You'd think after over a year, Maddie would learn to avoid letting ectoplasm in the kitchen.
It was finally that time of the year. When the air turns crisp and cool. And Mother Nature dresses herself in a palette of red, orange, and brown, dyeing the earth under fallen foliage. It was Autumn. And more specifically, it was Thanksgiving.
(Fenton Works)
Though it was a holiday, it was a rather typical day. At least for most households in the town of Amity Park. Jazz was seated at the dining table, surrounded by a mound of books on like usual. Currently open in front of her was a rather impressive book about the human brain. And in the kitchen with her was her mother, who was cooking…something. Jazz wasn't entirely sure it was even qualified as cooking, seeing that her mother had her goggles over her eyes and sparks were flying all over the kitchen counter like fireworks.
"It was really nice of you to invite Vlad for Thanksgiving dinner, Mom." Jazz smiled as she spoke.
The mother, and unspoken head of the Fenton household, temporarily paused at her work and turned her attention towards her eldest daughter. "Well," Maddie turned off the blowtorch and turned the dial of the stove to the lowest setting before pulling off her goggles and hood, "it was actually Danny's suggestion."
"I know. But I thought you would be totally against it."
"I was just surprised," Maddie responded. She leaned her weight against the counter. "As I far as I can recall, Danny was about as fond of Vlad as I was. In fact, I had the impression he didn't like being around Vlad even more than me." She thought back to all their previous interactions with the current mayor of Amity and close friend from her and Jack's college days.
Jazz's lips twitched as she lifted her book over her face to hide her "I know something you don't" look.
Maddie continued to speak aloud her thoughts. "But it seems like it's gotten mellow between the two…Actually, it may have been that way for a while. Now it's like they get along."
Actually, it's been five months. It started as a temporary truce between the two during summer break when all the ghosts in the Ghost Zone (that enjoy tormenting Danny) decided that Danny Phantom had even more time to fight them since break implied no school. And while Vlad somewhat favored the idea of his enemy being occupied by fights, he couldn't allow his town to be destroyed in the process for that reason alone. Thus, leading to Danny and Vlad, along with Team Phantom, having to alleviate each other's work load. Team Phantom couldn't spend all summer hunting ghosts, and Vlad was still the mayor and an influential business man.
During that period, the two rivals ended up spending more time together. Danny even had to spend a few nights at Vlad's mansion to recuperate, which was very convenient because Vlad easily covered for him with minimum effort. Maddie was suspicious at first, and Jack, of course, approved without question. But Danny and Jazz simply defended him when they thought their mother was getting anxious.
And even after the spike in ghost attacks dropped back to normal, and the truce was officially null and void, Team Phantom was mildly surprised to find Danny Fenton and Phantom being civil around Mayor Masters and Vlad Plasmius. Publicly and not. Like is was completely normal. There was still the playful witty banter and some threats between them, but other than that – nothing. No ectoplasm or blood was spilled between them. None of the team members voiced their opinion, silently agreeing that they would just watch and wait. It's been four months since then.
Jazz silently observed as her mother continued contemplating the abnormal development. Before…
"Gwuuuaaaaarrgh!"
Jazz jumped and Maddie flinched at the horrid sound. The two turned in time to see the mashed potatoes that was being prepared for dinner escape the lid of the metal container Maddie was working on previously. It glared at the two briefly before screeching at them.
With her usual quick wit, Maddie quickly reached for the lid. "Gwuaa–"
There was a silent pause as the two waited for the violent shaking of the container to cease.
"Mom…What have I said about using ecto-equipment to make our meals?"
"Don't worry sweetie," she returned with a confident smile. "We have plenty of time to remake dinner before Vlad arrives."
The two stopped talking again as they eye the container emitting a disconcerting growl.
Jazz looked back towards the elder with a worried frown, which Maddie returned with a reassuring smile.
After pause of silence, Maddie slowly released her grip on the container and preceded towards the fridge. "Besides, you told me Danny was going to spend all afternoon with Vlad," she stated as she grabbed the fridge handle. "If worse comes to worst, we can call Danny and tell him to delay their arrival." She pulled open the fridge door – only to have the casserole and pumpkin pie, along with many other foods, leap for the opening provided and attack.
"Gyaa–" Maddie swiftly slammed the fridge door shut behind her.
"…" Jazz didn't say anything and just watched her mother, who just had a cramped smile.
(Somewhere in the Ghost Zone)
"Danielle!" Danny waved for said unofficial cousin's attention.
"Hey, Cuz!" Dani waved back and reached for a hug.
Vlad stood to the side with a small smile.
Danielle broke the embrace first and floated a little to side to face Vlad. "Hi, Dad…" The youth fidgeted while waiting for a response.
At first, Vlad didn't say anything. Then he just patted his daughter's head. "Hello, Danielle. How have your travels been?"
The young ghost smiled.
Danny watched silently while backing away slowly into the crowd, before turning around towards the center of the party. The teen quickly located the host of the festivities. "Lunch Lady," he called aloud.
The female ghost turned her attention towards the halfa. "My, this is a pleasant surprise. I didn't think you would really come."
"Why not? You had Box Ghost invite everyone. You even promised it would be peaceful. It's kind of like Christmas." Danny shrugged his shoulders while speaking.
The host of the party gave a complicated look. "I didn't promise anything about not fighting." She glanced around the remaining guests. "But usually, this holiday is unofficially similar. There wasn't any fighting last year either."
"Wait, wait," Danny raised his hands then pointed his finger towards her with a puzzled look. "You did this last year too?"
"Yes. I've been hosting a Thanksgiving banquet every year in the Ghost Zone."
Danny mumbled aloud to himself, "that explains why no ghosts showed up last year on Thanksgiving."
"It's just not official. Most of us just don't feel up to doing any haunting after a satisfying meal." She smiled with pride towards her cooking accomplishment. "Speaking of which. Why aren't you eating dearie?"
Danny blinked before realizing, "oh, don't worry. I'll definitely eat. Just later. Actually, that's the other reason I came to find you…"
…
"That'll more than enough," Danny stated. "Than-"
Ghostly screeching and howling suddenly could be heard as Cujo came bounding towards Danny. Unsurprisingly, the canine had a rather large bone in his jaw.
Danny couldn't react in time before being tackled against one of the floating doors. "Cujo! Down!" He didn't have to struggle much as the Lunch Lady swiftly pulled out a turkey leg in front of Cujo. The teen sighed, "thanks."
She nodded and floated off to feed her other guests.
Danielle's voice sounded immediately after. "Haha. So, this is Cujo?"
Danny turned his head and smiled at the sight of Danielle dangling on Vlad's shoulder. "Yeah. You have no idea what you've missed…"
The three halfas stuck together for the remainder of the afternoon. Danielle was greatly amused at the amount of threats Danny received during their interactions with the other guests. Though the threat to skin the teen and use his pelt still made all three cringe a little. While the threat was a little old, the idea was still not appealing to think about. Other than threats however, no fighting occurred, surprisingly.
…
"You two are leaving early?" Dani asked.
Vlad was the one to answer. "I'm supposed to have dinner with his family at around six o'clock. But we were expected to arrive at roughly five."
"It should be around 5:30 now," Danny stated nonchalantly.
Danielle gave them a perplexed look. "Wait, then why are you two still here?"
(Fenton Works – more specifically the living room)
"There's too many of them!" Jazz screamed.
"Just wait until your father gets here so he can open the weapons vault!" Madeline responded while swinging the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick at the oncoming ghost mashed potatoes. "Honestly, the one time he decides to update the system with a new passcode, and he doesn't tell me about it!"
"Why did you even send him off in the first place?"
"Let's be honest, sweetie." Maddie briefly paused and turned towards the younger. "Your father would have consumed majority of everything I cook before Vlad and Danny would arrive."
Jazz continued to wildly swing around her thick book on medical diagnosis. "Can't you just call him?"
"Your father lost his Fenton Phone again," she stated as she made a follow through from striking the turkey that leapt up towards her.
"Danny knew something like this was going to happen…" Jazz growled as she slammed her book down on the fifth ghost yam today.
(Back in the Ghost Zone)
"We thought something like that was going to happen," the two male halfas stated in unison.
"Madeline never was the best cook."
"I'm not going to deal with a headless turkey coming to life and throwing stuffing that wants to eat my face off again." Danny deadpanned. "I need to start learning to cook for myself."
"You've always complemented Mrs. Foley's cooking. You can ask her."
"I guess I could," Danny contemplated.
Danielle blinked. "Um, shouldn't you maybe help?"
Danny's casual tone didn't change as he responded. "Yeah, it is close enough to the time we planned to return home."
The two males looked towards each other. "You are certain this will work?" Vlad asked.
Danny grinned. "Positive." He turned towards a certain direction among the crowd of ghosts and gently whistled with two fingers.
(Fenton Works)
Jack had returned around when the salad started attacking. "Woah! At least it wasn't the ham!" He grinned as he dodged a cherry tomato bullet.
"Dad! This is serious!"
Maddie followed up on her daughter's statement. "Jazz is right, dear." She took another swing with the bat. "Danny could return home with Vlad any minute now."
"Oh, right," the male smiled. "Vladdy's coming over this year!" Making use of his large built, Jack started bulldozing his way through the army of ghostly food. He managed to reach the weapons vault and quickly began punching buttons on the keypad… "Uh, what was the passcode again?"
Both females halted. Jazz was too speechless so Maddie had to voice out for the both of them. "You mean you don't remember?" She asked, exasperated. "You changed it, didn't you?!"
Jack stared back blankly "I did?"
Before her mother could argue further, Jazz asked loudly over the growling and shrieking, "is there another way to open it?"
Jack took a brief second to answer. "Hm…we could shut off the power in the house, including the backup generator and force the system to reboot to how it was before the update. It always defaults back to just recognizing Fenton DNA until a new form of authentication is set."
"I would ask Mom why she didn't think of that; but for now, let's just go with that plan."
Maddie was about to speak before barking emanated from below.
Everyone, including the food, paused to confirm that they weren't mistaken of the sound.
"Arf, Arf!" In the center of all the chaos, came a small green pup.
Jack's eyebrows rose in recognition. "Hey, it's the ghost kid's dog! Heh, he is pretty cute." He smiled.
"Cujo?" Jazz didn't realize she said that aloud.
Maddie was somewhat surprised though. "Oh, is that its name?"
"I've heard Phantom say it a few times. And- is he eating that?"
Without even shifting to his larger form, Cujo was chasing after the ghost food. He seemed to be having fun, as his tail was wagging and his tongue was lolling out the side of his mouth.
The three humans watched, mildly stunned, and confused.
"Gyaaaaaaaaah!" The haunted pumpkin pie shrieked one last time before being consumed by the ghost hound.
It didn't take long to become a feeding frenzy.
All the food screamed in terror and began to flee towards the kitchen. Most of them tried to return to the fridge or oven, only for Cujo to follow them by fazing through any boundaries. The remaining food began to flee towards the Fenton Portal that was left open by Danny.
Cujo quickly followed the remaining prey into the Ghost Zone and the portal swiftly closed behind him.
The family stood in silence. Jack was the first to break it. "Well, that works too."
*Ding Dong*
The ringing of the doorbell quickly brought everyone back out of their stupor.
A young voice resounded from behind the front door, "Mom? Dad? Jazz? I'm back."
Maddie spoke aloud. "Danny's back. What now, Jack? There isn't enough time for me to remake everything."
Jazz was the one to answer though. "I'm sure Masters will be more than understanding." She rose from behind the gravy stained sofa, "Let's just let them into the house first," and opened the door.
The three were surprised to find the first thing they see being two large stacks of aluminum food trays.
Danny peaked from behind the stack he was carrying. "Hey, could you help me? This is kind of getting hard to hold up."
The father and daughter duo nodded blankly as they swiftly lent a hand in carrying some of the food that Lunch Lady prepared to the dining table. Maddie followed the group into the kitchen after hiding the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick and Jazz's books behind the couch.
Maddie ended up being the one to ask questions as Jack was too preoccupied gazing at the stuffed turkey and Jazz was helping to set up the table. "What's all this, you two?" The mother was more surprised than suspicious.
Danny turned up towards his partner, "Vlad actually wanted to bring something to add to the dinner table."
Vlad followed from there. "But my chef went ahead and made enough for a feast. This isn't even half of everything she made. I know it's a bit excessive but I'm sure a family of four can finish this faster than I could alone. My apologies if this seems a bit overwhelming."
The husband and wife pair glanced at each other. "Actually…"
Vlad, Danny, and Jazz shared a look and smile of accomplishment.
Thanksgiving is that day when many people stuff themselves with all kinds of food. I figured Lunch Lady does something on this holiday.
So, I'm going to go ahead and break that promise of not turning up for 6 months and drop this chapter here. Turns out my break gave me plenty of time to make another chapter. I really wanted to do something for Ectober, but didn't have time for that. Nothing I can do about that now. I'm alive people!
