"Oh, crud! Of all the days to oversleep!" Danny groaned as he quickly put on a shirt and ruffled his hair into its usual style. "Can't have Lancer keep me after on the last day of school, so..." He took to the center of the room before going Phantom and flying out the window as he spoke. "I'll just take the aerial route." Though, he should have been a bit more aware as Jack glanced out during his morning shower before exclaiming to him, keeping his identity out of the picture from anyone else who would listen in, in pointing a back scrubber and crushing his rubber duck.
"You, ghost kid! I get my hands on you, I'll tear you apart, molecule by molecule!" From out of nowhere in the shower, Jack pulled a ectogun and fired it as Danny, having heard Jack's 'threat', dodged out of the way and took flight away from the Fenton household.
"Which is a perfect example of why I won't be going ghost during my Fenton family vacation."
"Listen to me when I'm talking to you!" Jack shouted, but Danny was more excited than to stop short as he shouted himself.
"It's summer! Starting at three thirty, I don't have to listen to anyone for a long, long time." He flew over Amity Park Penitentiary in heading out for the final day until summer vacation, but he would been interested in the fact that a GIW van was parked there and that a special prisoner had been brought out for their 'mission'. Agent K the first to speak as he spoke to the convict, O carrying a file hidden in shadow except for the word 'Freak'.
"I hope you've enjoyed your stay with us, Freakshow." The prisoner glanced up, his pale skin and red eyes glaring back before he mocked the two in front of him with false fear.
"Ooh, the Guys in White. Top-secret ghost catchers who can't actually catch ghosts." K 'corrected that statement with the activation of a tank behind them and there, floating unconscious, was Freakshow's right-hand companion as O spoke.
"Care to revise that last statement?"
"Lydia?" Freakshow exclaimed with surprise before scowling to Agent K's next words.
"No longer under your control."
"What do you want?" Freakshow coldly inquired as O filled in the gaps with peering through Freakshow's file and closing it.
"Your knowledge of ghostly items. Anything you care to tell us about this?" Pulling out a remote, he activated a floor gap which emerged a metallic gauntlet from it, three gemstones residing under it, though strangely it had four slots from four different gems, three matching up as Freakshow spoke in wonder.
"The Reality Gauntlet!" He quickly acted innocent as he mused. "Never heard of it."
"We know how you envy ghosts."
"And we believe this to be an object of enough spectral power to eradicate ghosts forever. Perhaps including this one." O pulled out a photo of Danny Phantom from the file and Freakshow changed his tone a bit.
"Ah, that Reality Gauntlet. I believe I've heard of it after all." K deactivated the shackles binding Freakshow in place before he mused to the gauntlet, rubbing his wrists from the bindings. "Now then, the Reality Gauntlet." He got up and peered it over before he voiced. "Hmm, well, I don't know that much about it, but I believe these things play a key role - may I try it on?"
"I suppose so." K and O exchanged looks as the white Agent O continued. "It doesn't work anyway."
"Joy!" Freakshow clapped before picking up the Gauntlet and putting it on as he versed with picking up each gem. "Each of these gems has a power." He took in the square gem of red and slotted it into place. "The red one, the Gem of Life. It can make anything come alive." He picked up the yellow diamond-shaped gem and moved it into place. "And I believe this one is the Gem of Form. It can transform anything into anything else... uh, so I've been told." The Agent was on the edge of suspecting something up as Freakshow continued with plucking the blue circle-shaped gem and slotted it beside its companions. "And this is the Gem of Fantasy. It can make your dreams real." He continued to play it up as he versed some more. "These gems, if touched in the proper sequence, will allow the wearer to control all reality. But the Gauntlet is useless without its power source..." He then reached up to his ear which hung a odd gemstone as an 'earring'. "...which I just so happen to have right here!" Both agents moved to pull out their weapons as K exclaimed.
"Freeze it, Freak!" But the orange triangle-shaped gem was taken off and feel into place as the Gauntlet came alive to Freakshow's command.
"Have a little taste of the Gem of Life!" He blasted a red beam which turned the guns against their former holders like snakes before Freakshow continued. "Now that's what I call living!" But the Gauntlet faded out and smoked as Freakshow grimaced in looking at it. "Blast! If I only knew the secrets to activate all the gems, I could control all reality. Still..." He walked over to the captive agents and pulled out a access card from O, inserting it into the machine connected to the tank and reawakening Lydia who bent on one knee to Freakshow before he turned to the trapped agent and mused while Lydia pulled her hood up. "This concludes our demonstration." The pair headed off as Freakshow finished. "Now, if you'll excuse us..." The pair escaped from the penitentiary as Freakshow mused to himself and Lydia. "What shall we do with our new-found freedom? Dinner? Movie? Make myself ringmaster of all reality?" He laughed as the Gauntlet glowed red and the party would soon face the mad ringleader once more...
Casper High saw the release of its students while a band was setting up with a banner of 'Dumpty Humpty Live Tonight' as the trio headed out as well with folded pieces of parchment in hand. "Finally!" They headed on their way as Danny beamed to the flyer in hand. "I've been looking forward to this summer vacation forever! The three of us, traveling together cross-country seeing the sights." In his hand was the flyer for a space camp down in Florida. "Cape Canaveral Space Center in sunny Florida..."
Tucker's was a comic book convention in the far west, in California as he beamed. "...The Comic Book, Sci-fi and Fantasy Expo in sunny San Diego..."
Sam's was Sam's as a goth convention in Nevada. "...And Gothapalooza in the bleak Nevada desert."
"But tonight, we rock out at the Dumpty Humpty concert!" But, no sooner had Danny said that, then Jazz running right into him and causing her to drop everything she had on hand before she exclaimed.
"Jeez, Danny, watch it!"
"Jeez, Jazz, watch it!" Danny countered before he took in what she had just dropped and picking it up in confusion. "'Ghost Envy for Dimwits... Ghosts are not the boss of me'? What is this?"
"My college entrance thesis on ghost envy. College might be a year and a half away, but you can't be too prepared. In fact, did you know that ghosts often-" Danny interrupted as he shoved the book back to Jazz with her frown.
"Don't know, don't care, not listening." He turned to beamed as he exclaimed. "From now on, it's no more pencils, no more books, and no going ghost so my parents can't tear me apart, 'molecule by molecule'. He quipped before Sam inquired about something ELSE that lined up with the whole 'Gothapalooza' thing.
"Which reminds me, how did you convince my parents to let me spend an entire summer with your parents?" Danny smiled before a slap across the back of his head stopped him short and he huffed to Cedric standing behind him as he spoke.
"What do you think, he is a Demi, after all."
"Harsh..." Danny rubbed his head before he turned to Cedric and the other two behind him. "Besides, I had a counter point, remember?"
"Just because I decided to play 'honest housewife' with you, doesn't mean you are skipping out on my rock session with Dumpty Humpty, Babypop." Topaz answered with a smirk before Sam huffed with a shrug, her ghost tattoo lightly flickering in the sunlight as a darken green.
"I get it, you two got under their skin..." But the moment was ruined when everyone started to panic and Danny took notice of the ghostly Lydia terrorizing the place before he he heard Sam and Tucker shout in getting grabbed by two of the tattoo ghost bats before Sam inquired to Tucker. "Remind me again. Why do we hang out with the kid who has ghostly enemies?"
"Because you and Topaz are in love with him?" Sam scowled at Tucker before Danny headed off, hiding behind the curtains of the stage to go ghost and hunt down the tattoos as Paulina screamed.
"Aaah, get away!" Danny finger-gunned the tattoos out as Paulina cheered and dropped and cheered again. "He loves me! He loves me not. He loves me!" She beamed as Danny saluted to her and headed off to find Sam and Tucker who were dropped in a trainyard with the bats binding them before Freakshow loomed over them as both exclaimed.
"Freakshow!"
"In the anemic flesh. How's tricks? Had a nice few months while I was rotting in jail because of you?" He was blasted as Danny had arrived, Topaz, Talia, and Cedric cleaning up the tattoos and getting a chase on Lydia.
"Actually, yeah! I've been working on my aim!" Freakshow blasted a red beam at the fence that Danny was looming over and it came to life in binding him as Freakshow countered.
"And so have I." He aimed the Gauntlet on his arm as he shouted. "Say hello to the Reality Gauntlet..." The gem in the middle, a yellow diamond-shaped stone, glowed as it spread across the Gauntlet. "...which is twice as powerful, now that I've activated the Gem of Form!" The Gauntlet glowed and he blasted a yellow beam at a pair of train cars, turning them into towering metallic golems, but when neither one moved, Danny slipped out and took in the golems before he chuckled and inquired.
"What are they gonna do, rust on me?"
"And Freakshow said, let there be life!" The ringmaster spoke to tapping the red square on the Gauntlet and it glowed red before he blasted a red beam at the golem, giving them life and they went on the attack on Danny, he dodging the first, but getting his jumpsuit bitten by the second, shaken like a dog and tossed, landing before Freakshow as he hummed. "Hm, that's odd. I commanded it to eat you." He brought up the Gauntlet as he mused. "I need more practice." Danny glared before he glanced down the way to see the GIW coming by a low-hovering vehicle as they spotted the golems and spoke.
"The Gauntlet is active. Bad news."
"Very bad." K answered as he reached into his jacket for a pair of handcuffs. "When I file a report, I shall be affixing blame to you."
"Not if I affix it to you first." O countered with his own handcuffs before he exclaimed to the small gathering. "Freeze, freaks!" But Freakshow was not done as he glanced up and smirked.
"Freeze? If you insist!" He blasted a cloud with a yellow beam to turn it into snow and a red beam to bring it to life, dropping the titanic snow monster on both the metal golems and the GIW, burying them in the puffy white before Freakshow mused. "Now, where were we? Ah, yes." He reached down and plucked Danny up as he threatened. "I was going to ruin your life the way you ruined mine, ha!" He raised the Gauntlet high, but Danny countered with an ectoblast to launch Freakshow across the yard and put him at Danny's mercy as he voiced.
"Show's over, Freak!" But before he could, Lydia socked him from the ground, defending Freakshow as the clown got up with the Gauntlet still live as he mused.
"Looks like our little showdown is going to require a bigger audience." A train caboose arrived behind him and Lydia stepped off at the back with a smirk as Freakshow continued his monologue. "A much bigger audience." He laughed as he boarded and the tattoos returned to Lydia before the red glow of the Gauntlet spread to the train and the engine plumed out bat wings before taking off elsewhere, but Danny didn't pursue in his battered and scowling state as he stomped over to the pair and Sam realized what he was going to do as she exclaimed with him grabbing both of them.
"Danny, what about Freakshow?" Danny glanced to the snow monster and the emerging, cold Agents as he spoke.
"Let the jerk-cicles handle it. I'm on vacation." He took flight as he continued. "Besides, two words..." His next words were chanted across the bleachers as they waited for the band to start, but Sam and Tucker were not so convinced as Sam read a passage from the book.
"The Reality Gauntlet consists of four gems, which-" Danny reached in to cover Sam's pointing finger as he pleaded.
"Guys, come on! It's summer. As in no more pencils, no more books..." But Tucker was not so easy to turn away as well as he pointed out something else.
"You might want to take a look at this book. Especially the author." Danny took the book and looked at the name before he voiced in confusion.
"Frederick Isak Showenhower?" He paused before he spoke again. "Wait a minute..." He extended a hand to cover up -derick and Is-, ignoring the -enhower as well, to get a familiar name out of it. "Freakshow?" He paused before he spoke again, this time turning to Talia as he got some feedback, to be on the same side. "Talia, what do you think?" The genie Demi took the book and looked it over before she had an answer as she glanced to Danny, Cedric joining in on her other side and holding her while Topaz leaned over from behind Danny.
"Ah, the Reality Gauntlet, a source of unimaginable ghost power, its creation that of the Primordial of Reality herself, Elema in our tongue, though she had used titles far more ancient than what we know of them, especially with her siblings of Clockwork and Kharon forming the Triad of Cycles." The trio blinked in confusion as Talia continued to read the book and closed it, Cedric taking it and stashing it in his pack, zipped tight. "The Reality Gauntlet was an old legend among the humans, dating back to the times when hundreds of gods were worshipped and praised in the dunes of time and ages." She closed her eyes as she thought back to those dunes and the times when Reality was changed in the slightest. "Whosoever wields the Gauntlet has the control of Reality itself in their hands, but they must be wary, for it instills its power on mortal minds and steeps them into delusions of foolish greed and want, it was cast out of the Infinite Realms by accident and has been the downfall and rise of many a world."
From the Pyramids, to the Castles, to the Palaces, and to the great changes in the land itself as she had seen it all, the power of reality changed with a movement of the hand and the shift of an belief as her blue eye opened back up and she spoke. "Frederick had searched the globe while performing for the Showenhower Circus for traces of the Gauntlet, but only could find the Gem of Souls, wearing it as an ear ring as he compiled what he could discover into the book, to refer to it before his imprisonment." Danny quickly changed the subject as he voiced to keep OUT of the business from just some time being a 'normal' kid.
"Well- I don't care, guys. As of right now, Freakshow is not my problem." The music started to play and Danny beamed. "Oh, I love this part! This is where the band comes out of a giant egg." Smoke plumed out and everyone wait for the egg to open, but no one expected what was going to happen as the egg grew a pair of red eyes and Danny spoke. "Oh... oh, come on, really!?" Ferdinand cawed in its hawk form beside Tucker as the yoke spilled out to the living egg opening and the band gasped from the yoke as Freakshow shimmered into the visible spectrum as he spoke with a smirk.
"Are you kids ready to have a great summer? Because Dumpty Humpty had a great fall!" He laughed as Sam and Tucker were snatched again, by Lydia, and Danny huffed.
"Will this vacation ever start?" He dropped under the bleachers with Cedric and Topaz before they changed and took flight as Freakshow mused, Talia dropping down as well to keep from getting captured.
"Ah, the only thing better than an audience is a captive audience." The bleacher seats popped out seatbelts to bind the audience into place as Danny shouted with Ember and Cedric behind him.
"Show's over, Freakshow!"
"Au contraire. That's French for, 'I'll bet this hurts'." Freakshow took a swing at Danny, knocking him back before he got gut punched himself as Cedric mused otherwise, the owner of the punch.
"'Au contraire' is French for 'On the contrary'. The words for that is 'Je parie que ça fait mal'." At Fentonworks, Jazz was trying to find someone to test her thesis on as Maddie closed a case full of ectogear and Jack looked through the cabinets for more supplies.
"I can't go on this trip. I need to write my thesis on ghost envy. If only I could find someone that fits the bill." She glanced to Jack for the answer, but his attention was turned to the TV playing over the concert with Lydia front and center as he exclaimed.
"Ghost!" Maddie gasped as well and leapt over to the TV, slamming onto the table to watch as parts of Jazz's thesis went flying as he grumbled.
"That was easy." Lance Thunder gave the report.
"It's ghost-based chaos at the Casper High School's Out Concert, where notorious ghost kid Danny Phantom is fighting for his afterlife." Freakshow brought the drum set to life as a titanic drum spider before webbing Danny to the field goal as Freakshow monologued, Cedric keeping the frontal legs from impaling him as Topaz kept out of the back end's webbing as well, it smaller than the front.
"Any last words? Ah, might I suggest, 'Ah, Freakshow, don't hurt me'." But Freakshow didn't account for Ferdinand as the robotic hawk streaked for Lydia before pulling hard on the hood of Lydia and she took off, screaming before getting stuck to one of the signs through her head spikes while Sam rushed over to Freakshow.
"Leave him alone!" What Sam didn't explain was that she had copied the book and the real one was the one she just hurled at Freakshow in knocking him down as he plucked the book off and read it before he monologued again.
"I see we have the same taste in authors." But she kicked it out of his hand and grabbed onto the Gauntlet as he exclaimed. "And in gloves. Let go, girl!" They tugged it out as she tapped the Yellow Gem of Form with Tucker joining in as he swung his arm to tap the Blue Gem of Fantasy and they took flight as Danny got free and soared up to help, grabbing hold before Freakshow tossed them up and they landed back on the Gauntlet before Tucker tapped on Form, Danny touched the Red Gem of Life and Sam tapped into Fantasy before the air hummed with power and Freakshow exclaimed in amaze. "You did it - you found the combination that activates all the gems! Which means I control all reality!" The world started to waver before Sam exclaimed as well.
"Guess again, cue ball! As long as we're touching the Gauntlet, we have just as much control as you do."
"Let... go... of... my... Gauntlet!" He tossed them up again, but they descended just the same as they had juggled up and Sam exclaimed with a plan.
"Quick, according to the book, the Gauntlet has a defense mechanism. Think of a place to hide the gem you're holding!" Danny closed his eyes and Life vanished from the Gauntlet, Sam did the same and Form followed suit as Tucker was the last and Fantasy teleported away as well before Freakshow exclaimed.
"No, no!" The untapped feedback erupted and Sam and Tucker got up form the stage as the spider and egg reverted back to normal and the belts disappeared, but victory slipped away as a red fireball crashed into the stage and Freakshow emerged form it as he growled. "Blast! The gems have gone." Lydia phased onto the stage beside him as he exclaimed. "We must flee! But dramatically!" She silently acknowledge as her tattoos turned into a vortex and ferried them away before a blue fireball crashed into the stage and the smoke faded away to Danny Phantom getting to his feet, dazed, and a ring of white forming around him as Topaz and Cedric shouted.
"Babypop/Danny, don't do it!" But too little, too late as the rings went their course and reverted Phantom back into Fenton before he gasped with everyone else doing the same and chatter rumbling up as he glanced up to the helicopter filming the event with the Guys in White in front of it as he voiced with a hopeful notion.
"Um, nobody saw that, right?" But the truth was different as Jazz pleaded to both Maddie and Jack.
"You didn't see that, right?"
"Jasmine, as much as I want to say no, Danny just got exposed on live television!" Maddie exclaimed and their troubles had just begun to start up something big...
Danny grimaced as he took in the crowd before Dash exclaimed, hiding the fact that he and Paulina were part of the same team with the six friends with Kwan and Star.
"Holy sweatsocks! Danny Fenturd is Danny Phanturd?"
"And he's totally infatuated with me! This makes things so much easier - for me!" The chattered started up again and people started to scale the stage to encircle Danny before Talia, Sam, Tucker, Cedric, and Ember formed a protective circle around him as Ember readied her guitar, Cedric had his palms out, Sam had a mic, Talia had a stool, and Tucker had Ferdinand, in Hound form, growling at everyone not their ally.
"Back! Back, savages!"
"Well, uh, it, could be worse?"
"Really? How?" Sam jinxed them as the Guys in White shouted.
"Nobody move!" The circle preserved in protecting Danny as Maddie exclaimed, over at Fentonworks.
"Our son is the ghost boy?!" Jazz jumped in front of the set as she tried to keep them from going ballistic.
"Now, now, let's not go jumping to any insane conclusions-" She glanced to the doorway before she exclaimed to both Sam and Tucker's folks frowning and fists to hips. "How did you four get in here without a single sound?" But that was ignored as the parents faced off.
"You!"
"You!" Jack and Jeremy confronted each other aggressively and, while Jack had size and power, Jeremey had... something uptight.
"We were watching 'Extreme Nanny Makeover' when we found out your son was a ghost!"
"Why are you yelling at us? Your spooky-ooky bat daughter has to be behind this!" Tucker's dad Maurice got in-between the two as he tried to defuse the situation.
"Now, fellas, it's OK to point fingers as long as nobody's pointing them at my son." Maddie huffed as she spoke.
"OK. Maybe Danny is the ghost boy. But it's not as though our ghost activities have ever put your families in any danger!" The house started to rumble before one of the vents unleashed a stream of ghostly tattoos that coiled around the parents who glanced at the Fentons as Jack mused with apology.
"Until now." The ghosts concealed the parents and then grabbed the Fentons as the Guys in White approached the six on stage as they listed off.
"You're coming in for questioning."
"And experiments. Lots and lots of really painful experiments."
"I don't think so! I prefer the Exorcist over a pair of smooth heads with experiments anyway." He glanced to his friends as he spoke. "Tucker, Sam, grab hold of me."
"Are you sure, Babypop?" A silent glance was enough as he shouted with Tucker and Sam grabbing his shoulders.
"I'm going ghost!" He went Phantom and made to fly away as Tucker mused to the crowd below.
"Dude, you're a rock star." But he reverted back as he exclaimed.
"Who can't do anything!" He fell back down as they pulled themselves back up on the stage as he listed off. "That Reality Gauntlet explosion must have messed with my ghost powers." The Agents landed, certain of taking him captive, before Sam answered otherwise.
"I'll get us out of here." She snatched his shirt and quickly dragged him to the edge with shouting. "Mosh pit!" Like that, the crowd was on their side as he helped Danny crowd surf, Sam taking a moment to grab the book and join the surf with Tucker behind her, Ferdinand back in Hawk form and riding on his shoulder as the Agents finally stirred to the change in outcomes.
"He's lost his ghost powers."
"Get him!" They took flight, missing the fact that Talia, Topaz, and Cedric had slipped under the radar as well as the trio rode under they went under, hiding from the soaring Guys before sneaking over to the outdoor locker room, glancing behind to see if the agents were on them before the door opened and a trio of varsity-jacket arms lashed out to grab them and pull them in with a closed door as the agents passed, unaware, as the lights came on and the trio found themselves among the football team and Paulina as Danny breathed.
"Thanks for the save."
"Well, duh! You've only been helping us for like, ever!" Paulina kissed his cheek and spoke.
"Paulina Fenton. Hey, I finally wrapped my mind around it!" She gave the 'okay' gesture to play along and Sam breathed just the same as she spoke.
"OK, I'm feeling relieved and nauseated at the same time." The pair of agents vultured around with what must have been ecto-detectors, ineffective on anything NOT sporting an active ecto signature as K exclaimed with the pair still wearing their jetpacks.
"He couldn't have got far without his ghost powers." The football team and Paulina just walked on out, followed by a shorter footballer, the Raven mascot, and a cheerleader hiding her face as they just walked on by and into the forest as both the player and mascot took off their head coverings to reveal Danny as the player and Tucker as the mascot, Ferdinand nestled on his head as the poms-poms were lowered to reveal Sam as Paulina made it clear.
"I want that back by Monday - minus the goth sweat."
"We don't sweat, we simmer!"
"Now's not the time, Sam." Danny voiced as they headed out and changed back, out of sight, the day continuing on in subterfuge as Danny scoped out the street to Fentonworks before he spoke to the other two behind him. "OK, I zip in, get my stuff-"
"Then what? Run away from home?" Tucker exclaimed as Danny spoke otherwise.
"Well, what choice do I have? The whole world knows my secret! But if I can get the Gauntlet, I can change reality so that none of this ever happened." They slipped past and headed into the darkened house as Danny spoke, flicking the lights on. "Believe me, it'll be better for everyone if I just-" He trailed off before finishing to the sight before him. "-uh, disappear?" Waiting for them was a squad of hazmat-suited members who wouldn't look too out of place as part of some fasict military operation, led by Agents O and K and armed with ecto-guns before two seized Sam and Tucker as Sam huffed in counting.
"For those still counting, that's three times we've been grabbed today."
"Humans are secure. Take down the ghost child!"
"Where are my mom and dad? What have you done with them?" For some reason, Danny's sense didn't go off when a ghost slipped in, slipped three bats into the trio's tops and wisped away as the Guys in White ignored the demand and moved for the arrest.
"Daniel Fenton, in accordance with the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act, Article 1, Section 1, Sub-section A, you're under arrest." Danny made his counter to K's demand.
"I'm only gonna say this once. Let my friends go, and get out of my house!" Ferdinand followed Danny's eye and knew where to hit as O threatened back.
"O: Or what?"
"Or this!" The robotic hawk cawed very loudly before it divebombed a spot on the wall, hidden by a curtain, the shattering glass heard and fragments falling as the house started to speak in Jack's voice.
"FentonWorks Anti-Creep Mode activated. Our special today is fudge. I mean pain." The house went on the attack as metallic claw shot out and snatched the two troopers before slamming them together as O exclaimed.
"Fire ectoweapons!" They opened fired, but a barrier in Jack's face popped up and blocked it as Sam exclaimed with lowering her arm to the near-death experience.
"What's going on?!"
"The house attacks anything using ecto-energy. I'm going-!" Ferdinand pecked Danny's head as he yelped. "Ow! Right, going ghost is an ecto-energy ability, so plan B. Run!" They booked it as the agents were torn apart by pinning, smashing, grabbing, and tossing of the house as Sam inquired.
"Where are your parents?"
"Probably looking for me... or a scalpel to dissect me with." They headed upstairs as another agent emerged form the top of the steps as he commanded.
"Freeze!" Danny stopped his friends with a smirk as he replied back.
"OK!" Another alarm went off to the trooper's confusion before metal cutouts of Jack and Maddie slammed into him and caused him to topple down, the friends splitting to let him slam into O and K before they rushed into the master bedroom and Danny removed the round rug there to reveal a steel manhole cover before they all stepped on it as Danny ordered. "Three to the Op Center!" A tube closed over them and sent them up, into the fridge as they coughed it up as Tucker exclaimed in disbelief.
"Man, your dad really needs to get rid of that ham." On the outside, troopers of the GIW moved to scale the Fenton building up to the Op Center, but Danny moved to stop it. "Time to lock up for the night!" The controls yielded as the Op Center closed up and kept the troopers out with metal plating, but not for long as they made to breach with a laser as Danny headed back to the fridge and he activated the Release Button, the Center shuddering before everything retracted and the Fenton Blimp emerged, knocking the troopers off and taking to the air as Sam exclaimed in disbelief on how it will help them out.
"The Fenton Blimp? What are we gonna do, bore them off our tail in a low-speed chase?"
"Not quite." Danny beamed as he turned back to the fridge, removed the ham to reveal a second button and pressed it as O and K made to catch up with their jetpacks.
"We're gaining on it!"
"Of course we are, it's a blimp." The balloon popped off as the propellers entered the Center before it popped out engines, extended wings, and lengthed itself into a jet as K corrected himself. "...and now it's not." The Jet took off as the trio watched it barrel for the school as Tucker exclaimed.
"We're gonna destroy the school!"
"I don't know what to do! I never got training for piloting the Fenton Jet like Mom and Dad wanted me to have!"
"Do something!"
"Wait!" He spotted a 'Auto-Jack' button and activated it, getting out of the cockpit and into the seats beside Tucker and Sam as an inflatable Jack emerged from the tiller and into the pilot seat as it spoke.
"Auto Jack activated. Please buckle up and pass the fudge!" The trio buckled up as the Auto-Jack flew the craft through town, evading some chaos before the GIW caught up in mini jets as Sam exclaimed.
"It's after five. Why can't they quit like every other government employee!?"
"My question is how did they switch from Jetpacks to mini jets, but that is for later!" Danny exclaimed as he went ghost and planted his hands on the bulkhead, spreading his invisibility to the jet as the Agents started to lose sight of the ship.
"We're losing visual! Activate White Fang Tracking Device!"
"White Fang?" K inquired with an unimpressed tone as O corrected with exasperation.
"I don't name this stuff." K launched a canister that turned into a four-prong device and latched onto the Jet as it vanished from sight...
Sam finally spoke as a new day rolled in for the trio. "Danny, we lost them yesterday. You can stop now." The Jet returned to the visible spectrum and Danny tired out in reverting back as Tucker spoke, Ferdinand whining while the techie rubbed its head a bit to calm it down, despite it being a machine.
"We should contact your parents." Danny got up as he spoke.
"Let's be honest, my parents should have been at the house or one of the many safehouses they set up in town, but they are not, the Guys in White didn't even have an answer for me on that front."
"So that was why we were scoping out a lone alleyway with fake trash cans, it was a safehouse?"
"One of them, they wanted to keep all bases covered, in case of a real problem, but none of them had." He breathed as he ran a hand over his face. "Besides, if they have anything to say to me, they can always contact me." Right on que, the communication console lit up and Danny sighed as he walked over to it. "Ugh... here we go." He typed in the access code and the screen lit up, but with Freakshow's mug.
"Oh, hello. Hope I'm not interrupting the worst day of your life ever! But it seems I need your help."
"You miserable freak, why would I ever help you?!" Danny glared back as Freakshow continued to rant.
"I'm sorry, did I say 'need'? I meant demand!" He laughed before standing back and showcasing the trapped parents and Jazz, attached to the train engine that had taken off as Sam gasped.
"He's got my parents!"
"He's got all our parents." Tucker exclaimed as Danny shouted the same.
"Mom! Dad!"
"Why look. I have something you want." The pale ringleader pointed at Danny as he continued. "And you know the location of something I want: my gems, which you three fools will retrieve if you ever want to see your families alive again!" He then made an offhanded comment. "Oh, and just to keep it dramatic, you have three days." He laughed as the screen cut to static as Danny exclaimed.
"Three days? But we don't even know where to start looking!" Sam said otherwise as she pulled out the book and started to speak with an idea of where to go.
"You know, school being out or not, you really should listen more. We're the ones who hid the gems, remember?" Sam continued with a rough idea of where to hit. "Which means they're safe and sound at Gothapalooza." But Tucker cut in as he was touching the Gem of Fantasy and he had another location on his brain that time.
"Except I was thinking about the comic book convention." Danny agreed as the Gem of Life was his charge and he had something else as well than Gothapalooza.
"And I was thinking about the Space Center." The answers came together as Tucker breathed.
"Looks like we're gonna get that cross-country trip together after all." A map dropped behind Danny as he pointed to Florida, their first location from Minnesota.
"Starting here." The Auto-Jack somehow acknowledged as it spoke again.
"Auto Jack setting new course for Cape Canaveral, Florida." With that, the jet flew to its destination, but the trio were heedless to the agents pursuing them, or the backup coming to help them out...
Tucker sulked on the fact that they were heading for Florida first as he groaned. "No fair! How come we get to go your place first?"
"Does it matter? We're not here to have fun. We're here to look for the Reality Gems." Sam backed it up as she peered through the book compiled by Freakshow.
"Which according to Freakshow's book, are activated by touch. So as long as nobody found it yet, maybe this will be easy." Sam jinxed them again as, no sooner had their arrived to the space camp, did a little boy find the Red Gem of Life and it burned his hand, causing him to drop it and it landed on the famous Space Shuttle, it launching itself before coming alive with windows into red eyes, its nose turning into a maw of metallic teeth, as it zeroed in on the Fenton Jet and Sam moaned as she inquired. "It's never easy, is it?" They quickly turned tail as the shuttle gave chase on them...
