Danny snuck in quietly, trying not to make any noise, but to no avail. He had no sooner reached the stairs, when his mother, Maddie, came out with a cup in one hand and the other hidden behind her back.
"Danny, are you alright? You look like you've had a long day."
Uh oh. Danny knew that voice. He was so grounded. "Er," he nodded, "you might say that."
"And might this be part of it?" Mattie asked, holding up a grade sheet, still smiling sweetly. Well, at least his dad hadn't ambushed him when he walked in the door.
xXx
"So I'm grounded until my grades come up!" Danny yelled in frustration at the images of Sam and Tucker on the web-cam. "The ghosts are going to completely nutso without me there to stop them, and there's nothing I can do short of sneaking out!" He looked around, "and if they ever caught me doing that..." he shuttered.
"It's okay, Danny," Sam said. "We'll keep an eye out for ghosts, but since they all come from your house anyway, it shouldn't be too hard to keep track of them, right?" Danny could only sigh.
"Besides-" Tucker started, but he was interrupted by a knock on Danny's door.
"Danny?" Jazz stuck her head in. "Dad wants to see you in the basement, asap."
"Thanks Jazz," Danny said, half sarcastically. She shrugged and shut the door. Outside, she turned and looked worriedly back. Danny was having problems being a super-hero and a student...but then again, she couldn't think of any super heroes that didn't. Of course, she didn't know any other super heroes, but that was beside the point.
Back in Danny's room, Danny put his computer on rest after apologizing to Sam and Tucker, and after they had wished him luck. He trudged slowly down the stairs and into the lab.
"Danny!" his father, Jack said the moment he stepped into the room. "Since you're going to be spending a lot of time at home, I figured you could help me out after you study." Danny's depression sank even lower. "I've just finished a series of experiment," he walked up to the porthole that connected the Ghost Zone and the Human World. "Unfortunately, it's weakened the porthole force field that keeps the ghosts from phasing through the door into our world." Danny sighed heavily, but his father kept talking.
"Well, it wasn't that good anyway," Jack shook his head, and pointed to a box in the corner, "which leads me to my latest invention! It will create a force field around the porthole, on both sides! No ghost can get out, but they can go back in. It'll trap them here so we can study them, molecule by molecule!" He nudged Danny, who had cringed away. "I'm almost done with it, just a few more tweaks and..." he stopped and rubbed his hands together gleefully.
"Um...Dad?" Danny asked slowly, "how does it work?"
"Well, we have to move it closer to the door, and we push the red button on top." He pointed to a large red button on top of the box. "It's guaranteed to work!" He clapped his hands. "We can let ghosts in one by one to study!" he smiled, looking rather pleased with himself.
"Uh, dad?" Danny said, starting to back towards the stairs, "I have some studying to finish, so, I'll catch you later."
"Right son!" His father said. "Already starting to improve! That's my boy!" Danny forced a smile and rushed upstairs.
"Now," Jack turned back to his invention, "I'll have to make sure it's connected correctly, so it won't burn out and stick. That would be a lot of trouble worth nothing if we had to take it apart to bring down the force field." He looked around, and his stomach grumbled. "Hmm," he told himself, "after dinner...and fudge." He grinned and walked up the stair, flipping off the light.