It has been particularly weird few days for Danny Fenton. Or should it be Danny Phantom regarding the circumstances? It doesn't really matter – they are one and the same. So… what can be said that would actually show up on the halfa's radar or weird? Why, a ghost trying to take over the World Wide Web!

Background information is probably necessary here:

Yo, Danny Fenton, he was just 14,

When his parents build a very strange machine,

It was designed to view, a world unseen,…

A whatever, you all know how the song goes already. In any case, starting freshman year of high-school with new Ghost-based powers was not something that a teen going through normal teenage pressures really wants on their plate. Especially since the kid had absolutely no control over them and the portal his parents build kept releasing ghosts into his hometown of Amity Park, Ohio.

Danny wasn't going to go argue and say that he hasn't done some pretty cool things. But as the Chinese curse goes: "May you live in interesting times." Despite its innocence, the meaning of the phrase is much darker and stranger – just like Danny's life has been for the last few months. I mean, just consider what happened in a little over half a year: a killer Lunch Lady Ghost, Paulina possessed by a Dragon Necklace, a mechanical body Skulker, a crazy ghost inventor, a nerd stuck in a mirror inside a locker, a genie named Desiree, his fruit loop 'family friend' Vlad Plasmius, a deranged warden named Walker, a psycho psychologist named Spectra and her dwarf assistant, an A-list girl turned Huntress, and as of recently, a ghost rocker named Ember McLain.

That was a particularly weird episode…

Let's come back to the inventor ghost. The name is Nicolai Technus but he simply goes by 'Technus.' Not much is known about him, but he does possess the power of technopathy, something rather unique for ghosts since technology is a rather recent trend of humanity. Granted, his electrokinesis should be enough, but I digress.

This interaction started off innocently enough: Danny was playing "Doomed" through the night while using his parents Fenton Helmet (which he substituted for a game controller to give him an edge) which coincidently hits the button to open up the Ghost Portal which lets out Technus. Long fight scene made short, Technus gets sucked into the game without Danny noticing.

Let's skip the sub-plot regarding Danny, , and the exam worth 25% of the grade and focus on the game itself. As Tucker puts it while accidentally training Technus inside of it, the purpose of "Doomed" is to find the Seven Silver Keys of the Apocalypse, defeat all 13 levels, and gain access to the World Wide Web.

This appealed greatly to the ghost with the ability to control all technology.

Skipping to the end of the story, Danny was stuck with no way to quickly speed through the game to catch up with his friends. Seeing no other option and realizing that Technus managed to do it, Danny decided to possess the game as well. So, wearing the Fenton Helmet, Danny went ghost, 'possessed' the game, and beat his away to the last level.

So, being the creative little interfering buggers that we are, let's add a new variable to the story to spice it up a bit. And in all fairness, we don't need to do much: precedence is already all set up…

Tucker, a giant Tiki-god Sam, and Danny all watched a damaged, sparking, and broken Technus fall into the hole Danny stretched out in the game reality after their long winded fight. Despite having eight legs in his spider-like form, Technus still lost.

"What? Where am I?" Asked the confused ghost as he stared into the black void within his new prison.

"It's Level 0" replied a grinning Danny Phantom. "It's a glitch in the program: one way in, no way out."

"Now listen here… young whipper-snapper… I, Technus, am Hip and Funky Fresh and …."

Danny didn't hear the end of his long winded speech as he snapped back the tear he made, "Totally out of date."

A golden visage of Tucker suddenly appeared in the game again. "Good thing I upgraded my anti-virus program. Did I miss anything?"

"Just the most awesome display of gamesmanship EVER." Gloated Danny

Tucker quickly grabbed the last key of the tree branch, "Hey guys, we got the Seven Silver Keys of the Apocalypse. All we have to do is open the door, and we win the game."

As Tucker inserted the key and Sam and Danny watched in anticipation, no one suspected that someone would shoot them all in the back.

What no one also expected was the extenuating circumstances regarding that particular moment and its repercussion.

Let's ignore the fact that there were currently two supernatural entities within the game that were already stretching the game code to its limit; we can assume that they are the biggest factors of contribution to what followed.

Instead, consider this: it was the end of the game, and the system was already preparing itself for completion as it recognized the insertion of the keys into the door. Someone has just recently activated the Level 0 glitch that plagued developers for who knows how long, already weakening the game matrix further. Then there is the fact that three players – one currently using a secret God-mode hidden within the game – died simultaneously within a small area as defined by gaming parameters. Finally, as a cherry on top, one of the people defeated was said ghost… who had a human body in the real world… who wore a helmet that hooked his mind (initially) directly with the game.

Sufficient to say, it was a recipe for disaster

As the three protagonists were being removed from the game, the stress of the last few hours was too much for the servers and the game itself. Results: an implosion within the matrix as it were.

Tucker and Sam both registered shock at what just occurred while our friendly teacher – who was also secretly a gamer – watched in confusion as his computer monitor was saying the game crushed, right as he was about to claim victory in the game

Danny was much worse off, however.

As Danny was being rejected from the game, he was experiencing pain that he has never felt before. No… that's not right… he has felt something this intense before… when he was inside the Ghost Portal when he accidentally turned it on and got zapped.

It was horrible. That incident felt like every molecule and atom in his body being electrocuted at the same time over and over again

This moment – stuck in the eternity of the second that it took to be pushed out of the game – was worse. It was like his being was stretched into a thin string and was pushed through a funnel as he was reconstructed, bit by bit, line by line, code by code.

There were bound to be errors or additions to the 'program' known as Danny Phantom.

Who knows what a Half-ghost, the Fenton Helmet, and a video game will end up as?

Let's find out.

Down in the laboratory of Maddie and Jack Fenton, a computer was sparking and glowing green, shaking with a ferocity of a washing machine with a tossed in cinder block. As it finally settled and the monitor glowed brightly, Danny Fenton shot out straight into the wall opposite of the computer.

As our protagonist finally registered what happened – and his back pain – he looked at the computer set up, "Who on Earth could have done that?"

Danny quickly walked up to the screen to see an error message on the monitor saying the game crashed. Huh, weird… I wonder if…

RING, RING.

Danny got his cell phone out of his pocket – where it went when he went ghost was beyond him – to see 'Sam' written on the screen.

"Hey, Danny, are you alright."

"Sam, I am fine. The exit was way worse than the entry though."

"I can imagine. Listen, is your screen saying the game crashed as well?"

"Yeah, weird – do you know who shot us in the end?"

"No, I was focusing on Tucker as he was about to put the key in. Is what why the game crashed?"

"Probably. Darn, and here I thought we won the blasted thing."

"Well, it doesn't really matter. As long as Technus didn't get access to the internet, it's a win in my book."

Danny sighed smiling, "Sure it is Sam. Listen, call Tucker and see if any of his tech-friends know if anyone actually won the game or not."

"What about you?"

"After the day I had, I think a deserve some R&R."

"Alright, Danny. See in school tomorrow?"

"Sure thing Sam."

Danny smiled as he put his phone away. Nice of Sam to call me up to see how I was doing. Now I better clean up the mess I made before…

Danny didn't finish his train of thought before a massive migraine struck him.

Ow! Guess the game took out more of me than I expected. Danny did a quick look around the lab. Well, it's not as bad as I thought but where is the Fenton Helme…

Another migraine struck him, causing him to grab his noggin with both hands. Darn it!... I'll take care of it in the morning. Right now, what I need are an Advil and some rest. Thank god it's Friday tomorrow. Hopefully, this migraine passes before the weekend starts.

Danny went upstairs to his some well-deserved rest and family time. A quick dinner later, congratulations from Jazz for aceing his make-up exam, a quick text from Tucker saying no one knows what happened to the game, some quick homework, a half a dozen migraines, a shower, and Danny was slowly drifting off to dreamland under his covers.

Huh, no ghost alarms tonight – lucky me. Hopefully, I can finally catch up on some much needed necessary eight hours of sleep.

As Danny's consciousness finally drifted off as his eyes closed after a long, long day, he barely registered the text that popped out in front of his eyes.

System check complete…

Error scan complete…

New parameters determined by the user.

Data packet discovered.

Beginning decompression of files…

Applying patch…

Determining time of completion for file name 'The Gamer'…

Estimated time of completion: 6:12 hours

Beginning download… 1%... 2%...