"Come on, guys, we're not even supposed to be down here. You guys are only here because we have to work on a group project together. Get out of the lab."
"What, are you scared?" Paulina cooed meanly.
"No. It's just dangerous down there." Danny glared at Paulina and Dash as they looked up at him from the bottom of the steps.
Dash laughed. "Come on, how dangerous can it be? You're parents aren't even real scientists, what they study doesn't even exist."
Paulina smirked when Danny fumed and started stomping down the steps. "They are real scientists. This isn't the only thing they do."
"Oh yeah?" Paulina says, turning into the lab and flipping her hair over her shoulder. "What do they do then?"
"Lot's of things." Danny walked up behind her. "Recently they helped some company come up with some clean energy machine, they did some secret invention stuff with the FBI so I don't know exactly what that was, but they also-"
"What's that one?" Dash interrupted.
He was pointing at a big hole in the wall that was lined with metal. Off to the side were knobs and buttons but it looked like whatever it was was off.
"That's, uh… The ghost portal."
Paulina burst out laughing. "Really? They built a portal.. Trying to get to the ghost dimension?" She brushed a tear out of the corner of her eye. "Are you sure they are real scientists?"
"Yes!" Danny threw his hands up in the air. "They have hundreds of patents for their inventions and everything!"
Paulina put her hands on her hips. "That's an inventor or engineer. You don't necessarily have to be a scientist to be one of those."
He growled. "Well they're still scientists anyways."
"Whatever you say." Paulina looked away from him and started walking towards the portal. She had just stuck her head inside when she was pulled backwards.
"Don't go in there!"
Paulina squirmed around and once she was far enough away from the portal again Danny let go of her.
"Don't touch me, you freak!"
"Yeah!" Dash said, getting in Danny's face. "If you touch her again you'll have to deal with this." He held up his fist next to Danny's face.
"I have to deal with that anyways."
Paulina brushed herself off, a disgusted look on her face, and turned back towards the portal. "What does it matter if I go in or not? It doesn't look like it's on. And ghosts aren't even real."
She looked back at Danny to see an uncomfortable look on his face.
"You don't believe in ghosts, do you?"
His eyebrows shot up. "No!"
"Then why don't you take a look inside?" Dash pushed him towards it.
"No!" Danny turned to face him. "My parents said-"
"Your parents, your parents, blah blah blah." Paulina mocked. "They're not even here right now and it's not even on. What does it matter?"
"What does it-" Danny stopped and shot a hard glare at her. "You know what? Fine! I'll go in."
Danny turned around and walked toward a big metal cabinet that stood on the other side of the room next to a table filled with beakers and notes.
"Uh, that's the wrong way Fenton." Dash said.
Danny opened the cabinet and rummaged around until he found something. He closed the doors back up and scowled at something in his hands. He peeled something off of the fabric he was holding and his dad's face fell to the floor.
"I'm just grabbing my jumpsuit. If I'm gonna be breaking all of my parent's rules I might as well do it safely." He unfolded it and began stepping into it and finally pulled up the zipper.
Paulina laughed. "Your whole family has matching outfits? That's embarrassing."
Danny shrugged. "I like to pretend it's a space suit or something. Anything's better than a ghost hunting outfit."
He walked up to the portal, looking around the inside a little bit. "You know, I've always wondered what could be on the other side of this portal if it ever actually worked.
"Yeah, okay, just go in." Paulina waved her hands at him.
Sighing, Danny walked forward and into the portal. It felt much bigger than it looked from the outside and his footsteps echoed in the small space. He was looking at the ceiling when he tripped and caught himself on the wall. Looking down he saw a giant cable running across the floor.
"Why would they-"
The humming surrounding him startled Danny and as he lifted his hand, a on and off switch could be seen underneath it.
Panic started rising inside of Paulina. "Dash it's turning on!"
He scoffed. "It'll probably just blow up or something."
"Danny's still inside, you nitwit!"
His eyes widened and Paulina started running towards the portal. It began glowing a sickening, radioactive green. It was getting brighter and brighter and Paulina met Danny's wide and panicked eyes before she was dragged away and to the side, a shout getting caught in her throat as she watched the portal flash with electricity.
"Danny!" She slapped at Dash's arms that were still wrapped around her waist. "What are you doing! I almost got to him!"
Dash pulled her further away from the portal, keeping a tight grip on her. "And watch both of you get burnt to a crisp? No way. Now let's get out of here before the Fenton's find us."
"Dash-"
An echoey groan caught their attention and they looked back at the portal. A glowing figure stepped out shakily, holding its head. It looked up at them and opened its mouth like it was going to talk to them, but its eyes rolled back into its head before it fell onto the ground.
"What is that?" Paulina screeched.
Just as Dash started trying to drag Paulina up the stairs, a bright flash, this one white, lit up the room. Two white rings appeared around the form's body and traveled up and down to leave Danny Fenton laying on the floor.
"What the fuck?" Dash whispered, his grip on Paulina finally loosening.
Paulina broke free and ran across the lab and slid on her knees towards Danny.
"Are you dead?" Her hands hovered over his burnt jumpsuit. "Please don't be dead."
He groaned and his body rose and fell with his breaths.
"Oh thank god."
Dash walked up behind her, staring at Danny over her shoulder. "How the fuck is he still alive? That should've incinerated him."
"I don't know. I think something happened to him."
"Well no shit!" Dash whisper yelled. "What are we supposed to do?"
Paulina looked at Danny on the hard tiled floor. "First we're gonna get him up to his room. That can't be comfortable like that."
"You want me to touch him?" Dash shook out his hands at just the thought.
Paulina pointed at him. "You'll have an easier time getting him up all the stairs on the way to his room. Besides, we're just gonna leave him down here for his parents to find him? And tell them how we dared him to do this?"
Dash paled. "Oh man, they would kill us. I bet they'd literally kill us."
Paulina shook her head. "Just grab him already."
He picked Danny up gingerly with a disgusted look on his face. He adjusted the other boy to fit easily in his arms and turned to the stairs and started walking up to the kitchen. Paulina followed closely behind him and they were halfway up the stairs when the doorknob on the front door started jiggling.
"Go! Go!" Paulina ushered Dash up the stairs and she turned to see Jazz walk in the door and look up at them right as Dash's back disappeared into the hallway.
Jazz looked at where Dash disappeared before turning her gaze to Paulina, a brow raised.
"Hi, Jazz!" Paulina greeted chipperly.
Jazz narrowed her eyes. "Are you guys behaving?"
Paulina scoffed at the older girl and crossed her arms. "Of course we are. We're not five."
"Right." Jazz said as she headed into the kitchen. "What are you guys up to?"
"Working on a group project. We got hungry and came down for snacks." Paulina shrugged. "But we're getting back to it now, so I'm going to go join them upstairs."
"Have fun." Jazz called as Paulina walked up the stairs.
She hurried down the hall to Danny's room and walked in, closing the door behind her. When she looked up, she was met with Dash pacing in the middle of the room.
'What if he doesn't wake up?" Dash asked. "What if he has brain damage or something and he dies in his sleep? It'd be our fault. We killed him."
Paulina fought back the panic. "We didn't kill him. He's right there. He's breathing."
"Why did he look like that in the basement then?" Dash stopped pacing to look at her. "Last time I checked, humans didn't have magical girl transformations in real life."
"I don't know!" Paulina seethed at him, her hands in fists at her sides. "But he was breathing, he was making noise."
"What if he was pretending?" Dash whispered. "What if he turned into something, and he doesn't need to anymore so he was just pretending and-"
Both Paulina's and Dash's head whipped in Danny's direction where he groaned, laying on his bed. He brought a hand up to his head and pried his eyes open.
"Danny!" Paulina gasped. She rushed over to the side of his bed. "Oh my gosh, are you actually alive?"
He looked at her like she grew a second head. "Uh, yeah? I ache pretty badly though."
"See, Dash." Paulina turned towards him. "I told you he was alive."
"Wait, wait." Danny shook his head. "Why didn't you think I was alive?" He looked up at where Dash stood by the door.
"You were in the portal when it turned on!" Dash whisper yelled. "What was I supposed to think? And then you walk out of the portal all inverted and glowing with white hair and-"
"What? I couldn't have had white hair."
Paulina shook her head. "No, it's true. You looked completely different when you walked out of the portal and then you just changed back to normal for some reason."
Danny furrowed his brows. "You guys like to make fun of my parent's intelligence but you're not even making sense right now. There's no way I could've-"
His voice suddenly died out as another bright ring appeared around his waist. He watched in both fascination and horror as it traveled over his body, leaving behind an inverted version of his jumpsuit.
Quickly, he jumped out of bed and ran to the closet door where a body length mirror was hanging off of it. He stared at his reflection in horror.
"What is this? What happened?" He turned to look at them. "Did you guys do this somehow?"
"No!" Dash shouted, lowering his voice as he was hushed by Paulina. "That's literally how you walked out of the portal thing. Then the same transformation happened and you were back to normal."
Danny's breath started increasing. He started feeling around for his phone. "I have to call my parents. They'll know what to do."
Just as Danny opened his phone to call his parents, Dash swiped it from his hand.
"If you tell your parents about this you'll have to deal with me."
Danny jumped at the other boy, trying to grab his phone. "Like I said before, I already have to deal with you. That's not much of a threat." He tried to grab his phone again.
"Listen here-"
"Oh, wait!" Danny said, malice dripping from his voice. "If I told my parents what you guys did and how badly it hurt me, you'd probably get sent to juvie. Is that what you're worried about?"
Dash's face paled and Paulina felt a chill crawl up her spine.
"If you don't want me asking for my parent's help you guys are the ones who are gonna have to do it."
"What?" Paulina said.
"No!" Dash exclaimed.
"Yes!" Danny shouted right back at him. "It's your guys' fault!"
"Why don't you ask your spooky girlfriend for help?" Paulina pointed a finger at Danny and put her other hand on her hip. "Isn't she like a witch? Doesn't she do like voodoo magic stuff? Maybe she'd know how to get rid of it."
Danny's eyes widened in panic. "No! I can't tell them! They'll think I'm some kind of freak! I'll lose the only friends I have!"
"You are a freak though." Dash said flatly.
"Fine. Don't ask Sam." Paulina scrunched her nose up. "Why us though? Why do we need to be involved?"
"One, again, it's your fault." Danny lifted up a finger. "Two, I don't care if you guys think I'm a freak because you already hate my guts. And three, I have leverage against you guys and I'm what stands between you guys and charges."
Paulina shifted uncomfortably between her feet. "How are we supposed to help you though? We don't even know what's going on."
Danny shakily lowered himself back down onto his bed. "I don't know. Figure it out. I'd ask my parents. But. You know." He motioned with his arms.
Paulina scowled.
"Maybe start with trying to change back?" Dash said quietly. "I don't know about Paulina, but seeing you like that is starting to get freaky."
"How do I do that?"
"I don't know!" Dash threw his hands into the air and dropped heavily onto the desk chair.
"Maybe start with thinking human thoughts?" Paulina suggested.
"Human thoughts?" Danny lifted an eyebrow.
"Yeah like." Paulina paused to think. "Humans are warm and firm and not glowy, think thoughts like that or something.
Danny rolled his eyes, but closed them in concentration a second later. About a minute or two passed and Paulina could see Danny getting agitated, his hands gripping into tight fists. He opened his mouth.
"I don't think this is-"
Another bright flash of light filled the room and Danny was left to his normal self again. He looked at his hands and at the hair hanging in his face and smiled.
"Maybe this won't be so difficult after all."
Paulina had a feeling nothing could be that simple, but she ignored it. "Let's get started on that project again. When's it due?"
"Uh…" Dash said, balancing a pencil on his nose. "The seventh?"
She frowned. "That can't be right. I thought we had until the ninth."
"Nah, nah, I'm positive it was the seventh. I was paying attention in class that day."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah!"
Dash and Paulina both took out their phones, scrambling to check their class site.
"Uh, guys?" Danny said.
They ignored him, still bickering about the due date.
"Guys."
"See, I told you Dash. It was due on the ninth. If it was the seventh we wouldn't have had-"
"Guys!" Danny shouted.
"What?" Paulina turned her head to glare at him but her eyes widened.
Danny was staring up at the two of them in panic, his body halfway through the floor.
"Help!"
"What the fuck?" Dash said.
Paulina rushed over to grab Danny by the hand and motioned for Dash to grab the other one. Together, they hefted Danny back out of the floor and were able to set him back down.
"What was that?" Dash asked Danny, who was staring at his feet as if they'd betray him at any moment.
Yeah. It couldn't have been that simple.