CH2

Oh…crap.

SAM

*SMACK*

"Now look what you did!" and then pandemonium broke loose. People were shouting, panicking, scrambling all over the place, except for Tucker and Sam, who were having a silent conversation about what to do by looking at each other. But a voice rose above the others

"Bridget Jones's Diary people, what's going on here?" there was silence as the entire class turned to stare at the teacher back from the class next door. "Well? Is someone going to answer me?" but before anyone could a voice was heard from the TV no one had turned off.

"Live from Jump City California, this is Trisha Takegawa with breaking news! Four of the Titan's were just defeated moments ago and now we are looking at the sorceress Raven's last effort to combat this strange new foe." The camera panned over to Raven chanting before a black portal opened and a column of energy poured out. "We're taking refuge in our destroyed news van as what appears to be a column of black energy is swirling on the ground an-"

*WOOSH*

"The column has broken open and revealed, what appears to be a young man, white shirt, blue jeans, black hair."

"Aw heck, now where am I?" came Danny's voice over the TV. Trisha paused to see if he had more to say but Dash beat him to it.

"No way." The rest of the class was silent. "No way. Fen-tonio is on TV?"

"The Life of Pi! How did this happen miss Manson!?" he asked turning to Sam

"How the heck should I know?! He was here, then a shadow grabbed him, then he was on TV!"

"Raven!" it was Danny again. Mr. Lancer looked at her as if to say 'we'll talk about this later' the camera followed Danny as he set Raven gently on the ground.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? The whelp. Come to save the day? This is just too good, I get to add five new heads to my collection and I get your pelt at the foot of my bed!" the camera tried to find the voice but couldn't see in the cloud of dust so it returned to Danny who was looking around and even looked right into the camera confirming 100% that it was Danny Fenton.

"That sounded like Skulker." Tucker said, but he was shushed and punched by Dash.

"Skulker, what the hell are you doing here?" Danny asked as the camera focused in on him again. He was standing up.

"Ha! I was right!"Tucker was silenced again.

"Oh, so close child, yet once more you fall shoit of the mahk!"

"And that was Technus!"

"Mr. Foley! One more outburst and that's detention!" On the screen Danny cocked his head

"Technus, you're here too?" Tucker was about to say something but one look at Mr. Lancer stopped that idea in its tracks.

"Again," came Skulker's Baritone "close, but still wrong."

"We ahr-" but Danny interrupted them.

"Skul-tech one point oh." All of a sudden Danny grinned and cracked his back, neck and knuckles before saying "Oh this is going to be fun."

"Fun?! Did Fentonio finally lose it?"

"The next person to speak before this bulletin is over will have a month's detention!" Nobody spoke from that point on.

"Oh, this will be fun alright, but not for you." The dust had cleared somewhat and the figure could be seen. Still in gleaming silver with the same body except for a mutated left arm, was Skulker. On his left arm, being fed tubes and wires was the face of Technus on a multiple display screen.

"So," He casually returned, "when did you two finally get married?" they started to sputter indignantly

"WE ARE NOT MARRIED!" came their reply…in unison.

"Yeah, sure you're not." He rolled his eyes and opened his wallet, pulled out a pair of metallic gloves and put them on.

"Your pelt shall rest at the foot of our bed!" Danny raised an eyebrow

"Sleeping together when you're not married? What would the vicar say?"

"RAAAAGGH!" they fired a barrage of missiles at him. The class could only watch in horror as he…he…he weaved in and out of them, smiling all the while. Unbelievably he actually reached out and caught two, one in each hand simultaneously, went down to a forward crouch, stood up, reared back and…and launched the missiles back at Skul-tech! Skul-teach flew up and out of the path of the missiles which exploded debris everywhere.

"That the best you got Skulky?"

"Not by a long shot whelp." Skulker lifted his Technus arm and said "Activate the shock collar on Mourice!" Danny stood up and scratched his head

"You named the ecto-guana 'Mourice'?" Skul-tech looked at his arm then back at Danny saying

"Well yeah, do you know how hard it is to come up with new names for all of the creatures we capture?"

"Do you have a 'Clyde'?" they thought for a second

"Actually no, we don't have a Clyde." Then his voice was once again menacing "Thank you for the suggestion!" he pushed a button and Technus' voice came out

"Shock callah ahktivated." There was a buzzing sound and then a horrendous roar of pain as arcs of electricity flew across the ecto-guana's body. His single eye turned red and he focused it on Danny who took one look at it and said

"Ho-boy." He shouted "Fenton space; Yari, mod one, retrieve." And in a flash of green light, there was a black hafted seven foot spear in his hands, but this spear was different, it was like a traditional Japanese Yari, but the blade took up one third of the length. There were small silver points all along the haft that, when touched with his gloves, lit up green and directed the light towards the edges of the blade so that they glowed green as well. The green light marked it as a ghost fighting weapon to the residents of Amity, but to the rest of the broadcast, it just plain looked dangerous.

When the creature charged Danny did too. Not forty feet before the creature was upon him he shoved the butt of his yari into the ground and vaulted into the air. By the time he had started to descend the creature was nearly there, and when he landed, he landed on the creature's left fore-leg. He didn't stay there however, he climbed up to its shoulder and stabbed the creature in the neck twice when it came to a halt. The creature rolled onto its back, trying to dislodge him but he used the momentum to jump off and skid on his feet for a bit before stopping. He looked up to see the creature's tail heading straight for him so he gripped the haft near the butt and twisted it, lighting the blade up like a torch of Greek fire. When the blade began to whine he twisted his whole body and swung the yari sending an arc of energy out and slicing the tail in half and spun again, arcing energy straight into the creature's side, leaving a terrible wound.

The creature screamed, collapsed and then, out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw something. He turned and caught Skul-tech's wrist blade on his yari, barely avoiding impalement, but not able to avoid the simultaneous fist to his ribs. Knocked back a bit he started to trade blows with Skul-tech, left, right, parry, haft, knee, blade, parry, point, fist, fist, fist, parry. Then he caught a fist to the Jaw and was knocked back on his ass. Mourice was still moaning piteously in the background. Danny wiped the blood from his face and, to the dis-belief of all involved, began to laugh.

"No one is watching us, are they Skul-tech?"

"I cleared out the area beforehand for my fight with the Titans so, no. It's a pity no one will be able to see your final moments, but I assure you, your pelt will hold a place of highest honor on my wall." The wrist blade came out again

"Thank you Skul-tech."

"You're welcome, I think I might place you above my fireplace."

"No, thank you for making sure no one was watching." With the last word he twisted his body and pushed off with his arms, launching his feet straight into Skul-tech's chest and knocking him back. "You know what I love about fighting Skulky? I don't have to pretend." Skul-tech roared and charged him, but Danny lowered the tip of the yari to impale him on his own momentum and sent Skul-tech flying off his blade and over his head "I don't have to pretend to be the weak loser that lets himself get beat up by some moronic jock." Skul-tech stood up and held a hand to his injury, leaking oils and sparking. He growled and took out a machete and started slashing each hit which Danny easily parried, then started landing hits of his own."I don't have to pretend to be the idiot so that my friends will feel tech savvy or well read or just smarter than me." Danny slashed his spear across Skul-tech's chest in an 'x' pattern "I don't have to pretend to get bad grades and purposefully get detentions to do extra school work." He landed two more hits and severed Technus' wires leading to the main body. " I don't have to pretend to be the clumsy, un-coordinated, terrified,joke of a son of the town's ghost hunters." They traded more blows then the butt connected with his jaw, sending him back "I don't have to hide that I'm smarter than my sister, my parents." Danny wasn't letting up, he was attacking relentlessly driving Skul-tech back and hewing pieces off of him bit by bit "I don't have to hide that I'm actually bigger and badder than Dash. I don't have to worry about my parents forcing me into the ghosthunting business." By this point Skul-tech was heavily malfunctioning, sparking electricity, barely able to move "I don't have to change anything to make anyone else feel good about themselves. I'm free to just be me." With that last statement Danny made a huge swing and lopped his head off and, before it even hit the ground, he stabbed the Yari through the Technus arm and into the ground, pinning the ghost there. Danny wiped his brow of sweat, reached down, picked up the sparking head and reached inside of it to pull out a…demented…green…frog-thing.

"I will destroy you!" was the whiney high pitched voice "I am Skulker! The Ghost Zone's Greatest hunter! You shall be my prey! You are all my prey!"

"Yeah sure, now hold still. Fenton space; thermos one, retrieve." And so saying, there was a flash of light and a thermos from Fenton-space was in his hands and used to suck Skulker in. He put his foot on the suit's arm, pulled out his yari and sucked Technus in, then, finally sucked the downed ecto-guana in. Danny spoke again "Fenton space; replace all ." two flashes later and he was empty handed, he took a breath before- "Raven?" he looked around "RAVEN!"

Trisha and the city of Amity park were silent throughout the entire thing, silent even unto the point where, when rallied, the citizens turned rescuers and he picked Raven up.

"Excuse me! Mr. Fenton! Mr. Fenton!" Danny's head whipped to her and once he saw the camera his eyes widened and he stiffened up before he turned away and started walking. "Mr. Fenton! Please wait just a moment!"

"Sorry Miss Takegawa, gotta get to the hospital." He staunchly refused to look at the camera or even in that general direction as he secured his grip on Raven.

"Can you give us an interview as we walk there?" Danny cocked his head to the side and smiled

"If you can keep up." Then Danny's stride opened up and he was running , not just running, but running at speeds that would make an Olympic athlete jealous. Within seconds he was gone, and there was no hope of catching up to him, not unless they rode a motorcycle or something. Trisha stopped and turned back to the camera.

"Well, as you can see, I was just left in the dust by that remarkable young man, who, singlehandedly, just defeated both the monster and the master who had succeeded in taking down Jump City's own Teen Titans. I'm going to attempt to get some witness statements before heading to the hospital and seeing if Mr. Fenton will be any more amiable the second time around. Amity Park's special news correspondent, Trisha Takegawa ,reporting to you live from Jump City, California."

*Click*

Mr. Lancer turned off the Television and, for a few minutes, there was just silence. Was that Danny? Danny Fenton? It couldn't have been, it was impossible. Danny was shy and clumsy and weak and dull and, and, and not the hero. He was nothing like what they had just seen. That could not have been Danny. It was impossible. It, it just couldn't have been. It went against everything they knew of him.

The class watching the report wanted to deny everything that they had just seen, it just didn't mesh with their idea of who Danny was. Dash refused to believe any of it, even after having heard him lecture not ten minutes before and having seen him fight. There was just no way that Fen-tonio was that awesome. Having seen what they just had however…the rest of the class thought it was compelling evidence to the contrary.

Jack and Maddie who were watching the TV in their kitchen knew nothing of any of it, and were about to fly off to California to help their little Danny boy when…he started to kick ass. When he started talking about not having to pretend anymore, they were surprised to say the least, and a little sad that he felt he couldn't share who he was with them. They knew how smart he was, even if he never showed it, but to have him feel like he had to hide it….were they good parents to him?

Sam and Tucker were only surprised about his intelligence, did he really do that? Did they make him do that? Just to make them happy? Were they bad friends?

Mr. Lancer, he knew how smart Danny was, after all, he played along like the disappointed teacher when really he was proud of Danny and how well he was doing. Danny maintained a social life, kept his grades up, and stayed healthy, there wasn't much more he could ask of him, after all, Sam made him do enough community service for four people. He was just the tiniest bit worried about how much Danny seemed to enjoy fighting, and that spear thing, did he always carry that around? He needed to have a talk with him.

"Mr. Lancer?" it was Star, Paulina's blonde friend

"Yes miss Storm?"

"Is…was that really…?" she couldn't seem to finish her question, but everyone knew what she meant and wanted to know as well. 'Was that Danny Fenton? Is what he said true?'

"Yes miss Storm, that was Mr. Fenton, and yes, what he said is true, his scholastic record surpasses even his sister's."

"Wha…but...huh?" she was the only one speaking, but it was the whole class that was asking. Mr. Lancer sighed.

"He wanted to appear as a normal student would, so he dressed in baggy clothing to hide his stature and he asked me to play along with his 'bad grade' façade so he could have a normal high school experience. I saw no reason to deny him that, and even with all of his extra-curricular activities he maintains the highest grade point average in Casper High history." They started to ask him questions but he held up his hands for silence. "When the matter of Mr. Fenton's strange abduction is settled and he returns home, the principal will have a talk with him about the, weapon, he seems to carry around, and after that he will be free to answer any questions you might have. Now, if I'm not mistaken, school ended four minutes ago."

As everyone left for home the only thing on their minds was Danny Fenton.

Danny

Raven was in one of her trance thingies. The doctors had given her an IV and said that it was just a case of extreme exhaustion. When her body naturally pushed out the needle, they would know she was in the final stages of healing and would wake up within four or so hours.

After he made sure Raven would get checked in alright, he went back with a doctor in her car and picked up the other three while Cyborg was being transported in the bed of the truck. When he went down an automatic signal went out to STARR Labs and they alerted the local hospital that they would be there within the hour. Starfire, as far as the hospital could tell, was fine just knocked out and a little bruised up. Robin was protected from the brunt of the electricity by his suit and only had minor electrical burns and muscle strain from the shocks. Beastboy had a concussion and was a little oxygen deprived from the angle his head had fallen but would ultimately be alright once his brain healed. All in all, it could have been a lot worse for them.

The doctors wouldn't leave Danny alone either, he had two cracked ribs, various small cuts all over, bruises over most of his chest and some of his arms, plus his jaw on the left side. He said he was fine but they kept pestering him and eventually, they got that 'scary doctor' aura that only doctors can get that intimidates even the baddest of bad-asses, so he let them patch him up. Currently though, he was at Raven's side, waiting for her to wake up.

As he thought of what had just happened he fixated on a single fact.

He was seen.

Beep beep beep.

He was seen. How could he have been seen? How could the camera have gotten there? Where had Trisha Takegawa been hiding?

Drip, drip, drip.

What was she even doing in jump?

Beep drip beepdrip brip.

How was he going to explain how he got to jump?

Dreep dripbeep drip beep.

Usually he'd just blame ghosts, but he was seen.

It was melting together but then it was just-

Beep beep beep.

He had so much explaining to do.

Beep beep beep.

Oh crap. What if someone at school saw it?

Beep beep beep.

What if his parents saw it?

Beep beep beep.

Oh crap.

Beep beep beep.

Oh crap! Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcr apohcr-

"Ughh…" his head snapped up as she floated down and tried to sit up. He was up in a flash pushing her back down.

"Hey, easy there, you're ok, you need to rest ok?" her bleary eyes tried to focus on him but couldn't seem to. "Just go back to sleep Magistra." Danny spoke in calming tones, trying to soothe her

"Famulus?" she started to push herself up again but once more he pushed her down.

"Yes, Magistra, I'm here. Go back to sleep, I won't leave you Magistra, I promise. You're safe, Magistra, you're safe."

"Safe…" she started to drift, then - she shot up, her eyes wide "THE TITANS!"

"They're safe to Magistra, I saved them and they are being treated in the hospital, in the rooms around us. I did as you said." When she heard that she calmed down and all of the tension seemed to ooze out of her.

"Thank you Famulus."

"You're welcome Magistra." But she was already asleep. He stayed by her side for hours, through the night, even into the morning. He was woken by the sound of the door closing. He jumped up, eyes wide, in a fighting stance, and aimed at the threat- a bandaged shirtless boy on crutches with too much hair gel, in a domino mask. The mask narrowed and the first words out of the boys mouth were.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?"