Danny Phantom and all related characters are owned by Butch Hartman and Billionfold Inc.

Baby Face

Chapter 4: Close Encounters

"The coast is clear," Jazz whispered, leading the way across the darkened living room. Sam and Tucker followed closely, Danny not far behind them.

"Mom and Dad should be until at least ten," Jazz said, walking into the kitchen, only to come face-to-face with her dad.

"Jazz-a-liscous! How was the homework?" asked Jack, an ecto-cannon over his shoulder.

Jazz looked behind her, only to find Sam, Tucker, and Danny gone.

Turning back to her father Jazz stuttered, "F-fun! We got a lot of work done!"

"Jazz, where's Danny?" asked Maddie, poking her head around Jack's side.

"He—he stayed over at Sam's house for the night."

"I take it Tucker will be there too?" asked Maddie.

"Of course, Mom."

"Alright," Maddie said, stepping forward. "We're going out to patrol for a while before we meet with the Mayor."

"I thought your meeting was at eight."

"It was, but the mayor couldn't make it. Our meeting got pushed back until ten," Maddie said, leading Jack to the front door.

"So when will you be back?" asked Jazz, looking nervously around for the others.

"Sometime late, probably after midnight. Make sure you se the Fenton Ghost Alarm before you go to bed."

"Okay, Mom." Jazz answered.

"'Night Jazz," Jack said, following Maddie out the door.

"Goodnight Dad!" Jazz called, allowing herself a sigh of relief as the door closed.

"That was way too close," Tucker said.

"Where did you guys go?" asked Jazz, turning.

"Danny?" asked Sam's voice, though she was no where to be seen.

"Are they gone?" he asked, his voice weak.

"Yeah," Tucker answered. "Are you okay, man?"

The three appeared, tucked around the corner of the kitchen entrance. Danny still hung onto his friends, head bowed.

"Are you okay?" Jazz asked again, walking over and kneeling in front of her brother.

Danny lifted his head, his eyes at half-mast. "Tired…" he said, trailing off as he fell forward into Jazz's arms.

"Danny!" Sam cried, surprised.

"It's okay," Jazz said, standing with Danny cradled in her arms. "He's just sleeping."

Sure enough, Danny was snoring lightly in her arms, oblivious to all the eyes staring at him.

"We were right about him fighting," Sam said, brushing a strand of hair from Danny's eye.

"Are you done mothering him, yet?" asked Tucker, annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah, we're coming," Sam said, heading for the stairs.

Sam and Tucker trekked downstairs and started up the Specter Speeder, laying Danny across the front seats. Jazz disappeared to the weapons vault and came back toting enough firepower to make Rambo proud, while Sam found the boo-merang and Tucker brought the Specter Speeder online. In moments they were blasting into the Ghost Zone, Danny still asleep on the seat.

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"What's going on?" asked Danny, several hours later.

"You're awake!" Sam said, turning to look at her friend.

"Yeah," Danny rubbed the sleep from his eyes, sitting up. "Where are we?"

"The Ghost Zone," Tucker answered from the controls.

"Jazz let you drive?"

Sam laughed.

"Of course she did. Why wouldn't she?"

"Because you're only fourteen and don't have a license yet," Danny answered, using the same excuse Jazz always gave for not letting him drive. "Besides, what rational person would let you behind the wheel?"

"This is different, Danny," Jazz's voice called from the back. "I'm better with the tracking equipment, and Sam's better with keeping him on track."

"Fear is a great motivation," Sam commented, raising a nearby ectogun threateningly.

"Who let you have an ectogun, anyway?" asked Tucker, his voice decidedly high pitched.

Danny laughed, stretching. His little body ached all over, from what he was assuming was keeping three people invisible for so long. His stomach voiced its disagreement.

"You're hungry, again!" asked Tucker, looking over at his friend.

"He just exhausted himself saving our butts," Sam answered. "Of course he's going to be hungry. And keep your eyes on the road!"

Tucker looked ahead, swerving just in time to miss a floating door.

"What does it matter? We'd just go through it."

"Yeah, and be in a different part of the Ghost Zone. We're here to find Ember, not to go exploring," Sam scolded.

"Who says we'd go through the portal if we phased through the door?"

"I do," Danny said, looking up at his friend. "I've done it before."

Tucker opened his mouth to speak, but changed his mind, instead staring ahead at the multitude of doors flying by.

"Do we know where Ember is yet?" asked Danny.

"We have her ecto-signature locked, but we haven't been able to catch her yet," Sam explained.

"Can I have some help back here?" asked Jazz, a strange beeping accompanying her voice.

"Coming," Danny said, climbing up over the back of the seats to join Jazz in the back.

Her hair was pulled back out of the way in a long ponytail, just like she had worn it all through elementary school. Her face glowed in the lights of the many monitors surrounding her, some flashing frantically in time with the beeping. As Danny entered, she looked to him with a smile.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, ignoring the panicking computers.

"Fine," Danny answered, taking a closer look at the nearest screen. "What did you do to the tracking systems?" he asked.

"I don't know," Jazz answered, looking at the screen. "I punched in the data we had on Ember, and we even fed in some old music of hers so we could track the sound waves, but the computers have been going nuts ever since. The closer we get to her, the worse it gets."

"Did you check the systems before we left?" asked Danny, climbing into a chair beside her and typing a few things experimentally into the computer.

"Of course. All systems were fully functioning when we left."

Danny typed a few more things on the computer, and finally came up with a nice diagnostic of the system.

"How did you do that?" asked Jazz.

"I had to help Dad build this thing, remember?"

"Oh."

"According to this, Ember's reading has something off about it. The system isn't sure what is wrong, but whatever it is… it isn't good." Danny said, clearing the screen.

"Hey guys, we've got her!" called Tucker.

Danny leapt from his computer and ran to the front of the Speeder, Jazz close on his heels. Sure enough, Ember could be seen through the front shield of the Speeder, though she was still pretty far away.

"Okay…what do we do now?" asked Tucker, stopping the Speeder and looking back at Jazz and Danny.

"I vote we take her back to the lab and get her to turn Danny back," suggested Sam.

"The Thermos?" asked Danny, lifting said article in his hand.

"Yeah. Think you can handle it, Danny?" asked Sam.

Danny grinned, turning ghost.

"What do you think I am, some useless little kid?" he asked with a smile, carefully sliding through the wall of the Specter Speeder. Luckily, it being human material and him being a ghost, Danny didn't have to go intangible. That seemed to take a lot out of him.

Ignoring the faint protests of his little muscles, Danny flew off toward Ember, careful to stay out of sight.

AN: You know, this story seems to revolve around dialogue. It's funny really, since I usually hate doing dialogue. Oh, well. Thanks for reading. Cookies to all my reviewers (especially Epona Harper). Ja ne!

K.G.

P.S.: On a darker note, school is starting in less than two weeks. Once school starts I'll be completely overloaded with college stuff, homework, Tri-M, etc... I will do my best to keep writing, but updates are going to be far more sporadic for a while. Any advice, suggestions, encouragement, etc.. would be greatly appreciated, no matter how long it is after the chapter has been posted, and I thank you all for reading and reviewing this far. Sorry to leave you on such a hiffclanger; I'll see that I can't fix that sometime soon. Happy Writing (or reading, or whatever it is you other fanfiction people do).