My parents were having kind of an off day. Which, for them, was saying something. Normally their insatiable appetite for answers would overcome any doubts they might've had, but today was different. For what was probably the thousandth time since I'd come downstairs to watch, my dad lifted a bizarre-looking remote device and aimed it toward the far wall. Slowly, as if he wasn't sure he even wanted to, he held his thumb over a red button on the device, letting it hover there for a moment. He and my mom exchanged glances, then, without further ado, he pressed the button. And…

Nothing happened. "Not again!" my dad growled in frustration as he dropped their current project unceremoniously onto the lab table. "I don't understand! We've been at this for days, and it's still not working! What are we doing wrong?" He yanked his protective eye-goggles off and settled into one of the stools, massaging his temples. His orange jumpsuit was smudged up to the elbows with grease and soot, and he had taken off his boots hours ago. My mom was wearing her usual teal-blue jumpsuit and had pulled its hood down. Sweat plastered their hair to both their faces. She walked around the table to sit next to him.

"Calm down, Jack," she said as she placed a reassuring arm on his shoulder, "I'm sure there's something to this we're just not seeing. We just need a little bit more time. We'll figure it out."

"That's just it, Maddie, sometimes I wonder if that's really true. Maybe we're chasing a goose blindly. We've been researching all of it for years. And all we have to show for it is…this," and at that he made a gesture with his hand that indicated the room they were in. To call it a room wouldn't be entirely accurate though. It was actually one of the most impressive labs I had ever seen. Not that I've ever seen any other lab. But if I had, I'm sure this one would top it.

Its walls, which were made of a strong solid metal, supported a high-vaulted domed ceiling worthy of an ancient church. It was a little less on the artistic side though, and instead favored the cold chrome feel of a highly advanced laboratory. Piping and wiring wound in and out of the walls, built to aid a system only my parents could hope to understand. In the far wall where my dad had aimed the device, a man-sized hole had been cut meticulously and framed. It was a very short-very cylindrical-hallway to nowhere, its walls were lined by a complicated array of buttons and wires and who knew what else. It was their latest pet project, the 'Ghost Portal.' But more on that later. The best part of the lab?

It was all built and hidden right under our house. Imagine. A secret, technologically advanced lab built right under everyone's noses. Cool, huh?

You'd think so, except my parents' obsessions could sometimes be less than cool. Like now for instance. This latest project had taken up so much of their time and energy that these past couple weeks the only times I had seen them or talked to them had been for about five seconds in the mornings before I left for school and at night when we all ate dinner together. Now, I'm not usually too excited about hanging out with my parents. I am a teenager for crying out loud. But, I mean, come on. It'd be nice to at least have a conversation with my parents that went beyond the obligatory how-was-your-day formalities. That's why today I had ventured downstairs to see just what was keeping them down here all these hours. They had been so engrossed in their work, they hadn't even looked up when I let myself in.

They had several lab tables situated throughout the room, and right now, I had cleared myself a spot between the beakers and other various lab equipment to make room for my school books at one of them. I had been spending this evening alternating between doing my homework and shuffling through songs on my iPod. Cool, I know. Sue me. Eventually, though, I couldn't help but observe my parents' decline from puzzled to downright stumped as attempt after attempt failed.

I'm not sure exactly what they had been expecting to happen. I mean, I know something was supposed to happen. I was pretty sure this big fat nothing wasn't it though. You know that Ghost Portal I mentioned? I had a vague idea of the concept behind it. And I'll tell you, as long as you promise not to laugh.

You see, my parents, scientific geniuses that they were, believed in ghosts. I'll wait a moment while that sinks in. And another while you give me that look. The 'I-think-he's-messing-with-me-but-then-again-he-might-just –be-weird' look.

Yes. I said they believe in ghosts. G-H-O-S-T-S. As in, ectoplasmic spirits of the dead. Or whatever they really are.

They had this running theory that ghosts resided in an alternate plane they called 'the Ghost World,' and they were determined to open a portal to it. Hence the cleverly dubbed 'Ghost Portal.' Like I said, they weren't exactly artistic, but at least it was easier to remember than some of the words NASA came up with for things.

They had been working on it on and off for as long as I could remember. My dad had tried to explain it to me awhile back, and I remember thinking this was the scientist dad's version of teaching his kid to play catch. He had gone on and on about 'multiverse theories' and heaven and Hades and all kinds of stuff. If that had been a father-son playing catch scenario, I would have been the pathetic dweeb who couldn't catch a ball if it were handed to him for all the sense it made to me. It all pretty much went in one ear and out the other.

Recently though, my parents must have had a stroke of scientific inspiration and had taken to obsessively fine-tuning and testing this thing until it was complete. It didn't look like that inspiration was getting them very far though. I personally had my doubts about all this, but who knew.

Just as I was beginning to contemplate whether or not I should head off to bed, my mom beat me to it. "Maybe tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, we can figure this out," she suggested "It's already past eleven."

My dad sighed and stopped rubbing his temples long enough to look up at my mom. "You're right, tomorrow is another day. The world better look out then, because the Fentons are going to open a door to a new world!" So saying, he and my mom slipped off their stools and headed upstairs, looking pretty discouraged. I was pretty sure they had been so absorbed in their work that they hadn't even noticed me come downstairs. I was even more sure when I heard the loud thunkthat was the light lever going down and the entire room was thrown into complete pitch black darkness.

"Um…dad? Mom?" I called out, "Hello! I'm still down here!"

Nobody answered.

They had left me! In the freaking dark! Luckily, I wasn't really scared of the dark. Well, not that scared of it.

I slid off my stool cautiously made my way toward what I hoped was the stairway up. I had to be careful. My parents' inventions, while not very artistic, could sometimes lean on the lethal side. I held out my hands zombie-like in front of me, feeling for something in front of me, a wall preferably, that I could follow.

It's too bad we don't have arms at about feet level though, because after about five steps my foot caught on something and I fell down hard onto the tile floor. My knee hit something sharp and unpleasantly painful on the ground. Ouch.

I picked myself up and set out to start walking again. Only, I had no clue which direction to go in now. I walked even more blindly and gingerly now, taking care to shuffle my feet without lifting them off the ground. After a few minutes of this, my foot struck something as I was shuffling forward and I stubbed my toe. I tried to catch myself with my other foot, but it caught on something else and, of course, I fell again. I instinctively reached out for something to break my fall. Instead of breaking my fall though, my left hand caught on some wires, pulling them down with me. I felt several of them pull tight and snap. That wasn't good.

I was starting to feel a little panicked now. Was it possible to die crawling around in the dark for too long? Now that would be a headline for the ages. Teen Boy Dies Lost in Own Home.

I decided crawling until I found a wall to follow was probably my safest bet at this point. I began to crawl forward on my left arm and both my legs, holding out my right arm. I barely scooted forward one inch before my foot struck a wall behind me, and my hand ran into a wall in front of me. What the…? I thought, confused. Then I realized where I was. How had I gotten all the way over to the Ghost Portal?

Still, it meant I had finally found a wall. I stood up, taking extra care to keep my hand firmly planted on the wall, and started to walk forward. As I did so, I felt my right hand slide across something that went inward beneath my touch, until it was flush with the wall. Then there was a loud click.

Then, two things happened. First, the low rumble of a large machine warming up filled the confined space. It was like being inside an erupting volcano. Then, I was blinded by a searing green light that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

The rumbling sound built up to a loud and chaotic crescendo and my ears started to hurt. Then, out of nowhere, my body was struck by a force that was unbelievably cold. It felt like someone had taken an egg with ice-yolk inside, and had cracked it in my head, letting the ice flow down through my veins and into the rest of my body. Almost immediately after, the feeling was replaced by a warming sensation that started in my mid-section and radiated outwards to my toes and feet. Slowly, the warming sensation became hotter and hotter, until I felt as though I had been thrown into molten lava. White hot pain wiped out my senses until it was the only thing I knew. It was excruciating. Every time I thought it couldn't hurt more, it did, until, finally. Mercifully. Everything went black.

Author's Note: Okay, so this is an idea that has been playing around in my head for a bit. This focuses on my take of Danny's beginnings, with my own little twists thrown in. I'm not really sure if I'll continue this. It depends on feedback I get, so please review to let me know what you think. Sorry for the relatively short chapter.

P.S. (added 4/24/2011: Fixed some typos and weird wordings here)

(added 5/11/2011: Just made some minor changes…)