Hi!

I actually made the title work again! Lots of slips, hehe. We get to talk with Sam's parents, too. I don't like them much, honestly. They're so 'Stepford.' It's kind of creepy. No fighting in this one, but its still got some important stuff. And next chapter, we might see what Dan's getting up to.

Thank you to all glorious reviewers! I'm not positive, but I think DP Fan is new, so welcome! For those of you who were curious, it is not touched on much, but basically, Danny's future has slightly better odds of turning out better if he fights Dan again. Clockwork's gambling a bit on him coming out on top. Which is why he allowed Dan to escape. But I can't say more.

Hope you like the chapter,

HiddenAuthor

Chapter 8 – Slips

The two ghost kids walked downstairs into the basement lab. Jack was busy tinkering on a large machine in the corner, its cover lying on the floor by its side. Danny stared at the large device.

"Wow, dad. I know you said you'd help, but that's a lot of work for just an hour." Jack started at the voice, then looked over to see the two kids standing in the lab.

"Oh, hey Danny. Err, it's not just an hour's work. Maddie and I finished this right before you told us your secret, and we were going to tear it down anyway." The hunter's smile faltered. "We made this to…uh…" Danny flushed.

"Torture, experiment on, and destroy me?" He asked quietly. Jack just nodded. Danny gulped, and took a few deep breaths. "Don't worry about it. You had good reasons." His father sighed, and went back to work.

"At least some good can come from this thing." He grunted. "We can use the body for the DNA manipulation we'll have to do. The rest will have to be custom made. I'm just tearing off all of the unnecessary parts." And with that, the older man pulled off yet another piece, and tossed it across the room, where it shattered on the wall. He smiled slightly.

"So did you two get that information?" Dani frowned, and shook her head.

"No. I wasn't meant to be stabilized, so there aren't any blueprints, or schematics, or anything." Jack stared, and the ghost girl looked down. "He was just going to use me, and let me die." The older man's eyes narrowed and he let out a low growl. "Don't you worry, Dani. I'll get you stabilized if it's the last thing I do." His expression grew serious. "But first, I need you two to take turns on the ghost scanner. I need to do a complete power reading and DNA map as humans, ghosts, and during the switch." Nodding, Danny headed over to the now-familiar table and lay down. Dani hung back, nervous. The other half ghost smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry, Dani. It doesn't hurt." Danielle smiled slightly as Jack went over to the controls and started the scanner. This time, a second arm also came over, ending in a sharp, gleaming needle. Danny's eyes bugged slightly at this new feature.

"Actually, Danny, I need DNA samples, and this will make that easier." The tiny needle retracted into a flat plate at the end of the arm, and the device rotated over to Danny's torso. "It will feel like a quick bee sting, the needle goes in and out very fast. We designed it to sample ghosts, and it had to be fast to get the sample before they instinctively phased out to avoid the needle. You'll barely feel it." Danny relaxed, then winced as the needle shot out and back in a split second. Once the terminal beeped, Jack ran the energy scan and went over to replace the needle. He placed the other, along with the sample it contained, in a small receptacle by the screen. "Alright, now change forms, slowly." Nodding, Danny started changing. The moment the ring passed beneath the needle, it shot out once again, grabbing a mid-morph sample. After the glow moved on and Jack once again changed it, it dug in a third time, and grabbed the final sample. After a quick scan of his ghost form, Jack motioned for Danny to get up, and started on Danielle. As he repeated the process, he read off the readings.

"Well, it seems that while Danny has more energy, you both have as much energy in both forms, but the human form inhibits the flow. That's why you can use your powers as humans, but they work better when you're ghosts. Danny's mid-morph DNA is…different." He said, scratching his head. "The regular DNA proteins have mutated." Danny started, pale. Noting his reaction, Jack smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, son. If it were anything dangerous, I'm sure you'd be dead by now." If anything, his son grew even paler and sat down hard. Oblivious, Jack blathered on.

"When you change forms, your DNA starts signaling to ectoplasm instead of the regular human stuff. It's shape and pattern changes before it does this, and that's what Dani is missing. Her DNA is trying to do the same thing, but it doesn't know how, and every time it changes, the ectoplasm damages the information while reading it. Thankfully, human genes have multiple copies, so nothing has happened yet, but if this keeps up, your body will eventually fall apart." Dani groaned, lying back on the testing table. Jack turned his reassuring smile to the girl.

"Don't worry, Dani. Maddie and I will rig up that machine to use copies from Danny's mid-morph sample to train your DNA to change like his does. Then you won't die!" The man's smile dropped, and he rubbed his chin. "But we'll have to tweak a few things first, because your DNA doesn't match perfectly." Dani raised an eyebrow. "You're a girl. Danny isn't. We'll have to find some way to…I don't know, crazy glue the important stuff you'd miss onto a spare strand, but leave out anything…boyish. In the mean time, try not to melt." Dani rolled her eyes.

"How long will this thing take?" Jack frowned, thinking.

"It'll be at least a day or so for Maddie and me to modify existing gene tech designs to work for this, another few days for our suppliers to ship us the parts. And in the meantime, we'll have to tweak Danny's DNA to work for a girl, and talk to the press about that tape Valerie sent in." His smile returned. "She might be angry, but she's a kick-butt hunter and a decent person, too! You kids can leave now, I'll start working on that tweaking part right away. Tomorrow Maddie can help me design the parts we'll need." Without a backwards glance, Jack turned his full attention to Danny's mid-morph readings and started taking long, complex notes. Shrugging, Danny and Danielle started back upstairs, and plugged in some video games. After toasting her older cousin for the fifth time, Dani left Danny groaning on the couch and went to the kitchen to grab some sodas. Her nose tickled. Wiggling it in annoyance, she opened the fridge and pulled out two cans. As she turned, the tickling intensified.

"Ahh-choo!" Dani sneezed violently, almost dropping the sodas. Blinking her slightly watery eyes, the ghost girl stopped, staring at the far wall of the kitchen. Ice coated the floor, wall, and ceiling along the entire length, sparkling in the low light.

"Uhh, Danny!" Her older cousin came running in, slipping on the icy floor and hitting his head.

"Ow! What's going on, did the freezer break?" Dani shook her head, pale. Danny paused, seeing her reaction. Then, equally pale, realization dawned. "Did…did you do this?" Dani nodded.

"I didn't mean to, I just sneezed, and…" Danny stared at the frozen kitchen.

"Huh. Freezing breath. I can't do that." The older boy turned to look at her. "Could you do it again?" Dani stared, and shook her head violently.

"Are you crazy? I'm lucky I didn't melt this time." The boy blushed.

"Oh yeah." He said sheepishly. Wincing at the slight bruising, Danny sat up, rubbing his back. "I guess we should try and clean some of this up." Dani looked over, quirking an eyebrow.

"Why don't you try that thing you did in the attic? You know, take it all somewhere else?" Danny frowned.

"I guess I could try." Concentrating, Danny returned to his ghost form, and focused on moving the ice. A few moments later, it all vanished, and Danny returned, gazing down bemusedly at the toaster in his left hand. "Well, I guess nobody's perfect, right? Still, that should really help with chores and stuff, even if I can't seem to go very far." Dani cocked her head to the side.

"Where'd you take it?" Danny shrugged, changing back to human.

"Just outside, but I wanted to drop it all on top of Vlad's football stuff in Wisconsin. I guess that power isn't very long-range. It's weird, though." He continued. "I went clear across town using it once." Dani just shrugged back.

"Maybe you can't go as far when you're carrying stuff." The girl grinned. "But let's worry about that later, you have some more losing to do." Danny groaned, grabbing the soda out of Dani's left hand, and trudged back towards the living room. When they got back, Jazz was sitting on the couch, watching another news rerun.

"Hey, Jazz, we were using that couch. And that TV." Jazz just rolled her eyes and sat back, rubbing her temples.

"Tough. It's been a long day, Danny, I need a break. After school, dad dropped me off at City Hall to sort out interviews and all that junk with the mayor. Apparently he had to work on something at home that just couldn't wait." The older girl rolled her eyes. "Probably some sort of ghost powered butter knife, or something." Dani sat down by her older cousin.

"Actually he's trying to make a way to stabilize me so I don't melt. We just didn't' want to talk about it." Jazz's eyes widened, but she calmed down slightly.

"Well I guess that's a good reason. But it's still been a long day. I haven't even seen the ghost footage Valerie sent in yet. Never mind that every interview I had to set up was about that stupid video." Danny went around the couch and sat on the other side, sipping his soda.

"I'm glad Valerie sent it in. It might help clear my name, and get that bounty dropped. But what's going on with these interviews?" Jazz turned from the television, which was once again showing Danny beat Vlad up, and turned towards her brother.

"The first one is tomorrow after school. The local news is coming here to interview mom and dad at home. And they asked that everyone in the family be here. Apparently they're trying to get a human interest spin on the story, on top of the ghost thing." Jazz shook her head. "The rest will just be mom and dad, either alone or with the mayor. But those won't happen until later this week. The mayor said he wanted to give the locals an edge, but I think he's just putting off any public comments until he can pull how the voters are reacting to all of this. I'll have to tell dad later since he's working, but…where's mom?" Danny shifted uncomfortably.

"She's…sleeping. She had a long day." Jazz's expression became unreadable.

"Did she talk with you?" Danny just nodded mutely. Suddenly, he found himself being crushed in yet another hug.

"Jeez, what's with you guys and hugs lately?" He gasped out. "It's not like we're on one of those therapy shows. And I. Can't. Breathe." Jazz relaxed her grip, and returned her attention to the TV.

"Sorry, I'm just glad she finally talked about all of that. I mean, she talked to me, but she needed to talk to you." Danny just nodded, ignoring Danielle's curious looks. "Did dad talk to you, too?" Now Danny was just as confused as his clone.

"What?" Jazz froze, then flushed, focusing far too intently on the TV.

"Err, nothing. I just figured if mom needed to talk, so did he, that's all." Jazz laughed lightly, and winced at a particularly nasty punch on the screen. Danny just cocked an eybrow, but let it drop. Dani and Jazz sat together in companiable silence and watched TV while Danny headed up to his room. Once there, the ghost boy pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

"Hello?" Sam's voice came over the phone, sounding annoyed.

"Hey Sam."

"Danny?" The half ghost grinned.

"You know, the way you answer your phone might be why I don't call you more." Sam snorted.

"Oh, ha ha. For your information, it's been a lousy afternoon. Besides the whole 'Valerie helping the ghost boy' thing. The second I got home, I wound up on the sidelines of World War Three. Apparently mom and grandma had been arguing about how much freedom I should have. Halfway through, grandma let slip that she let me run off to Circus Gothica that night; she was making some point about how mom and dad don't trust me to look out for myself or something. The point is, mom hit the roof. I've spent the last two hours trying out pink floral print dresses just for damage control. Bad news, grandma isn't allowed to take me places on her own for a while." Sam scoffed over the phone. "Like mom and dad can control her. But we both talked about it after mom screamed herself blue, and decided we'll have to lay low for awhile. So there go my plans for the evening." Danny frowned, then grinned.

"Mind if I cheer you up?" He asked.

"What do have in mind?" Danny's grin widened.

"Oh, I don't know, I was thinking a walk through the zoo to visit Delilah, shakes at the Nasty Burger, maybe some bowling. I'd say movie, but you get all the best ones early, and you probably want out of the house." Sam chuckled.

"You got that right, Danny. But what about homework?" Danny laughed.

"It's Monday, Sam. I don't have anything due tomorrow, and the ghosts can't attack while I'm in town. Come on, you deserve a night out." Finally, Sam sighed.

"Yeah, okay. But I'll have to ask my parents first. After what happened with grandma, there's no way I'd get off for leaving without asking." Danny groaned. Sam chuckled again. "Don't worry, I think they'll say yes. Even if it's just to keep me away from grandma for a few hours. And mom is in a pretty good mood after all of those dresses. Stop by in about five minutes. See you soon!"

The phone clicked off, and Danny panicked. He only had five minutes to get ready for a night out with Sam and fly over. Diving towards his closet like a marine in combat, the ghost boy tore through his clothes. Smirking, he took off his old t-shirt and put on the black one with the DP insignia. Draping the silver ghost necklace over his neck, he ran full-out to the bathroom and ran a wet comb through his hair. After a brief check at his reflection, he rushed down the stairs and nearly knocked Jazz and Dani over.

"Hey, watch it!" Jazz looked at his clothes and smirked. "Going to see Sam?" Danny nodded quickly and ran out the door. His sister frowned.

"You know, it was a lot more fun teasing him about Sam when they 'weren't together.'" Dani turned and grinned at her cousin.

"Whatever. More time for us. I need your help to catch up in chemistry. I'm in way over my head." Jazz smiled.

"Sure thing. Come on, I'll race you to your room." Giggling, the two girls rushed upstairs, shoving each other into the walls to gain an edge.

Danny changed into his ghost form and paused. Smirking, he quickly turned invisible and concentrated. A moment later he opened his eyes and looked around. Just as he'd planned, he was right inside the local florist shop. Checking for witnesses, he changed back into his human form and became visible, shaking slightly with the effort of teleporting and then holding his invisibility while transforming. After regaining his composure, he walked up to the clerk and smiled.

"Six roses, please. Three black, three red." Nodding, and only a little confused about how he hadn't heard his customer come in, the shop clerk went over to a nearby cooler and pulled out the flowers. Danny silently gestured at the purple ribbon, and he nodded quietly and tied the bundle together.

"Halfa dozen roses comes to seven twenty-five." Danny quickly gave him a ten and accepted the flowers and his change. Without another word, he jogged outside and into a nearby alley, and made the next jump. Seconds later, he stepped out from behind some hedges at the Manson home and rang the bell. Sam threw the door open and smiled. Smirking, Danny pulled the flowers out from behind his back and gave them to her. Blushing slightly at the bundle, Sam led Danny inside.

"My parents want to talk to you. Probably one of those 'we don't like you,' things, but it was the only way they'd let me go." Sam held up the flowers and took a deep breath. "So you picked up flowers and showed up in under five minutes. Been working out?" She teased. Danny grinned back.

"Just some new tricks. So where are…your…" Without a word, Sam pushed Danny into a small downstairs lounge and shut the door behind him. Gulping, the hybrid concentrated on not dropping his pants as he slowly walked across the room and took a seat. The two Mansons viewed him coldly. "Uh, hi?"

"We have recently discovered that you and our Samantha are…dating." Mrs. Manson's expression could have curdled milk. "We have an interest in knowing your intentions." Mr. Manson nodded.

"Samantha is an idealist, but naïve. You will not take advantage of her." Danny was now very red. Mostly from embarrassment at the accusations.

"It's not like that! I really like Sam, and, uh, I want her to be…happy?" The Mansons rolled their eyes.

"This isn't about happiness. We merely wish to avoid scandal. Samantha could have any upstanding gentleman she wished, yet she chooses you." Mrs. Mansons' tone was not angry. She sounded like the boy in front of her was barely worth such attention, but was resigned to fulfill a distasteful obligation. "We want to make sure that you two don't plan to embarrass the family. Aside from that, you will do as you please." Danny's eyes narrowed, and flashed green for a moment. He hastily looked down to hide the glow, and fixed on a polite smile.

"I promise we won't do anything 'embarrassing.' We just want to go to the zoo." He said slowly, through slightly gritted teeth. Nodding, Mr. Manson dismissed him with a vague wave of his hand.

"Go then. Only make sure that you behave yourselves. We have our image to maintain." Getting up, Danny walked stiffly from the room. Sam met him outside, frowning slightly.

"What did they want?" Danny's eyes narrowed.

"Nothing important." His expression brightened. "Let's go." Smiling, Sam rushed ahead to the hedge row, a secluded place Danny could transform so they could fly. Danny walked out behind her. He paused, scowling angrily, as he viewed a bust of some dead rich guy along the walk. Eyes flashing again, he punched the statue in frustration. "Jerks." Feeling much better, Danny jogged off after Sam and the two flew away to enjoy an afternoon together. In the garden, cracks slowly spread across the statue, and within minutes, it crumbled into dust.