I don't own Danny Phantom or Grossology. Their respective companies own them. Joe Gutchern is an original character.
The trio walked into the gag lab exhausted—particularly Danny, who carried Ty and Abby the entire trip over. The mission had them wearing shame, with the flight back being silent. Lab Rat saw , but before he could do anything, Hermès scurried off the table. The little guy made sure everyone was alright. Ty picked up the rodent, petting the little guy as a small smile crept on his face.
"You guys alright?" Lab Rat asked. He walked over to see if his friends needed anything: from medical aid to disinfectant. Mechanical arms were out with the supplies, but the heroes waved it off.
Ty and Abby gave the guy professional faces, but Danny had a small glare.
"Please tell me you got the equipment I brought finished," Danny said with a pant.
"Well, not yet but—"
"How long would it take to finish replicating equipment!?"
Lab Rat sighed heavily as he walked to his computer. The grossologists stared at their technician. They wanted answers as well.
"I got the equipment finished, but it's the ecto part that's trouble," Lab Rat explained to his confused friends. "Look, I can analyze and research this stuff and upgrade your equipment, but mass-producing the anti-ghost part is difficult. It's not something I can get at the dollar store."
The teens dropped their heads in shame. Ty was the first to apologize.
"Sorry, Lab Rat. It's just that this ghost is causing trouble, and we need all the help we can get."
"Yeah, we didn't know," Abby added.
Danny walked up to the monitor, glancing at the monitor. Images analyzing the molecular structure of ectoplasm were up, but they were too complex to understand. He never paid much attention to such subjects.
Now he wishes he did.
"Sorry," Danny said, apologetically.
"It's alright. This stuff would make things easier. But I am close. I checked things online and found these old ghost hunters called the Ghostbusters," Lab Rat explained, putting up images on the wall monitor.
"Who?" Danny asked.
On-screen, the teens, looked at photos of four men in uniforms with a symbol that could read as no ghost.
"It's where Mr. and Mrs. Fenton got most of their inspiration from," Lab Rat said as he walked up to the scene. "These are the Ghostbusters: Peter Venkman, Ray Stanz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore. They took care of ghosts back in New York before things settled down."
Danny looked in awe. He knew his parents were obsessed with ghosts but figured they did everything on their own. He never thought they were inspired.
Though his inspiration dropped when he registered the fact that his parent's name was dropped.
"The Fentons?" Danny said, trying to sound oblivious.
"From your hometown of Amity Park," the gagologist said, but the ghost boy played dumb. "You really didn't think I noticed the logo on the equipment? It only took me a few minutes on the internet to find their website."
"They have a website?" Danny asked in amazement.
The gag technician pulled up a window on the monitor to reveal the .com homepage. On it was the image of Danny's home with his parents posing in front and a slogan that says, we ain't afraid of no ghost. It was all deckedout in Fenton style. The mouse pointer was even turned into the image of jackFenton's face.
"They must've been big fans of the ghostbusters to use similar tech at first. Though the soup thermos as a ghost catcher is confusing," Lab Rat as Hermes sniffed the scene. It must have been time for lunch because the rodent was scratching at the screen.
"They must have thought how the ghost would never see it coming," Danny commented melancholically.
"Amity Park," Abby said with a grin as she glanced at Ty. After today, they could use a little fun.
"I take it you found out a lot of our new friend here?" Ty asked with a teasing tone.
Danny's eyes widen as he realized what was going on.
"Hold on! I need to explain something!" Danny cried out.
But it was too late as articles of the ghost boy's heroics popped up. Though some held infamy. And everyone was eager to read everything.
"Hold on," Abby interjected, her eyes on a rather incriminating article. "You kidnapped your town's mayor?"
The girl pointed to a photo showing Fanny holding onto a man. They glanced at the ghost boy, cautiously.
"That was a plan by one of my enemies. He was overshadowing the mayor that time," Danny explained calmly.
"Overshadow?" Ty asked.
"His body was taken control of."
"Oh."
"So you were framed," Abby said with a smirk.
"Yes, but I managed to turn most of the reputation around. Besides, I'm not doing this for the reputation or glory or anything," Danny said, pointing to more articles, such as when his town was sucked into another dimension or his other heroics putting a stop to many of the ghost attacks and even some bank robbers.
Abby smiled at that. Her brother did, as well. But a cough from Lab Rat cut the mood.
"Hate to interrupt, but I've found something on our ghostly Joe, as well," Lab Rat added.
On the contrary, that did raise spirits in the gaglab.
On the wall monitor, an image of a facility poped up. It was huge, with many cylindrical towers and pipes leading into the building, similar to a power plant.
"Hey, that's the old Ringworm Cleanliness Facility," Ty remarked as Abby and Danny looked at him. The boy chuckled nervously with a grin before continuing. "I did a report on it. It was supposed to deal with every kind of cleaning service in order to better organize and process any dirty or disgusting jobs more than fifty years ago."
"Why would they make a place like that?" Danny asked, utterly stupefied. He turned to Abby and Lab Rat, who shrugged.
"Well, they say cleanliness is next to godliness," Ty added.
"Sounds like a stinky place to work at. Even for us," Abby remarked.
"Well, it imploded around thirty years ago," Lab Rat explained, pulling up articles onscreen. "They did build the place as structurally sound as it should."
Danny, Ty, and Abby grimaced as they looked at the plentiful articles. The place was sounding to be a horror movie in the making.
"It gets worse," Lab Rat said somberly. "Not everyone got out in time."
The teens held their collective breath as they register what that meant. Young Ty gulped before speaking.
"You mean..."
"Joe did not die pleasantly. Him and a few others pretty much were buried in a coffin of waste products," Lab Rat added.
"Poor Joe," Abby said in sorrow. Ty and Danny hung their head in a moment of silence.
The ghost could be working with some of the worst criminals in the city, but no one deserved to die like that. And it got worse as an article was pulled up saying how a mall was built over the remains. It was almost too much.
"Man, you can find everything on the internet," Danny dryly commented, a stone rolled in his stomach as the teen processed everything.
"That's how I found out about you, remember?" Lab Rat said. He leaned back in his chair as everyone in the room stared at the wall monitor. After a few minutes, the Director popped up.
"Agents...and Phantom," he greeted sternly.
"Director," Ty and Abby said.
"I heard about Boil and the two Joes. Please tell me you found something," the Director said professionally. The man raised a brow as everyone in the gaglab gave each other a grimaced face. Their voices hissed in pain before turning back to the Director. "What?"
"This time, you really don't want to know," Lab Rat said, crossing his arms into an X.
"Don't want to know?" the Director said in a squeamish voice. "But now I do want to know. This is still a crisis! Tell me what you found!"
"Long story short, our ghost was buried under a pile of everything you throw away or flush down," Danny explained, feeling his stomach churn.
"What!?" the Director shrilled. "Are you saying-"
"That's our ghost is made of the same filth that killed him? Yep," Abby answered for the man.
The director said nothing but completely lost it as he emptied the contents of his all bean diet lunch on his desk. After a few dazed moments, the man noticed his mess and spewed again before fainting. The monitor then blanked out as the teen s worried for the man.
"I'll get to the Director. In the mean, I'll have a program for monitoring anything gross enough to our joes and Lance," Lab Rat said, typing away. "With any luck, we could have something before Lance prepares his big scheme. After that, I'll get down to cracking down on the final component in making the equipment ghost proof."
"That'll work. For now," Danny said, turning to the grossologists. "I'll keep in touch."
Ty and Abby nodded as the ghost boy phased through the roof. The need to keep the location a secret didn't seem I'm[portant anymore. The sibling took the same notice as they left for home and homework. School was still tomorrow.
The morning sun greeted young Danny, who had been resting in the Specter Speeder, hidden from any prying eyes. He prepared a blanket and pillow on the bench last night. It wasn't comfortable, but the boy made due.
He thought out his action over the past few days. Time was ticking away as Joe Gutchern was still out there. Being in another part of the world wasn't helping either. His friends had called about the past few days and the excuses they made for his absence. The only good news was that Lancer didn't assign anyone homework, though it was mainly because the stench Joe left prevented anyone from entering the school for anything.
"What am I gonna do?" Danny groaned as he turned, only to remember his bed wasn't big enough to do so. The hard metal floor greeted him on impact.
The boy got up. He had enough of the metal ship and decided for some fresh air. Maybe even something not prepackaged, even though there was a container with ham inside. His dad always loved ham.
Walking through the city was fine. The one thing about them, nobody knows everyone, which made things less stressful for the ghost boy.
Noticing a sandwich shop, Danny let his stomach get the better of him as he went inside and ordered a custom meal big enough for lunch and dinner. Putting his change away, he sat down and enjoyed the food. IT's ingredients bringing a form of freshness he didn't know he missed.
Danny had just taken a bite when his ghost sense went off. The blue wisp's arrival was not welcomed at the moment, but the boy finished quickly. Going to the restroom, Danny Fenton was replaced with Danny Phantom soaring into the air. And he wasn't going alone.
"Abby, Ty, do you read me? This is Danny," the ghost boy said into the gagcom he had on hand.
No response came except for Lab Rat, who buzzed onscreen.
"Danny? What's up? You found something?" the gagologist asked.
"Not yet, but I got a lead on our ghost friend, and things might going to be even messier this time," Danny replied, flying faster as he saw where he was heading with the wisps becoming more frequent.
"I'll call Ty and Abby. In the meantime, where exactly is Joe Gutchern anyway?" Lab Rat asked.
"You're not going to like this."
Hermès went into hiding as the rodent heard everything.
The siblings were in biology class, dissecting frogs.
"Like eww gross!" Paige exclaimed as she pulled the stomach from the dead amphibian. She squeezed the organ too hard, spilling out the dissolved contents for her posse to see.
They passed out immediately.
Most of the students were too squeamish, nervous, or scared to cut the dead amphibians open. For Ty and Abby, it was slightly boring. Compared to their adventures, science class wasn't gross enough to get a rise out of them.
"Looks like Paige could use a lesson in something other than fashion," Abby snarked. She watched as the girl got up and tried to get out of class.
"Don't know why. This is pretty exciting," ty remarked, having gutted the entire frog. He was now playing with its heart as the teacher noticed.
"Alright, you two," the teacher said, pointing to the door. "If you two are done, then go to the restroom and wash your hands."
"Why can't we use the one here?" Abby asked. She glanced in the direction of the local faucet, only to see it with an out of order sign. "Oh."
The two walked out the doors as they headed to restroom. though Ty wanted a bit more time with the fully dissected frog, but the teacher wouldn't allow it.
"What's wrong with wanting to learn anatomy?" Ty asked, innocently.
"Ty, you need more in your life than science," Abby teased.
The younger brother sent an innocent look, perplexed by the statement. He heard the statement time and time again but never understood it. The boy was about to talk back, but his sister held out her arm, stopping him.
"What's that smell?" Abby asked, sniffing the air.
"It's probably the cook," Ty added. He went back to walking down the halls, not watching where he was going. "He probably forgot to shower again and—ugh!"
The teens had not been looking ahead as the brother bumped into someone. As Abby helped him up, the siblings found themselves face to face with Joe Gutchern. The ghost eyed them funny before he wore a sly grin.
"Ah... I remember class in my day. Though I must say, I don't remember the hallways this clean. It needs a...ghostly touch if you ask me."
It looks like Joe Gutchern is interested in his education. Too bad the students are there too. Stay tuned for a big school fight.
Reviews:
RonaldM40196867: I think Paige is more self-centered than Paulina.
Mazamba: It's quite nice.
Luiz4200: Yep.
Jay The Average Fanboy: My apologies for the rushed beginning. I'll work on that for future fics. I won't spoil anything, though, but the fic isn't over, so who knows.