Danny could sense a trap when he saw one. He fell for enough of them by now.
So when dear Ol' "Uncle" Vlad suggested a place for the Fentons to go for their "last" family vacation, Danny knew it wasn't out of the sheer kindness of his heart.
Which is why the black hair teen was currently in his tent, working off his anxiety in a "healthier" manner. The specter deflector laying across his lap, as he tinkered with it. His face scowled as he held screws with firmly pressed lips. A tiny tool kit in a red metal tin can sat between his legs.
His parents were already planning to take him and Jazz out on a family trip because it was Jazz's last year as a "kid".
'I'm a legal adult, Not a child!' Danny could imagine her refute. Jazz had turned 18, recently graduated from Casper High, and was ready to go to college in the Fall. Which, she suspiciously didn't mention much about it.
So when Vlad suggested an area near the Great Lakes had a recent surge in ghost activity, their parents took the bait. Apparently, there was strikingly high ectoplasmic spikes in the recent year. Made an ideal spot for camping AND ghost hunting.
Danny had his suspicion that it was extremely active because of a certain Older Half-ghost. Danny knew Vlad wanted his dad dead, but his father was oblivious. Jack fell for the ruse and decided that be perfect way to bond with the kids. Maddie, his mother, was more apprehensive at the suggestion, until she saw the charts for herself.
Jazz had begged their parents not to since the trip was for HER, but they couldn't let their curiosity go. She did manage to make them compromise. Half of the trip was suppose to be spent without ghosts being involved.
The pair of siblings really hoped this didn't bite them in the butt.
Jazz didn't admit it, but she was anxious about it too. She just didn't have time to dwell on it after they made camp, because their parents thought it was a great idea to test out their new invention, the ghost repellent.
'It repels ghosts AND bugs! Works especially well on GHOST bugs!'
'Suppose to smell sweet to humans!'
Unfortunately for Danny, he wasn't human enough. Danny huffed out a sigh through his nose. Life (Or Afterlife) struggles of being a half-ghost.
It was another reason why Danny was in his tent, instead of out there with his family.
The first night they sprayed themselves and the pair of siblings without warning. Danny soon felt dizzy, nauseous, and ended up with a splitting headache. Jazz, to whom Danny was so grateful for, noticed right away and tried to wash out as much of the repellent off of themselves.
She scrubbed their clothes with a wet rag for over an hour. Mostly just Danny's. She then proceeding to make excuses as to why Danny wasn't able to join them on the ghost adventures, until she could come up with a way to either get rid of the repellent or convince them to stop using it.
It had been a week since then.
Danny rubbed his eyes tiredly. 'This sucks.' He decided to stop and give himself a break. His body felt stiff and his butt was numb. Taking the screws out of his mouth, he placed them on a lid to keep from losing them. Stretching his back until it popped.
"Hey, Danny!"
Danny jolted in his spot, causing everything on his lap to bounce.
"Geez Jazz, be careful sneaking up on a ghost like that. You'll make mom and dad cry with joy... again." Trying not to look too hopeful... or sound too bitter. "What's up?"
Jazz rolled her eyes, giving Danny soft frown. Ah, his bitterness showed. "We're going to roast marshmallows."
Danny gave her a confused expression. "Uh..." His eyes darting from her to the tent opening. "Sounds great Jazz, but I like marshmallows.. to stay .. in my stomach after I eat them."
Jazz snorted, "Well, fortunately for you, dear little brother. You have a wonderful and benevolent sister who worked diligently so that you may eat and roast marshmallows to your heart's content."
Jazz played up the dramatics, her hands over her heart as she swayed with her words. Danny shook his head with a smothered chuckle.
"Yes, SO grateful to have such a modest sister." Playing the dramatics back at her. " Sooooo, Is it sideline for good or...?" Eyes shifting to back and fourth.
"Uh.. Temporarily, unfortunately." Jazz gave a sheepish smile. "But, they don't have the chemicals to make it on hand. Sooo~"
Danny groaned, flopping backwards onto his sleeping bag. "Ugh! Good! I'll take it! I was tired of forcing myself to eat. Not fun to eat, when you don't know if its going to come back up or not." Rubbing his face with his hands.
Jazz smiled, also relieved, "Had to mention how certain strong aromas have negative affects on those sensitive to it, despite how pleasant the smell can be."
Danny just nodded from his spot. "Remind me to get rid of their notes when we get home." He was already planning sneaking out in the night to hide or get rid of the leftover repellent.
"Noted, now come on! Dad's got out the fudge to make the 'Famous Fenton Fudge S'mores'!" Jazz making a weak impression of their Father.
Danny sat back up, "IF he doesn't eat all of the fudge on one s'more this time."
"Reason we have to hurry. We both know the only reason the fudge made it this long was because Mom purposely hid it from him." Jazz scooting back towards the entrance of the tent, waiting on Danny.
With a soft smile, Danny gave a nod, "Just give me a minute, I got to put the backing back on."
"The specter deflector you've been working on?"
Danny nodded as he hastily screwed the backing into place. "Mm'hm."
"I thought you couldn't stop it from shocking you, without adding new software and programming it to recognize your ecto-signature?"
"Yea, but I wasn't working on that. I was trying to make it, block more than the.. occasional ghostly touch. Combining it with the ghost shield and adjusting sensitivity to the sensors to uh, produce a deflecting shield over the wearer. Or that's the hope anyways. I have to test it later. Tuck's better at tech than me, so we'll see." He finished screwing the back in. Danny glanced back at Jazz with a confused look when she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"That's brilliant, Danny! We can test it, after Mom and Dad fall asleep." Jazz grinned with a spark in her eye that Danny failed to recognize and her hand lightly squeezed his shoulder. She seemed to be buzzing with, excitement?
Danny rubbed back of his neck, "Uh... thanks? I still got long way to go though.."
...
"Kids! Fire's ready!"
"Best get out here quick! Marshmallows are not going to roast themselves!"
Jazz and Danny glanced towards the sound of their parents, before grinning at each other.
"Race you!" Danny shoved the belt (mostly just the buckle as the rest stuck out) into his pant pocket, while he dashed out of the tent. He used his intangibility to phase through Jazz to get a head start.
"H-hey! No fair!" Jazz huffed as she scrambled after her brother.
Danny skidded to a stop in front of the fire pit, furrowing his eyebrows as he noticed the sticks leaning against the log that lay next to the pit. They were branches chiseled to a point.
"We're.. using.. normal sticks? Like.. just tree branches?"
His mother and father were setting up the table to make it easier to make smores. They hummed with a nod in response.
"Apparently, your father misplaced the Fenton anti-ghost roasting sticks." Maddie sighed, while gently swiping at Jack's hand from picking more fudge from the tin.
"Could of swore, I put them in the GAV with the ghost scanner! We designed them to zap any ghost that dare try to steal any perfectly roasted toasted marshmallow!" Jack sighed disappointed, clearly having wanted to try their new invention. Maddie patted Jack's arm to console him.
"You can thank me later." Jazz leaned in to whisper to Danny, giving a comforting smile.
All the members of the Fenton family had gathered around the fire. Jack and Maddie sat in folded up chairs, while Jazz and Danny sat on the log. They already ate their fudge s'mores. Jack had, predictably, ate the rest of the fudge, before they could make seconds. So, now they were just roasting marshmallows to eat by themselves.
Danny had his marshmallow poked deep into the flames. Once it caught fire, he brought the end of the stick closer to his face with a wide toothy grin. Nothing beats a perfectly on fire marshmallow.
Danny watched the flame dance on the marshmallow with childlike joy. He waited for the marshmallow to evenly char, then blew out the flame.
Noticing the side eyeing of his sister, he spoke out, "What?"
Jazz shaking her head, "Oh nothing. Just wondering about how this applies to ones psyche."
Danny blinked, "How.. roasting marshmallows?... relate to one's.. psyche? Its just preference Jazz. Like I prefer mine to match my soul." Blacken and charred.
Danny using his teeth to pull the marshmallow off his stick, humming with satisfaction as he ate it. Jazz started to snort and trembled a laugh, causing Danny to squint at her.
"Yes, a roasted marshmallow is how I would exactly describe your soul, Little brother~," She laughed, wiping non-existent tears. "All sweet and gooey on the inside."
Danny swallowed his marshmallow down, face reddening as he quickly tried to refute, "That-That's not what I meant Jazz!"
"Too late, marshmallow."
"W-well at least I don't take an age to roast one marshmallow! What kind of nut spends like 5 minutes to roast one marshmallow?
"Excuse you! Some of us, actually have taste buds and prefer not to eat ash."
"I do too have taste buds!"
Jazz raised a brow, lips pursed as if she was keeping herself from pointing out specific evidence as to why he did not have a sense of taste. As if trying to send the memory telepathically, instead.
If Danny had to guess, she probably was thinking of when she caught him slurping on ectoplasm straight off the filter for the ghost portal. Which, yeah... he can agree to some degree with that- buuuut he wasn't gonna give her the satisfaction.
"Besides! Taste has nothing to do with the fact that you take forever making sure every side is perfectly golden brown! It doesn't change the taste if one side isn't the same shade as the other, Jazz!"
"Kids!" Their mother interrupted, "Its just marshmallows."
"Yeah, who cares how long it takes Jazzrincess to roast marshmallows?"
"Exactly, everyone is made differently with different environmental and biological behaviors, and thus have different tastes."
"Besides we all know Danny's right! Marshmallows are the best when on fire! So no need to argue about it." Jack exclaimed as he excitedly blew out the fire his own charred marshmallow, grinning ear to ear.
Maddie squinted, lips pursed, "Though I cannot argue the nostalgic childlike wonder of blowing out a marshmallow akin to a candle. I CAN say the chemical process of turning sugar into ash is definitively not better than the pleasure of roasting the sugar to have a caramelized outer shell, Jack ."
Danny and Jazz gave each other a concerning look. "Uh... you don't think this will become the new S-A-N-T-A debate.. right?"
"Its the adventure of it Mads! Not science! Roasting marshmallows need to be plunged head first and come out like a flaming blaze of glory!"
Jazz stuffed her mouth with the perfectly toasted marshmallow, as she stared at her parents arguing about marshmallows. She replied after swallowing, "Geez, I hope not."
"Jack, cooking IS science! Basic science! Its about making deliberate temporal changes to the product of consumption to make it consumable. When adding too much heat too quickly, causes the opposite effect, making food inedible or at least of poorer quality!"
"Ok, Ok! ENOUGH!" Jazz had her hands on her hips as she looked at her parents with a stern expression. "Can we just agree to disagree?"
"Yeah, besides I doubt Jazz could burn a marshmallow if she tried." Annnnd he ruined it. He ruined the chance at peace because he opened his big mouth. 'Dammit.'
Jazz glared at him, taking the challenge. "Oh yeah? I bet you can't roast a marshmallow without burning it!"
Danny tossed her a marshmallow and stabbed one onto the end of his stick with determination. "How much?"
Jazz scrunched her face up at the burnt marshmallow that sat on the end of her stick.
Danny was cursing under his breath as he caught another marshmallow on fire. He blew it out and pulled it off by his teeth, not even waiting for it to cool. (Though he may have been using his powers with that.) He stabbed another marshmallow on the end of his stick and tried again.
Maddie was starting to get concerned by how many marshmallows, Danny had consumed by now. Jack on the other hand was cheering and encouraging Jazz.
The teens had agreed they had to eat their marshmallows once successfully cooked, reason Jazz was stuck staring at hers. She didn't want to, but she also didn't want Danny to beat her because she was psyching herself out. She could taste the ash in her mouth just by staring at it though.
Danny grabbed end of her stick and yanked the marshmallow off with his teeth, eating it.
"Hey! I was going to eat that!"
"Yeah, suuuure you were. Even I know charred anything taste nasty when its cold Jazz! You've been staring at it for like, ten minutes!" He then groaned as his marshmallow caught on fire, again. "Ugh! How do you even get it Not to catch on fire?! Let alone toast it!"
Blowing out the marshmallow and scraping it off with his teeth, trying once more. His mother frowned, opening her mouth to stop him-
Danny saw his breath escape his mouth and a sudden chill shuddered down his spine. 'Oh no.'
"Perhaps, I can help with that?" A beam of pink blasted to the right of Danny, hitting the marshmallow that was skewered on the end of his stick. The marshmallow was instantly vaporized.
"Oops. Guess I don't quite know my own strength." A chuckled rumbled.
All the Fentons were up on their feet, looking towards direction of the blast. Jack and Maddie pulled out their ecto-ray guns, ready to attack anything that moved. Danny glared, tossing his stick. Fist clenched as he subtly charged his ecto-blast, ready to fight. Jazz had picked up the Fenton Bat that was resting near her feet.
A ghost appeared before them, using the children to block Jack and Maddie's line of sight. He had blue skin and red eyes resembling a vampire with a smug smile that revealed his fangs.
Danny spared a glance at Jazz and then back to the ghost. His stomach swirled from anxiety... and possibly from all the sugar.
"Plasmius-" "Wisconsin Ghost!"
"Danny, duck!"
Danny and Jazz both dropped to the ground, rolling out the way as their parents blasted at Plasmius. Plasmius disappeared in a poof of smoke, making Danny's stomach drop. 'Duplicate. Where is-'
"Now that was quite rude! But, not unexpected." The voice mocked, Danny glancing around. He couldn't sense where Plasmius was, but knew he was close.
No, wait. Danny shivered.
There were multiple somethings close by.
Danny was searching for an exit, so he could change into Phantom. Even if it didn't make since for Phantom to be there, he had to hurry and change. However, Plasmius was a few steps ahead of him.
Ghosts appeared all around the Fentons. It was like an army of animals.. mutated and disfigured. Danny back up to his sister and their parents, not liking the looks of this. He didn't bring nearly enough Fenton thermoses, as if that was the worse of his problems.
Plasmius floated above them, a smirk on his face as he looked down on them. Their parents kept their guns aimed at the ghosts that surrounded them. Danny bit back his tongue to keep himself from cursing the smug ghost out loud. His parents were right there, and Plasmius was using it to his advantage.
"It appears the hunters have become the hunted. Let's see how long you can survive? Hm?" Plasmius's duplicates appeared with some bears to separate the siblings from their parents.
"Mom! Dad!"
"If not, then your children will be mine ."
"Jazz! Danny!" Their parents yelled as the animals started to attack them.
"No Spook threatens the Fentons and gets away with it!" Green beams of light shot at the animals as they tried to fight through the army of animals and some of Plasmius's duplicates.
Jazz and Danny were now out of sight from their parents, and alone with Plasmius. Danny raised his hand taking aim, "Wrong move, Vlad . Now I can do this- ARGGGGGHHH!"
"Danny!"
Danny felt a surge of electricity spread across his back. It sent him back to his memories of the portal. Flashes of green clouding his vision, before he crumbled to the ground in pain. His body trembled and ache. His core felt hollow and empty. His vision was blurred as his instant fatigue made his body grow too heavy to move. All he could do was stare helplessly at a pair of blurry boots floating off the ground, while straining to listen to voices around him.
"Tsk, tsk. Daniel. I thought by now, you out of all people, would have acknowledge a trap when you saw one." Vlad Plasmius mocked.
He saw Jazz's.., well he assumed it was Jazz, legs move around the pair of boots. Swishing of the bat and grunts out of frustration could be heard.
"Plasmius Maximus 5.0. Guarantee to prevent the usage of any ghostly powers for at least the next 24 hours. Tested it out myself. Couldn't have your heroic instincts interfere with my little game, now could we?"
"Get. Away. From. HIM! UGH! Hey!" Her legs now kicking and dangling off the ground. Danny gritted his teeth, trying to force himself to move. Mom.. Dad.. Jazz were all in danger! Why couldn't he-
"I would save that energy, Little Badger. You might need it~"
"Let me go! You-you! UGH!"
"How long do you think your father will last? Hm? Four hours if I'm being generous? Definitely not long enough for you to save him. Rather fitting, isn't it? The buffoon dies the way he lived. Recklessly chasing after ghosts."
"Ca-can it, Fruitloop! I don't need powers to-unngh fight you!" Danny knew that wasn't true. He couldn't imagine defeating Plasmius with his powers, let alone without. He wasn't going to let that stop him from bluffing.
"Of course, Daniel. I wouldn't dare to fight you, even in your weakened and useless state. I have a much better use of my time then to play with you, child."
The mocking. He hated not being able to punch that smirk off the older halfa's face. Dammit. He was so close to passing out. His fingers dug into the dirt, as if it could prevent the overwhelming heaviness of sleep.
"That's exactly why you won't be here, for it."
Jazz's voice sounded muffled, but he could still hear her struggle. Danny felt icy cold talons clutch at the back of his shirt. The cool breeze of their wings beating.
"Sweet dreams, little badger~ Or shall I say, son~"
Danny blacked out, unable to even glare back at him. Man, did he hate that guy.
