By Nyassa Kaiba
That morning Danny and Feralae met Sam, ZP and Tucker at school, gym to be precise. "Okay, why do I have to go to the ghost zone to train?" Sam demanded.
"Three reasons." ZP was arguing. "One, its easiest, two its where your Master lives, three Benten told you too. And if the Lady upstairs tells you to do something, you do it, no questions asked."
"If you say that that's a rule I'm gonna hurl." Growled Feralae.
"It's not a rule, its following the orders of a superior." ZP told her. "Especially a superior being who knows more about the universe than the oldest ghost you will ever meet."
Feralae glared at her. "Would it make you feel better to have Danny along?"
"For security reasons, definitely."
"You wouldn't be saying that if you saw how Feralae handled Ember last night." Danny told her. "I saw some of the fight." He sighed. "Mom and dad shut down the portal and cleaned up the mess in a couple of hours."
"You look tired Feralae, what happened?" Tucker asked, curiously.
"OBE induced by an omnipotent dragon. Honestly, Benten may be a good guy, er… girl, but she's just as bad as Malchior in her own way."
"Whoever that is." Danny muttered.
"You don't want to know, except that he's mean and nasty and stronger than the strongest ghost you've ever met." ZP shuddered. "Listen, Sam, Feralae, don't worry about it okay? Benten wouldn't put either of you in danger. You just have to trust her."
"Trust a being I've never seen in person?" Sam asked. "ZP, you can see why I'd have a problem with this."
"Yes, I can." ZP sighed. "Okay, maybe you don't entirely trust Benten, but do you trust Feralae to guide you there and back?"
"Alright, fine, I trust Feralae, but I still want Danny to come along." Sam said stubbornly.
"It's okay Sam, I'll come." Danny agreed as he watched Dash and his friends tossing a football about. The football hit the gym teacher in the head, bounced off, and was caught by Dash, who had to run as the Teacher stormed after him. The bully was laughing as he tossed the ball to one of the other students. It missed and landed by Paulina's feet. Paulina picked up the ball and grinned, tossing it back into the midst of the game. The gym teacher sighed, rolling her eyes in a look that said, 'I give up.' And the Teens continued in their game.
"What are you watching… oh…" Commented Sam as she saw Paulina playing catch with the boys. "Hey, since when was Paulina a tomboy?"
"Since Dash asked her to the last dance." Tucker said cheerfully. "I overheard them talking. She said she wanted to learn how to play football like Dash does, so he's been teaching her."
Danny growled.
"Easy there tiger." Tucker laughed.
"Danny, let her go, if it was REALLY meant to be she'll come to you." Sam sighed as Danny continued to watch the ball as the two popular kids tossed it back and forth and back and forth. His head was moving with the ball.
"Danny, the expression on your face is priceless." Feralae laughed. "You look like I did the first time I saw Cyborg and Beastboy playing video games."
"I can play football too you know." Danny growled. "I'm just not interested in sports."
"Don't say a word." Sam told Feralae as she was about to make a comment. "You'll only make things worse."
Feralae chuckled then, "FOUR!" She cried as the football came flying towards them.
All five of them ducked out of the way.
"Uh, wrong sport." Tucker said as the ball landed on the mat they'd been sitting on.
Paulina ran forward to get the ball. She paused. "Hello Danny, how are you?"
"I'd be better if I didn't have balls flying at my head." Danny commented as he sat up from where he'd fallen off the mat.
Paulina took in the tableau. "Sorry, I'm not that accurate at passes yet."
"That's okay." Feralae said as she dusted herself off. "I saw it coming."
"I have not seen you before." Paulina said suspiciously.
"The name's Feralae." Replied Feralae. "And this is my friend ZP."
"It's a pleasure." ZP said, eyeing Paulina with an air of equal suspicion.
"Ziii Pi, you have such interesting hair." Paulina commented. "I have never seen hair that shade of blue, what dye did you use?"
ZP sighed, with a look that said, 'I get this a lot.' "It's a rather obscure brand. It's called Zoidian Jasmine. I think they went out of business last year, its permanent though, sorry you couldn't get some."
"Ah, that is alright. Now I must get back, Dash is waiting." Paulina said with a slight bow and walked away with the ball under her arm.
ZP started laughing. "I'm NEVER gonna tell her, but my hair is NATURALLY that color!"
"Really?" Tucker asked. "I thought you had gone alternative. You know dying hair is all the rage in Tokyo."
"Tucker I don't care about hair stuff." ZP told him, laughing. "Most of what I care about is my tech."
"You two would get along fine then." Danny said with a laugh. "I didn't think there would be anybody more of a techno geek than Tucker is."
"And a girl techno geek at that." Tucker added.
"What's wrong with being a girl and a techno geek?" Asked Sam, annoyed. "It's gender discrimination you know."
"Right." Danny rolled his eyes. "You two can stop this argument before it even STARTS."
"No, I'm going to keep going with it." Sam growled. "Because you took the same attitude when you found out that Paulina was learning football. Well let me tell you BOTH something RIGHT NOW, Women can do things just as well as a man can, be it sports, sciences, technology or just plain hard work!"
"Yes ma'am?" Danny said meekly.
Sam growled and got up. With a cross expression on her face she went over to where Paulina and Dash were playing football. "May I join in?" She asked hopefully.
"Why Mason, I didn't know you played sports?"
"I'm trying to prove a point." Sam hissed, pointing at Tucker. "Because SOMEBODY tried to pull the 'girls can't play sports or be conversant with technology'… thing…"
Dash got a wicked grin on his face. "I'm warning you Mason, Paulina and I play rough!"
"Bring it on." Sam said with an equally wicked grin.
Danny turned to Tucker. "What hath we unleashed?"