AN: Sorry this chapter took so long to come out. My computer was not available for the past two weeks; I won't bore you with the details. I hope you enjoy the new chappie. Just remember I will be using elements from the third DP season, but they won't be in the same order, or even all together. Certain plot elements will pop up from the same episodes at different times in this fic. Please read and review. I appreciate any and all constructive criticisms; even just dropping a line to tell me you enjoyed it is helpful.
Thanks to all my reviewers I'm Too Obsessed, Manyara, Thunderstorm101, Golden feathers Edward, wolfey141, LiLIndianPrinzess, and angel-phantom-babii.
Disclaimer: Neither Danny Phantom nor Sky High belong to me.
Summary: Some things just shouldn't be changed, and some things can't be changed. If they are it must be set to rights. This is a crossover with Sky High. Eventual slash… but not anytime soon.
Redemption: (noun) 1. An act of redeeming or the state of being redeemed. 2. Deliverance; rescue. 3. Recovery by payment, as of something pledged. 4. Paying off, as of a mortgage, bond, or note. 5. Atonement for guilt.
Chapter 6: Meetings and Opportunities
Will Stronghold was a good kid. He obeyed his parents, kept his room reasonably clean, and he treated his girl—ex-girlfriend well. They had started dating the year before during Homecoming, but had quickly realized that they were not ready for a relationship yet. They decided to wait until they were a little more mature before trying again. Will had a strong feeling that they broke it off mainly for his sake.
He did well in school, and did his best not to get in trouble. The point was that Will was a good kid. It kind of made him nervous when he was called into the principal's office. During summer break, no less.
He was waiting at the bus stop where the school bus came to pick him up during the school year so he could go to his meeting with Principal Powers. No matter how hard he thought back, he couldn't remember what he might have done to get called in.
"Hi, Will," came the cheerful voice of his ex-girlfriend behind him. "I guess you were called in to talk with Principal Powers too, huh?" she questioned through her smile. Looking at her in the early morning sun, Will felt a pang of regret that he agreed to just be friends for the time being, but he knew that it would be better for the both of them if they focused on their studies at school. They were too distracted with each other when they were together to do anyone any good. Obsessed. That was what she called it. They were obsessed with each other.
Will realized he had been staring at Layla for too long, she was still waiting for his reply. "Yeah." To his mortification, his voice broke mid-word. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Yeah, my parents told me last night that I was supposed to take the bus this morning—Oh, and they also said that we were going somewhere this weekend. All I could get out of them was that it had to do with the family business, but it wasn't really work. I didn't know whether to be relieved this morning finally came or worried that we have to go to the principal's office during summer break," sighed Will.
"I know what you mean. Mom cancelled our vacation. When I asked why, all she would tell me was that Principal Powers would explain." Layla opened her mouth to say something else to Will but was interrupted by the arrival of the bus.
"Yo, Will, Layla. You're comin' too? This is so weird, man. The whole gang is here." Zack was an enthusiastic person to be around. He always put 110 percent of himself into what he did. Minimum.
Will looked around the bus and saw that all his closest friends from freshman year at Sky High were there. Quiet Ethan was there, an African American boy with a love of both knowledge and the color orange was there. Next to him on the bus was Magenta, a goth girl with natural purple streaks in her hair and an attitude to match her appearance, which was to say she blasé.
Of course, there was Zack his previously mentioned energetic friend whose favorite color was neon yellow and had a glowing ability to match.
Looking further, Will could see Warren sitting in the back of the bus. He liked to wear black and leather (both if he could manage it) in attempt to frighten or intimidate anyone near him and hopefully keep them away from him. He had a chip on his shoulder the size of the state of Wisconsin due to the reputation his father, Baron Battle, left behind as one of the worst villains in recent history. This wasn't because Battle did the most atrocious acts (though that was part of it), it was just because he was a hero-turned-villain. Just that one fact knocked everyone off their feet and threw them into chaos. Then end result for the family he left behind was a wife who wasn't quite trusted in the hero community anymore, and a son who had to constantly fight against his father's reputation for villainy.
With Will and Layla on the bus, they completed Will's close circle of friends. Zack was right. It seemed that they were the only ones being summoned to Sky High to talk to Principal Powers. There was no way this was a coincidence.
"Does anybody know what this is about?" questioned Will. He saw in his friend's faces that they didn't. Well, in all but one face. "What about you, Warren? Do you know what's going on?"
Warren turned away from his contemplation of the passing scenery. "I thought I did," came the flat reply as he looked over the rest of the occupants of the bus, "but with the rest of you here, I have to be wrong."
"So you were expecting to be summoned," piped up Ethan from the front of the bus. "For what? It might give us a clue what this is about if you tell us."
"It doesn't matter," came the surly reply, "it can't be the same thing." For the rest of the trip the five friends tried to pry an answer out of Warren, which he stoically resisted.
Bothering Warren was a fruitless task, Will knew that he would not budge, but bothering him was a welcome distraction to the pending conversation with Principal Powers. Warren must have thought that, too, because he did not snap at anyone. And so, Will allowed his friends to continue pestering Warren until they reached Powers' office, and none of them got fried.
"Good morning. I hope you all have had a pleasant summer so far," smiled Principal Powers to her seated students. At their murmurs of assent she continued, "I have called you here to discuss letting you get a jumpstart on your future."
She paused to allow the group their exclamations of excitement to die down before continuing with a smile, "I take it all of you are interested?"
"Heck, yeah!" exclaimed Zack jumping up. He looked around at everybody's amused expression, sat back down and said more sedately, "Yes, of course we are."
"Good," said Powers brusquely, "because we would have to get started immediately." She got up and walked around her desk to hand out packets of information. "As some of you may know, Sky High offers the option for students who show themselves to be responsible and hard working to get a Hero's permit, which is very much like a driver's permit in that you would have a chance to practice heroing, but only with a seasoned hero present—yes, Warren, I'll get to you in just a minute. Let me finish explaining this." Warren had been getting impatient in his seat, in anyone else it would have been called fidgety.
When he calmed down, Powers continued, "The faculty and governing board of Sky High have decided to give this offer to the five of you. Now we usually allow students to take the initiative and approach us, but this is a special case. This year we have accepted a first generation student into the sophomore class here at Sky High."
"Whoa, a first generation hasn't come here in like thirty years!" exclaimed Zack.
"Since my dad," came the quiet voice of Ethan from the side of the group, a simple pride evident in his voice. "he was promised an acceptance here early at the age of thirteen after he stopped a tsunami from flooding most of Japan when he was vacationing there with my grandparents."
"Awesome."
"Exactly, Mr. Fontain. Your father was a terribly exceptional individual. He is a true asset to the Hero community, just as we hope for out new student to be."
"If he's supposed to be some hot-shot hero-to-be, what do you need us for?" asked Magenta, angry that her sleep in time was being wasted.
Well, Ms. Melisand, I was going to offer all of you the opportunity to prove yourselves worthy of a hero's permit by tutoring him and getting him acquainted with the hero's culture. Explaining to him the do's and don'ts that we have that are different from the civilian culture. You would also have the responsibility to help him with the upcoming year. All in all, you have to get him ready to be an official hero."
"Wait a minute. You mean you are giving us a year to teach some kid who doesn't know anything about anything on how to be a hero in one year when not only have we been preparing for this all our lives," exclaimed an indignant Magenta, "but we are also going to school for five years minimum to get ready for this!?"
"Yeah! What Magenta said," jumped in Zack, always ready to back her up.
"I don't know guys, it sounds kind of fun," interjected Layla weakly.
"If you'll settle down," began Powers loudly, "and let me finish explaining what you are to do if you accept, I'd appreciate it.
"We do not expect you to teach him how to do everything that is needed to get a hero's license. That would be quite impossible as you do not know everything, yourselves, for that. We just want you to help get him caught up and finished with sophomore year level by this time next year. That is all that will be required of you academically."
The group was excited at the potential opportunity this assignment would open for them and quickly agreed. Powers quickly explained the situation and got ready to escort the five out of her office.
"When we first started," began Will, thinking aloud pensively at the door way, "you mentioned us five, but there're six of us. Which of us is being left out?"
"Me," came the voice of the nearly-forgotten Warren, still in his seat in Powers' office.
"What! That's not fair!" exclaimed Will, "he should be given the same opportunity as the rest of us!"
"Mr. Stronghold! While trying to stand up for those that you perceive as slighted, it would suit you well not to jump to conclusions! As a matter of fact, the reason this option is not oven to Mr. Peace is because he has already proven himself responsible by working at the Paper Lantern last year."
Turning to Warren she said, "I was going to wait until I could make this offer without an audience, but we would like to make you partners with the new student for the next year. His code-name is Danny Phantom. He works out of Amity Park, Michigan. Normally we would pair you up with a hero, not a junior hero who doesn't even have a license, but Phantom has already been heroing for over nine months, and his opponents would provide you with a finer opportunity than if we paired you up with any other established heroes. While he is not a seasoned hero in the traditional sense, he has the most experience in a particular field that no established heroes have. You see, he fights ghosts. We would also like for you monitor his progress. We think you would do this better than if we were to set him up with an adult hero. The rest of the specifications of the assignment are in the file I handed you earlier.
"If you agree to this, you would get a hero's provisional license along with him instead of just a permit to work in his home-town where he is already acknowledged. I need your decision by this evening."
"What would happen if I didn't accept? And if I did accept, how long would I be stuck with him?"
"If you didn't accept, nothing would happen. You would just have to wait until we could find another hero to pair you up with. If you did accept, you would have to work with him at least for the next year."
Warren sat in his seat. Powers and the others stared at him from the doorway as he weighed his options. "Fine. I'll work with the neophyte."
"Warren, dude. Why didn't you tell us that's why you were working, man? We could have been heroing too." This, of course, came from Zack after they all trouped back into the bus to be taken back home.
"One, the information is there for anyone who bothers to read the student handbook; two, you never asked; and three, why did you think I was working there?"
"Well, you know with your parents and all, I thought…" Zack trailed off under the force of Warren's glare.
"Listen here, Day-Glo. I may not be as well off as you guys, but I do not need to work to help my mom make ends meet. Got it?" Warren asked forcefully.
"G-got it," stuttered Zack, shrinking into his seat.
The rest of the ride passed in uncomfortable silence under the oppressive weight of Warren's ire.
Danny walked to the Nasty Burger, wondering what he was going to tell his best friends. This whole thing was just so sudden, Danny's head was still reeling.
Him? Go to a school for heroes? It just seemed so surreal, like some great joke that somehow his family got together to pull. If he didn't know that his family had no interest in such things, he would have just blown it off… except Clockwork was in on it too.
Danny sighed in frustration, there was no way he could convince himself that it was all just a hoax. There went his slim hope of having a normal—er kind of pretend-normal life. But he was getting off topic. How was he going to tell his friends that he was going away for a year starting this weekend?
Danny arrived all too soon at the eatery and he still did not know how to break the news to his friends.
"You know Danny, we have to stop meeting like this."
"Yeah, the last time you asked to talk to us here and was wearing that face, you told us that you didn't have a god anymore. It can't be that bad."
Just like last time, Danny almost walked past his friends without even realizing it. Their voiced pulled him out of his daze. "Hey Sam. Hey Tuck. How're things going with you?"
"We're fine," answered Sam warily, "but that's not what we came here for. You said you had something important to tell us."
Danny cringed, the worry in Sam's voice made the guilt surge up and settle around his heart, chilling him. "Well, I got some news from Clockwork today."
"Does it have anything to do with why your parents picked you up from school today?"
"Yeah, kind of." Danny sat in silence staring at the booth table trying to collect his thoughts. Sheba wuz hur. Wuz up. Voices from the past haunting tables in writing in a public fast-food joint. Danny could feel hysteria, or a close cousin to it, bubbling up inside. His life was falling apart. When did his life get so out of control?
"Uh, Danny. Not that I don't like spending time with you and all, but I thought you were going to tell us something. You said it was important." It was Tucker that spoke up this time.
Danny looked up. It looked like Tuck and Sam were starting get anxious from the way Danny was behaving. He opened his mouth to tell them that he was leaving, "Does anybody want a smoothie? I'll buy."
"Danny, don't think that this is going to distract us from whatever is bothering you. You should just tell us. Don't worry about how it's going to sound. We're all good enough friends that if you say something stupid or if it comes out wrong we won't hold it against you," said Sam, eyeing Danny for clues to his behavior.
Danny opened his mouth to explain, but instead he heard someone say with his voice, "So, do you want a smoothie or not?" Oh, gods. That was him. He awkwardly stood up by their booth to wait for their answers. At their decline, Danny went off to get a smoothie, cursing his cowardice silently.
Thankfully, the Nasty Burger was busy so the line was fairly long. Danny frantically tried to think up a way to break the news to his best friends gently. He reached the front of the line before he could think of anything and reluctantly trudged back to their booth.
"Danny, you're starting to worry m-us," said Sam, her body tensed to take some kind of action that would get her the answers, something like ask his sister.
"Well," began Danny before taking a deep breath, his shoulders hunched with tension in anticipation of their reaction, "my parents have decided to send me to a new school for a year. To see how it would work out."
"Ha, ha, very funny, Danny. No, really what's going on man."
"Tuck, I'm not joking," Danny's voice rose before dropping back down in time for Danny to whisper, leaning over the table, "Clockwork was in on it too. He thinks it's a good idea."
"Oh, well Clockwork thinks it is a good idea." Danny flinched back from the scorn in Sam's voice. "The gods forefend against you doing anything Clockwork didn't first advise. You should never go against Clockwork's advice. Never mind that we hardly get to spend any time together anymore. Never mind that—" Sam broke off, her voice clogged with tears.
"Sam, please," Danny's face scrunched in anguish. "It's not like I have a choice," pled Danny miserably trying to get them to understand, "I miss you guys too, but Clockwork has ultimate say over anything connected to my training, I have to go. Besides maybe this will help make Phantom a better hero for Amity."
"Wait. What?" asked Tucker incredulously, holding up his hands to stop Danny's words, "What does your parents sending you to a new school have to do with Phantom?"
"Didn't I say?" His friends shook their heads, Sam's frustration visibly leaking into Tucker. "Clockwork set it up so that I would go to hero school for a year—including this summer—to learn how to be a hero from a school that excels in teaching people to be heroes. It is supposed to be the best one in the US. My parents think it's just a school for special kids. I—"
"Why," cut in Sam, biting off each word as she said them, "do you need to go to a school to learn how to be a hero? You already are a hero. You're doing just fine."
"Sam, keep your voice down. It'll only be for a year," he soothed, "and I'm supposed to be able to come back on weekends as soon as the regular school year starts up. We can spend time together then. Clockwork promised that he wouldn't do anything to get in the way of us spending time together on those weekends." His voice lowered so much that Sam almost missed the last part, "I've missed you guys too."
The three friends sat in mournful silence until Tucker took it upon himself to break up the mood, "Well, at least we have this next week to spend together, right?"
Cringing, Danny said, "Actually…"
"What now! Can't we spend any time with you anymore? You're going to be gone for ages, can't Cuckoo give you a break!"
"Sam—"
"No! Can't you see? He's taking you away from us. He—"
"Sam! My dad wants to take me fishing. He wants to have 'father-slash-son' time. I could swear he was reading out of a book."
Clockwork was unhappy. He was unhappy in two ways. He had left the business of preparing Danny to be a hero to Angela Powers as he had seen that she would make generally better decisions for Danny's training than he had and therefore did not think to check up on her. When she returned to the school to make preparations for Danny's hero training, she was reacting to the lingering fear of what would happen to Danny if he ever became evil. She might have been capable of making better hero training decisions, but that didn't mean she wasn't capable of making mistakes.
His second unhappiness was connected to the first unhappiness.
He was unhappy with himself. He realized that he was feeling protective and possessive of Danny. Somehow Danny had become important to him. He came to be almost like a son to the time ghost. He imagined that this tearing sensation between duty and desire for what was best was the way a parent would feel when they first send their children into the unknown. He missed Danny. He didn't want to allow anyone else to have access to his training.
He realized the emotion was illogical. He realized it and still could do nothing to diffuse it. It was becoming ridiculous.
What was worse was that with each passing moment, he became increasingly more agitated. It was almost as if he continued to expect Danny to walk in at any moment to continue with their current lesson.
This was a dangerous emotion to have considering what he had to do. He couldn't have emotions clouding his judgment.
Sighing, he did his best to dismiss his personal unhappiness and tried to recapture his detached impartiality. Business came first. He needed to talk to a certain Angela Powers about Danny's living arrangements, knowing even as he left that he would fail.
Will was curious. He and his parents were making a several hour drive to someplace they had never been before to do something in the "family business" wearing civilian clothes. The confusion factor did not diminish Will's curiosity. Instead it enhanced it. What in the world was going on?
At first he thought that maybe he was wrong and his parents really were doing some kind of real-estate business, but eventually discarded the idea as they never worked this far from Maxville.
"We're almost there, honey. Do you think we should tell Will yet?" Oh, yeah. His mom was enjoying this way too much.
"I don't know, Josie. He hasn't tried to ask us about what we were doing in the past five minutes. Maybe he doesn't care anymore." His dad too. For superheroes, his parents seemed to have an unexplored sadistic streak in them. Their wide grins clearly showed how much they were enjoying Will's discomfort. After a pause where the only reason he did not respond to their jibes was through a superhuman effort of will, they finally had pity on him and relented.
"Will, you know the special kid the school is accepting for this coming year?" questioned his mom.
"Ye-es," answered Will, drawing the word out. His mom stared at him, waiting for him to make the connection
"Will, we're going to meet him and his family." Seeing comprehension dawn, she continued, "There are a few things you need to know about him, though. You already know he is a first generation, but what you don't know is that his parents don't know about his… extracurricular activities." She continued explaining Danny's situation to him, making sure that they were all briefed on Danny's situation so that no one broke his cover—that privilege was reserved for Danny alone when he felt the time was right.
One thing was for certain, it was certainly going to be interesting to see how the family interacts.
"Now, remember, the school is to help special kids to reach their full potential," reminded Josie Stronghold, Will's mom, just before she knocked at the front door of the Fenton home.
The door opened to a red haired woman with vivid violet eyes. "Oh, you must be the Strongholds. Come in. Come in. I'm Danny's mom, Madeline Fenton' but you can call me Maddie. Would you like some refreshments? You must be a bit tired out from the drive." The woman, Maddie, nearly bowled them over with the force of her nervously cheerful personality. "Danny and Jack are not back yet; they went on a camping, fishing trip. They should arrive in a few hours. Until then, we can all get to know each other."
Even with all of their combined crime-fighting experience, the Stronghold family was completely unprepared for the next few hours that awaited them.
By the time Jack and Danny returned home, their "fishing prize" in tow, Maddie was convinced of the Stronghold family's trustworthiness with her son, and the Strongholds from Steve to Will were wrung out from the experience. They talked among themselves while Maddie went to greet the two wayward members of the household.
"Wow. I wouldn't feel at all sorry to pit that woman up against Blazesoul, or Necrotic. She's certainly a force to be reckoned with. The daughter either. She could probably talk them into turning themselves into jail," stated Steve Stronghold. "If this Danny has even a quarter of either of their zeal, he will certainly be one if the finest heroes of your age, Will."
"Well, you couldn't expect Maddie to just send her child to live with complete strangers. And if Angela was correct, Jazz is the only one of the family to know Danny's secret. I would have been worried if they hadn't done something to make sure we weren't child abusers," admonished Josie. Steve's reply was cut off by the sound of the Fenton family coming back. They could see a little bit of the interaction through the doorway in the livingroom.
"I'm glad you both had fun, sweetie. I'm just glad you both made it back, even if you are a bit late. The Strongholds have been here for hours." Josie and Steve noticed the two Fenton parents exchanging a subtle glance that told them that there was nothing accidental about their late arrival.
"I'm glad we're back too. Now, could you help me stuff this thing in the freezer before we start anything?"
"Sur—Wait a minute, where did it go? Monsters that size don't just disappear," She looked back into the hallway, "Danny, sweetie, what were you doing in the basement, and did you see where the creature you and your dad caught went?"
Danny walked into the living room where the Strongholds were sitting, looking slightly nervously at his parents, "Ehe, not really. Maybe it ran away."
Clearly, this family had issues. And not the kind you can by at the supermarket for $9.99 for a dozen of them.
In the end, the two families judged each other to be decent people, and Danny took the clothes he packed before the fishing trip to leave with the Strongholds with a promise to return after settling in a bit to get more of his baggage.
Hint: Reviews are an author's ambrosia.
AN: I didn't mean to make Sam so clingy. In cannon, she likes Danny but in this story they can't hang out very much anymore. She's at her breaking point right now. It's necessary. The way I see it, she sees that Danny is slipping away from them and she doesn't like it. She ought to go back to her regular self next time she shows up. Also, please ignore the slightly (ok really) improbable action of parents trusting their child to virtual strangers. If someone really wants me to, I can re-write the last scene so that it involves more getting-to-know-you time, but the end result will be the same.
AN2: I had a review on chapter 3 recently that told me maybe I should clear up something. In this story, the Greek and Roman gods are real. "Calling on" them has fallen into disuse. Ghosts (and other supernatural beings) were sealed away behind a barrier to keep them out of mischief. The gods can do stuff since they cannot be sealed away by mortal means, but they only rarely do so as it interferes with the barrier and weakens it. It is more of a bragging right than anything else. Kind of like "Well my family follows this god, and therefore my family is better" for most people. Mostly though it is tradition passed on since they know the gods are supposed to be coming back (even if they don't know when). They don't want the gods to be angry at them collectively later when they finally do come back. All in all it is mostly a social thing (not religious) for this story. Mostly lip service, not anything else.
AN3: I won't have a pairing vote, but I may have a vote on what classes Danny will be taking.
AN4: School has started. I don't know how often I will update, since I don't know how busy I will be (and how difficult I will find my classes) but I will do my absolute best to at least maintain my current updating schedule.