This AU is inspired by a post on Tumblr from lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks.
Chapter 1: It's the Most Horrible Time of the Year
Danny hated Christmas. For one, people were ridiculously cheery during this holiday and the days preceding it for absolutely no good reason (Jesus wasn't even born in December!) other than it was cold and people needed something to make them feel not horrible. And two (this being the most prominent reason) he would have to deal with Vlad Masters, Affluent Magazine's billionaire of the year, and his stupid son, who also happened to be Danny's half brother, Daniil Masters.
Of course, if you called him by his full name you likely wouldn't see the light of another day, which was why most people knew him as Dan, Dan Masters. And the bane of Danny's existence.
Once upon a time Danny's mom, Maddie Fenton, had been married to someone other than his dad, Jack Fenton. His mother's first marriage had been to his parents' old college buddy, Vlad. It had ended in divorce just after their second year, but they had had a kid in that time, and now Danny had to deal with his jerky older half brother.
Danny hated his brother as much or possibly more than Christmas itself. He was, after all the major reason Danny despised the holiday in the first place. Of course Danny just had to suck it up and deal with it. And also maybe go and see his older sister, Jazz, for counseling later.
"Mom, do we have to invite Vlad and his kid this year?" Danny whined. Okay so maybe he wasn't really dealing with it.
Maddie turned from nailing up some last minute Christmas decorations in the living room. For once she wasn't wearing her teal hazmat suit. Danny's parents spent so much time working in their lab in the basement that they simply wore them around the house as well, but Danny didn't think his mother had even ventured into the lab yet. Since this morning, she had been going over last minute preparations. It seemed like she was stressing just as much as Danny.
She sent her son a disapproving look. "His kid is your older brother, and he loves you, Danny."
Danny couldn't help it. He burst out laughing right there. His laughter quickly petered out into nervous chuckles when he notice his mother sending him the stink eye. "I'm sorry, Mom, but I have to disagree with you on that."
With a sigh Maddie turned back to putting up a wreath. "I'm serious. Dan loves you, Jazz, and Danielle. He just has a hard time showing it. He's...troubled."
Danny snorted. "You got that right."
"If it makes you feel any better, you can invite your friends over if their families will allow them to come," Maddie said.
The announcement made Danny only feel slightly better. His friends probably could make it to the dinner on Christmas Eve, seeing as neither of their families celebrated Christmas, what with Sam being Jewish, and having already finished celebrating Hanukkah almost a week ago, and Tucker being Muslim. The bad thing was, he didn't know if he wanted to invite them. Danny wouldn't wish an evening with Vlad and Dan Masters on his worst enemy, much less his friends.
"Hey, I don't know what you're complaining about. Dan's cool," Danielle said from the living room couch. She didn't even bother to take her eyes off of the TV.
Danny turned to his twin sister with a thunderous scowl. "You're dead to me."
She briefly looked up from flipping through the channels and shrugged. "I can live with that."
"Hey, speaking of 'dead', we could show Vlad, Dan, and your friends the ghost portal!" Maddie suggested, looking much too excited for a person talking about death.
"Mom...no," Danny whined.
The Fenton Ghost Portal was supposed to be exactly what you would think it would be: a portal into the ghost world-or as Danny's parents called it, "the Ghost Zone". It was the continuation of a project they had started all the way back in college. After twenty years, Danny's parents finally thought they had successfully completed it, though they still had to test it out.
It was completely ridiculous and like both his sisters, Danny didn't believe in ghosts.
"I gotta agree with Danny on this, mom," Danielle added.
"Thanks, sis," he said. "You're no longer deceased."
She gave a halfhearted 'yay' before going back to channel surfing.
Something suddenly struck Danny as unusual. "Hey, where's dad?" he asked. His dad was nowhere to be seen and it was nearly lunch time. It wasn't like Jack Fenton to skip a meal.
The floor suddenly shook under his feet—likely from an explosion in the lab/basement—adequately answering Danny's question. The reason a loud bang didn't accompany the localized earthquake was that the basement had been soundproofed due to some neighbors voicing complaints of the sounds of construction during the middle of the night.
His mother gave a annoyed huff. "I'll go check on him. Why don't you finish putting up the decorations while I'm down there?"
"Sure thing, Mom," Danny said to her retreating form.
As soon as his mother had closed the basement door, he made his way for the front door.
"Hey, didn't you say you were going to put up the decorations?" Danielle said distractedly.
"Yeah, about that, I was hoping you'd do it for me," he said as he got his coat down from the rack.
His twin looked up from the TV with a raised eyebrow. "What the hell makes you think I'm going to do it?"
"Because I'll give you a dollar?" Danny said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a bill.
"Sold!" She jumped off of the couch and grabbed the dollar out of her brother's hand in a flash.
"By the way, where are you going?" she asked, pocketing the dollar.
"To go hang out with Sam and Tucker, but if they're busy, I guess I'll just drift around town like a hobo," he said with a shrug.
"Cool. I'll tell mom if she asks."
Danny visited Sam first.
When Danny knocked on the door of the Manson residents—which was a huge mansion because Sam was actually loaded—Pamela Manson, Sam's mom, answered the door. Once she saw who had knocked, the fake smile she had plastered on her face slipped a bit, but to her credit, stayed mostly intact.
"Oh, hello Danny. Samantha is in her room," she said.
"Thanks, Mrs. Manson," he said cheerfully and headed for the stairs.
Pounding drumbeats and screeching guitar riffs could be heard from all the way down the hall at the top of the stairs. As he got closer to his friend's room he could make out some of the words to the song. It sounded familiar. Maybe from the band Tool? Her mother must have pissed her off or something. She always listened to Tool (especially their first and second album) when she was angry.
He knocked on the door, hesitantly at first then a little louder when the first knock went unanswered. "Hey, Sam! Open up! It's me, Danny!"
She suddenly appeared in the doorway in all her gothic glory and pulled him in before he could even say hello.
"You know, you really need to get a phone," she said as she turned down her stereo. "If you had come only a few minutes earlier you might have walked in on me and my mom arguing."
"What was it about this time?"
She shook her head. "I don't remember. Something stupid probably. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It's the holiday season and I need to stay positive."
"I wish I could have your attitude about the holidays," Danny grumbled as he sat down on the edge of her bed.
She gave him a sympathetic look. "Is Vlad and Dan coming over this year?"
"Yes, it's their year to visit. I guess I should be glad that we don't have to cram into the family RV and go all the way to their mansion in Wisconsin like last year, but, God, Dan and Vlad are unbearable in any place," he said, allowing himself to go limp and slump onto her bed, staring face up at the ceiling. "Anyway, I wanted to invite you and Tucker to come commiserate with me, but honestly, I wouldn't blame in the slightest if you said no."
"It's cool. I've never actually met your half brother, by the way," Sam said.
He sat up. "Oh, yeah I guess you haven't. Lucky."
"Hey, he can't be that bad if he's related to you," she said, taking up the chore of being the positive friend.
"Do you even hear yourself, Sam?" Danny said incredulously. "You say your mother is terrible all day long and she's related to you!"
"Hey, I'm not so sure about that. I've never actually seen my birth certificate," she said.
Danny raised and eyebrow. "Really?"
"Yeah."
"Wow… Anyway, you wanna go hang somewhere with me? We'll get Tucker on the way," Danny said.
She answered with a simple "sure", and grabbed her bag and coat. After quickly putting on her winter wear, she led the way down the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Sam's mother said, stopping her just before she could open the front door.
"We're going to the mall. Danny needs help with some last minute Christmas shopping," Sam lied smoothly. It often surprised Danny how easily she could lie to her parents. In fact, her lying sometimes even bordered on compulsive.
Pamela looked between them then nodded. "All right, but I want you back before sundown."
"Sure thing, mom," Sam said before she went out the door, pulling Danny with her.
It wasn't too long of a walk to Tucker's house. Their town, Amity Park, Illinois, was pretty small, only having around fourteen-thousand inhabitants and extending out to about nine square miles surrounded by either sprawling farmland or patchy woods. Luck seemed to be on their side, seeing as the wind wasn't even blowing, making the thirty-degree temperature feel only about forty.
The moment Danny knocked on the door, Angela Foley, Tucker's wonderful mother, pulled Danny and Sam in. "It's freezing out there! Did you two walk all the way here?" she asked frowning at both of them.
Instead of trying to defend his and Sam's ability to tolerate cold weather, Danny said, "Can Tucker come with us to the mall? I have to do a little last minute Christmas shopping." So Sam says, he added in his head.
She looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I can drive you three there if you like."
Danny nodded and smiled gratefully. "That would be fine," he said. He glanced at Sam who gave a small smile as well. Knowing her and her hate of cars and all things bad for the environment, she'd probably prefer to walk. He silently thanked her for just going along with it.
Angela smiled brightly. "Alright then. I just took some cookies out of the oven. Help yourself before we go."
"Thanks, Angela," Danny said, his mouth already watering.
Angela Foley showed them the plate of still cooling cookies before going up to Tucker's room to tell him Danny and Sam were there. Not much later, Tucker came bounding down the stairs and joined His two friends in the kitchen.
"What up my peeps?" he said before picking up a cookie. Almost instantly he dropped it with a yelp. Sam snorted and almost choked on her cookie with laughter while Danny tried to look sympathetic while holding back laughter himself.
"Oops, sorry, I should have warned some of them were still really hot," Tucker's mom said as she entered the kitchen after her son.
"You guys could have warned me too you know," he said awkwardly with his burned tongue halfway hanging out of his mouth while he glared at his two so called friends.
"But what would be the fun in that?" Sam said jokingly.
"Here, Tucker," Danny said handing his friend a cookie. "The ones on this side of the plate are cooler."
"Thanks Danny. I guess I know who my real friend is," Tucker said glaring at the goth girl.
"Oh, hush Tucker, she didn't mean anything by it," his mom said coming up beside him and laying a hand on his shoulder. "Now, you said you had to do some last minute shopping. We should probably get to that," she said to Danny.
"Oh, um, yeah," he stuttered.
Now that he was at Tucker's house, he wished they could stay and just hang out there, but he had propagated Sam's lie, and now he was going to have to stick to that story. And this was exactly why he didn't like lying.
"Come on, Tucker, we need to get to the mall before it gets too late," Danny said, cramming the last bit of cookie into his mouth.
They all piled into Angela's car and were there in only a few minutes.
"You can message me when you're ready to come home," Tucker's mom said, sticking her head out of the car window.
"Actually, we were planning to go to Danny's house after this," Sam said, springing another unknown plan on Danny. "It's only a few minutes walk from the mall."
Angela looked between them a little nervously. "Okay, just be careful."
"We will, Mom. Bye!" Tucker said, as his mom started to leave.
As they started to head for the front entrance of the mall, Tucker turned to Danny. "So what's this really about? I know you wouldn't be willingly going to the mall around this time of the year."
"Well, we have Sam to thank for that. She's the one that came up with the mall excuse," Danny said, giving Sam a halfhearted glare.
"Sorry, Danny," she said.
Danny shrugged. "It's okay. The real problem is Dan and Vlad Masters. They'll be here by tomorrow. I was wondering if you'd want to sacrifice an evening to come have dinner with me and my insane family."
"Oh, dude, sure I'll come have dinner with you, as long as you're not serving ham," Tucker said.
They went through the sliding doors, and were instantly hit with warm air.
"Don't worry. We're having turkey," Danny said, a he took off his thick winter coat and tied it around his waist.
"Hey, by the way, which do you think is worse?" Tucker asked. "Going all the way to Wisconsin or them coming here?"
"Them coming here," Danny answered almost instantly. He had time to think it over on his walk with Sam to Tucker's house, and he had decided that, yes, them coming to his house was worse. "For one, because they're encroaching on my territory—" Sam had to snort at that and mutter 'boys'—"And two, we only have one extra room so I have to share my room with Dan."
Tucker winced. "Sorry about that, man. That really sucks."
"Have you met Danny's half brother?" Sam asked curiously.
"Yeah, and he's an asshole," Tucker said.
"I think I'll just reserve my judgment for when I meet him myself," she said rather diplomatically.
"Trust me Sam, you'll come to the same conclusion we have," Danny said.
He finally got to take a look around the mall. "Oooh, boy," he muttered sourly. As if his mood wasn't bleak enough with the thought of having his half brother over.
The mall was of course, much worse than his house. Along with the obnoxious amount of decorations and too cheerful music playing loudly from the speakers in the mall's ceiling, there were tons of Christmas sale signs just pleading you to go into their store and partake in the traditional worship of capitalism.
As that string of thought crossed his mind, he realized he had been hanging out with Sam too much lately.
"This is terrible, honestly. I'm getting flash backs from that one Santa Clause encounter I had when I was five," Danny said flatly.
"Which one was that?" Tucker asked.
"The one where the reindeer tried to eat my hat."
Sam snickered, and Danny shot her a glare. "It's not funny! I wet myself!" he hissed, partially joking.
Still chuckling slightly, Sam said, "We didn't have to actually come to the mall, Danny. We could have just walked to your house after Mrs. Foley left. You do understand the meaning of a cover story, don't you?"
"Good friends don't let their friends lie to their parents," Danny said absently as he glared at the shiny bobbles hanging all over the place.
"The intention was still there. I'm still going to hell," Sam deadpanned.
"Can we all just take a trip there now? It can't be any worse than this," he said sourly.
Sam stopped walking, making the rest of the trio stop, and gave Danny a look. "We are absolutely free to leave anytime. The doors don't suddenly lock as soon as we enter."
"I have to at least buy something, Sam!" Danny said, throwing his hands up dramatically. "It's the principle of the thing!"
Sam and Tucker shared a look.
"Alright then, whose this 'last minute shopping' for?" Sam asked.
Danny shrugged. "Danielle, I guess. I probably owe her something for going to the mall without her."
"Hey, Danielle likes churros right?" Tucker said, hooking a thumb at a churro stand.
Danny gave him a flat look. "That's not really something I can give her for a present."
Danny paused at an accessory stand. There was a cheep black and white striped scarf hanging with a matching pair of gloves from one of the hooks. "How about this?"
"A scarf and gloves?" Sam said raising her eyebrow. "Kinda a lame gift don't you think?"
"Well, I figure it'll be better than the canary yellow mittens and pepto-bismol pink scarf our grandma knitted for her the last two years."
Sam made a face. "Fair enough."
Leaving the mall, plus the prospect of hanging out with his friends for a few hours, brightened Danny's mood considerably.
That all came crashing down when he saw another car in his driveway. He cursed under his breath.
"I thought you said they wouldn't be here until tomorrow," Tucker said. "Maybe it's not them."
"Who else could it be, Tucker?" Danny said. He sighed, a large puff of steam billowing out of his mouth. "Let's just get in there and try to avoid them as best we can."
That didn't quite work either, considering Dan was sprawled out leisurely on Danny's couch, his booted feet propped up on the coffee table as if he owned the place.
He turned and looked disinterestedly as they entered. "Hey, Danny and friends," he said flatly.
"I thought you guys weren't going to be here until tomorrow," Danny said, not even trying to keep the disgust out of his voice.
Dan shrugged. "Guess we just made good time," he said nonchalantly.
"Wonderful," Danny grumbled.
"You know, I would think you'd be happy to see you older brother. I mean, you only get to see me about once a year," Dan said with a martyred look.
"Where's your dad?" Danny asked, ignoring his older half sibling's first attempt to rile him.
"Down in the basement with Jack and Mom," Dan said nodding towards the basement door. "They're showing him some weird thing. The ghost portal, I think they called it."
"Oh, no," Danny groaned.
As if things weren't already bad enough, Danny's mom poked her head out of the basement door and said, "Hey, Danny, go get your sisters! I think we're ready to test the portal."
Danny's jaw dropped. We're they serious?! They were going to test their more than likely nonfunctional creation now? Right before Christmas? When everyone was here? And why was he asking these things when he already knew all the answers?
"You come down here too, Dan!" Maddie continued.
Shock was replaced with petty satisfaction, and Danny gave his older brother a smug smile. "Yeah, Dan lets all go down there an be one big happy family!" His words dripped with sarcasm.
Dan simply gave him the finger, to which Danny returned, still smiling smugly.
"Just go get Jazz and Danielle," Dan sneered, turning to go down to the basement.
Danny childishly stuck his tongue out at Dan's retreating back. Once Dan was gone, Danny turned to his friends with an apologetic look. "You guys can go home if you want. This is probably going to be a disaster," he said rubbing his neck awkwardly.
Sam crossed her arms and popped out a hip."If there's any chance of seeing a real ghost, I am obligated to to stay."
"Yeah, and I guess I have nothing better to do," Tucker added.
Danny heaved a sigh. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."
He started to turn to go up to the stairs, but stopped and turned back to his friends. "Um, just...sit in the living room, I guess, while I go get Jazz and Danielle," he said a bit awkwardly, receiving nods from Sam and Tucker as they began to do as advised.
Danny climbed the stairs and went to his room first to drop off the present he had gotten Danielle from the mall. He then went to his twin's room and knocked loudly on her door, eliciting an annoyed "what" from the other side.
"Mom and Dad want you to come down to the lab. Their going to try to start up the portal," Danny said, pushing her door open.
Danielle groaned loudly. "But I don't wanna go! It's not going to work."
"Probably not, but we all have to go down there and suffer together like a family," he said authoritatively.
Danielle sighed dramatically and hopped off her bed. "Alright, fine, whatever," she grumbled as she passed Danny on the way out the door.
"That's the spirit, sis!" he said ruffling her hair. She pushed his hand away and shot him a halfhearted glare before passing him and continuing down the hall.
"One sister down, one to go," he muttered to himself as he made his way to Jazz's room.
He knocked on the door to his elder sister's room and then again when she didn't answer the first time. She still didn't answer, so Danny went in without invitation. He groaned when he realized why she hadn't answered: she was wearing her head phones, probably listing to some podcast or recorded lecture about some psychological condition while she was also reading something else.
"Jazz!" Danny practically yelled, finally getting her attention.
She pulled off her head phones with a frown. "What do you want, Danny? I'm studying."
He raised an eyebrow. "You do realize it's Christmas Break, right?"
"Yes, I do. What about it?" she deadpanned.
"You don't have to study when school is out. That's kind of the whole point of a break: to not study," Danny stressed.
Jazz sent him an exasperated look as she shut her book and put it aside. "You don't have to be in school to study, Danny. You should seek knowledge on your own, as well."
Danny rolled his eyes. His sister had to be the weirdest person alive. Then again, Danny did look up a lot of facts about outer space in his spare time. "Well, whatever. Stop studying. Mom and Dad want us all to go down to the lab. They're going to turn on the Ghost Portal."
Her expression mirrored his when he first heard the news then settled into exasperated acceptance.
"You mean try and fail to turn on a portal to a nonexistent 'spirit realm'?" Jazz said using air quotes.
"Yeah basically, but I think the official term they're using for it now is 'the Ghost Zone'."
"Oh, great," Jazz said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, I know, but we have to go be supportive, I guess," he said with a shrug.
"Not supportive," Jazz said, swinging her legs over the side of her bed. "Sympathetic when it fails, but not supportive. When this little endeavor come crashing down, they might actually give up on their insane obsession once and for all if we don't encourage any more of this behavior."
Danny narrowed his eyes at her. "You know, you'll likely either be the president or a mad scientist that invents a machine to control people's minds when you grow up."
"Politics aren't my thing," she stated cryptically, making Danny worry.
Jazz stood up from her bed and straightened out her shirt. "Come on they're probably waiting anxiously for us down there."
Sam and Ticker stood up from the couch when they spotted Danny and his sister coming down the stairs. Jazz made a face when she saw them.
"What are they doing here?" she asked Danny, sounding both embarrassed and ashamed.
Over hearing her question, Sam answered for Danny. "We're here because Danny asked us to commiserate with him, seeing as he was feeling stressed with his family coming over."
"Did you really say commiserate?" Jazz asked, turning to Danny.
"Yes, I think I used that exact word," he said.
"I'm impressed."
"Thanks."
"Anyway," Jazz said turning back to Sam and Tucker, "you should probably leave. Things are going to be massively uncomfortable after our parents new 'invention' fails. Or something horribly wrong is going to happen, and we'll either all die or be horribly maimed. You don't need to deal with that."
"It's cool. Danny already warned us. We get it," Tucker said nonchalantly.
"And I'd never pass up a chance to die," Sam said, probably only half joking.
Jazz shrugged and turned to go to the basement. "Suit yourself," she said over her shoulder.
Danny, Sam, Tucker followed Jazz down the basement steps. The basement of the average person was likely full of boxes with old items no one wanted or needed to display around their house stored inside. Some people might even have a pool table or table tennis set in their basement. Danny, on the other hand, had a mad science lab in his.
Harsh fluorescent light beat down from the ceiling to illuminate the two rows of tables full of the junk his parents called inventions. At the back of the room sat a dinosaur of a computer with a forest of wires coming out of it.
And of course, let's not forget the giant gaping hole in the wall.
This was supposed to be the Fenton Ghost Portal. Right now it was just a hole in the back wall of the basement, but when Danny's parents started it up it would be a hole in the fabric of reality itself—or at least that was what his parents told him.
"There you are! I was about to go back up there and get you," Danielle said, leaving Dan's side to confront her twin.
"Hey, Sam, Tucker," she added, noticing her and Danny's two mutual friends. They both replied with waves and mumbled greetings.
"Blame Jazz for the delay," Danny said, jabbing a thumb towards his older sister, who shot him an annoyed look.
Danny's dad spotted the group of teens and walked up to them. "Hey, Danno why don't you go say hello to Vladie before we get this thing started."
"Sure thing, dad," Danny said unenthusiastically.
Danny broke off of his group of friends and his two sisters. He of course had to shoot Dan a glare as he passed him.
Vlad Masters was standing uncomfortably close to Danny's mother by the afore mentioned Jurassic era computer, apparently looking at some data.
"Hey, Uncle Vlad," Danny said with faked enthusiasm. His mother visibly relaxed when Vlad's attention shifted from her.
"Daniel, how nice to finally see you. It was unfortunate that you had just run off when we got here," Vlad said, perfectly polite and charming. Danny knew for a fact that underneath that perfectly preserved facade of niceties, was a grade A asshole.
"Yeah, well, I didn't know you were coming or I would have stayed," Danny said. It was probably a lie, but whatever.
"I see. Perhaps I should have called ahead," Vlad said.
Yeah, a little heads up would have been nice, Danny thought.
"Alright let's get this show on the road!" Danny's father said going up to the panel next to the portal.
"You should probably go back to your friends. You wouldn't want to be too close to the machine when it starts up, what with your father's craftsmanship," Vlad said.
Danny pointedly ignored the passive aggressive dig on his dad and went back to his friends. Of course, not without shooting Dan another glare as he passed him.
"Run the start up sequences, Mads," Jack said.
Danny's mother tapped on the computer a few times then looked up from the screen and said. "All systems are a go. Flip the switch!"
Danny's father proudly did as told, flipping the lever in the open panel next to the machine.
The tale tell whirring of machinery starting up could be heard from the portal. The Fenton siblings (especially Jazz) still weren't impressed, that was until a small light at the end of the tunnel could just be seen. As everyone tensed and the doubters started to question 'what if they weren't crazy after all?', it all came to an anticlimactic end when the machine made a several clicking sounds like a malfunctioning printer and the light slowly faded out.
"I knew it," Jazz muttered, almost sounding disappointed.
"I don't understand. What went wrong?" Maddie said as she frantically flipped through some notes scattered around the computer table. Meanwhile, Jack Fenton quietly stood by the machine looking like a kicked puppy. "All the calculations were right. We did—"
"Maddie, perhaps it is best not to fret over it now. We can come back to it later with fresh eyes," Vlad said, taking Danny's mom by the shoulders. Danny almost gagged at the sight.
"But if we can suss out the problem now—" she started to say.
"Maddie, dear, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Perhaps we should get preparations started for dinner tomorrow to take our minds off of this," Vlad said.
There was a moment where she looked like she wanted to protest until finally the light died out of her eyes and her shoulders slumped. "You're right. We shouldn't be obsessing over this so close to Christmas." She pulled out of Vlad's hold and went over to her husband. "Come on, Jack, honey."
She pulled Jack away from the machine and out of the basement, followed by Vlad and the rest of the party. Jazz closed the door behind her, seeing as she was the last one out.
The adults left the kids still standing by the entrance into the basement, going into the kitchen, supposedly to work on dinner plans for tomorrow.
"I'll just go with them, seeing as I'm the only one that can cook in this house," Jazz muttered as she followed her parents and Vlad into the kitchen.
"Well, that sucks," Sam said, breaking the awkward silence that started to form. "I was so looking forward to seeing a ghost."
Danny shot her a look.
"Sorry, not the time, I guess," she amended.
"Man, your dad looked so heart broken," Tucker said.
"Yeah, well he's only been working on it for his entire adult life," Danielle piped in.
"I mean, we knew it wouldn't work, but...it still sort of hurts," Danny said rubbing the back of his neck.
There was another pause until Danielle suddenly said, "Hey, wait a second. Did anyone see Dan come out of the basement?"
Danny started at the realization. Quietly cursing under his breath, he went back down to the lab, Sam, Tucker, and Danielle following behind.
There Dan was, standing right in front of the machine, back turned to them. He didn't react to Danny and company reentering the lab, either not caring or not noticing them at all.
"Hey, Dan, did you not notice that everyone had left?" Danny called out annoyedly.
Dan glanced back, but his mind still seemed to be half in another place. He mumbled something too quietly to hear from all the way across the lab.
Danny turned to Danielle to see if she had heard, but she just shrugged and shook her head.
"What did you say?" Danny asked.
"I thought I felt something...from the portal when they tried to get it working," Dan said, his voice sounding distant and strange. It set Danny on edge.
"Well, I'm sure our parents would love to hear about it later. Why don't you come out here with us?" Danny said.
His suggestion went completely ignored, and to Danny's and everybody else's horror, Dan started to walk into the machine.
Danny ran up to the mouth of the portal and caught Dan's sleeve. The older boy turned to him with a sharp glare and brushed his hand off.
"Go back up there if your scared. I'm going to check this out," he said tersely.
"Dan, you really shouldn't," Danielle said, walking up to the portal with Sam and Tucker following awkwardly. "Even though it didn't work, you still could get electrocuted if you accidentally touch something."
Dan's gaze softened a little when it landed on his younger sister. "Don't worry, Ellie. I'll be out in a minute," he said, using her childhood nickname.
He took a few more steps into the interior of the machine, until Danny's anger finally broke and he stepped in front of Dan. "That is it! You always come here and fuck shit up, and one of us has to deal with it later. Not this time!"
Danny yelped when his half brother suddenly seized him by the front of his shirt and hauled him a foot off the ground.
"Look you little shit," he snarled in Danny's face, "I have just as much right to be here as you do. She's my mom too!"
Danny wretched himself out of his older brother's hold. He stumbled and braced himself against the side of the tunnel. He didn't notice that he had accidentally pressed a button in a panel that had been left open by mistake, and no one noticed the quiet mechanical whine that started up with it.
"Well, you don't act like it!" Danny threw back, straightening out his shirt. "When was the last time you said more than two words to her in one sitting?"
"Guys!" Danielle shouted, cutting off whatever Dan was about to say. "Could you at least come out of the potentially deadly machine to fight?" she said, taking a step forward and outstretching a hand.
Dan opened his mouth to say something to Danielle until he was cut off again, this time by Sam. She vigorously pointed to the portal and shouted, "Look!"
Everyone turned to the end of the tunnel, where a small green light was building. The three siblings had no time to react before everything turned green.
Danny being the closest to the back of the machine, got the worst of the blast. He let out an ear piercing scream as his back was hit with the green light. He dimly remembered hearing or reading somewhere that human nerve cells couldn't differentiate between extreme heat and extreme cold. He had never wanted to test out that theory on himself, but he could now say that that was indeed true. He couldn't tell if he was burning or freezing.
Finally, and to his relief, he felt his consciousness receding. He welcomed oblivion with open arms and let darkness consume him.
Danielle was only at the lip of the tunnel when it started. It happened so quickly, but she had the best vantage point. The others likely hadn't seen the green lightening arching around the tunnel's walls before the whole interior of the machine was consumed in green light. In fact, one of those green bolts had hit her outstretched hand just before the rest of the swirling green mass met with the opening of the tunnel.
She hit the floor of the lab, hardly registering it throughout the static in her head.
Tucker and Sam rushed up to her as she twitched on the ground like a dying bug. Or at least she thought it was Tucker and Sam. She wasn't sure. Danielle faintly felt the sensation of being dragged across the ground, but she couldn't be sure of that either. Her vision was tunneling and all she could hear was the blood rushing in her ears. So really, she wasn't sure of anything at the moment.
Dan had thought he had felt something when he was arguing with his annoying little brother, but had stupidly brushed it off. It was a heat in the back of his throat, and he had felt it before, namely when they had tried to start up the portal earlier, and sometimes when he was alone in his dad's mansion. He sorely wished he hadn't ignored it this one time, out of all the other times he had let it get to him.
Danny's face contorted in agony, and he let out an ear splitting scream when the wave green light hit his back. Dan couldn't say he let out a very dignified sound either once the swirling energy engulfed him as well.
The pain was so much it almost brought him to his knees. He was at least proud of himself for staying conscious, unlike Danny, who nearly slumped into his arms.
Through the fog of pain, Dan dimly realized that he had to get out of this green hell, and fast. He grabbed Danny around his middle and awkwardly dragged himself and his younger half brother out of the tunnel.
He did all he could not to collapse to the ground when he reached the mouth of the tunnel. Instead, he not so gently let Danny down, and then allowed his legs to give out under him.