Hey all! It's been a long, long time since I last updated. Since the last update, Christmas passed, the new year began, and this story reached its third year anniversary! I really want to thank you all for being with me (especially those who were there from the beginning on quotev). I've grown so attached to these versions of Danny, Randy, and Jake... This world and storyline? It wouldn't exist if it weren't for you readers. I wasn't sure about uploading the story to , but all of your support really inspired me to keep my story on both sites.
I just... I can't thank you enough.
Well, to celebrate, I've written two chapters for this update! I do have a warning for these chapters though. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's possible that the K+ rating on Fanfiction might not work anymore. I'm planning on keeping the rating as K+, but to those who aren't prepared, please know that there's going to be a plot twist that may not be okay for some of you. This chapter is likely fine, so if you want to read this then decide, that's totally fine. Just thought I'd warn you beforehand. But, without further ado, a double update!
Danny took a deep breath, glad that the crew decided against going to school this fine Friday morning. Despite what Lao said, Danny was feeling a lot better today. He even managed to say something this morning without it hurting. He knew that he had a bit more healing, but it was definitely close to finished. Even Lao was fascinated by how quickly Danny recovered.
But the recovery wasn't just for Danny, Randy seemed to be getting better rather quick. Jake commented on how the more often someone breaks something the faster it recovers, so he made a joke about Randy breaking his arm all the time. To both of the boy's horror and surprise it turns out that Randy breaks his arms (and legs, and ribs, an- basically his entire body) a lot more often than they thought. Danny guessed that's why he was so sturdy now.
Regardless, the trio and their friends were now taking the day off (Minus Jazz- she refused to skip school). It was one of those rare fall days that felt like a summer afternoon. It was nice to have a day off... No matter how mad Lancer and the other teachers would be. But hey, that's the life of a superhero. They just didn't understand what a tough life the three lived. Well, the trio plus their five friends.
"I'm still surprised how fast you can recover..." Sam commented to Randy, who no longer wore a cast, just a sling.
When Randy opened his mouth to reply, Howard did it for him. "Aw, Randy breaks his body all the time and always recovers super fast. I bet he'll be healed by Wednesday."
"Should we take Monday and Tuesday off too then?" Tucker had a somewhat mischievous smirk on his face as he held his PDA- which proudly displayed the date and Danny's calendar.
Yes, Danny did entrust Tuck with his schedule again. What could the halfa say? The techie was good at keeping track of time. Most of the time.
"But... Skipping school is bad for your... your... brain health!" Spud raised an index finger and nodded when he spoke the 'wisdom'.
"Plus, we don't want the teachers to be more mad at us than they already are." Trixie pointed out.
"Okay fine then... I'll just make some time for Danny to have the best... Three day... weekend ever..." Tucker tapped away on his PDA, then looked up. "But, uh, what do you all want to do today?"
Jake glanced to the spotless sky. "We could... go to the lake?"
"There's a lake near here?"
"Yeah, it' not that far away actually." Randy replied in Jake's place matter-of-factly. "But we should be wary... McFist hid a Shark-Dermanator in the bottom of it."
"A what?" Sam asked.
"Basically it's a shark with REALLY dry skin."
"It's kind of gross honestly." Howard nodded. "Last time we came in contact with it, it almost destroyed the town because of how mad it was that it had dry skin."
"Ew." Tucker shivered.
"Sounds like fun to me!" Jake grinned and tugged Danny and Randy along. After a moment, the other friends followed with a group-wide shrug.
~Woo trip to the lake and some swimsuit changes!~
"Woooowhee!" Randy whistled, his non-slinged arm brought to his brow to shield the sun. "You know, Sam's not bad in a swimsuit." He nudged Danny with an eyebrow raise. His swimsuit was mainly white, but a deep purple floral pattern was obvious.
The halfa rolled his eyes, clearly not impressed with the norrisvillian's comment. He was covering his torso with his arms, feeling slightly self-conscious at the fact that his suit matched his Phantom colors. It made him look like a fanboy.
Jake smiled at the glittering water. "You know, I'm not a huge fan of water, but this lake isn't too bad!" Jake wore a green swimsuit and a black swim shirt, likely to hide his injury. After all, the kiddos didn't want to draw more attention than they already were.
"Of course it's great, It's owned by McFist!" Howard proudly crossed his arms over his... generous midsection, nodding. He matched Randy's colors, though his suit had flames instead of the floral pattern.
"I'm surprised it's not called the McLake." Sam commented as she walked closer to the boys, putting a hand on the hip of her black one-piece.
"Guys! The water's not as cold as I first thought!" Spud grinned as he splashed around in the water... it looked like the teen hadn't changed at all and was just wading around in his daily outfit.
"Spud!" Trixie clicked her tongue and retrieved the beanie kid, pulling him out of the water and ushering him to change.
"Are you going to swim with us Trixie?" Tucker called to her as she exited the water, keeping his distance despite wearing a diving suit of some kind.
"Nah man, I'll just watch." Trixie pulled Spud farther away. "Watch and keep this kid from drowning!"
"Aw but drowning's fun Trixie! I've done it before and I'm fine!"
Jake shook his head at his friends. "I'm not going to dive in but I'll still sit in the shallows or something." He made his way to the shore, doing just that.
"CANNONBALL!" Randy hollered and dashed, diving straight into the lake with a large splash, doing the aforementioned move despite his sling.
"Wait- shouldn't he... Avoid swimming like that?" Tucker pushed up his glasses in worry.
"Chill broski, he'll be fine." Howard nudged the nerd and followed his buddy's lead. "OH YEAH!"
Danny smiled, taking a deep breath as the group around him began to get more chaotic. Even if the space wasn't a resort with a hot tub, he felt that the relaxation was just what everyone needed. Tensions were high in the group... Especially on Danny's side. Or at least, it seemed to be like Team Phantom was worrying the most out of all of them. Danny nodded, hoping that he was the most worried out of all of them. Don't get him wrong, the halfa believed that a good dose of worry was essential to everyone. But... Even if Danny didn't perform as well as the other two, he at least wanted to take away some emotional strain. In all honesty he was used to the enhanced stress levels by now. It would be too much effort to make the others learn how to properly worry.
~POV to Randy~
"Danny! The water's nice!" Randy shouted and waved to the ghost kid.
Danny nodded and waved back to Randy.
The purple-haired teen rolled his eyes in response. "I meant... Come join us!" He grinned as he shouted the suggestion louder than the first passive invitation. "I wanna show you something!"
Randy could smell Danny's hesitation as the halfa looked around in both confusion and worry. To Randy's relief, the teen managed to get over his nerves and, albeit slowly, tiptoed into the water. The ninja waited patiently as Danny waved to Jake and waded in farther, finally making it to the section of the water that forced him to swim.
"Okay, so, you know about the Shark-Derminator right?"
Rolled eyes.
"Okay, okay, that's bruce..." Randy raised a questioning eyebrow. "Do you want to see it?"
Danny's eyes widened. "What?" He managed to hoarsely whisper.
Randy giggled and took off the sling he had been wearing. It was already sopping wet... It held no power over helping his arm out. He tossed it towards Jake without a second thought. "Catch!"
"Hey!" Jake shouted in complaint as he received the soaked mess of material.
Danny glanced between his two friends, worry evident.
"Aw, chill bro, it'll be fine!" Randy swam over and patted the ghost on the back. "How long can you hold your breath for?"
"I can hold mine for thirty seconds!" Howard boasted, to which Randy rolled his eyes again.
The purple-haired teen turned to his biffer for a second. "Howard, that isn't something to boast! Most people can hold their breath for about one minute!" He then turned back to Danny. "I can hold mine for one and a half minutes!"
Danny smiled. "30 minutes."
"What!" Randy's turn to widen his eyes.
The halfa rolled his eyes and turned ghost.
"Tricky..." Randy turned to Howard and waggled his finger up and down. "Tricky this one is."
"But... I can run out of breath." Danny's soft voice caught Randy's attention again.
"That's weird though..." Howard paused to remember to kick and keep afloat. "You're dead... So drowning wouldn't be a thing... But you're also technically not dead...?" Howard mumbled a few more times in thought.
"Eh, it doesn't really matter, right?" Randy chuckled and took a deep breath, shoving his face under water.
Randy's eyes narrowed as he tried to focus in on the silhouette of the Shark-Derminator, popping his head back out in victory as he reported where it was.
~Jake's POV~
"I wish I knew how to swim well..." Jake grumbled as he spun the sling around and around in circles. He watched his friends dive underwater. "I wanna see the shark."
"Come back when you get better then." Jake glanced up from his pouting fit to spot Sam approach and sit next to him.
"Oh, I'm gonna do that, don't worry." Jake turned back to the lake and kicked the incoming mini-wave. "I should be better soon. Even if I'm not, I'll be able to do things regularly, unlike those two." He nodded his head to where the duo disappeared.
Sam stayed silent as she wrapped her arms around her legs, peering into the shallows with concern.
"Yo, what's u-"
"ThanksfortakingcareofDanny!" Sam practically shouted. Thankfully Tuck, Trixie, and Spud were too busy trying to run from the waves to hear her.
"What?"
Sam sighed. "Danny has a hard time trusting others, and I appreciate you being his friend."
"Where'd this come from?" Jake shrugged his question, leaning back a bit so he could look at the sky.
"Well..." Sam poked the sand and drew something unknown. "He's really worried about you two... And... The only other people he worries like that for are me, Tuck, and Jazz..." Jake glanced over and froze, caught by her unusual purple eyes. "You and Randy... I wasn't sure at first that you two should be his friends. I mean... You are a dragon." Sam shrugged. "Only a couple of months ago I had no idea that there was a magical world."
Jake shrugged. "That means we're going a good job."
The goth gave Jake a wry half-smile. "Regardless, I wasn't willing to admit that a dragon and a ninja existed in this world." She shivered at a sudden gust of winter air. "Danny-" She shook her head. "...All of us were mad about you revealing Danny's secret, but in the end... You three became best friends and, honestly, became super powerful protectors of this region... So, thanks. Thank you for being Danny's friend, and thank you for giving Danny another reason to keep being a superhero."
Keep? Jake shook the thought out of his head before he went off track. He shouldn't put words into the halfa's mind. "You shouldn't thank me." He nodded to the water as Danny, Randy, and Howard resurfaced. "Thank Danny for keeping the group together. Really, we wouldn't be able to do any of this without his sharp mind." Jake smiled and waved back to the trio in the water.
Sam nodded, standing up and shuffling over to Trixie, Spud, and Tucker mumbling a "I need a coat. It's too cold out for swimming..."
~Jazz's POV~
Jasmine Fenton huffed, staring out of the window and not paying attention in class for once. She couldn't believe that her brother actually skipped out on school. He knew how important education was for his future! She shook her head, glancing up to the clock.
"See you all tomorrow!"
The room exploded into movement. Jazz sighed and slowly put her books into her bag, waving to a few friends. She didn't feel like talking to anyone today. The mature teen just wanted to get home.
Jazz stood and tossed her bag over her shoulder, the weight setting her off balance for a second. She gave a wave to the teacher and began walking out of school, nodding her head in confirmation of her previous guess: everyone had gone to the busses already. Jazz didn't take the bus that often. She prefered to walk. The girl took a deep breath and straightened, starting her trek home.
Almost instantly Jazz's mind began to wander to thoughts of Danny. She just simply wanted her brother to be safe and sou-
"MMPH!"
Jazz lurched backwards as her mouth was covered and she was pulled.
"The bag!"
Sarcastic, "yeah, yeah."
Darkness took over Jazz's vision.
Whisper-shout, "and-"
A click of the tongue. "Don't worry."
"THUMP"
The world went silent.
