Disclaimer:I do not own Danny Phantom or the characters in it.

chapter 2: calm before the storm

"mads? on a scale from one to ten, how angry do you think the kids will be when they realize the portal is nuclear " a worried Jack Fenton asked.

"uhm... I don`t think that they'll be angry, rage and hate are more likely. they'll probably strip us from warm meal rights for a few months." Maddie remembered the accident that got her banished from the kitchen. it sometimes occurred that the food she made came to life. nothing to panic about, just stick a fork in it and its dead. but then came the Fenton-refrigerator bringing a food army to life. the Fenton's had to fight the food for their house but unfortunately lost. they had to call a exterminator to gas the house.

after the refrigerator accident a 9 year old Jazz and a 8 year old Danny finally snapped. they teamed up to fight against their parents influences. the first act against their parents was to claim the kitchen as a no parents zone. they build a force field generator to protect the kitchen and all the food in it from what they called 'poopy parents'.

"stupid force field." Jack muttered.

"don`t worry Jack. with the fake blueprints and our buffer story it will take them months to realize that the initial energy burst is powered by a modified condemned nuclear bomb." the portal may be self-sustaining when it`s active but the initial power requirements were huge. "and if we play our cards right they`ll never even know it's a bomb but rather a nice little fission reactor."

"it are moments like these when I envy other parents the most. they don`t have to sneak around if they want to build something." Jack was imagining the freedom he could have. "take the Baxter`s for instance, their son wouldn't even notice if his parents did something illegal."

"Jack, how would you interact with your children if they were of average intelligence." Maddie already knew the flaw in Jack his reasoning.

"well.. I.. I`ll play games with them and bring them places they want to go."

"play as in baseball, football, basketball?" Maddie knew jack hated sports.

"uhh.. maybe a board game."

"would that make you happy?"

"...yes? "no, it would not. Jack was thinking very hard of something fun to do with average children.

"you`ll talk them away just like you do with all the other people in the world." back in college Jack made a habit of talking endlessly to people that didn't understand him to scare them away. being alone was less painful then not being understood. "can you imagine jack. talking your own children away."

"I rather not think about it."Jack suddenly realized how few people he had in his life that actually knew him for who he was. "Maddie, do you have any secrets that you didn't tell the kids yet?"

"nope, the longest I ever kept a secret from them was with the portal. and we just told them about it ten minutes ago."

"me neither. every time I have some sort of secret I feel this urge to tell them about it."

"I know what you're talking about, I got the same thing." Maddie loved talking to her children not because she loved to talk but because they would listen and understand. "I guess twenty-five years of people that don`t listen to you because they don`t understand really does something with your psyche."

"tell me about it, last week I successfully stole a platter of fudge from the kitchen without them noticing. not even a day later I told them and they immediately upgraded the force field." Jack knew that telling them would make future trips to the kitchen impossible but he just couldn`t keep the secret.

"how long before we tell them about the bomb behind the portal" Maddie realized that they were doomed. the only question was when would the penalty come.

"if we can keep it a secret for today than it would be at least a week. you know, after the vacation." jack still didn`t get why his kids weren't going with them. "do you think they`re keeping a secret from us?"

"jack, of course they are keeping a secret from us. we`re going to Hawaii and they`re staying at home it doesn`t get any more suspicious than that." Maddie always knew when her children were hiding something from her but she never intervened unless they came to her for help. "at least we know it`s not something dangerous otherwise they would`ve come to us."

"yes, because we are experts in all that is dangerous." Jack and Maddie shared a laugh at that and they continued making preparations for the portal activation.

"mom, dad we`re ready." Jazz could be heard coming down the steps to the lab.

"hi sweaty, your father is almost done with the last few steps on the inside of the portal. any questions before we start it up." Maddie was prepared for the question she knew was to come.

"I was wondering how much po..." Danny didn`t get the chance to finish his sentence.

"it has a buffer that charges for a week to supply the 12.1 gigawatt`s necessary for the initial energy burst!" Jack could be heard screaming from the inside of the portal.

"oke... well that's all." Danny said

"kids! are you ready to make some Fenton history" Jack said coming from the portal.

"if we say no would that stop you?" Jazz asked.

"not a chance. now put on these goggles and wait with your mother behind the protective wall."

it didn`t take long before Jack came behind the wall. "here we go the button to our life's work." he was holding a big red button with a cable coming out of it. the cable went to the portal.

"goggles!"

the Fenton family was now looking over the protective wall at the portal.

"3..2..1.. banzaiiiiii!" Jack pushed the button starting up the portal.

the sound of electricity charging could be heard coming from the portal. the portal was building up so much power that the lights in the lab were flickering until they died. in the now dark lab the only source of light that could be seen was the red glow coming from the inside of the portal. suddenly the red glow became an intense red light until finally 'spark' the portal died down.

the emergency lighting kicked in revealing the incredibly disappointed looks from Jack and Maddie Fenton.

"that should have worked." Maddie muttered.

Jack walked to a terminal on the wall. "Maddie, you are not going to believe this."

"what error is it."

"all of them."

the Fenton couple stood stupefied as they looked at the terminal screen. every warning, every safeguard and error that the portal could display were on screen.

"well this is the biggest fail ever." Maddie whispered to Jack.

"at least it didn`t explode. with all these errors here that has to be a small miracle"

"any idea why it didn`t work?" Jazz asked.

"well it`s clearly... without a doubt... absolutely... I have no clue." Jack didn't even know where to start looking for the problem because the portal is saying that everything is wrong.

"it seems we had this vacation perfectly planed." 'dear heaven do I need a vacation ' thought Maddie. the past few months she has been working herself to the bone with the only motivation to work on being the activation of the portal. "I really, really need a break."

"kids why don`t you help me pack for tomorrow while your mother takes a nap." Jack saw that his wife was incredibly tired because of all the all-nighters she had. "honey, just relax we got this."

the rest of the night was spend packing for Jack and Maddie vacation, the kids telling their father that he`ll eventually figure what`s wrong with the portal, and Danny making a phone call.

/

the next day was Monday it was also the first day of the slumber project.

"don`t worry mom, we got everything under control." Jazz said while guiding her mother to the cab.

"oke sweetie. just promise to call if anything bad happens." Maddie was a bit worried. sure her kids were the most responsible children in the world but this was the first time she left them alone for a entire week. "don`t forget to water the plants or plant... we don`t own any plants do we?"

"mom just try to relax. you`re going on a vacation that you clearly need." Danny saw how tired his mother looked even though she had a full night of sleep "just promise me you`ll take it easy."

after giving each of her children a kiss Maddie went into the cab to sit beside her husband.

"bye kids have fun in the house, alone, without us, with no parental influences what so ever." Jack would have continued his list but after he got a elbow from his wife he settled on "see you in a week."

"bye mom, bye dad. have fun." after the cab turned the corner the Fenton children both got wicked grin`s on their face`s "let project slumber begin."

"Sam and Tuck should be here any minute now." last night Danny called his friends and asked if they wanted to help make a house of horrors look like a family home. their response was 'dude I've been dying to see your house for years.' and 'took you long enough.'

"when they`re here you can look for the portal blueprints but in the meantime please get the materials for the drywalls." the terminals for the Fenton mainframe were integrated into the walls therefore the siblings decided to hide them behind a few drywalls. "I`ll get the cleaning supplies and air freshener."

the plan for the day could be divided into three steps.

step 1 build the fake home

step 2 clean the fake home

step 3 decorate the fake home with fake family stuff.

Danny was happy he could finally get all those plasterboards out of his room. those things took up a lot of space. "just snap them in place and behold a normal cream colored room." after moving all the boards to the living room Danny heard the sound he was somewhat anxious to hear.

'ding-dong'

"heh, six am precisely " Danny asked Sam and Tuck to come at six. looks like his friends didn`t want to be a minute late.

when Danny opened the door he was met with a fourteen year old boy and girl that were grinning at him like they lost their minds. "and the creepy smile award goes to..."

"dude, you can make as much fun of us as you want, nothing is going to ruin this day for me." Tucker had spent the last eight years wondering and fantasizing about the house of his best friend and now he finally was going to see it.

"I have all the right to smile like an idiot. your home is considered the scariest building in town and it got that reputation without anyone even seeing it from the inside." Sam loved horror and mystery and the Fenton home had both.

"can we come in?" the highly excited Tucker asked.

"oh. sure come in." Danny moved out of the way so his friends could come in. "did you guys have breakfast." a growl coming from their stomachs answered the question. "me nether, let's get some breakfast." Danny walked to the kitchen followed by his friends. all was well until Danny entered the kitchen.

"ugh..." "ufff..."

Danny looked over his shoulder to see what happened. behind him laying on the floor were Sam and Tucker.

"crap, the force field. I forgot the force field. are you guys alright... Tuck, are you oke?"

"yes" answered Tucker

"are you hurt?"

"no"

"then why are you staring at me like that?" Danny was really worried at the moment. his friends weren't even in his house for a minute and one of them was already looking like he had a breakdown.

"I just walked into a force field. a actual force field." Tucker replied.

"Tuck, I'm really sorry. are you sure you're alright?"

"Danny you don`t understand. I. walked. into. a. force. field." Tucker was starting to sound a little bit crazy. "as in science fact, not fiction. geeks from all over the world are dreaming of what I just experienced. "

"yeah.. walking into a wall and falling on your ass. it`s a dream come true." Sam added sarcastically

"wait a sec, I`ll switch off the field so you guys can get through."

"why do you have a force field around the kitchen anyway?" Sam asked while she got up from the ground.

"to keep my parents from using it." Danny answered without thinking.

"using force fields to keep parents from rooms. now that's a dream come true" Sam was fantasizing of implementing fields in her own house, mainly her room. but then she realized something. "who made this force field?"

"me and Jazz." Danny punched in the last code and the field went down "there we go, you can come in now." but no one came "guys?"

"you made this?" Sam asked

Danny realized his mistake "I helped, you know passing screwdrivers and stuff. my parents are the real genius here. I just know how... "

"did you make this?" Sam asked again.

Danny wanted to lie but looking Sam in the eyes he just couldn't "yes".

"dude, why did you try to lie about it."

"I.. uhh.. don`t know" Danny said lying again.

"it`s a reflex." Jazz said while walking into the kitchen "Danny and I have been lying for so long that it became second nature to us."

"wait, what else have you lied about?" Sam asked.

"nothing, I only do it on reflex when I`m nervous. " Danny was telling the truth. "you and Tuck are the only people outside my family that I don`t lie to."

"we can resume this talk or any other kind of conversation when the first break starts. but now we have to start the operation or we`ll fall behind schedule." Jazz was feeling nervous around Sam and Tucker because they were seeing and hearing the things she tried to keep a secret from the world. "Danny, this granola bar will be your breakfast. start researching the portal. I will feed these two and set them to work."

"you make it sound like we`re cattle." Tucker said.

"guys, you`ll need to forgive Jazz. she doesn`t know how to handle people without her mask." Danny asked his sister to socialize with his friends without her public mask. "just the fact that she`s being herself shows how much she trusts you ."

"I`m making pancakes. do the two of you want pancakes?" Jazz wanted nothing more than to put on her social mask to feel safe from their opinion of her, but she promised her brother she wouldn't.

"pancakes sound good." "it's been a while since I had pancakes"

"wait! they get pancakes and I get a granola bar? "

"yes" Jazz said in such a casual tone that Danny didn`t know how to respond to it.

"fine, if you need me I`ll be in the study." Danny walked to his parents study. the study contained all the design of the Fenton house and Since last night it also contained the portal designs.

when entering the study Danny walked to a shelf filed with blueprints "let's see, Fenton bomber, Fenton creepstick, Fenton disintegrator, Fenton Foamer. aha! Fenton ghost portal."

what Danny got from the shelf was not a single blueprint. no, it were hundreds of them. "this is going to take a while"

Danny started arranging the blueprint around the study to get a better view of them. "they used a fractal code to make the portal more compact... but also more complex. where do I start?" he decided to work backward from the vortex emitter to the plug that went to the power source.

hours flew by while Danny was deciphering his parents blueprints. but Danny didn`t notice, he was in a world of his own or to be more precise he was in his parents world. a world filled with science that might as well be magic.

while reaching for one of the last blueprints Danny notched something. "(ccp) central command processor. " he stared at the ccp for a few minutes until a epiphany struck. everything he knew about the portal fell in the right place. "so that`s why it didn`t work." he filed his discovery away for later use and continued his research.

"last one" the last blueprint was about the connection with the Fenton mainframe "without the mainframe giving commands the portal is useless. "

"done" Danny let out a groan "how long have I been working"

Danny looked at the clock "eleven hours, damn I didn`t even notice." his stomach made a terrible noise "ugh.. well.. I`m noticing it now"

venturing outside the study and into the living room Danny noticed the progress the others made. "the houseplants are a nice touch." Danny remarked.

"yes they are, Sam let us borrow a few from her house." Jazz was very pleased with how the living room turned out "all that is left is the hallway. we`re really ahead of schedule."

"you told us we were behind schedule!" a tired looking Tucker wheezed out.

"selective disinformation. besides, do you really think I would let Sam get plants if we were behind schedule?" Jazz pointed out.

"Danny your sister is evil! I`m really trying to hate her but every time I find some grudge to hold against her she manipulates me to like her." Tucker never realized that the happy an bubbly girl he saw in public was such a manipulative puppet master. "and the worst part is that I only know that I`m being manipulated because she`s constantly pointing out how she`s does it."

"don`t worry Tuck you`ll eventually get used to it." Danny knew how Jazz could take control over a situation and twist it to her favor. "and if you don`t get used to it. well.. you`ll just have to be happy that she doesn't do anything destructive with her talents."

"I guess. it is pretty cool that she got Sam to cook." Tucker stood by amazed when Jazz pulled out Sam`s girly side. "I mean. Sam is baking a cake. Sam. baking. cake. it's like watching a eagle pilot a blimp. "

"I HEARD THAT FOLEY!" Sam Screamed from the kitchen "NO CAKE FOR YOU!"

"CAN I HAVE TUCKERS PIECE?" Danny asked Sam "I`M SO HUNGRY I COULD EAT A ROCK."

"ARE YOU SAYING THAT I COULD ONLY BAKE A ROCK! BECAUSE IF YOU ARE FENTON, THEN I`LL BE HAPPY TO FIND A REAL ROCK AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS."

"WHAT... NO.. I DON`T MEAN THAT. THE ONLY THING I`VE EATEN SINCE LAST NIGHT IS A GRONOLA BAR SO I`M STARVING RIGHT NOW."

"OHH.. OKE. YOU CAN HAVE TUCKERS PIECE."

"THANKS SAM."

"you do realize that if Sam was able to hear Tuckers joke She would be able to hear you without the screaming." Jazz wasn't a big fan of screaming. she considered screaming to be worse than cursing.

"oops, sorry Jazz. I just went with the moment."

"its oke. anyway, did you find anything in the blueprints to disconnect the portal?" Jazz asked.

"it's really simple. the portal has its own breaker, so if we pull the breaker the portal will just power down without consequences." Danny was amazed that such a powerful machine could be so easy to deactivate.

"so tomorrow`s schedule won`t have any delays?"

"nope, none at all."

"good. now you can help Tucker with the hallway and I`ll help Sam in the kitchen." Jazz said walking to the kitchen.

"you know dude when this day started I thought it was going to be awesome. but from my current point of view I have to say. this day sucks." Tucker wasn't all to happy with all the manual labor "first you tempt me with beautiful technology and then you make me hide said technology behind walls. I`m dead tired from all the work."

"Tucker, I promise that tomorrow will be a better day for you because tomorrow you are going to help me disconnect the Fenton opts-center from the Fenton mainframe." Danny saw the interest rise in Tuckers eyes.

"just to be clear. when you say disconnect, what do you mean?" Tucker was imagining a plug that could easily be pulled.

"I mean hundreds of devices that do things you couldn't even imagine being disconnected from the home grid" when seeing the smile Tucker was giving him Danny knew he had him in the bag.

"It`s the reason why we have to go to bed so early. so we can work at it tomorrow early in the morning."

"why can`t we do it today?" asked Tucker.

"we need to be fully rested to do something like this otherwise we might make a mistake." Mistakes could be fatal. Danny thought. "anyway, let's get this hallway done so we can rest."

while Tucker was putting a plasterboard against the wall one thought went through his mind.

"tomorrow is going to be awesome."