Summary: "Signatures? More like SigNOtures, haha Valerie, there's no way you're going on that field trip." -Damon Gray, probably

Rating: T

Pairing: ehhhhhhh

"Why did we even sign up for Ghost Studies? We all knew it was going to be a stupid class. We were like 'hey, this looks like such a stupid class,' and then we took it anyway!" Danny whirled to Sam and Tucker, who were sitting on the floor of his room. "Why?"

Tucker shrugged. "Because we were also like, 'this class is gonna be a joke and we could all use a decent grade on our report cards.' Plus, you were freaking out about the ghosts catching wind of it and dropping by more often to terrorize your parents. You were like, 'it's my heroic duty to take this class because I'm Danny and I can't relax ever.' This is basically your fault. Also, stop pacing. You're giving me a headache."

Danny did not stop pacing. In fact, he paced more aggressively. "Vlad's funding this trip. Vlad. He's planning something but I can't find out his angle."

"Well, he could be trying to kill your dad, marry your mom, and make you his son." Sam said lazily, rolling over on Danny's carpet. "You know, like he has been for the past three years."

Tucker made a thoughtful noise. "He broke Danny's jaw during their last fight. I don't really think a dad would do that."

"Maybe not, but Vlad's weird." She gestured to Danny. "What else could Danny have that Vlad wants?"

There was a pause as Sam and Tucker shared grins. "Decent interpersonal relationships?"

"Charm?"

"Charisma?

"Friends?"

Tucker pretended to think of a minute. "Nah. Can't steal what someone doesn't have."

They high-fived and Danny shot them a sour look. "Not helping."

"Lightening the situation. That's helping."

"Humor does help ease a psychological load." The trio jumped at the sound of another voice and turned to the door. Jazz was standing there, leaned up against the frame, smiling at them.

"Jazz!" Danny said, surprised to see her home so early. Automatically, his eyes strayed to the clock sitting on his dresser. Oh. It wasn't early. It was 5:30- he'd just been pacing back and forth for two hours. "Did you hear-?"

"About the trip? Yeah, Principal Ishimiya has been talking about it all day." She stepped into Danny's room and pushed the door shut with her heel. She looked at Sam and Tucker. "I take it he's been freaking out for a while?"

"Since we got out of school." Sam said.

"I'm not 'freaking out.'" Danny insisted. "I'm just..." He was freaking out. "Um-"

"Constructively panicking?"

"Shut up, Tucker."

"Do you have any sort of plan yet?" Jazz asked. "Or were you just planning to wing it?"

Danny glanced at Tucker and Sam, who shrugged. They simultaneously answered, "Wing it."

Jazz sighed. "I figured that would be your answer. Which is why you're not doing that. Here," She handed Danny a sheet. "I'm officially a chaperone. Which means I'll be there to help you all."

This didn't quite compute immediately. "You're a what?"

"A chaperone." She pointed to the top of the sheet, which, low and behold, said 'Chaperone Application' with a curly signature and the word 'Approved' next to it. "It didn't take much to convince Principal Ishimiya. I asked her if I could go on the grounds that you guys might 'need help adjusting to the new environment'. She ate it up, and she's going to put it in the bi-weekly report she's writing to the Harvard reps."

"Woah," Tucker whistled. He was grinning. "Little Miss Jazz Fenton's lying, now?"

Jazz raised her brows at him. "Well, I couldn't exactly tell them that my brother is a half-ghost superhero and that I have to help him make sure his arch nemesis isn't going to try to take over the world. Again."

Danny dropped the paper and grabbed Jazz's hands reverently. "I love you. You're literally the best."

"Ugh, ew, let go." She shoved him off with a laugh. "And get me a piece of paper. We're writing things out."

It took a while to rescue a notebook from Danny's disaster-zone of a backpack, but Sam managed after bypassing several probably-expired lunches Danny had accumulated in the past month. She handed off the notebook and shoved the backpack at Danny with a disgusted sneer. "You're cleaning that."

Snippy. It wasn't his fault that he had to ditch lunch to fight ghosts nearly every day. "Sure, Mom."

"No, I'm serious. There's a slice of bread in there that looks like my seventh grade science project."

Danny frowned down at his book bag. "It can't be that bad."

"You keep telling yourself that, Fenton." She turned to Jazz, who was scribbling furiously. "Your brother's growing a small eco-system backpack. Usually I'm all for that, but having mold on his homework isn't going to win him any brownie points with Lancer. Tell him to stop."

"Listen to Sam, Danny." Jazz said distractedly.

"Hey! Why do you always take her side?"

Jazz didn't reply. Tucker did for her, making kissy faces at the two of them. "It's because she's your better half."

Danny opened his backpack and tossed it at Tucker, who got a full whiff of several gone-bad sandwiches. He dropped it and gagged.

"Oh, man. Clean that, for the love of all that is good in the world."

"Seriously, are you two my parents or-?"

Jazz interrupted them before they could go too far off on a tangent. "Okay, so we're going to need four thermoses, twenty-fi- no, nine- Fenton Phones, the Booo-merang, the Ghost Peeler, at least fifteen wrist rays, Sam's small arsenal of stolen ecto-guns- which I know you have, young lady, so don't try and deny it- and," Jazz glanced up at Tucker. "Do you think you can modify a class set of Spector Deflectors in a week?"

Tucker blinked, whiplashed by the transition from playful banter to Jazz's serious mode. "Depends what I need to modify."

"We're gonna need them to not freak out at Danny's ecto-signature and shock him."

A thoughtful frown. "That's a little tough. I can only promise you ten or eleven."

Jazz didn't seem to like that answer, but she took it in stride. "Okay. We'll just give the ones you don't modify to Paulina and her gang. They wouldn't get near Danny with a ten-foot pole anyway."

Sam and Tucker snickered. Danny crossed his arms. "Hey!"

"Don't worry, your lack of popularity works to our advantage here." Danny made a wounded noise but Jazz ignored him. "Okay, so ten or eleven modified Spector Deflectors and eighteen or nineteen non-modified ones. We can work with that."

"What are we working on exactly?"

"We're preparing for whatever Vlad throws at us, little brother." Jazz set down her list on Danny's bed and sat on the edge of it. "We have to be ready for the worst-case scenario."

Tucker snorted. "I'm pretty sure any plan of Vlad's is worst-case scenario material. It's gotten so bad that we compare Vlad's plans to Vlad's other plans. Last month, when he unleashed that army of flying gophers on Amity, I swear my first thought was, 'Hey, it could be worse. He could have tried the Giant Pants Eater plan again.'"

"Giant Pants Eater…?"

"You were visiting colleges." Danny said, flopping onto his bed. "And, anyway, we don't even know what Vlad wants. Worst-case scenario could range from him capturing us to flat out killing the whole class as soon as we get into the Ghost Zone."

Jazz frowned. "Doesn't he just want to marry Mom again?"

"Who even knows with that fruitloop?" He grabbed a pillow and shoved it over his head. "I hate him and this stupid field trip."

"I'd say he's still aiming for Mom." Jazz said with a thoughtful hum. "Remember the Toucan Incident over the summer?"

Tucker and Sam shared looks. "Toucan-?"

"You were at tech camp and you were doing your pilgrimage." Danny said, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"Ah."

"If he's trying to woo Mom, the plan makes sense." Jazz said. "A trip to the Ghost Zone? It's enough to make even Mom like Vlad."

"Plus it's the perfect place to get rid of your dad." Tucker said, as tactful as ever. "Imagine all the 'accidents' that could happen in the Ghost Zone. Mr. Fenton takes a spill, your mom comes back home heartbroken, Vladdy swoops in, and bam. Danny and Jazz are now mini-Masters."

Danny threw his pillow at Tucker and sat up. "Gross mental image. Thanks, Tuck."

"It's what I'm here for."

Just then, the muted sound of the front door opening and closing was heard from downstairs. "Kids?" Their mother called. "I'm home!"

Jazz and Danny made eye contact. Jazz sighed. Danny got to his feet. "What are the chances of us convincing her this is an awful idea?"

"Zero."

"Right." Danny exhaled noisily. "Well, it's worth a shot."

Maddie Fenton was officially having the best day ever. She and her husband had finished their most recent project, the supermarket had her favorite brand of cookie dough, and she was going to the Ghost Zone in a week's time.

Admittedly she was more enthusiastic about the last thing.

Maddie, who was usually very levelheaded and grounded, felt like she was walking on a cloud. This was it- years and years of research and hard work all coming to a head. She and her husband were going to be able to explore the Ghost Zone, and it was all going to be because of-

Because of Vlad.

She frowned as she put a fresh bunch of bananas on the counter and fished into the grocery bag for the oranges. It wasn't that she wasn't grateful for the opportunity Vlad was giving them- quite the opposite, actually. She and Jack were always raving about going into the Ghost Zone, but they had never had the chance to between work and ghost hunting. But, just a couple of days ago, Vlad had called them talking about a suggestion from one of the teachers at Amity, how he would handle all of the funding, and would arrange emergency protection for the town in case something happened while they were away. It was practically a dream come true.

So, it wasn't that she was ungrateful. It was just that she was having a hard time believing that Vlad was doing all of this out of the goodness of his heart.

Maddie had never told Jack about what Vlad had done those two years ago. Jack still considered Vlad his best friend, and Maddie didn't want to hurt him by telling him that those feelings didn't run both ways. Just thinking about all the hurtful things Vlad had said about Jack made her want to punch something- she couldn't imagine the betrayal Jack would feel if he heard them.

To be honest, she still couldn't quite wrap her head around it. She, Jack, and Vlad had been such close friends throughout the years. For Vlad to have been harboring such negative feelings for Jack (not to mention his amorous feelings for her- yuck) for a majority of that time was mindboggling. He really, truly hated Jack. It was shocking.

For that very same reason, Maddie couldn't quite imagine that Vlad would do anything just to make Jack happy. And this field trip? Definitely making Jack happy.

"Mom?" A hand wagged back in forth in front of her face. She blinked. It was Danny, who was staring at her with a look of slight concern. "Uh, hi? You spaced out there."

"Oh! Sorry." She turned and found Jazz, Sam, and Tucker also in the kitchen. "Hi, kids! How was your day?"

Jazz and Danny shared a meaningful glance- one that said many things in a language Maddie wasn't privy to. It was almost odd seeing them so in tune. Before, the two of them were on such different pages, it was like they were in two different books. But, now, all they had to do was look at each other and convey everything that needed to be said. She was glad that they had gotten so close.

Of course, there were moments were even Maddie could take a guess at what this secret language of theirs translated into. Neither looked particularly enthused, and if she was right, today was the day the field trip was announced…

"It was good, Mom." Jazz said, stepping forward. Ever the peacekeeper, her daughter. Maddie found herself biting back a frown at the idea that a peacekeeper was going to be needed at all during this conversation. That clearly meant she wasn't going to like whatever she heard. "Actually, we got some interesting news today…"

She was right.

The room grew tense. Maddie tried to muster her previous excitement- the excitement she had had that morning when she was celebrating with Jack, before she had thought too hard about Vlad's intentions- but it was hard to cling to and fluttered out of her grasp like a flighty bird. She knew that her children had issues with she and her husband's work, but Jazz had started joining them on hunts and she had begun hoping that that was changing. But, based on Danny's face and Jazz's lack of enthusiasm, that wasn't the case.

"Ah, you heard about the field trip!" She pretended not to notice the giant, unhappy elephant in the room and instead busied herself with the groceries. "Great news, right? It'll be a wonderful opportunity!"

"Right." She couldn't see Danny's face, but his voice made it pretty clear that 'wonderful opportunity' was the furthest thing from his opinion on the trip. "Mom?" He asked with the tentative caution of someone voicing a question he already knew the answer to. "Have you ever… actually been to the Ghost Zone before? You know, besides the whole Pariah Dark thing?"

Maddie paused in the middle of putting away a can of soup. "Well," She said, a bit embarrassed. "No. But, we've done extensive research, and we're more than prepared for the trip! Our newest invention will get everyone in and out completely safe, for sure. It's a beauty."

For some reason, this didn't seem to reassure Danny. "…New invention?

"The Spector Speeder 2.0." Maddie puffed out her chest proudly. "Or, the Spector Speeder Bus. It's like a normal school bus but with ghost hunting weapons. Everyone will be in it the entire time, leaving us completely uncontaminated and absolutely safe. Don't worry about stuff like that anyway, honey. That's my job. Or are you doubting me?"

This also didn't seem to reassure Danny. "I'm not doubting you or anything, Mom." Though he quite obviously was. "Just nervous. You know me and ghosts."

His voice petered off into an awkward laugh. He and ghosts indeed. Danny was a bright, happy kid, but he always was a bit of a scaredy-cat. Whereas Jazz was relatively fine with hunting and checking out their inventions, Danny always drew into himself and refused outright when they asked him. So much as say the words "ghost" or "experiment" and Danny was out of the room in seconds.

Still, there were some days where Maddie wondered about him. Sometimes she caught glimpses of Danny- peeks under the surface of his teenage bravado- that worried her. Danny, her Danny, had a look in his eyes at moments where he thought no one was looking that tight and angry, like he was expecting something to jump out at him and attack him. Maddie was a ninth degree black belt and even she felt at ease in her own home; Danny, though, Danny didn't. She'd seen the boy scan a room like he was looking for enemies and escape routes in that order. Was there someone there? No. Well, just in case, he checked the doors, vents, windows- you name it, Danny checked it.

And it wasn't just that he was nervous, either. This behavior could easily be written off as his fear of ghosts. It was that he was tense- that he seemed on his toes and ready to fight off whatever came at him, if need be.

Ready to fight. Her Danny.

"Mom? You spaced out again." Danny frowned at her, holding the permission slip for the field trip in front of her face. "Can you sign this? Me, Tuck, and Sam are gonna go play Doomed in my room."

"Huh?" She took it from him. "Oh, okay. You kids have fun! I'll be up with cookies later!"

Danny smiled at her, though she noticed his eyes flicker towards the window, then the door, then the vent to her right. "Try not to put in any ectoplasm this time."

"Or mix up the salt and sugar again, Mrs. F." Tucker said cheekily, hopping up the stairs two at a time. "I appreciate cooking creativity, but that move was a bit of a bust."

Sam paused at the bottom of the stairs. Maddie smiled at her. "Don't worry, Sam. It's an egg-free recipe."

She received a grateful nod as Sam went to join the boys. Only Jazz remained.

"Are you going to lecture me?" Maddie joked, though she caught herself seriously considering the possibility. Jazz had a habit of "playing the parent," so to speak, within their family mold. She was always the responsible one. Maddie wouldn't put it past her to lecture her mother.

"No." Jazz said, and Maddie decompressed. "I wanted to talk to you about something related, though. I signed up to be a chaperone."

Of all the things she was expecting to hear, that wasn't one of them. She whirled around to face Jazz. "Really?"

"Yeah. I was interested when I heard about it. And, you know, this would be a good thing to write to the Harvard Reps about. Helping a class of kids adjust to such an extreme new environment? Imagine the essay I'd be able to get out of this!" Jazz seemed genuinely fired up, which heartened Maddie. Her daughter was an awful liar, so she would know if that were the case.

"Well, I'm glad someone's excited." Maddie smiled, though it quickly faltered. She paused. "Jazz… Is Danny… Is he still embarrassed of your father and I?"

Jazz blinked at her. "Embarrassed- Oh! Oh. Well…" She hesitated. "I can't say he isn't, but that's not his problem with this trip, Mom. You know him and ghosts. He's nervous."

Again, Jazz didn't seem to be lying, which made Maddie feel slightly better. She looked down at the permission slip on the table and pulled out a pen from one of the kitchen drawers. "He doesn't have to be." Maddie said firmly. "I won't let any ghostly creeps lay even the smallest ectoplasmic hand on my baby while I'm around!"

And, with a flourish, she signed the slip, just missing Jazz's wince behind her.

Across town, someone else was having a harder time getting a signature on her permission slip.

"No means no, Val."

"But, Dad-"

"No." Valerie Gray recoiled at the uncharacteristic sternness in her father's tone. "I know you may think I'm stupid sometimes, Valerie, but even I know why you want to go on this field trip. And I'm having none of your ghost hunting vigilantism. It's bad enough that you still run around town chasing after Phantom in that suit of yours, but the Ghost Zone? There's no way I'm letting you go."

Valerie opened her mouth to rebut, but her father was already slamming her bedroom door shut, no doubt off to order pizza, like he always did when he was in a bad mood. To be fair, Valerie did push him a little far. But, she really needed to go on this trip.

No, it wasn't because it was the Ghost Zone- she'd been there before. It was very green and there wasn't much to do other than get eaten by ghost animals. Would not recommend.

It was because Vlad Masters- or, rather, Vlad Plasmius- was the one funding it. And that reeked of all sorts of bad news.

She'd known her employer was a half-dead evil creep for about a year and a half now. Every time she interacted with the man, she had to physically restrain herself from turning one of her guns on him and blasting him sky high. The only reason she didn't was because she was extremely conscious of the fact that he was in full ownership of her suit and it was quite possible that he had several… preventative measures installed in case she decided to turn on him. And, well. She couldn't fault his dedication to being prepared.

She had kept up their regular nightly rendezvous for this very same reason. Masters always met her in the back of his mansion, never short on praise and smooth-talk, which she had thrived on back when she was young and naïve. Now, though, it made her skin crawl. Whenever he suggested an upgrade to her suit, she always worried in the back of her mind about it being a bomb of some sort, one set to go boom on her. She tried not to linger on it, but she was beginning to become increasingly aware of the nanobytes in her bloodstream and their capacity to kill her at any second. Talk about cause for a couple of sleepless nights.

It was her increasing paranoia when it came to anything Vlad Masters related that made it completely necessary that she go on this trip. She didn't know what his angle was, but she knew there had to be one. She could already see Amity's next major headline: Creepy Blue-Skinned Ghost Kills Entire Class of Children. She had to be there to prevent that from happening.

Not that she didn't trust in Mr. and Mrs. Fenton's abilities, of course, but- No, wait, yeah, she didn't trust in Mr. and Mrs. Fenton's abilities at all, really. Her years of ghost hunting were making it painfully obvious how amateurish the two were. Their inventions were amazing and independently they were incredible fighters, but together they got too excited and messed up each other's shots. Watching them try to catch a ghost was similar to watching a comedic duo onstage: a complete joke.

Compared to them, Valerie had skills. Not to brag or anything, but she was damn good at what she did. She had battle sense, was well-acquainted with several of the so-called "regular" ghosts around Amity, and had near perfect aim with an ectogun. She didn't doubt that if a situation arose, she'd be able to at least hold off Masters and let the class get away.

But, of all the scenarios she had mentally planned out, of all of the things she had begun making preparations for, it hadn't occurred to her that her father would simply flat-out refuse to let her go on the trip. The resulting argument was explosive, and brought her here: sitting on her bed and wondering how her class was going to make it out of this alive.

Movement from her window caught her eye. On the horizon, she could see Danny Phantom flying off towards what appeared to be a giant slime ghost on top of one of Amity's office buildings. Her immediate response was to put on her suit and open up the window so she could jump out, but the doorbell rang with the arrival of pizza and she remembered her father. If she was going to try to convince him that letting her go was a good idea, running off to fight a ghost was not going to win her any brownie points.

She grit her teeth. Fine. Phantom could have this one.

"Valerie, pizza!" Dad called through the door, mood already noticeably improved in the presence of food. Valerie half-smiled.

"I'll be out in a sec." She said. Perched on her window, she watched Phantom get clocked by the monster. Sure, she knew that he was supposedly fighting for the town and all, but she kind of found herself cheering for the slimeball. Vengeance could do that to a person.

Her bedroom door opened and her father stood in the threshold, holding two plates of pizza and looking pleasantly surprised to see her there. "I thought you went off to fight Phantom."

Oh, she wanted to. She really, really wanted to. If there was one person in the world she hated as much as Vlad Plasmius, it was Danny Phantom. Life ruining wasn't easily forgiven. The ghost kid was lucky she had to play nice today, or she would have been right out there with the slime ghost, beating the stuffing out of him.

Instead of saying all of that, she said, "Nah. It's nice to sit back and watch him take a beating every once in a while."

So, they sat together and did. Valerie groaned when Phantom managed to suck the thing up in that weird thermos of his. She was having fun watching him lose.

Her father laughed at her disappointment. "Let the poor kid win every once in a while, Val."

That 'poor kid' ruined your life, Valerie thought in response, still baffled by her dad's willingness to support Phantom after all he had done to them. Well, not completely baffled. Dad had always been a bit of a softie. "No, thanks."

Dad just shook his head. "Right." He scooped up their plates. "Well, this was nice. But don't think you've buttered me up, young lady- I can see right through you. The answer's still no."

Valerie spun around. "What? But, Dad-!"

The door closed again.

Two hours later found Danny freshly showered and Team Phantom lounging lazily in Danny's room, each in various states of disarray. Danny hung upside down from the side of his bed, Sam sat in his windowsill, Tucker was spinning around on his desk chair, and Jazz was belly down on the carpet.

"Ten lipstick blasters?" Jazz called, consulting a list.

Danny said "check" as he turned his backpack invisible to bare the contents.

Tucker rolled his eyes. "You have to actually count, dude."

Danny grumbled under his breath as he did, still upside down. "Check."

"Okay, four thermoses?"

Sam quickly looked through her backpack. "Got 'em."

"Twenty-five Fenton Phones?"

Tucker produces them from a pocket of his backpack and counts them. "Yep."

"Great. And everyone has a wrist ray?" At four simultaneous nods, she sighed in relief. "Well, I've got the Ghost Peeler, the Booo-merang, and four first-aid kits. Sam has a few ecto-guns, right, Sam?" Sam raised a dark brow and smirked, suggesting she had more than a few, and Danny saw Tucker shudder. "Never mind. Tucker has four PDA's-"

"Five, including Lisa."

"Right, five including Lisa." She made a very serious little note on her list, no doubt about Lisa. "So, I'll be excepting nine or ten Spector Deflectors by next Saturday."

"Saturday? I thought I had a week." Tucker made a little whining noise. "Well, fine, I guess. I can sacrifice a few Doomed-playing hours for a good cause."

"Ah, yes." Sam said. "Such a sacrifice."

"Hey! It is!" Tucker huffed, offended. "Danny's got the 'normal son of weird parents' thing and you've got your 'I won't eat anything with a face' thing, but all I've got going for me is my techno-geek reputation. Forgive me for wanting to keep it up!"

"Oh." Sam said, all theatric sarcasm. "Please, forgive me, Master Tech Lord. How ever can I make this up to you?"

Tucker pursed his lips. "I know you're making fun of me, but I like the title so I'm keeping it." He twirled his stylus between his fingers. "Anyway, I think I found a scrap code I can use for those Specter Deflecters with only a little modding. I might be able to churn out an extra three or something, if you want, Jazz."

Jazz brightened before immediately becoming suspicious. "'Scrap code?' And where'd you suddenly get this 'scrap code' from?"

"Eh." Tucker waved a dismissive hand. "Internet."

Sam snorted. "That's either Tucker for 'it would take too long to explain' or 'it was illegal, don't tell on me.' I wouldn't think too hard on it."

Jazz squinted at Sam, then at Tucker, and simply shook her head. "Whatever. Do it. But, if anyone related to the government asks, I officially never talked to you about this. Other than that I'd say we're set, guys. How are we feeling?"

"Ooh!" Tucker straightened in his chair. "Are we being psychoanalyzed right now? Should we start with introductions, so that you know which patient is speaking in the recordings?"

"No. I just wanted to know how we're feeling about the trip." Jazz turned bright pink. "And I'm not recording you. Jeez."

Sam threw a wad of paper at Tucker and said to Jazz. "Well, I, for one, am feeling great, since we've got someone with actual planning skills," Here she shot a meaningful glare at Danny. "On our team for once."

"Hey!" Danny rolled over and frowned at Sam. He didn't have to be a genius to know that barb was aimed at him. "I plan things!"

Sam raised an unimpressed brow. "Yeah, like two-seconds before you do them. What happened last week? Oh, right." She lowered her voice into some weird, super-macho approximation of his. "Hey, Sam, Tuck, this building is going to explode with a bunch of people inside and all, so I'm going to shove you two outside, tell you to evacuate everyone around like I expect you to actually be able do it, because, you know, teenagers have so much authority in emergency situations, and then I'm going to head up and rescue a bunch of people from the top floor. Of the building. Which is about to explode."

Tucker applauded her impression. Jazz, who two years ago might have panicked at the mere thought of Danny and exploding buildings in the same sentence, simply sighed a tired sigh. "Yes, well, that's why I'm here. How's everyone else feeling?"

"Hungry," said Tucker.

"Gooey," said Danny, thinking of the fight he had with that slime ghost a while ago.

Jazz looked like her faith in humanity (or half-humanity) was slowly dwindling. "I meant about the trip."

"Oh." Tucker said, disinterested. "The trip's fine. I'm still hungry, though."

Jazz turned to Danny. Danny shrugged. "I'm…" He paused. "I guess I'm okay."

"You guess?"

"I don't know." He heaved a breath in an attempt to stay calm. "You know Vlad. Dealing with him is always hard. Plus, with all these people on this field trip, my secret's totally at risk. Not to mention the fact that we'll be spending most of our time trying to keep Mom and Dad from blasting everything in sight. How am I supposed to handle all of that at once?"

Sam sat up in the windowsill. She looked at Tucker with clear disdain in her eyes. "He's talking like he's going to have to do all of that alone."

"I know." Tucker said, rolling his eyes. "Heroes. Always forget that they have a team. Arrogant pricks."

"I didn't mean-"

Sam put a hand up. "We know that, Ghost Boy. You only said it because you're an idiot, which is fine. We came into this friendship fully aware of that. But, seriously, can you relax? Tucker and I will help you out. You won't be doing this alone."

"Plus, you've got a secret weapon now." Jazz said with a grin. The three of them turned to her in interest. Danny didn't remember any secret weapons on the list. She rolled her eyes at their cluelessness. "Me."

Tucker's eyes popped wide with amusement. "Woah. Wasn't that a bit too arrogant for Little Miss Fenton?"

Danny had to agree. His previous tension was startled away by Jazz's declaration, and on its heel was a laugh. "Yeah, Jazz. I mean, you're pretty great and all, but a secret weapon against Vlad? Come on."

But his laugh petered off as Jazz smiled. It was a very un-Jazz-like smile. It was sly and sneaky and confident and spoke of great things for them, but not-so-great things for Plasmius.

"Oh, but don't you remember, Danny?" She said. "Vlad never includes me in his plans."

.

.

.

My favorite headcanon is that everyone on Team Phantom has their own crazy ghost hunting stories, so whenever they get together they're always trying to explain stuff to each other and conversations are a trainwreck.

What's Valerie gonna do? Hmmmmm I wonder.

Hope you liked this chapter! Next week: Into the Ghost Zone!