DarkFoxKit: *Is on her Switch right now* Come on, come on… please be a nice game… gimme that shiny Dreepy.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Chuckles* You'll get it if you just hang in there, Fox. Who knows, maybe some of my random luck will help you.

DarkFoxKit: Oh! Onyx? When did you get back?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': About a day ago? When you were still on your switch. How about you hatch one last egg group and come get some food? Cause I can see your rib cage a little which tells me you haven't eaten.

DarkFoxKit: I've eaten! I've eaten eggs! So many eggs! It's been so long that my own Dreepy isn't even a Dreepy anymore! OwO *Twitches*

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': You cannot be fed by digital eggs, and there are no plates around you that tell me you have eaten. *Glances into the kitchen* There also aren't any used pots or pans that make me think there was any form of cooking done. Besides, I know how you get when you obsess, you don't look after yourself.

DarkFoxKit: Wait… is that camera on? Are we doing the AN now?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': It is Monday, meaning it's time to put up a new chapter. *Narrows my eyes a little* Fox… what day do you think it is?

DarkFoxKit: … Wasn't it Sunday? Oh! If it's time for the AN now, don't you have to make an announcement to the readers? We're getting into the Reality Trip episode now.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yes, we'll talk more about your obsessing later. For now *Turns to the camera* Ahem, attention readers. We have broken up the Reality Trip episode into multiple chapters. These chapters are much longer than (read 'twice as') the regular chapters. As such, we are considering doing a post every three weeks instead of every 2. The reason behind that is that it gives us more time to work on more chapters without feeling pressured as well as the fact that the chapters are already quite long.

DarkFoxKit: I hope you guys aren't too unhappy with the longer wait. We are writing twice as long for this, but we also need a bit of break from writing as well, so it's taking a bit longer to finish these chapters than normal.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Before anybody freaks out about this being a sign that we'll be going on hiatus *Baps readers that are likely to freak out lightly with newspaper* Stop that. We aren't going on hiatus, we aren't cancelling, we aren't putting the story on pause. We're simply taking longer with the chapters to ensure we're giving the best quality. Sure, we could rush the chapters, but the quality would plummet and we'd burn ourselves out. So please, accept this small change for this set of episodes.

Andy: Oh, and if any of you complain to those two, there is a certain pink cat from a different story that's getting a bit more… playful lately. That is not an invitation to mess with them to get a chance to play with Mew however. Anyone who does it simply to meet Mew or get played with by Mew will be ignored.

DarkFoxKit: Okay, now without further ado- *Sees something sparkle on her Switch* O.O

Andy: Uh-oh… better prepare your ears...

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Is holding up two couch cushions, one against either ear* Cut the camera, cut the camera!

DarkFoxKit: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! *Does a scream loud enough to rival Danny Phantom's Ghostly Wail, shaking the entire house*

*The camera feed cuts off suddenly*

Chapter 86: Summer Vacation Chaos

I have to admit, I was surprised that during the last few days of school and finals, it had been really quiet. Sure there were a few ghost attacks here and there, but they were few and far between. They were also easily handled by Danny and me, nothing that took too much time. The Box Ghost was a little irritating, but he was entertaining if nothing else. I would sometimes look back and remember how much of a threat the Box Ghost was to me when I was just human, it was amazing how much could change in a few months.

But finals were finally over. I was confident enough that Danny and I did well enough to be able to pass most of them. Our math finals were up for debate though, even with Jazz helping us study, our mathematical skills were still sorely lacking.

The real fun was beginning after the last day of school, however. A band that was pretty popular in Amity Park, that wasn't Ember, was going to play a live concert in the football field of Casper High. Their names were pretty… interesting to say the least, since their name was Dumpty Humpty. From what I heard, Tucker and Valerie worked really hard to book a live concert to signify the end of the school year.

Danny had been looking forward to this summer vacation more than any of us, because it would be the first summer since we got our ghost powers, a break from having to battle with ghosts and going to school was going to be really nice. Once August rolled around, it would mark the anniversary of the first accident.

Wow, almost a full year will pass by the end of summer vacation since the first accident. I mused as I watched Danny struggling to put his shirt on.

"You almost ready yet?" I asked. "The school bus already left, and we're going to be late for the last day of school."

Danny finally managed to pull his shirt on. "Perhaps we should do some clothes shopping near the end of summer break as I'm starting to outgrow my shirts."

"Does that mean you're getting taller than me now?" I asked, raising an eyebrow as I didn't seem to have any problems with my shirts.

"No, we're still the same height," Danny responded. "Besides, don't you normally buy clothes that are slightly bigger on you so they're baggy and easier for you to hide your head in?~"

"H-hey! Our clothes are roughly the same size," I grumbled.

"'Roughly'." Danny snickered.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm glad you're in the mood to joke, because we're going to be staying in detention for the last day of school for being late. I knew I should've asked Hope to wake me up earlier…"

"We could just fly to school, it'll be faster than driving or using a moped, which aren't even working anymore…" Danny grumbled. "Stupid Box Ghost, he had to throw that heavy metal box right at our mopeds…"

"You sure about that? Flying in our ghost forms tend to cause us to get fired at by our parents or Valerie, well granted Valerie would most likely aim for you than for me, but still…" I trailed off. "I guess it's not that bad, and I'd rather not have to stay after school on the last day."

"Knowing Mr. Lancer, he'd do whatever it takes to get us to stay in detention until… probably sunset," Danny remarked.

"Is that even legal?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I'd rather not chance it, bro," Danny chuckled before he raised up his arms. "Now… I'm going ghost!"

Danny summoned his ring as it split off into two, changing him into his ghost form. I summoned my own ring, which turned me into my ghost form. Both of us grabbed our backpacks.

"We'll see you later, Hope," I said to the teddy bear on my bed.

"Have a fun last day of school, boys," Hope waved before Danny and I turned intangible and flew through our window. "Don't forget that you'll need to pack when you get home!"

Hope called out after us as she stuck her head out the window.

"Jeez, it's a hot and sunny day…" Danny grumbled when we got outside.

"I think it's kind of nice," I remarked.

"Really? You used to hate being hot," Danny pointed out as we were flying to school.

"It's not as bad as it used to be, at least it doesn't feel that way," I shrugged. "Although… you do realize once we go on our cross country trip we won't be able to go ghost for a while, right? We'd be too close to our parents. And after those nightmare visions I had of how our parents could react… I'm not too keen on them finding out."

"Hopefully we won't need to go ghost," Danny responded. "However, there should be points where we can sneak away and go for a fly. I mean it's not like we're going straight from one location to the next."

"Yeah, I suppose the trip is worth more than the destination," I chuckled as we were flying past a prison set by the Guys in White.

I frowned a little as I looked at the prison for a moment as we were flying by. I couldn't help but get a bad feeling about it. I wasn't wearing the watch today, so I couldn't just ask it to show me a vision of the prison, I could only hope that nothing bad will happen.

Thankfully, when Danny and I reached Casper High, we managed to change back to our human forms without incident, meet up with Tucker and Sam, and race to our homeroom before the late bell rang.

During school, there had been non-stop chattering about what someone was going to do for the summer. The nerds were talking about going to some kind of math camp or whatever to learn more and get ready for their next grade in school. The jocks were talking about going to a sports camp or travelling somewhere with their parents at some kind of stadium. The popular girls talked about going to some beauty salon to get a whole new look for next year or going to a tropical island resort. But I could tell not all of them were being honest, they were likely just saying these things so everyone would be impressed with their plans that fit into their stereotypes. Dash, for example, was just going to the beach with his family, then spending some time at his aunt's, he had no plans to go to some stadium or sports event.

The teachers, meanwhile, were telling us it was still important to keep up with our studies, so we wouldn't lose half of what we learned during our summer break. Although other than the nerds, maybe, most of us didn't really care. I knew that Valerie was planning to binge anime at home when she wasn't working at the Nasty Burger for the summer. Ever since she and her dad got internet back, she had been trying to catch up on what she had missed on her favorite show. It was kind of funny, because one wouldn't take Valerie as an anime watcher. I had fun chatting with Dash and Valerie, telling them how I was planning on going on a cross-country family road trip. I wanted to spend some time with them before summer vacation started since I likely wouldn't see them for a while.

Dash suggested I use a phone to try to keep in contact with them by using internet and chat, but I had to remind Dash I didn't have that kind of smartphone yet, just the outdated flip cell phone. Valerie sighed as she also had a normal cell phone, and it was only to be used for emergencies. Though I did tell Dash and Valerie that if I'm near a computer with internet access, I would find a way to try and chat with them for a bit.

The last day of school went by surprisingly quickly. Due to it being the last day, the teachers didn't give us any work, they allowed the students to do what they wanted, within reason of course, after they gave their summer lecture. Before I knew it, the last bell of the school year rang, and everyone was running out of the building, cheering happily to finally be out of school. I almost got ran over.

Danny, Tucker, Sam, and I waited until the worst of the stampede left the building before we walked out of Casper High ourselves.

"I've gotta say, the last day of school felt pretty nice," I admitted as we were walking.

"It's always the nicest day of the school year," Tucker chuckled. "Second best is the week of parent teacher conferences, followed closely by days where we get substitutes."

"I'll have to agree with that." Sam smiled before looking up. "Hey, wow, looks like Dumpty Humpty is already setting up the stage for their concert tonight."

Indeed, everyone from school that ran out of the building all came over to the stage that was still being set up, giving excited cheers.

"As much as we would like to stay here until the concert starts, Danny and I need to get home so we can pack," I sighed.

"Yeah, we don't want to be rushing out at the last minute like last time. Emotions tend to run hot if we're packing at the last minute," Danny remembered.

"But you two will be able to get here before the concert starts, right?" Tucker asked. "Valerie and I did work hard to be able to book Dumpty Humpty here after all, it'd be a shame if you two missed it."

"Trust me, Tuck, we wouldn't miss it for the world," Danny reassured.

Then I noticed Jazz walking over to us, but she wasn't paying attention, she had her nose in a bright green book. "Whoa, Jazz, pay attention before you walk into someone!"

"Hmm?" Jazz glanced up from her book. "Oh, hey guys, how's it going?"

"We were just talking about the Dumpty Humpty concert," Sam answered.

"What are you reading?" I asked, looking at the book.

"It's a book on the study of envy," Jazz explained. "However, it isn't about any kind of envy, but envy that pertains to ghosts, people with special powers, and those that don't quite fit into any societal norm."

"'Effects of Envy in Regards to the Supernatural Phenomena'," Danny read the title. "Wonder who wrote it… And… why are you reading that anyways?"

I gave Jazz a concerned look.

"Well, my college entrance thesis is on different types of envy. College may be a year and a half away, but you can't be too prepared," Jazz answered.

"You're half right there, Jazz," Tucker replied. "By the time college rolls around for you, there may be more fields of envy that haven't even been discovered or properly researched yet."

"That's true, which makes it more interesting to study. By the way, did you know that a lot of people in Amity Park may suffer from ghost envy? Considering how often we get attacked by ghosts, a lot of people around here are shown to have-" Jazz stopped for a moment. "You know, maybe it's best I talk about that later."

I raised an eyebrow. Didn't Jazz and I have a conversation about ghost envy before?

"Yeah, you should be heading home to start packing," Danny pointed out.

"Oh, I'm already packed," Jazz informed.

"Same," Tucker chimed in.

"Same here," Sam informed with a smirk. "After all, I convinced my parents to let me go with you and your family, saying it was a 'enrichment experience that may help get me out of my goth phase'~"

"That's still surprising, considering how uptight they are with the Fentons," Tucker remarked.

"They'd do anything to get me 'out of my goth phase'," Sam pointed out.

Danny sighed a little. "Well, Andy and I still need to go pack. Come on, bro."

"I told you two to start packing on the weekend, but nooooo you just had to stay up and watch that monster movie marathon…" Jazz sighed, shaking her head a little.

"Don't dis the monster movie marathon, it's tradition to watch that before the end of a school year," I pouted.

"Then you should've packed some during the week, or last week," Jazz countered. "Like I told you to."

"Now you two will unfortunately miss out on the meet and greet portion of the concert before the music begins," Sam commented. "Apparently a few lucky students will be chosen at random to get a music lesson before the concert and whoever performs the best out of that group actually gets to play one of the group's songs during the concert."

"Thanks, Sam, why don't you hit us with a mallet while you're at it?" Danny grumbled.

Sam gave an apologetic grin.

"Be sure to record what happens," I said. "At least that way we'll get to see who are the lucky students who wins."

"I'll try," Tucker promised.

Danny and I began to walk away, needing to get somewhere private so we could transform and fly home as quickly as possible.

Packing was always tedious, and it gave me a bit of anxiety. I never knew if what I packed was enough or if I was forgetting something. I definitely had to bring my games, my charger, my laptop, my cellphone, my extra clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, and other necessities. I was stuffing them into a duffel bag. I picked up Hope from my bed.

I hesitated to put Hope into the duffel bag, I didn't want to stuff her into a packed bag like that all day, but I also didn't want to forget her when we left.

"You going to go commando during the whole trip?" Hope asked as she stood up in the duffel bag. "After all, you packed no spare undies. Nor did you pack a swimsuit despite the fact you're going to California and Florida, both states that are well known for their oceans and swimming."

"Those are in another bag, I couldn't fit everything into one bag," I explained. "Mom also made sure to pack extra undies and swimsuits, she's usually a lot better prepared in case we would forget something, and with Dad, that's usually often. Of course I'm definitely taking you with us, you'd be lonely here for the whole summer by yourself. I don't want to stuff you in a duffel bag, but I worry if I don't I might end up leaving you here in a rush to leave. Maybe I'll just keep you outside of the bag, but on top of it."

"You could always drop me off with Juliette," Hope offered. "I mean, if you take me with you, I'm going to need to act like a normal stuffed bear for most of the time if I don't want to be found out. Then there is the chance that you may lose me or leave me behind, which would suck. But, if you're sure you want to bring me, you better make me a promise to not leave me in a hotel room or something."

"Of course, I wouldn't leave you behind like that," I promised. "Speaking of Juliette, I hope she and Scarlet will be alright. I think Scarlet's going to take over for keeping Amity Park safe from ghost attacks while we're gone. Also really hope Vesper doesn't decide to challenge us during this vacation."

"If she does, she'll have a hard time getting here, considering your family is planning on putting the house at maximum security and will have the Ghost Portal sealed up tighter than Tucker's mouth when Sam tries to get him to eat veggies," Hope assured.

I couldn't help but laugh a little at that. "You've got a point there."

I looked over at my drawer, remembering the watch I left in there. "Do you think… I should take that watch with me? I mean… it might come in handy since it can give me future visions when I need them."

"No." Hope shook her head. "Absolutely not. That watch has only been a headache recently."

I sighed a little. Hope wasn't wrong, the watch often gave me headaches, or would jump on me while I was sleeping and give me nightmare visions. Actually that only happened once, but still… that was a bit too real for my liking. "Yeah, it might be best to not wear it during our family vacation, especially if it gives me nightmare visions again. I'll just have to hope my regular visions will come if something really bad is about to happen."

"And hopefully that doesn't happen," Hope remarked. "Hopefully you all can simply relax and enjoy your vacations instead of having to worry about protecting the world or fighting bad guys."

"That's ideal, but you know, a superhero's job is never truly over," I chuckled.

"Yes, and superheroes can only take so much before they run themselves ragged," Hope pointed out.

"It hasn't been that bad lately," I shrugged. "But it would be nice to have a break from having to fight for a while."

"Come on, bro, the show's about to start and we need to find Sam and Tucker!" Danny spoke up as we began to push our way into the crowd. "Sam and Tucker said they were somewhere near the stage!"

"I don't like getting trampled, so I like trying to squeeze through a crowd of excited people even less," I grumbled.

"Excuse us! We're trying to get to our friends!" Danny yelled as he continued to push through the crowd, either ignoring my comment or choosing not to respond.

I felt someone accidentally pushed me, and I got separated from Danny as he didn't notice I got pushed back. Crap…

I looked around for any easier way through this crowd, then I felt someone else pushing me back some more.

"Out of the way!" Dash called out from behind me. "Me and this nerd need to get to the front!"

The crowd quickly split to make a path when they heard Dash. I looked back at Dash, giving a grateful smile to him.

Dash just gave me a small smirk as he pushed me up to where Sam and Tucker were.

"No need to thank me, Andy," Dash chuckled softly. "And sorry for the 'nerd' comment, but I still have an image I'd like to at least somewhat maintain."

"It's no big deal, nerd is better than loser any day." I shrugged.

"Hey, there you are, Andy, we were worried you were going to miss the show," Sam remarked when she saw me.

"Heh… sorry for losing you back there, bro…" Danny sheepishly chuckled as he scratched the back of his head.

"It was bound to happen in a crowd this big and wild," I chuckled.

"At least we're all here now," Tucker said. "Guess who the lucky winner was, by the way~"

I looked at Tucker. "Who?"

"Valerie," Sam informed with a small chuckle. "I had no idea Valerie knew how to play the guitar, let alone shred."

My eyes widened in surprise. "Valerie won? Wow, talk about turning her luck around."

"First she got second place in the pageant a while back and now this," Danny remarked. "Hopefully that means life will start going better for her. And maybe she'll start lightening up on Phantom…"

"Who knows, she might, she's already starting to lighten up around… um… certain ghosts," I replied, not sure if I should tell Danny yet that Valerie was okay with Andy Phantom.

Danny raised a brow at that, but before he could say anything, the stage lights turned off then on then off once again, signaling that the show was about to start. Everyone started to quiet down and turn their attention to the currently dark stage. Those students that weren't right near the stage took seats on the bleachers, and those closer to the stage spread out a bit, as nobody wanted to create a mosh pit.

"Oh, I love this part, this is where the band comes out of a giant egg," Danny whispered excitedly.

The curtains pulled back before some lights turned on and started waving around before pointing towards center stage. Sure enough, there was a giant white egg in the middle of the stage. It was surrounded by stereos. I could already hear the drums being played.

"Casper High, are you ready to kick off your summer break?!" The voice of the lead vocalist yelled over the stereos.

There was a bit of cheering from the crowd, but surprisingly not as much as I was expecting.

"That cheering is nowhere near enough to break Dumpty Humpty out of their shell!" The lead vocalist stated. "Let's try again, shall we? Casper High! Are you ready to kick off your summer break with a rocking start?!"

The cheers got so much louder after that, in fact, it got so loud that Danny and I had to cover our ears due to our sensitive hearing. I was just glad Danny didn't decide to let out a loud cheer, or else he might accidentally use the Ghostly Wail, and nobody needed that.

The egg on stage began to crack.

"You're close, but Dumpty Humpty needs a little more before they can break free!" The vocalist remarked excitedly. "One more cheer should do it! Make sure to give it your all this time!"

Everyone's cheer was so loud that I was sure the other side of the world could hear us. My head was starting to pound from all this noise. I heard someone taking a deep breath beside me, and I looked over at Danny to see he was about to give it his all too, but I quickly used one of my hands to cover his mouth.

"You should stay quiet Mr. Ghostly Wail," I instructed.

The crack on the egg spread before the egg exploded in half, the top half soaring up into the rigging and out of sight. Out of the egg came a cloud of fog, and inside the fog were the silhouettes of the four band members. After a few seconds, a fifth silhouette emerged from the mist, revealing Valerie.

"Everyone give it up for our guest guitarist, Valerie Gray!" The lead vocalist shouted.

The crowd let out another loud cheer, but thankfully not as ear bleedingly loud as before. Everyone's throats will probably be sore tomorrow…

I finally let go of Danny's mouth when I was sure he wasn't going to cheer as loud as he could.

Valerie gave a small, nervous smile before she put her hands on the guitar that was strapped around her. Valerie closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"A one, a two, a one, two, three, four!" Valerie said as she began to play the opening song that the band was known for.

The rest of the band started playing with her, causing the crowd to let out more and more cheers.

The band played a few songs, each one was awesome. I found myself enjoying it, even though I didn't like the loud cheering too much. The light shows, as well as the crazy music, kept everyone pumped and excited. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sucked up in all the excitement myself. A part of me did wonder if Ember would make an actual band that didn't involve mind control, her song was good, she just needed more than one and not rely on mind control.

I was also happy to see Valerie was having a good time. She did appear nervous at first, but she soon lost herself in the music. I had to admit, I was surprised at how good Valerie was with the guitar. Valerie did tell me she played the guitar before, but this was my first time hearing her play.

"Thank you, thank you!" The lead vocalist said as they finished their 3rd song. "Ms. Gray, thank you for your help. It's time to rejoin the crowd while we get into our signature songs."

Valerie smiled before giving a bow. "Thank you, it has been an honor and a joy to play in your band."

The lead vocalist put his hand over his mic and said something to Valerie which made her smile even more before she hurried off stage, handing the guitar to one of the stage crew.

I couldn't see where Valerie went once she joined the crowd, but it was nice to know that she was happy with whatever the lead vocalist had to say to her. Dumpty Humpty then started on one of their signature songs, pumping up the crowd even more.

Dumpty Humpty finished their song, and was about to move to the next when something strange happened. The lights on the stage began to flicker and there was a quick burst of feedback from the stereos.

"Sorry, everyone, give us a few minutes as it seems we are having technical difficult-" The lead vocalist began to say before his mic cut out. Only seconds later, the stage lights flickered once more before they went out completely.

I suddenly felt a warm sensation in my chest before a dark blue mist came out of my mouth. At the same time, Danny's light blue mist came out of his mouth. Both of us knew a ghost was behind this. Everyone was worriedly asking what was going on while Danny and I tried to look around for any signs of paranormal activity, or rather, where it was coming from.

"This doesn't seem normal. Their equipment should be working fine, I helped triple check everything before the show started," Tucker muttered, likely not able to see our ghost sense because of how dark it was.

The lights suddenly turned back on, all pointing towards the center of the stage where a certain ringmaster was standing, grinning like a maniac.

"What the-" I looked at Freakshow in shock. He escaped already?

"Well well well, quite the audience you have here~" Freakshow remarked, his voice coming through the stereos.

I was relieved and worried. I didn't see Freakshow holding his crystal ball, but I did see some kind of weird golden glove on his right arm that went up to his elbow. I didn't know what that glove was, but there was some kind of power hidden in that glove.

"I'll make this short, one of you in the audience has my family's journal and I demand that it be returned to me at once!" Freakshow declared. "If it is not returned to me immediately, there will be consequences."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion at that. Nobody seemed to know what Freakshow was talking about.

"You have 60 seconds before this band that you all love so dearly becomes a part of my circus," Freakshow threatened.

"Isn't that the goth ringmaster?" Someone asked.

"I think so, wasn't he Freak… something?"

"Did someone actually take his family's journal?"

"How is he going to turn Dumpty Humpty into a part of his circus?"

"I thought he was arrested."

"Danny, Andy, shouldn't you two do something?" I heard Sam whispering to us.

"30 seconds," Freakshow warned.

"How? There are too many people here, they'd see us transform," I hissed quietly.

"Then don't transform," Tucker stated. "Can't you two still shoot ghost rays while in your human forms? Blend into the crowd and make sure nobody is looking before you blast him."

"They'd see where the shot was coming from," Danny pointed out.

"10! 9! 8!" Freakshow began counting down.

"You have to try something!" Sam urgently replied.

Freakshow stopped on 1 and glared out at the crowd.

"Do you think this is some kind of game?!" Freakshow snapped. "Lydia!"

The tattooed ghost lady, wearing a red cloak, appeared beside Freakshow. She pulled down her hood, giving a smile before she held out her left arm at the lead vocalist who was standing stiff in fright. A werewolf looking tattoo flew off from her arm and flew at the lead vocalist. The werewolf tattoo then stuck itself onto his forehead.

"Now watch and learn," Freakshow instructed.

I frowned as I felt the tattoo was releasing ghost energy into the vocalist. His skin started to turn green, his eyes began to turn red, his hair started to turn a ghostly light blue. I could hear everyone gasping in shock.

"This is only temporary for now," Freakshow informed. "But if my family's journal, or the one who has it, doesn't come up by the time the last of the band has been turned, then they will stay this way forever."

I knew something had to be done. I tapped on Danny's shoulder before I pointed to the bottom of the stage, where there was a cloth draped over the stage's metalwork. I knew that Danny and I could squeeze ourselves down there and use it to transform without being seen.

Danny and I quietly got down on our hands and knees and began crawling towards the bottom of the stage as quietly as possible. Thanks to Juliette's lessons, we knew how to be stealthy even with another ghost close by.

As we were getting closer to the stage's metalwork, however, my head began to feel fuzzy. I shook my head to try and clear it, but that didn't work. I shut my eyes as an image came to my head.

I saw Danny in his ghost form, he was caught in a neon green bat's wings in the sky. The area was getting surrounded by helicopters, TV reporters, and the Guys in White. The Guys in White, I can only guess, were here because they were chasing down Freakshow. Then Lydia covered Danny in a wave of tattoos and green goo. I saw myself, in my own ghost form, flying at Lydia, but this only caused me to be covered in the wave as well. Danny and I managed to break free, but we suddenly fell to the stage. Whatever Lydia did, it drained us, because both of us suddenly turned back to human right in front of everyone.

I opened my eyes to see I was back in the present. Danny was looking at me in concern, but he couldn't say anything because he would give us away. I gestured for Danny to keep going.

Danny gave a nod before he continued onward.

I knew I had to keep that vision in the back of my mind. It was likely going to happen during our battle against Lydia.

When we finally reached the stage's metalwork, Danny pulled up the curtain, letting me squeeze in first before he followed in suit. With the curtain covering us, we both focused on our core to transform. Danny didn't shout his signature battle cry since we wanted to be as discreet as possible. As soon as we were in our ghost form, we turned intangible and flew up. Danny grabbed Lydia as she was about to mark the third band member with one of her werewolf tattoos, he jerked her away from the member. Lydia let out a surprise cry at that. I fired a ghost ray at Lydia's face after Danny pulled her away, knocking her hard into the stage.

The crowd around us were surprised, but then they started to cheer in relief.

"It's the Phantom twins, they're here to save the band!" I heard someone shouting excitedly.

"What's this? Wait…" Freakshow looked between Danny and me in confusion. "There's two of you now?"

"You haven't heard?" Danny asked.

"No, I was rotting in jail! I couldn't read up on the latest happenings in town!" Freakshow snapped. "When did one become two?!"

"We've actually met before," I said, glaring at Freakshow. "It's a long story. But what are you doing? You're trying to scare people by turning the band into ghosts because you want some stupid journal back?"

"It is more than just some stupid journal," Freakshow informed. "It is a belonging that has been passed down in my family for generations. The current version was written by my great grandfather, who compiled all the individual journals that our family had. It has extreme importance to me and I plan to get it back under any cost! I know it was one of your human friends that took it, so tell them to give it back to me, and we can all walk away from this, including the band who I will release if the journal is given to me."

I looked over at Danny, who just shrugged, he was just as clueless as I was about this journal. The only journal I knew that belonged to Freakshow was the one I read about Freakshow himself, but I already gave that one back to him, and he said the one he wanted was written by his great grandfather.

"Neither of us know what you're talking about," Danny answered to Freakshow. "Now I'm only going to say this once; release the band and leave, or we'll help put you back in jail."

I looked at the golden glove that was on Freakshow's arm. "Wait… what's that glove you have on?"

"You think I'd just tell you?" Freakshow asked with a smirk.

I looked down, noticing a lack of a certain ghost. "Danny, move!"

Danny and I quickly flew in different directions before a swarm of tattoos could drown us. Lydia let out an annoyed growl at us. Danny fired several ghost rays at her, Lydia used her tattoos as shields from his attacks. I formed an ecto gun before firing a piercing ghost ray at her. The piercing ghost ray shot through the tattoo shield and hit her arm. Lydia let out a cry of pain and shock. She glared over at me and sent out bats to try and capture me. I quickly flew away, not wanting to get caught. While Lydia was distracted with me, however, Danny came up to her and punched her. Lydia hit the stage once again, and the bats disappeared.

I flew down onto the stage, forming the plasma rod, ready to fully knock Lydia out so she wouldn't be a problem for us.

"Oh, what's this?~" Freakshow asked from somewhere off the stage.

"Hey, get away from me you freak!" Sam shouted.

"Ahh, so it's you who has my family's journal," Freakshow noted. "Hand it over and I'll release your beloved band. Refuse to give it to me, and the band won't be the only ones being transformed!"

"Sam!" Danny shouted before he flew towards them. "Leave her alone, Freakshow!"

Lydia quickly got up while I was distracted, and she had a bat tattoo wrap its wings around my body, making me unable to move, and my plasma rod dissipated. Lydia then started to fly towards Danny to stop him.

This won't stop me. I glared in defiance.

I moved my ecto gun that was on the floor with my telekinesis. I had the gun aim at Lydia and fired. I couldn't see Lydia because I was facing the opposite direction, but hearing her scream let me know I did hit her.

"Oh dear, it would appear that you managed to anger Lydia!" Freakshow laughed. "You have made this situation much worse for yourself!"

I suddenly found myself surrounded by several animal-like tattoos at once. I struggled in the bat's hold as I was being covered. The tattoos all merged together, creating a green goo-like substance. My ecto gun dissipated.

"Keep them busy while I relieve this child of my family's journal!" I heard Freakshow ordered as he grabbed Sam's backpack, not that I could see it happening.

I had trouble breathing in this green goo of tattoos. I still couldn't move.

"Feel free to brainwash him if you'd like, Lydia~" Freakshow snickered.

"That's mine!" I heard Sam yelling.

"Just because you stole something, does not mean it is yours," Freakshow responded, sounding like he was struggling over something. "Now let go!"

"Stop it!" I heard Danny shouting in desperation, though I didn't know if he was shouting at Lydia or Freakshow.

"Freakshow, surrender now!" A familiar, but irritating voice yelled. "The same goes to the ghost kids and the ringmaster's assistant!"

"What do you do if you get trapped by a ghost? Don't panic. Calm yourself, focus on your intangibility. While it's not easy, it is possible to phase through a ghost's hold." Scarlet's voice rang through my head as I remembered from one of her and Juliette's lessons.

I let myself relax and calm down. I closed my eyes as I focused on my intangibility. I felt my body fading, no longer a solid matter, able to go through anything. I felt myself starting to fall. I opened my eyes to see I was under the stage, no longer in the bat's hold or under all that gooey substance.

It worked! I smiled to myself.

I flew through under the stage, wanting to be sneaky since everyone thought I was still under that gooey substance. I raised my invisible and intangible head near where I heard Freakshow and Sam fighting. I saw Tucker holding onto Sam's waist with his feet planted firmly into the ground. Sam was holding onto the book with her left hand while her right hand was uncurling and reaching for the book once more.

"You awful little girl!" Freakshow hissed as he held his left cheek, a few pages of the book in his right hand. "Lydia, hurry up and finish off the ghost kids and let's retreat for now! Hopefully I got at least one of the pages we needed. If not, we know who to return to in order to get the journal! Actually, take these kids as well so we have the book!"

I reached out and grabbed onto Tucker and Sam's feet, turning them intangible too before pulling them under. Freakshow blinked in shock, not knowing what had just happened.

"What the- is every teenager getting ghost powers? Is that the new hip thing that's going on now!?" Freakshow shouted in frustration.

I was holding onto Tucker and Sam and quietly flew somewhere towards the back of the crowd before I came up to the surface again. I let go of Tucker and Sam.

"Both of you stay here," I whispered to them. "Blend in with the crowd."

Tucker and Sam both nodded, Sam still clutching onto the book that Freakshow seemed to have wanted so much. I quietly flew back towards the front. Now where is Danny…?

I looked up, noticing Danny was captured by a bat too, that was why he couldn't do anything. Lydia gave a smirk as she moved her green substance from the stage and was having it surround Danny, but Lydia seemed confused, likely because I wasn't in the substance anymore. I frowned, knowing if I tried to attack Lydia now, she would just cover me in that goo again, and if my vision was right, that would drain both Danny and me. I couldn't let that happen.

I flew up from the ground, and instead of aiming for Lydia, I aimed for Danny. Lydia let out a gasp of shock as I flew past her and grabbed onto Danny. I focused as hard as I could, trying to turn Danny intangible. I felt Danny trying to turn intangible as well to help me along, he probably realized what I was doing. I managed to get Danny out from the bat's hold, and both of us flew as fast as we could away from the green goo. Lydia hissed as she surrounded herself and Freakshow with the substance instead. Both of them seemed to have disappeared before the substance flew away into the sky quickly.

Danny and I floated there, watching them go.

"Should we go after them?" Danny asked.

"You two aren't going anywhere."

Danny and I gasped as we were suddenly surrounded by the Guys in White, some were in helicopters, others were flying with their own jetpacks, pointing their ecto weapons at us.

Reviews

Jewel moonstone: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yep. The chapters are… a bit of a doozy with their length and content.

Anime lover 3593: DarkFoxKit: Heh, yeah, Andy's made a lot of friends. Funny how that happened. Because Andy explained the situation to Valerie back during the Technus incident, Valerie understood what was actually going on, unlike in the canon episode where Danny tried to sneak in and was caught in the lab, stealing something, then tries to tell them a ghost was in the super computer. So there was no misunderstanding here, and the fact Andy protected Valerie from a potentially fatal attack also helped.

You might want to be a little more specific when you say something like 'makes sense to skip around', because we're not really sure what you mean by that. That statement could be taken several different ways. I personally took it as you thinking we're skipping the episode altogether.

To be fair, the watch normally doesn't attach itself to Andy whenever he put it away in the drawer. But it definitely has a mind of its own.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Chuckles* That's definitely true…

DarkFoxKit: The dreams? Yeah, those were my fangirl side coming out actually. There were a lot of different scenarios that intrigued me in other DP fanfics, like how the parents would react to their sons' secrets, or what length Vlad would go through to turn Danny into his son. That last one was one of my favorites. But Onyx and I already had these scenes in mind, meaning we may never be able to try these other scenarios out. So we wrote it as dream sequences/possible future events. It also helped with some character development and bonding since the nightmares scared Andy so much.

Heh, these 'next few chapters' are going to start out slow or I guess 'normal-ish', then it starts to get pretty chaotic and crazy. So have fun with that~

KaseyKay17: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Yep, Reality Trip is pretty much a movie in itself with how we did it, and are still doing it. We actually combined a few different references to make up this episode's chapters. If you can name them all… honestly I'd be thoroughly surprised.

Raidentensho: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, I kind of liked that reference, though I wasn't into Star Wars when I watched that scene, so I always thought it was weird Danny would word it like that. "He's not the ghost you're looking for" is too vague a term, he didn't tell them "Danny Fenton is not Danny Phantom" or "You will leave Danny Phantom, Danny Fenton, and his friends and family alone" just "He's not the ghost you're looking for". I don't have a problem with the quote though, just something I noticed was a bit odd for those who aren't into Star Wars.

As for Andy and Undergrowth, and the other big elemental ghosts, things will be… uh… hectic to say the least. Not that we'll say anything about it.

Luna Lillyth: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Reality Trip is going to be a lot longer than the actual episode. We wanted to draw it out and give the story some more substance. We also wanted to use this opportunity to work on the character development that we felt we haven't properly done yet. We also want to set some things up for the future.

As for Andy's nightmares that may or may not be visions… yeah, it's going to be a rough experience for Andy. When nightmares feel so vivid and real like the visions do.

Mana: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I'll respond to the things I can before Fox takes over. Glad for your suggestion, we always like seeing what ideas the readers have. The Assassin's Creed games are extremely fun and educational. I'd definitely recommend them to anyone who hasn't played it.

DarkFoxKit: Heh. Wanna make sure you get in something before I answer everything?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Well I wanted to answer the stuff that was in my ballpark and not yours, like Assassin's Creed and the Amazonians.

DarkFoxKit: Thanks. Anyways… Pearl84's DP fanfic is probably one of the most well known ones. Mortified is more of a story I go to for indulgence, it's not as hectic to read, and despite the numbers of chapters, the chapters themselves aren't too long. They're long enough to be enjoyable, but not too long that it would take commitment to read it all.

Sorry, we've already decided not to have Danny overshadow Sam's parents. Overshadowing is a power neither of the brothers are very comfortable using much. Danny was just trying to rile Andy up a little when his playful hints about it. The Star Wars reference, a quote that confused a non-Star Wars fan for a while. XD It's not that I haven't seen the movies, it's just I've only seen them once, in theaters, when I was like 6 years old. I'm in my 20s now.

Ironically, I had a similar idea for Andy during the earlier chapters of My Brother's a Ghost. As you may have heard already, Andy was originally supposed to gain psychic powers, which is why he can see into the future in his dreams before the corrupted incident that actually gave him the ability to see into the future. The idea of Andy seeing into the future was a remnant from the original idea of him being psychic, it was something I wanted to keep from the original ideas, and I'm glad I did because it gave me a chance to write out different scenarios I wanted to do but couldn't really fit into the story for one reason or another.

Though I will say, your idea for Sam is definitely interesting. While she may not have actual psychic powers in this story, we might come up with something for her later on, likely in season 4 where we have free reigns on the story's plot. I feel like Sam could be a good character if she was tweaked a little bit. I like her just fine when she's helping and supporting Danny, like when she was helping him train Cujo, or when she's trying to save him from Freakshow's control. But when she becomes all about her veganess, or animal rights, or just getting mad at Danny for things she herself did to him (Double Cross My Heart), that's when I get annoyed with her.

Oh, don't even get me started on the whole Sam going into Nocturne's dream with Danny. I get that Sam wanted to help Danny, but it was dangerous to take her with him for no reason other than she wanted to help. Yeah, well, so did Jazz, and Tucker. Honestly, if you were going to take Sam into the Ghost of Dreams' dream, you might as well take Jazz and Tucker with you. Danny also didn't know if he could bring a pure human into someone else's dream with him, or their weapons for that matter. I felt like he just did that because Butch wanted to push them together more. I prefer a relationship to be more subtle than being bludgeoning until they actually confess they do like each other, and then go from there. So that sudden kiss scene in Phantom Planet just came out of nowhere, and I'm going into ranting territory again, I really need to stop.

I already ranted, so I won't say much about changing or improving on the idea, mostly because we may do that in season 4 anyways since I do want Sam to be able to handle herself more than just firing a bazooka or something once in a while. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and are looking forward to the next one.