Summary: People tend to think that smaller decisions won't have much affect in the long run, but often this isn't the case. Danny Fenton, with some help from an old friend, finds this out the hard way.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just like to borrow other people's worlds and characters.
"I am the Box Ghost, master of-!"
"Will you just shut up?" Danny groaned at the annoying ghost hovering in his room, falling backwards onto his pillow from the upright position he'd shot abruptly into when his ghost sense had gone off. "I'd like to get some sleep for once without having to deal with ghosts! And I was doing just fine until you showed up. Don't you have a dump to visit or a warehouse to trash?"
"I will not settle for mere garbage dumps or warehouses!" answered the Box Ghost haughtily. "The boxes I control must be sturdy, not falling apart. Beware my high standards!"
"Whatever..." Danny said blearily, starting to fall asleep despite the loudmouthed ghost floating beside his bed. "Just leave me alone. Go find something else to do. I'll fight you later..." With that, he shoved his head under his pillow, thinking, He can't do any real harm, right?
Drifting asleep within minutes, he was unaware of the Box Ghost sinking down through the floor to the Fenton Works laboratory and discovering the many boxes of expensive scientific equipment lying around...
"Son, wake up! It's awful, you have to see this!"
Danny was rudely awakened by his father's agitated bellows, as well as the covers being yanked off him. Turning to look at his clock, he moaned when he saw it was only 7:48 AM. He'd been planning to sleep for at lest three more hours since it was Saturday. "What is it, Dad?" he mumbled.
"No, you have to see it for yourself. Come on!" Jack yanked his son out of bed and set him on his feet. Surprised, Danny woke up a little more, just enough to follow his father down to the lab. What he saw there caused him to come completely awake.
Every box in the basement lab was gone, and every expensive piece of equipment within the missing boxes had been smashed into hundreds of pieces. Green ectoplasmic goo splattered the walls, with a message scrawled on one wall: The Box Ghost was here! Beware! To put it shortly, the laboratory was a complete wreck.
Maddie was standing amid the wreckage, surveying the damage and occasionally plucking salvageable inventions off the floor and dropping them onto a nearby table. When Jack and Danny came down, she turned and looked at them, frowning. "What do you make of this?"
Jack was more than happy to give his opinion -"Honey, I think a ghost did it!"- but Danny stood and stared at the message on the wall, eyes narrowed in anger.
"Danny, is something wrong?" asked Maddie.
He tore his eyes away long enough to respond, "No. Just... surprised, I guess." Never would have thought he had it in him to cause so much damage in one night. A few hours, even, since it was around four in the morning when he came.
"I think we all are," came a voice from the top of the stairs, and Jazz came down, sitting at the bottom. She raised an eyebrow at Danny, who was standing nearby, still scowling at the wall. Glancing up at her look, he shook his head almost imperceptibly and mouthed, "Later."
"You know we'll need to go to the store and replace all this today, right?" sighed Maddie, clearly upset over the loss of so much equipment.
"Yeah, we probably should. Hey, why don't we take the kids with us? It'll be good for them to see their old man on the job!" said Jack excitedly.
"Hmm," his wife said thoughtfully, "yes, it might do them good to know what sort of things we need around here for when they take over Fenton Works."
Danny couldn't help the laugh that burst out of him. Take over Amity Park's leading ghost hunting business? "That'll be the day," he murmured only loud enough for Jazz to hear.
She smiled slightly and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. "Never say 'never', Danny. It could happen."
Danny was about to respond that he hadn't even said the word 'never' when Jack clapped his hands together. "Be ready to go in ten minutes, kids!"
Groaning, Danny trudged up the basement stairs after his sister, grumbling mutinously to himself about crazy parents and early mornings.
Hanging onto his seat of the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle for dear life, Danny swayed back and forth as Jack darted the RV recklessly through traffic. No matter how many times he had ridden with his father, he had still never quite gotten used to his insane driving. "Can you slow down just a little, Dad?"
"PLEASE!" added Jazz frantically as she was bounced all around on the seat next to Danny.
Their pleas for safer driving backfired completely as Jack swung his head around and grinned at them. "Don't be silly- we have to get there before everyone else does!"
Jazz rolled her eyes, muttering sarcastically, "Because everyone in town wants to go to the hardware store to buy ghost equipment..."
Danny would have laughed if he hadn't been hanging on for dear life.
In the front passenger seat, Maddie was the only one who was watching the road. She was also the only one to see an elated Box Ghost appear out of nowhere and toss a rather large box of oranges in front of the RV, snickering evilly. "Jack, watch out!" she shrieked, grabbing her husband and turning him back around in his seat.
Jack swerved into the other lane to avoid the tacks, but ended up right in front of oncoming traffic. A startled driver before them pounded the horn of his semi truck, but the noise was drowned out by the screams of the Fentons in their RV.
