I wrote part of this while I wasn't feeling very healthy, so if it seems kinda weird, you now know why.

Disclaimer: Me? Own Danny Phantom? As if.

A Temporary Cease Fire Chapter Three

Something was nagging at the back of Maddie's mind. It was like someone was screaming something at her, but for some reason she couldn't understand what they were saying. She looked over at her husband, who was driving them home from Wall 2 Wall Mart. Nothing seemed to be bugging him, so she looked out the window instead.

It wasn't until they passed a bus stop that her mind clicked. A close examination of one of the posters on the side of the bench covering found Maddie staring right back at the eyes of labeled #1 Public Enemy, "Inviso-Bill". So. That was it. It was her conscience that was nagging at her.

"Jack? Can I ask you a question?"

"Why, of course, Maddie! Is it about ghosts?"

"Well, yes, but about a specific ghost. Do you think that D. Phantom really IS fighting to protect the town? I mean, he did say that he was, but of course he could have been lying, but he has helped us out and it's not like he's purposely-"

"Maddie, you're making my head hurt."

"Sorry. I was just thinking . . . is it possible to trust him? Could he really be an ally?"

"Well, it's like I always say."

Maddie paused, waiting for Jack to finish his statement. "Yes, Jack, what do you always say?"

"Uhh . . . I can't remember. He is still a ghost. But, if he fights against the same ghosts we do, we can put our trust in him."

Maddie took this into consideration, surprised at the sudden wisdom her husband showed. "I guess you're right. That was very insightful, dear. How did you come to that conclusion?"

Jack briefly took his eyes off the road to give a confused look at his wife. "What? What were you saying about insight? I was just reading that ad for mayor candidate Brown."

Maddie looked at the back of the bus they were following on the road, and sure enough, there was a picture of a man with an extremely white, suave smile, and the phrase, "Vote Brown for mayor to help with the ghost infestation: if he fights against the same ghosts we do, we can put our trust in him."

'That's a weird slogan, but it does get me thinking . . .' Maddie thought to herself. She turned to her husband and told him her latest plan for D. Phantom.


About a week after the Technus incident, the Fenton family was again found eating breakfast, and, as usual, Jazz was reading a book, Jack and Maddie were working on an invention, and Danny was eating cereal.

"Soo . . . how's your hunt for D. Phantom going, you guys?" The youngest in the family asked his parents, almost in a nervous tone.

"Hmm? Oh, it's going fine." Jack replied, focusing more on the last touches on his updated version of the portable ghost portal ray than on the question. For some reason, the last one had mysteriously disappeared. Like most of his inventions, now that he thought about it.

"Actually, Danny, we've thought and talked about it, and we decided that he's not as evil as we thought he was, and we've come to the decision that we're even going to go tell the city to take him out of the position of number one public enemy. Today, even, if we can get our act together." Maddie aimed this last statement at her husband, who was still deep in his work. "Right, dear?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, right. We decided instead that that Technus ghost is more worth hunting down." Jack looked up from the machine for a couple seconds, making himself look like he was really paying attention.

Danny snorted and smiled at what his dad said.

"Something funny, Danny?" Maddie inquired, curious at her son's reaction.

The teenage boy immediately put a serious look on his face and shook his head quickly. "Uhh . . . no, of course not, mom. Yeah, ghosts, they're pretty bad, heh-heh. Sooo . . . you're also going to tell them what his real name is, right?" He quickly changed the subject.

"Of course. There's no use calling him Inviso-Bill when that's not his real name, right?" She smiled.

Jazz, who didn't seem to be listening to the conversation, actually looked up from her book and surprisingly made a non-negative comment to add to the conversation. "Well, good thing. Inviso-Bill is really a silly name." The psychology-obsessed teen then turned her book around to show the rest of her family what was written in it. "It says here in these readings that people with names that they hate will eventually in life-" Her rantings were then cut off by a noise downstairs, in the lab. It wasn't an especially loud noise, more like something heavy falling off a table, but it was loud and unnatural enough to catch the attention of the family.

"GHOSTS!" Jack yelled excitedly, attention finally taken off of the mechanical box he was working on. He and Maddie shot off to the stairs, ready to, well, kick some ghost butt.

When they reached the lower level, they were surprised to find only one ghost rummaging around all of the lab equipment and hovering above the ghost portal controller.

She didn't look especially tough, either. She wore a red jacket, a scarf, and a short skirt and boots, and looked more worried about her own problems than about the ghost hunters that had just joined her.

"Get away from our stuff, you ghost creep!" Jack yelled, and shot the ghost with the Bazooka. He, being the worse shooter of the paranormal professional couple, missed, of course.

"Jack, dear, why don't you put down the Bazooka? The portal is, after all right there." His wife requested, and he silently consented, disappointed that he couldn't use the heavy artillery.

"My name is Kitty, not 'ghost creep', got that?" the dead adolescent said to the large man.

"Well, in that case, what do you want, 'Kitty'?" Maddie asked. "Whatever it is, you're not going to get it!"

"So why'd you bother asking what I want if I'm not going to get it?"

"She has a point, Maddie." Jack chipped in

"Hon, you're ruining the dramatic climax."

"Oh, sorry."

Kitty interrupted this side conversation and said simply, in a whiny kind of way, "Listen, could you just tell me how to open that ghost portal so that my boyfriend can get out?"

"As if!" Maddie got in a more stable fighting position and got our her ectoplasmic sword and jumped at the persistent teen. Kitty dodged the attack, but just barely. At that moment, an invisible breeze rushed between the three, and the ghost portal spontaneously opened. The swirling ectoplasma was disturbed, as if someone had entered.

"Johnny?" Kitty screamed, anxiously waiting for her boyfriend to appear. Her hopes were dashed quickly as the portal closed itself and no one appeared.

Though Jack and Maddie were greatly disturbed by this occurrence, there was a more pressing matter on hand that they had to take care of. Maddie used her opponent's temporary distraction to take advantage of the situation, and made another attack at their current foe.

The female enemy noticed this at the last second, and dodged it again, cutting it even closer than before. "Hey, you almost made me break a nail!" The girl complained, having slammed into a wall in her haste. She retaliated and shot an ectoplasmic beam from her hand at the couple.

The two humans both dodged this, and as soon as Jack regained his composure, he ran towards the ghost, ready to tackle her down by hand. Kitty simply rolled her eyes and went intangible, causing the muscular father to pass right through her and land with a loud THUNK on her opposite side.

The fight continued for several more minutes, both sides energetic and willing to fight for their separate causes – Jack and Maddie to reclaim their lab and Kitty to reunite herself with her lover.

"Listen, all you have to do is push the button, right? I promise that it'll only be Johnny and me, okay?"

Man, this girl was whiny.

All of the sudden, the Ghost Portal opened again, and two figures emerged. Even if it was only one of the two, both Jack and Maddie would have been shocked, but seeing both of the beings together rendered them speechless.

It was D. Phantom and Johnny 13.

"You're a ghost?" Jack cried incredulously, referring to Johnny. "And we let our daughter DATE you?"

"You got that right, old man." Johnny confirmed, and then turned to his girlfriend. "You ready to leave this place, Kitty?"

"Oh, Johnny!" the happy teen exclaimed, hopping onto her companion's motorcycle. As soon as she landed on the seat, the black-clad male drove his bike up to the nearest wall, ready to phase through. D. Phantom called after him, momentarily stopping the motion.

"Remember our deal, Johnny." The black and white figure warned sternly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I know the consequences if I break it, blah blah blah. Now we're outta here! So long, punk!" As he drove off, a high-pitched screech could be heard, trailing off into the distance from the same bike.

"You made ANOTHER deal with him?"

As soon as Jack and Maddie were finished watching their enemies phase out of their home as if they owned the place and they got over their shock, they turned to the last ghost left in the room with them, fuming.

"You . . . you let them get away!" Jack yelled, furious.

"What's more, you made a deal with one of them and let him out of the ghost zone!" Maddie added.

"Listen, I can explain," the teen interjected, all of the sudden seeming quite small and powerless compared to the two adult's rage.

"Oh, I think it's quite clear to us what's going on." Jack interrupted.

"You're a spy, aren't you? Working as a double agent, I bet!" Maddie continued. "You actually made us TRUST you, and all of the sudden you pull this on us!"

"But you don't know-"

"And to think that we were going to consider you an ally!"

"We were going to tell the entire city to stop hunting you!"

"There's something I need to tell-" D. Phantom was interrupted again, but this time it was neither by Jack nor Maddie. A white-clothed arm and hand reached out of the ghost portal, which was still open, and grabbed the ghostly adolescent by the arm and dragged him into the ghost zone.

Normally either of the couple would have responded to this situation by figuring that, as long as D. Phantom was in the ghost zone and stayed there, they were just fine with that mysterious limb pulling him in. Their parental side had taken over them, though, and even though it wasn't like they were yelling at one of their kids, they were still annoyed that a teenager would just leave like that in the middle of one of their rantings.

So, instead of rationally responding to this situation, they jumped into the Specter Speeder, ready to follow the teen so they could finish what they started. Right before they revved up the engine, Maddie ran to the foot of the stairs and yelled to the upper level in one big breath, "Byekids! Haveafundayatschoolwe'regoingintotheghostzone!"

"Be safe and come back in one piece!" Jazz yelled back, with a tone of sarcasm in her voice.

And with that Maddie jumped into the vehicle and drove into the swirling green portal with her husband.

Hmm . . . I think my chapters seem to get progressively shorter. Sorry 'bout that.

I'm also sorry to those of you who were expecting an update sooner, but if I try to update more than weekly, my brain'll overload, and then you'd NEVER get updates, and that wouldn't be very good, now, would it? No. But I promise that I will update every Tuesday, and if I don't, it means I'm either dead or am going through a mental breakdown from homework.

Now, this is the part of the show where Justina Bubbles thanks her reviewers from the last chapter:

Princess Nightfire – My mom has a 2-girl limit in our house, so she's making me give you my evil- err . . . wonderful little sister in return. The same no-return policy is applied. Have fun!

hikarisailorcat – Sorry, there won't be any Sam or Tucker in this story because of its main focus on the Danny/Parent relationship.

Hearts of Eternity – Thank you so much for reviewing again! I'm glad that you liked my use of Technus (he's one of my favorite villains, too). I have to apologize, though, because I don't think I'll be using him again. As for Maddie not figuring out Danny's secret – well, we'll see how that goes ;).

LaBOBuren – No, it's not a FOP crossover. I just decided to put in another little tidbit from the Butch universe in my story.

Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet – I think I've seen your name before . . . you're on the BH forum, right?

Also thanks to: Ghoster14, Firehedgehog, edward-tivrusky-5, Sukira-chan, Cheerin4danny, kaliAnn, Neko-Salosa, wishing for rain, bluish black dolphin, and Catnip070.