Links in the Chain
By Lacey52

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

A note: Let's see, Murphy's Law is going full swing, poor Danny jinxed himself last chapter…
I don't own any of the books I used for Lancer's exclamations, and please don't shoot me for this chapter and the way it came out.
I've just wanted this particular person to find out about Danny for soooo long. It might not be who you suspect though….and he probably won't react like you expect him to…though that will be explained slightly in chapter twenty one…
Please don't hate me for this chapter...you're either gonna' hate it or love it I fear...

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

Chapter Twenty: Perceptions

.o.O.o.o.O.o.

The day had been an extraordinarily long one for the vice-principal of Casper High, Mr. Lancer. Fridays usually were though, seeing as both the faculty and the student body desperately wanted a weekend away from the atmosphere created by a place of education.

In the whole eight hours the student body populated the school, he had had no less then two hundred and thirty students sent to him with referrals, detention, or problems to be talked about over a cup of coffee and across the desk from their parents. He was still at his desk at eight-thirty, trying his hardest to get through the large stack of papers that had piled up over the day.

'I swear this is more work than I usually receive,' he tiredly rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his blurry vision so he could continue reading the draft of a budget report sent to him by the school librarian, 'Why couldn't the children behave for just one day? I have never had a single day where I've had nothing to do…besides monotonous paper work of course.'

Setting the report down and leaning back in his chair, Mr. Lancer decided he deserved a break. It had been a tiring and trying day, and everyone deserves their rest, 'Rip Van Winkle, what I wouldn't give for a nap right now. Ah, well, too much to do and too little time. I might as well make my last rounds and lock everything up. This paperwork will just have to be done at home.'

The man stood, stretching and yawning as he went, and made his way from the office to the main school halls, keys in hand and eyes open for anything out of place. Getting around the school was no easy thing, though, as the building had so many levels, so he decided to start at the top and work his way down.

'There is nothing so tiring as climbing stairs,' the man shook his head as he finally reached the top of the stairwell and locked the door that opened to the roof. After that, a floor by floor search turned up very little in the way of after school clubs gone awry. Everything in order, with the upper floors at least, Lancer headed down to the ground level.

'Janitor's closet locked? Check. Doors all closed and locked? Check. Lights in classrooms and bathrooms off? Check,' he ran through his mental checklist as he did for every floor before noticing that something wasn't quite right, 'Did I just hear something hit the wall?'

Leaning against the door to the biology lab, Mr. Lancer listened as a man's voice began to drone on about using the technology around him to enhance his suit and aid him in ruling the world, 'What is this man on? Crack? I wonder how he got in the school…'

Another voice soon joined in and then a third and fourth, 'I could swear I know those voices…they sound like my students! Oh lord, I need to call the police, there's a lunatic lose in the school…'

Soon however the voices became clearer, the man's voice starting first.

"I will rule the world, and if you want you can be a member of the educational faculty, you're such a great teacher after all," the voice said, and as Lancer watched a computer fly down the hall, open the door, and attach itself to a large conglomerate of technology the only title that came to his mind was, 'The Metamorphosis!'

"Danny? A great teacher," Samantha Manson crossed her arms and jutted her hip out to the side, a look of disbelief clear on her face, "You're talking about the same Danny as I am right?"

'Wait, Fenton is here as well? How did all these people infiltrate my school?' Lancer questioned himself.

"Hey!" came a voice off to her side, "I'm right here you know, you don't have to dis the C student to his face!"

Try as he might Lancer couldn't get over the shock of seeing, not Danny Fenton as he expected, but the infamous Danny Phantom who had been both nuisance and savior of Amity Park many times.

"What?" Tucker Foley walked into his line of vision through the open door, tapping away at his PDA, "It's not like she's lying to you or anything…"

'Wait, 'C student',' Lancer's eyes widened slightly, 'Daniel Fenton refers to himself as such at times…'

"Yeah," Phantom replied as he dodged a swipe from the giant robot-like thing, blocking another with some sort of green shield and keeping it from hitting Manson and Foley, "it's always nice to know you have two best friends that wouldn't lie to you! Hurry up Tucker, I'm getting tired here…"

"Give up child," the large…thing tried to sound intimidating, but only managed annoying with his nasally tone, "there's no way now that I have all of the Cramtastic's knowledge running my systems as well as the state of the art computers of this house of education that you can beat me, nor can you ever have hope of trying to beat me into submission, nor can you try to…"

"Alright Danny," Manson, to Lancer's amazement, smiled at the ghost boy that was holding off the large robot, "Here's a chance to work on your English, since you just gave up yesterday when I tried to help you with that worksheet. What was wrong with Technus' speech?"

"Other than the fact that it was really annoying?" Danny Phantom grunted in exertion, "It was a major run on, just like his mouth…"

'English homework?' Mr. Lancer was certain that he was hallucinating. What he was seeing and hearing was proof positive, concrete evidence, that pointed towards…, 'Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom couldn't possibly be the same person! That is absolutely ridiculous…a Lewis Carroll level of ridiculous! I think…'

"Very good!" Sam raised her eyebrow, "Ten points to the C student."

"Does that mean I'm a B student now?" he shot her a rakish grin.

"Only in your dreams," she rolled her eyes back at him, "Hey Tuck, you got that ready yet, or do we have to play 'witty banter' with Mr. Ghost some more?"

"You have yet to be marveled by the witty banter I am capable of having with you!"

"Shut up!" Danny shouted as he slammed his opponent into the floor.

"Both of you shut up!" Sam glared at the pair of them as they continued to vie for the upper hand.

"Okay," Tucker smiled as he tapped in the last few letters, "I'm done. Now all we have to do is…"

But he was cut off as Lancer was knocked in through the door by another technologically related item slamming into his frame from behind. It was small, metallic, of course, and looked as though it fit over a person's hand. Only one button was present, and Danny was certain that he didn't want to know what it did.

"Lancer!" Sam squeaked as her back straightened and her eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"Oh no," Danny Phantom shook his head, "This is ridiculous! And you are not getting that….that…whatever that piece of technology is that looks like it fits over your fingers!"

"And you never cease to amaze me! Forget being a teacher, go for your doctorate and try for being a professor in college!" Technus grabbed the object before Danny even had a chance, "You'd be great!"

"Smart Danny," Tucker glanced nervously between Lancer who was lying on the floor with a disbelieving look on his face and the fight, "Just give our enemy advice why don't you!"

Danny's smart-aleck reply, however, was never meant to be heard as at that moment Technus fitted the contraption onto his digits, pressed the button, and immediately disappeared from sight.

"Oh crap," Danny scrambled back from where he was, only to be nailed by an invisible hand and crash land on both Sam and Tucker, "Why do I feel like I'm having déjà vous?"

"Maybe because we just did this yesterday with Skulker!" Sam said as she was pulled up by both Danny and Tucker and the trio scattered as another blow to the place they had been standing shattered the tiled floor, "Mr. Lancer, get up and run!"

Danny heard Sam's shout and kicked it into high gear, grabbing Sam and then scooping up Lancer. Tucker had already hidden himself under one of the many high tables in the room and could be heard clicking away on his PDA.

"You know, this is the second time I've had to save you!" the ghost grumbled to him, "I should be paid for this."

"Oh yeah," said the girl tucked under his other arm, giving a rather cynical look, "And who exactly would they make the check out to?"

"I believe," Lancer finally spoke, his voice slightly wavering, "it would be made out to young Daniel Fenton, if I've not mislead myself or been hallucinating…"

He was nearly dropped on his face.

Danny stopped mid-air to stare with wide-eyed fear at the man he held. He was trapped, his vice-principal had heard and seen too much, and obviously had to be an intelligent man being as he worked in a school, it was easy for him to figure out and easier for him to take care of the halfa by…

"Danny! Snap out of it!" Sam hit his shoulder as hard as she could, "We have to stop Technus! Worry later!"

Dropping them both by the door, Danny turned and threw a, "Just get out of here and take Tucker with you!" over his shoulder as he zoomed back into the room, throwing out taunts about Technus being a techno-geek and subsequently getting slammed into the wall.

"Water," he heard Manson mumbling to herself, "water, water…how do you get rain in a school? Tucker!"

The boys head popped up from under a desk, "What Sam? I'm kinda' busy right now trying to track him, you know!"

"Can you hack into the school's system and set the fire alarm off?"

Lancer's eyes went wide at the Gothic girl's question, and he swore he was going to need therapy when Foley casually nodded before responding, "Well, sure, but Danny will be beaten into a pulp by the time I find whatever controls the fire alarm…"

Said boy was thrown violently threw a few rows of desks, with no time to phase through them…

"Guess it's the old fashioned way then," she turned to him then, "Mr. Lancer, I know you love your school, but I have to set the sprinklers off. Otherwise we get a new world leader and things won't be pretty. Will pulling the alarm set off the sprinklers or just the lights and noises?"

He was at a loss for words for a few moments. Everything was moving so quickly around him, his students in danger and he as well, an invisible enemy made of technology, Danny Phantom's suddenly, embarrassingly, obvious identity as Danny Fenton….

"Mr. Lancer!" Manson's shout caught his attention, "This is kinda' important so we don't die!"

"Uh, the sprinkler system can only be triggered by an actual fire…"

"Good enough," Sam said determinedly as she grabbed a nearby Bunsen burner kit and headed to the corner of the room where a desk had been thrown, directly under a sprinkler, "I sure hope this works like the movies," and she climbed the wrecked desk and struck a match directly under the metal sprinkler head.

The screeching of the alarm had everyone's hands flying to their ears instantaneously. Lights flashing and water falling, Sam hopped down with a happy smile on her face, "Rain in a school, just for you Danny!"

"You're the," a crack was heard as Danny spotted the disruption in the water's trip to the floor and laid into Technus for all he was worth, "absolute best Sam."

"Hey," Tucker grinned as he watched the boy land another hit on their now not so invisible opponent, "I helped too! You're just too busy being all lovey to include me!"

Two voices simultaneously called out, "We're not 'lovey'!" as a green, glowing first crashed into the robot one last time, destroying the small item that caused his invisibility. Foley moved to grab what looked like a high-tech thermos and, having screwed off the lid, managed to suck the entire thing's body inside while it wailed about the unfairness of the after life.

Lancer just sat where he was against the wall and gapped openly at the damage around him, "I had always wondered why the school would randomly be wrecked after I had made certain it was locked. Now I know," and his gaze landed on Danny.

"Mr. Lancer, sir," he swallowed nervously, "I can explain, I'm not really…"

"Don't try," Lancer shook his head as he stood up, "I already know you're Daniel Fenton. There were too many obvious clues for me to follow. Manson, Foley, the joke about being a C student, the mentioning of English homework. You, yourself, confirmed it when I confronted you and you stopped in shock."

"I…" but Danny found he couldn't say much right then, only to have it all break out seconds later, "I'm sorry about the school! I never mean to wreck it, I never mean for half the things that happen to happen, I swear! Please, don't tell my Mom and Dad, they'd either hunt me down or strap me down for experimenting!"

"Let's deal with this later," he turned his back to the three children silently pondering what he was going to do, "First off, you three and I need to leave the building so the fire department can come in and clean this up."

"Right," Sam Manson stepped up beside him, "but we really don't need to get in trouble for saving Amity Park for like the thousandth time, so let's not let them know we were here."

Tucker turned to the still worrying Danny then, "Come on man, let's get out of here so the authorities can clean it up. Do you walk here, Mr. Lancer, or drive?"

"An Acceptable Time, what does that have to do with anything?" he turned to the boy who was desperately trying to keep his PDA dry.

"It means do you have a car here or not, so we know whether to drop you off in the parking lot or take you with us away from here so there won't be any awkward questions for you to answer," Sam talked as she walked to stand beside Danny, gently touching his shoulder and smiling comfortingly at him, "It'll all work out."

Danny just swallowed nervously and shook his head, grabbing Sam by the hand and nudging her towards Tucker, who's hand she grabbed, "Are you coming with us? You just have to grab Tucker's or my hand and I take care of the rest."

Mr. Lancer stepped forward to cautiously take the boy's hand, "How does this work?"

"Honestly, we've never figured it out," Danny gave a tiny smile, "but I can definitely get us out of here."

"I walked here today," Mr. Lancer stated. He was going to continue about how he couldn't resist the lovely weather they were having after the storms of the night before when a chill ran over his body and a tingling feeling passed over him, nearly taking his breath away as he could suddenly look through himself.

"Yeah," Tucker laughed at the look on his face as they began phasing through walls and such until they got outside, "it gets you the first time you turn intangible. You should have seen Danny the first few months after he got his powers…he kept falling through everything or dropping things….man, the pants are still my favorites though!"

'I wasn't aware that a paranormal being who is technically devoid of all blood could blush,' Lancer observed as Danny's cheeks flushed with color and both Tucker and Sam snickered. Landing in the park in a tree cluttered area, he cleared his throat and backed away from the trio slightly, two of which were teasing the third, who was trying to defend his pant dropping problem.

"So you're not a chronic pants dropper, then?" Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow, "It was because you couldn't control your…'powers'?"

"Technically, it can still happen," Danny stuttered, still in his ghost form and feeling far too uncomfortable with the situation to joke around with his friends or change back, "when I get nervous about girls I tend to make parts of my clothes….or parts of me even, disappear."

"Yes, well," he straightened his shirt before turning on his heel, "I expect to see the three of you in school on Monday."

"Yes sir," they chorused back to him.

Danny sighed as he was finally out of sight, "I'm ruined. I've been found out…by Lancer…"

"Cheer up man," Tucker carefully examined his 'baby' for water damage, "It could have been worse. Coulda' been your parents!"

"Danny," Sam laid her hand on his shoulder again, giving a light squeeze, "it's not the end of the world yet…he looked like he was taking it pretty well."

"Define, 'taking it well' when you put a halfa being found out by his vice-principal into the sentence with it!" Danny's nerves were definitely on edge and the strong feeling of his worry again swept over Sam. It was an emotion she was beginning to get far too accustomed to…

"Taking it well, as in he didn't call the cops, didn't threaten you in any way, and didn't run away screaming," she gave him a light shove, "and he didn't mention anything about us ruining his school and destroying his chances at some promotion or other…"

"I don't know," Danny shook his head as he grabbed both his friends and flew towards their homes, "I'm just nervous about Monday now, and not because we have that quiz in history…"

Tucker didn't pay it much mind, his thoughts drifting when Danny dropped him off at his home, 'Whatever happens, happens. There's nothing I can do about it now, except deal with whatever comes.'

Sam was pretty much on the same page, 'We'll just have to be there for him,' she looked up at the halfa who was floating above her in her room, his intense green gaze focusing on the moon outside, 'there isn't anything we could do, and it couldn't have been avoided. Just like Jazz, someone else was bound to find out eventually.'

Danny spent far longer in Sam's room that night than he intended, his own feelings of worry being soothed slightly by her contentedness as she fell into sleep, 'I can't believe I got caught,' he hung his head as the words ran through his mind for what felt like the millionth time, 'What's going to happen now?'