Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom
It's been years since I wrote a fanfic, but my Pintrest account has been overloaded with Danny phantom stuff which prompted this idea to get stuck in my head.
This would take place somewhere between Jazz revealing she knows Danny's secret but before Vlad becomes mayor.
Chaper one
"Morning Mom, Dad, what are you working on?" Danny asked as he walked into the lab. His parents had been hard at work the last few days on past gadgets. He was not even sure if they went to bed last night or slept in the lab again.
"Morning Sweetie, we have some important visitors coming this afternoon so your father and I are making sure our equipment is top of the line," Maddie answered as she tinkered with a smaller version of her specter-deflecter.
"Important visitors?" Danny asked for clarification.
"Yep, you see Danny, your mother and I may spend a lot of time fighting ghosts but we are also scientists. And like most scientists we enjoy that sweet, government grant money. So today when the Guys in White come we're going to wow them," Jack answered.
"Things with them have been a little…weird since the last time they requested our work. But if everything goes as planned then we will have nothing to worry about," Maddie commented.
"So you just hang out with your friends after work. That is, unless you see a ghost. Then we can wow them with all our cool stuff on a target!" Jack added.
"Right, I'll leave you guys to it then," Danny replied.
"Sounds good, Sweetie, have fun at school!" Maddie called.
"And remember, call us if you see a ghost!" Jack also called out. With this, Danny left to meet with his friends at school.
While at school, he told Sam, Tucker, and Jazz what he heard. In response, Jazz commented, "Is that why they've been working like crazy? I mean, I guess it makes sense that they would want to impress them. It's not like I ever see them sell anything from Fenton Works so they gotta get money from somewhere."
"Wait, what?" Danny started.
"Forget that, this means that those Guys in White guys are going to be nosing around your house again," Sam butted in.
"Hey, relax. They didn't catch me any of the other times so why would this be any different?" Danny commented.
"But Danny," Sam persisted.
"It'll be fine. Every time they come to town they make only as much of an inconvenience as my parents do," Danny rebutted.
"Ya, this isn't anything new, Sam. Danny totally has things under control," Tucker commented.
"Even so, maybe it would be best to take things easy for a little while. No point drawing attention to yourself, right? And Mom did tell you to stay out of the way and out of trouble," Jazz reasoned.
"Ya…it's not like I've had a lot of time to take it easy," Danny commented. By that time, the bell rang and they all had to return to their respective classes.
Only, Danny could not get the conversations out of his head, nor could he 'take it easy.' So after school he slipped back into the house and used his ghost powers to watch as parents showed the typical Guys in White guys their new and improved ghost fighting gadgets. When he arrived, his mom was in the process of explaining the last gadget, what she called a ' Fenton Ghost Restraining Collar.' From what he could understand, she took the specter-deflecter and added a function to nullify harmful ghost abilities.
"And have you actually used it on ghosts?" Mr. White asked.
"Well, this is a new prototype so it hasn't been fully tested out yet," Maddie answered honestly.
"Which just means that you can be the first to try it out!" Jack persisted.
"Have you used any of these items on ghosts?" The Mr. Black asked.
"Well…," Maddie began. Upon hearing the pause Jack continued, "The stuff always seems to get damaged somehow. Our son and his little friends like to try them out sometimes."
"But neither of you have used this stuff to catch a ghost," Mr. Black guessed.
The silent pause gave their answer. To it Mr. White explained, "You two like to boast as the greatest ghost hunters out there, but you live in a town overrun with ghosts. So unless you can prove to us that your gadgets actually work I think we're done here."
The Men in White were about to leave when Jack blurted out, "Just stay in town a little longer and we'll show you what this stuff can do! We'll catch…him! Ghost enemy number one. And with our stuff we'll have him in no time!"
"You will?" Mr. Black asked.
"We will?" Maddie asked.
"We will!" Jack answered confidently.
The Guys in White shared a look, followed by Mr. White's order, "We will stay until tomorrow noon. Call us when you catch the ghost boy, then we'll talk."
With that they left Jack, Maddie, and the still invisible Danny in the lab. Once his parents thought they were alone, Maddie rubbed her forehead and asked, "Jack, why would you promise to do that? And in one day?"
"Maddie, have a little faith. We've caught him before. And with you're smarts and my greatness there is nothing we can't do," Jack answered.
"Let's hope so. Because otherwise we will have to drastically cut back on a lot of things," Maddie commented. She then looked at the clock and saw that it was time to make a quick dinner before they started their new task of tracking down the ghost boy.
Danny took this as his cue to leave. Since the 'important visitors' were gone, he decided to go upstairs and start his homework. But other topics broke his focus. His mom seemed stressed about how their meeting went, and Jazz's comment earlier about the grant money worried him. Even his dad seemed worried. He never really thought much about where his parents got their money to make all their gadgets; they never seemed to be short on cash. But were things actually so dire that a government grant could effect them that much?
His gut reaction was that he wanted to help his parents somehow. He then realized that he could help them.
In the past he had allowed his parents to catch him if he felt they needed a confidence-boost. He had also out maneuvered the Guys in White enough times to see them as a minor threat at most. How hard could it be to pretend to get caught then escape from both groups? He smiled as he thought out his plan and rushed out of his room and into Jazz.
"Danny? I thought you were going to hang out with your friends?" She asked as Danny tried to pivot around her.
"Can't talk now. Gotta help Mom and Dad," Danny called out as he finally passed her and ran outside.
"Seriously, where are they?" Danny Phantom asked aloud as he scanned the city for his parents. He did not want to let himself get caught by phasing in front of them at the house, but he also didn't want to spend forever looking for them. They failed to catch him that night, and returned home when he noticed them reach home slightly before him.
Now it was early the next morning, and upon realizing that his parents had already left he once again ran outside to try to find them. He would have to stop soon, though, or else he would be late for school. He turned to the direction of school when he finally spotted the Fenton assault vehicle. He paused to decide if he should continue with his plan or just go to school.
His decision was made for him, however, when he heard his dad shout out, "There he is Maddie. Get him!"
Danny turned around just in time to see and dodge an energy beam from the RV. He smiled and commented, "There you guys are! Seriously, it should not be that hard to find you guys."
"You're not getting away from us this time Ghost kid," Jack called back as he stopped the RV and both parents jumped out, armed with multiple gadgets.
"Wow, you guys actually look serious this time," Danny commented as he dodged and phased passed several other attempted attacks. He then remembered that while he did not want to go too easy on them, he still needed to let them hit him atleast once.
His Dad shot a plasma attack which grazed him, so he pretended it was a direct hit and fell to the ground. As he fell he called out, "Ooh, ouch! I've been severely wounded!"
"We got 'em now!" Jack called out as his mom shot an ecto net to capture they're prey. Danny allowed himself to get pulled over to them with the occasional pained or surprised noise to keep the act up.
"We actually did it Jack! Oh, one more thing. Keep a gun trained on him for me," Maddie squeeled in joy as she grabbed the collar she showed off the day before.
"Whoa, hey wait now," Danny began as his mom quickly undid the net and sinched the collar around his neck. Danny panicked slightly and waited for the pain he remembered from the last time the specter-deflector was put on him, only this time instead of the expected pain he felt a strange energy around him. He looked at them confused, but they ignored the look.
"Now those Guys in White guys can really see what we can do," Maddie replied confidently as she resecured the net.
"I know, let's call them right now," Jack began.
"Now, Jack, we went over this last night. We got everything ready at home so that they can look at everything with our trophy. Besides, since they're from out of town they might get lost finding where we are," Maddie reasoned. Jack agreed, and tossed Danny into the back of the RV. They then sped off back to their house.
"Hey, have you guys seen Danny?" Jazz asked Sam and Tucker when she found them at school. She had no idea where Danny ran off to yesterday, or where he left for so early that morning.
"No idea. We haven't seen him since school yesterday," Tucker answered.
"Really?" Jazz asked as she tried to think of where he would have gone.
"When I texted him yesterday he said he was busy doing something for his parents," Sam offered, still slightly annoyed that Danny blew them off without explaining why. She thought they agreed to have a normal night, so she was not pleased to get a text that evening saying he would not make it.
Jazz thought more of that. She had no idea what her parents were up to or how Danny would help, but when she searched for him that morning it looked like her parents were preparing to catch something. A pit formed in her stomach as her mind went to worst-case scenarios.
"Jazz?" Tucker asked. They were talking when she grew quiet.
"Oh, sorry, I gotta go. Have a good time at school," Jazz replied then ran off to the school entrance. It was not like her to skip school, but she just felt that something wasn't right. With this in mind, she rushed home.
Stopping here for now.
As always, please review~