Ascension
Chapter Two: Falling
JokersAceInTheHole
I feel I've come to realize
How fast life can be compromised
Stand back to see what's going on
I can't believe this happened to you
-The Hell Song, Sum 41
Warnings for this chapter: Complete AU of the Danny Phantom series. I love what I've seen but I haven't seen very much, just rare episodes and I can't find them free online anywhere. So yeah, just drawing off Wikis and my memory for most of the facts and I'll probably distort them dangerously.
Blue eyes opened lazily as a yawn broke through the owner's lips. Danny Fenton stood after a few minutes of staring at the ceiling trying to remember his dream- because he was sure that he had been having one. Today was… Monday he believed which meant- great, school.
He trudged downstairs after pulling on his usual outfit- a red and white shirt and a pair of jeans- and plopped himself down at the table. On the other side of the table sat Jazz- his psychology-obsessed sister. He heard her make a sort of disapproving sniff and called out, "Hey mom, dad." He walked to the fridge and began taking out his cereal and milk and avoiding the strange ectoplasm covered things that occupied the same place. "I'm having Sam and Tucker over later."
"That's nice dear." He turned to see his mother, in her usual blue haz-mat suit with goggles over her eyes as she fiddled with something in her hands. He heard Jazz sigh in aggravation.
"I thought we had a rule about no 'ghost'-thingies at the table." She crossed her arms across her chest.
At that moment his father stepped into the room with one of his bizarre hand-made inventions and proudly started proclaiming what it could do. "And Jazz," he paused in explanation long enough to say, "I thought we said there would be no text books at the table." Jazz threw her hands up angrily.
"Are you two always going to act like this? I mean look at poor Danny! Having to grow up with people like you two, I'm surprised he hasn't shown any signs of crazy already." Danny scratched the back of his head at being the center of his sister's attention then let out a small- completely manly- yelp as she jerked him towards her. "And I will be taking him to school today thank you."
"Jasmine." Maddy Fenton warned slightly but her husband just waved a hand at her and as Danny was pulled out the door he heard him proclaim, "It's sibling bonding Maddy! I always wish I had a sibling to-" The slam of the car-door cut off his words and Jezz got into the car a few seconds later, grumbling under her breath about crazy parents who were going to infect Danny.
"Bye Danny, call me if you need anything!" Danny waved slightly to Jazz as she drove away before turning and trudging up to school. Halfway there Tucker Foley met up with him by almost knocking him over.
"Hey Tucker." Tucker shot him a smile before looking back down at some gadget or another, Danny wasn't to sure what to make of it. "You know where Sam is?"
Tucker shrugged, "She said something about planning a 'Save the Frogs' campaign."
"Why would we need to save the frogs?" Danny wondered rhetorically as they wandered inside the building. "What do frogs have to do with anything?"
Tucker shrugged and tucked his machinery away in his pocket, "We dissect them in biology class?" he shrugged again, crossing his arms behind his head, "Besides, this is Sam we're talking about here who knows why she does anything?" He shivered at a thought and Danny heard him mumble what sounded like, "Eats grass and leaves. Who would do that?"
He snickered and opened his locker, stuffing his things in as he heard footsteps approaching. "Hey Danny. Hey Tucker." He turned with a smile to see his second best friend, Samantha Manson smiling at them.
"Hey Sam, what's the deal with the 'save the frogs' thing?" Danny wondered as the three of them walked to class.
Sam managed to look horrendously offended at his words. "A 'save the frogs thing'? Don't you understand what horrible people we are to even think about harming those innocent frogs? I mean, what if it was you who was being dissected! They have human rights issues with that so why don't they have animal rights issues with dissecting frogs. This might seem small but it's going to have gigantic social repercussions if it succeeds!" Danny thought he tuned her out around when she started talking about putting himself in the frog's place. She had a habit of ranting on about things like that.
He smiled though as she continued with her rant after Tucker interrupted her and pointed out that humans weren't anything like frogs. His smile dropped as he felt a rough hand grab the back of his shirt and jerk him back so he tripped onto his backside painfully. "Oww…" He glared at the expected sight of Dash laughing uproariously with his two little lackeys- okay not-so-little but there really wasn't much difference. He growled as Sam helped him to his feet and probably would have said something to the bully if it wasn't for Sam's words.
"Calm down Danny, he's totally not worth the detention."
"Who says I'm going to get caught?" He growled back but let her and Tucker walk away with him, hearing the jeers of the much larger boy follow him.
Once they were out of earshot Tucker turned on Sam, "I don't see why you keep making him leave, Dash is a total jerk. He needs to have someone stand up to him, and he picks on Danny too much."
Sam rolled her eyes, "You saw what he can get away with in front of the students. Besides have you seen how much bigger he is than Danny? Not to insult you or anything," here she shot a glance at a still-angry Danny, "but he's a football player, he'd probably wipe the floor with you."
"Thanks for the confidence Sam." He huffed before sighing and waving away her apology. "Whatever. You guys are coming over today right? I think my dad is going to finally get that weird ghost thingy in the basement working- or at least up and running. I doubt they'll ever catch a real ghost." Tucker looked a little nervous but laughed along with Sam.
"Ghosts don't even exist." Sam shook her head exasperatedly, "Who would stick around this place anyways? There's little enough to do when you're alive can you imagine Amity when you're dead?" All three laughed and made their way to class.
"Mom, Dad, I'm home, and Sam and Tucker are with me." Danny called, stomping up the stairs to his room. He received a hello from down in the basement and after dumping his backpack in his room- Sam and Tucker doing the same- he and his friends made their way back down the stairs and to the basement where his parents were fiddling with some tunnel-like structure in their usual hazmat suits.
Maddie Fenton looked up and smiled at them, "Hello Sam, Tucker, how was school Danny?" Both Sam and Tucker said hi to 'Mrs. Fenton' and Danny just shrugged and walked closer to the tunnel.
"So what is it anyways?" He asked his father after a few minutes. The blow-torch stopped for a few seconds as Jack Fenton- his eccentric ghost-obsessed father- turned to him with a wide grin. Posing and posturing like a salesman he started explaining.
"This, my boy, is a Fenton Ghost-Portal." He was even sure there was an implied "tm" symbol after that word. "When your mother and I finish this baby it will be a portal to access the ghosts in their home territory!" As though sensing discomfort- which Danny was completely not feeling he put on a calming face and said soothingly, "Now don't worry son, your mother and I are taking proper precautions, this baby's not even plugged in yet."
"That's great dad." He responded, sharing a raised eyebrow with Tucker who tried- and failed in Danny's opinion- to hold back a snicker. "Well unless you need me the three of us are going to be in my room." Upon getting the okay the three left.
"That'd be so cool if it actually worked." Sam commented some time after they'd settled on Danny's bed. Tucker laughed.
"You were the one that said that ghosts didn't exist." Danny laughed as she rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on, they don't. It would be so cool if it worked though." She reasoned. Her two friends just continued to laugh and she rolled her eyes again with a huff of exasperation. Danny could see where she was coming from though, it would be pretty cool to find out you had a literal portal to a ghost world or something in your basement.
"I'm gonna get something to eat, you guys want anything?" Danny asked after a little while more of their playful bantering.
"Is there anything safe to eat here?" Danny opened his mouth to argue with Sam's words but her challenging raised eyebrow made him reconsider, not to mention the green slime-things that frequented their fridge and his father encouraged to stay.
"I'm sure I'll find something." He replied instead and she laughed.
"Nah, I'll come down with you." Tucker said about the same thing and the three of them made their way back down to the kitchen. Danny was surprised though, at the fact that his parents were sitting at the table looking downtrodden.
"Hey, how's the portal going?" He asked cautiously, opening the fridge door and eyeing the food distrustfully as he did so.
Maddy sighed, "I don't know what we're doing wrong, I was sure this one would work better than the last one too." She shook her head. "Your father and I are going to devote our time to those thermos' that your father mentioned for a while, maybe we'll come back to the portal."
"Do you mind if we check it out Mrs. Fenton?" Tucker asked and Danny could tell his fingers were itching to explore the technological monstrosity in the basement. His mother consented and the three trooped downstairs, completely forgetting their original reason for vacating Danny's room.
Once they had gathered around it Tucker began prodding around the edges but all three of them seemed leery about actually getting in the tunnel.
Twenty minutes of prodding and Tucker sighed, "Someone has to go in." Danny found it a little alarming that their gazes were somehow immediately turned towards him and swallowed.
"Wait, why me?"
"None of the hazmat suits they have would fit us." Sam replied instantly and Danny scowled at his parents' belief in his eventual interest in their erm… craft?
"It doesn't work Sam, there's no use."
"Oh come on Danny- why don't you just see what you can do. Wouldn't it be cool if we could get it to work?" With a final sigh he meandered over to the storage cupboard and began rummaging around before pulling out the hazmat suit- at least it wasn't bright orange like his fathers. Sam grimaced at the sticker of Jack Fenton's face on it and tore it off before ushering him in. "There has to be something wrong inside, the outside looks like everything is fine."
He hesitantly took a step forward and another until he had completely entered the tunnel. Using a hand to guide him he looked around- truthfully it looked just like the outside but he made a valid effort to look for anything different. It was only when a flash of light alerted him to his hand that he realized how stupid his parents had really been.
He caught the sight of an 'on' button, a flash of green light, and pain-pain-pain before he collapsed and the world went black.
sneak peak into next chapter:
"Harry? Oh Merlin what have they done to you?"
"Get away from me!"
A/N: Hey readers! Sorry it's taken me so long to update I've been caught up with stuff and I'm doing NaNoWriMo this month too so less updates then usual (if you can even say 'usual' anymore). Anyways I want to thank my readers for their encouragement and taking the time to review.
