Danny and Jazz were in the Fenton kitchen. Danny was surrounded by books and working through a C.A.T. sample test. He tapped the paper with his pencil for a moment, then dropped his head into his hands despairingly. Jazz came up behind him, peering over his shoulder with both hands on the back of his chair. None of the bubbles had been filled in. She frowned quizzically. Smiling a little, Danny lowered his hand to mark his first answer as A.
Jazz Lifted a finger warningly. "Ah-"
Danny looked back and she covered her mouth. Frowning and sweating a little, Danny started to mark B
Jazz Raised a finger again, wincing. "Bu-"
Danny lifted his pencil, then dropped his hand.
"Hnnn-" Jazz said.
Danny flung his hands in the air, making Jazz flinch back. "OK! I get it! You're brilliant, I'm stupid, and I'll never be able to get as high a score as you." Danny Looked down at his empty sample answer sheet. "So far I'm not even qualified to scrape the grease off the Nasty Grill." Danny flicked his pencil away.
Jazz was downcast "All I want is for you to succeed, Danny. And doing well on this test can help." Danny propped his head on one hand and glared flatly as she took on a lecturing tone. "There are three things I've learned in life:"
"Study hard, do your best, and -" Danny and Jazz chorused.
"Duck!" Jazz cried.
Danny stared at her, thrown for a loop, then the Booomerang clocked him in the back of the head and landed on the table with a clang
"Ow!" Danny clutched his head, then picked up the boomerang. "A boomerang?"
Jack and Maddie came running in. Still rubbing his head, Danny flung the boomerang off through the living room doorway.
"I call it the Boooooomerang!" Jack gestured spookily. "It locks in on a ghost's unique ectosignature and seeks it out wherever it goes!"
The Booomerang was spinning through the living room, and it whacked Danny in the head again. Maddie caught it, frowning down at the device.
She and Jack looked critically at the boomerang. "Although why it's keyed into Danny is way beyond me."
"What's that, Dan? One of those stupid C.A.T. tests? I failed that and I didn't turn out to be a cat." Jack was pleased with himself.
Jack and Maddie trotted out of the room. Clenching his fits and growling, Danny glared at the sample sheet.
"Oh, I give-" Danny said.
"TIME OUT!" Clockwork's voice came.
Danny froze in the act of sweeping the test and a book off the table, Jazz froze as she began to sneeze, and a blue-white light flared in midair, turning into a clock hand that swept a blue disc of light into being.
Back in her room at her home, Kurai's pendant flashed and and she got up. "Master..."
It disappeared and adult Clockwork appeared in its place with Box Lunch, a small ghost girl in overalls, a beret, and pigtails. She appeared to be asleep or unconscious.
"Ah, good. Parents gone." Clockwork Switched to child form. "He's alone with his sister." He flew in a ring around the frozen Danny and Jazz and returned to Box Lunch. Setting his staff down to float in midair beside him, he pulled a medallion on a ribbon, shaped like a gear with the entwines letters CW in the middle, out of his robe, grinning. He dropped the medallion around Box Lunch's neck and she woke.
"Huh? What? Where am I?" Box Lunch said.
Clockwork Switched to elderly form "Amity Park, before you were born. That boy there" He pointed at Danny and she looked. "is part ghost. My employers believe him to be a threat to the world." Clockwork Changed to adult form. "Could you be a dear and dance a little dance for us?"
Box Lunch stared at him, then glared at Danny.
Clockwork punched the button on top of his staff. "Time in!" He vanished in a swirling ball of light.
The book and sample test landed on the floor. Jazz sneezed.
Danny's ghost sense went off. "Now get out of my room!"
"We're in the kitchen." Jazz Gasped, and saw Box Lunch behind a glaring Danny. "But if that's your attitude, I don't wanna see you - or anything you might do in here in the next several minutes!" Jazz Walked off.
"What's with her?" Danny Turned to look at Box Lunch and flinched. "Gah!" He transformed. "More importantly, what's with "you'"?"
"I am Box Lunch, daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady!" Box Lunch declared.
"Um, ew." Danny said.
"And now you will face the test of my box-and-lunch-based doom!" Box Lunch spread her hands, and the cabinets and fridge sprung open. Various boxes and cans of food sprung to her, forming a suit of armor. "And now—" Box Lunch's voice turned sweet. "and you probably know this is coming -BEWARE!"
Danny crouched then sprung up and tackled her right out of the armor, going intangible to throw them both out of FentonWorks.
At Nasty Burger, Lancer, briefcase still cuffed to his wrist, was sitting down at one of the outdoor tables with a burger, fries, and cup of coffee. He looked up as Kurai, examining her pendant, and Tucker approached his table.
"Shouldn't you slackers be studying for the C.A.T.s?" Lancer said.
"I've already studied." Tucker said.
"I'm sure we'll do fine." Kurai said.
"The test answers in this briefcase" Lancer picked it up and pointed at it. "may indicate otherwise. Enjoy your Nasty Burgers while you're still on this side of the counter. Hahahaha!"
Tucker and Kurai looked unimpressed. Lancer's burger began to glow, then smeared him in the face as it went flying off.
"Fast Food Nation!" Lancer said.
All over the restaurant, people gasped as their food levitated off their trays and went zooming out the door. Above the Nasty Burger, it swirled around Box Lunch as she faced off against Danny.
"Prepare to taste defeat!" Box Lunch adopted a sweet voice. "And perhaps a nice side salad with that?"
Danny dropped his face in one hand boredly. "Pass."
"Then feast on my empty calories of doooooom!" Box Lunch was offended.
She flung the mass of fast food at him, but he went intangible and it all flew through him.
"Oh, come on! If you actually are the child of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady - ew - then you know how this ends-" Danny said.
She brought both fists down on his head, knocking him out of the air. Falling intangibly through the roof of the Nasty Burger, he landed spread-eagled on a table. The people still inside scream and ran out. Tucker and Kurai looked on. Inside, Danny got up and faced off against Box Lunch, who had followed him in. Behind the counter there were two employees.
"Let's get out of here!" Employees said.
"No! You can't leave!" Irving Put his hands on his hips "As a duly deputized Nastronaut, you took an oath to protect the Nasty Sauce from overheating at all costs!" He pointed to two tall vats. A small dial on the side with a color warning scale had its needle in the green.
"At minimum wage? I don't think so!" Employee said.
The two employees ran out the back door.
Irving shouted out the door after them. "You can kiss Employee of the Month goodbye!"
Danny Flew up over the two vats. "That's right! He said at the assembly if this stuff gets too hot, kaboom!" He looked over at the condiment station, where there was a box of multicolored Nasty Sauce packets. He picked up one.
"Prepare for -" Box Lunch said, and then the Nasty Packet stuck in her beret and she cut off.
"Box Lunch!" Danny sang. Raising one finger, he sent a focused beam at the Nasty Packet. "BEWARE!"
The Nasty Sauce packet swelled then exploded, kicking Danny through the wall and blowing the top off the Nasty Burger. Outside, a crowd of people looked on, Lancer in front. He raised his briefcase to shield his face from the flying debris, and a sauce-splattered Danny fell through it, intangible, to land next to Kurai and Tucker. Irving stumbled through the front door. Lancer lowered his briefcase.
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance! Run!" Lancer shouted.
Screaming, everyone but the trio ran.
Tucker got up. "Danny, who was that ghost you were fighting?"
Danny helped Kurai to her feet. "That was Box Lunch, the daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady."
"Yikes!" Kurai and Tucker said.
"Actually, it's more of an ew. I don't know what's going on." Danny Looked down and notices the CW medallion on the ground. "But this medallion might give us a clue—" He suddenly noticed there was something stuck to his back, and peeled it away. It was the C.A.T. answer packet.
Kurai looked at her pendant which was going off again. She realized this was her master's test for Danny and switched off her pendant.
"Oh my gosh. The answers to the C.A.T.s!" Danny cried.
Kurai waited with bated breath. He would make the right choice, right?
Xxx
Danny was in Clockwork's viewscreen. Adult Clockwork and the two Observants were watching.
Clockwork was watching the screen intently and gesturing. "Now watch this. He'll make the right choice. And you'll see, you've got absolutely nothing to-"
Danny held up the packet triumphantly. "Hello, great future!"
"You're not actually thinking of peeking at the answers, are you?" Kurai said, trying to help him.
"Of course I am." Danny reverted to human form. "Aren't you?"
Kurai scowled.
Clockwork's wide-eyed stare dropped into a scowl.
"He's stolen the test answers." Observant said.
"He's clearly going to cheat!" Observant said.
"He has your time medallion." Observant said.
"He has your time medallion." Observant said.
"You said that twice." Clockwork switched to child form.
"Destroy him now, Clockwork." Observant said.
Switching back to adult form, Clockwork stuck his hand in the opening of another gear.
"I know what I'm doing." The gear opening and Clockwork's hand glowed, and the opening resolved to a view of a robotic ghost. "We put the answers to the test in his hands, and he made the wrong decision."
In the viewer, there was the smoking wreck of the Nasty Burger. The viewer zoomed closer, showing an exposed heating element by the Nasty Sauce tanks. The heat meter moved up to yellow. Clockwork punched a button on his staff, making the viewer go to static. It showed a still shot of Danny fighting the robot ghost, then fighting his evil older self. It then showed his family and friends and Mr. Lancer bound and gagged with ectoenergy in the Nasty Burger, which then exploded, and Danny shielding himself against the blast then screaming as he cradled a dead Kurai beside the explosion. Clockwork floated up in front of the viewer.
Clockwork was In old form. "His future is sealed."