Into the woods

Chapter 9 - Cat and Mouse

Danny led the class further into the woods, taking them down a path without traps, which he had suggested to Skulker a bit ago, he was glad Skulker listened to his idea. He took his group to the large, skull shaped cave, ignoring the cries of disgust and discomfort, if they wanted to lure an enemy ghost to them that was fine.

"Whelp, it's good to see you!" Skulker greeted as the humans walked into his lab, it wasn't very futuristic since it was made of stone, but he had a few different robotic suits standing by the entrance, leaning against the wall, there was no green mohawk blazing on their heads since Skulker himself wasn't using them, the hunter had a grin on his face, he was welcoming, but the class and the Fentons felt like he planned something for them.

"Hey Skulker!" Danny said, he smiled as he gave him a wave.

"How can we help you?" Ember asked, entering the lab from another room, her guitar swung against her back, her appearance caused most of the class to cheer, surprised they'd see her.

"Ember! Do you remember me? I was one of your security guards!" Kwan asked, a wide grin on his face, Paulina rummaged through her pockets and found her foundation mirror, she took it out and held it up, asking for an autograph.

"I'm in the same room with Ember McLain! Amazing!" Someone yelled, making Danny sigh in disappointment.

"Sure, do you have a sharpie?" Ember answered Paulina, nodding at Kwan as she waved, she remembered most of the humans.

"No..." Paulina said, shaking her head, Ember rolled her eyes and left the room, coming back with a stack of autographed pictures, she started passing them out to the human students, distracting them from the playful banter between Skulker and Danny.

"I think I can catch you this time whelp." Skulker told Danny, poking him gently in the chest. It made Danny laugh and shake his head.

"You could try, tin can!" he said, pushing Skulker's hand away with a competitive smirk.

"Challenge accepted." the hunter agreed, Danny nodded at Skulker, silently agreeing. Sam and Tucker laughed, knowing the times Skulker would come to Amity Park just to hunt Danny, though Ben and Jeff were confused, they had seen Danny's fights on the news and Jeff had trained with him but Ben didn't train much so he didn't know everything about Danny's abilities, they wanted to see how this hunt was going to go.

Ember offered a photo to Jack, but Maddie took it and ripped it in half, shaking her head.
"No thank you, we are not taking something from a putrid ghost!"

Ember shrugged, her hands now empty of paper, she went to the creeps group and Skulker, she figured the humans might want to see this so she moved over to the security camera desk and whistled, getting the attention of the humans.

"I think you'll want to see this Babybop's class, this is fun to watch." she said as the class walked to the camera screens, Maddie and Jack following, Sam grabbed Jeff's arm as Danny jogged out of the cave, Tucker wrapped an arm around Ben and they brought their friends to the camera screens while Skulker gave Danny some time before the hunt began. He waited for a few seconds and flew off, some of the students complained that a few seconds wasn't enough time to hide, they watched the screens, not able to see Danny. He walked past one of the cameras, allowing the class to see him, he was calm, which surprised the group other than the creeps.

Danny stood, arms crossed as he looked around, a smile on his face. He heard a blast and a rocket started to fly towards him, he jumped as the rocket hit the ground, back flipping, he landed near a tree and climbed it before he jumped, swinging between tree branches, dodging rockets. He jumped, narrowly dodging a net in the air as he pulled his legs up, his body curling in a front flip before he grabbed a vine, he held onto it as it swung down to the ground, jumping down and landing in a roll.

"If you catch me before I get back to the cave you win Skulky!" Danny called, running across the ground as Skulker followed, shooting nets at him. He avoided the nets, a river was a few feet in front of him and he scowled, teeth grinding. He kept running, jumping just before the river could splash with his step, his ghostly speed and reflexes had began leaking into his human half a while after he got his powers, he had no problem with it since it helped to get away with murder, he laughed happily, enjoying himself while Skulker, though somewhat annoyed was enjoying the chase. The class watched the screens, surprised by Danny's speed and agility, if he could move so quickly why did he allow himself to get bullied?

Skulker flew down and grabbed at Danny, though the ghost boy grabbed his arm and flipped himself up onto his back, grinning. Skulker didn't know how close he was to the case, so when he turned to reach for Danny he didn't see that they were flying toward the entrance of the lab. Danny turned Skulker's head and held on as the mechanical ghost stopped his rockets, landing on the lab floor with a clatter but no damage. Danny jumped off of Skulker's back, laughing.

"That was fun!" He cheered, though he leaned to the side when Sam punched his arm, muttering "Show off" under her breath.

"That was so cool!" Mikey said, surprised by Danny's ability against Skulker.

"Eh, it was just a game." Danny defended himself, shrugging.

"Why didn't you join the football team?" Kwan asked, he knew that Danny's agility would do good for the Casper high Ravens.

"Because I don't like football? Besides, my parents are ghost hunters, what do you expect?" Danny answered Kwan, deflecting the awe of his classmates to something that would explain his speed and agility.

"Ok, fun's over boys. The humans need to go on with their journey, where are you going next kid?" Ember said, interrupting the conversation between the kids, she turned her attention to Danny as Skulker stood and adjusted his head, which had turned around and unscrewed itself.

"Well, I think we need to go to Dora's next, if we went to Pandora's I don't think she'd let us leave." Danny told Ember, his joke making the ghosts and his friends laugh, Tucker got his PDA, Ben quickly going to his side to see what he was doing.

"Who are your friends? I haven't seen them before" Ember asked, she pointed a finger at Jeff and gestured to Ben.

"This is Jeff, he's a really good friend of mine, he's essentially my brother." Danny answered, smiling as he pulled Jeff over and patted his shoulder, arm pulling him into a side hug.

"This is Ben." Tucker added, pointing to Ben, who waved at the two ghosts.

"Got it, if you're friends with Danny you're welcome over any time" she told them, Skulker nodded in agreement but didn't speak, too focused on refilling his rockets somewhere in the corner, he moved when Ember and Danny were talking, wanting to upgrade some of his metal suit.

"Could you call Dora?" Danny asked Tucker, turning to him, in response the tech geek turned his PDA, which had a written message on it, requesting permission for Danny and the others to bring the class there for a night, or perhaps a few. With the rate they were going Tucker guessed it might be awhile till they all got home.