Challenge 31- Stuck

Genre: Humor

Summary: Danny helps his parents with some of their inventions.

A/N: This takes place after Phantom Planet.

He was flying. He remembered flying high in the sky, chasing a random ghost, completely focused on his task. So it's only fair that he didn't notice the bright blue glow headed straight for him. By the time he noticed, it was too late. He was hit and was being dragged down into the prison he put his enemies into. Now he knew how his enemies felt when he used this on them. Only now did he notice how small the device actually was and for the first time wondered how they could all fit in there. He didn't have to wonder for long though because as soon as he entered the device, he saw only darkness. He could barely move. It was worse than being stuck inside the ghost weasel. He yelled and moved- at least he thought he was, he couldn't really tell- around as much as he could until he saw a blinding light and felt a strong pull in the direction he came…

He opened his eyes with a gasp. He sat up and looked around frantically. Once he was aware of his surroundings, he relaxed and rubbed his eyes with a groan.

"Stupid thermos," he said in annoyance as he crawled out of bed and headed downstairs, passing his sister's room in the process.

'Thanks a lot, Jazz.'

Ever since Jazz had trapped him in there three times in a row, he'd have dreams about being sucked into the thermos every once in a while. At first, it had been scary, but now it was just getting annoying.

As he got downstairs, he walked into the kitchen to find something to eat. As he was digging through the cabinets, he heard some tinkering down in the lab. Curiosity getting the better of him, he walked down to the basement to find his parents hovered over a table, various metal pieces thrown about.

"Hey, guys, what're you doing?" he asked. Maddie turned around at her son's voice.

"Oh, hi, sweetie. We're trying to come up with new containment devices, but we can't really think of anything so far."

He looked at the table and saw various blueprints and a thermos that had been taken apart.

"What are you doing with the thermos?" he asked, eyebrow raised.

"Oh, we're also trying to tweak the old inventions a bit, but we're not sure what we should do to them." Jack said, looking helplessly at the table.

Danny looked at the table too, particularly at the broken down thermos. He shivered slightly in remembrance and said automatically, "Well, for starters, you could try to make the thing less cramped and dark."

They looked at him incredulously. "Danny… have you been inside the thermos?" Maddie asked.

"Yup, three, maybe four times. You can thank Jazz for that." He said, slightly bored.

"How'd she manage that?" Jack asked.

"Those were her attempts at 'helping' me with ghost hunting, but her aim is terrible." He said looking annoyed.

They laughed, until they saw his playfully agitated look. "Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry." Maddie said.

"How bad was it?" Jack asked.

Danny thought about it for a bit. "Well, the first time was scary, but afterwards it was just annoying. It's just uncomfortable in there. I can't move at all, like that time I was in the ghost weasel. I couldn't really move in there either." He said.

Maddie looked slightly confused. "The ghost weasel? When were you—oh, that's right. Sorry sweetie." She said looking sheepish.

"It's ok, Mom." He thought for a minute before saying, "Hey, how about I help you guys out with this? I've been in combat with your inventions enough to give you some input. I could tell you what I think and you can tweak it up, or come up with something better. How about it?"

Maddie thought about it. "Danny, are you sure?"

He looked completely relaxed and slightly eager. "Sure, Mom; I mean I use some of this stuff too, so it's only fair that I help out. I'm not afraid of testing this stuff out."

Maddie looked surprised, and proud of her son for being so brave and helpful.

"Alright Danny, you can help." Danny grinned.

"Cool, what do you want me to do?" His parents looked at each other briefly before turning to him.

"Well, we're gonna have to test our regular weapons out, get your input, and see where we go from there. Are you sure you want to do this, son?" Jack asked.

"I'm sure, Dad. Don't forget, I have super healing. Besides, you can use this as one of my power checks, see how powerful I am." He said smiling, knowing they've wanted to test out his powers for a while.

That seemed to grab their attention, and they nodded their consent.

"Alright, Danny, get ready while we grab the equipment we need tested." They said as they walked over to the weapons vault.

"Alright." Danny said as he closed his eyes.

He searched deep inside for his core, and tapped into it, summoning the glowing rings around him and splitting them away from him, changing him from regular Danny Fenton into ghostly hero Danny Phantom.

He floated a few inches off the floor, waiting for his parents to come back. When they did, they came back with a few familiar gadgets he had had the misfortune to encounter before: the Fenton thermos, the ghost weasel, the Fenton bazooka, various ecto guns and the wrist rays.

"Ok, Danny, you ready for a little target practice?" Jack asked as he and Maddie strapped the various guns onto the training modules.

Danny flew to the center of the room, battle stance ready. "Ok, I'm ready. What are you guys looking for?"

Maddie thought a bit, "Well, overall range, blast strength, speed, overall effects, and anything else you can think of."

"Alright, let's get started." He said as his mom grabbed the remote and started up the training sequence.

He flew through that in about ten minutes, dodging, phasing, and occasionally blasting at the fired shots. It took a lot of self control to let himself get hit at least once by each ectogun to analyze the effects, which were just burns to him. Once that stopped, he flew down and took off the top half of his costume to let his parents analyze the burns, while listing down the few quirks he noticed.

Then came the next part of the testing: the capture and containment. This seemed to bother Danny, slightly uncomfortable about the thought of being inside the thermos or the ghost weasel again. It was probably a subconscious thought of being caught and not being able to escape. His past experiences might have also played a part in his discomfort. But, he pushed that thought away as he reminded himself that it was only a test. He'd be in and out in five minutes. His parents wouldn't keep him in there for long. He put his costume back on as his parents grabbed the thermos and weasel.

"Ok, Danny, this time just avoid and evade. We're testing range, capture strength and containment strength."

"Ok." Danny said as his mom started up the training sequence again.

He started flying around as shots fired towards him, only to avoid or phase through them as the fired, while also trying to dodge his parents' attempts to catch him. After a while, he loosened up a bit and was actually having some fun playing 'keep away' with his parents. That was, of course, until he dropped his guard and didn't notice a blast coming towards him. Too late to avoid it, it hit him, causing him to fall slightly, but just enough within range of the ghost weasel. Maddie knew this and turned it on, dragging Danny closer to her.

Danny, with all his might, tried to fly away from the hose, but to no avail. He was caught in the weasel's path and was being dragged towards it. He knew he couldn't fight it anymore once his tail was in and he just let it drag him in, getting reacquainted with his old friend: confined space.

"Darn it! And I was doing so well, too." He grumbled. His parents laughed.

"Yeah, you were doing pretty well. Now to get your input, and then we'll let you out." Maddie said.

Danny thought about it as he looked around as much as he could. "Well, it's cramped. I can't move. It's pretty much like being stuffed in a box that's smaller than you are. It's ghost proofed pretty well, since I can't phase through it or blast it. The range was pretty good, though it could be better." He said as his parents wrote down his thoughts.

"Ok, that's good, not much to improve." Jack said as he finished writing down his notes.

"Great! Now can you let me out now? I'm cramping up in here." Danny said, a little impatient.

"Right, sorry sweetie." Maddie said as she went to flip the switch to release him, but froze when she noticed something: it was broken!

Not wanting to panic her son, she tried to get it to work anyway. She quietly motioned her husband over to let him see the problem. He panicked slightly, before Danny spoke, sounding more impatient,

"Well? Come on!" Jack and Maddie looked at each other before Maddie spoke,

"Uh, sweetie, we… have a slight problem."

"What is it?" Danny asked, worried.

"Um, we're sorry to say this, Danny-boy, but the reverse switch is broken." Jack said sheepishly.

"What?" Danny yelled, the ghost weasel shaking back and forth.

He couldn't believe it! His worst- well, one of his worst- fears came true! He was stuck in this stupid box, all because of a stupid switch!

"Don't worry, Danny, we'll get it fixed, but it seems like you're going to be in there for a while until we do." Maddie said, trying to sound encouraging.

"Oh, man!" Danny said. He could barely move in here, starting to cramp up, and who knows how long it would take his parents to fix the switch?

"Don't worry, son, we'll be right here with you the entire time while we fix the switch."

He sighed, slightly reassured, "Well, at least it's better than being stuck in the thermos."