A/N: Hey, everyone! After a longish absence (sorry!) I'm back! Well, for this chapter anyways! More praise to those who reviewed: GhostDog401, Leo112, Anemonea, Loulybob, Codiak, Phantomgirl96, and Nireena26! This story is definately continuing. 8D Have fun readin'!
Disclaimer: I seriously doubt I look anything like Butch Hartman. I could tell you all of the differences, but then we'd be here all day.
Chapter Four: Recognitions
For recognizing is the first step to solving…
The smell of pancake batter filled Danny's nose as he entered the kitchen. Jazz was flipping a half-cooked pancake over on the heated skillet which was placed on the counter next to the sink.
"Ah, I love the smell of normal, non-radioactive food in the morning! Well, actually that smell is welcome anytime." Danny said as he heard the freshly flipped pancake sizzle.
Jazz smiled back at him. "I'm just glad that I was able to talk Mom and Dad into buying some kitchen appliances instead of inventing them." The thought of little glowing hotdogs with faces running amuck made her mentally shudder.
"Yeah, one of the very few things that you've done that I'm actually grateful for!" Jazz scowled at her brother. He just gave a playful smirk in return and grabbed an empty glass out of a top cabinet. "Speaking of Mom and Dad, where are they?" He asked, opening the fridge to hunt down the milk.
"In the lab." Jazz flopped three finished pancakes onto a plate. "They woke up with an idea for a new invention and have been down there ever since." She handed the plate to Danny who brought it and his now-full milk glass over to the table.
"Am I the only one in this house who knows the meaning of 'sleeping in'?" He asked as he pulled out a chair.
"Usually," His sister replied, pouring more pancake mix onto the cooking device. "But not this morning. Any reason why you're up so early on a weekend? Do you have plans with Sam and Tucker or something?" She asked with her back to Danny as she worked on her own breakfast.
"No, just couldn't sleep any more, I guess." Danny said nonchalantly as he proceeded to drown his pancakes in sweet maple-y goodness.
A flip of a pancake could be heard before Jazz turned around to look at Danny. He avoided eye contact as she started to look him over, suddenly becoming very interested in cutting his breakfast into little bite-size chunks.
"You look exhausted. Did you get to bed late?" Jazz asked, still looking the teen over.
"No," Danny replied after swallowing a bite of pancake.
"Did you wake up in the middle of the night?" Jazz continued thoughtfully.
"Not that I can remember," Danny offered.
"Have any nightmares?"
"Look, Jazz. I'm fine, okay?" A suddenly agitated Danny looked up at his sister, making eye contact. Bad idea. He saw her analyzing look turn into confusion, then concern. He quickly looked down and shoveled more food down his throat, managing to finish one pancake in three bites.
Jazz was about to question him further when two pairs of shoes were heard running up the basement stairs.
"Hey, kids! Check out my cool new invention!" Jack Fenton bellowed as his bulky, orange jumpsuited form bounded through the doorway, that same old goofy smile plastered to his face. "I call it the Fenton Ecto Expunger!" He held said invention in front of him proudly. It looked somewhat like a TV remote, except a satellite dish-looking thing was attached to where the infrared would have been.
"What does it do?" Danny asked, keeping the worry from his tone, but not able to hold back a cautious glance towards the invention.
Maddie stepped out from behind Jack's form, pulling down her teal hood and red goggles to reveal short orange hair and violet eyes. "It should send out a beam of anti-ecto energies that can expunge ecto impurities from an object on a molecular level, separating them from the desired object completely with no ectoplasmic residue left in the object from which they were separated from!" She finished with a smile.
"So, in other words, it'll push a ghost out of an object without leaving any of the ghost's ectoplasm behind?" Jazz asked her mom after seeing the confused look on Danny's face.
"That's the idea, sweetcheeks!" Jack beamed at his daughter. "Though we haven't quite worked out all the kinks yet."
"Kinks…?" Danny questioned, his eyes never wavering from the new device.
"While it does expunge ecto impurities from an object," Maddie began to explain. "It leaves an excessive amount of residue in its wake; therefore leaving the ecto impurity able to easily re-access the object again."
"But that doesn't mean we can't use it on ghosts anyways! To the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!" Jack started to run out of the room, but stopped next to Jazz. "But first!" He grabbed the plate of just-finished pancakes and shoveled them into his mouth. "Mmm, mm! Those were yummy! Thanks, Jazzypants!" He dropped the plate as he leapt through the kitchen, then out the front door.
Maddie sighed. "We'll be around town. Just call if you need anything." She addressed both of her kids as she followed her husband in a fast, but much less bouncy, stride. The front door closed and you could hear the screeching of protesting tires as the FFGAV took off faster than it wanted to move. Wonder who was driving.
Other than the sizzling of the last of the pancake batter it was quiet in the kitchen. Danny had gone back to averting eye contact to avoid any more questions from his nosy older sister.
"Well that invention was… interesting, eh, Danny?" Jazz said trying to break the silence.
Danny had just finished putting his dishes in the sink. He felt a bit dizzy… "Huh? Oh. Yeah. Interesting…" Was the room spinning this much before? He clutched his hands firmly to the counter and shut his eyes to prevent himself from falling to the tiled floor.
"I mean…" Jazz continued until she saw her brother holding on to the counter for dear life. "Danny…?" When he didn't answer she walked closer to him and reached out to touch his arm. "Danny, are you okay?"
Danny's eyes flew open and he yanked his arm away from his sister. "Fine." He answered shortly before quickly turning to exit the room. "I'm going to Tuck's. Later." The front door slammed.
Jazz stood in the kitchen, frozen to the spot where Danny had shoved her away. She knew her little brother was showing some symptoms of exhaustion but she was ninety-nine point nine percent sure that red eyes weren't part of the deal.
A/N: Once again, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed this installment of AUP! If it's not too much trouble, please drop a review! Let me know how I'm well I'm writing the characters, and also if there's any holes in the story that I need to fix!
Over and out!
~PhantomPhever
P.S. An apology in advance if I update late... again. I give you permission to hit me if that happens.
