Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Flips a switch, causing a dark room to light up* Oh thank gosh… my magic finally worked. Now we got electricity in this room that's unaffected by whatever magic Aragon cast.

DarkFoxKit: Yes, finally! Now we can play some actual video games.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yup. I'm glad Dora convinced Aragon to simply take you off the hunt for a replacement instead of punishing you for your 'disobedience'.

DarkFoxKit: Yes, well, we'll see how long that lasts. For now, let's enjoy ourselves. There's nobody else here, so we have the room to ourselves to just have fun.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': And I managed to get together enough stuff to transform them into different video game systems. You want to play PC or one of the consoles?

DarkFoxKit: Let's do PC!

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Chuckles* I assume you have a specific game in mind that you want to play?

DarkFoxKit: Yup, and I need a PC to play it.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Alright, you take PC, I have something I want to play on one of the consoles.

DarkFoxKit: Okie dokie, but we should set up an alarm in case someone comes into this room.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I already set something up in the hallway to alert me if anyone is coming. But I doubt anyone will, we're at the lowest level of the castle without being in the dungeon. I also added a somewhat archaic but still just as effective lock on the door. So for now, all we need to do is sit back and enjoy our games.

DarkFoxKit: Sounds good to me!

Chapter 57: Getting to Know You

"And that's my and Danny's story," I said, finishing up the story I've written in my first journal. "The second story is still a working progress. But you get the gist of it now."

Hope looked at my journal before saying, "You've written that all down? Really? Sheesh, you must have a lot of extra time on your hands."

"I used to be a journalist for my school, as I told you earlier. Even after quitting, I still wanted to keep writing, so I started a journal to write down what happened. I mostly wrote the exciting parts and the parts I felt was necessary," I answered.

"So your brother hadn't noticed that you and your sister had seen him 'go ghost' for how long?" Hope asked incredulously, holding back a laugh. "Are you sure he isn't part brick wall?"

"Hey, give Danny a break. He was busy fighting ghosts all the time, while also trying to learn how to control his ghost powers while not getting caught by other people," I said with a sigh. "And well, he is our father's son."

"Does that mean you're also part brick wall? Or do you get most of your traits from your mother?" Hope asked with a small smile.

"Maybe I am, after all I did a lot of stupid things as you could see," I chuckled sheepishly.

"You mean turning into one of those… what are they called… emos? Or something like that?" Hope retorted.

"I prefer the term angsty teen," I grumbled. "But I guess I wasn't exactly stable after the first accident, finding out Danny's secret without him talking to me about it made it a lot worse."

"You guess? It sounds like you were so unstable, contractors would've instantly condemned you and marked you for immediate demolition." Hope chuckled.

I rolled my eyes, "Yes, I know, I know, I was an unstable teenager who tended to take things way too far. You don't have to rub it in. Heck, you've already seen that side of me before."

"At least you've gotten past a good bit of your insanity," Hope responded with a 'comforting' pat on my shoulder.

"What do you mean a good bit?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You've still got a bit of 'crazy' left inside you," Hope responded as she pointed at me with her plushy paw. "For one, you're terrified of teddy bears. Out of all the things you could be scared of, you are scared of teddy bears… that practically screams 'crazy person here'."

"I can be a logical person, and I can be a cautious crazy person," I said as I crossed my arms. "The latter kept me alive."

"Why not let your logical mind help point out how stupid that fear of teddy bears is?" Hope said before she held up a plushy paw. "But let's talk more about that later, I know it's your turn for a question, but I have one follow up question about your history."

"Oh? What's that?" I asked

"You mentioned a ton in your journal, but you never mentioned your birthday at all. I can't help but ask why? Was it boring? Or do you not remember or something? Or do you have a private journal for personal stuff like that elsewhere?" Hope asked in response.

"My… birthday?" I frowned as I remembered my birthday. "Oh… uh… well, jeez… thinking back, it was all just a blur. As I told you Danny and I were born on the same day since we're twins, so we usually share birthdays and normally go all out every year. Last birthday though, I remember not doing really anything special, I think we just wanted something a bit more simplistic this time. We hung out with our family and friends, watch some movie, had some cake, that's about it. There was nothing really eventful enough to make me want to write it down. I mean if you look at my journal, I don't write out every single day, just the interesting ones."

"Yeah, that's true…" Hope said before she gave a thoughtful look which she shook off a few seconds later. "I don't have any more follow-up questions, meaning it's finally your turn again, what would you like to know?"

"Well… you've told me a lot about your past already," I said as I decided to use this opportunity to ease her into living with Juliette. "So I would like to ask what kind of home are you looking for now?"

"Hmmm… I'd definitely want someplace that wasn't completely falling apart," Hope started to respond. "I wouldn't want to sit around on a shelf somewhere, I'd want to actually be active from time to time. No dark closets as well, if someone gets me just to put me in a dark closet, I'm out."

"So you want someone who would play with you on a daily basis?" I asked. "And in a decent home?"

"Well it wouldn't have to be playing with me all the time, but once a day would be nice. As for a decent home, yes, that would be a necessity," Hope answered. "I would enjoy being put in a nice warm place when not being played with, perhaps somewhere with a good view, like a window."

"Would you mind if they were a human or ghost?" I asked.

"...What?" Hope asked, shocked by that question. "I came to this world to escape ghosts, why would I want to belong to one?"

I sheepishly rubbed the back of my head, "Well, currently you are living with me, who's half ghost."

"You're not a full ghost, meaning you don't count," Hope retorted.

Hmm, I'm not sure if Hope really wants to live with Juliette… maybe I can have her meet Juliette and see what she thinks of her. I thought to myself.

"What if the ghost wasn't like any ghost you have met before?" I asked. "Like a really nice one?"

"What ghost isn't like the stereotyp- You know what, I shouldn't say that as there is one prime example, Box Ghost, he's… yeah… Anyways, I'd probably want to see who the ghost really is before I decided living with them," Hope answered. "Even a really nice ghost can have an extreme dark side."

"Then in that case, maybe I can bring you to a friend of mine. She's really nice and I'm sure she'd be more than happy to give you a great home," I suggested. "A better welcome then what I gave you anyways."

"I'll consider it, now it's my turn," Hope said before putting a plushy paw on her chin. "Hmmm… here's a good one, from what you told me from your journal you have a tough decision to make. I want to know, do you ever plan on accepting Valerie's offer?"

I frowned at that.

"Maybe… I don't know, there's just too many things that could wrong whether I join her or not," I sighed. "I don't even know if I could talk to Danny about it. I had already said no to Valerie before though. But she had given me a chance to change my mind about it later."

"What's the biggest problem you have in making a decision?" Hope asked.

"Hmm? Me?" I asked.

"Yes you, who else would I be referring to?" Hope said as she crossed her plushy arms.

"Heh…" I sheepishly chuckled. "I guess I just worry too much about the 'what ifs' that I end up not making a decision…"

"Then tell me some of the what ifs? Perhaps I can help get you closer to a decision," Hope offered.

"You… want to help me with that? Not that I'm trying to be rude or ungrateful, but… why?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Cause I've got nothing else better to do?" Hope responded with a shrug.

"I see… well, I suppose it can't hurt to talk to you about it," I said as I took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "I could take Valerie up on her offer and become her partner as the 'blue hunter', but then I would have to balance between three identities, my human form, my ghost form and now my hunter… form. I would have to be extra careful not to let Valerie catch me as a ghost, and I have to make sure she doesn't actually hurt Danny if she's hunting him while I'm with her. Not to mention the complications if I was also there in my ghost form and she tries to call me to help her catch myself."

I took another breath before continuing. "On the other hand, if I kept my answer as no, that would make things a little easier. But then I feel like I'm letting Valerie down and putting her in more danger while she fights with ghosts alone."

"Why not just tell her about your secret? Perhaps if you simply told her, she might react better than you thought," Hope suggested. "Perhaps she would allow you to use your ghost powers while being the 'Blue Hunter'. Perhaps she might even want to work with you as a ghost and hunter? I mean it would be something no enemies would expect."

"Maybe, that has crossed my mind a few times," I said with a frown.

"But…?" Hope prompted.

I sighed again and said, "I have no guarantees that she'll even accept me if I told her. She really hates ghosts, I mean really hates them after what happened at Axion Labs with that ghost dog incident, and she somehow thinks my brother's ghost form was responsible for it."

"She might make an exception for one of her close friends," Hope pointed out. "I mean she hates ghosts she doesn't really know or have an attachment to. If she knew that you, her close friend, had a ghost side, she might not hate you."

"That's the best case scenario," I said as I flipped the pages in my journal, reading about what I've written about Valerie. "On the other hand, she might see it as more of a betrayal and hate me even more than she ever hated Danny Phantom."

"Perhaps test the waters and present it as a what if? I mean, chances are she's going to figure it out eventually. Wouldn't you rather not have her pissed at you for not telling her?"

"You really think she'll find out?" I asked, feeling uneasy.

"By the sounds of it, she's pretty smart, so I'm sure she'll put two and two together at some point. Perhaps she could have figured it out by the next time you see her," Hope responded. "It would be extremely presumptuous, arrogant, and naive to think that nobody would figure out you and your brother's secret. After all, you and your sister found out about Danny's secret, who's to say that Valerie won't? Or your parents… well your mother, eventually?"

"You have a good point," I sighed.

"If I were in your position, I would prefer telling her on my own terms over her finding out without me knowing she knows," Hope responded. "After all it would be far more dangerous if you were to leave her alone with her own assumptions, as you know all too well yourself."

"Yeah, I should tell her. But I'm going to test the waters first, as you said. If I jump right in on it, it would be dangerous," I said with a nod.

Then the bedroom door suddenly opened. I almost yelped as I didn't expect anyone to come in.

"Andy, I called you an hour ago, what are you doing?" Danny asked as he came in.

"H-hey bro, I was just… doing my homework… uh… probably got distracted," I said sheepishly, I then looked over and noticed that Hope had slumped over, acting like a lifeless teddy bear again.

"Well Dad ended up eating your snacks so… I hope it was worth it," Danny grumbled before he noticed Hope sitting beside me. "You're… sitting beside a teddy bear?"

"Hey, it's not a teddy bear, it's… a plushy," I said softly.

"It's pretty much a teddy bear," Danny pointed out.

"She's not so bad for a teddy bear," I said quietly.

"Heh, I would've expected you to throw it in the trash or lock it up by now," Danny said with a shrug.

"No way! That would just be cruel," I protested, having Danny raise an eyebrow. "W-well you know, if it was actually alive. Sam would have a heart attack if we did that to an animal."

"... you're defending a teddy bear? Am I asleep and dreaming right now or something?" Danny asked in response, the confusion obvious in his voice.

"Nope," I chuckled. "But instead of thinking about it, how about we just finish our homework?"

"Wow, never would expect you to try and steer away a conversation," Danny responded. "You're doing a pretty bad job of it."

"Well, how's this for a subject change? Are you ready for the presidential physical test?" I asked.

"Are you?" Danny retorted with a smile.

"Is it just me, or is jogging a four minute mile taking a lot longer than the name implies?" I asked as Danny, Tucker, Sam and I were jogging outside through Amity Park together. Tucker had a stopwatch on him.

"It'll take longer until you get faster, Andy," Sam responded before going into a full explanation. "The faster you get, the shorter the time takes. As for the distance, sometimes they make you run two miles and take either the average of both mile's times or they take the best time over the two laps."

Sam didn't even look to be out of breath, and I frowned, "Sam, don't turn around and start running backwards again."

"What? It's not my fault you boys are out of shape. Maybe you've been relying on your ghost powers for too long," Sam answered.

"I don't… have… ghost powers…" Tucker tiredly stated, he looked to be more tired than Danny or me combined.

"Oh look, it's what's known as Nerdus Outofshapeus!" Kwan yelled as he ran past us.

"Besides, we're not going all out in this jog," Danny added as we kept jogging, ignoring Kwan. "I like being able to take it easy for a change."

"You… call this… taking it… easy?" Tucker managed to ask between breaths.

"Come on, come on, keep up the pace!" I heard Dash yell as he ran past us. "I know you can run faster!"

"Did Dash just encourage all of you?" Sam asked, confused by Dash's attitude.

"Heh, maybe, he hasn't been bullying us lately," I said with a small smile.

"It's still strange to see him being nice," Sam responded.

"Who knows, maybe if you guys took the chance to get to know him better, he might be a friend," I suggested.

"Dash… a friend…? Sam… you should check Andy… for heat stroke…" Tucker suggested in response.

"Oh come on guys, you knew for months that Dash and I were getting along," I grumbled.

"While you may be friends with him, Andy, I doubt the rest of us are patient enough to deal with someone like Dash," Sam responded.

"Perhaps Andy actually has something on Dash and that's why Dash is being friendly with him," Danny suggested. "Tell me, bro, do you know one of Dash's dark secrets? Is that why you and him are friends?"

I deadpanned at the question, although they weren't wrong. Being friends with someone usually means they trusted you with their dark secrets. I knew about Dash's closet being full of demon- I mean non-demonic, normal, non-evil, nonliving teddy bears. Not that I would tell Danny, Sam, or Tucker that, since they would more than likely use that to embarrass Dash or use it against him.

"No Danny, that's not why or how I became friends with Dash," I answered. "I helped him out when he needed it and that's when we started getting along. Maybe if you did something nice for him, he'll be more willing to get along with you."

"Sam, I think I agree with Tucker on Andy having heat stroke, cause he just suggested we do something nice for the jock that bullied us for pretty much as long as I remember," Danny stated.

"You and Dash were getting somewhat along after the whole ghost pirate incident, weren't you?" I asked.

"Dash doesn't bully us, but I still don't like the guy," Danny grumbled.

I sighed, "Nevermind, nobody's going to listen to me about it."

"If Dash can somehow prove to us that he has really changed and not put up a front, I think we might be able to consider giving him a chance," Danny offered in response.

"Hmm… okay, you have a deal," I said with a smile before I ran ahead a little.

"What… did he… mean?" I heard Tucker ask Danny while out of breath.

"I think he just took my offer…" I heard Danny say while I chuckled to myself.

"Then I think the real question is what's Andy going to do?" Sam said.

"Guys, don't worry about it, alright? Let's just focus on getting this done so we can head back to school," I turned to say before turning back, I'm not as confident as Sam to not run into a tree or something while running backwards.

Then I felt something hot coming out of my throat. Ugh, I don't like this ghost sense. I noticed Danny's ghost sense came out of his mouth too.

"Is there a ghost nearby?" Sam asked as we were looking around for the ghost.

"Maybe… it's… in… visi...ble?" Tucker asked, trying to catch his breath.

"I doubt it, Tuck, if a ghost is hiding, we usually wouldn't sense it this strongly," Danny responded. "Just keep looking around, high and low, the ghost has to be somewhere."

I looked up and saw something flying by, "Look, it's up there!"

"Is that… Skulker?" Danny asked as he looked up.

"Is he looking for you two?" Sam asked with a slightly raised brow. "If so, why is he flying past?"

"Maybe… he's scouting… and mapping… Amity Park…" Tucker guessed, slowly regaining his breath a little.

I frowned at I watched Skulker stopping for a few seconds, he was too far for me to tell what he was doing, but it looked like he was looking down at his hand…? Or maybe it was something in his hand, and then he flew off again.

"... I think he's looking for someone, but it's not me or Danny this time," I said, feeling uneasy.

"You don't think he's looking for Juliette, do you?" Sam asked, mirroring my concern.

"Juliette did say that Skulker has been hunting her for at least 1400 years…" Danny said with a frown. "That's a long time to hunt someone, I doubt he would stop now."

"But why?" I asked. "Why would he suddenly be interested in hunting her again? Juliette told me she hadn't seen him lately, so I assumed maybe it's because Skulker found a new favorite prey to hunt to worry about her."

"By new favorite prey, you mean me?" Danny grumbled.

"Well, us really, but yeah," I answered.

"I don't know why," Sam said, answering my earlier question. "But if he is, then we better check on Juliette to make sure she's okay."

"One of us should, Skulker might get suspicious if we all go to the same place," I said. "And the school might wonder where we went if we were gone for too long."

"I assume that means you're volunteering to go check on her right now?" Danny asked. "You want us to come up with an excuse or do you want to make your own excuse when you get back?"

"Just tell them anything believable, like I'm in the bathroom or something. Now I better hurry, I'll get back to school as soon as possible," I said quickly before I ran off to the direction of the opera house. I couldn't go ghost here, too many people.

Just as I was heading towards downtown, Valerie ran up in front of me, making me stop in my tracks.

"V-Valerie!" I yelped, having almost slammed into her. "Don't run up to me like that, I could've ran into you!" I also almost went intangible by instinct.

"H-heh, sorry about that, Andy... where are you heading?" Valerie asked, sounding slightly nervous.

"I'm just going to the bathroom," I said quickly, hoping she would let me go so I could check on Juliette. "I had too much water while we were jogging."

"I see, well maybe you should stay inside, a ghost just flew overhead," Valerie warned.

Oh, is that why she was acting a little nervous? I sighed to myself.

"Oh? Well okay, don't worry about me Val, I'll be fi-" I started to say as I was walking around her, and then I tripped over something and fell on my face… ow… well this is embarrassing...

"You alright, Andy?" Valerie asked worriedly as she helped me up off the ground. "You tripped over a… wow… you tripped over a pebble."

"I often trip when I'm in a hurry," I explained. "And I really need to go, so can we have this conversation later? I'm sure it's fine, the ghost hasn't attacked anyone yet. And if it does, then either you or the ghost boy can take care of it."

"Alright, try to make it to the bathroom safely without tripping over any more pebbles, alright?" Valerie asked, biting back a laugh. "Although my supplier hasn't given me a new suit yet. Last I heard he's still working on it."

I noticed the laugh she was biting back and gave her an annoyed look before I said, "I'm sure I'll be fine."

I turned around and started running towards the opera house, hoping I didn't actually trip again. I thought about looking for a hiding spot to turn into my ghost form and fly to the opera house, but then decided against it since the opera house isn't that far from here, this was also good for my training and Skulker was bound to sense me if I turned into a ghost now and he might follow me.

I was relieved when I saw the opera house, and it looked to be in one piece, so it was safe to assume that Skulker probably hadn't found Juliette yet. I hurried over to the door and headed inside.

"Juliette?" I cautiously called out.

"On the stage!" I heard Juliette calling out to me.

I looked up at the stage to see she was on the stage, cleaning the wood. Juliette looked at me and gave a smile.

"Hello, Andy, I was just cleaning up the stage, seeing what needed to be replaced and what could simply use a good sanding and polishing," Juliette said as she stood up, I could see she wasn't wearing her normal elegant dress and was wearing clothes similar to work attire. "Before you ask, when I was healthy, one of my guilty pleasures was watching things being made as well as getting my hands dirty by actually working with wood. One time I disguised myself in order to sneak into the woodshop that was part of my estate in order to help work on a project for the family, it was actually a somewhat small wooden boat. So what brings you here at this time? Don't you still have school?"

I chuckled a little at her story before I turned serious and said, "I just wanted to check up on you."

Juliette looked at me for a few seconds before she asked, "Is Skulker looking for me? I ask this because I can see that you are worried about my safety, with how you continue to look around the room as if someone is about to come through one of the walls."

"Heh, it's that obvious, huh?" I chuckled sheepishly. "While Danny, Tucker, Sam and I were out, we saw Skulker flying by as if he was looking for something… or someone."

"Was he coming this way?" Juliette asked with a frown.

I thought back to where I last saw Skulker flying to before I said, "He was going in a similar direction, but I didn't see him come to this area. Maybe he's not looking for you after all?" Skulker could be looking to steal something for Vlad again like last time…

"Well, perhaps I should attempt to conceal myself even more, I do not wish for him to find my location as this is a place I wish to call home," Juliette said as she walked over and hopped down off the stage. "If only you and your brother could convince Skulker to give up the hunt for me, that would make it so I would no longer have to look over my shoulder all the time."

"Skulker?" I asked with a frown. "He's not exactly someone we could convince so easily. We can try, he does listen to reason sometimes, but I can't make any promises. He might want something in return to give up his hunt for you, something we can't afford…"

Juliette nodded before she said, "I know it would be more than one could ask for in this case. Though perhaps it is possible, maybe if you save his life in some way? Some ghosts have a code they live by where if you stop them from being killed, then they will owe you a life debt which could either be exchanged for something you would want from that ghost or the ghost would serve you until they save your life."

"Ghosts have codes like that?" I said, surprised. "I guess we never really talked to them about it."

"Depending on what kind of ghost they are. Some are more honorable than others, and I hate to say this, but Skulker is fairly honorable," Juliette responded. "He doesn't kill or capture ghosts in their sleep. I have seen him give some of his prey proper rites if the prey themselves are honorable about their demise. Where they are allowed last words and all that."

"Yeah, I've dealt with Skulker a few times, he is an honorable type of hunter," I said with a nod. "At least there's that. But how would we save a ghost's life? I mean… no offense, but aren't you already… you know… dead?"

"Well there are two different ways to save a ghost's afterlife. The first is the easier and more common way which usually means less, and that way is by saving their form from being damaged to the point of dispersion," Juliette explained. "Ghosts have a solid form that surrounds our cores, if that form takes enough damage it will destabilize and the ghost would have to retreat and reform themselves around their core. Usually when a ghost loses their form… you know I think it would be best to call it a 'shell'. Anyways, when a ghost loses their shell, they lose some of the power that they had acquired over time. Then they lose a small portion more when they reform their shell around their core."

I nodded and said, "And the second way?"

"That would be the rarer but much more meaningful method. You would need to prevent a ghost's core from being destroyed, which would permanently kill them," Juliette continued to explain. "Have you ever heard the legends of vampires? How you are supposed to stab them in the chest with a wooden stake to kill it. That actually is based off a story of how a vampiric ghost was killed, the stake doesn't need to be wooden either. As long as the ghost's core is breached, the ghost will die."

"Oh…" I frowned as I remembered the time Danny had forgotten his ghost powers thanks to Desiree and I had to teach him about his core and powers. "I guess that makes sense, but when would there ever come a time that would actually happen? I don't want to make the situation myself."

"It honestly could happen at any time. Perhaps when ghosts are fighting over territory like they do every so often. Maybe another ghost will try to hunt Skulker to prove themselves," Juliette responded. "And the least likely of all would be if Skulker ever let his guard down."

"It's a plan, but not a very reliable one," I sighed. "Just keep yourself hidden until he leaves or we can come up with a way for him to leave you alone."

"I'll head downstairs and continue the work I started down there the other day," Juliette answered with a nod. "An extra layer of material above me should mask me even more."

"We'll come back later to check on you, make sure everything's okay," I said reassuringly.

Juliette nodded and started to walk away. "Be safe out there, Andy."

"Of course," I said with a smile before I turned and headed back towards the front of the building, hoping Juliette would be safe from Skulker. Danny and I can handle Skulker, but Juliette isn't much of a fighter.

Danny, Tucker, Sam and I were talking in our backyard after school.

"I still can't believe Ms. Tetslaff made us partner up with Dash to whip us into shape," Danny grumbled.

"Not us, Danny, just you," I pointed out. "Ms. Tetslaff said that I only needed to train a bit harder and stop holding myself back and I would easily be able to make the four minute mile."

"I'm surprised she noticed that you were holding yourself back," Sam said.

"Why does Andy not need a personal trainer while Danny and I do?" Tucker whined.

"Because Andy isn't always stuffing his face full of junk food, Tucker," Sam responded.

"Neither am I," Danny pointed out.

"Yeah, but I did have to face up those ghostly terrors when I was still all human," I answered.

"You also eat a lot of snacks whenever we go to the movies, which is quite often, Danny," Sam added. "In the future, stop yourself from drowning your popcorn in butter."

Danny blushed at that.

"I still can't believe Sam is my instructor. You're very harsh when it comes to training!" Tucker complained.

"Better me than the other options Ms. Tetslaff was considering," Sam retorted. "One of the alternatives was Kwan."

"And at least you get her," Danny said with a bitter tone. "I'm stuck with Dash, Dash of all people!"

"Ms. Tetslaff probably wanted to make sure you didn't get distracted," Sam said.

"That and Dash is probably the only one stubborn enough to not give up on training you," Tucker chimed in.

"Are you kidding? He'd sooner pound my face in than help me," Danny grumbled.

"Danny, Dash isn't that bad, at least he's not anymore," I said with a sigh. "He may not like you, but I'm sure he won't pound your face in anymore. Just try to work with him, okay?"

"Why couldn't you have trained me?" Danny asked as he looked over to me.

"Probably because Ms. Tetslaff said Andy had to do his own training for the fitness test," Sam answered.

"Well, you have all day tomorrow to try and improve before Dash gets here," I pointed to Danny. "At least you won't have to worry about school for a while."

"That's the only thing I like during the President's Fitness Test training, we don't get much homework and what homework we do get is extremely light," Tucker said with a smile. "That and there are usually a few days off during the first week of training for parent teacher conferences or whatever else needs to be taken care of that results in a day or two off."

"Speaking of the President's Fitness Test, are you and Sam going to be training today?" I asked. "No offense Tucker, but you are the most out of shape between the four of us."

"Oh, we're definitely training today," Sam answered before Tucker had a chance to respond. "I have something special which will motivate Tucker to do as much training as his body can handle."

"There's nothing you have that could motivate me," Tucker grumbled.

"I guess if you're sure about that then I can just go ahead and throw this away," Sam said as she reached into her backpack and pulled something out.

"There's… no way… that can't be…" Tucker stuttered as his eyes fell upon what Sam was holding.

"The next generation smartphone that nobody else in the world currently has? That's exactly what this is," Sam responded as she waved a large silver and black device in her hands.

It didn't look anything like Tucker's PDA, in fact it didn't have any noticeable button on it. It had a large rectangular front with a small circle at the bottom, the edges of it were rounded, and there were small little nubs on both the left and right side. It didn't look like any cell phones I've seen before.

"H-how did you get that?" Tucker asked as he eyed the cell phone hungrily.

"One of my family's businesses is actually an electronics company. And it just happens to be the same electronics company that came up with this cutting edge design," Sam responded, waving the phone around. "It has as much processing power as a computer, has a built in camera, and a system which can download any addition necessary making PDA cards obsolete. It has more storage than some computers and has a built-in digital assistant. But like you said, there is nothing that can motivate you, I guess I'll just send it back to the lab or something."

"N-no! No! Don't do that!" Tucker begged. "I'll do anything, just please let me have it, Sam!"

Sam smiled at Tucker and slid the phone into her pocket. "You'll do anything? Even hard training that will push you past your limit?"

"Y-yes! Yes!" Tucker squeaked out, eyeing the pocket where Sam had put the phone.

"Alright, then let's start the training right away! You'll get the phone after you complete your training and get a four minute mile at the fitness test," Sam said with a smirk.

"Wow, Tuck, you just let Sam play you like an instrument," Danny chuckled.

Tucker grumbled, "I know, but that phone… there's no way I'm missing out on that phone."

"I thought you were in love with your PDA?" I asked.

Tucker took a deep breath and said, "Young love is like a bird, you fly to one nest and eventually leave it for another."

I raised an eyebrow at that, "Did you learn that from school or did you just made that up?"

"The latter," Tucker admitted with a sheepish smile.

"Alright, Danny and Andy, Tucker and I should start his training, call me if you want to hang out at all this evening," Sam said before she walked up to Tucker. "Ready to begin the worst but most rewarding week of your life?"

Tucker gave a nervous smile before he said, "As ready as I'll ever be."

"That's what I like to hear! We'll start off with a jog to your house where we can look at the state of your fridge and see what foods you'll need for this training to pay off," Sam said before she started jogging in place.

"Right now?" Tucker asked with a small groan.

"Yes, right now!" Sam responded with a slightly raised voice. "Let's go, otherwise you won't be getting your reward."

"R-right!" Tucker gulped before he and Sam left the backyard jogging.

"Do you think that phone was real or a piece of styrofoam?" Danny asked after Sam and Tucker were long gone.

"Knowing Sam? Most likely the latter. She used the same trick on me before," I grumbled. "I still want that handheld game system…"

"Yeah, me too, she promised both of us one," Danny responded with a sigh. "I bet you she's forgotten by now, perhaps we should remind her that she owes each of us one of them?"

"Even if we did, she could talk us out of it unless she really wants to give it to us willingly," I sighed.

"Perhaps we should wait to see if that phone was a fake before going to her. If it turns out to be real, then we should remind her that she owes each of us one real handheld system," Danny suggested.

"Yeah, but for now, do you want to try jogging?" I asked.

"You kidding? I want to go inside and crash, we pushed ourselves pretty hard today and all my muscles are screaming at me to take a nap," Danny responded with a smile.

"You might be pretty sore if you took a nap now," I said.

"Fine, I'll take a shower first to relax my muscles before taking a nap," Danny said, throwing his hands up above his head. "Besides, I'd rather my bed not smell like BO and pain."

I chuckled before I said, "Well alright, suit yourself. And please don't try to antagonize Dash, ghost powers or not."

"No promises!" Danny responded before he quickly headed inside.

I gave a sigh to myself. Tomorrow's going to be another long day...

Raidentensho: DarkFoxKit: I don't have any plans for breathe training, nor do I have plans for Danny's Ghostly Wail to work like that. As for the mentor for the twins… well, that'll be interesting to see.

Jewel moonstone: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': You don't have to thank us, but we appreciate it nonetheless. I hope we keep putting out chapters that you enjoy reading.

Luna Lillyth: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': As the saying goes, you can never judge a book by its cover. The same thing applies to plenty of other things besides books, in this case, inventions.

I do think it was more realistic for Danny and Andy to be fit considering they go out on patrol nightly, they fight ghosts quite often, and off camera they definitely train themselves in different ways to make it so they can take on enemies more easily. Let's not forget that Tucker is… fairly unathletic.

DarkFoxKit: I also thought it was weird that Danny was on the same level as Tucker in the show. It just bothered me because I always felt like Danny should've been in much better shape. Perhaps Butch was trying to make it so that Danny's ghost side didn't benefit from having actual physical fitness, but we feel like it doesn't work like that.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Even if that was the case, from what I remember about canon, Danny would be pretty fit due to him helping his parents out. Tucker on the other hand… I mostly see him sitting in his room with the lights off watching anime or videos on the Danny Phantom equivalent of youtube, or playing games or other things like that.

jhay.0324: DarkFoxKit: Thank you for enjoying the story. I hope everything will turn out alright for you.

FireSoulKid: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, the fusion thing was to, more or less, give ghosts a 'second chance', but since it's random, the ghost could be fused to anything, so it's quite the risk. We don't know if we'll be giving the twins the ability to heal, especially since that never came up in the actual show, but we are considering it at least. Tucker should be in more shape, he may be the tech geek of the group, but considering how much he had to run to keep up with Danny during his ghost hunts, he should at least be in better shape than most of the other non-athletic students.

Mana: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yeah, unless the days in the Danny Phantom world are much longer than in real life, it would take a couple of weeks for Tucker to actually get into a better shape. Yeah, I know Sam can be a bit cruel, but I don't see our Sam actually doing what canon Sam did. Tucker showed amazing effort in his training, and our Sam would definitely reward him for his hard work.

DarkFoxKit: We did tweak the Sam in our story, so while she is still Sam, she's not quite as… the 'favorite character' of Butch like she was in the show. We wanted to make her more like a person.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': The idea with Hope was definitely a nice one to come up with. The Ghost Zone is endless, Butch Hartman said so himself. My take is that due to its endlessness, Danny barely explored a fraction of it in the show and met only a handful of the residents of the Ghost Zone. If there is a being like Clockwork who has control over time, then it's safe to assume there is a chance of there being other powerful ghosts.

DarkFoxKit: Meaning anything is possible when it comes to the Ghost Zone. Andy is slowly but surely getting there, though he's still afraid of Bearbert. There is only one other being who Andy fears more than Bearbert though, I'm sure you know who.