It had been a few weeks since the Manson family had moved out of Amity Park and the Mister and Missus couldn't be happier, which meant that their rebellious teenage daughter was anything but.
"Come on please, just for the weekend," Sam pleaded her case for the umpteenth time. It had been constant with her after they got into sunny Pasadena, a city that was warm, vibrant and full of wealthy socialites. Everything that a goth like Sam Manson hated.
To make things worse, she couldn't even work as an activist now, because everyone else was. There were groups for everything, recyclo-vegetarians were even considered mainstream on the west coast. How was she supposed to be an outsider working to fight the establishment if everyone else was doing that, including the establishment.
A more open minded person would have found this predicament hilarious, but Sam Manson was just mad that if she joined up with any of these groups that she'd just be another conformist.
She wanted so desperately to go back to help Danny but her parents kept denying her, telling her that all this ghost nonsense was going to ruin her future and she should work on joining clubs and preparing for college.
It had been agonizing for her to do normal things, like plan out her life and career goals instead of running off to fight ghosts every other night. "At least Tucker is still there helping him out."
"What do you mean, you aren't there helping him out?!" Sam shouted into her phone having finally talked with Tucker after all these weeks. The first clue should have been when his old number didn't work and had also changed area codes. But it was after a few chats through messenger programs that she came to the horrifying conclusion that Danny was stuck by himself fighting ghosts.
"I thought you were still there," Tucker objected to all the ire being sent his way.
"No!" Sam screeched. "My parents dumped me in Pasadena, where are you?"
"Michigan, they figure that I could do well in science classes and go to MIT after I graduate, and… it's not exactly a bad idea," Tucker shrugged as he had a knack for computers and other gadgets from having to deal with all the ghost stuff that he could make a promising career of it.
"Ugh," Sam groaned loudly as she flopped onto her bed. "We have to get back there somehow, who knows how much danger Danny is in by himself, after all who can he go to for back up."
"I can't believe I am backing you up right now," Valerie grumbled as she fired a salvo of missiles at the massive plant ghost, Overgrowth.
"I'm just glad for the assist," Danny smiled as he froze a tendril on the ground allowing Dash and Star to break it apart, slowly weakening the powerful ghost's connection to the earth.
Valerie rolled in the air to avoid a massive swinging vine. "I'm only doing this to keep an eye on you and the minute, no the second, that you show how evil you are, I'm going to destroy you, rub it in Star's face, then console her for having to kill her boyfriend."
"Well at least it's a start," Danny chuckled as having the extra air support kept the ghost's focus too split to effectively fight them all, making it a much easier win than it could have been.
It had taken Sam days to plead with her parents but after making numerous concessions she finally convinced them to let her go back to Amity Park. She only prayed that she got there before anything truly bad happened.
Danny let out a cry of fury as he slammed Vlad into the wall. "What did you do to them?!" He demanded to know of the only other Half-Ghost.
Vlad coughed weakly. "I infected them with the same illness I have, it was the only way to ensure that you find a cure," finally passing out from exhaustion having spent days trying to cure himself he'd run out of options and time and now had to force Daniel's hand into helping him.
"Danny," Star said even as spots started to break out on her skin. "I believe in you."
And Danny knew it was the truth. Danny felt emboldened by the faith his girlfriend had put in him to fix this situation.
"Yeah Fenton, you're the hero, you'll figure out a way to win in the end," Dash added on as his face paled.
"But that's the hard part, I don't know how to fix this one," Danny admitted. "It's not a foe I can punch away, this is a disease. I wouldn't know the first thing to do trying to find a cure."
"It can't be that hard, your parents make all these cool anti-ghost things all the time, surely you've got the talent in there somewhere," Dash commented.
With a sigh Danny realized what he needed to do. "Yeah they do, don't they." Looking at his two new friends, he picked up Vlad off the ground, no sense leaving him in an alley. "I think it's time I told them the truth."
Jack looked up from his plate of fudge as he saw his son and his new friends come in the front door. "Dann-O and friends," he happily greeted the group as he came over but stopped in his tracks seeing the state they were in, along with his son holding his unconscious best friend in his arms.
Twin rings of light formed on Danny's torso and spread out over his body, nervously he looked up to meet his father's shocked gaze. "Dad, I think we need to talk."
Slowly nodding his head, Jack Fenton seemed to deflate. "Yeah, I think that might be a good idea." Turning around and heading towards the basement, the father knew this would be a long conversation.
After an hour explaining everything that Danny knew he anxiously waited to see what his parents would do, the last time he had told them this, they had accepted him, but would they do so again. "So are you guys... okay with me?" He rubbed his arm as he could understand anger, joy or any emotional reaction, but seeing them both just quietly contemplating was scaring him.
"Oh my baby boy," Maddie Fenton reached out and pulled her son into a tight embrace. "I'm so sorry, how can I ever forgive myself, how can you forgive me. I was trying to kill my own child," realizing that ghost boy they had been hunting for so long was none other than their own flesh and blood.
"Dann-O, I'm proud of you," Jack smiled as he picked up his family in his arms. "You had some hard times but you came out of it a man. Helping others, trying to keep the world safe."
"Now what?" Danny inquired as he wasn't sure where to take this new change in his life.
"Well first, let's start working on a cure for these three," Jack said as he shifted into work mode and walked over to a workbench to clear some space.
"Wait, three!" Maddie screeched as she pointed to Vlad's unconscious body. "I can understand helping Star and Dash, but why him?" Danny had explained that he wasn't the first Half-ghost and his parents had quickly deduced who was the first after he said how he got his powers. She had been furious to discover Vlad Master's true intentions of murdering her husband, taking her as his bride and turning her son into an evil apprentice. She was more than willing to let him die completely because of this.
"He's patient zero, which means he's the best chance of finding a cure for them," looking down at the man he used to see as a friend. "And, maybe it's wrong of me to still hope that the man I called friend isn't completely gone. But after trying to kill the people I love, this is the last thing I ever do for him. I will tell him in no uncertain terms what is going to happen to him should he ever come near them again." Jack snarled as he got to work on finding a cure to this ecto-acne situation.
While his parents got to work Danny suddenly heard the sound of people upstairs. "Danny!" Sam and Tucker called out loudly, hoping their friend would hear him.
"In the lab," Danny shouted up through the ceiling before hearing the pounding of footsteps coming closer.
"Danny," Sam shouted as she practically sprinted over, Tucker closely on her heels. "Wait…" she said as she skidded to a stop taking in the sight before her. "You're…"
"Yeah, figured it was time to tell them," Danny shrugged as he was floating off the floor in his Phantom form.
"And what about Dash and Star?" Tucker questioned as he noticed the other two who were being examined by Mrs. Fenton.
"Sup nerds," Dash sneered before he noticed the look Danny was giving him. "Hey, you're cool, they're still nerds."
"They helped me with the ghost stuff before you?" Danny commented, thinking that his old friends should be shown some respect.
Shrugging his shoulders Dash leaned against a counter. "Ehh, we're better at it, plus your girlfriend got Val off your back."
"She did do that," Danny chuckled at how much easier things were going with the changes in his life.
"Girlfriend?!" Sam shouted in confusion.
"Yeah, Star and I are dating now," Danny smiled even as Star waved over at the two new arrivals.
"Pfft, what happened to your face," Tucker snickered into his palm as he got a look at the outbreak of ecto acne on the two blondes.
"Do you want me to pummel you?" Dash warned as he glared at the technogeek who flinched back at the threat.
"Hey hey, no violence in the lab," Mrs. Fenton quickly said as they had a lot of sensitive equipment laying around that they didn't want disturbed.
"I'm fine with taking it outside," the jock gave a shrug before he was pointed to remain where he was.
"We can't risk you spreading this until we have a cure." Maddie chastised the blonde boy from trying to leave the lab.
"Fine Mrs. F," Dash grumbled and rejoined Star where he had been before, however the sudden coughing coming from Vlad drew attention as he seemed to regain consciousness.
"Oh this is gonna be good," Danny rolled his eyes and floated over to Vlad.
"Daniel, Daniel," Vlad called out weakly his vision blurred from exhaustion and illness.
Danny could see that his mom was ready to unleash all her anger onto the man so he quickly motioned for her and everyone else to remain silent. "Yeah Vlad, what is it? You wanna do something else stupid?"
"Just wanted to say that you're running out of time," Vlad smirked. "Your friends are human and they won't last the night unless you can find a cure." The deranged billionaire managed a sadistic laugh before losing consciousness.
"Ugh, I can't believe the fruitloop, of course I know we're running… out… of time," Danny tapered off and turned his attention to the Ghost Portal. "Time, that's it. Mom, Dad I need to go see Clockwork. Right you don't know who that is, long and short of it. Not all ghosts are bad, some are allies and this one might just be able to help me save Dash and Star." Managing to get out his plan before rocketing into the Ghost Zone.
"What do you mean you can't help me?" Danny waved exasperatedly at the Ghost of Time.
Shifting through his various ages, Clockwork simply floated past Daniel. "Because you should never mess with time. Had things not shifted from your defeat of the former Ghost King, then you would have learned a lesson that would haunt you for many years. But in this case, the same danger lies."
Danny stomped his foot on the ground. "Please, I'm not asking for a miracle, just more time. You can do that can't you?"
"No, but…" waving a circle in the air to show off the original incident that led to the creation of the ecto-acne. "I can give you a hint."
"I hate cryptic half-answers about self-growth and all that," Danny shouted in frustration as he flew back to try and talk to his parents about what he saw in the past that Clockwork deigned to show him.
"And then dad put a can of diet soda into the machine," Danny sighed as he explained everything he witnessed. "I really hate that Clockwork is so old, everything he does is in riddles and mystery."
"Jack," Maddie groaned knowing that her husband had been at the forefront of this problem so many years ago.
The big man did look sheepish because it took him a while but he did recall that he messed up the machine. "Sorry Maddie," Jack chuckled. "I meant to use the ecto-purifier, really I just… got a bit distracted, being in love with you."
"Aww Jack," Maddie swooned at the goofy confession before she realized something and hurried over to the board where she was trying to work through the problem. "Diet soda, that had been the catalyst for the acne in the first place, which must mean it's the underlying chemical in this case. Which means if I can mix in some diet soda, the same brand as Jack used to drink in college with the ecto-purifier it should cure the three of you."
The good news lifted the spirits of the room that the day was saved until Jack chimed in. "Actually Maddie, that drink was discontinued a few years later, not sure why it was popular." He said sadly as that was his favorite drink, but like all things it eventually gets taken off the market. "A company called Dalv bought them up and removed it from their product list."
Danny would have laughed at the irony of Vlad destroying the cure to his own illness had Dash and Star not currently been infected by it. "Son of a bitch, Vlad can you stop making everything worse for five minutes," the teen shouted at the unconscious man. "Dalv is Vlad's shell company, I'm betting he got rid of the drink as petty revenge for it being a part in making him what he is. And if he wasn't such a fruitloop I would maybe sympathize with that choice. But now…"
"Well we just need to find a soda that's the same or any cans that never got drunk up then?" Star said hopefully.
"Who knows how long that will take?" Tucker interjected. "I mean, drinks going out of production has been one of the biggest banes of consumerism."
"Yeah so unless other branches of the company kept making it under a different name," Sam continued while looking to see if there were any possible substitutes available for pickup nearby. "Then you'd need someone who collected them."
"So I either need to find some other country that keeps it going which even at my top speed I couldn't pull off a flight even to Mexico and back in time or some random person on the internet," Danny sighed knowing what monumental task he was faced with.
"Pfft, yeah not like there would be someone who raided a warehouse and stole a case of the stuff before it was all gone," Dash folded his arms in annoyance at the new roadblock that popped up.
"No… it couldn't be that easy could it?" Danny questioned when he caught onto what Dash was implying. "I think I need to make a deal with someone."
"Who son?" Jack inquired who could possibly be the solution to their problem.
"I'm not going to like it but I need to see the-"
"I am the Box Ghost, BEWARE!" Box Ghost shouted and started to pelt Phantom who weathered the mostly irritating blows.
"Wait, time out, truce, parley, cease fire, I surrender, yield, uncle, Boxy stop!" Danny pleaded, mostly out of urgency to get this over with.
Thankfully the ghost held back his attacks out of curiosity. "I come because I think you might be the only one who can help me. I'm looking for a box, not just any box mind you. This box has a diet cola that went out of production almost twenty years ago. I need a case of that, and you might be the only person in the country, technically," As he wasn't entirely sure where the Ghost Zone fit onto a map. "Who would have it."
"Hmm," Box Ghost hummed while pulling up more boxes from his vast store of them. "That does sound like something I might have in my possession. But why would I give it to you of all people, if it's that important I should keep it from you."
"I- Box Ghost, if I don't get a case of that soda, Vlad will die, okay wait, let me try that again," Danny shook his head not believing he was worried about his nemesis. "My friends will die, Dash despite everything he's done over the years has become a decent person and Star… Boxxy I love her, please, what do I have to do to get that case from you, I'm desperate."
Box Ghost looked at the honest expression on the young halfa's face, he saw the fear in the teen's eyes that told him this was really serious. And ghost or not, he didn't really want to see people die. "Okay, fine. You may have a case." Floating the soda over to Phantom who reached out for it only to pull it away and for Phantom to look panicked. "On one condition."
"Name it." Danny said while flicking his gaze between Box Ghost and his prize.
"What? Not even going to negotiate or set limits," Box Ghost said in surprise that the young ghost was agreeing so readily. "I could make you do something really bad."
"I'll do it, just give me the box, please Box Ghost." Danny pleaded desperately for the one thing that could save his friend's lives.
"Wow, okay. Well I was going to make you go kiss all the female ghosts on the lips just to see them all get mad at you," Box Ghost chuckled for a second before stopping. "But now that would just be uncomfortable, you really want this stuff. Okay fine, twenty bucks," he reached out his hand and motioned for the cash to be given to him.
"Twe-twenty dollars?" Danny said in surprise, he'd heard the first thing and while he would hate to kiss someone other than his girlfriend, that she would be alive to be mad at him would make him do it a hundred times over if needed. But just something simple like cash hadn't crossed his mind.
"Yeah, look. I'm not some psycho who sees a clear life and death situation and only tries to gain from it. I can't give it to you for free of course, but twenty bucks and it's yours." Box Ghost reasoned. Had this been not a serious situation getting Phantom to do something degrading would be worth it, but what kind of messed up person does that when people's lives are on the line.
Danny switched back to his human form and fumbled for his wallet, in his excitement he nearly dropped it but managed to pull out two ten dollar bills. "He-Here," he stammered out and gave it to the ghost who passed him the soda. Once it was secured in his hands Danny shot off as fast as he could, leaving Box Ghost floating with some cash.
"Jeez, this shit must be serious then," he said to himself before going back to doing what he did.
"And that should do it," Maddie said as she held up the syringe full of Ecto-purifier mixed with diet cola. "Thankfully I have one test subject to try it on, if it doesn't work then I hope it's painful." Jabbing the needle into Vlad's arm and pushing down the plunger. In seconds it seemed to do the trick as Vlad's face cleared up and his skin regained it's healthy pink color.
"So far so good," Maddie watched and tapped her foot on the lab floor, hoping that it worked or that at least if it didn't that Vlad would suffer for a few minutes before exploding or something akin to that.
After nothing gruesome happened Maddie felt confident enough to give the cure to Dash and Star. "Still kind of wished he would have blown up," she muttered to herself seeing that both the teens were making a rapid recovery.
With the cure working Danny swept up Star into a tight hug and sighed in relief that she was all fine now. Getting a rough slap on the back from Dash who just laughed at him goodnaturedly. "I told you you could do it Fenton," Dash said with a smile.
"Ugh, my head," Vlad groaned as he sat up on the table and started to take in his surroundings. "Little Badger, I guess you can work miracles."
"No Vlad, they work miracles, I'm just the delivery boy this time," Pointing to his mom and dad who looked beyond pissed.
"Ahh Madeline, Jack," Vlad tried to say pleasantly.
"Danny told us everything Vlad," Maddie snarled.
The shock of being revealed crossed his face and he looked at his foe before a big hand grabbed his face and turned it back towards the adults. "No Vlad," Jack stopped his former friend before he got started. "Dann-O told us so we could cure you, not that we should have. But dammit, why? I just- after all these years you damn well owe me an answer."
"How dare you?" Vlad snarled and slapped away the bigger man's hand, at this point restraint was unnecessary. "All these years of you two having everything. You took Maddie, you have the perfect children, and what did I get?"
"It's not about what you got Vlad, it's about what you had," Maddie cut off the tirade. "We were friends, we could have stayed friends. Instead you became bitter. You could have been our partner in all of this and when Danny had his accident, you could have been there to be his mentor, not try to be his master. All this time you made yourself a monster, the accident had nothing to do with it."
"Well you know what," Vlad huffed as he transformed in the center of the lab. "I-"
Plasmius was cut off by a swift and powerful kick to his back. "Get out and never come back," Danny ordered as he spun around and threw the not quite back to full strength vampire ghost into the ghost zone and shut the portal doors on him. "There now he's got to fly all the way back to his portal." Dusting his hands of the conflict as it would just come up in the future anyway, only now he had more allies.
"Well it's getting late," Dash yawned. "I'm gonna head home, the fruitloop is probably going to make things rough the next week or so, and I'm going to want to be rested up for that. Star, you want a lift?"
The blonde girl just shook her head and latched onto her boyfriend who totally earned a reward for his actions today. "I think I'll stay here and Danny can fly me home later, if it comes to that," she said while whispering the last part and took joy in seeing her boyfriend blush up a storm.
"Sheesh, looks like we were worried for nothing," Tucker whistled appreciatively that Danny was able to not get in over his head after they had left the town.
Sam meanwhile just looked frustrated that Danny was with Star but kept her mouth shut. Finally she relented. "Yeah, things are working out for him."
"Mom! Dad!" Jazz shouted as she ran down the stairs to the basement. "I heard about Danny being seen taking Vlad here, don't worry there's a… perfectly normal explanation for… this," letting out a sigh that she was out of the loop on this one that her brother already had the big reveal and she was just out with friends and not there.
Author's Notes: Wow, nearly two years without an update. Sorry about that for the people who liked this story. Things got away from me and I'm trying to go back and update my older works before I do the boneheaded move of starting new ones. I have a problem, it's called not having braincells.
Anyway, in this I hinted towards Ultimate Enemy and no it didn't happen in this timeline, with so many things different, even if Danny got the answers he would have turned it in immediately because his grades have been improving with Star's help, he wouldn't feel the same amount of pressure as before and things would play out very differently. Further episodes like King Tuck wouldn't happen either, many of his enemies wouldn't be fought the same way. In a way Sam and Tucker were terrible sidekicks for Danny, not to bash or anything but getting different people on Team Phantom was a benefit for him.
I had originally considered Danny going to Desiree to just wish for some of the soda but I always find that wishes are a cop out and thought that the Box Ghost could actually be the reason for success. Always a fan of stories where the comic relief have the solution needed.
Also since Ultimate Enemy never happened Clockwork had no reason to send Danny through time before and he would not do this for something less serious than Dan Phantom, partly because if Vlad died then there would be no chance for a Dan Phantom ever. But he could give Danny the tools needed to save them himself, which is about as close to non-intervention as he was allowed.