Disclaimer: I still don't Danny Phantom or any related characters. I only own my OCs.

AN: This story is an AU. If you do not like, you do not have to read it.

I'm open to honest and constructive criticism and reviews.

Kudos to those who have figured out which other fiction universes have been hinted at :-)

Chapter III – Reunite with old friends

"Gulliver's Travels! Mr Fenton, what is the matter with you?", exclaimed Lancer. "As I was saying class, I will be chaperoning this trip. As it is mandatory, your parents have already received and signed the permission slips, so the only thing left to tell you is to bring note-taking equipment because you will have to write a two-page report on your experience in the Ghost Zone. Furthermore, please dress appropriately in warm clothes and wear comfortable shoes. You are each allowed one bag (not a suitcase Ms Sanchez, a backpack please) to pack your necessities for this five-day trip."

After finishing his statement, the teacher set about handing back marked assignments and giving out the week's work for those present in his English class before the bell rang signalling the end of the period.

After suffering several run-ins with Dash who took a lot of fun in thrusting him into his locker and enduring the open sniggering of the rest of the A-list at his apparent fear of going into the Ghost Zone, Danny couldn't have been more ready for the day to end than then. Skulker testing out a few new upgrades and venting about his love life with Ember during the team's lunch break hadn't helped either. They had hoped to use the peace and quiet to start planning contingency plans for the field trip, but Skulker's new rockets had blown that idea straight out of the water.

At the end of the day, the boys were suffering through their chemistry class (keeping a wary eye on Dash who thought it would be fun to sabotage their experiment) while Sam and Valerie were enduring their History and Economics class respectively. This was not a usual sentiment as those three classes were some of their favourite subjects, but the field trip made their minds wonder elsewhere.

When the bell final, finally, rang, they met up by their lockers which were conveniently all placed next to each other. The only silver lining of their day? None of them had detention, so they could all immediately regroup at Valerie's home to start finally planning for the disaster that their field trip was certain to become.

So engrossed in their thoughts, they hadn't realised that they were some of the last students in the building and that the carpark was very nearly empty. In fact, apart from some of the faculty's cars, the only cars present were Tucker's pickup and an unknown Mustang.

"Now that's a sweet ride!", exclaimed Valerie, who could possibly drive …"

"Danny, Sam, Tucker!" Valerie was cut off by Damien's shout as he had spotted his brothers and sisters in all but blood exit the school building.

"Damien, Roxanne! What are you doing here?", Danny asked, ecstatic his brother was back in Amity Park.

"We were up near Cleveland to see my brother, so we thought we'd come and spend some time with you before we had to go back home.", Roxanne answered with a smile.

"Well, I'll be the first to admit that you're a sight for sore eyes, the both of you! Especially after the day we've just had!", Tucker declared.

"What do you mean Tuck?", Damien quizzed.

Tucker was about to answer when Valerie cleared her throat.

"Whoops, sorry Val! Damien, Roxy, may I reintroduce you to Valerie Gray, aka the Red Huntress, now a member of Team Phantom. She has also given me the honour of being my girlfriend since Christmas of last year!" Tucker introduced with an exaggerated bow, "Val, this Damien, our other brother, and his lovely girlfriend Roxanne. You should remember Damien from middle school and the beginning of high school. We all met Roxanne when she spent a year here during our sophomore."

"Thanks for the introduction, bro," Damien chuckled," just one thing. Roxy's no longer my girlfriend. We got married not long ago."

"Wait! What?", Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Valerie all exclaimed.

Roxanne and Damien laughed at their friends faces but would not be deterred any longer. They wanted to know what had put their family in such a funk, worry and anxiety had been coming off them in waves.

"Guys! We can give you the details later! We also want to catch up and know how Tuck managed to convince Valerie to date him." Damien joked.

"Hey, I resent that!"

"However," Damien continued as if Tucker hadn't interrupted him, "I, we want to know what's put you all in a state, we could feel your emotions from here whilst you were still in class. You usually never let your emotions leak so strongly, but you're all over the place. What's going on?"

Now most people, if you told them that you could sense other people's emotions, amongst other things (they could more less sense any kind of life force, fauna and flora included, Roxanne more so than Damien), they would probably wonder if you shouldn't be sent to an asylum. However, Danny, Sam, and Tucker knew this to be true ever since Roxanne had told them about her gifts. They had also learned to control to a degree the range or strength of their emotions and even their thoughts to avoid bombarding their friend's senses. Valerie looked like she was missing a piece of information.

"Since when can you sense emotions too?", Tucker asked, but Damien would not let them get side-tracked.

"I supposed we've kinda stopped doing after you left, so we're a bit out of practice limiting our range.", Danny said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, "but the reason of our unease is the school field trip to the Ghost Zone next week."

"Hang on, back up Danny, I must have heard that wrong.", Damien declared, "Your whole class is going to the Ghost Zone? Which idiot came up with that idea?"

"Who do you think? It's a toss up between our dearly beloved Fruitloop of a mayor (the narrator asks their reader to note the excessive use of sarcasm here) or Jack and Madeleine Fenton.", answered Danny.

No one present was particularly surprised that Danny did not refer to his biological parents as Mom and Dad. He had completely disavowed his birth mother (well what do you expect when she considers that it's her life mission to exterminate all and every ghost in existence?). Regarding Jack Fenton, Danny thought of him more of a fun uncle figure than any thing else. The elder Fenton had slightly mellowed down in his views concerning ghosts and was a little more open to other opinions (Danny in fact had had a couple of interesting and in-depth conversations with the parabiologist, unbeknownst to Mrs Fenton, obviously). However, the less time he spent with his loving parents (read forgetful, even neglectful at times), the better he was (he would usually just phase into his room late at night and leave early in the morning – he actually hadn't had a meaningful interaction with them since Jazz left for university in September).

"And who's chaperoning this disaster?", Damien wondered.

"Lancer, plus the elder Fentons.", Tucker supplied.

Damien shared a look with Roxanne, "Je reviens dans 5 minutes Chérie.", he said to her in French, moving towards the school building.

"Where's he going Roxanne?" Valerie inquired.

"Roxanne answered, "He's gone to convince Lancer to bring two extra chaperones for the trip."

When she received blank looks, she continued.

"If lancer accepts, that means we can come with you. I don't think two extra pairs of eyes or arms would be amiss. I doubt Lancer will refuse the presence of two fully qualified military personnel with quite a bit of defence training under their belts. He'll say yes if only for us to help keep people in line. You've got a few notoriously disruptive members in your class. Dash, in particular, comes to mind.

Realisation dawned on the other four's faces.

Shortly after, Damien came back and confirmed that Lancer had agreed that he and Roxanne could be extra chaperones. Apparently, he was quite relived to have the additional help. When the Quartet heard the confirmation that they wouldn't have to shoulder the safety of their classmates and teacher on their own, part of the dark cloud they were under lifted.

"So! Now that that's sorted, where do you want to go? 'Cause Casper High's parking lot brings back a certain amount of memories, but it's not the cosiest or the most private of places!", Damien joked as Mr Falluca exited the school.

"We were going to my place, but six of us, seven later when Dad gets back from his shift, is going to be a bit of a squeeze."

"We've got a rental booked for a couple of weeks. It's a four-bedroom house, so there would be more than enough room for everyone.", Roxanne suggested. "Your father's more than welcome Valerie. We just need to pick up the keys at the rental agency."

"That would work.", acknowledged Danny, "What do you think guys?" he asked looking at Sam, Tucker, and Valerie.

Everyone agreed that it was indeed a good idea and plans were made to meet up there a little later once everyone had retrieved necessities for an extended sleepover.

"I'm hungry!"

"You're always hungry Tuck!", Roxanne laughed, "We can pick up a takeaway at the Nasty Burger on the way if that's OK with you all?". They all nodded and confirmed that their favourite items hadn't changed.

With that, Team Phantom finally left the school grounds in considerably higher spirits than earlier.

AN :

This chapter is a bit shorter that the others, but it's meant more of a bridge between two moments than anything else.