The Art of Science

by Lacey52

The science of the situation isn't always what you expect, nor is it truely as unobtainable as you first think. AU and DxS. Second arc in the Arts Collection.

4. Dimensions

The Art of Science
By Lacey52

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

Note: Hm…this one should be interesting, and really it's all just the set up before things start to domino. Hope you enjoy it and let me know if you spot any typos, especially of the glaringly obvious type! And poor Tuck in this one...he's having a rough day, lol.

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

Chapter Four: Dimensions

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

'Last day of school, thank God,' Danny sat in his bed, a tired yawn working it's way out of his mouth quite without his permission. The sound of hammers hitting the walls of his house, electric screwdrivers, sawing, and welding had been heard all night, as well as the past couple of days. Danny had been stealthily making his way around the house, careful to never appear in his ghost form and trying hard to keep Danni from doing the same, 'Too bad mini-me doesn't listen very well…I wonder if I was really that much of a brat when I was little…'

"Rise and shine, soon to be Junior!"

"Jaaaaazzzz," Danny let himself fall back onto his bed and pulled a pillow over his head, ignoring his sister's impatient knocking to the best of his ability, "Go away…I have five more minutes."

"Yeah, but will you truly be able to sleep with all the racket that Mom and Dad are making around the house?" her head finally appeared around the side of his door as Danny allowed the pillow to slid off his face, "You might as well get up early. Enjoy your last day at school and all that, it's not like you'll really be doing anything anyways."

"Yeah, nothing except for playing guard dog for Sam all day," he glanced at where his cell phone had laid on his nightstand all night, on and on the charger just in case something had happened in the night, 'Speaking of which, I'd better call and make sure she's alright this morning…maybe I can walk her to school.'

"So you are getting up?" Jazz watched her brother in amazement as he rolled out of bed, surprised that he was actually listening to her advice and not getting those extra five minutes in, "I was sort of teasing you know."

"I know," Danny sighed tiredly, "I just need to walk Sam to school. She was attacked again yesterday, and twice the day before that…it just keeps getting worse and worse and me and Tuck can't figure out what's going on."

The thud of feet was heard from the stairs leading up to their rooms, and Jazz smiled as she watched Danni round the corner with a smile on her face, "I'll do it!"

"Do what?" Danny groused as he pulled on pants over his boxers and a new shirt for the day, "Annoy me this morning, or wait until this afternoon and pull another prank on me like you did on Monday?"

"I was just joking around, I didn't mean for your pants to fall completely off," Danni tried her hardest to look innocent, though no one was buying it at that moment in time, "Besides, I meant that I'd go find Sam. We were talking yesterday…about stuff, and it was really cool."

"What kind of 'stuff'?" Jazz asked, an interesting thought forming in her head.

"Just stuff that Sam likes," Danni's smile had grown, and the girl started to talk animatedly as Danny continued to get ready for the day, listening with a tiny smile of his own as his tiredness left him, "Like she's interested in anime, which is those crazy Japanese cartoons, and she likes to read romance novels and scary story books, which seemed kinda' weird to me, but that's okay because some of them seemed really neat, and she loves the animals and the plants and is some sort of ultro-vega something…"

"Ultra-recyclo vegetarian," Danny cut in without really paying attention and started to lace up his tennis shoes.

"Yeah, that, and," she paused to take a deep breath and Jazz had to try her hardest from bursting out laughing. She imagined that if Danny had met Sam at a younger age it would have been much like this, as she remembered well the day that the boy had met Tucker, "Did you know that she has a collection of exotic plants in her greenhouse? I mean, who has a greenhouse in their backyard?"

"She has a greenhouse?" Danny turned and looked at the little girl, "I didn't know that."

"It's cool!" but she didn't get much more out as the older boy snagged her hat from her head and held it out of her reach, "Give it back!"

"No, and you can't use your ghost powers or you'll set off all the stuff Mom and Dad have been putting up," he grinned rather smugly and Jazz could only thank heavens that she'd been the older of the pair and not at a disadvantage like Danielle was, "Go get Sam and I'll give it back to you at school."

"That's bribery," Danni crossed her arms with a pout, then stomped out of the room, "and I'm telling Sam!"

"Go ahead kiddo'," the older halfa yelled back, his grin turning into a grimace as soon as she got out of sight, "I'm so dead. Sam likes her better than me."

"No," Jazz shook her head and gave a tiny giggle, "It just means that she likes your inner child as well, because that's sort of what Danni represents right now. You two are your own person, yes, but since she's your clone, she probably has a great deal of your personality and habits…which she does, because she's just like I remember you being when you were ten."

"Okay," Danny reached for his backpack, shaking his head and wincing when he heard a shot fired downstairs followed by a cry of 'False alarm!' from both of his parents.

"You know what I think is even funnier," Jazz put in just as he stood and started towards the door, "Both of you are attracted to her."

"What?" the boy tripped and nearly hit the wall, catching his balance at the last minute, "What do you mean, 'both'?"

"Your face was priceless," his sister laughed full out now, joining him by the door, "I just meant that both of you see her as a person you enjoy being around. It just helps to prove my theory that clones retain their original's personality traits and habits is all. She likes the same people you like and the same things you like, with a few exceptions, which makes her an individual. It's sort of cute really."

"Yeah, cute," Danny walked out with a confused look on his face, 'My sister has to be the weirdest person in the world.'

And with that thought the average teenager turned into a half ghost and took to the air to make it to school before Sam did. Irony was obviously not in the forefront of his mind that morning.

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

"Jack, do you think we should upgrade the emergency ops center as well?" Maddie's head appeared from around the corner of where Jack was just finishing the instillation of the last ceiling gun in the lab. Backing down the ladder, he turned and thought for a moment, then nodded and removed his welding mask.

"I think we should, but I'll only do it if I get a plate of fudge and a break," he winked at his wife and enjoyed the way she coyly smiled back at him. A playful, "Oh alright," was her response as they both headed upstairs to the sounds of their ghostly captor growling slightly at the sight. It was getting harder to ignore the fact that the ghost had somehow become entranced with Maddie and hated Jack.

"So we've finished installing the four new ceiling guns, the two nets at the entryway, and the vaporizer in the lab," Maddie listed as she sat out two glasses to pour milk into and Jack fetched the plate of fudge that was seemingly always on hand and the milk, "The living room has new ecto-identifiers, all the other equipment has been upgraded and recalibrated so it's more sensitive now, and all the upstairs bedrooms have ghost-shield lockdown as well as a ceiling gun in each."

"Right," Jack happily dug in before they were fully sitting at the table and began to talk through his food, "Last thing to do is the ops center and that'll only take a couple of hours tops. Recalibrations take about an hour, and the blimp needs to be checked which will take about another hour. Everything was replaced and redone after Danny took it those couple of times, so most of our work is already done."

"Good," the woman took a sip of milk, then spit it back out, "Eck. Ecto-contamination in milk always makes it taste like brussel sprouts."

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

"So what's on the game plan for today, Sam?"

"Well," Sam looked back over her shoulder and dodged another empty box as it came flying her way, "Right now it would be to get to school without anything hitting me, but other than that I can't really think of anything right now. Thank God it's the last day of school!"

"I could do something," Danni was floating beside her, smiling that same exact smile as the resident super hero, "You know, beat him up, or make you intangible…"

"No, really," Sam puffed out her breath and threw Danni a rather sarcastic glance, "Don't strain yourself."

"Oh, don't worry about that, I don't turn into goo as often anymore," at Sam's horrified look, the halfa simply laughed and stopped flying along side of her, standing in mid-air to face the Box Ghost head on, "Hey, stop being mean to Sam!"

"Beware?" and the ghost came up short, confused at seeing what appeared to be a smaller, female Phantom, "What is this? Why are you smaller…and a girl…and…"

"'Cause I'm Danielle, not Danny," the girl rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, "Duh."

"Do not 'duh' me small one, for I am the master of all things cardboard and of a box-like and, or cubicle-like shape!"

"Yeah, yeah, like I care, just leave Sam alone," her hands started glowing as she held them out at her sides, displaying small balls of energy in each palm, "Otherwise, I'm gonna' kick your butt."

"No butt kicking necessary," Tucker came jogging around the corner with Sam in tow, thermos already out, "I've got the best thing there is to clear up an irritating case of BG."

"Beware!"

"Shut up," Sam nudged Tucker gently and gave him a pointed look. Three seconds later, a wailing Box Ghost was safely inside the thermos and Danni was giving Tucker a piece of her mind about letting her deal with it next time, she was a big girl who could take care of herself and Sam.

"Danni, I went and got Tucker," Sam started walking, forcing the other two to continue on towards school as well, "The school is only a block away and I figured that at least one of the boys would have a thermos on them. I was just lucky that I found Tucker so fast, and I didn't do it because I didn't think you could handle it."

"Yeah, sure you didn't," Danni kicked the air, then set herself down and changed back into her more suitable, human form. Praying for patience that she didn't really have at that moment, Sam stopped walking and laid her hand on the younger girl's shoulder.

"I didn't. I did it because I didn't want you to get hurt when there was an easier way to take care of the situation," Sam bit her lip as she tried to word what she wanted to get across to the younger girl, "Just because you can fight, doesn't mean that's your only option. Trust me, it pays to be smart."

"Yeah, it paid off for Sam in the fact that she figured out who Danny was and got more than just a friend out of the dea-ouf," Tucker doubled over as Sam's elbow connected with his stomach and the girl continued talking to Danni without even blinking, making it hard for the young halfa to keep a straight face.

"Look, it's okay to fight, don't get me wrong about that," she looked upwards and smiled to see Danny cruising by overhead, not really paying attention to the world around him at that moment in time, "but sometimes smarter means faster, and faster means more time to just enjoy yourself, right?"

"I guess," Danni shrugged as she seriously tried to understand what Sam was telling her, "So fighting smarter means I'll win faster?"

"Something like that," Sam finally gave up and started to drag Tucker with her to school, 'They're right…she is the clone of Danny. Stubborn, but too cute to risk beating it into them…'

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

'Five more minutes,' Tucker tapped his pencil against his desk, watching the pencil make black marks on the faux wooden desktop, 'Why can't my teacher be one of the cool ones who lets the class run wild on the last day. Nooo, we have to sit around and do nothing except play cards and talk. I mean, seriously, what teacher in the world doesn't let their students play with electronics the last day of school? Sometimes, I really despise public school.'

The classroom was full of chatter around him, people playing and talking, enjoying the chips and soda that they'd brought, all while Tucker wallowed in self pity for not being allowed to have his PDA out. The talking soon turned to hurried whispers and giggles to his right, which signified that the rumor mill was still running, and if the mentioning of the names 'Phantom' and 'Manson' were reaching the boy's ears, then it proved that it was running overtime at the moment.

"I saw her walking down the street about three days ago when out of nowhere this dog ran up to her. It was all green and looked really cute," one of the girls was talking animatedly now, describing one of her trips to the mall, "She reached down to pet it and it started licking her hand, so I wasn't all that worried and I guess she wasn't either 'cause she kept petting it."

"I wouldn't pet a green dog," one girl shook her head, a confused look on her face, "I mean, obviously it was a ghost if it was green."

"Yeah, well…she is really dark and likes all that spooky stuff," another of their little group shrugged, "Guess it means she likes ghosts too."

"Yeah, well," the original speaker got back on track, "That's the funny part. This little bratty kid showed up, I guess he was in eighth grade or something, and he started to tease the little dog…and it turned into this huge, ugly monster, and like, that Manson girl was yelling at it so it wouldn't attack the kid. Pretty brave, but really stupid right?"

A spattering of stuttered agreement came out and Tucker just smiled to himself and laid his head on the desk to continue his eavesdropping without being suspected, 'Yep, that sounds like something Sam would do alright.'

"Well, the dog started growling at her and it was like out of nowhere Phantom showed up and got all up in the dog's face so it couldn't get to her," she drew a deep breath and Tucker could just imagine the love struck look on her face, "He was so brave, and it was really cute 'cause it looked like he knew the dog! He started talking to it, rubbed it's belly when it rolled over, and then all of a sudden it was a tiny puppy again!"

"Aw, I bet it was really cute!"

"Totally," she continued, a tiny amount of frustration lacing her voice from being disrupted in her storytelling, "Anyways, he picked the puppy up and put it under one arm and then started talking to Manson. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it looked like they knew each other, and he offered her his hand like he was trying to get her to fly. Oh my God, I almost died when she shook her head no!"

"What?" the girl on the left, who had a much higher pitched voice, seemed beyond shocked, "Who in their right mind would turn him down?"

"I dunno'," the other girl answered, "I mean, everyone's lost on whether or not he's dangerous or not. I've heard that even the council at City Hall can't decide, so maybe she was just playing it safe or something?"

"That's so dumb! I mean, I wouldn't care, he's so hot," the first girl sounded like she was fanning herself as she said this and Tucker had to turn a snorted laugh into a snore before he was caught, "Anyways, like I was saying, she said no and so he started walking with her! Walking, on the ground like a normal person. He saved me once and never walked and talked with me afterwards…"

"Maybe he just wanted to know what happened with his dog," Tucker finally decided to cut in, lifting his head and pretending to be sleepy, "I mean, if my dog was randomly attacking someone, I'd want to know what set it off."

"Tucker Foley, you are an eavesdropper," the original storyteller accused, sounding perturbed. Tucker just grinned and shrugged.

"Guilty as charged."

"So anyways, did you hear about Michelle and Tiffany?"

'Thank God,' Tucker let his eyes fall closed as he lay his head back down, 'At least they're on something else now. Either Danny is going to have to be more distant when he sees Sam as Phantom or we're going to have to do something about all those ghosts attacking her…and I'll bet they'd both say we should try for the second one.'

The tone of the bell completely broke his concentration, startling him badly enough that he actually jolted in his seat. The girls who had been talking just giggled as quietly as they could while they stood and collected their things to leave the room. Tucker did the same with a rather unhappy frown hovering around his lips. Today was turning into one of those days, and he didn't appreciate it at all.

Walking down the hall found him next to Sam's locker, and yet no Sam. Worry shot through him as he thought over what ghosts had already been caught that week, and which had not been seen. It was more than likely that something was bothering Sam, and the boy was right, though not in the way he expected.

"I swear if the two of you don't leave me alone," Sam suddenly could be heard over the ruckus of people around him, the edge in her voice sharp and warning, "I'll find a way to torture you, I don't care what it takes. Leave me alone, I'm serious!"

"But Sam," and that was Danny, who's head Tucker could see bobbing in the sea of students walking his way, "It's so…so…delicious…"

"What?" Tucker pushed himself off the abandoned locker, which they'd already cleaned out earlier that week, to make his way through the crowd to his friend. A wicked grin spread across his face as Sam spied him and her eyes widened, "What's this about delicious?"

"Not you too," her head hung now, "First Danny after lunch, then Danni teasing me all through the rest of the afternoon, then Danny again, and now you! I give up, where's a ghost who's out for my blood, and not trying to humiliate me when I need one?"

"Aw, that's mean," Danni had her hands tucked in her pockets and was walking backwards in front of Sam, relying on Danny to keep her from running into anything as she went, "We're just playing."

"Yeah. Right," Sam mimicked Danni's line from that morning as she folded her arms, "Just trying to tease me to death. That's nice; death by embarrassment."

"Seriously though," Tucker cut in, desperate to know just what was going on. If there was teasing going on, he was sure to be in on it, and this seemed to be prime teasing material, "What's up with something being delicious?"

"It just slipped out," Sam went pink; her face, neck, and ears all turning a pretty shade of that color almost instantaneously, "I didn't mean anything by it."

"It was after you left the lunch table and Sam-"

"Don't you dare, Danny Fenton!" the pair fell slightly behind as Sam interjected this into his story.

"Sam was carrying an apple with her and I took a bite out of it, and then she took a bite and-"

"Danny!" and a quiet 'Ooff,' was heard from behind though they all kept walking.

"And then she took a bite from the same spot and all of a sudden she was all 'Mm. Delicious,' and it was the funniest thing I ever saw!" Danni finished the story as soon as Sam had jumped on Danny and started trying to cover his face, effectively ending his storytelling, but opening the opportunity for the other halfa to speak, "They both got all red, and then Danny started making fun of her and then I started and I kept saying 'Delicious' randomly to Sam…it was the best thing all day!"

"I bet it was," Tucker laughed alone with Danni, enjoying the flushed shades on both his friends' faces, though Danny was smiling from ear to ear and Sam was pouting heavily, "but I think Sam's been thoroughly teased for the day. Lesson number one, never tease a person more than what they can handle."

"Thank you, Tucker," Sam smiled in relief as her blush settled and she moved to catch up with him, "So…changing subjects, how was the rest of your afternoon?"

"Delicious."

And that was how Tucker found out that he actually could run faster than Sam, though it was more out of desperation and the will to keep himself alive than physical fitness on his part. Yes, it was definitely turning out to be one of those days.

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

'Yep,' Tucker looked down at his watch, noting that it was almost time for dinner and his mother would surely skin him alive if he didn't get home soon, 'One of those days…'

Looking back up found him tilting his head all the way back in order to find the face of a tall, robotic looking ghost. It was similar to Technus, which was why Tucker was taking special care in observing the ghost before trying to deal with it. Another reason why he was taking special care in observing before dealing with it was because it was a ghost with magnetic based powers.

And his thermos, which was metal, had already been confiscated by said ghost because it was, quote, "SHINY!"

The boy moved quickly out of the way as the ghost put a huge foot down, crumpling the concrete beneath him in the street and drawing to him all the metallic objects of the area, including mailboxes, lamp posts, and cars. The more he drew in, the more he grew, and Tucker was starting to sweat bullets.

'Okay, no metal because he can get it, but if I can find something that has the opposite polarization of what he's usuing, then I should be able to repel him…,' the techno-geek took a quick look around him, frowning as realization dawned on him, 'Where the hell am I gonna' get a magnet that big?'

Tucker stood in the middle of the abandoned street and started to puzzle out another thing he could do, and was nearly kicked because of his thoughtlessness to the world around him. His hat went flying across the street, and Tucker scrambled to get it back, mumbling prays of thanks that it hadn't been his head. Grabbing a broom, the boy calmly stood and let his thoughts race while keeping an eye on the monstrous ghost destroying downtown, 'What am I gonna' do, that thing already got my cell, so I can't call Danny…where is he? Or Danni, for that matter…they can't both still be with Sam!'

Making his way along the edge of buildings, Tucker got closer to the creature before him, and gently poked at its foot, surprised when it didn't respond to the prodding, 'Okay, so it doesn't feel it either because I'm too small or because it's made of metal and can't feel…'

"Shiny, shiny, shiny," the ghost was singing, a deep tenor that would have made Tucker laugh had it not been such a serious situation, "I love my shinies…"

"Shinies, huh?" Tucker smiled, realizing that this ghost had at least one fatal flaw, "Just like a magpie…it collects the shiny objects…"

"Don't worry Tucker," a familiar voice called out, though it wasn't one that the boy wanted to hear at that moment in time, "We'll save you boy!"

"Mr. Fenton?" the teen turned around, and started running towards them, dodging bits of concrete that the ghost was throwing around in his attempt to stop the boy, "Mrs. Fenton! You shouldn't go near it with that equipment!"

"What?" she pulled up short, grabbing Jack and making him do the same as Tucker finally made it over to them, "Why not?"

"Because it's magnetic; it already took my th..my cell phone because it has a metal casing!" he was breathing hard from his sprint, "Your equipment is all metal and you have metal things imbedded in your suits too."

"Good thinking boy," Jack patted him heavily on the back and nearly knocked him on his face, "Now we just need to find a way to incapacitate that giant without weapons…"

"Maybe that's where I could come in handy?"

The voice echoed and seemed slightly off to human ears, though in fact it was normal enough to a ghost. Tucker kept himself from leaping for joy, but only because he was watching the Fentons fearfully at Danny's appearance. The two hunters turned slowly to find Danny hovering behind them, watching carefully as they pulled their weapons, though they did hold them down instead of directly pointing them at him while screaming, "Ghost!"

"Um, I mean," he was starting to fidget as the ghost tore up more of the town and his parents stood silently watching them, "You two just stay right here and I'll fight…no metal, see?"

His cheeky remark, along with his hands held up beside him had Maddie frowning and Jack sneering his disapproval. Danny helplessly looked down at the two, "It's not like you can fight with those metal guns you have anyways! I was just trying to help…"

"Then start helping and stop letting it tear up the street while you talk!" Maddie finally snapped at the boy hovering in front of her, "If we're incapable of helping then we'll stay out of it, but if you make one wrong move, that metallic monster is not going to stop me from frying your hide."

"Got it," the teen looked towards Tucker almost expectantly, to which the boy held up his hands to show them empty, then pointed towards the ghost in front of them. Danny nodded his understanding and shot into the air. One good punch had the poor boy's hand throbbing and his mind whirling for a way to defeat the ghost, 'No hitting, got that too…'

A quick lap around the ghost irritated it, making Danny the center of it's attention for a while, only to be distracted once again by a silver truck sitting on the side of the road that was shining in the late evening sunset. Following the ghost's line of sight, Danny was quick to make his way to the vehicle and pick it up, flying up into the air and causing the ghost to give chase, out of town and away from the people who were gathering to watch the impending fight.

On the very edge of town Danny set down and waited for the magnetic monster to catch up, coming up with several ideas to end the fight as quickly as possible. The instant the ghost was before him, Danny was flying up to his face…and nailed by some sort of ray that held him in place, making him an easy target for the ghost to bat away.

The halfa landed hard, sliding in the dirt back towards whatever had shot him, and finally tumbling to a stop at the feet of his parents who had followed in the Fenton RV.

"Why?"

Maddie looked horrified for a second as the young ghost struggled to sit up, one hand to his head where the other ghost had backhanded him. He had sounded so incredibly hurt when he asked, and in truth, she hadn't realized that the gun she had used would hold him in place.

"It was an ability scanner that we've recently made," she stuttered, though unsure of why it was so affecting her, "It wasn't supposed to suspend your movement like that…"

"I added that," Jack answered, unsure of whether he should be feeling remorse or not over the situation, "Had to when that Wisconsin ghost, Plasmius refused to stand still so we could nail him with it."

"Oh," Danny finally managed to get out, shaking his head clear of the cobwebs that formed from the blow, "Um…you shot me with a what?"

"An ability scanner," his mother reiterated, a chagrined look on her face, "Sorry about that…I just wanted to know what you were really capable of. It's probably printing right now in the RV, actually."

"You could have just asked," Danny stood shakily, then leapt back into the air, "You might actually want to go inside…I'm gonna' try to blow this thing up…I think it's sorta' like Skulker and his suit…"

Husband and wife watched the boy disappear into the machine and asked as one, "Skulker who?"

A second later the entire machine was raining down around them, the sound of the explosion ripping through the air and nearly knocking them from their feet. In the middle of the blast mark kneeled the ghost boy, breathing heavily with a shimmering shield around him, though it appeared to be cracked in several places. When he raised his head, both Maddie and Jack let out a tiny sigh of relief.

"Well…," Danny huffed heavily as he sat back on his bottom, "That was exciting…at least I don't have to take anything back to the ghost zone…"

"Phantom," Maddie addressed him by his name for once, which caught Danny's attention immediately, "Thank you for helping us. You've done it often, but we've always been suspicious of your motives."

"Thanks," the halfa shrugged from his spot on the ground, "but uh, like I tell everyone, you should probably always be careful around ghosts…I'd like to think I was different but one day it might…never mind. I'm just glad that you're not shooting at me with intent to kill or anything. I've always wanted you to know you could trust me."

"Don't get us wrong, ghost," Jack nodded his head to himself as he thought, "We don't necessarily trust you all the way yet. Ghost don't change their ways."

"I know," Danny answered sadly, watching as Maddie hurried over to the RV, coming back out with several papers in her hands, "Is that…?"

"These are all the readouts on you," she looked down quizzically at the papers, "All the abilities you have from the most basic to the most advanced, all the abilities that you are currently developing, and all the dormant abilities that you may one day be able to control. This list is amazing, a full page longer than the Wiscon-er, Plasmius's. I thought you said he was more powerful than you?"

"I thought he was," the halfa started hovering in amazement, something that he often did without thinking about it when in the form of Phantom, "I mean, ghosts can't automatically tell how powerful another ghost is if they have a human form…they just know that they're strong enough to have a human form…"

They stood uncomfortably for a few moments, Maddie reading over the handouts and humming thoughtfully to herself over several things that had Danny curious and not a little worried. What if it revealed somehow that he was both ghost and human…that would make it all to easy for his mother to figure out his secret. Jack and Danny stood eyeing one another, unsure of how to bow out of the situation they found themselves in, until Maddie began to read out loud, surprising even the young ghost with some of the things she was reading.

"All the basic powers, though one of them is still developing…I'm sure you know that," she glanced up briefly to find Phantom nodding his head with his hair bouncing over his eyes, reminiscent of Danny's hair she noticed, "Ice powers that are rather strong, the ability to use a vocal sound to produce energy waves, several unusual developing powers like being able to tear the fabric of…reality?"

"Yeah, I won't get that for a while…," his hand shot to the back of his neck and he floated a little higher, "Um, I don't really want to find out before they happen…I kinda' like my powers to be a surprise, so I think I'll just go."

"Right," Jack looked up at him, still gauging his actions and watching him carefully. The higher Danny drifted, the more both Fentons relaxed, until Maddie was leaning into her husband and tiredly passing her empty hand over her face, "You okay, baby?"

"Fine, Jack dear," she lay her head more fully against him, "It's just an interesting thing to realize that you've been completely wrong for nearly your entire life. I don't exactly trust that Phantom isn't plotting to take over the world, but…according to this list he could have killed us at anytime this past year or so and we wouldn't have been able to stop him more than likely."

"He's that strong?"

"Yes," they headed back to the Fenton RV, Maddie glancing back up and over her shoulder to the tiny dot flying away from them, "and he's only getting stronger."

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

"I'm home!"

"Upstairs!"

Rushing up the stairs in twos, Danny skidded to a stop in front of his door, listening to the spattering of laughter behind it. Jazz, Danni, and Tucker were all inside talking about some old story about him and how he kept loosing his pants. It also sounded like someone was sniffling.

"Um, hello?" he poked his head through the door, though not literally this time for fear of setting off the new equipment, "What's up guys?"

"Oh, not a lot," Jazz smiled, then looked fondly down at Danni, "We were just talking about some of the more embarrassing moments in our lives. In fact, we just told Danni about all the times that you've been caught in your underwear."

"Oh, yeah," Danny gave a chuckle, both amused at the remembrance and realizing that he was about to help out with a delicate situation. The tear tracks that were rolling down Danni's cheeks were still fresh, and she was the source of the sniffling he'd heard. A few hiccups managed to make their way past her lips as well, causing a tiny blush to appear, "I've had a lot more embarrassing stuff than that happen to me though. I remember one time when I was thirteen I stepped in dog poo on the way to school and didn't realize it. I got to class and it smelled, and someone finally pointed out it was me…I couldn't get the smell to go away either, so for the rest of that year I was Fen-turd…actually, Dash still calls me that sometimes."

"I remember that," Tucker rolled his eyes and settled back on his elbows, resting on the carpet of Danny's floor, "Remember the time that my Mom accidentally messed up my hair when she was cutting it and I wouldn't let her shave my head to fix it?"

"Yeah, that's why you started wearing that hat, but everyone found out anyways 'cause I knocked it off at recess," Danny was laughing as was Tucker, and it seemed to be calming Danni down even more, "So what happened today, Danni? Whatever it was I bet I can beat it."

"I know," she nodded her head, a tiny smile finally appearing on her face, "I tripped when I was going up the stiars to come inside and some stupid boy started laughing at me and calling me clumsy…I got so mad that I lost control or something, because the next thing I knew my hat was covering my eyes and I fell on the porch and that stupid kid was laughing harder."

"Ouch," Danny said and watched as his best friend and his sister nodded, all with a sympathetic glint in their eyes, "At least you didn't loose your pants though, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," her small hand came up to swipe at a stray tear, and Tucker stood, stretching and yawning in a rather dramatic fashion causing Danni to laugh, "I'm not that little Tucker, if you want to go you don't have to be a drama queen about it."

"Heh, yeah," he rolled his eyes upwards, then smiled down at the younger girl, "but I got you to laugh at least. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Look out first day of summer!"

"Bye Tucker!" three voices echoed, and the two siblings and one clone continued their stories until the parental units showed up. The meal that night consisted of refried beans that spoke only German, thankfully normal toppings, and tacos that enjoyed tap dancing…and insisted on doing so all the way down your throat. By the end of the meal, Danni had forgotten all about her problem of the afternoon, though for Danny it was a little more difficult.

Laying in his bed, his thoughts chased themselves around and around. Thoughts of Danni and her problems, Sam and her problem, his own problem of his parents, and the biggest problem of Vlad Plasmius being up to something just downstairs. It was a wonder that Danny ever got to sleep that night.