Chapter Text
Sam received the Code Red at 4:33am. She checked her phone and the subsequent locations 3 seconds after.
Sam was at the Abandoned Observatory in less than 5 minutes. Tucker met her outside, face pale under the waning moonlight. It was deathly quiet, unnaturally so. The air felt charged, the hair on the back of Sam's neck alight as her brain screamed run run run—
Sam took a desperate breath and stepped forward into the dark, her boots making barely a sound. Sound could mean death. Could draw the attention of whatever had eliccited a Code Red from Phantom himself.
Sam slunk into the side hall, crawling up the stairs. Tucker was barely a whisper behind her, a shadow within the shadows.
She stopped in front of the door that led to the very top. Danny's unofficial Lair waited on the other side. The ominous ping of the Code Red and Danny's location, waited on the other side. Sam felt fear curl in her stomach like rotten milk. Tucker shot her a glance and his eyes hardened with determination. Sam could barely make out the Fenton Wrist Ray clamped and readied, a mirror of the one on her wrist.
Tucker reached out, quiet as night, and pulled down the door handle. Sam's breath stuck in her throat. She followed Tucker in, the rehearsed movements taking over. Tucker went right and she went left, covering and clearing ground with deft efficiency.
It was dead silent.
Which was why Sam's soul nearly evicted itself from her body when—
"Guys. Help."
Sam swiveled around. Wrist Ray pointed menacingly in the direction the voice had come from. Light suddenly flooded the room, Tucker pointing his phone torch up at the corner of the room where—
"Danny, what the hell is this?"
"I can't… move," Danny muttered, still as a statue, huddled in the upper corner of the room. Sam narrowed her eyes. There was a film of seemingly black shadow covering Danny from head to toe, writhing and undulating. Almost like it was alive. Wait a minute—
"Shit, are those spiders?!" Tucker choked out, taking a step back. Sam was frozen to the spot, mouth open. It was true. Thousands, no Hundreds of thousands of Spider clambered all over Danny, on the walls beside him, behind him everywhere, leaving only his face exposed.
"Wait. You called a Code Red for this?!" Sam snapped, glaring up at him. The adrenaline and stress were finally starting to wear off, leaving her hands shaking and her knees weak.
"We thought you were actively dying!" Tucker, who was still a safe distance away, called.
"Oh, yeah… I um, I'm stuck. Also, congrats on the new record. Five minutes is very impressive!"
"Thank you!" Tucker said.
"No. Not thank you— you scared us half to death." Sam snapped. She regretted the words immediately, any chances of serious retribution out the window as Danny's face contorted, desperately trying not to laugh. Tucker lost the battle, barking out a laugh behind her. Sam smacked a hand over her face, letting out a groan as the two idiots around her fell into fits of giggles.
"It is not even that funny." She groaned.
"No, no, we need to give credit where credit is due, I'm expired—" Tucker started.
"Like— seriously, I'm rolling in my grave, that's how funny that was—"
"Sam, I'm dying to hear another, seriously—"
"That was boo-tiful Sam."
Silence.
"Really guys, I didn't think it was bad..?" Danny said, rolling his eyes. Sam fought desperately against the pun in her throat. No— she had to remain strong as the only sensible person in this room, she had to—
"You're dead to me, Danny."
Tucker fell into a new fit of giggles, and Sam couldn't help the sardonic grin that bloomed across her face. Danny sighed, accidentally dislodging some of the spiders. They rained down onto the floor and scurried for the shadows. Tucker was on his feet in an instant his Fenton Wrist Ray pointed threateningly at the floor. The spider were gone, in normal spider fashion, before he could so much as blink.
Sam raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.
"Seriously? You're scared by a few spiders?"
"These are obviously not normal spiders, Sam!"
"Speaking of spiders. Can you guys pleeeeaaaase help me?" Danny begged. "I can't move."
"Don't worry, I'll get them for you—" And Tucker, armed with a damned sneaker, strode briskly towards Danny, murder on his face. Sam intercepted.
"Tucker don't you dare kill those spiders!"
"What? Why not?"
"Spiders are great for the environment!"
"Well they aren't in the environment right now are they?"
"Guys—"
"They are not even hurting Danny, so there is no reason for you to murder them in cold blood!"
"We don't know that—"
"GUYS—"
Sam and Tucker froze comically, staring up at Danny. A white spider was making a web right over his left eye, going from his nose to his hair lazily. It was almost mesmerizing to watch.
Something occurred to Sam.
"Why haven't you just gone intangible, Danny?"
"I've tried—" Danny moaned. "I've tried going invisible, I've tried to fly away, I've tried to use my ice to just disloge them but they won't let go!"
"Are they hurting you?" There was an edge to Tucker's voice.
"No… actually, it feels nice. Like a weighted blanket." Danny was watching the spider, which now sat proudly in its web, right in front of his pupil. There was a ghost of a smile on his lips.
"Why were they following you around anyway?"
A dark look passed on Danny's face, and the temperature dropped noticeably. Sam fought down the instinct to run, ignored the low hum of static.
"That bad?"
"I went down to the lab for some ectoplasm and found one of these guys splayed out on the table."
Sam winced internally. That was a touchy subject, and, unsurprisingly, one of Danny's many triggers. They all saw the haunted look he got whenever his parents spoke about taking Phatom apart molecule by molecule.
"I saved the little guy, and released him outside. My parents were trying to harvest his silk for some new and improved anti-ghost net. Hell if I know…" Danny muttered.
"Why would that make the spiders dog-pile you?"
"Oh, my parents dipped him in ectoplasm, so he has been able to follow my ecto signature around… must have told some of buddies after I got stabbed by Skulker and here—"
"You got stabbed?" Sam snapped.
"Tis but a flesh wound."
"You didn't think to notify us then?" Tucker spoke up.
"It wasn't that serious, just hit one of my kidneys… I think. Those grow back right?"
"So you got stabbed and it's a no code, but being surrounded by spiders is a Code Red?" There was a dangerous edge to Sam's voice that reminded Danny heavily of Jazz's big sister voice. He swallowed nervously.
"I didn't want to be late for school…"
"We are going to have a long talk about your priorities, Danny."
"That's cool and awesome, as long as we do it after you guys figure out a way to get the spiders off me!" There was a slight note of hysteria in Danny's voice. "If I don't get home by five my parents are going to realize I was gone!"
Tucker sent his sneaker a longing glance.
"No!" Danny snapped. "We are not hurting the spiders."
"Ugh fine." Tucker dropped his shoe and pulled his PDA from his pocket, and starting typing. Sam regarded Danny critically.
"Have you figured out why they are clingy?"
"No, they just showed up while I was healing in the Observatory."
"Why are you in the corner?"
"They put me here…" Danny said miserably, letting out a tortured sigh.
"They… put you up there?"
"Yeah, I was on the floor and kinda out of it from blood loss and then they came and next thing I knew I was up here and I couldn't move."
"Vacuum," Tucker said.
"No—"
"No—"
"Ugh fine…" Tucker went back to typing.
"Have you figured out what they are doing?"
"No, but I can feel them moving around."
"Tape."
"No—"
"No—"
"Then I've got nothing!" Tucker threw his hands up in defeat.
"Seriously, you have the entire internet at your finger tips and you have nothing?"
"Well google says to keep your yard clean but I think we are far past that point!" Tucker snapped.
"Wait hold on…" Danny said, something in his tone setting Sam on edge.
They watched, in morbid fascination, as the sea of spiders parted, leaving Danny suspended to the ceiling, hundreds of intricate webs circling his limbs and holding him in place. Then, as one, the spiders dispersed. Sam stood completely still, as they walked around her. There were hundreds of different varieties. Some hideously large and some barely a speck on the floor. She saw a few that reflected the light like a beacon and some that seemed to be made of shadows and dust.
In a blink, the floor was empty. The only spider that still remained was the one perched right in front of Danny's left eye, seemingly content with it's place. Danny went intangible, leaving the mass of webs completely in tact as he floated to the floor. Sam caught something and her breath caught in her throat.
She pointed.
Danny looked down, eyebrows shooting up.
There, right where his kidneys would be— where he was stabbed— a thin film of cobweb glittered, completely covering the area.
"They covered your wound." Tucker breathed in disbelief.
"Huh…" Was all Danny said. "That's… that's really kind."
Sam could have sworn she saw the spider over his eye preen at the compliment.
"Does it feel alright?" Sam asked.
Danny lifted his arms, then twisted this way and that. A smile alighted on his face.
"It feels great! Like, seriously, this has only been healing for what— two hours?— and it feels good as new!"
"Right, it's way to early to think about the ramifications of magical healing spiders right now…" Sam muttered, rubbing her temple.
"Yeah we have to be at school in four hours, I'd like to catch some more Zs before that." Tucker said, still anxiously scanning the floor for any remnant spiders. There were none.
"Four hours? Wait what time is it?!"
"It's…" Sam checked her watch. It read 4:58. "Way too early for this shit."
"Crap, I got to go, bye!"
Danny threw himself at the wall, vanishing with a flash of green. Sam stared at the spot, then the weird amalgamation of human-shaped web on the wall.
"Talk to you at school?" Tucker asked as they made their way back down the stairs.
"Yeah, we'll figure it out then. It doesn't seem that—" Sam glared at the hand clamped over her mouth. Tucker pulled it away just in time to avoid getting bitten.
"Hey!"
"Don't do that."
"I had to! It was for the greater good! You were about to jinx us!"
Sam considered for a second, then conceded. She didn't believe in some higher power or karma or whatever but… it was better to be safe than sorry. Amity Park was a weird place.
Sam used her phone's light to guide her through the woods.
And if there were more glittering eyes tracking her eyes move. More than usual, then who was she to question it? They would figure it all out later.