Pokemon fan 1991: Thank you! Does Norm the genie exist here? Maybe, maybe not.

Rosetrang628: Marinette and Adrien aren't that close yet for that idea to cross his mind. Marinette has to overcome her inability to form a complete sentence around him first.

Jebest4781: Thanks for reading!

Danifan3000: Now that I get a second look at Desiree, you could be right about the rumor. As for Lila, she won't show up for a while yet but when she does, I hope to make more a more credible threat to the heroes. I give Alya a pass on that mistake, at least the part about being Ladybug's BFF because A - she's a freshman teenager; she's allowed to make mistakes as she's still a beginner. And B - considering the number of well-connected people in her homeroom, none of them would be surprised if one of their own was best friends with a superhero. That said, other lies like the napkin thing and Jagged having a cat would be seen through super quickly.

Matt: Yes, I did see Risk. It was one of my favorite akumas of season 4 with how much thought was put into the plan and the kid's creepy song. Speaking of, that song constantly rolls around in my head now; it's that catchy. I liked Risk a lot better than Strike Back; I have a whole rant about the ending of Strike Back that I won't go into here. With how outspoken Sam is, I can see her having issues with some of Marinette's actions, such as the overly complicated plans to ask Adrien on a date or having presents prepared for his next thirty-five birthdays if she ever finds out about those.

Crystal Da Pony: Thank you! Nino has really been left on the sidelines a lot in canon, and I wanted to give him more spotlight. Him and Adrien building their friendship, and showing off his role as an older brother was a good way to do that.

King of Fans: Wow, I am loving your long reviews. So many details to cover! Glad you liked the Doomed reference, though I can't guarantee the Doomed episode will happen. I still haven't determined whether or not that one is important enough to include. Your first guess about Desiree was correct; she was on the other side of town so she didn't hear Adrien say the 'wish' word. As for the dream catcher, I didn't really care for that invention's second episode, so it will only have the ability to split stuff. Now that you mention the thing with Marinette and the mascot costume, I think you just gave me an idea for a possible running gag. Glad you liked the Purple Flurp reference; once I saw the soda was purple in the episode, I couldn't resist. I hope to include references to a lot of different cartoons from Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel in this project if I can; so many cartoons have made an impact on my life, and I want to show the love, especially with the lack of respect groundbreaking series like Infinity Train and The Owl House have been getting by their companies.

The comment about Danny not bringing out the thermos sooner was in the actual episode, so I can't take credit for that bit. Yeah, the Tucker Ghouley incident is a very personal one to Danny, so I had to get Ladybug and Chat Noir out of the way. Thankfully, they understood. I'm glad you mentioned the similarities between Vlad and Hawk Moth as well as the issue with secret identities. Those two things are some of the reasons I found this project so fascinating. At the core, DP and ML are superhero shows with a villain of the week format and a minor overarching plot, and they both include evil rich men as the main villains as well as secret identity shenanigans. Where the shows differ is Ladybug and Chat Noir can't tell anyone who they are and only have their kwamis to confide in up until season 4; Danny has Sam and Tucker right from the start, and his enemies know who he is on both sides. It's a really interesting game of compare and contrast, and it's delightful mixing them together. We'll see if they ever realize the irony of the situation.

Fan: Let me remind you that I have a real world life outside of writing, and I write as fast as time and motivation will allow. Also, in case I haven't mentioned before, it is difficult to put an episode from each show together because of timeline issues. Whereas ML episodes last one day max, DP episodes can stretch through a whole week in-universe. Don't ask that again.

Leonardo: I think just Tucker's narration was fine. Nino's thing with Chris was more of a side issue, so I didn't think it needed narration. I have watched the season 4 finale, but I won't get into it here. Maybe at the end of the chapter.

King-Dorado: You'll have to wait a bit for Jagged, Ember, and Luka. They aren't planned to appear for a little while yet. Never heard of Ember and Luka as a ship, but I can see how you would put them together. To the surprise of no one, Ember would definitely hate Roth and XY.

Mad thought: Glad you liked the reference. Once I saw the soda was purple in the episode, I thought it was a good opportunity. I love throwing in references to other shows I enjoy.

Erica phoenix16: Thanks for reading!

Friendly reminder that speculation about future chapters and what you want to see is okay, but please leave a comment about the chapter I just worked very hard on if you intend to speculate.

Also, Two Kinds has a TVTropes page, so if you think of any trope examples for it, go ahead and add them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Miraculous Ladybug. They belong to their respective owners. Any and all familiar dialogue is for the sake of the plot.

Two Kinds of Reunions

The week following Desiree's chaotic wish-granting, the cold that had been afflicting Amity Park seemed to have run its course. Everyone who missed a few days of school caught up on what they missed. Of course, being a hero meant Danny could not take a break from that part of his life. Despite his condition, he flew off to help Ladybug and Chat Noir with a few akumas, and thanks to the Phantom Press blog, everyone knew that one of their heroes had gotten sick too.

With everything back to normal, barring the akuma and ghost situations, Danny continued to hang out with his friends. On one such night, he rode his scooter home from Sam's house.

Danny grinned upon seeing his house down the block. "Finally. One day where I get home on time without any akuma or ghost detours making me miss my ten o'clock curfew." He checked his watch, and found he had three minutes left. No sooner than he said that, his Ghost Sense went off.

It looked like he spoke too soon.

Stopping his scooter, he looked around and spotted a trio of vulture ghosts flying around the neighborhood, phasing in and out of houses and scaring the families inside.

He sighed, ducking behind a van with his scooter. "Or not. Going ghost!" Leaving his scooter, he flew up to confront the vultures. Joining them in the sky, he greeted them, "Hey, you fellas look lost. Any chance of you staying that way?"

One of the vultures, probably the leader, scoffed at him. "Mind your own business, fancy pants ghost boy!"

The vultures dove down towards a bus making its last run of the night, and phased inside. Phantom pursued, landing in the bus's aisle while the vultures perched on an empty seat. A quick look around the bus relieved Phantom that there weren't any passengers that could be in danger, just the driver, who may or may not have gone stiff upon seeing Phantom and the vultures in their bus.

"Hey, we've been circling this town for hours. We could have been halfway to Florida by now. Ask for directions," snapped one of the other two vultures, returning Phantom's attention to where they were bickering on the seat.

"I know where I'm going!" The leader shot back.

"You so do not!" The third one spoke up, pointing a wing at Phantom. "Ask him!"

Phantom raised an eyebrow. "Ask me what?"

Having rested their wings for a minute, the vultures phased out of the bus and back up into the sky with Phantom following them. Once they were all in mid-air, the leader sighed reluctantly.

"We're on a search and destroy mission," the leader admitted. "Can you help us find and peck to death this guy here?" Reaching into his feathers with a talon, he pulled out a torn picture.

Phantom's half-dead heart stopped. He recognized the face in the photo. It was maybe twenty or so years younger, but it was definitely… "Dad?"

The third one cackled in victory. "Aha! See? I told you he'd know where he is."

Now that he knew what the vultures were after, Phantom went on the offensive and fired an ecto blast at them, the trio scattering out of the blast's way.

"Nice try, kid. Get him, boys!" The leader taunted, and the trio began to circle around Phantom.

"Give it your best shot, guys! I'm a whiz at dodgeball!" Phantom boasted, tensing to react.

Like in a game of musical chairs when the music stopped, the vultures all charged at once. Phantom dodged with a jump, causing the three to collide with each other.

"Okay, technically it's dodge-beak, but who cares?" Phantom amended as the ghosts recovered. Deciding to lead them away from his house, he flew in the opposite direction and they pursued. He led them to the city clock tower, which rang ten o' clock. "Oh great. Late again," Phantom complained as he saw the time and heard the chime.

The clock did give him an idea, though.

While leading the vultures around the clock, he phased inside. Leaving the ghosts confused outside, wondering where he went. He phased back outside the clock and grabbed hold of the third vulture's leg.

"Hey!" The vulture yelped.

"You know what they say about the bird in the hand," Phantom quipped as he spun around and threw the vulture into his companions. "Well, neither do I." Sufficiently rattled, the vultures began to fly out of town. "And don't mess any windshields on your way out of town!" As they flew away, the leader dropped the photo of Jack, and Phantom snatched it out of the air. "I wonder why those guys were trying to waste Dad." As soon as he mentioned his father, he cringed as he checked the clock again. "Oh crap, my curfew!"

Shoving the photo in his pocket, he returned to his scooter, de-transformed, and hurried home, arriving a short five minutes after his designated return time. Once he opened the front door, he found his parents standing in the living room, Jazz sitting in a chair and reading a textbook nearby.

"You're late again, young man," Jack said with a disappointed frown, arms crossed along with his wife's.

"Oh poop," Danny muttered under his breath. Then something unpleasant and smelly hit his head, and he glared up at the sky, where he could see the trio of vultures flying away while cackling to themselves.

They were so lucky things had been calm enough recently that he didn't think to keep a thermos on hand.

Seeing the bird droppings, Maddie sternly directed him to the bathroom to wash up before demanding he return to the living room afterwards. Once he was cleaned up, he sat on the couch while Maddie paced back and forth, lecturing him while Jack turned his attention to his parents' latest invention.

"Danny, this is becoming a problem," Maddie said. "You're constantly late coming home."

"You're shirking from your chores," Jack added, peeking around he and his wife's invention.

"Your grades are slipping," Maddie continued.

"You're shirking from your chores," Jack said, again peeking around the gadget he was tinkering on.

Danny threw his father a look. "You already said chores."

"I know, but when you don't do them, I get stuck with them," Jack replied before returning to work.

Danny frowned at his parents. "Look, I'm under a lot of pressure. You two have no idea what it's like to be a kid today!"

Maddie rolled her eyes. "Come on, Danny. That's the oldest excuse in the book. There's nothing that you're going through that your father and I didn't go through when we were your age."

While his mother lectured him, Danny shifted position on the couch, but when he did so, his elbow went intangible and phased through the arm rest. Thankfully, Maddie was too far into lecture mode to notice, and he discreetly covered his below while he brought it out of the arm rest and made it tangible again.

"Yeah? Well, I beg to differ." Danny shot back, adjusting his position again to avoid any suspicion. "Ghosts and akumas."

Before either parent could come up with a reply to that one, Jazz snapped her textbook shut and looked up at her family. "The reason Danny doesn't think you can relate to him is that you never take the time to tell him about your childhood," she said to her parents.

Danny scowled at his sister. "Jazz!"

Ignoring her brother, Jazz went on. "Have you ever told him about how you met? About your first date?"

The question seemed to stump both Fenton parents because Jack actually stopped fiddling with the new device and went over to his wife, the pair silently communicating whether or not they had shared that information with their children before.

"Jazz!" Danny scowled harder at her. He knew his parents' thinking faces, and whatever they were thinking never ended well.

"Where you went to college?" Jazz prodded further.

After a moment of silence, Jack smiled at his older child. "You know, Jasmine, that's a great idea!"

"It is?" Jazz stared at her father in confusion. Her parents never took her advice.

Maddie, for once not on the same wavelength as her husband, also glanced at him. "What is?"

"This is!" Reaching into a pocket of his jumpsuit, he pulled out a flyer and handed it to Danny. Looking at it closer, Danny learned it was an invitation to a college reunion. "You can come with your mother and I to our college reunion." As he mentioned Maddie, Jack pulled his wife close.

"I can?" Danny raised an eyebrow, unimpressed with the idea.

"Wisconsin?" Jazz said, peering over Danny's shoulder to look at the flyer as well.

"Sure! My old pal Vlad is throwing a huge shindig there. We'll take the Ghost Assault Vehicle so the whole family can go together. You can learn about your mother's and my college days, and while we drive, I can blather on about ghosts!" Jack grinned at his children, eager to share his knowledge with them despite how uneasy the two of them found the idea. As if on cue to emphasize how bad the idea was, the new invention dinged and the hose shot green goo at Jazz's head. While Jazz glared at her father about the goo, Jack continued to grin. "Ha! It works! I can't wait to blather on about that, too!"

The next morning, Sam and Tucker were over at the house. It was Friday, so they still had school. They stood off to the side as the parents enthusiastically packed their things into their tank of an RV. Danny and Jazz packed much less willingly.

"A college reunion?" Sam asked, beginning to understand why Danny had texted them to come over early.

"Yeah, it's going to be a four-day trip. Won't be back until Monday night," Danny confirmed, setting some of his stuff down so he could talk to his friends. He cast a glare over his shoulder. "Thanks, Jazz," he said, his tone dripping with sarcasm. His sister huffed, continuing to pack.

"But we always hang out on the weekend, what are we going to do without you?" Tucker wondered, already checking the schedule in his phone.

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Danny said. Checking over his shoulder briefly to make sure none of his family was watching, he pulled out a pair of thermoses from one of his bags and handed one to each of his friends, who quickly hid them in their backpacks. "Here. Just in case ghost stuff happens while I'm gone. If you need extra equipment, you know where the spare key is and how to get down to the lab."

Tucker hummed thoughtfully. "I was wondering if we were ever going to need the extra thermoses at some point. Hopefully we copied the blueprints right and they work."

"What about Ladybug and Chat Noir?" Sam asked quietly.

"They'll just have to make do without Phantom for a few days," Danny said. "If something does happen, please don't let anybody see you using the Fenton gear. If people realize that you two are connected to Phantom, and people know you're connected to me, they might figure out that me and Phantom are the same person. Be careful."

"No problem. Temp heroes Ghouley and Plant Girl are at Amity Park's service," Tucker boasted.

Sam threw him a look. "Plant Girl?"

Tucker shrugged at her stare. "You got any better ideas?" Tucker's phone beeped and he checked it. "We better go, or we'll be late."

"Alright," Danny nodded. "Tucker, you're on ghost watch. Sam, you get my homework."

Sam gave Danny a thumbs-up. "You got it. Good luck not being driven insane by your folks."

Later that morning, the Fenton family were on the road. While Danny had given his friends the rundown of their sudden trip, Maddie called the school to have Jazz and Danny excused from their classes until Tuesday. Now they were off to Wisconsin with Jack at the wheel and Maddie reading the map.

In the backseat, Jazz grumbled. "How does this happen? You goof up, and I have to spend four days jammed in the Fenton Ghost RV?"

From the driver's seat, Jack corrected her, "That's Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle, folks. Every button in this baby is a ghost's worst nightmare."

Groaning already at the atmosphere in the RV, Danny reached out to flick a switch. "I need some air."

"Don't press any buttons!" Jazz reprimanded her brother.

Ignoring her warning, Danny pressed a button he thought would open a window. Instead, several weapons unfolded from the RV. One was a laser that blasted a hole in a tree, another shot a bird flying by and froze it solid, and a third one was a laser that fried the face of a nearby driver that had been talking on his phone while driving. As Danny and Jazz stared out the window at the results of the weapons' firing, a hose reeled out and squirted green goo on Jazz's face like the invention Jack had been working on did.

With a face full of mysterious goo, Jazz glared at Danny. "I'll get you for this."

A few hours later, lunch break started at Casper High back in Amity Park. Like many other students, Sam and Tucker got their trays and prepared to sit down. Unlike other days where they found a spot and sat down immediately, the pair hesitated.

"Where should we sit?" Sam inquired. When Danny was around, they usually sat at their own table with him to keep his secret safe. Without him around, they were at a slight dilemma.

Tucker looked around, and soon pointed to a table. "How about at Marinette and Alya's table? There's a few seats open."

Following his finger, Sam spotted the two homeroom classmates. Also sitting with them were Adrien and Nino. That was another reason they sat alone.

Since Adrien ditched the A-listers and started sitting with Nino, the pair more frequently sat at whatever table Marinette and Alya were, mostly at Alya's insistence. For the first several weeks, Marinette and Alya had sat with Danny, Sam, and Tucker. The trio hadn't seen any harm in it since Marinette knew the secret and could help keep Alya oblivious. Once Alya started inviting Adrien and Nino to sit with them after Adrien's departure from the popular table to help Marinette with her crush- which was incredibly difficult to miss-, the three friends had to move.

They told Marinette about this so she could help smooth things over with Alya. She didn't like it, but she understood the need to keep things secret. Little did they realize she understood more than they thought.

"I don't know," Sam hesitated. "Won't it seem weird that we're suddenly sitting with them again while Danny's gone?"

"Not if we don't bring attention to that. Come on." Tucker started walking over to the table, Sam reluctantly following a few seconds later.

Marinette, Alya, Adrien, and Nino all looked up from their food as the pair approached. Marinette was notably red in the face while sitting next to Adrien.

"Hey, dudes! What's up?" Nino greeted, waving a hand.

"Hey, guys! Is it alright if we sit here?" Tucker asked for the both of them.

Adrien smiled politely. "Sure! Have a seat."

"Thanks!" Tucker took the invitation and sat down.

"Thanks," Sam mumbled after a second, then sat as well.

"So what's up with Danny?" Alya asked as they started poking at their food. "I thought he was over the cold."

"Oh, he is. His parents are just dragging him and Jazz along to their college reunion party that's happening this weekend," Tucker answered, biting into a slice of greasy high school pizza.

Adrien blinked at the mention of a college reunion. "College reunion? Where'd his parents go?"

Sam raised an eyebrow at his reaction, and despite her reservations about talking to him, answered, "University of Wisconsin – Madison. Why?"

"I think my father went there. I overheard him and Nathalie talking about being invited to a reunion, but he refused to go. Said he was too busy and didn't have time to waste on a party."

Thinking back to Gabriel's reaction to Adrien having a birthday party, Nino frowned, biting into his pizza. "Yeah, that tracks," he muttered while chewing.

"Still, what are the odds that your dad went to the same school as Danny's parents? Think they knew each other?" Alya inquired, interested in the potential.

Adrien shrugged. "I don't know. Father never talks about his past, and I can't remember if Mom ever said anything either."

"So, if Wisconsin with parents in Danny," Marinette fumbled, still flustered at sitting beside her crush, "I mean if Danny with Wisconsin in parents, gah! I mean, if Danny is with his parents in Wisconsin, what are weekend going to do this you? Ugh, I mean what are you going to do this weekend?" Shielding her face with her hand to avoid any confused stares, mostly coming from Adrien, she finished, "You usually hang out with him, right?"

Tucker nodded at her question. "We do, and we're actually trying to figure that out. I can actually count on one hand the number of times we had a weekend where we weren't with Danny since we became friends."

Adrien smiled warmly. "Well, we could all hang out together if you wanted. I'm trying to get better at this normal kid stuff, and hanging out with Nino has been a good start. It'd be nice to branch out and hang with my classmates from homeroom, which includes you guys and Danny. What do you think?"

Sam seemed taken aback by the idea. "Oh, um, well…" She poked at her salad with her fork, looking down at her tray while her appetite seemed to disappear. "With your father being, you know, him… I'm not sure…"

Just as she began to trail off her sentence, the trio of vultures from the previous night phased into the cafeteria.

"Hey, you kids are in school learning stuff, right?" The lead vulture asked as every head in the cafeteria snapped up frightfully at the ghosts' appearance. "Any of you know the way back to Wisconsin? We're kinda lost."

Paulina was the first student to react, dropping her tray where she stood in the lunch line. "Eek! Ghosts! Old, wrinkly bird ghosts! I'm so out of here!" Her scream seemed to snap everyone else into action because the cafeteria was suddenly overwhelmed by students screaming and running for the nearest exit, some even diving into the kitchen for cover.

Staring down at the chaos, the second vulture glowered at the third one. "Let's try the kids at school, you said. They might be smart, you said. Last time we take a suggestion from you." [1]

Though neither of them realized it, Adrien and Marinette both glanced at their table buddies before scrambling to make an excuse to leave.

Jumping from his seat, Adrien let out a fake sounding gasp. "Oh no, I seem to have gotten pizza on my shirt. I'm going to use the restroom and see if I can get it out, or my father might kill me."

Marinette stood quickly as well. "Too me! I mean, me too! I can't let anybody see me like this."

The two of them ran out of the cafeteria to the nearest set of restrooms, leaving Alya, Sam, and Tucker behind. The blogger faced her two classmates. "You guys put out a ghost alert if there isn't one already. I'm getting footage of these guys." Pulling out her phone, Alya ran at the vultures instead of running away from them.

Behind her, Sam and Tucker shared a quiet nod before Tucker pulled a Fenton thermos out of his backpack.

After a full day of driving, the Fentons were parked at a truck stop that night, stretched out on pillows and blankets on the floor of the RV.

"Get some rest, everybody! I want the Fenton clan bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when we meet Masters tomorrow," Jack told his family excitedly.

Jazz held up a hand to interrupt. "Wait, wait, wait. Masters? As in Vlad Masters? Who was named Affluence Magazine's Billionaire of the Year?"

"That's the guy! In college, he was my best friend." Jack dug around and pulled out a picture of a younger Jack in his twenties, still in his hazmat suit, beside another twenty-something man with spiky black hair, wearing a Packers shirt. Though the two were smiling in the picture, it was obvious that they were not the most popular students on the campus; one student was about to pour a bowl of punch over Jack's head while another was holding his fingers in bunny ears pose behind Vlad. Danny thought he saw Adrien's dad in the background, but his back was turned to the humiliation going on and he could only see half his face. "We were popular guys. Roommates, lab partners, we did everything together. Until the thick fingers of fate stuck themselves right in Vlad's eyes." [2]

It was 19XX. Jack, Vlad, and Maddie were all in a science lab on the university campus. A prototype of the portal that sat in the Fentons' basement lab was set up on one of the work stations. While Jack and Maddie were making final preparations, Vlad was looking over the prototype.

"I'm telling you, Jack. It won't work," Vlad said with a frown, skepticism evident in his tone.

Jack waved off his friend's denial. "Bogus, V-Man! It totally will! This Proto-Portal is guaranteed to bust open the wall into the ghost dimension."

Still convinced Jack was wrong, Vlad stared closely at the center of the device, examining the welding and the overall construction.

Maddie double-checked their data, and frowned upon seeing something. "Jack, these calculations aren't right."

Not paying attention to her observation, or where Vlad was standing, Jack already had the controls for the prototype in his hands. "Banzai!" He exclaimed, flicking a switch.

To Vlad's surprise, the prototype actually turned on and formed a green, swirling portal much like the current one did. Unlike the portal of the present, the prototype shot a blast of ectoplasmic energy into Vlad's face.

"Aah! Bogus!" Vlad clutched at his face in pain. He spun towards his friends, and pulled his hands away. Jack and Maddie gasped in horror, Jack even dropping the controls to the floor. Vlad's face was covered in pimples, his hair had gone from black to white, and his eyes were glowing blue. Looking at Maddie and her reaction to his face, Vlad covered it with his hands again and ran out of the classroom.

"He was hospitalized with a horrible case of ecto-acne," Jack finished retelling what had happened. "It devastated him, and killed his social life. We haven't spoken since that day." His grimace quickly turned into a reassuring smile for his kids. "But the good news is, I think after all these years, he's finally forgiven me."

Knowing how oblivious their dad could be, Danny and Jazz shared a look that confirmed neither of them were sure their parents' college friend would be so forgiving after an incident that severe.

Back in Amity Park, Sam and Tucker were at Sam's house doing homework. They still had an hour to go before Tucker had to be home for curfew. Tucker was working at Sam's desk while Sam did her homework on her bed.

"Today wasn't so bad," Tucker said as he finished another problem. "Sure, the vultures got away, but at least Ladybug and Chat Noir were around to fix the damage."

Looking up from her textbook, Sam scowled. "How can you be happy? Danny wanted us to protect Amity Park from the ghosts while he's gone, and we couldn't catch stupid birds."

Tucker spun around in Sam's chair. "Are you okay? You've been a bit upset since lunch. What's up?"

Sam stared back at her textbook. "It's nothing. Forget it."

"No, that's the same tone you had when you didn't want to talk about being rich. Spill."

Sam sighed, closing her textbook and sitting upright. "Fine, it's about Adrien inviting us to hang out."

"So? What's wrong with that?" Tucker shrugged confusedly.

"I don't know, maybe the fact that I haven't really talked to him in years?" Sam retorted, crossing her arms and staring at a Dumpty Humpty poster she had on the wall. "Ever since school started this year, I've been avoiding him." [3]

Tucker thought back for a moment. "Now that you mention it, you do seem to duck out or go quiet whenever he approaches us. I thought it was because you didn't want to blow Danny's secret, but it was more than that, wasn't it?"

Sam sighed. "I guess I'm just afraid. Ever since his parents decided I was a bad influence for liking dark and spooky stuff when we were little and made us stop talking, I guess I had this idea in my head that they would drill into him that I am a bad person and the next time we really talked, he wouldn't want to be my friend anymore."

"But, don't you have proof that he's not like that now?" Tucker said. "He's a good guy. He blew off the A-listers to be friends with Nino, and he tried to get the gum off Marinette's chair before she showed up and thought it was him."

"Those are other people, people he hadn't met until this year. I'm worried that it's going to be different with me, and not the good kind." She curled her legs up against herself, wiggling them between her chest and her crossed arms.

Tucker spun around in his chair to get back to his homework so he could finish before he had to leave. "You won't know what he thinks of you now until you actually have a conversation with him. Look, let's hang out this weekend and see how it goes? Sound fair?"

Sam thought it over and threw her head back with a groan. "I guess. At least this way I can finally know what he thinks of me instead of just assuming."

Tucker threw her a grin over his shoulder. "That's the spirit."

The next day, the Fentons arrived at Vlad's home. Judging by the castle they pulled up to, calling it a home would be an understatement. As the family got out of the Ghost Assault Vehicle, they were approached by a man Jack and Maddie's age, wearing a black suit and red tie. Aside from his expensive style of attire, Jazz and Danny were quick to notice the white hair Jack had mentioned while telling them about the accident.

"Jack… and Maddie!" Vlad greeted, ushering Maddie and the kids inside his large front doors. "You've never looked lovelier, my dear. Please, please, come in."

"Vladdie, my man! It's good to-!" Jack was in the middle of greeting his old friend when Vlad casually slammed the doors shut in his face. "Hello? Hello!" Jack called through the door, but was ignored.

Maddie and the kids were stunned by Vlad's spacious foyer. It was yellow and green all over with football memorabilia in display cases on both sides. There were jerseys, helmets, flags, footballs, and other kinds of exclusive football collectibles.

Jazz looked at the color scheme distastefully. "What's with all the green and gold? You're a billionaire! Surely you could hire an interior designer."

"Jazz, hello. Football helmets, jerseys, cheese heads? He's a Packers fanatic," Danny said.

"Hello?" Jack called out, still outside.

Vlad came over to Danny and put a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, fanatic is such a negative word." He lifted the hand off Danny's shoulder upon noticing Danny's stare. "But yes."

Jazz stared at him in confusion. "I don't understand. You have billions of dollars! Instead of buying this stuff, why don't you just buy the team?"

Vlad gave her an annoyed look. "Because the Packers are owned by the city of Green Bay, and they won't sell them to me!" Noticing the family's stare at his outburst, he calmed himself. "One of two things my wealth has not, as of yet, been able to acquire." He lingered his gaze on Maddie a little too long.

While Maddie smiled at him obliviously, Danny leaned towards Jazz and whispered, "Is he hitting on Mom?"

"As long as he has working toilets, and Mom says no, who cares?" Jazz quipped, walking over to another section of the foyer to look around some more.

Maddie started to get uncomfortable with Vlad staring at her, and moved toward the front doors. "I'd better let Jack in."

While she did that, Vlad watched as Danny approached a pedestal where an autographed football sat.

"Whoa, cool!" While Danny was not much of a football fan, he could appreciate a piece of signed memorabilia.

"Indeed," Vlad said, walking over to join him and picking up the ball. "This one was signed by the legendary Ray Catchkey himself." He hugged it against his face like a creepily obsessed fan that wanted to sniff their favorite player's leftover sneakers. "It's my prized possession." [4]

"Heads up, V-man!" Jack's shout was only a few seconds' warning Vlad got before the Fenton patriarch tackled him to the floor enthusiastically. Jack grabbed the football from his old friend and stood. "Ha! I see you've still got the old moves."

Vlad got up from the floor and snatched the football back. "Give me that!" He put the football back on its pedestal. "I never had any 'old moves'. All those years in the hospital robbed me of that!" The billionaire snarled at Jack, only to quickly notice the alarmed looks from the rest of the family and composed himself. "Yes, well, it gave me time to chart out a course for my life, didn't it? Make some decisions that helped to make me very wealthy, very quickly." He threw Jack a smile that seemed fake and strained. "And it never would have happened without you, Jack."

Realizing that Vlad may still have unresolved bitterness towards her husband about the accident, Maddie shuffled awkwardly. "Uh, yeah… maybe we should go."

"No, no, no, you should stay with me," Vlad quickly said, throwing an arm around Jack's shoulders. "That's the whole reason I'm throwing the reunion here in my castle – previously home to the legendary Wisconsin Dairy King." He gestured to a nearby portrait of the previous owner, a short, rotund man dressed in a crown and cape with a scepter. "Just so I could… reconnect with you, Jack. I insist you stay."

Jack considered the offer. "Well, I don't know. We do have a really cool GAV."

Jazz faked a cough into her fist. "Let's stay here."

Danny, catching her subtle comment, made a motion at her with a hand and a half-lidded look. "Smooth."

Vlad leaned in closer to Jack, his expression getting conspiratorial. "You know, Jack, the Dairy King's ghost could haunt these very halls…"

Always up for a ghost hunt, Jack grinned as he shrugged off Vlad's arm from his shoulders and started running back to the front door. "I'll get the bags!"

Back in Amity Park, it was approaching noon when Tucker called up Marinette. They had a few hours before he and Sam were set to hang out with Marinette, Adrien, and the others. As he made the call, he hoped Sam wouldn't get mad at him later for trying to help her out.

"You want to get Adrien and Sam alone together?" Marinette stared at the tech geek in confusion over the video call they were doing.

"It's the only way they're going to talk," Tucker insisted. "Without anyone else to act as a barrier between them, they'll have to clear the air about their years apart without contact."

Marinette stared at him warily. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Look, I know Sam. If we don't do this, she's going to just duck Adrien for longer than she needs to, and potentially hurt his feelings if he ever figures out she's avoiding him on purpose. By doing that, she'll just set herself up to get hurt too."

"I guess that makes sense," Marinette admitted. Unlike Danny having a good reason in his ghost powers and zero history to dodge people, Sam had no powers as far as she was aware and had history with Adrien. "What do we do?"

"I have an idea. While we do stuff at the amusement park, most of us go to get hot dogs. Sam's a vegetarian so she'll hang back, and we'll casually insist Adrien stay behind with her while we get our meat."

"That could work as long as we stay light on the snacks so we have room for the hot dogs," Marinette said, nodding to herself. "And if the wait for the hot dogs isn't long enough, we figure something else out?"

"Basically," Tucker agreed. "I'll tell Nino the plan and get him on board. You get Alya?"

"I'm on it."

A few hours later, the group of six were wandering the amusement park. In his time hanging out with Adrien, Nino learned his best friend had never been to one because his parents, to no surprise, were that restrictive. So, it was Nino's idea to introduce Adrien to a classic teenage pastime when he snuck out that weekend.

Adrien loved it. He considered it like being at school during lunch, but much freer. He rode his first rollercoaster, played some carnival games, and even looked at some artistic booths.

Everyone had a good time, even if Sam kept at least two people between herself and Adrien, and Marinette spent the whole rollercoaster ride red-faced because Alya managed to get her in the seat next to her crush.

With everyone in such a good mood, Tucker figured it was time to put his plan into action. He used his map of the park on his phone to track down the hot dog stand, and casually led the group in that direction.

Once it was within eyesight, he said, "Well, I think it's about time I get some meat. Sam, I know you're not, but is anyone else up for a hot dog?"

"Dude, yes! Give me one of those weenies," Nino said, pumping a fist.

"Yeah, I'll grab one," Alya added, smiling before nudging Marinette. "How about you, girl?"

Marinette, who had been listening with rapt attention as Adrien chattered extensively about how much fun he was having, finally snapped back to awareness of what was going on. "O-Oh, yeah. A great dog hot sounds, gah! I mean, a dog sounds hot great. Um…"

"I think you're trying to say a hot dog sounds great?" Alya smirked at her bestie's flubbing. When Marinette sheepishly confirmed it with a nod of her head, the blogger looped one arm around hers. She glanced up at Adrien knowingly. "Poor girl gets tongue tied sometimes when she's hungry." Dragging Marinette along, the pair walked towards the line for the hot dog stand. "Come on, let's see if a hot dog can fix that."

Tucker watched the two girls go before turning toward Adrien and Sam. "Adrien, why don't you wait here with Sam while Nino and I go with Marinette and Alya?"

"Sure, sounds like a plan," Adrien said, not noticing Sam suddenly frown as she realized what was happening.

"Tucker, what's going-?" Sam started to ask with a raised eyebrow suspiciously before Nino cut her off.

"Great, we'll be right back. Don't move, okay?" Nino said, grabbing Tucker by his backpack and pulling him over to where Marinette and Alya were.

Adrien looked at the line their friends had joined. "Looks like it'll be a few minutes before they get back." He glanced at Sam, who stiffened at his gaze. "Been a while since it was just you and me, huh?"

"Uh, yeah?" Sam said, trying not to meet his eyes. "Been what? Ten whole years?"

"Really? It's been that long?" Adrien looked away, getting lost in thought. "Huh, I guess it has. It felt like it wasn't that long ago."

Sam stared in surprise. "You remember all the way back then?"

Adrien shrugged good naturedly. "Mother and my father kept me pretty busy once they started homeschooling me. After a while, all the days just sorta blended together." His expression became wistful as he looked down at his ring. "Before I knew it, Mother was gone and I'm in high school." He laughed. "How time flies, right?"

"I guess…" Sam replied.

The chatter of the amusement park fell away as people around them started to run and scream. The two past friends snapped their attention in the direction the crowd was running from and saw an akuma neither of them recognized, flying around as a colorful pterodactyl.

"These carnival games are rigged!" The akuma shouted in fury. "I won that dino huggie, and you're going to give it to me!" The akuma, which sounded like a man, swooped down, forcing more park patrons to duck and scream. [5]

"We better find an exit. Go!" Adrien shoved Sam along, and they started running. Their friends, who had just started receiving their hot dogs, abandoned their food to flee.

The group was so caught up in fleeing that they didn't notice Adrien or Marinette split off from them in different directions.

Adrien found an unoccupied restroom, and rushed in one of the stalls. Once he was sure he was alone, he let Plagg out of his shirt.

"Our first time at an amusement park, and we have to stop an akuma," Plagg commented, floating in front of his holder. The kwami shook his head. "So much for a fun day out."

"Hey, if we beat the akuma quick, then we can still salvage the day. Plagg, claws out!" Adrien thrust out the fist his Miraculous was on.

After Jack got the bags out of the GAV, the rest of the day was spent getting settled in. Vlad had over a dozen spare bedrooms aside from his master suite, so the Fentons picked their lodgings at random. Of course, just because they were spending the night in a new location did not mean their habits fell out of routine.

In Jack's case, he woke up in the middle of the night, mumbling for the bathroom. He got out of bed without waking Maddie, and went in search of a bathroom. As he stumbled down the hallway sleepily, the trio of ghost vultures phased into the castle.

Just down the hall from where the vultures appeared, Danny had been sleeping well until his Ghost Sense woke him up.

The teen hero scowled at his sleep being interrupted. "Oh great, just what I need: a working vacation." Throwing off his blanket, he turned into his ghostly half and went in search of the threat.

After nearly three days of searching, the vultures had finally tracked down Jack. They were about to sink their talons into him when Phantom phased his arms through the floor and grabbed Jack's ankles, turning the man intangible and pulling him down through it.

"Hey, what gives?" The lead vulture complained as their target suddenly went missing.

Knowing his dad's habits from years of experience, Phantom dropped him off in a bathroom before flying off to confront the enemy. It was only after he left that Jack gained enough awareness of his surroundings to notice he had found what he was looking for and went about his business.

Phantom phased into the hallway he had left the vultures in, and punched his fist into his palm as a greeting. "Hi, guys. Remember me?"

All three ghosts squawked in terror, and flew away in a sprint.

Phantom raised an eyebrow at their reaction. "Okay, that was almost too easy."

"Ah, bright boy." An unsettling voice said behind him. Phantom whirled and found a humanoid ghost, much like himself, floated there. He had pale blue skin, wore a white suit with black gloves and boots and a white cape with a red underside, and his black and white hair arched up like devil horns. While Phantom found the blue skin strange, the creepiness factor only went up as he noticed the other ghost's red eyes and fangs.

Not wanting to give the other ghost the impression he lost his bravado, Phantom clenched his fists. "Oh whatever. I was aiming for the birds, but you'll do." He flew at the new opponent, reeling his fist back in preparation for a punch.

The new ghost acted quickly but casually. Smirking confidently, he caught Phantom's fist and threw the younger boy against a wall.

Phantom recovered as he fell onto a side table, holding his head. "Whoa, fast. Alright, better stop fooling around." Leaping at the newcomer again to try something else, he found himself being caught by the throat and slammed onto the floor.

"My vultures were supposed to bring the big idiot to me, but you'll do," the older ghost remarked with a wicked grin, "Phantom, right?"

"I see word is getting around about my being in Amity Park," Phantom replied, struggling.

Surprisingly, the ghost let him up. "Yes, I've seen the reports." He phased backwards through a wall, and Phantom followed him into what looked like a private library that belonged to Vlad. "You're the ghost boy who uses his powers for good. How quaint." Phantom flinched as the enemy flew close to him and began circling him, seemingly examining him from every angle. "Aren't you going to try to shove me into your ridiculous thermos?"

"I, I don't want to fight you," Phantom said, getting increasingly creeped out by the ghost man.

"No, no you don't." Without warning, the other ghost fired a purple ghost ray at Phantom, sending him flying into a bookshelf and knocking down several books from their places.

Phantom bounced back quickly, flying in close and preparing his own green ghost ray. "Get away!"

To his shock, the man formed a purple window-like shield casually that absorbed the beam meant to attack him. "Ah, an ectoplasmic energy blast," he mused like a food critic sampling a restaurant's menu. Phantom flew around him in a circle, firing more ghost rays to try getting a hit in. Unfortunately, the enemy merely moved the shield around and absorbed all of them. "So year one."

Phantom finally stopped shooting rays when he realized he wasn't hitting his target, and the other man dropped his shield. He didn't know what else to try at this point.

"Tell me, child," the older ghost taunted, "can you do this yet?" He then proceeded to manifest three identical copies of himself, all which floated alongside him.

Phantom hovered backwards in alarm at the ability. "No, I can't," the young boy admitted. "How are you doing all this?"

The man continued to smirk. "Years of practice, which you, unfortunately, have no time for."

He and his duplicates all prepared their purple ghost rays, and fired on Phantom in unison. The sheer power of four rays at once sent Phantom crashing to the floor. The four duplicates fused back together, and the ghost continued barraging Phantom with attacks until Phantom was thrown out of the room into the nearest hallway. The man flew into the hallway to finish the job, but he was halted by the surprise de-transformation of Phantom back into Danny wearing his pajamas.

The older ghost's eyes widened. "The ghost boy… is Jack's son?" Touching down on the floor beside the unconscious Danny, he de-transformed.

The ghost was none other than Vlad Masters, the very man Danny and his family was staying with that night.

Vlad grinned wickedly as his mind began turning with the new information. "Well, what do you know?"

Danny tossed and turned, the recent encounter replaying over in his head. "No! Get away!" He snapped awake and realized he was tangled in his blanket. Grabbing around, he finally yanked it off his head and gasped for air. Looking around, he noticed he was in his temporary bedroom. "Huh? What happened?"

"I was going to ask you the same question, young man." Danny turned and saw his family's host at the doorway. Vlad walked into the room, an eyebrow raised and obviously expecting an answer.

"I… must have been worn out from the long car trip," Danny scrambled for a lie. "I'll be fine in the morning. Sorry for the scare."

Vlad's face formed what Danny assumed was supposed to be a warm smile. "Oh, what's a little scare between friends, son? Sleep tight, little badger." Vlad walked back out while Danny tried to get back to sleep, and Vlad closed the bedroom door behind him. "Yes, sleep tight." The billionaire chuckled quietly and sinisterly, knowing the boy he had just fought was on the other side of the door and could potentially hear him if he was any louder.

"I can't believe you, Tucker."

Tucker had been prepared for a chewing out if the plan failed, which it did. Nonetheless, it stung when Sam glared at him. Even after years of being used to Sam's air of gloom and doom, she still managed to be scary when she was mad.

"You said you would try talking to him," Tucker defended.

The pair were heading to the Nasty Burger to hang out with Marinette and the others the day after the akuma at the amusement park. Part of Nino's attempts to show Adrien a normal teen's life included showing him a popular hangout spot. Places like Nasty Burger and the local juice bar, Amity Juice, qualified in Nino's opinion, and since Nino was all for rebelling against Gabriel's strict standards, he chose to introduce Adrien to fast food first. [6]

"Yeah," Sam agreed before qualifying the statement, "on my own terms. You tried to set me up."

"Sam, I know you," Tucker said, pointing a finger at his friend. "You would keep avoiding him."

"I would not!"

"You totally would!" Tucker stopped walking and stared Sam in the face. "Ever since your parents started disapproving of your interests, you refuse to open up to anybody that's not me or Danny because you don't know if they'll accept you for your tastes."

"People like my parents are close-minded! Anybody who doesn't fit society's standards of normal, they ignore. You know that."

"But do you know Adrien is like that too?" Sam opened her mouth to respond. "No, you don't. Because you haven't tried talking to him one-on-one since the school year started."

Sam found she couldn't deny that.

"Look, I can't claim to know Adrien like you can. But, I think Adrien will be cool with who you are now. The guy is loaded and popular, and he still chose Nino to hang out with over the A-listers. We run in similar circles to Nino, so I think that counts for something."

"I guess," Sam admitted, rubbing her arm.

"Just try and talk to him today. Now come on, we're running late." Tucker led the way to the Nasty Burger.

The pair arrived at their destination and had just gotten in the door when they saw Marinette stand up and wave.

"Sam, Tucker, over here!" Marinette called.

"Go on." Tucker nudged his friend towards the table. "I'll order for us."

Trusting Tucker with ordering something vegetarian friendly, Sam joined the others at a round table in the corner. "Sorry we're late. We got caught up talking about something."

"Well, you're just in time. Adrien's going to get his first bite of fast food," Nino said, spinning around to face his friend, who had one of Nino's spare hats and a pair of sunglasses hiding his face from random customers and staff noticing him. "Go for it, dude."

Alya had her phone up and ready to record.

Adrien picked up his burger that had been placed in front of him, and raised it to his mouth. Everyone watching saw his face make contact with the food and heard a loud crunch. They stared as he pulled the burger away from his face and started to chew.

Eventually, he swallowed and smiled. "I know Father would kill me if he saw me eating this, but the taste would be worth it."

Nino clapped him on the back proudly as Marinette, Alya, and Sam all praised him for trying. "My bro is becoming more of a regular teenager by the day!"

At that point, Tucker arrived with food for Sam and himself. "What's going on?"

"Adrien just tried his first bite of a Nasty Burger special!" Marinette exclaimed to him, grinning excitedly.

"And I missed it? Please tell me someone recorded that." Tucker sat down in the last available spot.

Alya winked at him. "Got you covered." She tapped the footage she had taken and turned it around to show him.

The rest of the afternoon was spent introducing Adrien to various menu items and discussing their favorites. Like him, Alya was a newbie to Nasty Burger's food since they didn't have one back in her old city. She had more experience than him, though, since she had already eaten from there a few times after the move.

After finishing up there, the group started to head home. Tucker made it a point to get Nino into a discussion about apps while Marinette and Alya shared whatever news they had heard in the past day or so, leaving Adrien and Sam to walk together.

"So…" Adrien said awkwardly.

"So…" Sam parroted, looking down at her feet.

"I've noticed it for a few months now, but you're a vegetarian, huh?" Adrien asked.

"Yep, have been since I turned ten," she answered, smiling hesitantly. "Though, I prefer the term 'ultra-recyclo vegetarian'."

He nodded at her. "That's cool. I know a few people from work that are strictly vegetarian."

"Cool," she replied. A moment of silence passed between them before she spoke up again. "How are you liking public school?"

"It's amazing." He beamed a grin she very clearly remembered from their childhood together. Even after their forced separation, he still had it. "I enjoy learning enough, but having so many other people learning with me elevates it to another level, you know?"

"Yeah, school is much more tolerable when you know you're not suffering alone," Sam said. "Be glad you joined us in public school. A private school would have suffocated you." Her smile became a bit more genuine. "Did you know that I'm preemptively banned from every private school within fifty miles?" [7]

Adrien's eyebrows shot up as he stopped walking. "Really?" He asked the question just loudly enough that the rest of the group stopped and turned to see what was going on.

Sam crossed her arms smugly. "My parents tried to put me in a private school when sixth grade started. Let's just say I lasted a month before I got them to put me back in public school with Danny and Tucker."

"How does that connect with you being banned?"

Marinette, Tucker, and Nino all seemed like they knew what she was referring to. Being the other newbie in the group, Alya whispered to Marinette, "What are they talking about?"

Before Sam or Marinette could elaborate further, they heard an evil cackle down the street. Pedestrians came running around the block as an akumatized villain in a banana-themed dress blasted them with a banana-like gun. Bizarrely, the people hit by the banana turned into bananas themselves.

"Mock me for my role in the school play, will they?" The villain scoffed. "Soon, the whole city will learn to respect me, Queen Banana! Oh wait, they won't be able to because they all will be bananas when I'm done with them!" She let out a haughty cackle.

Her villainous monologue was cut short by the sound of grunting. She turned around, and let out a terrified scream and sprinted away as a trio of monkey ghosts chased after her. [8]

"We gotta go!" Marinette, Adrien, Sam, and Tucker all shouted at the same time. They along with Nino and Alya looked at each other in confusion.

"Uh," Adrien was the first to recover and come up with an excuse, "yeah! We should go! Home, that is. If my father finds out I snuck out while there's an akuma and a ghost running loose, I'm in really big trouble. See you guys tomorrow!" The blonde boy ran off.

Once her crush was gone, Marinette snapped out of it next. "I should hurry home and make sure my parents haven't been turned into bananas. Talk to you guys later!"

"And we need to double check we have all of Danny's missing homework for when he gets back. See you at homeroom!" Sam grabbed Tucker by the backpack and hauled him away from the scene.

That left Alya and Nino, who stared at each other for a moment.

Nino slowly lowered his brow into a knowing gaze. "You're going after the ghost and the akuma to get footage, aren't you?"

"Hehe, guilty." Alya was already pulling out her phone. "Want to come? It'd be awesome if someone else was there to record stuff that I might miss with two attacks going on."

He thought about it for a minute. "It might be a good idea for someone to make sure you don't get turned into a banana or something."

In response, Alya grabbed his wrist with the hand that wasn't holding her phone and started pulling him along. "Then come on!"

Later that night in Wisconsin, it was time for the reunion. Danny and Jazz were told to dress up nicely for the occasion, which is exactly what Danny did. He found it was fortunate that he kept the suit he wore to the school dance; aside from that, he had a small selection of formal clothes that hadn't become casualties to his parents' experiments.

Once he was ready, he went looking for his sister. She wasn't in her guest room, so he figured she was poking around like she usually did. He eventually found her in a screening room, and it looked like she wasn't the only one there judging by the heads he could see over seats in the rows below her.

"Jazz, aren't you coming to the reunion?" Danny asked upon seeing her not dressed up.

Jazz gave him a look as she turned away from the screen. "What? And watch a bunch of fossils pogo to new wave music? Pass." She flapped her hand in a wave of denial before pointing at the clip she and the others were watching. "Did you know the Packers won the first Super Bowl?"

"Whatever." Danny rolled his eyes, mentally noting this was the second party of the year she had ditched. His eyes drifted a few seats over from his sister, and he found himself stumped at who was sitting there. "Wes Weston? What are you doing here?"

Wes looked very similar to his father, who Danny had saved from Desiree during the Tucker Ghouley incident. Same red hair, same green eyes; he also styled his hair nearly the same way Danny did. While Wes and Danny ran in different social circles, Danny knew enough about him. Wes was on the basketball team, which netted him the status of B-lister like the other athletes that weren't on the football team. He had a dad and two brothers, one of which was already in college and was named Easton.

He was pretty sure Wes's parents thought naming their son Easton Weston was clever. In his humble opinion, it wasn't.

Wes's other brother, Kyle, was in Jazz's year at school and happened to be sitting next to him. Even though Danny was fairly sure he had never met Easton, he thought he had seen Kyle around before. While Wes was on the basketball team and persistent in getting what he wanted, Kyle was a slacker who was often content with what he received and wasn't nearly as picky as his younger brother. [9]

"S'up?" Kyle raised a hand in greeting.

Wes slouched in his seat, grumbling. "Our dad went to college with Masters, then ended up working for the guy. Dad dragged us along because he didn't trust us home alone for the weekend."

Kyle shrugged at his brother. "We did nearly burn the house down last time."

Wes glared at his brother with contempt. "That was you, and you almost managed it by trying to make toaster waffles."

"Right…" Danny began to leave before he witnessed a sibling fight. "Uh, see you at school."

Danny met up with his parents, and told them about Jazz's absence in a way that wouldn't make it seem like she ditched. The three of them made their way to the room where the reunion was being held. Given that they were in a castle, it shouldn't have surprised Danny that the party was in a ballroom.

Almost immediately, Jack spotted someone he and Maddie knew. He called out, "Hey, Harry!" Danny saw a woman by the snack table nearly choke on her food before walking over to the family.

"Jack, Maddie, how nice," 'Harry' greeted, annoyance clear in her tone at Jack's name for her.

"Danny, meet Harriet Chin," Jack introduced, "she's a big-shot journalist for the Milwaukee Journal now, but back in our college days, she was just Harry. Harry Chin. Get it?" He chuckled, amused by his own joke.

Maddie, for her part, looked contrite at her husband's terrible humor. "I'm really sorry, Harriet."

"Sweetie, you married him. You should be," Harriet retorted sharply, still glaring at Jack.

Before the awkward conversation could go any further, the DJ hired for the night started to play new wave music.

Jack seemed to recognize the song playing. "Hey, my song! Come on, let's pogo!" Taking his wife's hand, he pulled her over to the dance floor where other former classmates had started gathering to move to the music.

After nearly two seconds of observation, Danny had seen enough. "Okay, I'm officially mortified."

"What took so long?" Harriet quipped before going off to talk with someone else.

The evening dragged out after that. As more guests arrived, it was quickly becoming apparent that Danny was the only child brought by their parents to actually attend the party. He occupied his time by snacking and scrolling through the Ladyblog, the Noir News, and the Phantom Press for updates. It was through those updates that he found out the vulture ghosts had visited his school, someone got akumatized at the amusement park, and just today an akuma attack and a ghost attack mixed together because of some monkey ghosts chased after a banana themed villain. Ladybug and Chat Noir's appearances at the fights got some coverage while there was speculation about Phantom's absence.

He tried texting Sam and Tucker, but neither seemed to be in a chatty mood that night, which he found unusual for them.

At some point, he noticed his host walking towards his table and put his phone away to not seem rude.

Vlad came up to Danny, and rested his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Well, son, you're looking much better. I was wondering if you could do me a huge favor."

"Oh sure, Mr. Masters, but call me Danny. Son is what my dad calls me." Any excuse to get away from the lame party was appreciated.

"Oh yes, yes, of course. Now, could you go to my lab, second door on the right upstairs? There's a present in there for your father that I'd like you to bring down."

"Okay!" Danny grabbed the remains of his snack and dumped them in the trash before following Vlad's instructions.

Once he was gone, Vlad glared at Jack and Maddie dancing. As he focused more on Maddie, his glare softened. "Maddie, that accident cost me my youthful chance at you, but that's all about to change…"

Upstairs, Danny found the lab and entered it. However, he found no indication of a present.

"Present? I don't see a present." As he looked around, he noticed a framed photo sitting on a table. Upon closer inspection, he saw it was a photo of Vlad and Maddie as college students. Something looked off about the photo, and it was when he recognized the tear on the right side that it all clicked.

He reached into his suit, and pulled out the photo of Jack the vultures had. When he put the two pictures next to each other, they fit together perfectly. Dropping both pictures, he backed away in shock. "Oh no, no way."

If the vultures had the picture of his dad, and the other half of his mom and Vlad was here, that meant…

His Ghost Sense went off as the realization fully hit him. With no time to let the twist sink in his thoughts, he transformed into Phantom, prepared to fight. Before he could look around for the threat, ghostly green tentacles snared around him and lifted him off the floor. Phantom was raised up to eye level with a pair of octopus ghosts, and he immediately began fighting back.

"Let go!" He kicked at one of them to make it release him. Then he grabbed the other one by the same tentacle that had snatched him, and slammed it down onto the floor. With them effectively knocked out, Phantom had the chance to get a look at them. "These ghosts… they're the same ones that attacked me in the lab after the akumas started showing up."

First the vultures, then the pictures, now the octopuses… what was going on?

"And they're not alone, pup." A deep, familiar voice said behind him.

Phantom had barely turned around to look when a ghostly green net ensnared him with enough force to knock him against the wall. As the net forcibly crunched him into a ball, an electric shock pulsed through the net, causing the teen to scream in pain. Once the shock passed, he saw the net belonged to none other than the same ghost had been hunting him not that long ago.

"Skulker!" Phantom recognized. With renewed intention to fight, Phantom broke out of the net and flung at the hunter with a flying kick. Unlike the ghost from last night, he managed to land the hit and send Skulker crashing into some pump tanks. Landing on the floor with his fists ready, Phantom demanded, "How'd you fix your exoskeleton? What are you doing here?"

Skulker stood, pulling a black cube out of a pouch on his belt. He grinned wickedly. "All excellent questions." He rolled the cube over to Phantom, and the cube expanded into a bigger cube trap before Phantom realized what it was doing.

Phantom struggled to bust out, but found he could not. "Hey, I can't phase out of this. It's disrupting my powers!"

"And that's not all it does," Skulker said cryptically, raising a gauntlet to press a button on it.

Just like the net he had been trapped in moments ago, the cube prison shocked Phantom to the point he screamed out in pain. The shock zapped him of his energy, forcing him to transform back into his human self. Before his head could droop forward in exhaustion, Skulker came over and held it upright while summoning a blade from his other gauntlet and holding it at Danny's neck.

"Uh, the glowing blade is new," Danny said meekly, knowing how close to death he was.

Skulker brightened at the comment. "You like it? I've had some upgrades." His smile went sinister again as he inched the blade closer to Danny. "Now…"

"Enough!" Vlad's voice cut in. Danny and Skulker looked over as Vlad entered the lab, frowning with disapproval. "I didn't hire you to kill the boy, Skulker. Your work is done."

Danny and Skulker glanced at each other before the hunting ghost reluctantly retracted his blade. "Yes, well, I…" His gauntlet pinged, and he raised the gauntlet he had just been using so he could read the phone, which was apparently still embedded in it. "…have to go to the library, and check out book on purple-back gorilla. Again." Sulking at the memo, he had little choice as his armor activated his jetpack and he phased through the lab's ceiling to exit.

"Skulker? The ectopuses? The vultures? I don't understand," Danny said, staring at Vlad now.

Vlad gave him a disbelieving frown. "Of course not. You're what, fourteen?" He marched over to the imprisoned teen. "Too young to drive, and not in college yet? I sent those ghosts, and others, to test your father's skills. Imagine my surprise when I find you, the second ghost hybrid his foolishness created." His frown became a smirk at the last part, like he was considering the usefulness of Danny's other half.

Danny cocked a brow in confusion. "Second?"

In answer, Vlad transformed into the ghost that had thoroughly walloped him the previous night. Contrary to Danny's own white rings when he transformed, Vlad's were black.

It only took Danny moments to recognize the ghost before his eyes narrowed. "You! I'm going ghost!" He struggled in the cube once more, but was still rendered immobile. "Going ghost! Why can't I go ghost?"

The ghostly Vlad regarded Danny's efforts with the amusement of an adult watching a child pretend they were playing doctor or pirate. "You have a battle cry? Hilarious. I, on the other hand, have this." Vlad walked over and patted the corner of the cube prison. "A spectral energy neutralizer, designed by Skulker, paid for by me. And as long as you're contained in that box, you're as human as your idiot father."

"Let me out of here!" Danny demanded, squirming again.

Vlad turned away from him. "Why? So you can go back to stumbling through your adolescence, desperately trying to get control of your powers? Powers, by the way, I've had for twenty years. I have experience, my child. And the money and power attained through using those powers for personal gain, you see." As he monologued, he showed off a variety of powers that Danny had yet to manifest himself, such as barriers and duplication. "I could train you, teach you everything I know. And all you would have to do is renounce your idiot father."

The trapped teen scoffed. "Dude, you are one seriously crazed-up fruit loop. That is never going to happen."

Unpleased with the answer, but not surprised, Vlad let one out of his own. "Yes, well, once your father is out of the way, we'll see how you feel." Leaving Danny in the lab, he phased out still in his ghost form.

Suddenly very worried for his parents, Danny continued to attempt breaking out.

Downstairs, Harriet found the willpower to talk to the Fentons again after their initial conversation. Rather than let Jack do the talking, the women started chatting about Harriet's reporting career. Holding a glass of punch, Jack was visibly uninterested by the topic. Not that far away from them, Walter Weston was sitting at a table, texting on his phone, feeling the same way as Jack but about the event as a whole.

"Then I was lucky enough to get an interview with the royal family of Achu, which got lots of positive reception for its content about the prince's charity work," Harriet rambled until she noticed Jack rest his chin on his punch glass, and shot him an annoyed frown. "Am I boring you, Jack?" [10]

"Frankly, yes," Jack said honestly.

Right as Harriet formed a reply, Vlad intangibly phased into the ballroom, and overshadowed Jack much like Danny had done.

Vlad, assuming control of Jack, spoke before Harriet could. "So, what do you say we liven up this shindig?" He had Jack grab Harriet, and throw her into the punch bowl, completely knocking over the snack table and attracting every guest's attention.

Walter looked up from his phone, and sighed, "Here we go…" Getting up from his seat, he started walking to the nearest exit.

Maddie, meanwhile, looked at her husband in alarm. "Jack, what's the matter with you?!"

Creepily, Vlad turned Jack towards her. "Why Maddie, didn't you always know I'd turn on you? That when you chose me, you chose wrong?" He reached Jack's arms out menacingly to do something, but stopped for some reason.

That reason turned out to be Jack fighting back from inside. "Get out. Get out of me."

Having recovered from the throw, Harriet stomped over furiously. "I don't know what's come over you, but when I write about this, I swear-." The reporter's tirade died on her throat when Jack grabbed his wife.

"Ghost… overpowering me," Jack warned, fighting for control. "Maddie, run!" Letting her go, he began to float in the center of the room, as if he were possessed. The sight of a ghost hunter floating in the middle of the room was enough to freak out the rest of the guests, who began to flee in a less controlled panic than Walter had.

"He's a ghost?" Harriet asked, staring at Jack before beaming. "This is the story of the century!"

Maddie snagged her wrist, pulling her out of the ballroom. "He's not a ghost; he's being possessed by a ghost! Come on! We need to get to the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle. I mean, the RV."

In the lab, Danny was beginning to figure out he couldn't get out of the cube by himself, but he couldn't exactly dial for help in his current position. Thankfully, he didn't need to try dialing without looking.

Another ghost entered the lab, one that Danny had not yet met. He was a short and stout man, wearing regal robes and a crown with cheese on it. The teen didn't recognize him immediately, but he knew who this was after remembering seeing his portrait yesterday when his family arrived at Vlad's castle.

"Well, gosh and golly, it looks like you could use a speck of help there. Don'tcha know?" The ghost greeted.

"Hey, you're the Dairy King," Danny said, surprised before flashing back to all the other ghosts he had met so far and how they gave him trouble in their own ways. "Oh, great. What are you going to do? Suffocate me with limburger? Strangle me with swiss?"

The Dairy King chuckled before using his scepter to press a button on the cube.

"Let me go?" Danny said, stunned at the nice gesture. Gazing down at the cube prison, now in its previous inactive form, he quickly kicked it away before it activated again. "Well, thank you! But why?"

The Dairy King smiled warmly. "Well, not all ghosts are evil, right? Some of us just want to be left alone there, don'tcha know?"

Having not previously considered the thought, Danny returned the smile appreciatively. "Hey, will you help me fight Vlad?"

The regal ghost shook his head. "I'm the Dairy King, kiddo. Kings don't fight. They send other people to fight for them. That's royalty 101, don't'cha know?" He began to leave. "Try the gouda! It's dairy fresh."

Left alone, Danny felt good, now having proof that he wasn't the only good ghost in the world.

Then his peaceful moment was broken by his mother's cry of "Jack!"

Remembering what he was trying to escape the cube for, Danny transformed into Phantom and flew out of the lab. "Dad!"

Maddie and Harriet managed to get outside to where the GAV was parked, and Maddie unlocked it so the two women could get inside. As they climbed in, Harriet pulled out a recorder, asking Maddie, "So, Maddie, when did you first realize your husband was a monster bent on destroying his smarter, more successful, better-dressed peers?"

"What are you talking about? That jumpsuit is incredibly stylish," Maddie replied, getting behind the wheel and starting up the GAV. Putting it into drive, she drove it through the front door and into the castle, knowing Vlad was rich enough he could afford to fix it later.

The GAV cruised down the halls, eventually passing the screening room.

Hearing all the noise, Jazz stuck her head out the door for a moment, along with all three of the Weston family. Jazz, Wes, and Kyle were all concerned while Walter had a more resigned expression on his face.

Jazz sighed, gaining the same look as Walter. "I'm guessing we won't be invited back."

Wes shot her an annoyed glare. "Lucky you." Above him, Walter scowled and smacked the back of his youngest son's head. "Ow!"

Some of the guests still had yet to evacuate the ballroom, so Vlad took the opportunity to make Jack traumatize them into hating him by throwing tables and chairs at them, scaring them, and flying around. "If you live to tell the tale, remember that big, fat Jack Fenton did this to you!" Vlad taunted, making Jack hit a man.

"Guess again, cheesehead!" Phantom called out.

In the moment Vlad froze, wondering how Danny got out of his trap, the teen used that hesitation to dive into Jack, and shove Vlad out of his father. Phantom forced Vlad to phase through the wall, leaving Jack to fall onto the floor and recover himself.

Rising to his feet, Jack clenched his fists. "Nobody uses Jack Fenton as a human meat puppet!" He ran off to go find his family and the GAV.

Phantom and Vlad's fight landed them in the same library they had confronted each other the night before. Finally turning solid again, Phantom attempted to throw a punch at the older man, but he easily dodged and kicked the boy in the chest.

"Daniel, stop and think about the things I could show you," Vlad attempted to reason with him, floating in front of the teen without attacking him. "The doors I could open for you. You, Danny Phantom, and I, Vlad Plasmius. Together, we could rule."

"Forget it, pal," Phantom shot back, "your money can't buy my mom, it can't buy the Packers, and it can't buy me." He fired an ecto blast at Plasmius, only for the man to absorb it in one hand and fire it back with the other.

Seeing his own attack being bounced back at him, Phantom couldn't think of anything else besides not getting hit. Covering his face on instinct with his arms, he didn't notice a green barrier form around him, acting on that defensive impulse, until he heard the blast hit the shield.

Pulling his arms away from his face, he stared at the shield in disbelief. "Whoa, new power…" Returning his focus to the matter at hand, he jabbed an index finger in Plasmius's direction, he declared, "I know who you are. I'll tell my father. I'll tell everyone."

"And so will I," Plasmius threatened, "Honestly, if you expose me, you expose yourself."

With his warning turned against himself, Phantom tried to come up with another strategy for defeating this ghost so much stronger than himself.

The honking of a horn attracted both fighters' attention as the GAV crashed through a wall into the library. Phantom's barrier allowed him enough seconds to dive out of the vehicle's path, and Plasmius, being further away, had ample time to fly out of the way.

Plasmius had seen through the windshield that Jack was now at the wheel, with Harriet in the passenger seat and Maddie sandwiched between them. Figuring he couldn't get away with overshadowing Jack again in the same night, he went for his true objective. The true goal of all these years since his accident.

Perching on the roof of the GAV, he phased his arms through. "Mind if I cut in?" He quipped, turning Maddie intangible and pulling her out of the vehicle.

"Let go of me!" Maddie demanded, fighting against her captor and failing since he had both of her arms in an iron grip.

"Never again, woman," Plasmius grinned sickeningly.

Phantom, who had gotten buried under some rubble from the GAV's entrance, emerged to see his enemy with his mother captive and his father immediately jump out of the vehicle to give chase.

"Maddie!" Jack cried out as Plasmius carried Maddie away.

The Ghost Assault Vehicle! Mom and Dad's gadgets have actually been handy in dealing with the ghosts. I wonder if they're handy in dealing with evil half ghosts too.

Fueled by the fury of his parents' former college friend abducting his mother, Phantom flew intangibly into the GAV, landing in the driver's seat and ignoring Harriet still in the passenger's. He started attempting to figure out how to control the machine, and quickly realized what would give him the most trouble.

"Great, it's a stick…" He murmured under his breath so Harriet wouldn't hear him.

Harriet, rather than be spooked by the sight of a stick shift moving on its own, was elated. "And I wasn't going to come to this thing. Ha!"

At last, Phantom got the vehicle to move and drove it towards where Plasmius was taunting Jack with Maddie from a dozen feet above. Maddie was the first to notice the approaching machine.

"Jack, look out! The RV!" Maddie warned her husband.

For once not arguing the semantics of calling the Ghost Assault Vehicle an RV, Jack heeded her alert and jumped out of the way.

"Sorry, Dad, but I've got one shot at this," Phantom apologized quietly as he parked the car below Vlad and his mom. He pressed a switch, turning on the vehicle's weapons, then sat back as the steering wheel converted into an aiming console with joysticks.

He tried an energy beam similar to his and Plasmius's ecto blasts, but the latter easily backhanded the beam away with one hand while holding Maddie in the other.

He tried a shot of lightning similar to the electricity Skulker used in his nets. Plasmius casually turned himself and Maddie intangible.

Phantom wasn't sure what else to try… except the goo he remembered accidentally activating on the trip. It was a long shot, but it was better than nothing.

He fired.

The goo evidently wasn't something Plasmius had been expecting because he yelled out in shock as he was drenched in the stuff and it got him to drop Maddie.

Reacting quickly, Phantom launched out of the GAV to overshadow Jack and have him catch his wife.

"Jack, you did it!" Maddie exclaimed, safely in her husband's arms. She looked at him in confusion. "But how did you get the RV to shoot the ghost without you controlling it?"

"Um, autopilot?" Phantom as Jack answered. Quickly changing the subject, he set her on her feet. "You make sure Harry's okay while I finish this." The pair split up with Maddie running towards the GAV while Phantom as Jack ran towards Plasmius, who was pinned to the floor with ghost goo. Using Jack's strength, Phantom hauled him up by the collar. "How's it going, V-man?"

"Oh, you overshadowed Jack. Ooh, I'm so scared," Plasmius said with a roll of his eyes. "What's next? A card trick?"

Phantom as Jack pulled Plasmius close. "Listen. I swear I'll walk out of my dad right now and expose us both, unless you agree to a truce."

"You're bluffing."

"No, I'm not. My parents will accept me, no matter what. But if I expose you… well, what would my mom think of you?" Phantom threatened.

Vlad flinched, and the teen ghost knew he struck a nerve.

"You'll be miserable and alone for the rest of your life, unless you call a truce," Phantom continued.

To his surprise, Plasmius smiled at the threat. "Using your opponent's weaknesses against him. I am teaching you something after all. Very well. Truce. Eventually, you will join me by choice. You and your mother. But for now…" He ripped himself out of Phantom as Jack's grip, and floated high above him, clearing his throat before taking a dramatic pose. "Curse you, Jack Fenton! Your world-renowned expertise of all things ghost has defeated me!" He declared loudly to the audience of Maddie and Harriet. At the end of his declaration, he sent a wicked grin down at the teen possessing Jack. "Until next time, son."

Bellowing a melodramatic cry of defeat, Plasmius flew away intangibly. After a minute of nothing else happening, Phantom felt it was safe to stop overshadowing his father. He zipped off to change back while Jack recovered his wits.

Jack was a little confused when Harriet rushed up to him with a recorder in hand. "World-renowned expertise? Outstanding!"

Maddie hugged her husband tight proudly. "Jack, I have never seen you like this! You beat that ghost all the way to Kenosha!"

"I did?" Jack had no memory of what happened, but went along with the praise. "Aw heck, I was just doing my job."

"And mine!" Harriet grinned at the couple as they took in her enthusiasm. "Jack, for all the years I thought you were a crackpot, I sort of apologize." The reporter looked at her recorder as Danny walked into the library in his human form. "Ghosts! I can't believe those stories that have been coming out of Amity Park about ghosts are true. To find out one showed up here, this story will make my career!"

"Heh, you should come to Amity Park," Danny remarked knowingly, alerting the adults to his presence. "You'd get a bunch more ghost stories. Even ones about evil butterflies that turn people into supervillains."

Harriet glanced at him in surprise. "The supervillains are real too?"

The next morning, the Fentons packed up to head home. They had to get an early start if they wanted to get Jazz and Danny back in time for school on Tuesday.

"It looks like Amity Park's ghost problem is about to get a lot more publicity with Harriet running that story," Danny said as he helped Jazz put some luggage in the GAV. [11]

Jazz groaned. "We can't even take a simple family road trip without Mom and Dad's ghost obsession involved. Just once it would be nice to not hear about it."

While Maddie checked their fuel and other parts of the vehicle, Jack came out of the front door with his shoulders slouched.

"I can't believe Vlad is still so mad at me that he didn't even say goodbye," Jack lamented to Danny. "And we were all such great chums in college."

Danny patted him on the shoulder. "Oh, whatever. Who cares what you were when you were younger? It's who you grew into that makes you who you are."

"You think?" Jack asked his son.

The teen boy shrugged. "Hey, if you can cause that much trouble in college, and still turn out to be this cool, ghost butt-kicking adult, then maybe there's hope for me yet."

Smiling, Jack slung an arm around him. "Thanks, son. But your curfew is still ten."

"Oh, man!" Danny complained as he and his family got into the GAV, and started the long drive back to Amity Park.

In the ballroom of Vlad's castle, he watched a group of ghosts clean up the mess from last night. As he supervised, Walter Weston entered with his phone in one hand and his other hand tucked in a pants pocket.

"So, it seems your plan was a bust," Walter noted blandly.

"Not entirely," Vlad said, turning toward his college classmate and current executive at Dalv Co. "I learned some fascinating information that I can use moving forward."

"Anything you need me to do?" Walter looked up from his phone.

"Just business as usual." Vlad spun back around to continue supervising the cleanup. "Also try to keep an eye on Jack's boy if you can. Without him figuring out you know, of course."

Walter shrugged. "I assumed that was a given." He finished tapping at his phone and pocketed it, heading for the door. "I better get going. Kyle and Wes have school, and Wes refuses to miss more basketball practice."

"I'll contact you soon," Vlad bid him farewell without looking back. [12]

That same morning in Amity Park, children got up and ready to attend school. Being Monday, it was a struggle for most.

Not for Adrien. He woke up with the same enthusiasm he did every school day, eager to see his classmates and friends. Today in particular, he was getting there earlier than normal. Once the Gorilla pulled up to the curb, he got out and thanked his bodyguard for the ride. The Gorilla drove away as Adrien passed through the entrance.

He soon arrived at his homeroom, and found it was empty except for one other person.

"Sam?" Adrien spoke up, startling Sam in her back corner seat.

"Adrien! Hey," Sam greeted awkwardly, pushing her notebook aside.

"What are you doing here so early? You, Danny, and Tucker are usually some of the last people to arrive." Adrien walked back and took a seat in Ivan's normal spot, setting his bag down by his feet.

Sam nodded. "We are, but Tucker said we needed to meet up early this morning." She reached into her spider-shaped backpack by her feet, and checked her phone, frowning at the time. "Now, he's running late."

Adrien blinked. "Huh. That's weird. Tucker told me to come in early too. Said we needed to talk about something."

Once the model said her best friend's name, Sam's face fell into a scowl. "Wait, Tucker texted you too?!"

"Yeah, why? Is something wrong?"

Immediately after he asked the question, the two students heard the door to the classroom slam shut and both jumped up from their chairs. Sam got to the door first, and tried the handle.

It wouldn't budge.

She looked out the door window, and glared at the person on the other side. "Tucker, open the door!"

"Not until you and Adrien talk and clear things up," Tucker replied.

Adrien peered over Sam's shoulder at the tech geek in confusion. "Talk and clear things up about what?"

"There's nothing to clear up," Sam hissed through clenched teeth, fiddling with the door handle even harder. "Tucker, you are so dead when we get this door open!"

"Adrien, you and Sam knew each other when you were little, right?" Tucker asked the blonde-haired boy.

"Yeah! It was us and Chloe because our parents are friends," Adrien said.

"And it's true that your parents stopped letting you play with each other, right?"

Sam shot Adrien a look. "You do not have to answer his questions."

Adrien shrugged apologetically to her before returning his attention to Tucker. "Yeah, that's right."

"And since then, you haven't spoken?" Tucker continued to prod.

At that point, Marinette walked up to the homeroom with Nino and Alya. She stared at Tucker oddly. "Tucker, why are you holding the door to the classroom shut?"

"That is also true," Adrien answered Tucker's third question, not sure where he was going with them. "I wanted to, but my parents said I couldn't."

"Just organizing a proper reunion," Tucker told Marinette before addressing the main problem again. "Now that you two are in the same class again, have you noticed that Sam hasn't talked much to you?"

Marinette, Alya, and Nino tried to look past Tucker at the sound of Adrien's voice. "Is that my bro, Adrien?" Nino checked.

"With Sam?" Alya added curiously.

Adrien thought about the question. "Now that you mention it, she hasn't said much to me outside of my birthday party."

"Want to know why that is?" Tucker prodded.

"Tucker!" Sam warned.

"Maybe we should let them out," Marinette suggested.

At that point, more of the class showed up by the door. "Why is everyone standing outside? Is the door still locked?" Rose wondered innocently.

Adrien glanced between Sam and Tucker, clearly out of the loop. "I thought it was just because she hung out with you and Danny a lot. Is there more?"

Tucker gave his best friend a determined look. "You want to tell him, or should I?" Sam scowled back, just as resolute. Tucker's gaze softened. "I just want you to get a friend you lost back, Sam. That's it."

At Tucker's admission, Sam's scowl fell away.

It really has been a long time, and it wasn't by choice. Do I really want to go the rest of high school dodging Adrien just because I'm scared his parents filled his head with the same stupid junk mine tried to do about my lifestyle choices?

Sam released her grip on the door handle. She turned around to look at Adrien face to face.

"He's right. There's more," Sam admitted. Taking a deep breath, she elaborated. "The truth is while, yes, I hang out with Danny and Tucker all the time now, I've actually been ducking you on purpose."

"Why? Did I do something wrong?" Adrien took a step back, hurt.

"It's not something you did, it's something our parents did," Sam clarified. "Remember how they made us stop playing together? It was because I started liking who I am now. Spiders, the dark colors, morbid horror stuff… your parents thought I was a bad influence on you."

Adrien blinked. "Huh, I think I remember now…" His mind went back to those initial days after their last playdate, asking his parents when he could play with her again and getting refusal after refusal. Eventually, he stopped asking.

Sam rubbed one arm with her hand. "After we fell out of contact, I guess I was afraid that they drilled it into your head that I'm a bad person for my interests, and that you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore."

By this point, the whole class except Danny and Ms. Bustier was outside the door. Chloe and Sabrina saw the crowd as they walked up.

"What are all you losers doing standing in front of the door? Move!" Chloe demanded with a sweep of her recently manicured hand.

To her shock, Kim shushed her. "Adrien and Sam are hashing something out."

Chloe gasped in horror. "Adrikins and Manson?! Out of my way! Move it!" She started pushing herself through the cluster until she was nearly behind Tucker. Marinette, Nino, and Alya all held her back from interfering.

"Sam, I never wanted to stop being your friend," Adrien finally said softly.

Sam gazed at him, stunned.

Adrien saw how she had frozen, and continued on. "I liked how you decided black and purple were your favorite colors; I liked how you decided spiders were your favorite animal when most little girls would pick horses or cats. Heck, I still like the choices you made. I like you who are now. You arranged a whole week with a vegetarian menu, and when there was backlash against it, you put together a protest and stood up for what you believe in. That's awesome."

Most of the class smiled as they heard the kind things Adrien said about Sam. Chloe, on the other hand, looked like her favorite store had just discontinued her favorite makeup brand.

"I want to catch up from where we left off. On everything?" Adrien requested with a smile.

Sam kept staring until at last, she smiled. "I'd like that."

Behind her, Tucker flung the door open with a wide grin. "That's what I wanted to hear!"

Whirling around, Sam frowned at him. "You're still in trouble for trying to set me up all weekend. The amusement park, making me walk next to him…"

Adrien blinked in surprise. "Wait, he planned all that?"

"With a little extra help," Nino spoke up as the rest of the class entered to take their seats. He pulled sheepishly on his hat, ducking his head. "Guilty."

"Same," Alya said while holding her and Marinette's hands up, the latter stammering out a giggle with her cheeks bright red.

As everyone sat down, Adrien went back to pick up his bag from next to Ivan's chair where he left it. When he grabbed it, he saw Sam in her spot and pulled out his phone. "Can we trade numbers? I just realized I haven't gotten yours yet."

"Sure," Sam agreed, pulling out hers.

At that moment, the bell rang and Ms. Bustier walked in.

"Good morning, class. I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!" The teacher greeted her students.

That night after Sam and Tucker ran a patrol for ghosts, Sam crashed on her bed and pulled out her phone, beginning to type.

Sam - Thanks for still wanting to be my friend.

Adrien - Always. So, catch me up! You never finished explaining how you got banned.

Sam - Right, that. It's a really fun story. It all started with my parents trying to separate me from Danny and Tucker…

This is by far my longest chapter of this project so far, and for good reason. Firstly, we have the debut of our second main antagonist next to Hawk Moth - Vlad Masters, otherwise known as Plasmius in his ghost form. I like to think I did his character right because writing him made my skin crawl; the man is a creepy fruit loop. In fact, he is solely responsible for me feeling like I need to up the rating to T. Secondly, we have development in Adrien and Sam's history together. In the Origins chapters, I hinted that they knew each other, and with the chapter theme being reunions, I figured it was the right time to bring these two back together after spending their childhoods forced apart by their parents' opinions of what is defined as a bad influence.

Next, I'd like to address the title change of the full story. You read correctly. Two Kinds is now officially Two Kinds: One Kind of First Year. Like how the shows are split into seasons, I've decided to split this project into a grand total of five stories. Miraculous in canon was originally approved for five seasons, but has since gained an extra two seasons. Since I don't intend on including those extra two seasons, five stories for five seasons sounds reasonable. Instead of lumping everything into one massive project, I find it easier to break things up into smaller, manageable sections. Just wait until we get to stories two through five; I've got clever titles for those.

For Miraculous fans wondering about my thoughts on the season 4 finale, here's what I have to say. I enjoyed Risk, but I did not enjoy Strike Back. Risk had a cleverly written setup, and the akuma was one of my favorites of the season. I mean, it's a seemingly normal kid with a creepy, catchy song that causes people to take chances they otherwise normally wouldn't, and that makes for interesting drama, like how Adrien finally admitted he hates modeling and wants to tell off his father. Strike Back was an interesting sentimonster, and one of Shadow Moth's more thought-out ones; the way it was so different from other sentimonsters that it had to be defeated differently stood out to me. My issue lies exclusively with Adrien's cousin and his involvement in the whole mess. That kid is too OP, and needs to be nerfed HARD. He is the reason the episode and the season ended as it did, and it doesn't sit right with me. The kid has only shown up for three or four episodes in the whole series, and he caused all THAT? Like I said, too OP. The ending just didn't feel earned correctly in my opinion. For those that haven't seen the finale yet, I won't go into details for the sake of spoilers. As for the theory circulating the fandom, I refuse to accept it and will say outright that it won't be confirmed in this project; it's stupid and unnecessary. I have a direction planned for the project, and it doesn't include that. Okay, now I'm done.

[1] – Just a little scene explaining why it took so long for the vultures to get back to Vlad.

[2] – Yes, Vlad and Gabriel know each other. They aren't best friends, or anything. Vlad just commissioned Gabriel to design his suits, including his usual one.

[3] – Since the casts are mixed, the class has more favorite singers than just Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale. Like Jagged, pretty much the whole class enjoys Dumpty Humpty.

[4] – I don't feel comfortable referencing real life people, so I made up a fictional football player.

[5] – Remember the Dino Huggie guy from Miraculous Ladybug's Wishmaker episode? That's him. I also decided he is the father of August, who gets akumatized into Gigantitan, and gave him the name of Julius, which historically invented the month of July in the calendar, to stay on theme with August's name. His akuma name is Dino Scary, as a play on Dino Huggie.

[6] – There is likely more hangout spots around Amity Park than just Nasty Burger, hence Amity Juice. It is owned and ran by Nino's dad. Amity Juice will show up as a location in the future.

[7] – I saw a headcanon on tumblr that Sam is banned from all nearby private schools, which makes sense because of her passionate defense of individuality. I liked it so much that I decided to run with it. How she got banned will remain a mystery on purpose, or as TVTropes calls it a Noodle Incident, so readers can imagine what exactly she did.

[8] – I'll be blunt. This is a Take That to Chloe's canon akumatization as Queen Banana. There is zero chance of Chloe becoming that akuma here, so I put it in as a filler akuma for this chapter. The akumatized victim is Allegra, Chloe's prototype design, from Miraculous's beta concept, Quantic Kids. She attends Marmel High with the rest of the Quantic Kids.

[9] – Introducing the Weston brothers. Like previously mentioned in my notes for Twisted Wish, Wes and his family are background characters given backstories by the DP fandom. Wes was created first, then his father, and most recently his brothers Kyle and Easton. While Wes's personality is universally agreed upon, interpretations for the rest of his family vary from author to author.

[10] – Replaced Harriet's talk about covering war with foreshadowing Prince Ali's guest appearance.

[11] – Since ghosts and akumas have gotten coverage online in this universe, Harriet does not lose her reporting job as she did in canon.

[12] – While not universal, Walter's character is mostly seen in the DP fandom as an executive in Vlad's business who may or may not know his secret as a half ghost. He's like a parallel to Sam and Tucker for Danny, and Nathalie for Gabriel, rolled into one.

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