Hey everyone. Sorry for the late update. I got busy with exams and stuff, but now I'm back.
Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Homeless kid
Dani slept warmly in her bed. She had a smile on her face as she snuggled in her sheets. It has been hours since she was awake and fortunate for her; no one had come to interrupt her. The hours went by before Dani woke up with a yawn.
The ghost girl sat up and rubbed her eyes as she looked around. She still felt exhausted from the sleep, but when she remembered someone her eyes went wide.
"Clark!" She whispered a bit higher than usual.
Now remembering what happened hours ago, she ran out of her bed and ran to the window. She found it was nighttime and ran out of her room to the living room. When she got there, she found Jack Fenton, her adopted dad, sitting on the couch with his wife, Maddie.
Both parents heard footsteps and looked back to find their adopted daughter, Dani.
"Hey, sweetie, how did you sleep?" Maddie smiled cheerfully.
"I…um slept well." Dani said, though she was a bit distracted to go away, "Can I get out? I want to do something."
"Oh no, young lady!" Jack said as he got up and walked to her, "Tomorrow is school and you have to get to bed."
"But I just woke up?"
"Then uhhh…go take another one."
Dani scoffed and crossed her arms in annoyance. But she said no word and walked back to her room.
Maddie watched her go and looked at Jack, "Are you sure you weren't too hard on her?"
"To tell you the truth I don't know." Jack said with a thoughtful look.
LINE BREAK
However, unknown to her parents, Dani actually flew out of the house. When she got to her room, she changed into Dani Phantom and flew out of the house. It was a good thing the ghost alarms were off or they would have caught her.
She flew through the air of Amity Park and searched for any sign of Clark. The last thing she remembered was getting hit by Skulker and falling unconscious. How she got into bed was beyond her, but now she has questions to ask. One of the things that worried her the most was if Clark was okay.
For two hours, she flew around Amity Park while looking for Clark. She went to every place she knew and tried looking for him as fast as she could. But unfortunately she couldn't find him. Then a thought that Skulker may have captured him made her to fly home.
Dani flew into her room and became intangible before flying through the floor. She arrived at the lab, but then an ecto net flew at her and caught her. She was sent to the ground and heard a familiar voice.
"Whoops!" Jack came running to her.
Dani looked up and found him standing before her, "Oh…um…hey, dad." She smiled sheepishly.
"Hey, Dani, what are you doing here?"
"Uh…I was just…flying around the house. Nothing suspicious."
Jack blinked a bit and smiled, "Okay. Well sorry about the ecto net. Just tried it out when you came in the way."
"Okay. So now can you get it off me?"
"Sure."
Jack removed the net off her and threw it away, "Well now that's gone. You better head to bed."
"Sure." Dani said, but looked to the ghost portal. To her disappointment, it was locked, "Why is the ghost portal locked?"
"Oh, well Danny thought we should close it for the night in case any ghost thought of flying out. He's on a date with Sam right now."
"Okay." She looked away annoyed and flew through the ceiling.
"Did I say something wrong?" Jack asked himself.
Dani didn't hear him as she flew back into her room. The usual white rings came around her waist and changed her back to normal. Now back to normal, she climbed on to her bed and frowned sadly.
"Please be okay, Clark." She whispered and fell asleep.
LINE BREAK
In the park, Clockwork sat on a branch in a tall tree. He had been there for hours, knowing full well that Dani will come looking for him. It was best for him to hide because he didn't want to ruin things for Dani and her family. That moment he regretted entering the deal with Madeline.
A few hours back, Clockwork looked up and saw Dani fly above. She was really determined to find him, but he wasn't determined to let her. He instead watched her fly back to her home before jumping down.
"This cannot get any worse." Clockwork muttered to himself.
"That depends, child." A deep familiar ghostly voice said.
Clockwork looked back and found Skulker hovering right above him.
"We have unfinished business, human." Skulker snarled at him. Before Clockwork could run, Skulker caught him by his shirt collar and glared at him in the eyes, "Now tell me how you were able to throw that blow."
"Um…lucky punch?" Clockwork smiled nervously.
However, Skulker didn't seem convince. He threw Clockwork on the ground and yelled, "I don't hunt human children unless it's for a price or if they unique. But now you're going to run for your life."
Upon hearing that, Clockwork ran as fast as possible. He could hear Skulker's laughter as he ran and made no move to stop. There were many ways he could use his powers to aid him, but since Skulker was a determined hunter he would track Clark to the extent that he'll blow his secret as the ghost master of time.
So he had to rely on his futuristic knowing and human stamina to aid him. As Clark he was fast for him age, though not in a suspicious level. He ran out of the park and headed to the direction of a street he knew. But as he did, he heard the sounds of roaring jets and looked up behind him to find Skulker chasing him.
"What are you? Show me!" At the last word, Skulker shot an ecto blast from a mini gun on his wrist.
Clark was able to avoid the attack and still keep his focus on running forward. This impressed Skulker a bit as he kept firing more ecto blast at him. The determination on Clark's face made the hunt more entertaining. The only determination like that he had seen was Danny and his friends.
However, Clockwork as Clark already had everything planned as on time he ran pass Danny who was walking with Sam from a date. To make the scene more realistic and threatening, he screamed.
"AHHHH! Help me!"
Danny and Sam saw Skulker pass right by them and soon enough his ghost sense went off.
"Why is Skulker chasing that kid?" Sam asked.
"I don't know, but he's going down." Danny said and ran off to their direction, "I'm going ghost!"
A familiar ring formed around Danny's waist and departed in two. One went up and the other went down. His appearance and physical abilities changed as he now ran as Danny Phantom.
Once the transformation was complete, Danny took off to the air and punched Skulker from behind. The unexpected attack sent Skulker crashing to the ground and ending the hunt.
"Seriously, Skulker? You've become so desperate that you're hunting a kid now?" Danny hovered right above him with his hands crossed, "That's so poor and low even for you."
Skulker let out a groan as he stood up, "Silence, whelp! There is something with that child and I will find out."
When Danny looked at Clark he saw only a normal child who oddly had purple hair, wore a black and red T-shirt and blue pants. Skulker's claim was wrong by the appearance of the kid and since Danny's ghost sense didn't go off by the kid's presence he concluded Skulker was wrong.
"Yeah right." Danny said sarcastically.
"I didn't need you to believe, ghost child." Skulker stated and shot an ecto blast at Danny.
However, the shot was avoided as Danny moved to the right. Skulker growled in anger and flew up straight at him. His shoulders opened up missiles packs and he let them all out at Danny.
To avoid getting hit, Danny put up a shield around him. The missiles hit his shield which didn't strain him or the shield. He put down the shield and shot an ecto blast at Skulker who was flying towards him. He moved to the right to avoid the blast and tried to ram himself into Danny. But the halfa hero flew to the right and shot an ecto blast at his blast as he passed him.
Skulker's right jet got hit, causing him to fly away uncontrollably. Danny watched him go before looking down and seeing Sam run to Clark.
"Get the kid to a safe place. I'll go get Skulker and meet you back in my house."
Sam nodded and watched her boyfriend fly away. She went to Clark and stood on one knee to his level.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, thanks for saving me." Clark smiled a bit, "Well I better be going. Bye."
Sam stood up and crossed her arms over her chest, "Well, where's your home?"
Clockwork came to a stop, "It's…well far away."
"You don't have a home, do you?" Sam gave him a skeptic look with a raised eyebrow.
Clark nodded, "Yeah. I'll admit my lying was weak."
Without any warning, Sam grabbed his hand, "You'll have to come with me. A kid like you isn't safe here."
Of course, Clark didn't take it likely with Sam and tried to escape out of her grip. But he didn't achieve it as Sam dragged him away to the extent that he gave up.
"Huh, she's strong for her age." Clark muttered.
LINE BREAK
An hour later had passed and Danny flew back to Fentonworks. He went to the front steps, changed back to normal and walked into the house. When he got there, he looked into the living room and found Sam lying on the couch while Jazz sat on a chair reading a book.
"I'm back." Danny said as he walked into the living room.
Sam opened her eyes, having taken a short nap. She yawned a bit, "Took you long enough. So did you get Skulker?"
"No. He managed to hide from me." Danny said as he sat next to her, "Besides, he'll come back and I'll kick his butt back to the Ghost Zone. By the way where is the kid from the fight?"
"He's in your room." Sam stated immediately.
"What?" Danny jumped to his feet, "Why is he there? I thought you'll take him home."
Sam sighed calmly as she stood up, "Danny, he's the same kid we met in the Nasty Burger. We talked about him when we saw him remember?"
"Oh right." Danny calmed down, "So is he really homeless?"
"I got the truth out of him, so yes he is."
Danny frowned a bit and turned to the stairs, "Well let's go meet him."
"I'm coming too." Jazz said as she put her book away, "Sam just brought the kid here and threw him right into your room."
"You threw him?" Danny looked at Sam.
The goth girl smiled nervously, "Not like that. I just threw him on your bed. Besides, I was frustrated from bringing him here while he struggled."
"Fine." Danny sighed.
So with that over, they walked to the stairs to meet Clark. They went to the front of Danny's room door with Danny opening it cautiously. He first took a peek in and walked in with the girls following sooner.
They looked around Danny's room and found Clark lying on his bed. From the looks of it he was asleep peacefully. Jazz smiled warmly at the scene and used the covers to put on him.
"Isn't this so cute?" Jazz giggled a bit.
"Yeah, but now I got no place to sleep." Danny said with a glare.
"Relax, Danny." Sam said as she stood next to him, "You still got those sleeping bags, right? Well you can use one of them to sleep well."
"Okay. I guess that'll work."
Sam nodded and kissed him on the cheek, "Well I got to go. As much as I don't care what my parents think of me I don't want them to worry about me. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah. Well goodnight."
Sam responded by and walked out of the room. Then, later on Jazz left to get to bed, leaving Danny to get the sleeping bag. He set it next to his bed and slept into it. It wasn't long and he was long gone in dreamland.
LINE BREAK
Morning soon arrived and the Fenton family was awake. Dani walked pass Danny's room, unaware of what had happened. She did the normal for people waking up and was now heading to the kitchen for her breakfast. She got to her seat and saw a plate of food already in front of her. Jazz came soon and sat to eat hers as well.
The food was toasted bread, a glass of milk and fried eggs. Dani found it delicious by just looking and began to eat. She looked to Jazz and found her eating too. She noticed Jack was there except his plate was with fudge. Maddie was there, but one person was missing.
"Hey, where's Danny?" She finally asked.
"Over here." Danny yawned.
The rest of the family looked at him and saw him walking. He had a bit of a tiring look, but fortunate enough he still dress as smart as he was.
Again, he let out a yawn as he sat down, "Men am I beat. Sleeping on a sleeping bag is great and all, but I would really like to have my bed back."
"What are you talking about, Danny?" Dani asked as she was clueless to the whole thing.
"Oh yeah I didn't tell you." Danny said right after eating some eggs, "We found that kid from the Nasty Burger."
Immediately Danny said that, Dani's eyes grew wide as she released grip on her spoon. She stayed still like that for a second before rushing to the stairs in seconds. Danny and the others were surprise at her reaction as they watched her leave.
"She's fast." Danny was the first to say.
By the meantime, Dani ran to Danny's room and opened the door. She ran right inside and went to the bed only to find what she came to confirm was true. Danny was right, except that he didn't know that boy was Clark. Just by seeing him made Dani happy that she slightly touched his purple hair. The young teen was still asleep so he was unaware she was around.
"Dani." Danny called as he stood by the door, "We have to go to school."
"Aw men." Dani whined, "But can't I just stay with Clark a bit?"
"Clark?" Danny questioned as he glanced at the kid on his bed, "Is that his name?"
"Yeah, Clark Benson." Dani nodded.
Danny thought about it. He had no idea until now that Dani knew his name. His best guess was that she got to know him after she accidently changed into her ghost form in front of him. And by the looks of how she wants to stay said that she was getting attached to him. He couldn't blame her though. Being in the family of the world famous Danny Phantom made it hard for her to get friends. She only had one, but Danny hadn't met the friend.
"Well Clark will still be here when we get back from school. So let's go, okay?"
Dani hesitated before agreeing, "Fine."
Now that was over with, the two halfas left the room and got ready for school. They left later on with Maddie and Jack driving them; fortunately it was Maddie that drove. This left a sleeping Clark and Jazz all by themselves.
LINE BREAK
An hour had passed and Clockwork as Clark began to wake up. He let out a yawn and became surprise about it as he held his lips. Never in his life or really afterlife had he experienced something like that. Sleeping was another thing that surprised him the most.
Being the ghost master of time, Clockwork never had the chance to rest or anything comforting. He always watched the timestreams and ensured that everything went according to the way it is. So when he woke up, he was surprise that he actually slept.
"This is new." He muttered to himself.
His mind soon cleared enough for him to look around. He recognized the room that instant, being the master of time itself. He knew he was in Danny's room with the last thing he remembered being thrown on the bed by Sam. He knew that right after that he felt exhausted from running from Skulker and trying to escape from her that he fell asleep.
Now that he thought of things, he found it ironic that he tried staying away from the Fentons that he's now living in their house. But now that he had a goodnight rest he had to leave before things get bad.
However, the door opened and Jazz walked right in.
"Oh! You're awake." Jazz said, seeing Clark awake on her brother's bed, "You must be Clark, right?"
"Yes." Clark replied, though a bit surprise that she knew his name.
"Great. Well my name is Jasmine Fenton, but people normally call me Jazz."
As if on cue, Clark's stomach growled. He was surprise that it happened, but before he could say anything Jazz interjected.
"You must be hungry. Come with me, I know how to fix that up."
Clark complied easily and followed Jazz out the room. They went to the kitchen where Jazz prepared a sandwich and tea for him. They sat on the kitchen table and began to chat while he humbly eats.
Jazz was surprise that he ate so calmly. She had read in some cases that homeless kids normally lose any eating habit, but here was one before her that ate well. She became intrigued and began to ask questions about him. However, she didn't know she was speaking with one of the greatest minds in time and space.
Clockwork knew well to play oblivious and avoid the question. He was a great actor and since he was in the form of a thirteen year old kid, Jazz didn't suspect a thing. She soon gave up on the questions and began to chat with him about herself.
An hour passed and the front door was heard open. Both Jazz and Clark looked out the kitchen and found Dani standing there.
"Great, you're still here!" Dani almost exclaimed loudly as she ran to Clark.
Clark's wrist was caught by Dani and he was pulled out of the kitchen. Danny came later with Sam and Tucker, but now having a confuse look.
"What do you think she's doing with him?" Danny asked.
"I don't know, Danny." Jazz told him and explained, "From what I've seen so far, Dani knows more about Clark than we do."
"That wasn't hard to figure out." Sam said, "Danny explained everything to me."
Danny nodded, "And I want to find out what life this kid has."
Tucker took his laptop and put it on the dining table. He sat on a chair and waited as everyone else stood behind him to view the screen.
"Good thing you have me. I did some research and found out our missing kid in your home."
With a proud smile, Tucker pressed a key on the laptop and the screen viewed important information. Danny and the girls looked at it and gasped, almost not believing what they're seeing.
LINE BREAK
By the meantime, Dani pulled Clark into her room and shut the door. But of course this was expected by Clark, being the all knowing Clockwork after all. He knew something like this would happen the next time he'll meet Dani. She wanted answers about last night battle with Skulker and the only answers she can get are from him.
"Alright spill." Dani turned to him with a strong voice and her arms crossed, "What happened after I was knocked out?"
As much as she was happy to see him, she couldn't shake off getting suspicious. She looked at his face very well, trying to find any hint of nervousness but failed to find any. Clark just looked at her and shrugged, "I don't know."
"Wait, what did you say?"
"I said I don't know." Clark said, "Just like you I'm confuse and don't remember a thing. The next thing I know is that robot ghost chasing me and your cousin saving me. If you're that suspicious then you can ask him."
Dani realized he was offended and softened up, "Look, I'm sorry about what I said. I just wanted to know why I ended up in my room. I got worried about you and now I'm happy you're safe."
Clark became quiet for a few moments. He had listened to what Dani said, but couldn't understand well. Dani was worried about it, but why? He just met her a few days ago and now she cared for him. He guessed it was the human love he always saw happening. But now that he was experiencing it, he felt the urge to ask.
"Why do you care about me?"
Dani became hesitate, but smiled, "I've never had a true friend except a girl in school. Being the adopted sister of the famous Danny Phantom made it hard to find good friends. But when you found out about my ghost form you didn't care. In fact we hung out a bit afterwards, before Skulker came."
Again, Clark thought about this and understood. Dani was being caring and kind to him. He has seen this for centuries and at times felt sad when man turned against their fellow person. The world of humans was weird, but at the same time it was wonderful. Maybe hanging out with Dani wasn't bad as he thought. He was already learning about humans.
"You're welcome, Danielle." Clark smiled humbly.
"Alright." Dani returned the smile, "So you ready for some fun."
"What do you mean?" Clark asked, but not because he didn't know. He knew what she meant by plan and wasn't sure if he should go with her.
Dani chuckled a bit and changed into Dani Phantom, "I'll show you what I mean."
Without saying another word, she grabbed Clark's wrist and flew right out of the window.
LINE BREAK
Well that's where I'll stop for now. Just know that this story isn't abandoned and if it is then I'll tell you all about it. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please review, favorite and follow. Have a nice day.