Chapter 1: Waving 'Normal' Goodbye

Danny breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the bell ring signaling the end of the school day. On top of that, it was Friday. He exited the classroom and went to his locker to gather his things. His life was pretty much normal. Or as normal as it can be with ghost hunters for parents. Not to mention getting bullied by Dash Baxter on a multiple times a day daily basis. Now was no exception as the cocky popular blonde teen walked up to him.

"Hello Fen-turd!" The football player insult-greeted.

Danny heaved a sigh. He knew what was coming. But, he had no time for it. His parents wanted him home after school because they wanted to test one of their new inventions and insisted that he be there. It was something about a portal. He could not remember exactly. All his parents inventions seemed to blend together in his head. He was not interested in the stuff so he did not think it all that important to remember all of them.

"Dash. Hey." He chuckles uneasily. "Can we not do this right now? I need to get home."

"No. But If we don't what's in it for me?" His voice was cocky just like the way he carried himself.

Danny sighed again and spoke reluctantly. "Monday you can do double."

"Aww sweet! You got yourself a deal Fenton!" He fist pumped the air and headed straight for another student to torture.

He was not looking forward to Monday, but he could not worry about that right now. He had to get home. He shouldered his backpack and headed for the exit. Once outside he was greeted by Sam and Tucker his best friends. They were going to be going with him to see the new invention. His parents had insisted. They were not normally this excited about something. Usually they were excited for new inventions but not this excited. Ever since they started the project things seemed to go wonky around his house. They neglected to cook dinner so his sister Jazz and himself had to cook and practically drag his parents out of the lab to eat.

"Hey guys." He greets. "You ready for this?"

"Ready to see a new piece of tech in action? Oh yeah!" Tucker smiles.

"As ready as I can be. Although the idea of a ghost portal is intriguing." Sam replies.

"Yeah I know what you mean. But the fact that it has my parents so riled up has me nervous. Plus if it does not work, well I am pretty sure it is going to break their hearts."

"Yeah I know I would if something of mine did not work." The techno geek agreed stroking his PDA.

"We had better get over there." Danny starts walking his two friends in tow.

Danny walked between his two friends to his house. To his right was Sam. She was a goth. She had jawline black hair and wore a black shirt and skirt with purple pants underneath, plus black combat boots. To his left was the techno geek Tucker. He was a dark skinned guy with glasses and wore a red beret, tan-yellow long sleeved shirt green pants and brown shoes and always had some sort of technology on him. His friends were awesome. He could not imagine life without them.

Soon they arrive at his house. His house was quite normal except for the simple fact that it had an observatory like building on the roof and had a simple yet flashy sign that said 'Fenton Works' above the front door. They entered the house and headed down to the lab where he knew his parents would be waiting.

Once down in the lab he saw his parents doing some last minute checks before they started it up. Danny's father, Jack Fenton, is a bulky big boned man with black hair that looked quite intimidating but when you meet him you find out he is more of a big teddy bear than anything else. His mom, Maddie Fenton, though was the polar opposite in appearance. She is a petite woman with shoulder length auburn hair. The two looked up from their work noticing them come in.

"Perfect timing! We were about to start it up." His mom sad in a cheery voice.

"Yes. you did insist on us seeing this." Danny muttered.

"Why yes. this is something very important to us. You see we tried to build one in college but things did not work out quite as well." explained. "Why don't you call Jazz down while your friends take a seat?" She gestured to some chairs near the electronic hexagon hole in the wall.

"Yes Mom." He replied heading back up the stairs while his friends somewhat reluctantly took a seat.

"Jazz!" He shouted from the top of the stairs. "The thing is going to be tested and Mom and Dad want you down here!"

"Coming!" Jazz shouted back from her room.

Danny went back down and took up a seat next to his friends. Seconds later Jazz joined them muttering 'It is not going to work'. Jazz was his older sister who had long orange hair. She sat down next to him. He could tell she was apprehensive that the thing was not going to work. He sort of agreed with her on that. They were about to see if it did when his father began speaking.

"It is time!" He boomed.

"You do the honours Jack." Maddie told him with a smile.

Jack nods and picks up the two cords and plugs them into each other. Everyone looked at the portal expecting something spectacular but it only sparked and did absolutely nothing. Danny's parents looked crestfallen especially when jazz gave an 'I told you so' and went back up to her checked over their calculations a few more times before sighing and looked over at the three teens still sitting silently.

"I honestly don't get why it did not work…" His father trailed.

"Me too honey." His wife comforted. "Why don't we head over and get some fudge? Maybe it will get you back on track and be able to fix the problem."

Jack brightened at the mention of fudge. "Alright honey." He headed for the stairs.

His mother turned to them. "We will be back soon. Why don't you guys hang out? And do whatever you teens do these days?"

"Alright Mom. Good luck cheering up dad." Danny told her as she exited the lab.

"Well that was anticlimactic." Tuck commented when Danny's mom was out of earshot.

"You can say that again." Sam mutters.

Danny smiled despite himself.

"What is it Danny?" Sam asks.

"Oh nothing just thinking."

Then Sam gets a look in her purple eyes that clearly showed she was thinking of something that could get them into trouble.

"I know that look. What are you thinking?" Danny asks.

"Yea what are you thinking?" Tucker asks with slight worry in his tone.

"Why don't you take a look in the portal Danny?" She exclaims standing up excitedly.

"Why would I do that?" He looks at Sam skeptically.

"Danny. It is a ghost portal. A portal to another world. Aren't you the least bit curious?"

"Well yea… but that's not.." He sighed. "Alright. It does not work anyways."

Sam smiled.

"Let me go change, don't know if there is anything that could harm me in there. Knowing my parents there is."

"Good idea." Tucker agreed.

Soon he is in a black and white hazmat suit standing in front of the broken portal. His friends encouraging him. He takes a deep breath and steps inside. The inside was all mechanical and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, If you called a portal to another dimension normal. Suddenly he tripped on a loose wire and put his and on the wall to catch himself. He heard a faint click and looked at the wall in horror at pressing the ON button. He felt a surge of electricity and pain wash over him and he blacked out.