Chapter 21: Phantom Planet

On their way to Nasty Burger, Danny and his friends were discussing the latest developments. "So, most of the League went into outer space to look for Sinestro and other Yellow Lantern users?" Tucker asked.

"Yes." Danny answered. "Sinestro alone or with the Legion is one thing but, a whole corps of villains using Rings of Fear is another."

"And you didn't go with them?" Sam asked with a frown. "Did you want to stay with Barbara that badly?"

"Good enough reason to me." Tucker commented, earning a glare from the goth.

"That and I couldn't stay off planet for long since my parents don't know my secret… yet." Danny explained.

"Okay, then." Sam reluctantly replied and then something clicked in. "Hey, what do you mean by "yet"?"

"With so many people knowing my secret, I'd rather have them learn from me than eventually learning from others, Sam." Danny answered.

"I don't even know why you erased it from their memories in the first place." Tucker commented. "Didn't they accept you at the end of that Reality Gauntlet mess?"

"I'm curious about it as well, Danny." Sam added.

"Well, I did because…" Danny's explanation was interrupted by his ghost sense. Skulker revealed himself.

"I'll hang your pelt…"

"Masters' Blasters stop disasters!" The Masters' Blasters shouted and sucked Skulker.

"I bet the fruitloop didn't see it coming." Danny commented and his friends giggled.

The Masters' Blasters then approached Team Phantom. "Pay up." Vid said.

"Nice try, but we know Mayor Masters gave in to the people's demands and had a tax installed to pay for your services." Sam pointed out. "I don't even know why he ever thought he'd get away with having people charged during rescue."

"Whatever." Vid replied and the Masters' Blasters left.

Danny and his friends eventually reached Nasty Burger and, to their surprise, found Mr. Lancer there working as a janitor. "Mr. Lancer?" They asked. "I thought you were still in prison."

"I'm on parole probation, Mr. Fenton." Lancer explained.

"I've got him out on a work release program just to humiliate him for using me as an anti-role model." Irving Burns explained. "One complaint and he's back in jail." He said and glared at Lancer. "Understood, Lancer?"

"Yes, Mr. Burns." Lancer humbly answered.

"Excellent." Burns said while evilly joining his hands.

"What was that?" Tucker asked in confusion.

"Do you mean my 'excellent'?" Burns asked and Tucker nodded. "I've got it from a distant relative who lives in Springfield."

"Not so distant then." Danny commented.

"Not this state's Springfield." Burns explained and Team Phantom decided not to press the matter.

After enjoying their meals, Danny and his friends started to get up when Tucker "accidentally" spilled his remaining soda. "Oops, I'm so clumsy. Mr. Laaaaanceeer."

"Did you do it on purpose, Mr. Foley?" Mr. Lancer asked as he started cleaning the spill.

"Don't be such a conspiracy theorist, Lancer." Irving Burns told his newest employee. "Sooner or later, people might assume I only hired you to attract people who'd go out of their way to make your job harder." 'Humiliating you is a stronger motivation.' Burns thought. "We don't want people thinking that. Do we?"

"No, Mr. Burns." Lancer answered in resignation.

"Excellent." Burns replied.

"Am I the only one freaked out by how he says "Excellent"?" Tucker asked his friends.

"Nope." Danny and Sam answered.

They then went to Fenton works where, to their surprise, the Fenton Ghost Portal was deactivated. "What happened?" Sam asked.

"We've deactivated the portal for maintenance purposes, Sam." Maddie answered.

"So that's why ghost attacks are less often now?" Tucker asked.

Jack frowned at Tucker's question. "The Masters' Blasters are scaring them away."

"I find it hard to believe they'd better at this than you, Mr. Fenton." Tucker commented.

"Me too but V-Man wouldn't just randomly pick people to form a team of ghost hunters." Jack said.

"Phantom's the true hero." Sam muttered.

"Ghosts are evil." Maddie said.

"Maybe Phantom's just a mutant who pretends to be a ghost out of fear he'd be even more hated as a mutant." Tucker theorized.

"I hope not." Jack commented. "If he's a living being, he should be captured alive and brought to justice rather than being given a second death."

"True." Maddie added. "Mutants, other than those space ones that would've taken over Earth if not for the Power Rangers and, before them, the Aqua Rangers, are the next step in human evolution. If I believed in the possibility of Phantom being one of them, I would theorize he's trying to earn acceptance for mutant kind but I don't think that's the case since our ghost detectors identify Phantom as a ghost."

"The same ones that identify Danny as a ghost?" Tucker asked, earning glares from Danny, Sam and Jazz.

"True, they malfunction with him." Jack conceded. "Could it be that the original activation of the Fenton Portal left some radiation residue on him?"

"I can't believe none of us thought about that before!" Maddie replied with shame in her voice. "We must perform a check up to see how far it'll go and see if a decontamination is needed!"

"Sorry." Tucker weakly told his friends.

A loud noise was heard and the Fentons and their guests saw the Masters' Blasters breaking in. "The Masters' Blasters!" Jack happily screamed like a fan boy.

"How dare you break into a residence like that?" Sam asked in protest.

"Never mind that!" Jack said. "May I have another autograph?"

"This is no social visit, Fenton." Vid said. "A citizen reported your son as Danny Phantom." She and the other Blasters scanned Danny and got positive results. "That must be the result of a contamination from our lab." Maddie argued.

"Madam, step aside or we'll have to arrest you for harboring a fugitive." Download demanded.

"If you'll arrest her for protecting Danny, you'll have to arrest me as well." Jack replied as he placed himself between them and his son, no evidence of fanboying left. "Run, son." He said and Danny ran. Jazz, Tucker and Sam followed him.

"What do we do now, Danny?" Tucker asked.

"You can hide at my mansion." Sam suggested.

"I've got a better idea." Danny replied.

"Are you hiding with Barbara?" Sam asked with a frown.

"I'm not hiding at all." Danny replied. "I'm going to the root of all evil."

"DevTech?" Tucker asked and earned another series of glares from Team Phantom.

"Vlad Plasmius." Danny said and flew away.

"That would be my second guess." The techno geek weakly said.

At City Hall, Mayor Vlad was reading some papers when Danny Phantom phased in. "Oh, Daniel? What do I owe you the pleasure of this visit?" The Mayor asked.

"Your Blasters, you fruitloop." Danny angrily answered. "They've arrested my parents."

"Oh, yeah." Vlad casually replied. "They've sent me a report. It seems Ms. Gray denounced you as Daniel Fenton."

"You must release them, fruitloop." Danny threatened. "Or else…"

"Or else what, Daniel?" Vlad curiously asked.

"Or else I'll no longer have a reason to hide your secret, Plasmius." Danny answered, calling his arch enemy by the latter's codename for emphasis.

"Clever threat, little badger." Vlad commented in approval. "I'll give you a choice: you can lose your powers, which'll convince the Masters' Blasters they made a mistake and your parents will be freed without me having to worry about being exposed since you'll have no proof; or you can expose yourself and promise to keep my secret and, in return, I'll speak for your parents and confirm they didn't know the truth."

"What makes you sure I won't expose you later?" Danny asked Vlad.

"If you do, I'll just tell everyone about this deal and good luck trying to convince the next Mayor to release your parents." Vlad answered with an expression that said 'checkmate'. "You've got 12 hours, Daniel. Just in case math still isn't your strongest subject, that means half the time as 24 hours. If your decision isn't publicly announced by then, I'll try to see if Maddie agrees to dump the oaf in exchange for her freedom and a life with me."

With a frown and no further words, Danny flew away. He eventually met his sister and his friends at Sam's mansion. "I knew he's a fruitloop but he's taking things too far." Sam grumbled.

"What'll you do, Danny?" Tucker asked.

"If you tell me the options I might come up with an idea." Barbara replied as she revealed herself.

"What're you doing here?" Sam asked.

"I called her after Mom and Dad were arrested, Sam." Jazz answered.

"And how did you get here?" Sam asked, upset that Danny's girlfriend was at her home.

"I'm Batgirl." That's all Barbara explained and Team Phantom decided to tell her about Vlad's demands. "Wow, he's even worse than you made him sound when you first told me about him." She commented. "But can you really lose your powers?"

"Well, being inside the Fenton Ghost Portal when it activated gave me my powers." Danny commented. "Maybe being inside the new one when it's activated would change me back."

"Or turn you into a full ghost." Barbara replied, making Danny give up on the idea.

"You can use the Fenton Ghost Catcher to split up again." Tucker suggested. "After convincing the Masters' Blasters that you're a normal human, you can merge back without the fruitloop being any wiser."

"True, it's better than giving up what makes you unique." Sam commented.

"Honestly, do you really trust Plasmius to keep his word?" Barbara asked but didn't really expect an answer. "And besides, since your parents are under official arrest instead of illegal captivity, we can use a variation of the second option. How much do you value your secrecy and how do you think your parents will react to you being Danny Phantom?"

Nearly half an hour later, Danny Phased himself inside Lance Thunder's office. "Danny Phantom, what're you doing here?" Lance asked.

"I'd like to make a public comment about Jack and Maddie Fenton being arrested for being my parents." Danny answered.

"Good!" Lance Thunder exclaimed and produced a microphone. "Here's your microphone."

"I want it to be a live transmission and I want Mayor Masters to watch it." Danny asked.

"Okay, Mr. Phantom." Lance Thunder replied.

Later on, Vlad was informed of the latest development. "Thanks for calling me, Mr. Thunder." Vlad said. "I'm turning the TV on right now." He ended the call and picked up his (sister's) cat. "It seems Daniel decided to expose himself, Maddie." He told the cat. "Soon I'll be ready to comfort your human namesake and convince her it was the oaf's fault their son became what they hate."

"Mr. Phantom, what do you have to say about the rumors that you are Danny Fenton?" Lance Thunder asked.

Instead of speaking, Danny let two white rings change him back into Danny Fenton. "While my parents were out of their lab, I entered their yet to be activated Ghost Portal and accidentally pushed the 'on' button, receiving a charge of ectoplasm that turned me into a half-ghost just like it happened to Vlad Masters back when he and my parents were lab partners at the University of Wisconsin."

"What?" Vlad was terrified. "Daniel, you shouldn't be exposing us like that. You're as much of a fool as your father."

"Unlike me, Masters, also known as Vlad Plasmius or the Wisconsin Ghost, became a supervillain." Danny said. "He started his fortune with money he used his intangibility to steal from banks and took over companies like Microsoft by overshadowing their previous owners into signing them over to him."

"How could you know that?" Lance Thunder asked. "Even if he really did those things, it must have happened back when you were too young to witness it or weren't even born yet."

"He bragged about it during a time he kept me in captivity, Lance." Danny answered. Unbeknownst to him since his ghost sense didn't detect half-ghosts, Vlad phased himself behind him.

End chapter.

Author's Note: My reference to "The Simpsons" also alludes to an episode where it's established their Springfield isn't in Illinois.

Answer to Leonardo (Guest): Espero que esteja satisfeito com o que foi revelado aqui.