Description- One Danny Fenton has just had an accident with his parents' ghost portal and now strange things are happening. Meanwhile, there's a new kid at school who seems to know a little too much about all this… No OCs. AU.

Don't own anything.

- August 30, 2007. Fourth period English class -

"We will be starting class today with a quiz to gage your current skill level. You have the rest of the class period to work on it."

Danny Fenton looked down at the test in front of him. A test on the first day of school?! This teacher, Lancer was the toughest one he'd ever had! He sighed and studied the first question.

Diagram this sentence-

Fredrick and his little sister, Cassie, both enjoyed eating green jello.

Diagramming sentences?! Why did it have to be that?

His pencil fell off his desk and rolled a couple of feet away, so he stood up to retrieve it. Unfortunately, he also stepped on it, snapping the tip off, making it useless for anything but erasing. With a silent eye-roll, he headed to the pencil sharpener by the door. Lancer watched him the entire way, no doubt suspicious of cheating. The glare was a little unnerving. Danny stuck the pencil in the sharpener and winced at the loud, grinding sound it made. Over half the class looked up to see where the noise was coming from.

And suddenly there was loud laughter. Danny glanced down and saw to his horror that his pants had fallen. He felt his face turn red as he pulled them back up.

Quite apart from the obvious humiliation, he felt hugely annoyed, because that was the third time that had happened that day! And it was only one of the strange things that had happened lately.

"Daniel Fenton!" The teacher yelled, "That is completely inappropriate for a learning environment! Detention after school today, room 202. And," he walked over to Danny's desk, picking up his blank test. "I will be taking this. Automatic F."

Danny returned to his desk.

"Nice going Fenturd, a large blonde boy a couple rows away hissed. Danny sank low in his seat.

- August 30, 2007. After school detention -

Danny stared at the clock over the door of the room where he was serving his detention. He'd been in this room for hours. Well, it felt like hours. He couldn't actually be sure, because whoever taught in this room had covered the clock with a circle of green paper, on which was drawn a smiling face (A/N: My reading teacher actually does this, it's so annoying!).

There were only two others in detention with Danny. Normally there were about five times as many, but it was the first day of school, and most people are capable of staying out of trouble for at least one day.

Suddenly the door opened and an out of breath boy rushed in. "Sor… sorry I was… late," he panted. The unfortunate teacher who had been given the task of 'detention supervisor' for the semester glared at him, and said, "just sit over there," before returning to her magazine.

The boy sat in the indicated seat (next to Danny), and grinned at him. Up close, Danny could see that there was something familiar about this boy… he just wasn't sure what.

The familiar looking kid glanced at the supervisor to make sure she was engrossed in her magazine, and then pulled a notebook out of his backpack, which was on the ground next to him. He flipped to a clean page, then wrote, Hi, my name's James, who're you?

Danny wrote Danny Fenton on a spare sheet of paper.

What're you in for?

I'd really rather not say. What about you?

I was late.

You got detention for being late to one class?

Well, not exactly one class.

How man classes?

Five.

How did you manage that?

After an hour of that, Danny had learned that James had just moved to Amity Park from Virginia, he was a sophomore, and had a rather unusual interest- in ghosts.

Do you have any hobbies?

I like Video games, movies, that kind of thing. You know, normal stuff. How about you?

Ghosts, actually.

You're kidding.

No, why?

My parents are 'ghost-hunters'. It's all kind of stupid, actually, considering they don't exist.

You really think so?

Duh.

Famous last words. At that moment, half the ceiling fell in as a meat-covered… thing crash-landed on top of it. The detention supervisor saw it and ran away, screaming, followed by the two juniors who had been asleep in the back of the room.

That left only Danny and James, one of whom was studying the ghost with interest, and one of whom was frozen in fear.

The thing roared and shot a coil of meat at the two teens, but before it could reach them, James pulled something out of his backpack and fired it at the meat monster. A blue light shot out of it, sucking up the thing.

And that was the last thing Danny saw before he passed out.

- August 30, Manson Mansion -

Danny opened his eyes to find himself on a bed in a completely unfamiliar room. It was dark and pretty gothic looking, with candles sitting on various surfaces, casting odd flickering shadows on the walls.

"I bet Sam would love this place," he muttered to himself, sitting up shakily.

"Well, my parents' room is right down the hall, so it's not that great," said a voice from the doorway.

Danny looked up to see Sam standing there.

"Oh, this is… your house?" he asked lamely.

She nodded.

"And this is your room?"

Another nod.

"So this is your… bed?"

A third nod.

Danny stood up quickly. "What am I doing here?" he asked, "The last thing I remember is that meat thing, at school…"

Sam shrugged. "This guy turned up about half an hour ago and said you'd passed out in a ghost attack. I didn't believe him, but he asked if you could stay here, and I couldn't say no…" She looked at him with concern, "Are you feeling okay now?"

Danny nodded. "Where is he?"

Sam shrugged, "I don't know. He left. Why?"

"Well, I wanted to ask him some stuff. Like how he knew that thing was a ghost. And what he used to get rid of it. That guy is really, really weird." He shrugged. "I guess I'll ask him at school tomorrow."

- August 31, 2007. 5th period lunch -

"So let me get this straight, you live in a mansion?"

"Yes, Tucker," Sam said, exasperated. "Now please, please, let it go."

"But that is so cool!" Tucker said, practically bouncing on his seat.

"Tucker, if you don't shut up right now, I am going to hurl something large and heavy at your face, understand?"

Tucker stopped bouncing and nodded mutely.

"So, Danny, have you seen James yet?" Sam asked Danny, completely ignoring Tucker's attempts to edge as far away from her as he could.

"No," Danny said, "I've been looking for him all day, but I haven't seen- oh, there he is." He pointed to the line of people waiting to buy lunch from a bored looking lunch lady.

Tucker laughed, "Guess he doesn't know you managed to change the menu to ultra-recyclo vegetarian, Sam, or he'd have brought his lunch, like us smart people."

"Or maybe I just don't mind eating this stuff," said a voice from behind Tucker.

The trio looked up to see a smirking James standing behind Tucker. "Mind if I sit here?" he asked. "There's really no where else."

"How did you get over here?" Tucker asked.

"Um… walked?" said James. "I don't know about you, but that's how I usually get from one place to another."

"But you were just over there! And I didn't hear you come over!"

Danny glared at Tucker, and then pretended like he hadn't heard him. "Sure," he said, "Sit down. I wanted to ask you some stuff anyway."

"Ask away," said James, taking a bite of his lunch.

"How can you eat that… that… ew…?" Tucker asked, trailing off as though it was too disgusting to even discuss.

James shrugged. "My girlfriend is an ultra-recyclo vegetarian, so I just sort of got used to it."

"So, how did you know that thing yesterday was a ghost?" Danny asked, before Tucker could say anything else.

"I told, you, they interest me," said James.

"But what was that thing you used to suck the ghost up?"

"Thermos," said James, "It captures and contains ghosts until I can get them back into the ghost zone. Hey! That reminds me, I was going to ask you- your parents are ghost hunters, right? Do they have any way of accessing the ghost zone? Like, maybe a portal, or something?"

"Well, yea, they do have a portal, actually, but I'd stay away from it if I were you."

"Really? How come?"

"Well, my parents had a lot of trouble getting it to work, so I kind of… went in it and hit the on switch. And ever since then things have been a little weird."

"Like how weird?"

"Like that," said Sam, pointing at Danny's hand, which had vanished.

Danny sighed and screwed up his eyes, apparently concentrating exceedingly hard. His hand slowly reappeared.

"Weird," said James, studying Danny thoughtfully.

- September 1, 2007. 1 A.M.-

Danny was having a really strange dream.

In it, there was a strange vampire-like thing, floating in what seemed to be some kind of secret lab. Suddenly, a ghost flew in through the ceiling (It must have been a ghost, Danny reasoned, because there was no sign of a hole at the place it had touched the ceiling, and also it was floating).

The two faced each other for a moment, and then the ghost said, "How long did you think it would take me to find your new underground lab, Vlad? I mean, under the Green Bay Packers' football stadium? I think that being a space-nomad must have affected your brain."

'Vlad' grinned in a creepy way. "You really are stupid, aren't you? I expected you to find me. Actually, I've been waiting for you!"

The ghost's face, which had previously shown a confident expression, now changed to one of caution. "Why?"

"Well, now that you've ruined my life by revealing your alter-ego and saving the world, I thought it was time for a little bit of pay-back." He picked up a blue staff from a table near him, and the ghost's eyes widened.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

"I got it from Walker in exchange for helping him capture a dangerous fugitive," Vlad said.

"Clockwork is not dangerous!" The ghost said, its face suddenly looking a lot angrier.

"Of course he is," spat Vlad. "Always meddling, that infernal creature. And also," he gestured to a thermos sitting in a dark corner of the lab, "Imprisoning spirits. Walker doesn't take kindly to others encroaching on his job, you see."

"You're not planning to let… let him out, are you?" The ghost said, turning pale- well, pale-er. As a ghost, its face was plenty pale already.

"Of course not," Vlad scoffed, "I've read your ghost files-"

"How did you get into my computer?!" The ghost asked, seemingly distracted.

The ghost raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't exactly that hard to guess. I mean, 'Open sesame?'"

"I should probably change that," the ghost muttered.

"Anyway," Vlad continued, "I read your ghost files, and even though his powers would make it very simple to conquer the world, I realize that he would probably simply kill me if once he was done with me." Danny thought he caught a hint of fear in Vlad's face, even as the ghost exhaled in relief. "But, back to my staff."

"Clockwork's staff, you mean," The ghost said.

"No, it used to be Clockwork's staff, but now it is my staff," Vlad said. "And I've made some improvements as well. For example, you no longer need a medallion to remain in the past."

He lifted the staff, and a crackling blue light began to form at the top. "So," he said, I'll be seeing you!" The blue light expanded, "Or, more accurately, I won't!"

There was a flash of blinding blue light, and the dream ended.

Okay, please tell me if you like this story! I really have no idea where it came from, considering it started out as a story about Danny going into a coma, but then I just had this idea, and I was just like 'OMG, I have to do this! So, I hope you enjoyed chapter one and I'll try to get chapter two up as soon as possible. This is going to follow the series pretty closely, but not exactly. I had loads of fun writing the dream, so expect some more stuff like that in future chapters!