Danny Phantom - Hero

Chapter one - Sleep deprived.

Danny was exhausted. He was up fighting ghosts all night. By the time he finally got in it was 6 AM, and he had had one hour of sleep before he was rudely awakened by his alarm clock.

Hoping the air would wake him up, he decided to fly to school today.

"At least I won't be late for once," he thought glumly.

Once at school, he phased through the walls and found himself in the janitor's closet. He then formed his trademark rings around his waist, and in no time he was back to being just plain old Danny Fenton.

Walking out to his locker, he met Tucker and Sam, his two best friends.

He smiled, "Hey guys and how was your night?"

"So the ghost never stopped coming huh?" Sam asked with concern.

"Nope, and I have no clue as to how I'm going to stay awake all day in school."

"Cheer up, Danny. We'll help you stay awake," Tucker said with an evil grin.

"Oh really?"

Danny, not liking the look on his friend's face, added, "And how are you planning on doing that?"

"Oh, I have my ways."

"Yeah, see I'm too tired to care now so-----." He was interrupted by the bell signaling their first period.

"Come on, lets go," Danny sulked.

They made their way through three classes, and Danny had fallen asleep in all of them, only to be rudely awakened by the present teacher in each class.

At last lunch time. Sam poked her friend with a fork trying to rouse the sleeping boy, but to no luck. Danny's head was resting on his tray and in his food.

"Let him sleep, Sam, G-d knows he needs it."

Sam couldn't help but notice how right Tucker was. Looking more closely at Danny's appearance, she could see the thick bags he carried under his eyes. By the time the bell rang for the end of lunch, Danny hadn't eaten a thing.

"Dude, are you OK?" Tucker asked in worry.

Danny didn't even seem to hear him.

"Danny!" Tucker said loudly. "You'd think he was sleep walking!"

But then again maybe he was. Danny's head jerked up, but instead of talking he just gave Tucker a look that said "what?" with his eyes.

"How much sleep did you get the night before last?"

"None," Danny said, confirming what Tucker suspected.

"Uh, I see. So you were hunting ghosts all night last night too? Why are you doing this to self man?"

"Cause, Tucker," Danny said, his voice dripping in sarcasm, "I do it for fun."

"Dude, now come on. I'm your friend and I'm just trying to help you."

"I know." Danny voice took on a much, for lack of a better word, nicer tone to it. "It's just that I think something is going on here. Why are they attacking in swarms like this every night?"

Sam and Tucker exchanged looks that said 'oh boy! Now what?' But Danny was too tired to notice. Walking into Lancers class, they took their seats. The minute Danny sat down in his chair he put his head down.

"What's the harm in a little rest?" he thought tiredly.

Mr. Lancer walked in with a big box that got the attention of most. Placing it carefully on his desk, he addressed the class at hand.

"OK everyone. I have here a special treat for all of you."

He now had everyone's attention, as they were all waiting to see what was in the box. Well, everyone but Danny Fenton that was. Mr. Lancer saw this and wasn't at all pleased, too. He knew that Danny had something that most people only dreamed of. He had real potential.

There were few students here with a mind like his. Lancer guessed that it ran in the family. Now was going to be the time to prove how right he was about Danny's ability to be very smart, should he ever come over his laziness.

"In this box is something very unique and special. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. And our class is going to be the first to try it out. We will all be going inside someone's mind."

Now for the first time he not only had everyone's attention (everyone but Danny), but he had total silence to go with it. This pleased him greatly.

"Now I will be picking a random persons mind as to whom we will be entering."

The silence was broken as muttering broke out to replace it. The students were wondering whose mind they were going to enter.

"I hope it's mine," Paulina said in a hopeful tone.

Lancer smiled at this. He knew that the girl loved being in the center of attention. But he also noticed that others didn't seem to keen on letting others in their mind. He saw nervous glances being exchanged from Sam and Tucker and could only wonder what it was about.

"Who will the lucky person be?" Sam asked Lancer in a nervous tone to match the look on her face.

"Well Ms. Manson, there is one helmet unlike the rest. This one is the master helmet. Whoever is the one wearing it, will be the one whose mind we get to invade. But as to whom, only I know for now."

Everyone got up to get their helmets and put them on. Danny was still sleeping, and Lancer was tired of this. He walked over to him and shook him gently. When the teen didn't even move, he shook him again, only more impatiently this time. At last Danny woke up, only to find his teacher standing over him, and the faces of all his classmates looking at him in amusement.

"What?" Danny asked innocently.

"Mr. Fenton, I would like you to put this on."

Lancer handed a confused Danny his helmet that he had failed to get himself.

"What's this do?" To Danny's surprise, he heard snickers form around the room at this comment.

"Well, if you weren't sleeping in class, you would know the answer to that already," Lancer replied.

"Uh, I uh," Danny wasn't sure how to respond to this, so he just took the helmet and put it on.

"What's the worst that can happen?" he thought with out really thinking of the worst. If he did he surely wouldn't have put it on. But he was by far too tired to think clearly.

"Now kids, before we begin," Lancer was saying, not taking his eyes off of Danny as he spoke, making him gulp anxiously, "There is a warning against sleeping while others are in your mind, since the master helmet's wearer must be awake to control it. If he is asleep, then the visitors of the mind will have no choice but to wander freely, which is a dangerous thing to do in a human mind. It is fragile enough as it is. So there will be no doing anything other than what the guide says. Is everyone ready?"

All the students (and Lancer was pleased to see Danny was among them) nodded their heads in excitement.

"Then let's go."

Mr. Lancer powered up the remote he was holding to activate the helmets. Danny was forcing his beyond tired eyes to not fall asleep. But then again, he thought, what are the odds that everyone's going in my head?

He looked at his helmet, it looked just like all the others. Which he took to mean it was just like all the others. He didn't seem to have the master helmet. Danny's over tired brain could only think of one thing. Now was his chance to get some sleep before everyone got up from whoever's mind they were going to invade. And with that thought he stopped resisting and let sleep overtake him, just as he heard all the helmets power up.

Mr. Lancer just pushed the button and was feeling the tugging he knew would come. He looked over at Danny, hoping to find the excitement in his eyes like in the rest of the students. But to his horror, he saw that Danny was sleeping. And it was too late to stop the power up now.

Then everything went black.

Hi. First of all I'd like to thank my new beta Nylah. You have no idea how much this really means to me. Thank you so much. You rock. Next I'd like to point out that this may seem really similar to a very good story I read called the reality of virtuality. Yes I read that it gave me the inspiration for the first chapter. But that's just the first chapter. The rest is nothing like it. As cool as that story is I'm not a copy cat. I'm sorry it's so short. And as for the cliffy it's just because I'm evil. Muh hahahah (evil laughter). The title might change later in the story. I'd ask for help in the whole renaming process but you guys don't now what's going to happen. This is a very unpredictable story. So if anyone thinks that they can guess were it's going, I'd love to hear it. Free spoilers for those who try to guess. So I hope you like the first chapter. But if you do please tell me. If you read and don't review that's just mean. Oh and no flames please. Thanks for reading. Latter dudes. R & R