Thank you all so much for reviewing the last chapter! I don't usually do this, but I feel that I need to put in a couple of personalized replies here:
Jessica01: You were right, the address didn't come up. But thanks for trying! A for effort! Thanks for reviewing!
Aegis: I'm really sorry you saw that element as a flaw. I had considered doing what you said when writing this, but I'm a sucker for DxS and I need to keep Sam in the dark for an important scene later on (hint, hint). However, if you really want to discontinue reading this because of that one artistic difference between us, who am I to stop you? Again, sorry our visions were a bit conflicting.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
Once the waffles were done, Danny put his and his mom's plates in the sink and sat back down at the table. He sipped his coffee, relishing every drop of the stuff. Who knew when he'd actually be allowed to drink coffee ever again? After a few minutes of contented sipping, he was broken out of his reverie.
"Jack, honey? We should get down to the lab, now."
"Uh…right you are, Maddie! Let's build something that'll kick ghost butt!"
"Whoa, hold it right there, mister. You know the rules-no weapons building until after lunch. We have to run a systems check of the lab and look over the ectoplasm samples this morning."
"Aw…" Danny groaned in the best imitation of his dad he could muster and slowly trudged downstairs. He booted up the FentonWorks mainframe and started a run-through of all the applications to make sure everything was working. He then went over to the table covered with microscopes and beakers caked with green ectoplasm and started inspecting them. The tasks were unbelievably soporific, and Danny had to go upstairs to the kitchen more than once to refill his coffee cup in order to stay awake.
After what seemed like an eternity of boring labor, his mom suddenly stopped him.
"I'm getting kind of bored. Do you want to get in some target practice?" she asked. Danny perked up immediately.
"Sure, baby!" He grabbed the biggest ecto-gun he could find and pressed the button on the wall of the lab that would activate the targets. A series of ghost targets popped up along the walls, and he and Maddie started shooting one after the other.
"Danny-I mean, I'm the ghost kid?" Jack asked incredulously. Sam put a hand over his mouth and gave him a look that clearly read 'are-you-insane?'
"Do you want to give away your secret identity?" Just then, a loud bell sounded in the distance. Sam groaned.
"Great…now we're late. You think you could go ghost in that alley over there and fly us to school so the Lancer damage stays to a minimum?" It's as though she's completely used to the fact that her friend is the ghost kid. How long has this been going on, exactly? And why on earth wouldn't Danny tell us? Jack thought angrily. He put on a goofy grin and walked into a nearby alleyway. As weird as it was for him, he tried to imagine himself as being the infamous Phantom. He gasped as a ring of white light suddenly appeared around his midsection and split in two. He felt an odd coldness as they changed his T-shirt and blue jeans into the ghost kid's familiar jumpsuit. Jack noted that the jumpsuit felt nearly identical to his own orange HAZMAT. More likely than not it was the same exact material, though why Phantom would have one of the suits was beyond him.
Jack clapped a hand to his forehead. Of course! Danny said that he'd lost the jumpsuit he and Maddie had gotten for him just after the accident! The accident involving the Fenton Portal must have been what caused him to become-there was no other word for it-half ghost.
He rose into the air and wobbled a bit as he tried to get his balance. He flew out of the alleyway and put a hand on Sam's shoulder, and lifted the two of them into the air. He relished the wind blowing through his snowy hair as they sped towards Casper High.
"Wohoo! Flying's awesome!" Jack shouted, and Sam smiled softly. They reached the school and Jack put Sam down. Knowing that Danny wouldn't like it if he revealed his secret identity, Jack went into a clump of bushes before concentrating on being Danny again and seeing the white rings change him into a human being. He exited the clump of bushes and walked into the building with Sam.
"Mr. Fenton! Ms. Manson! How dare you two lovebirds arrive late for my test!" Lancer shouted as they entered his classroom.
"We're not lovebirds!" Sam shouted back, while Jack looked on, confused. Sam looked at him oddly.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Uh…why wouldn't I be?"
"Usually we both yell 'We're not lovebirds' at exactly the same time."
"Oh…right…We're not lovebirds!" Jack shouted.
"Either way, you're still late. Now get to your seats; you won't be getting any extra time on this, so you'd better hurry up with the time you've got." Sam sat down in her seat, and Jack took the only remaining empty seat in the classroom, the one in between Sam and Danny's other friend, Tucker. After Lancer slammed a test on each of their desks, Tucker cast them a sidelong glance.
"What took you?" he mouthed.
"Box Ghost," Sam mouthed back. Once again, Jack was bewildered by the fact that a ghost attack was just an ordinary occurrence to these kids. Shouldn't they be scared of ghosts? Jack guessed that Danny had inherited his and Maddie's passion of hunting ghosts, and from there it had rubbed off onto his friends.
The three of them returned to their tests. Jack read the first question, and it was all he could do to hold back a groan. British Literature. He hadn't looked at this stuff since he was in high school, about thirty years ago. He rested his forehead on the desk and wondered how Danny was able to ever fight ghosts on a daily basis, as this morning's experience indicated, and also study. He made a mental note not to get too angry next time his son's report card came in the mail.
After English class was a study hall. Jack walked with Sam and Tucker over to Tucker's locker, where he took out a couple of pieces of technology and jammed them into his cargo pants.
"Aren't you going to stop at your locker?" The dark-skinned boy asked him.
"Uh…" The truth was, Jack didn't know which locker was Danny's, let alone the combination. "I'm good for now. What do you want to do?" Just then, something approached them and cast its shadow over Jack. Something big. Sam and Tucker took one look at the Something and immediately sidled away.
"Guess what, Fen-turd?" the Something asked. Jack turned around and saw a blonde jock several times larger than himself. The name's Fenton, idiot! He screamed inside his head.
"Time for your daily wailing!" The jock said. He hefted Jack up by the front of his shirt and threw him into Tucker's locker, then slammed the door. Jack felt several pieces of Japanese-made technology crunch as he made contact with the back of the locker and was engulfed in darkness. Does Danny have to go through with this every day? Jack thought in wonderment. No wonder he always looks so roughed up.
"Okay, he's gone and the hallway's deserted," Sam said. "You can go intangible and get out of there, now." This was the third time that day Jack had used intangibility, so he was starting to get used to the sensation. He concentrated on making himself semi-transparent like Phantom and the other ghosts when they escape through solid objects and soon enough he was lying facedown on the ground. He picked himself up.
"You always were on the clumsy side, eh, Daniel?" a cold voice behind Jack asked. Jack spun around to reveal none other than his old college buddy, Vlad.
