Somebody here wants to meet you!" We looked up to where the voice was emanating.
"ACK! MY ROOM!" He became intangible and flew through the ceiling. Me and Tuck decided to get the heck out of there and let Danny explain himself for once.

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I walked up the steps to the school with the gang. Danny looked behind himself nervously. "Any sign of him?" Tucker looked on his...PDA. Which he lost to the ghost...
"Nope. He hasn't bothered you for...38 minutes. Maybe he's hunting somebody else now."
"How many of those things do you have?"
"Just two. Good thing I beamed all your info into here and backed it up. Global thinking, Danny. The sign of a quality time manager." The PDA started beeping. Tucker pushed Danny inside the school. "Come on! You're late!" The bell rang and me and Tucker followed.

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The bell for class dismissal rang. Good thing, because Mr. Lancer's voice was starting to become more monotone than usual. We all went to our lockers to deposit our books. Everyone except us three had cleared the hallway. Danny's locker flew open and green chains bound his arms to his torso. "DANNY!" The ghost came out of the locker in a wisp of smoke, then transformed from a blue flame to its robotic form.
"I have you now," The ghost pointed a weapon that was coming out of its wrist at Danny. "Child!" The PDA started beeping again. The ghost (who Danny had called Skulker) read his arm-PDA."What? Go to the newstand and purchase magazine with article about purple back gorillas?" This time he punched a hole right through the ceiling. The chains around Danny dissapeared. Tucker checked his PDA.
"Huh. It have the same thing on mine." Coincidence? I think not. Danny rubbed his arm.
"I think we'll blow that one off."

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At lunch time I found Danny moping on the bleachers. Tucker was sitting beside him eating yogurt. I came over and took a seat. "Danny? Eat something." Danny took his head out of his hands.
"*Sigh* I can't eat now! He could be anywhere." Tucker swallowed. I looked at him.
"Hey, this food was scheduled to be eaten." Tucker grabbed Danny's milk and pulled it open. Scheduled... A ball of energy came out of the milk carton and attached to Danny's face. "DANNY!" I hated not being able to protect him. I really, really did. Skulker landed on the bleacher behind us. 
"Now, boy. Once more, I, Skulker, shall-" His wrist started beeping again. "Take photos of gorilla?" He blasted off again. The thing on Danny's face disappeared. Okay, there was definetly a connection here. Was I the only one seeing that? 
"Well, at least he's regular." Danny turned to face us, thoughtfully.
"Yeah...almost like a schedule!" Finally, they figure it out. "What's the next thing you have scheduled for me, Tucker?" Tucker checked the PDA.
"Gym. Why?" Seriously? Tucker didn't get it yet? Danny grew a devilish smile. He had a plan.
"Okay. So in the locker room I get someone else to open the locker for me and they take the fall. Then we either book it or strike when he's distracted." It was a solid plan. Too bad I couldn't help out. "Then we beat him to the next place on the schedule and set up an ambush. We can remotely power down his hardware." After gym, Danny told me to go to the zoo and see if I could find a gorilla costume. I didn't have to find one, because I could just order it. Tucker and I put it on and waited. And waited. For a long time. 

Skulker finally came right out and yelled. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE BAIT, YOU STUPID ANIMAL!" I turned the costume around.
"SAMPSON'S NOT STUPID!" 
"He's also not here. Can I take a message?" Tucker held up his PDA and stylus. Skulker was infuriated.
"You two? You'll pay for this!" All of his built-in guns popped out at once. I could feel the blood rushing from my face, but I didn't let it show.
"Oh, I don't think so..." I dropped the costume, still staring angrily at Skulker. In fact, I directed all of my fury toward him. Why couldn't he leave Danny alone? Why couldn't I beat his shiny metal butt myself? Why couldn't Tucker just eat his damn vegetables!?!? Tucker pressed some buttons on his PDA. Skulker's wrist started beeping.
"Time for push ups? What!?" All of his guns disappeared and he struggled for a while, but eventually he was down on the ground doing push-ups. "Stop! STOP! I can't stop!" Danny came out of hiding.
"I can help with that!" Danny barreled toward Skulker. He executed a rather awesome flying punch. With actual flying. Skulker flew backward and hit the cage. Random bolts flew off of him. Danny came in for another four punches. Tucker was actually helping! Skulker targeted Danny with some of his guns.
"Ah, ah, ah! 10:11, polish armor." Tucker fiddled with his PDA. The guns sticking out of his shoulders were replaced with large polishers. Skulker stumbled backward as the giant polishers covered his face.
" Stop fooling around, Tucker!" YAY I helped. Danny turned to face us.
"Power him down already! NOW!" Tucker held up his PDA.
"RE-lax! Everything totally under-" An arrow hit the device out of Tuck's hand. It carried it to a tree and skewered it completely. "Control? Aw, man. I had four more payments on this one!" This is when the plan failed. Our excellent plan.
"Tucker? You're fired." Danny turned back to his opponent, fist at the ready.
"Very well. I planned on simply capturing you and letting you live the rest of your life in a cage. But now, I will rest your pelt at the foot of my bed." Did Danny even have a pelt? You know, actually, I don't want to find out.
"Okay, that's just gross."
"Well, ghost-boy? Any last words?" Danny gave a sly smile.
"Just this." Danny hit his head twice, made a quick peek-a-boo motion, and beat his chest.

"What are you doing?" Danny bent over and... scratched his ass. This had proved to be quite the confusing week.
"Calling a friend." A flying gorilla smashed Skulker from behind.
"You learned his language?"
"Well sure! all he does is this." Danny gave his ass another scratch. I wasn't sure if it was weird or...cute. We sat back and watched Sampson beat the crap out of Skulker. A severed robot arm landed with a metallic KLUNK in front of us.

"But I still don't understand why a ghost needed a hi-tech battle suit!" Random pieces of Skulker flew toward us. Danny dodged most of them, but caught the head in his gut. Danny reached inside and pulled out this tiny green thing. What. He dangled it upside-down. 
"I am the greatest hunter in all of ghost-world! You will all fear me!" Danny smiled.
"Thermos, please!" Tucker beamed up the ghost. Whatever happened to 'remember not to let Tucker handle the thermos'? Tucker closed the lid and Danny turned back into a human. "Cool. Let's go home."
"But you didn't get anything you could use for your report! You're still gonna get a D!"
"Oh, that's okay. We stopped the bad guys, saved the gorilla, and that's all I got done," Danny looked over at Sampson, who had walked over. "Then that's-OH MY GOD! SAMPSON'S A GIRL!"

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Mr. Lancer picked up a copy of GENIUS MAGAZINE and read one of the articles aloud for the class to hear. "Brooding genius Daniel Fenton did what no other researcher dared to do; got close enough to this rare purple-back gorilla to realize that Sampson was actually... a Delilah." He put down the magazine. "Nobody at that zoo bothered to see if it was a boy or girl?"
"That's weird, huh? Well, maybe they were respecting her privacy." Mr. Lancer walked over with Danny's report.
"Well, Fenton, I have to admit I'm impressed. You wanted to get your grade up so bad you risked getting mauled by a gorilla. C!"
"A C? I almost get killed by a gho...rilla... and all I get is a C?" Mr. Lancer smiled evilly.
"Life's a big mystery. Isn't it, Fenton?" The bell rang and he walked toward the door. "Next time you want to get your grade up? Try the library." Tucker and I walked over to Danny's desk. He looked livid.
"Well, it's better than a D, right?"
"Oh, man. If only I had something I could take this out on!"
"I AM THE BOX GHOST! And once I empty you of your useless papers, your marvelous squareness shall be MINE!" The box ghost was hovering over some boxes on the teacher's desk. Danny changed with a smile.
"Hello, misplaced aggression!" Tucker checked his original PDA which he picked up off the ghost.
"You've got five minutes." I thought Tucker was fired.
"Which is four more than I'll need!" Danny flew up toward the ghost. As the ghost got beaten to a pulp, me and Tucker smiled together. This was better than Saturday morning cartoons.