Author's Note: I own nothing.

6 Long Detention

Dani managed to beat the Lunch Lady the next day. It had been a bit of a surprise that her father's thermos worked so well. She snuck down to the lab while her parents were debating what exactly the ghost girl they'd seen had looked like. They hadn't seen Dani Phantom for more than a few seconds. But Dani hadn't had much choice. It was that or splatter after being dropped from almost three stories up. She'd gone invisible as soon as she realized she would be falling straight past her parents and sister but she hadn't quite gotten her flying under control yet to swoop out of the way. So they'd gotten a glimpse of Dani Phantom.

It was sort of nice to hear them babbling about their life's work being validated. Until they started talking about dissecting the ghost girl. With her every fear now bubbling though her mind she slunk down to the lab, thermos in hand. It was easy to find the connection to the portal her dad had rigged up for the thermos. She knew her dad had rigged it when she checked to make sure it was actually connected and found four of the wires just hanging there. She sighed, set down the thermos and quickly grabbed a few tools. Her mom and dad had both been teaching her science from the day she could toddle. It was easy to finish connecting the wires and flip on the device. She twisted the thermos into place and watched as the portal swirled brighter and the silhouette of the Lunch Lady flashed through it. Once she was satisfied the thermos was empty she unscrewed it and hooked it to her belt, closing the portal again. She snuck back up the stairs and into her room, slipping the thermos into her backpack instead. After all the ghost girl had taken it, there was no reason for her to have it. She sighed as she checked her watch. She was going to be late. She raced down the stairs and stuck her head into the kitchen.

"I gotta run. Lancer want's me, Sam and Tanya to serve our detentions cleaning up the mess from the protests." And the ghost fight that had resulted from that, but her parents didn't need to know that. Both of them turned to the doorway, identical frowns on their faces. They'd almost forgotten that she even had detention for starting a food fight in the cafeteria.

"You understand what you did was wrong don't you Dani?" Maddie chastised and Dani nodded.

"I do. I promise no more food fights mom." Jack frowned.

"And if you see a ghost?"

"You'll be the first I tell." She said as she slipped out the front door. "When hell freezes over." She finished under her breath as the door closed behind her. She thought as she made her way to the school in the waning light. She couldn't tell her parents. Not now. Not after seeing what their reaction to her ghost half was. They'd only seen her for a few seconds but they were all gung ho to slice her open and see what made her tick. As curious as she was for answers about that herself these days she would stick to less violent methods of discovery. When she reached the school Lancer was waiting tapping his foot. Sam and Tanya were already there, both had brooms and dustpans.

"Cutting it close there Miss Fenton." Dani shrugged.

"Got the parental talk too, my parents could talk someone to death." She caught Tanya snickering out of the corner of her eye as Sam smacked himself in the face, rubbing his temples for good measure. Lancer though didn't get the joke and handed her a one handed push broom.

"You'll be starting over there." He nodded to the east side of the field. The place was a mess. Leftovers from the ghost fight, mostly ecto-contaminated steaks, were strewn all over. "Be careful of your hand. No need to hurt yourself even if you did start this." Dani rolled her eyes but had to stop short of thanking Lancer for the reminder. She'd been wrapping her 'injured' hand so her parents didn't see the scar where there should be an angry burn but without the pain of the injury that should be there it was hard to remember to baby that hand like it was still injured.

Her teachers had been informed of the 'minor' lab accident Dani had been through. It had kept her home from school for a day after all. She had yet to check and see if the scar was present on Phantom too, she actually didn't know if she could even take off her gloves as Phantom. She'd have to test that soon. As their detention began Lancer turned his ire onto Sam and Tanya, who had organized both of the protests that left the front of the school in shambles. Dani frowned as her ribs twinged. She'd taken a few hits in the fight. She had a bruise that painted most of her torso, it was pretty lucky none of it showed around her usual t-shirt.

She still hadn't quite figured out how her healing worked yet. The cut she'd opened in her thumb hadn't healed as fast as her burn had. It had still healed inhumanly fast but not as fast. She really wanted to figure out how to heal faster, if this was going to be what she went through more often than not it would be really helpful. They were there for hours clearing up the mess and making the school look presentable again. Lancer spent most of the time either yelling at Sam and Tanya or reading. He didn't notice Dani fading fast. Sam did though and brought it to Lancer's attention. He checked his watch and nodded looking around.

"That'll have to do for today. And I hope the three of you learned a lesson here." They all dutifully nodded tossing the last few trash bags and racing away from the school as fast as possible once they were out of earshot of Lancer Sam and Tanya turned to Dani.

"You doing ok? You don't look great." Tanya pointed out. Dani winced wrapping an arm around her torso. She frowned.

"Not really. I'm a walking bruise from the collarbone down." Dani rubbed her side.

"Thought you healed faster than normal." Tanya said frowning as Sam stepped up to Dani, carefully wrapping a hand around her shoulder.

"Yeah but not instantaneously. I still haven't figured out why my burn healed that fast." They had reached Fenton Works and headed inside. Tanya and Dani headed up to her room to change into something less sweaty. While they were changing Glooby came hopping out from under Dani's bed. She had already pulled off her shirt, revealing a bruise that was maybe just a bit more green than an ordinary one should be. The small blob of ectoplasm chittered in distress and hopped onto her shoulder, a glob of ectoplasm running down her back. Dani sighed.

"I needed a shower anyway." But Tanya, who was changing in Dani's room too stared at the bruise on Dani's back, or what had been the bruise. As the ectoplasm touched it the color rapidly vanished and normal skin replaced it.

"Um Dani, I think I know what fixed you up so fast." Dani turned then noticed the clear skin under the ectoplasm. She blinked.

"Ok this is something we really need to test."