AN: Chapter 4 is finally up! There's a lot of dialogue in this chapter, so it took a bit longer to write and was admittedly more challenging. Thanks to everyone who left a review.
I don not own Danny Phantom or American Dragon...yet.
"Ooh! Where is he?" Jazz almost screamed in frustration. This was the seventh phone call today that had gone straight to the answering service. It wasn't like Danny to not answer his phone, well actually it was, but usually he would end up calling her back, eventually. That, however, wasn't the only reason Jazz was worried. She could handle Danny without his phone, again. What really had her panicking was the fact that Danny hadn't even shown up to school that day. Neither Sam nor Tucker knew where he was. Both of them had tried to tell her to relax, but Jazz was having a hard time with that considering his absence. She had, of course, gone to Mr. Lancer to explain that Danny had been feeling very ill and would possibly be unable to make it to school. The slightly overweight school teacher held Jazz in high regard and had therefore believed her every word. Feeling worried, and realizing her search for Danny was going nowhere, Jazz made her way to the kitchen and slumped down in one of the chairs.
"Hi Sweetie." her mom said, looking up from what was either an experiment or dinner, one never could tell. "Can you go call your brother for dinner?"
'So it is dinner,' Jazz thought, eyeing her mother warily. Jazz looked at the pot of bubbling purple goo next to the red haired woman. "Danny's not here," she said, all the while watching the purple goo as it grew a face and started to growl at her mom.
"Oh? And where is he?" her mom asked as she casually flipped up the hood of her blue hazmat jumpsuit and grabbed hold of the goggles. Maddie looked at the now sentient stew and turned the dial on the goggles. Green ectoplasmic energy beams shot out and incinerated the pot, leaving a smoking black scorch mark on the newly replaced stove top.
"Um, he's at Sam's," Jazz said quickly, "studying for a, er...test?" she still wasn't used to covering for Danny and gave her mom a nervous smile as she silently hoped she would believe her.
"MADDIE!" an Over-excited scream interrupted Jazz's thoughts. Both her and her mom looked to the door leading to the living room. Seconds later her dad, Jack, came skidding to a halt in front of the kitchen table. His smile as bright as his orange jumpsuit.
"What is it Jack?" Maddie asked
"It's the scanners!" Jack boomed excitedly, "There's a huge reading coming from the Fenton Ghost Scanner in New York!"
"Really?" Jazz watched as her mom excitedly ran over to the toaster. Pressing a button on its side revealed a hidden monitor in the kitchen wall, which Maddie silently study for a few moments. "These ecto signatures are spectacular!" she shouted in joy, "They're so different to the ones around here. Jack we must get a sample!"
"I know!" Jack exclaimed, practically jumping for joy at the prospect of collecting new samples. "Which is why we are leaving for New York tomorrow afternoon! I've already called the school and gotten us a hotel!" Jack smiled and looked happily at Maddie "We'll start packing straight after dinner."
"Oh dinner!" Maddie suddenly remembered, looking at the charred remains of her purple stew. "Jazz sweetie?" She asked, smiling guiltily at her daughter.
Jazz sighed, "I'll go order the pizza" she said, getting up from the table and walking to the living room.
"Good thinking Jazzerincess!" Jack called after her. Jazz sat down on the living room couch and picked up the phone. She dialled the already familiar number of the pizza place and waited for them to pick up.
'I shouldn't worry about Danny,' she thought, 'it's not the first time he's been gone for a day.' As Jazz ordered the pizza she mentally relaxed. Danny was fine, he was probably just having a busy day. She would wake up in the morning to find him passed out on his bed.
Jake was standing in the backroom of Lao Shi's electronics thinking back on what Kara and Sara had said after he'd rescued them.
"The hydra is retreating and won't come back. Oh, and you're gonna make some new friends, whoop de doo." Kara had half heartedly said.
"And one of your new friends will be crushed!" Sara had happily added
Jake smiled at the memory of his fortunes. Kara's were usually easier to understand and Sara's never turned out quite the way he expected. He was wondering how fate would twist the meaning of crushing his new friend, when he was suddenly aware of Gramps yelling at him.
"Jake!" he yelled, "Pay attention!"
"Sorry G," Jake replied sheepishly.
"Now that I have your attention," Gramps continued, his voice getting louder with every word, "do you mind telling me why you abandoned Danny Phantom?"
"I didn't mean to," Jake tried, "I didn't even realize I had left the Magus Bazaar until I actually got here."
"Why not?" Gramps asked, his anger melting away to be replaced by curiosity.
"There's something about him G that puts me on edge." Jake said, studying the old man's face as he spoke.
"What is it about him young dragon?" Gramps was now not only curious, but also concerned.
"I dunno, maybe it's cause he's a wizard or something."
"He is a wizard?" the old man asked
"I think so," Jake replied, "He saved me from the hydra by somehow transporting us to an alley."
"Hmm..." Gramps held his hand to his mouth, carefully thinking over the information Jake had given him. "That would explain how he followed you," the old man said.
"And how he managed to disappear on us before." Fu added.
"I am afraid you must return to the Magus Bazaar young dragon." Gramps said after a few moments of thought.
"Return! But Why?" Jake had no intention of going back, his pride was still bruised from being so easily defeated.
"You must go and find Danny Phantom. It was wrong of you to fly off without him."
"Not to mention rude," everyone jumped at the sound of the chilling voice from the side of the room. Jake spun to his left to locate the speaker and saw Danny sitting on the couch, breathing heavily.
Danny looked at the shocked faces around him. He understood why ghosts enjoyed scaring people, and although he'd never admit it to Jazz, he loved doing it too, just on a smaller scale than his enemies.
"How long have you been there!" Jake finally managed to say.
"Just got here," Danny replied between breaths, "I lost sight of you a while back so I had to check every building in the last couple of blocks."
"Well I guess you don't have to go back to the Magus Bazaar kid," Fu said to Jake, "By the way, how did it go with the hydra?"
Danny saw Jake cringe, "Not good," he admitted, "I knocked off one of its necks and it just got worse from there on."
"You did what!" Lao Shi shouted at Jake, "Why would you cut off its neck Jake? It clearly says not to in the book! Have you not been studying these things?"
"Wait, what book?" Jake asked, "I've studied every book we have in this place and I've never seen any info on a hydra."
"Fu-dog!" Lao Shi yelled, "Fetch the book on hydras!" Danny watched the wrinkled dog run to an old shelf in the corner of the room. He read a couple of the titles and instantly decided that if he ever showed them to Sam she would want to read each and every one of them. "Now if you did not know how to defeat the hydra, how were you still able to?" Lao Shi was looking at Jake, who was looking at the floor, trying to avoid the question altogether.
"No one defeated it," Danny said, trying to save Jake from Lao Shi's piercing gaze. The old man turned his head to Danny. "I had just started to fight the thing, when it decided to run off."
"It ran off?" the shock on the old man's face was crystal clear, "Why would it do that?"
"Beats me, "Danny replied honestly, "I'm as confused by it as you. It fired an attack, which I neutralised and then it ran off. Honestly, from the size of the thing, I was expecting more." 'Whether for self preservation or not,' he thought, 'that hydra had fled far too easily.'
"Strange," was all Lao Shi had to say.
"Gramps!" Fu-dog suddenly, and rather meekly, called from the shelf
"Yes Fu-dog?" he replied.
"I can't find it."
"What do you mean you can't find it?"
"I mean I've looked at all the books on the shelf and I didn't see it."
"Are you looking for the right book?"
"I think so, it's in Goth's guide to Mythology, right?" Danny jumped up at the mention of the missing books title.
"Excuse me," Danny interrupted, "the book you're looking for wouldn't happen to be very big, thick and have a blue cover, would it?"
"Yeah, that's it kid! Where did you see it?" Fu asked, obviously worried about Danny's answer.
"My girl- I mean a girl I know owns one." Danny mentally kicked himself for nearly slipping up. 'Careful Fenton, ghosts don't have girlfriends. Well not mortal ones anyway.'
"FU-DOG!" Lao Shi turned to the now trembling dog, unaware of Danny's slip of the tongue. "That was a one of a kind book!" Danny watched in silence as Lao Shi lectured the talking dog, both in English and Chinese. He couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the old man trying to get the book back from Sam, she had grown rather attached to it.
"So," Danny heard Jake say uneasily," where are you from?"
"Amity Park," Danny answered, glad that Jake was no longer ignoring him.
"Sorry, but I've never heard of it."
"Yeah, surprisingly most people haven't." Danny saw Jake's confusion at this statement and tried to clear it up, "You see Amity Park is America's most haunted city. There are constantly ghost sightings and paranormal stuff like that, but somehow everything barely registers a blip on a national scale." Jake seemed unsure on whether to believe what Danny had just said.
"Is is close by?" Jake asked
"Actually no." Danny said, unable to hide the disappointment from his voice. He was suddenly aware how far away he was from home. Amity Park was a full day's drive away and that was when his dad was driving. Worst of all he was already exhausted and highly doubted he would be able to fly home.
"Can't you just use a teleportation spell to get yourself back home?" Fu-dog suddenly asked, apparently free from his lecture. Danny starred incredulously at the talking dog.
He suddenly realised it was a serious question and the dog was waiting for an answer. "Um...no?" he said, confusedly.
"Well, then there is only one solution," he heard Lao Shi say, "until we are able to find a way for Danny Phantom to get home, he will stay with Jake."
"But G!" Jake instantly protested.
"No buts young dragon, I will phone ahead and deal with Susan." and with that Lao Shi left the back room.
"Oh crud." Danny said to himself as the mention of the word phone. He saw Jake carefully watching him as he pulled out his mobile phone and flipped it open. "Oh great, Jazz is gonna kill me!"
"Yo Phantom, what's wrong?" Jake asked
"My battery is dead," he replied sheepishly, mentally slapping himself for not remembering to plug it into the charger the night before.
"Don't worry, you can charge it at my place."
Uh thanks," Danny said," listen you don't have to give me a place to stay, I can find somewhere else," although Danny highly doubted that he actually could, but Jake had seemed so reluctant he didn't feel like he should be intruding.
"It's no problem dude, just no weird stuff, ok? My dad doesn't know about magical creatures and my mom doesn't want him to know yet."
"I promise to be as normal as possible, if you answer some of my questions." Danny looked Jake directly in the eye, making his expression clearly convey that he wouldn't take no for an answer. He was rather surprised to see Jake flinch at his glare. 'Oops! I didn't mean to look that serious.'
"Ok Phantom, I've got some questions for you too," Jake said, " but can it wait until we get to my place?"
"Ok, it's a deal then." Danny said , smiling at Jake. Danny followed Jake out of the store and down the snow covered side walk. 'I hope I can get home soon,' he thought. Amity Park needed him and if he didn't make it back for his and Sam's one year anniversary...Danny shuddered at the thought of what she might possibly do to him.