The Biggest Threat
Chapter One
Danny opened the door to the classroom slowly. He was late again, after another fight with the stupid tin can, Skulker. Two years later, and he wasn't getting any better at fighting the stupid ghosts who enjoyed ransacking the town. Two years later, and he was still late to English class with Mr. Lancer.
Okay, the first part was a lie. Danny had been getting better at fighting off the ghosts who came to call. He was even rapidly approaching Vlad's level of control over his powers. He could make three duplicates without straining himself too much. It just wasn't enough, though. His enemies were improving with him, gaining new technology, thinking of newer and more nefarious plots. There was also the threat of becoming him.
Danny didn't know whether or not he could disappear if he was living outside the time stream, like Clockwork had explained. There was always that risk, though. His evil, alternate future self hadn't disappeared from the thermos yet. The half-ghost had no idea if he ever would vanish. He hoped that he would.
The boy quietly slid into the classroom, mind still working through the day's events. It was sixth period, just after lunch, and the fight hadn't taken up too much class time. If he was lucky, Mr. Lancer might even let him off the hook this time around.
Danny was not so fortunate.
"Mr. Fenton. You are late. Again," the bald man called, annoyance seeping through the light tone he tried for. "Fortunately for you, we haven't started the activity scheduled for today, yet. Take a seat, I'll call you up once I'm done explaining."
The halfa groaned to himself, walking back to his usual seat between Sam and Tucker at the back of the classroom. The way Mr. Lancer had said it, Danny had the feeling the activity would directly relate to him, though he knew better.
He scribbled a note to Sam, passing it when the teacher was facing the board.
"What are we doing today?"
Sam rolled her eyes, pointing at the large bin sitting next to Lancer's desk. She quickly wrote a short response, passing it back under the guise of a well-needed stretch.
"Some kind of mind thing."
It was vague, but Danny understood well enough. If Sam wasn't clear, it meant that she hadn't gotten enough information to clarify. Her straightforwardness was one of the things he had admired about her.
Facing the presentation Lancer was concluding, he saw a diagram of a brain and some kind of weird goggles. Why did his English class always get the new and strange tech to mess around with? The universe was out to get him, trying to expose his secret.
The presentation concluded and the students lined up at the head of the class, each taking a set of goggles and returning to their seat. Mr. Lancer pulled out a little booklet Danny recognized as the grade book, no doubt preparing to fail Danny yet again.
"Daniel, come up here, please," the overweight teacher called over the chatter.
The teen reluctantly trudged up to the front of the classroom. "What is it, sir?"
Mr. Lancer sighed. "I know you're failing my class, Daniel, and I'm going to give you a chance to improve your grade by several letters. If you choose to accept, it should bring you up to about a B minus," he explained, holding up the booklet.
Danny's eyes widened in surprise, a grin spreading across his face. "Really?!"
"Yes," he replied. "All you have to do is be the 'host' for our experiment today. It will take the remainder of our school day, I've already set it up with everyone's teachers. We'll be looking around a bit in your mind. Can you agree to that?"
He felt so conflicted. On one hand, he could improve his grade by leaps and bounds. It was so close to the end of the school year... a B minus would be plenty to scrape through on a C by the last day. On the other hand... Danny really didn't want people snooping around his mind unattended. He was Phantom, of course! He had his own memories and fears he wanted to keep secret. It was a very tempting offer, though... and Sam and Tucker would be there to keep people out of where they shouldn't be.
He knew he would regret it. Heck, he regretted even thinking it, but he had to agree. "I'll do it, Mr. Lancer. Just, please listen to Sam and Tucker when they tell you to stay out of something? Please? There are some things I'd rather not have the entire class seeing."
Mr. Lancer nodded solemnly. "I will do my best, Daniel. Now, go take a seat and hook your goggles up to this cable," he said, holding out a thick black cable. "It will mark you as the host and allow the class to get in easily."
He walked back to his seat, mentally smacking himself for agreeing to it. Sam and Tucker gave him apologetic looks. He knew he could trust them, but he knew that Dash would love to make life harder for him. Even Mr. Lancer wouldn't be able to hold them back forever.
Danny rubbed his temples and pulled the goggles down over his eyes, checking for the flashing light that meant everything was set up. Everyone was in for a bumpy ride.
Tucker was the first to 'wake up' in Danny's mind. He took a moment to look around and take in his surroundings. The scenery was evenly split in two. He chuckled quietly. If someone knew Danny's secret, or even had a guess about it, seeing this made it so painfully clear. Half of the area was similar to the Ghost Zone, the other half was clean and pristine, shades of blue and black. The dividing path was light grey and very smooth.
The Phantom half, as he decided to call it, was a swirling mass of neon green ectoplasm and floating rocks. Occasionally, there was a path leading to an empty doorframe, but most of the area was glowing neon and void of anything.
On the other half, the Fenton half, there were pictures and videos floating against a blue and black backdrop. Here and there, there were things from Danny's human life that meant a lot to him or he had a habit of using. One of his signature red-and-white t-shirts was hovering next to a photograph of the Fenton family.
The only things Tucker didn't get were the pathways and doorframes connected to the center path, leading to who knows what. There was also a thick fog across the grey path, further down than he wanted to explore. He wanted to stay exactly where he was until the entire class appeared. He wasn't going to risk getting caught up in some bad memories alone.
Just then, Sam, Dash, Mikey, and several other students popped into existence around him, spread across the circular platform he was on. His best friend was standing the fastest, and she walked over to him, taking in the sights.
"Whoa. Phantom and Fenton," she whispered. Then, in a louder voice, "Danny won't be here, since he's the host. I was actually listening when Mr. Lancer was explaining it to us earlier, and I'm kind of worried about what we might run into here."
Tucker nodded in agreement. "That's why I didn't go wandering around while I was waiting for the class to show up. Pretty much anything we could stumble on has the possibility of being a bad memory or a fear."
They turned to count their classmates. It looked like everyone was in, though some were a little off from the adjustment. Sam looked around a bit more, reaching out to touch the green ectoplasm on the Phantom half. Tucker watched her as she grinned a little, wandering around the area they woke up in. Lovebirds.
Mr. Lancer called out to everyone, waving them over to where he and a few other students were standing. "Alright, everyone, we'll make this nice and simple. If I tell you not to go somewhere, we don't go there, got it? We're just going to take a nice and easy trip through Mr. Fenton's mind."
Sam snorted before she was able to stop herself, drawing stares from the class. Tucker almost smacked himself. They had just gotten organized, and they already managed to mess something up. He only hoped no one would ask too many questions.
"Samantha? Is there something you'd like to say?" the teacher asked suspiciously.
"No, no, you go on," she replied pleasantly, shaking her head.
He nodded, and they started off along the path, occasionally stopping to glance in a doorframe or watch a video. The videos, they realized, were pleasant memories Danny had about his friends and family, and occasionally a prank or two. There was a really funny one where Danny gave Vlad a Christmas present, and the billionaire opened it up to find a box of Fruit Loops. Tucker inwardly groaned, remembering the payback Vlad had done for that little joke.
Suddenly, Dash raced off through a doorway, dragging Kwan with him. "This is boring, let's see what Fenton's got to hide!" he shouted, leading the rest of the class through the shadowy doorway.
There was something like a screen on the opposite wall. It jumped to life, images moving across the surface. The lights dimmed even further, and left the class standing in the dark room as the video played.
"We'll rip you apart, molecule by molecule!" Jack called through the window. A shudder ran through him as he stared back as his parents. Deep down, he didn't know if they'd ever accept who he was. What he was.
Maddie aimed the Fenton Bazooka at him, making him turn away and fly faster. A shot from that would hurt. A lot. He briefly wished his parents knew about him, but he had kept it a secret for so long... so unbelievably long.
The class milled around after the video had ended, confused and curious. Sam and Tucker realized it was a memory of Danny's, one of the many times his parents threatened him with bodily harm when he was in ghost form. Thankfully, no one understood what had happened and Danny's thought had been narrated only vaguely. If no one thought to hard about it, they wouldn't make the connection.
Sam wondered how long they could keep that up.
Dash rolled his eyes and began complaining again. "That was weird! What was that? Fentina is afraid of his own parents? What a joke!"
Danny's friends were insanely grateful that Dash was an idiot. They were unnerved by Valerie's silence, though. She was the one they had to be the most cautious of. If they spent too long in Danny's mind, there would be no keeping his secret.
Curiosity led the class astray once again, this time down a gravelly path branching off from the main one. Sam and Tucker saw the crumbling buildings and shattered windows, the futuristic architecture much too familiar for their liking.
Sam raced up to the front of the group. "Mr. Lancer, we've gotta turn around!" she shouted, a note of panic in her voice. Tucker shot after her, attempting to slow the group. He spread his arms out, blocking a good portion of the path.
"Daniel did tell me to listen to you two," the teacher mused, glancing around. "I don't see what's so bad about this place, though. It's in ruins, sure but we haven't seen anything to suggest it's dangerous..."
Sam shook her head and glared. "Trust me, if you don't turn back now, you'll wish you had as soon as we run into him." She joined Tucker, crossing her arms in silent fury. They shouldn't be there! Danny's memories of home were one thing, but this... this was his worst fear and biggest nightmare all wrapped into one.
"I say we keep going!" Dash shouted. He didn't have much support, though.
Mikey looked around. "Sam and Tucker are Danny's best friends! If they're scared of what might be out there, we probably should be, too," he reasoned, taking a few shaky steps back. Mr. Lancer nodded, leading the class away.
The duo sighed in relief, despite a sense of foreboding. They had the feeling that they'd end up there again, and next time, they wouldn't be able to stop the class.