"You were really going to cheat on the CAT?" Jazz frowned at her brother from the front seat of the Fenton RV. "We could have rescheduled everything, but noooo, somebody really wants academic dishonesty on their record, don't they?"
"Look, I'm sorry, but how was I supposed to know that something like that was going to ruin everything?" Danny crossed his arms. "How long is it to Amity Park anyway?"
Jasmine was grinning as she drove the two bickering siblings down the old freeway. "Approximately twelve hours by flight."
"Yeah, but we're not flying." Jazz pointed out. "Thanks to you, that option is unavailable."
"Cool it, Saxophone." Jasmine fiddled with the rear view mirror. "We'll take about a day and a couple hours. It should bring us almost up to my deadline... if none of these roads crumble on us." She winked at Jazz, who scowled, trying to figure out whether Jasmine was joking or not.
"Aren't we in the future?" Danny frowned. "You don't have some sort of teleportation device? Or... hovercraft?"
"Goodness, no. It's too dangerous to test those sorts of things." Jasmine steered the pair of them through a curve in the freeway.
A tense silence descended on the group. Jazz looked out of the window, but after a few seconds it was apparent that she was getting bored of looking out at the gloomy brown wasteland. Danny, as he was still lying down on the stretcher, stared up at the roof, thinking that at the next pit stop he'd get Jazz alone and genuinely apologize for the CAT incident... if there ever was a pitstop. Jasmine appeared the happiest out of the trio, cruising along the deserted freeway at around 90mph with absolutely no remorse for being the sole cause of most of the current conflict.
She even started whistling. Jazz and Danny looked over at her first in surprise, then in growing annoyance.
"Do we have any sort of... audio books? Like, for long journeys?" Danny ventured to ask.
"Actually," Jasmine stopped to think. "I believe we do. Check in your door panel, Jazz; you'll find a perfectly good copy of Mein Kampf stashed there, both volumes."
~Line Break~
It was just before sunrise when a large blue sphere of energy popped up in Danny's room and began to expand. The sphere remained for a second, and then disappeared.
In its place was Dan. Some changes had been made to his appearance, making him look a lot more evenly balanced between Danny and Vlad. Dan had bulked up considerably, the lines bulging out of his jumpsuit. He had grown taller, and even his jumpsuit had altered slightly; he had gained a long, silver-and black cape, with black gloves and black shoes. He had a small white beard on the edge of his chin.
Dan rubbed his hands together. "I look good... but perhaps I should save it for the grand finale."
A white ring appeared around Dan's waist, disguising his true form underneath what looked to be a perfectly normal version of Danny.
"Huh," Dan looked around. "I forgot how short I used to be. No matter."
His alarm clock began to buzz, and Dan shot it with a quick blast from his finger. "I won't be needing you anymore. All I'll be needing," Dan took out the CAT answer sheet. "Is you."
Dan walked downstairs, where Jack and Maddie were sitting down for breakfast. A small cardboard cutout of Jack was lying on the floor.
"Hey, Danny boy!" Jack waved at Dan, who stopped and rolled his eyes. "Can you call your sister down? She should be down by now."
Dan shrugged, and the small cutout of Jack caught his attention. "I didn't see her at all; perhaps she's already at school. What is this, anyway?"
Dan bent down to pick up the cutout of Jack, and instantly felt it stick to his fingers. It was only then that he remembered the events of yesterday; at least this time it had no line attached.
"Oh, dear," Maddie noticed that her 'son' was caught up in the trap again. "You always seem to set off these things; it's like you're some sort of ghost!"
"Some sort of ghost," Jack laughed as Maddie removed the sticky cutout from Dan's hand. "Now that's funny!"
Dan's eyes flashed red as he headed off to Danny's school. "You fools keep laughing." He muttered under his breath.
It was a short amount of time before Dan arrived at Caspar High. "Just one more day at my old school," He hitched his school bag up, and spotted two people running towards him. "With my old friends. Hello Sam and Tucker; long time no see."
"We saw you yesterday." Sam pointed out. "Hey, can I talk to you about something?"
"Make it quick." Dan took big steps walking into school, forcing the two of them to run to catch up to him.
"Lancer wanted me to talk to you about the CAT test." Dan stopped by his locker, and Sam leaned on the one next to it."
"He lost his test key, didn't he?" Dan blinked at Sam. "Are you trying to suggest something?"
"No! But, um, yes." Sam bit her lip. "I mean, not that I think you did, but he told to ask."
"Well, you're alright then." Dan put on a smile. "I don't have the CAT test key. Happy?"
"Dude," Tucker chimed in. "You're acting kind of strange, are you alright?"
At that moment, the bell rang. Dan shouldered his backpack. "I am perfectly alright. Would love to stay and chat, but there's a test to take tomorrow, no?"
Sam and Tucker looked at each other and frowned. Something was up.
