September 7, 2004: I'm late a day. Forgive me, sweet masses! I went to my friend Luna's house and we goofed off and my beta was late and.... well, you get the picture. This chapter really went off on its own. I think that I have a clear view of where I'm going in the story, and it just surprises me. This chapter is, without the author's notes, roughly 2,900 words and seven and one-half pages long- about 3/4 the length of the third chapter.
References in the last chapter- Invader Zim: the Box Ghost and Danny both said "impending doom", which is practically Zim's catchphrase; the Box Ghost's parable about boxes dying halfway through is reminiscent about a metaphor Bobby Goodspeed used that also died while explaining it to Addie in The Misfits by James Howe, as was eight o'clock being the crack of dawn for a teenager; and I am unable to find my reference for Time Stops for No Mouse by Michael Hoeye. If you can find it, I'll give you a cookie. It might be when Eliza was reading the crossword puzzle....
References in this chapter: Star Trek, Return to Sender, Lord of the Rings, and Michael Crichton's Timeline.
The OFtR is Dancers by Lizzy Rebel. It's a very, very sad fic with one-sided Tucker/Sam. http:www. fanfiction. net/s/ 2040954/1/.
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Danny in Star CityChapter Five: The Convention (Finally!)
Jazz, once again designated the driver of the GAV, was silently fuming behind the wheel. She was ticked because she was going to the convention and her mother, using the reason that Katrina needed help to look after Todd, who woke up with a sore throat, was not. Jazz suspected that Maddie hadn't really wanted to go in the first place. It didn't help matters much that Jack wouldn't shut up.
"This is so exciting!" Jack said happily from the front seat. He was holding a box in his arms and gave it a squeeze. "I've been waiting all year for this!"
"You've already said that five times since we left the house," Danny said. He, Eliza, and Eric were sitting in the second seat. "Thanks again for letting us stay at your place, Mr. Channings," he added.
Eric waved a hand dismissively. "Think nothing of it. Our home is your home. Anyway, I hear that your father is an inventor."
"Yeah, he's the best one I know," Danny said.
"Well, I don't know if I'd say the best," Jack said, slightly bashfully. "You're mom's not too shabby in her work."
"Okay, then you're the best inventor I know besides Mom," Danny amended.
"I also heard," Eric continued, "that you're interested in ghosts, Jack."
"Yes. Yes, I am. I combine my interests to create devices to help mankind." Ignoring Jazz's rolled eyes, Jack passed the box back to Eric. Eliza peered inside and pointed at one of the gadgets.
"That one looks like a high-tech lunch thermos," she said critically.
"That's because it is!" said Jack. "That's the Fenton Thermos, used to catch ghosts."
"Sounds like Pokemon," Eliza muttered and started digging through the box. She uncovered a small, warped arch made from metal and held it up. A green light lit up on one side and the device started humming.
"Fenton Boomerang. It's used to follow and attack ghosts," Jack explained. The Boomerang hovered out of Eliza's hands and floated to Danny, beginning to gyrate lazily. Danny tried to swat it away, but it stayed there with dogged persistence.
"Uh.... are you sure it's a good idea to have that thing on?" Jazz asked, looking in the car mirror nervously.
"Of course!" her dad said "Its function as a weapon is completely useless unless someone throws it at a ghost."
Eric reached across and took the Boomerang out of the air. "This is an amazing piece of engineering," he said, examining it in his hands. It gently tried to tug itself out of his hands, but he kept a firm grip on it. "I'm assuming that you installed some sort of perpetual-motion device to keep it running?"
"Actually, it's got a self-propelling engine," Jack said, grabbing the Boomerang from Eric. "Took forever to get the schematics right." Since the Boomerang wasn't in as close proximity to Danny, the green light flickered off and it drifted down to Jack's lap.
"So, where's this place the convention's being held at?" Jazz asked.
"It's at the civic center near downtown Star City," Eric said. "Turn left here onto the highway...."
While her dad gave Jazz directions, Eliza looked through the box with Danny. When he pointed out the Ghost Gabber and Weasel, she gave a short laugh.
"Not very creative at names, huh?" she commented.
Danny shrugged. "Well, there's only so many ways to name an invention. Usually, Dad christens something by slapping 'Ghost' or 'Fenton' in front of it."
She picked up what looked like a small water gun filled with green goop. "What's this, a stolen laser from Star Trek?" she asked.
"I think it's the Fenton Ghost Laser, but I've never seen it before," Danny said. The green liquid sloshed around inside with a sinister look about it.
"Looks dangerous," she commented and dropped it back in the box. "How far are we from the convention?"
"Almost there. The traffic's really light for this time of day," Jazz commented. She was about to merge onto the highway when a black Xterra pulled rudely in front of their car. The GAV came to a sudden, screeching halt and the five of them were thrown against their seatbelts.
"I had the right of way, you jerk!" Jazz yelled, honking her horn. The driver rolled down his window and casually waved back.
"Jerk," she repeated.
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Besides nearly crashing into a SUV, they got to the civic center without incident. The civic center was a large, stone-colored building that hosted plays, sports games, carnivals, and the like for Star City and the surrounding counties. Though it was only a little after ten, the parking lot was almost full. Jazz pulled into a parking space beside a truck with "Beam me up, Scotty" spray painted on a door and a car covered in solar panels.
"Wow. These cars make ours positively normal," she said.
"That's like, one of them miracle things," Eliza said.
They piled out of the car and Danny took the box full of his father's inventions. The Boomerang started to whir when he neared it, but stuffing it underneath all the other gadgets was enough to keep it from giving Danny any bodily harm. When they neared a familiar-looking vehicle, Jack tapped his daughter on the shoulder. "Isn't that the car that nearly ran us off the road?"
Jazz glared daggers at it. "Yes, and it's a good thing that the driver isn't still in it. Grr, that stupid jerk...."
Eliza turned out her pockets and sighed. "Sorry, Jazz. I don't have anything you can slash his tires with."
"That's probably a good thing," Eric commented.
"How do you know it was a guy?" Danny asked.
"Because," Eliza said, pointing to the license plate; it read GRL GTTR, "I really don't want to think about the alternate."
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
The civic center was heated, providing a nice contrast with the cold, rainy weather outside. After Eric found a map of the complex, he led them through the milling crowd to the main auditorium.
"One of my buddies from high school has a job here," he explained as he waved to a security guard.
The guard, a balding man of forty-something, came over. "Hey, Eric," he greeted
"Hal," Eric said, nodding cordially. "Some gathering, huh?"
Hal rolled his eyes. "You're telling me. I had to break up some Trekkies from having a revival on the roof." There was a large crash followed by someone shouting, "You'll never get me alive, copper!" and Hal rolled his eyes. "I gotta go," he said, dashing off.
"'Trekkies on the roof'?" Eliza repeated, snorting.
"Ah, the life of a security guard. Never dull," Eric said, moving on. "It's a bit of a tragedy that Hal's got a PhD in medicine and stuck in a job like that."
"Why does he work here if he's got a degree?" Jazz asked.
"Well, he's always sided with some controversial ideas, and after having a rather heated debate with his first boss.... a lot of people just won't hire him. Anyway," he said, looking down at the map, "they've got lectures in the auditorium, demonstrations in the arena, and general information in the main room."
"Can we hurry and find a place to put this stuff? Please? My arms are falling off," Danny said, shifting the box awkwardly in his arms.
Jack took the box from his son. "I'm going to the arena to show off," he announced, walking away.
Sighing, Eric handed Eliza the map. "I'm going to make sure he doesn't get lost. I'll meet up with you guys at twelve right at this spot," he said and followed Jack.
"So...." Eliza said looking at the map. "Three teenagers left to their own devices with three hours to burn...." There was a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I wonder how much trouble we can get into?"
"It depends. Are we near the control booth?" Danny asked.
Jazz, who had her arms crossed, said, "As long as you two are with me, you're not going to run off and cause trouble."
"Darn," said Danny, snapping his fingers. He followed Jazz, who was off in search of something with which to occupy her time.
"How quick do you think we can ditch Ms. Responsible?" Eliza asked.
Danny grinned. "Only one way to find out...."
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Jazz walked out of the bathroom. "Okay, you guys, let's-" She stopped, unable to find either of the younger teenagers in the crowd. "Danny? Eliza? Get back here, now!"
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
"I think that your sister's calling us," Eliza said. She and Danny had snuck around a corner when Jazz went into the restroom.
Danny shook his head. "Naw, it was just a truck backfiring," he assured her. "Anyway, now that we're free, what do you want to do?"
"I dunno, what do you wanna do?"
"I asked you first!"
"That you did," Eliza conceded. "I've consulted the Map of Knowledge, and we can be bored with talk about aliens, ghosts, and other horrors pulled from Scooby-Doo."
"Hey, don't knock Scooby! He's cool!" Danny protested.
"Danny, a fourteen-year-old into Scooby-Doo is just sad. No wonder you don't have a girlfriend." Eliza had started to wander off in a seemingly random direction and Danny had to hurry to catch up with her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, lightly jogging behind her.
"What do you mean, 'what's that supposed to mean?'?" Eliza asked.
"I mean, that was a pretty low attack on your part."
Eliza stuck out her tongue. "Well, it's true, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but-"
"So what, may I ask, is the problem?"
Danny sighed. "It wasn't very nice," he said.
"Aw, is little Danny's feelings hurt?" Eliza teased.
"Very funny. Ha ha."
"Ha ha indeed! All right, it was pretty dumb. Sorry," she apologized.
"That's better." Danny stole the map from her hands and looked at it. After a moment's hesitation, he led them back the way they came.
"Where are we going?" she asked as he handed the map back.
"The main gathering room," Danny said.
"Why?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Because that's where all the cool stuff is," he explained. They skirted around a large crowd in front of the concession stand and through a door into the stairwell.
"Cool stuff being....?" she said, following Danny up the stairs.
"Cool stuff being not being bored to death with lectures and not being killed in an explosion at the demos," he clarified. Being the gentleman he was, Danny held the door of the second landing for Eliza and gave a mock bow as she walked through.
"So I take it that you've been to one of these convention things before," Eliza said, swatting at him as she walked past.
"Just once," he said, falling into step behind her. "We went to the one in Baltimore when I was ten. Jazz has been to a couple of others with our parents and didn't like them at all."
"Speaking of which, I wonder how the old gel's doing?" Eliza wondered.
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
'The old gel', usually referred to as Jazz Fenton, spent about thirty seconds panicking over where Danny and Eliza had run off. Various scenarios played through her mind from a serial kidnapper to a rogue ghost, all of which left her with the blame. She then realized that this was a public place, that her charges were (more or less) responsible pre-adults, and that Danny could handle himself. Jazz's anxiety gave way to indignation that her brother would just run off on her like that, even if he had done it a million times before. She was all prepared to go storming angrily after him when she realized that she didn't know where they went.
Great. This is just great, Jazz grumbled to herself. I can't even keep two teenagers under control for a few minutes.
"Excuse me. Are you lost?"
"Huh?" Jazz said intelligently. A teenager around sixteen stood in front of her, patiently awaiting her answer. The cuffs of his blue jeans were long enough to partially obscure his fairly new Reeboks and a strange-looking watch (a Rolex, Jazz supposed) hung lightly on his left hand. A silver chain looped around his neck, tucked neatly between his orange turtleneck and the first button of his Neo-styled jacket. Dark gold hair fell in short spikes around his head, framing his deep purple eyes.
"You looked a bit confused, and I was wondering if I could help," he said, flashing a smile.
Jazz felt her knees go weak and, hoping she appeared casual, leaned against the wall to keep from falling down. "Actually, my brother ran off. I'm supposed to be looking after him, but I don't know where he went...." She shrugged. "So, yeah, I guess I am a little lost."
"How old is your brother?" he asked.
"Um.... uh, well he's.... fourteen," Jazz stuttered, hoping she didn't sound as moronic as she thought.
"Well, there are only so many places a fourteen-year-old would want to go. I'm sure he'll turn up soon, but I'll help you look for him, if you want," the boy offered. As an afterthought, he said, "I'm Conley," and extended his hand.
"Jazz Fenton," she said, shaking it.
"I imagine that would be short for Jasmine," Conley said.
Jazz nodded mutely.
"It's a beautiful name," he said, bringing her hand up and lightly brushing it with his lips.
"Thank you...." she said breathlessly.
There was a glint in Conley's eyes of some unknown emotion. "No," he said, "Thank you."
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Danny and Eliza wandered through the displays, not really paying attention to what the people were saying- "window shopping", as Maddie called it. They stayed to listen to a man and a woman have a heated argument in Vulcan with a crowd of Trekkies standing around, giving their meaningful contributions to the conversation. Not that far away, nearly the same scenario was being played out, except this time the people spoke Elvish and were surrounded by people with T-shirts reading such phrases as "Frodo Lives!", "Gandalf for President", "Boromir, Die for Your Sins" and "I Party With the Mirkwood Elves".
"I think that we've entered the realm of science-fiction," Danny said, pointing out an old 1950's styled TV playing a rerun of the Twilight Zone.
"I concur. The Sci-Fi Channel must be making a fortune with this convention," Eliza said.
Danny and Eliza came upon a group of people oogling over the contents of the table. Pushing their way to the front, they saw that it was devoid of anything besides a silver, pod-shaped device. Beneath the table was a large, black box connected to a power outlet with multiple cables. The station was manned by two people in their late twenties, both of whom wore slim Rolex wristwatches.
"By rerouting the electric charge from the solar cell," the man said, patting the box under the table, "we have been able to tap into the unused power of quantum particles with the silver device you see here. My lovely assistant Jereni-"
"Ahem," the woman, sitting on a stool with a laptop, interrupted as she glared with aqua eyes.
"-who happens to own the device and the technology behind it," the mad added, "will be starting the demonstration." He held up a nickel for all to see and placed it in front of the pod. Giving Jereni the thumbs up, he stepped back. "Now watch closely," the man said, a sparkle in his brown eyes.
Jereni tapped something into the computer. The black box began to hum, quietly at first and slowly getting louder and louder. Jerking sharply, the front section of the pod opened up to reveal a sort of miniature laser. It shot a green beam forward, hitting the coin. Taking the blast and actually lifting up into the air, the nickel glowed brightly for a moment before fading from sight.
There was stunned silence, broken only by Eliza's gasp of, "Cool...."
The crowd then applauded and Gale grinned with relief, smoothing back his blonde hair. "Almost thought it wouldn't work this time." He explained that they had transported the coin to a nonspecific point in the multiverse, which Jereni translated to mean they sent the coin to another dimension. Everyone oohed and ahhed appreciatively, then promptly left.
"Well, that went well," Gale said sarcastically.
"Don't be so negative. The demonstration went over fine," Jereni said, closing the laptop.
"Still, it would have been nice to get an offer," he said wistfully. Noticing that the two kids were still hanging around, he said, "Hey."
Danny started to reply when Eliza stepped forward. "That was really neat!" she said. "I get that you made the coin disappear, but how'd you do it?"
"We don't really give that information out-"
"I'd be happy to show you," Jereni said, interrupting Gale. Getting off the stool and sitting the laptop on a nearby table, she beckoned to Eliza and started to give a basic explanation.
"So much for the tricks of the trade being a secret," Gale muttered. He checked his watch and did a double take. Eyes wide, he glanced towards Jereni and Eliza before turning his gaze to Danny.
"Um.... heheh...." Danny said, nervously rubbing his shoulder. He found the knowing look in Gale's eyes to be discomforting.
"You certainly have a lot of nerve," Gale said quietly, "to come here."
"Wh-what do you mean?" Danny asked.
Gale's eye narrowed. "With what you are."
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Fwee! That was FUN. Okay, all of the science except for the part about sending the coin to another universe was made up on the spot. is proud of herself I dedicate this chapter to the recently departed Danny Phantom Message Board. May it rest in peace. All those wishing to get in touch with the maybe ten people I was able to round up from the DPMB, go to http: outofthinair .proboards25. com/ index. cgi.
PSDog: Yes. That does suck. A lot. And not in a good way. Sorry, mind temporarily in the gutter. I hope that you give George lots of walks. You get a Rubber Duckie Bathtub Set to make sure he is squeaky-clean.
cheerin4danny: No, the forums are dead. Le sigh. You get an altheiometer (like a compass, except with pretty pictures) to play with. Or sell on eBay.
BellaVolo: You are simply too kind, m'dear. You get a three-year-old poster of Aaron Carter that I'm ashamed to still own.
Blue Wind Ninja 016: Cha, glad you reviewed, buddeh. You get the first season of Power Rangers on DVD with special features.
Phantomhawk422: Yesh. It's up in all it's now-five chaptered glory. Squee. You get a spoon with the letters "TNWM" on the handle.
That's all for now! Drive safely, folks!