Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School. I do not own the original story this is based on.
Phantasma had spent the past day learning how to act like a human. She walked, gestured, and phased through walls like a human. Phanty realized the last part only works in the Ghost Zone, so she had to practice not walking through walls. A feat quickly accomplished when she found out, the hard way, that amulet held back her powers.
However, the banshee forgot about the fact that monsters, ghouls, ghosts, and humans eat differently. Specifically, that humans love fresh food. Though fresh was a relative term when one looked at human and monster culture.
Phantasma had no idea how she would deal with eating the meal Jack and Maddie prepared, and a loud, nervous gulp could be heard from her.
From above, the ghost bats and ghost spiders were having a ball. From their first little prank, the creature stifled their laughter as it would cause their presence to be detected. One bat had trouble and to get slapped on the head to stop him. With the situation under control, the ghosts looked back to the Fenton family and Phantasma. Tonight would be a great night.
"Don't worry," Maddie said as she held up the salad bowl. "Jack mainly eats the ham. So, no problem if you're not much of a meat-eater, we have plenty of salad. Made with the freshest ingredients, I could get at the market."
That made things worse. Phanty was used to rotten ingredients, they threw out the fresh stuff.
Jazz didn't know what was up, but Danny had a feeling about the incoming culture clash. Of all their dates, they would eat at places that had ghastly, somewhat punny names. Phanty wasn't sure how she'd get through the meal, luckily Danny had an idea.
"You didn't, by chance, make this stuff with that Fenton Micro-box?" Danny asked. His parents blink in confusion, they had made many things with the name Fenton on it. "You know the box used to make hotdogs."
"Oh yeah," Jack remembered, "Box Ghost took it. We got him with the Fenton Bazooka, but the Fenton Micro-box was caught in the blast. Too bad, I really liked hotdogs." Jack said as he wiped a tear at the last sentence.
"And you don't need a microwave to make a salad Danny," Maddie said with a slight laugh. Phanty found the joke a little silly too. No one made a salad that way, as far she knew. And she laughed a bit, but she did not cackle.
"Mom, didn't we get some rolls for tonight?" Jazz asked.
Maddie remembered getting rolls at the grocery store but didn't see them on the table.
"That's strange," Maddie remarked. "I could've sworn I placed the rolls on the table."
Everyone looked at Jack, who seemed offended. "If I ate them, then I would have done so at the table like a man."
Jack and Maddie searched through the cupboards for the missing rolls. They didn't have much luck, but Jack found his spare Jack Fenton action figure.
This gave time For Danny and Phanty to talk.
"So, what do you think of my family? "Danny asked.
"They are as wonderfully weird as you are...even if I don't agree with some of their views..."Phanty said.
Danny knew that when Phanty said weird, it's a compliment, not an insult.
"So, what's the deal with the food?" Jazz asked. The love birds forgot she was there.
"Monster and ghosts don't eat many 'fresh ingredients.' Well, what you call 'fresh' anyway," Phanty explained. "We can tolerate them. Heck, some of them can be tasty, but I usually go for something rotten."
Jazz, who was hearing this for the first time, glanced at her brother. Danny sheepishly smiled with a blush.
"We went to some 'interesting' restaurants during our dates," He said.
Jazz was not amused by this and turned to Phantasma with a glare. "OK, rotten food, sure, but you must've known we were serving fresh food here. I mean, you and Danny have been together for almost a month. You had to know he ate fresh food."
Phantasma put a hand behind her head and blushed in embarrassment.
"I admit. I was surprised when Danny told me he ate human food. But I learned to accept that. Now, when I was rehearsing for dinner, I may have forgotten about the menu," Phanty's mood sadden as she continued. "I was just sooo excited. This was my first relationship, and I wanted things to be as smooth as a deadline."
Phanty looked at Danny.
"I never thought my first boyfriend would be half ghost."
Jazz sighed, realizing that Phanty really didn't mean any harm, she just had a different culture.
A ghastly culture on the surface, but she is otherwise harmless.
Besides, it had to be the norm for anybody meeting the Fenton family to feel a little nervous. And maybe overwhelmed.
"I just wish that there was something sweetly rotten that I could eat without your parents noticing..."Phanty mumbled.
Danny then got an idea.
"I think I know, but I need a distraction," Danny said as he quickly became invisible and flew away.
"What's he up to?" Phanty asked Jazz.
"I have no idea," Jazz admitted. She looked to her parents, who continued their search for the rolls. "probably didn't need a distraction, though."
Danny soon came back. In his hand was something that made Jazz gag and Phanty almost salivate.
"A rotten apple...where did you get that?" Jazz said in disgust.
"It was supposed to be part of my lunch, but I forgot about it until now..."Danny admitted as he quickly added it to Phanty's salad.
"Danny," Jazz took a whiff of the apple and had to restrain herself and sound polite. "How long ago was lunch?"
Danny shrugged while Jazz left to get a knife to cut the apple. She would have used hers, but she didn't want any germs on it.
Jack and Maddie were still too preoccupied with the rolls to notice their daughter.
Phantasm thanked Jazz with a smile and took a bite of the apple. With any luck, the amulet may have something to help her tolerate the food more.
The bats, however, did not appreciate the gesture. This was supposed to be a night of mischief, and things were going smoothly. Any bumps in the rug were ironed. The bats and spiders huddled up and formulated a plan.
"Found the rolls," Jack exclaimed as he placed them on the table. "They were in the fridge for some reason."
"Really? How about that?" Phanty said, eating her salad before they noticed the rotten contents on it.
"You kids and your diets," Jack commented. "Back in my day, all a diet meant was eating a salad."
Maddie nodded her head in agreement.
Soon everyone dug into the meal. Phanty found herself more tolerable of fresh food. She was right about the amulet. She much enjoyed the rolls.
"Worth every penny," Jack said. The man had five already.
While everyone at the table enjoyed dinner. A few phantom spiders crawled down the wall and scurried to the lab next to the kitchen. They spewed webbing across the room and found what they saw would be fun. And that's when they put their plan into action.
BOOM!
The sound could be heard from outside the house. The neighbors didn't mind, as they knew of the Fenton's behavior by now.
"GHOSTS!" Jack and Maddie shouted in unison. They rushed to the lab, ready for action. Only to trip into the webs riddling the room.
"What the heck!?" Jack screamed and struggled. "Maddie, I thought Danny cleaned the lab."
"He did," Maddie tried to break free, but the spiders spun the silk strong enough to handle a rhino. Or in this case, Jack's body weight. "Something must've snuck in."
"That's impossible. The Fenton alarm would have picked up any ghost within a five-mile radius."
Jack and Maddie looked to the alarm systems to see that everything was off.
"Huh. Danny must off accidentally turned off the alarms when cleaning," Jack commented. The parents weren't angry with their son, but they would hold him responsible. It was their job as parents.
But it had to wait while they were trapped. Meanwhile, one of the phantom spiders had made its way to the ghost portal, where it found some wires. It gestured to one of the bats, who chewed through them and unlocked the machine.
"Did that ghost bats just bite through the anti-lock cables on the Fenton Portal?" Jack asked to clarify the obvious.
"I'm afraid so dear," Maddie sighed as she reached for her Fenton Machete in her boot.
As she struggled, one of the bats flew into the portal.
Meanwhile, Phanty was so freaked out from the explosion, she could have jumped out of her own fake skin. Jazz ran over to the lab to check on her parents. Danny got up and surveyed the kitchen. Whatever was happening, meant trouble.
"What the heck is going on?" Danny said to himself. "Tucker and I disabled the alarms and security systems while I 'clean up' the lab."
Danny's ghost sense then went off as a trio of ghosts came from the floor. Danny wanted to transform and fight but was worried about how that would escalate things more when his parents came up, most likely armed to the teeth. However, that idea went out the door when Danny heard Jazz say.
"Danny! Mom and Dad are fine! They're stuck in something-I don't like a web! All over the lab! So, take your girlfriend and make sure to stay somewhere safe! While something may happen in the kitchen!"
"Why are you talking like that?" Maddie asked, confused.
Danny transformed and took a stance as Phantasma deactivated her amulet. Phanty wanted to help, but Danny held an arm in front of her.
"You could get hurt," Danny said with great concern.
"I can handle it," Phanty replied. Dating or not, Phantasma would not be a bystander.
"But I can't," Danny now stared into Phanty's eyes. She back down but remained in ghost form for safety.
Danny zoomed to above the table a gave a fast punch to a ghost squid. He thought fast and grabbed a tentacle before he swung it at the ghost wolf and slammed it into the wall.
From behind, a ghost snake lunged at the ghost boy with fangs full of venom.
Danny went intangible, and the snake went through him into the wall. The ghost boy lunged at the wolf, who now stalked Phantasma.
While she still is new to fighting like a ghost, Phanty zigzagged through the walls in a serpentine-like manner. The wolf, a proud hunter, couldn't keep up with the banshee's movements. Every time he tried to bite, Phantasma had already switched directions and phased through a wall. By the time Danny tackled the ghost wolf, the creature was too dizzy to care.
"Bad dog! That's not how you play fetch." Danny quipped.
Phantasma laughed at her boyfriend's little joke. She may have been in danger for a moment, but Phantasma couldn't help but admire Danny in his superhero element.
However, in Phanty's moment of fangirling, one of the bats went invisible and flew to her. The ghost squid had just grabbed Phanty when the bat hit her amulet. With her in human form and her arms bound, Phantasma was scared and nearly screamed.
Danny saw her human form and froze the squid's eye. The squid let go of the girl to try and smash the ice off.
Danny caught Phantasma, who now wore a silly, happy grin with a deep red blush, and looked to the amulet.
"Is the amulet supposed to do that?"
Phanty broke out of her stupor and touched the amulet. She was transformed back to ghost form and flew alongside Danny.
"It seems to be working fine now," Phanty said as she and Danny dodged the ghost snake. Phantasma served to the side where a spider web came out of nowhere and entangled her.
"Danny," Phanty spoke as she struggled. "Were your parents making Spider-Web Spaghetti?"
"They made that?" Danny asked himself as he blasted the snake and wolf. "Wait, no. They didn't. Why?"
Phantasma pointed to the ghost spiders that crawled towards her.
"When did they get here? Doesn't matter here's the bug spray," Danny fired off ecto-beams from his fingertips, hitting the spiders and not Phantasma. But not before they tapped the amulet and made Phanty human again.
"Wait, those creepy-crawlies have been the reason the amulet's been going crazy?" Phanty realized.
Danny looked to the arachnids in anger, but when he looked away, the ghost squid hit Phanty out of the webbing and into the couch. The banshee was fine, but that made an angry ghost boy, who fired a more powerful ectoblast at the cephalopod.
"I heard sushi chefs massage their squid to get it tasty," Danny cracked his knuckles. "Let's see how long it takes."
The ghost squid closed its eye for the oncoming pain as Danny began his attack.
POW!
Danny punched hard enough to send it flying. Danny grabbed a tentacle and threw the ghost to the ground.
WHAM!
With his ice power, the ghost boy encased the ghost suid in ice before he blasted the cold shell to pieces.
THWACK!
Danny now went and started continuously punching the ghost wherever a fist could land.
He was furious at the creature for harming Phanty. As the flurry of punches went on, the ghost snake and ghost wolf looked to the onslaught in slight fear. And when Danny was finished, he turned to them.
"I'm only gonna say this once. Leave."
At his words, the three ghosts left the building, and Danny looked around for the damage done.
"Is it always like this?" Phanty asked.
"No, ghosts normally don't attack like this. I wonder why."
Phantasma grabbed Danny's arm. She took the time to feel up his ghostly muscle before she blushed when the banshee realized what she was doing. The banshee looked to Danny, who was sporting a sheepish grin and a blush.
"Sorry about this. Next time, I'll have my thermos ready."
Phanty smiled. But she dropped it when she saw the ghost spiders, who were around the phantom bats. Phanty pointed Danny towards them, but when he flew up with charged fists, the vermin flew away.
"Great, not just spiders but bats as well. Maybe Tucker and I shouldn't have disabled the systems."
Phantasma laughed at the predicament. It was not something the ghost girl would want daily, but she was happy.
Danny smiled, happy that he managed to handle the ghost and make sure Phanty was fine, until…
"FREEZE PHANTOM!..." Jack shouted as he and Maddie aimed their weapons at him.
"Of course..."Danny muttered as he became invisible and flew away, barely dodging the attacks.
Phanty saw this and frowned, hating this so much.
"If only I could...that's it..."Phanty said, getting an idea.
"So that Phantom punk did all this!" Jack said as he looked around.
"Now Dad, we don't know that for sure. We only saw those three ghosts," Jazz did her best to mediate the situation.
"Jazz, honey, we've heard it before. And while Phantom may seem like a hero, he still nothing more than a ghost." Maddie was adamant about her opinion of ghosts, but her words hurt Phanty even more. Not only was she saying bad things about her son, unknowingly, but she outright stated that there was an attack because he is a ghost. The banshee understood that the Fenton parents were furious at the ghost attack in their home, but that didn't mean all spirits were evil. Maddie grabbed a broom when she noticed Phanty walked over to her.
"Phanty dearie, are you alright?" Maddie asked.
"I was just wondering if this is Phantoms fault, why didn't he appear with the other ghosts in the first place?" Phantasma asked with an innocent and somewhat mischievous tone. Maddie was perplexed by the question, as was Jack, who overheard. Danny had transformed back and just entered the room when he saw his parents and Phanty.
"I mean if all ghosts are jerks, then why would they hang around each other? Maybe some are nice."
Maddie looked to the disguised banshee. Phantasma was nervous, even though Danny now stood beside her. She was so tense, the banshee felt like the amulet would shut down and reveal her. Phanty felt relief when Mrs. Fenton smiled. Did the banshee get through to her?
"Now, Phanty, I know it's a good idea to think positive, but there's no such thing as a nice ghost."
Maddie walked over to her husband, who smiled with glee at something he found. Phanty frowned at her failed attempt to dilute the Fenton's beliefs.
"Yeah, it sucks that my folks think all ghosts are bad, but thanks." Danny grabbed Phanty's hand and gave the ghoul a kiss on the cheek. "Now come on. we still have dessert."
"Does your family even have any left after this little scream?" Phanty asked. She heard her answer, not a moment later.
"PIE!" Jack Fenton exclaimed. One could swear they could hear a choir from the way he said it. "I knew you survived. Nothing can get past the Fenton Safe!"
Phanty needed both her hands to hold back her laugh, but she decided that burying her head in Danny's chest was a better idea.
"Yeah, Dad made a vault in the kitchen for fudge and desserts," Danny held in his laughter as well. Phanty's stifling was tickling him. "You still hungry for more?"
Phanty, unable to speak without bursting out with a cackle, nodded her head and walked with Danny to the table. The night was not over yet.
I hope you all had a great Valentine's day. Now, Danny and Phanty have another clash with ghosts. Looks like the bats and spiders found the idea of mayhem to be funny. But that's how some ghosts can be. Not Phanty though. However, the nights not over yet. Stay tuned for the third course and maybe some answers. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Sayonara.
Special Thanks to Flower Princess11 for help with the chapter.
Special Thanks to Jebest4781 for 8 consecutive reviews. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.
Reviews:
61394: We shall see in the coming chapters.
Luiz4200: Sadly this was no jinx, but the work of ghosts, but I wouldn't be surprised about a jinx or two.
Dreams Come True 996: I doubt Dash will ever have any luck with Danny's dates. Except maybe Cree, and that's a big maybe. But this fic is about Danny and Phantasma. As for the cats, I didn't want to go full spooky occult, and cats can be scary. Especially if they still have their claws. As for the bats, this is not their last appearance.
Major Simi: Yes and some fleas followed her in. good thing they were expelled from the household.
Chester A Bum: My apologies if the last response seems slightly surly. If you look back at chapter 8, you'll see I updated the response. I meant no antagonistic behavior. Glad you liked the chapter. Sadly, traps can be placed and sprung anywhere. And no worries about updates, there are still plenty more.