It was the end of October, and one of the coldest autumns New England had seen in years. Danny's dad sat at the wheel of the family van smiling. Loaded on top was just about every ghost-hunting gadget he could pack without breaking the roof of the van. He rolled down the window and took a big sniff of the air.
"Ah," he sighed, "smell that fresh clean pine. Your school picked the perfect timing for the fall vacation; Halloween! The favourite holiday of ghosts! I can't wait for a nice, relaxing ghost-hunting vacation with my family and Danny's friends!" he looked in the rear-view mirror and saw that only Danny and Sam were in the back seat, "Or friend. Why couldn't Tucker come again?"
"Ah, his parents dragged him off to some resort at the beach" Danny said.
"They're going to the beach in the fall?" this was the first Sam had heard of it. Danny shrugged.
"Well, I'd rather be at the beach in autumn than be here right now!" Jazz was not happy, "It's appalling that you are dragging these poor defenceless children," Jazz pointed to Danny and Sam, "and me on this ridiculous ghost- hunting trip! I had the tickets for a trip across the great countries of Europe, but instead, we're being dragged into the middle of nowhere!"
"Where are we going, Jack?" his wife asked.
"Simple. Where do ghosts usually appear in movies?" no one answered, "Haunted mansions off on the edge of small, old towns, that's where! And I managed to find and old abandoned mansion off on the edge of a small town within the state. I got the place dirt-cheap! I can already see the ghosts!"
"Truck!" Jack moved the van out of the way just in time.
"Sorry!"
(He's a Phantom)
(Danny Phantom)
Yo, Danny Fenton, he was just fourteen
When his parents built a very strange machine
It was designed to view a world unseen
(He's gonna catch 'em all cuz he's Danny Phantom)
When it didn't quite work
His folks, they just quit
But then Danny took a look inside of it
There was a great big flash
Everything just changed
His molecules got all rearranged!
(Phantom, Phantom)
When he first woke up
He realized
He had snow white hair
And glowing green eyes
He could walk through walls,
Disappear, and fly!
He was much more unique than the other guy!
It was then that he knew what he had to do
He had to stop all the ghosts
That were coming through
He's here to fight
For me and YOU!
(He's gonna catch 'em all cuz he's Danny Phantom)
(He's gonna catch 'em all cuz he's Danny Phantom)
Gonna catch them all cuz he's Danny Phantom
FACE TO FACE
"Here we are!" Jack stopped the car at the gate, "Stately Kane Manor! Or at least it was," everyone looked up at the mansion. It was not a welcoming house by any standards. It was built in the style of scary Gothic architecture, for starters. It obviously hadn't been inhabited in years, looking at the length of the grass, the quality of the paint job, and the condition of the doors and windows. Ghosts would definitely live here. In fact, the entire town seemed to come right out of a Tim Burton film.
"Look at it," Jack was the only one who seemed to like the house, "We'll be living in the residence of an old, dead rich guy whose house is now probably infested with evil, scary ghosts!" he pulled the rope holding the stuff on top of the van, and it collapsed on top of him.
"Hooray," Jazz moaned sarcastically as she got out.
"Uh, Dad?" Danny asked, "Are you sure you bought this place? Y'know, signed all the contracts, paid the money, made the phone calls?"
"Of course I did," Jack crawled out from under the pile of junk, "Jack Fenton never forgets when it comes to anything dealing with ghosts! Why?" Sam pointed up at the building, and Jack's jaw dropped. Construction workers were taping up "Do not cross" lines across the building and sealing the doors and windows.
"Hey!" Jack shouted, marching up to them, "Who are you people and what are you doing to my property!?"
"Ah, we got a job," one of the men said, "Have this paper here saying to seal off the house. Says its property of the city."
"This house has been my autumn home/ghost-hunting site for two months," Jack pulled out his papers, "Who hired you!?"
"That would be me," a female voice with a slight french accent said. A lady who looked sort of like Danny's mom save brown, longer hair stepped out from behind one of the gargoyles on the side.
"Who are you!?" Jack marched up to her.
"Sarah Frost, from Paranormalics" she held out a badge, "This house is haunted."
"Of course it's haunted!" Jack shouted, "That's why I bought it! I am Jack Fenton, ghost hunter extraordinare! You may have read something about me in the magazine from the Society of Misunderstood Genius Scientists."
"Ah yes," Frost said after thinking for a minute, "You're the lunatic from last month's issue who's this close to getting removed from the society."
"That article by Dr. Wakeman was unauthorised," Jack said, "Now what do you think you're doing to my property?! I'm here to hunt for ghosts and prove they exist!"
"Well I'm here to make sure ghosts never harm anyone, even if it means I have to destroy each and every one of them!" Frost shouted back, "Three months ago I got permission from the mayor to seal this house off so people can't get in and ghosts can't get out!"
"So you're doing this now?" Sam asked.
"Lacked equipment and men," Frost said quickly, "The point is, I've had the right to do this and I'm doing it for my department! We'll stop the ghosts if it's the last thing we do!"
"You may have had permission from the mayor when this was property of the town," Jack said, "but the mayor sold it to me and I say...GET OFF MY PROPERTY!" the two looked ready to fight to the death when a white limousine pulled up. The mayor stepped out.
"Mr. Fenton," he said in a Swedish accent, "You've arrived! So soon! What is all the hubbub here? I can hear you from the town!"
"This Paranormalics officer's intruding on my property, which I bought from you."
"You want to interfere with government work!?" Frost stared at the mayor, who got nervous.
"Well, Ms. Frost does have a point," he stammered, "The government did secure the rights to this place, and although the property is no longer the town's..." Jack gave the mayor five 100-dollar bills, "As I was saying, it now belongs to Mr. Fenton. And while they are spirits, ghosts are the spirits of people who are now dead, and anything designed to kill them may be considered inhumane," he got back in the limo and drove off, counting his money. Jack grinned in a "in-your-face" kind of way at Frost, who was clearly not happy.
"You haven't seen the last of me," she said, and her men and her left. Jack turned to his family and Sam.
"Well, let's get this stuff inside," he said, pulling out the Fenton Weasel. He used it to suck all the dust out of the inside of the house. The inside looked a lot better than the outside; a nice, old-fashioned mansion.
"Wow," Jazz said, "Maybe this trip won't be a complete disaster after all."
"That's the spirit," Jack said, "And speaking of spirits, it's time begin the ghost-hunting!" he pulled out a ghost tracker.
"Ghost directly behind you," the device said.
"A-ha!" Jack whirled around. Danny was right behind him.
"Uh, it just went upstairs, Dad," Danny smiled weakly.
"A runner!" Jack charged up the stairs. Mom and Jazz began unpacking.
"Wow," Sam said, "Your dad really picked a nice place to hunt for ghosts. You really think there are any around here?" blue ectoplasmic smoke came from Danny's mouth.
"That's a yes," he said "Look around for it." they started looking. Danny headed upstairs, making sure not to be in the same room as his dad. The ectoplasmic smoke came from his mouth again as he approached one room with a closed door. He could hear noises inside. Sounded like someone was digging through boxes. Danny opened the door, but the ghost inside noticed him. Danny just barely caught him escaping through the window out of the corner of his eye. He ran over, but there was no sign of anyone or anything. Looking around a couple more times to be sure, Danny slowly headed downstairs and met up with Sam.
"Did you find anything?" she asked.
"Yeah, sorta. There was a ghost going through some stuff in one of the rooms upstairs. He got away before I could catch him and the weird thing is that he completely vanished. There's no way he got out quick enough to avoid being seen. We'd better take a look inside that room. Come on," they started upstairs when Danny's dad stopped them.
"Danny! Sam!" he said, "Glad I caught you! I need your help in setting up a temporary lab. Come on!" he grabbed them and ran off to the basement.