Bluemoonalto: How can the toaster be not so scary? It fires lasers! And three drills.

Disclaimer: I do not own "Danny Phantom". All the characters you will read about are property of Nickelodeon.

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Technical Difficulties

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Chapter 11: One by One

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"Jazz, sweetie," Maddie called to her daughter, who was just finishing her homework on the living room coffee table, "have you seen Danny? He's should've been home by now."

"Oh, uh," Jazz answered, slightly hesitant, "his friends told me he had detention."

"What for!" Maddie asked, very irritated.

Jazz paniced a bit. Sam and Tucker only told her to say detention to cover his search for Valerie. She was never given a reason as to how Danny got detention, so she had to act fast. "Food fight!" Jazz thought up. "He started a huge food fight in the cafeteria. Last I heard, they were still cleaning up the cafeteria. Don't expect him back home for at least another hour."

There was a moment of awkward silence before Maddie said, "That boy is going to be in so much trouble." She then walked back in the kitchen. Jazz gave a sigh of relief as she finished her writing and closed her books. She thought she'd spend the rest of the day with TV before her daily diary entry until she heard a small crash in the basement.

"Oh, no," Jazz worried. She rushed down to the basement and hoped for the least.

Quietly opening the door and quickly sneaking down the steps, Jazz kept caution of whatever ghost might've slipped out the Fenton Ghost Portal. When she came to the bottom step, Jazz took cover behind the wall to see the ghost that attacked the lab may or may not actually be a ghost. It was a green-armored huntress that stood above the remains of Fanton Ghost Catcher, an item that looked much like a giant Native American dream catcher that seperates a ghost from whatever it was possessing. Whatever the reason, that ghostly being wanted it destroyed.

"Now with the Ghost Catcher destroyed," the huntress-ghost-whatever gloated, speaking in a male and female voice, "I, Technus, through overshadowing the suit of Valerie Gray to which I worked my way into her free will, am unstoppable!"

"You what!" Jazz said, exposing herself unintentionally. Technus looked over to the girl, much disappointed in himself.

"You heard everything, didn't you?" He had to ask.

"That's right," Jazz said, now trying to sound tough, "and I'm not letting you destroy anything else in this lab that might stop you."

Technus paused and looked around the lab a bit before shouting, "That's a great idea! I've always heard you were the smart one! And just so you don't tell anybody else..." Technus summoned a boleadora into his hand, spun it around his head, and threw it at Jazz. Jazz found herself tangled up before she could get away. Technus took the oppertunity to continue bragging. "Now that you are incapacitated, I, Technus, shall now destroy all the contents in this laboratory, use you as bait to lure and destroy the ghost child, then rule over this world!" Before he could even get a blast out...

"We heard loud, annoying shouting in here," Jack barged in with Maddie by his side, both armed with ecto-guns. "What's going- Suffering spooks!"

"So much for that plan," Technus said to himself before redirecting his attention back to the Fentons. "Oh well, a consulation prize wouldn't hurt!" He flew off, picking up Jazz in the process, and exited the lab via intangability.

"Jazz!" Maddie cried out.

"I don't believe it," Jack said, showing concern. Being who he is, that concern didn't last too long. "That suit was awesome! Did you see how it just made that board appear out of nowhere? That is so cool!"

"Will you focus Jack?" Maddie said, trying to talk some sence into her husband's thick skull. "Our daughter was just kidnapped!"

"Oh, right," Jack said. "There's only one thing left to do!" Jack reached into his pocket only to pull out what made Maddie's anticipated expression turn sour. "2:28 PM: Jazz kidnapped by-"

"Will you just forget about the notepad?" Maddie didn't want to be stalled any longer and slapped the notepad out of Jack's hand.

"Alright, fine," Jack pouted. His moment of gloom quickly melted away when he heroicly shouted, "To the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!"

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"Technus has Valerie, now I have to know why," Danny told Sam on his cell phone while flying back to his place.

"Danny, aren't you the least bit concerned about what Valerie might do to you after you play hero to her?" Sam, alone in her room, had to ask.

"Don't worry about me," Danny informed. "Just keep an eye out for any attacking kitchen appliences."

"Will do, I guess," Sam reluctanty answered before hanging up. This was really one of the only moments where Sam didn't want to help Danny. She'd also be helping out the person who hunted Danny down relentlessly and was pretty mean to her, Danny, and Tucker some time ago. Now Danny starts caring for Valerie as if nothing happened. After what just happened today, the last thing Sam wanted was for Danny to be hurt, not physically, but emotionally. She cared for Danny too much. It was really that she...

"GOTCHA!"

Sam suddenly found herself entangled in a boleadora and grabbed from behind. She looked back to see her capturer and appeared less surprised than one would think.

"Valerie!" Sam exclaimed, sounding as if she knew all along. She also took note of Jazz being tied in the same type of boleadora dangling beneath Valerie's jet board. "I knew you were still in a grudge with Danny, so now you're trying to take all of us and use us as bait to lure Danny in and finish him off once and for all!"

"Wow," the overshadowed ghost huntress said, "I can't believe I didn't blurt that out."

"Wait a minute," Sam began to realize, "Technus!"

"Bingo!" Technus answered. "And I plan to use you as bait..."

"She already said that!" Jazz mentioned.

Technus paused and then said to Jazz, "You know, you're really taking out the fun in this." He then continued broadcasting his plans. "Now to kidnap the geeky one so that I, Technus, can destroy that wreched ghost child and rule this world!" He took off and out on Sam's room and went to do what he said.

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Danny reverted back to human form as he approached his house so he wouldn't get his parents driven. He entered his house and called out, "Mom, Dad, I'm home! Sorry for what I did to..." He felt an eerie calm in his house. Something didn't seem right. "Is anyone there?" He looked all around the house: the living room, the kitchen, his room, Jazz's room, his parents' room, and the op. center until he finally got the the lab in the basement.

What he saw down there had him somewhat worried. The floor had scattered pieces of dark metal and glowing netting. Danny knew it was the Fenton Ghost Catcher, destroyed by Technus, without a doubt. Danny used the Ghost Catcher to seperate Technus from machines a few times before, meaning Technus must have a great power in his possession. What was stranger was that it was the only piece of equiptment that seem to've been destroyed.

Along the scraps of Fenton technology, Danny also spotted his dad's notepad. Danny found this odd, since Jack never set himself apart from it. He look through it to find the last entry, which gave him even more worry. "2:28 PM: Jazz kidnapped by" was all it read. First Valerie, now Jazz? Technus has gone too far.

Danny called up Sam to give her the latest info. The tone came up three times, which wasn't normal even for a non-prep like Sam. "Come on, Sam, pick up," Danny pleaded.

"This is Sam. If you're listening to this, then I just don't care. Just leave your massage that I'll probably delete without hearing anyway."

Okay, so Sam isn't in the mood. Danny decided to call Tucker, who picked up right after the first ring.

"Yeah?" Tucker answered, sounding very nervous.

"Technus has something big with him," Danny informed, "and worse, he's also got Jazz."

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"You know," Tucker said to Danny, "it's funny you should mention those things right now." Tucker recieved his call after being cornered by Technus, whom he too thought was just Valerie, at the G.E.E.K. Café. Technus shot the phone out of Tucker's hand, destroying it, and caught Tucker with the now-signature boleadora.

"Now, with you captured," Technus began.

"We know already!' Jazz and Sam said in unison.

"Yeah, dude," Tucker said. "Even I know what you're up to."

"When I rule this world," Technus said, "you three are the first to go. Now, onward to my fiendish plan!" Technus grabbed Tucker and jetted off to where he knew Danny would spot them.

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"Tucker?" Danny asked. "Tucker!" He recieved a busy signal, which could only mean Technus got him, too. Danny was sick of Technus's games. Danny grabbed the Fenton Thermos he had in his backpack, went ghost, and flew through the house to go after Technus. It was personal with Valerie, but with his friends and family's lives at stake, he was ready to fall into any trap Technus had for him.

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And for those who don't know, a boleadora is a hunting tool that three strings tied together with a weight on each opposite end. You probably seen Wile E. Coyote use one once or twice.