AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just a quick let-you-know--there will not be an update next week. I'm going on vacation with my family and I won't have internet access. Updates should continue on July 11.

Chapter Three – The Day After

Part Two

Several blocks away, Sam Manson, tapping away on her laptop, jumped as her cell phone rang suddenly from across the room. "What?" She closed the laptop halfway, scrambled off her bed and over to her desk where her cell phone sat charging. Quick glance at the caller ID—Danny.

The phone was open and to her ear in a flash.

"Hello, Danny?"

"Hey, Sam," he replied, his voice a little strained.

She frowned. "You okay?"

"Um, yeah, mostly. Why?"

"Because you sound a little—" A burst of static, and then a loud thump and series of clatters cut across her words, and she heard, rather distantly, Danny grumbling. "What was that? Danny? Danny?"

A small scraping sound, loud in her ears, and Danny replied, "I... I, uh, dropped the phone. Sort of."

"Sort of? Danny's what's—"

More static, another thump, this time a little lighter, and she heard Danny a bit more clearly this time: "Darn it!" A moment later—"Dropped it again, sorry. Um, can you come over like as soon as you can?"

Sam's frown deepened. "Danny, what's going on?"

"I don't—arrgh!" Another burst of static.

"Danny, what's--?"

"Look"—there was a hurried shuffling from his end—"look, can you call Tucker please? Because I don't think--" More static and thumps, and she heard him sigh in exasperation. "I don't think I'll be able to hold the phone that long."

"Hold the phone--?"

"Can you do it, please, Sam?"

Sam could almost see his frustrated and pleading expression in her head. "Um, sure."

"Thank you! I'll see you—" The static cut him off, and she heard him groan. "See you then?"

"Um, I guess..."

He hung up.

Sam hit the button to end the call, but stared at the phone in her hand a moment. What the heck...? She shook her head. Something to do with last night, she concluded quickly. Has to be.

...Well, what else could it be?

She sighed and dialed Tucker's number.

Fifteen or so minutes later, the doorbell at Fenton Works rang loudly (Jack having modified it years before so it could be heard down in the lab and over whatever din might be commencing there). Danny yelled that he was getting it and tore down the stairs, feeling somewhat relieved; at least that tight feeling in his stomach was starting to wear off. He opened the door to see Tucker and Sam, Tucker looking a little tired and Sam more than a little worried.

"Danny," she said, staring at him, "what's wrong?"

Danny bit his lip and glanced over at the door to the kitchen. "Not... I'll tell you... Upstairs. C'mon." He stepped aside to let them in and closed the door, and the trio went upstairs.

Once in Danny's room, Sam repeated her question.

Danny avoided her gaze, glancing sheepishly down at his feet. He walked over to his bed and collapsed on it with a sigh. "Something—something happened last night."

"No kidding," Tucker said, stifling a yawn.

"No, I mean—after you guys left." Danny let out a deep breath. "I—I had a nightmare and I woke up and I went to get a drink, you know? And I—I looked—different," he finished lamely.

A pause as Tucker and Sam both blinked at him.

"Different how?" Sam asked finally, carefully.

"Like—I don't know." He sighed, his head in his hands. "I was wearing the jumpsuit again, but—it was black and white instead of the other way around and—my hair was white and—"

"That was how you looked last night, dude!" Tucker exclaimed. "When the Portal threw you out on the floor—"

"And I was thinking," Danny said, hurrying now, "because I—I can't explain it, but—I'm dropping stuff. Without... dropping it."

Sam blinked; Tucker wore a similar expression.

"Look," Danny said, leaning across his bed and grabbing his cell phone off the nightstand. "Look, see, I've got it, but sometimes..." He tossed it between his hands almost nonchalantly, until once he tossed it and—

The receiving hand made to grab it, but just as the cell phone made contact or something, it was hard to tell—

Danny's hand and wrist went translucent and the cell phone flew right through it, landing on the floor with a loud thunk.

Tucker and Sam both stared.

"It's—it's been happening all morning," Danny said, flapping his hand around until it returned to normal, then bending over to retrieve the phone and toss it on his bed. "And I think it has something to do with what happened last night with the Portal. Because… the Portal's—it's working now. I don't know how, but it is."

"What's that mean for you?" Sam asked.

Danny shrugged. "I don't know. And I just—I want to try and figure out what happened. What happened when I turned on the Portal."

"We don't know any more than you do, man," Tucker said, shrugging back at him. "It turned on, and you disappeared in some kinda light thing, and then it chucked you out on the floor."

Sam nodded in agreement, then asked, "Do you remember anything? I mean, it was… well, you know, you."

Danny shook his head. "Not much. I mean—I saw the light and—and I think I passed out or something. I woke up and… yeah. So… what happened?"

Sam could only shrug.

Tucker frowned a moment, thinking, then said, "You plus that light from the Portal equals freaky superpowers?"

Danny and Sam stared.

"What?" Tucker shrugged and grinned. "Think about it! How many guys in the comic books got their superpowers in a lab accident? You just had your very own superhero origin story!"

Danny couldn't help but continue to stare. "I am not going to be a superhero, Tuck," he said finally, frowning and shaking his head. "I just –I just want to figure out what's wrong with me." He sighed and looked up at his friends, his eyes wide, desperate. "And if I can get things back to... normal," he clenched and unclenched his fists slowly, "that would be great." There was the thinnest edge of sarcasm to his final words.

"Danny..." Sam bit her lower lip, then got up and sat down on the bed next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Tucker sobered a bit. "We're here for you, man."

"Thanks, guys."

A long silence passed between them, a silence of quiet understanding. This had started, and they would each see it through to some end.