I know, it's a few minutes short of Valentines Day, but it's up! I've decided to take this a bit differently than before, and it refers back to one of my past Holiday One-shots, maybe my first I can't quite remember… But you'll understand this one a bit better if you've read that one. So… I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. I do however plan to push the people who cancelled him off a cliff into shark infested lava. Butch Hartman is safe though.
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"Can you believe this is really happening?" asked Sam from the back seat of the Specter Speeder. She sounded both excited and questioning, as if she was stuck between the two equally.
"I know," replied Danny, trying to navigate them through the Ghost Zone. No matter how many times he went through the same areas of the ghosts' world, he always managed to get lost for a few minutes.
"Well, maybe it won't be as weird as seeing Box Lunch," offered Tucker, staring fixedly at the screen of his PDA. "At least we get to see this one before it's all grown up."
"Would you please stop talking about Ember's baby like it's a thing?" Sam nearly yelled at him. The gothic teen glared daggers at him till he looked up. Her blazing violet eyes scared him as they always had, and he turned away, back to his PDA.
"Sam," Danny warned with a joking smile. "Be nice. It is Tuck after all. And Tuck," the young halfa added in a slightly more serious tone. "It is odd, but it's still a… ghostly being? I can't really say human being…"
Danny looked back out the windshield, seriously considering this thought. Tucker laughed a bit then went back to playing his video game. Sam just shook her head, smiling at their predictability, and gave Danny a kiss on the cheek before sitting back in her seat.
After several more minutes of consulting the virtual map and making many U-turns, Danny stopped the speeder in front of a large lab-like building, floating just like every other structure in the zone.
"Come on you guys!" exclaimed Sam, throwing open the doors and jumping out, obviously more excited to see the little baby than the boys. Sure enough, Danny and Tuck came out slowly, curious but not in any rush to get inside.
The inside of Technus' lair was obviously bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside. While the outside looked to be about the size of a large house, the inside seemed bigger than Vlad's castle. There were wires running everywhere, all of them different colors and all of them buzzing with ghostly electricity of some sort. There were test tubes of random substances that gave off scents of all sorts, and they were surrounded by beeping machines covered in flashing buttons. Then there were the huge machines that seemed to do nothing but take up space.
The three teens looked around in awe.
"I… I've found heaven!" yelled Tucker. The dark skinned teen began running from machine to machine, examining everything in sight. The other two ignored their techno-geek friend.
"This is not cool!" Sam exclaimed, glaring around at the mountains of electronics. "How can they have a baby in here? It's way too dangerous!"
"That's why we keep the baby upstairs," came a voice from the back of the enormous room. The two teens turned to see Technus walking – not floating – down a flight of stairs that was almost completely hidden by one of the space-consuming machines.
Sam looked at the technology ghost skeptically. "But wouldn't the baby just be able to phase through the floor?"
The green-skinned scientist smiled back smugly. "Nope. The whole upstairs is made of ghost proof material. That's obviously being removed eventually, but for now it'll keep him from getting down here and getting hurt."
Sam still didn't look completely convinced. "Are you sure there's no way for him to get out? And how do you use your ghost powers then?"
"Hm, you sound like Ember, nagging about every little thing." He suddenly looked down at his feet and realized he was on the ground. "I've been up there so often, I've just taken to walking instead of floating everywhere. We do take shifts to come down and fly around a bit, but they're not long." The master of technology laughed a bit. "I think we may be more human than anything now."
"Can we see him?" asked Danny, his blue eyes scanning the room for Tucker, who was missing among the world of gadgets and experiments.
"Sure! Just be careful when you get up there, I think he may be asleep." Seeing Danny's wandering eyes, Technus smiled and shook his head. "Let him go. I don't think there's anything in here that would hurt him too bad."
Danny just rolled his eyes and followed Sam up the stairs, Technus following closely behind. The Goth reached the top first and opened the door slowly. The scene above was so strange, it made her freeze for a few seconds.
The whole room seemed to be covered with a carpet of toys, blankets, and bottles. Ember sat in a soft looking chair near a window, looking strangely different. Her hair seemed somewhat shorter, though it was still the same ponytail of blue flame, and there were light circles under her eyes. She looked half asleep, staring into a corner across the room with a tired, but amused smile.
As Danny entered, his eyes were drawn directly to the familiar figure sitting against the wall across from Ember. Skulker looked rather odd too; he looked to be asleep on the floor, his green flame hair was gone, and his battle suit looked rather limp. Maybe it was the anti-ghost walls that did that?
Technus looked at Ember with slight confusion. "Where'd they go?" he asked, curious but obviously not worried.
Ember only shook her head, still smiling, and pointed with her gloved hand into an empty corner on the same wall as Skulker's suit. Nearly blending in with the mess of blankets and toys, the teens and ghostly father located the small figure of a sleeping baby. He slept under a light blue blanket, and his tiny pale green hands held something that looked to be squirming.
"What is that?" Danny asked, gesturing to the small moving toy-like thing in the infants hands.
"Skulker," Ember replied simply, her smile widening. Technus tried to repress his laugh and the teens looked again.
After a moment of closer inspection, they were able to recognize the tiny green creature as the ghost world's greatest hunter. They too had to attempt to hold back their laughs. Without his suit, Skulker was more of a frog than anything, and now he also served as a stuffed animal for a baby.
"We should let you baby sit more often, Skulker," commented Technus, giving up on hiding his laughter. "You always seem to put him right to sleep!"
"Danny," Sam whispered, elbowing her boyfriend in the ribs. He looked at her questioningly and she nodded towards Ember. He stared at her blankly.
"Forget it," she said, reaching into Danny's pocket and pulling out a small green box. She walked over to Ember and held the gift out for the mother to take.
Ember looked at it curiously. "It's a baby box!" Sam said cheerily. Ember looked at her incredulously, as if she thought Sam meant to make her put the baby in the tiny box.
"It's, um, for baby stuff." Ember didn't move or say anything in reply. Sam sighed. "Here, let me show you."
She put the box on the ground and stepped back a few paces. She thought a moment then said clearly to the box, "Pacifier." The box expanded slightly, then opened to reveal a small green pacifier, which Sam picked up and handed to Ember.
"That's interesting," said Technus, coming over and picking up the box. He tip-toed over to where the baby slept, carefully pulled Skulker free of the infant's grasp, and set him down on the floor with the box so they could both examine it.
"Tucker designed it," said Danny, smiling. He looked around the room, expecting Tuck to be there nodding proudly, but he still hadn't come up.
Ember smiled up at the teens. It had been a while, over a year now, since they'd fought. Danny had been striving to keep from making more enemies, and had even made most of his ghostly foes into allies if not friends at this point. Ember was definitely a friend.
"We should probably go find Tucker and get going before he decides to try shoving your whole lab into the Specter Speeder," said Danny, glancing at the door to the stairs.
"Trust us, he would," Sam added smiling. Ember nodded.
"Thank you both. This is very sweet," The rocker ghost stood and navigated her way across the toy covered floor. She popped the pacifier into the baby's mouth and he took it without complaint.
The teens turned to leave, Danny leading the way down to find his lost friend. Just before she reached the door, Sam turned back to the doting mother.
"Wait, what's his name?" she asked quickly, noting Danny's annoyed look as he waited half way down the stairs.
"Toby," replied Ember, not looking away from her sleeping child.
Sam smiled and nodded, turning back down the stairs. The two teens spent a good amount of time hunting for Tucker, eventually resorting to using Danny's powers to fly through everything till he ran into the techno-geek. Once they were back in the speeder, Danny drove away quickly, his dark skinned friend rolled into a ball on the seat in the back.
Sam looked at Danny with a look of amused realization. "Hey, Danny,"
"Yeah?" He looked back at her for a moment.
"Happy Valentines Day," she said, laughing at having forgotten completely.
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Happy Valentines Day! Or Singles Awareness Day if you prefer (though I don't think you would considering that spells SAD). I hope you liked that! I love the bute little baby! And I'm on a Labyrinth craze at the moment, thus the baby's name is Toby.
Ok, please read and review! I'd love some suggestions and ideas! Thanks!