The sun was bright and warm on this beautiful summer day.

Normally, Ben Tennyson, being a typical ten year old, didn't stop to appreciate such things, preferring to gravitate to stuff like the latest batch of Sumo Slammer cards.

Just as Ben was about to head to the nearest swing set and swing to his heart's delight, he heard something.

"Help! Someone help me!" Ben's hero instincts, the same that had got him in trouble with so many bullies at school, kicked in, and he ran into a wooded area of what he assumed was a park.

At this point, Ben realized that he didn't quite know where he was at, nor where Gwen and Grandpa Max were. Ben, the burgeoning superhero he was, pushed those thoughts down, as he journeyed through the wooded area.

Finally, he found the source of the shouts. A young girl was stuck up the tallest tree in the forest.

Ben turned to his trusty watch, and activated it. He cycled through the various extraterrestrial forms he could take, finally settling on Wildmutt.

Soon, Ben was climbing the tree, now in the form of a gorilla-like dog. Eventually, he reached the top.

The girl yelped and turned away. "It's OK, I won't hurt you.", said Ben, still in his Wildmutt form.

Again, Ben should have thought this very odd, as Wildmutt didn't have the vocal cords to perform human speech.

The girl continued to hunch herself up closer to the trunk she was holding onto. Ben as Wildmutt scooted ever so closer to the girl… only for her to meld into the tree trunk.

Wildmutt jumped, as the tree began to convulse, turning a sickly gray color. Stitches, like ones you would find holding a pair of pants together, appeared as well, criss-crossing throughout the tree's new form.

Soon, the tree finished convulsing into its new state, that of a hand, holding Wildmutt int its palm.

A hand that looked vaguely familiar. Wildmutt turned to see the tree had completely transformed into an amorphous blob. The blob's head turned to stare down at Ben, with a single purple eye peeking out from one of the stitches.

"LET ME OUT!!!", yelled the creature.

XXXXX

Ben woke up with a yelp. He looked around, getting his bearings. He was in his bunk bed in the back of the Rust Bucket.

Ben rubbed his eyes and face, trying to understand the weird dream he had just had.

"Could you keep it down, doofus.", said Gwen, irritably, as she typed away at her laptop. "Some of us are trying to work."

Ben would have made some childish retort about working during summer vacation, but he was too freaked out to respond.

"What was your nightmare about, Ben?", said Grandpa Max, at the wheel, not unkindly.

"Yeah, was it about that squid monster again?", said Gwen.

"No, I actually haven't had one of that guy for a week now.", Ben said. He shivered, remembering the squid thing's 'be afraid' speech when they had first crossed paths in Ben's mind.

"No, this time it was about Ghostfreak!", explained Ben.

"Ghostfreak?", said Gwen, interested. "What happened?"

"Well, he just towered over me, yelling to 'let him out'!", said Ben.

Max, who had been silent for some time after Ben's mention of his dreams of the squid guy, jolted out of his musing. "Well, I would say not to transform into Ghostfreak until we're absolutely certain nothing foul is going on, OK?"

Ben got out of his bunk, and moved to the passenger seat of the RV. "No duh. I try not to go Ghostfreak until I absolutely have to."

Ben, trying to change the subject, continued, "Where are we now, anyway?"

"Massachusetts."

"Ugh, the party capital of the world."

Max smiled down at Ben. "We're just making a quick pitstop so that I can visit some old friends."

"And when have any of our visits actually been quick on this road trip?", said Gwen, snarkily, as the Rust Bucket passed by a sign for the upcoming town: Amity Park.

XXXXX

This is the first story in the fanfic project I have entitled the Tooniverse. Basically, what if every cartoon existed in the same universe a la Marvel or DC comics?

I decided to start with a simple crossover between Ben 10 and Danny Phantom. I'll be writing other low-key stories, building up to the universe's first crisis crossover.

You'll also note that I've mixed things up in regards to the canonical events of the real life series. In canon, Ghostfreak escaped after Ben first met Vilgax face to face, however in this continuity it's the other way around.

Also, if you want to be apart of the Tooniverse, just contact me, and I will give you free access to my Discord channel. There, you can come up with ideas for the Tooniverse, as well as get the chance to write stories for the project as well.

If you're reading this , just PM me your desire to help this project go.

If you're reading this on Archive of Our Own, you'll know that AO3 has no PM service. Thus, if you have one, just use your account to contact me.

Or, if you just want to be an observer of this fanfic series, then don't contact me at all, as my Discord pages will spoil the heck out of upcoming events.