Summary: With Danny landed in week-long detention, Dani's just been invited to the party of the year. While she tries to fit in with the popular crowd, Terrence has to deal with some problems of his own pertaining to her new attitude.

"I can't believe old man Lancer only raised your Biology grades to a C!" Terrence complained as he walked with Danny over to their lockers, both freshly having come out of Biology for their last class. The younger Fenton and Penny had excused themselves to wait for Valerie, who had wanted some time for girl talk with the duo. The group had agreed to meet up at their usual spot outside the school later on. "I mean, that discovery launched both of you Dannies onto the cover of Genius Magazine. There's a Genius there for a reason!" The blond flailed his arms to make a point.

Danny laughed weakly as he packed his books into his bag, shaking his head. "At least we're passing the class this time," the black-haired teen remarked with a sigh as he shut his locker and proceeded to lock it tight. "My parents are still going to be on my case about that, but at least we're not going to be grounded for the rest of the semester. That'd be the real problem."

Terrence snorted as he turned towards the half-ghost teen. "Uh-huh, and detention isn't going to be a problem for you now?"

The other teen groaned, leaning his weight against the metal locker and burying his face in his hands. Slowly, he nodded, though the action just shoved his face more into his hands, making it hard to confirm whether he was just trying to avoid the topic or if he was agreeing with the blond's statement. "Yeah... I'm done for," he groaned, his voice muffled. "Maybe I should've gone to bed earlier yesterday, but that report wasn't going to write itself! Dani already did most of the work for me anyway, might as well have got it done while it was 'early'."

The blond eyed his good friend then shook his head. "Priorities, man," he chastised. "Learn them. That week's worth of detention was so not worth finishing that book report that you could have totally finished once you got to school this morning. English Lit wasn't until after recess, anyway, and you could have totally multitasked during lunch period anyway." Terrence reached over and patted Danny on the shoulder. "Anyway, enough about detention. You said your dad invented something new? And something about a ghost?"

The black-haired teen huffed as he pushed away from the locker, heading towards the exit of the school. "Yeah. A vacuum or something he called the Fenton Ghost Weasel, I think. He managed to clog it up with papers and the Thermos. Dani and I tried to get the Thermos loose because we needed it later for our nightly hunt, but when we put it into reverse, it spewed the Thermos out and opened the Ghost Portal. Dani and I ended up letting out a new ghost, and, uh..." He averted his gaze, and Terrence could immediately get that the other boy was hiding something that he was embarrassed about.

"And...?" the blond prompted, walking along with him as they got to the school gates. "What did you two do, Dannies?"

The black-haired teenager just groaned again, shifting to brace his bag against his shoulder. "We... may or may not have implanted the idea of world domination into his head...?" he offered up, a sheepish tone creeping into his voice. "Totally by accident, I swear! He looked like the mad scientist type and I slipped up by mentioning Doctor Doof from Stacy's area and he just got it into his head!" He ran a hand through his already messy hair. "I'm such a screw-up."

Terrence just nodded sagely. "That you are, but I'm no saint myself. No judgement, I promise," the blond said, wrapping an arm around his shorter friend with a faint smile. "But you're totally paying for our next Nasty Burger lunch on Sunday."

The black-haired boy chortled, nudging the blond in his side. "Dream on, Terr," he teased. "You know I'm short on allowance this month as it is. Anniversary month coming up soon, remember? Dani and I are pooling for a real gift this year instead of those cheesy little handmade presents we used to craft since we were kids. I know it's the thought that counts, but they deserve it." He sighed, stopping at the gates as the two teenagers waited for their girl counterparts to arrive along. "But anyway, dad's Weasel works, sort of, and I was wondering if maybe we could take a look at that and see if we can use it for our hunting nights next time."

"Sounds great, if the vacuum works like you said it does," Terrence agreed. "I'm not lugging around a second ecto-gun if it's as big as that cannon, though. My arms are sore enough as it is from yesterday night." He grimaced a little as he flexed his arms, eyeing his wimpy forearms with trepidation. "At least I'm going to be building some muscle tone, yeah?"

"You, muscled? That'll be the day, Terrence," Dani called with a laugh as she ran over to meet them, Penny hot on her heels while Jazz and Valerie were walking rather calmly and conversing enthusiastically. "You look best like you are now. Did you guys hear, by the way? About the party being thrown by the jock team this weekend?"

The boys shared a glance. "A party by the jocks?" Danny asked warily. "You don't mean—"

"Foley is throwing the year's biggest bash at his place," Penny supplied helpfully, the Asian girl's hands on her hips. "And I already know that you hate him too much to agree to go — not that he'd even invite any of us." She rolled her eyes, wincing at Dani's elbow. "Hey, that's the truth, you know!"

"If you want to go to Tucker's party, maybe I could get him to extend a few invites," Jazz offered as the genius redhead approached with Valerie. "He came over to us at lunch asking if Val and I would attend. I told him I'd consider it."

The African-American girl beside her just jutted a hip out, her hand braced on it as she smiled at her cousins. "No way I'm going anywhere like a party without both of my favourite cousins with me," she told the Fenton twins, earning her a warm smile from both the black-haired teens. "Besides, the jock crowd isn't really my thing. At least the Goths and cheerleaders don't find fart jokes and wedgies funny."

Danny was the first to speak up about Jazz's offer. "No, Jazz, really, you don't have to do that for us. It's fine, I promise—"

"You'd really do that?" Dani cut in, her blue eyes wide and sparkling.

Jazz just smiled. "I'll tell him tomorrow?"

Dani tackled the redhead in a hug, squealing, "I love you so much, Jazz!"

Her brother didn't miss Terrence's disapproving expression nor the darkening of deep blue eyes as the blond turned away and continued walking, not listening to Dani's excited and enthusiastic squeals of delight.

"Yes!" Dani squealed as she dashed into the Nasty Burger, and Penny, who was looking for all the world like she didn't want to be where she was at the moment — that was to say, behind the very, very enthused Dani Fenton — was reluctantly following the smaller of the two black-haired girls. "She did it! She did it! Jazz got me and Penny the invites!" she cheered loudly as she sped over to the table where Terrence was seated with Valerie, both of them glancing at Terrence's phone. She waved an innocuous-looking slip of shiny paper in front of them, beaming widely.

"Dani, can't this wait for tomorrow?" Danny's voice came from the phone, where Terrence had him on a video call. The older of the Fenton twins tried to glare at her from his phone screen, but his attention was diverted between writing a paper that was on his desk and looking down at his phone in his other hand. "Or at least until I'm back at home and not stuck at school doing this stupid make-up paper for Mr Lancer?"

"Nope!" the black-haired girl cheered with a gleeful laugh. "I'm not gonna keep silent! Best day ever!" With another gleeful squeal, the younger of the Fenton twins dropped right into the seat beside her cousin, leaning over the table to look into Terrence's phone and beam at him. "Cloud nine doesn't even begin to describe my glee right now!" Tightly clasping the glossy paper of the printed invite to her chest, the crushing schoolgirl swooned dramatically. "And you should have been there when Tucker gave me the invite! The in-crowd noticed me!"

She was so enraptured in her squeals that she didn't even notice her older brother's frown from the screen of his phone, nor the worried looks from Penny and Terrence as the Asian girl took a seat beside the younger Fenton girl. There was a clear sigh from the phone's speakers.

"As long as you remember that you need to go and hunt down that Technus guy before he does something bad to the rest of the city thanks to that 'suggestion' we gave him this morning, Dani," Danny said with a sigh. "I can't do it this time since I'm stuck here, but you're free, so it's up to you now. Dani? Did you hear me, Dani?" An exasperated sigh left him as he turned his questions to the others present. "She's in her dreams again, isn't she?"

Valerie leaned in, humming in confirmation. "Uh-huh. Want me to snap her outta it?" the girl asked.

A quiet, muffled smack could be heard as Danny appeared to introduce his forehead to the wooden surface of the desk. "Yes, please, Val. Thank you so much, cous. I'm glad you're around," he muttered. "Reign her in for me, please, and just make sure she doesn't do anything too stupid?" The boy sounded pleading even if Penny couldn't see him. "I don't want her to do something stupid just because she wants to fit in... it's always been stronger of a desire for her than me."

"Well, she's more of a butterfly than you are," Penny muttered, stealing a glance the still dreaming girl. "She likes being in the spotlight. You act so awkwardly when all the focus is on you. Remember your kindergarten poetry recital?"

Valerie just snickered enthusiastically at the memory, her green eyes twinkling in mirth while Terrence looked rather lost about the incident mentioned, for Penny was offering no additional explanation.

"I remember. Don't need to remind me." Danny groaned. "Thank you so much, Penny dear." Sarcasm was positively dripping from his tone.

Penny just snickered in amusement. "Not in the future, Dan," she said with a cheerful smile. "Enjoy the rest of your detention week, okay? We'll keep an eye for little miss Starry Eyes over here.

"Where would I be without you guys?"

"Lost and stuck dealing with your parents and sibling on your own, no doubt," Terrence jabbed with a grin, catching up with his composure without missing a beat. "See ya at school tomorrow, man, and charge your phone tonight. Don't forget!"

Danny just laughed. "Yeah, yeah, Terr. Bye, guys." And with that, the older of the Fenton twins ended the video call.

"So..." Penny said as she leaned forward on the table, eyeing the younger twin who was currently staring dreamily out the window of the fast food joint, probably fantasising about the A-lister party. "How bad is this going to be?"

Valerie waved a hand in front of Dani's blue eyes, which were clouded over in her dreaming state. "Hmm," the African-American girl observed, her full lips pursing together. "Very bad, that's how," she noted, leaning back in her seat. "Ah, jeez! It's been months since I've last been around my cousins for any extended period of time, but ooh, Dani's got it bad. Foley ain't that bad looking if you overlook that lanky physique of his, but dang girl, he's not that handsome!"

Terrence scoffed almost condescendingly as the blond leaned back in his seat, pocketing his phone. "Oh, you think?" he muttered, making a gesture, though he was sure to not smack into his soda and spill it. "That's what I keep saying to Danny about Manson, for goodness' sake, and I know you've said the same about Foley to Dani, Penny." Irritably, he growled. "The worst thing is they've decided that it's fine for them to hate the other's crush, but it's also perfectly fine to keep on liking their own crush." With a roll of his eyes, Terrence picked up his soda and drained the cup with a sigh.

The green-eyed teen raised a brow. "We'll have to settle that score sometime soon, but for now, let's just make sure Dani doesn't make any trouble, I guess."

Penny exhaled as she leaned back in her seat, folding her arms over her chest. "Sure, sure," she said with a sigh. "I hope that she doesn't do anything she regrets."

"You're having a what?" Terrence and Penny chorused together as they stared at Dani while Valerie was busy checking out something the younger Fenton had laid out for her garage sale. The two teens couldn't believe what they had just heard from the enthused girl. "Did you clear this with Danny?" Terrence asked, the blond looking to his right where a table was laid out filled with some of Danny's beloved rocket models. He winced immediately when he saw the

The blue-eyed girl waved a hand in the air rather flippantly. "What? Nah!" she said, leaning forward and propping her elbows up on the main table in front of the Fenton's conspicuous house. "I'm sure he won't mind, though. These are all the old ones he had displayed on the bottom of his closet anyway and I've been meaning to clear out some space for his new ones!" Dani grinned at them. "I don't figure that you guys would like them, but if you're interested, I can set a low price for you guys?"

Penny shook her head, a grimace on her face as she glanced over at her left, where a table full of shiny chrome lab equipment was laid. "Isn't that your dad's inventions?" she asked incredulously, her brown eyes wide. A brand new vacuum-looking appliance sat on that table among some of the more tarnished metal inventions. "Dani! You know how much your father loves his things, this is being inconsiderate!"

Terrence took a glance at the vacuum and recognition sparked in his eyes when he saw it. The Ghost Weasel! he realised. Okay, now Dani was probably going a little too far in her endeavour to fit in with the in-crowd, if putting Danny's favourite rocket models on sale wasn't counting as sufficiently crossing the line as it was. Still... the blond frowned, pursing his lips together even as Penny leaned forward, trying to reason with the younger Fenton twin, it's always best to let her learn that lesson herself, I guess. It'll be in her best interest. He sighed, trying to convince himself that that was the case, even if it made her suffer a little before she learnt her lesson.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Penny sigh and pull back from talking with Dani. The Asian girl folded her arms over her chest, her brow pinched together as she frowned at Dani. "Fine, fine, if you won't listen to reason, then are you at least coming with us to school to get your brother when he's finally let out of detention... and maybe tell him about what you're doing at the same time? We're heading over to Terr's for movies later, Val and Jazz included."

"Sorry," Dani sang rather enthusiastically, beaming at them as she braced her chin against her palm, smiling dreamily. "I'm almost there when it comes to raising enough money to buy a new hip outfit!" She straightened out and clapped her hands enthusiastically, grinning at them. "The party is going to be so fun!" she squealed.

Terrence and Penny shared a look. "Right," the blond said slowly. "I guess that's a no, then. Alright." He shrugged a little, the gesture going unnoticed by Dani but completely picked up by Penny and Valerie, who had elected to pick up every single one of Danny's rocket models — there were quite a few, if he had to mention specifics, around twelve — and take them off Dani's hands, almost without thinking about it. "Well, let's get going." Terrence checked his phone. "Danny's detention is supposed to end soon. We'll see you sometime later, Dani, I... guess?" Waving absently at the black-haired girl, the blond teen began walking away.

Penny and Valerie quickly caught up with him, the latter balancing the twelve models in her arms with some difficulty. "So, Val," Penny said, glancing over at Valerie, who was on Terrence's other side, "are Danny's models really that great?" She eyed the old models that the girl was holding, reaching over to take four of them off her hands and make it easier for the African-American girl, who grinned at her.

"What? These old things?" The green-eyed girl laughed, shaking her head. "They're really not worth the twelve dollars Dani charged, but I know that Dan loves his models and these were his first. Even if I don't like 'em, he treasures them like they're worth more than 24-carat gold and wouldn't appreciate it if his sister just happened to sell them all, y'know?" She grinned.

Terrence smiled at the teen, taking another four off Valerie's hands so that each of the three teens was holding four models. "You're a great friend and cousin," the boy said to the dark-skinned girl. "Danny sure is lucky. I didn't even think about getting them so he wouldn't blow a fuse over that later." Keeping the models well balanced, the blond shook his head, sighing.

"What was with the mood, though, Terr?" Penny asked as they walked down the corner to get to Casper High. "You know, you're not usually this touchy when it comes to talking with someone, even if they're making ridiculous choices."

The blond frowned. "Well..."

"Guys, hey! Thanks for meeting me— are those my rocket models?" Danny exclaimed, his blue eyes wide and aghast as the black-haired teen stared at the trio. "They're supposed to be at the bottom of my closet! Why do you guys have them?"

"It's a long story, Dan," Valerie said sympathetically. "A long story."

"My sister did what?!" Danny almost shouted as quartet walked on from the school gates towards the neighbourhood where Terrence's home was located. The black-haired boy had loaded all his models into his book bag and was carrying his books, with Terrence making some effort to help, even if both the boys struggled a little, though surprisingly it was not as much as they would have prior to the Ghost Portal incident. The blue-eyed teen grit his teeth together to stop himself from making another outburst even as Valerie patted his back in a manner that seemed to be comforting.

His cousin only shot him a sympathetic look as she shook her head, the African American girl making a motion that seemed to translate into 'what can you do?'. "She did, Dan, as unfortunate as it is. Just be glad I saved your models first, mhm?"

Danny scowled. "Never let anyone say that I don't love Dani to death, but she's going too far, way too far! The Ghost Weasel was only finished up this week!" He would have thrown his arms up into the air is he wasn't carrying enough books for the entire week — okay, so maybe he needed to do some sorting of his books when he got home. His books were heavy — but it just so happened that he was, so the boy had to settle for gripping the too-heavy books like he wanted to break them in half. "She's in so much trouble for this."

"Wait, but you two are twins," Penny pointed out, a dark brow raising as the Asian girl just snatched Danny's books form him with a soft grunt. "Can you think about packing your books according to your class schedule, Danny?" she whined, still easily hefting the books after she got used to the sudden heaviness. "No wonder your shoulders hurt so back every week!" Now with her hands full, she couldn't reach out and poke his head at this point, which Danny was suddenly very very glad for.

"I know, I know," the black-haired boy said, raising his hands in an attempt to placate her. "Terr, a little help here?" he asked pleadingly at the blond, who just snickered as the quartet slowed down to a stop in front of a gated community at the edge of Amity Park's normal housing area to search for something in his pockets.

Valerie stared, her green eyes wide. "Terrence, you live here?" she asked, her jaw dropping. "Dad said that this place is expensive as heck and dang opulent to boot. What do your parents do?"

The blond dug around in his pockets and found a keycard, which he gave to the security guard outside before the man let them in. "My 'rents? Investors, last I checked," Terrence said absently, taking the keycard back from the guard with a 'thank you'. "They're kind of whimsical with how they spend their money, but they know quality when they see it." He sighed a little. "Valerie, I know that look. What's my last name again?"

The African-American girl blinked. "Morris. Why... oh. That Morris family, the one who kickstarted an entire economy over overpriced sashimi at a sushi restaurant?" she repeated almost disbelievingly. "Remind me again why that happened?"

Penny shook her head. "That was Terr's uncle, I think, was it?"

"His parents are the ones keeping the Manson cellophane-swirling deli toothpick thing in business," Danny helpfully supplied as they reached Terrence's house, a surprisingly sedate-looking mansion that was almost missable in the multitude of others in the area, well, as sedate as a three-storey mansion could be. "Close your mouth, Val, flies are going to get in," he teased his cousin with a faint smile. He didn't blame his cousin for that look on her face, though. He'd been stunned, as had Penny when they'd first found out. As hard as it was to say it, this was the only secret he could recall ever keeping from Dani.

It had been an accident, as far as he could recall. Dani was running late because she had forgotten something really important and had insisted that he and Penny hurry on to school first, they had arrived at their usual meeting spot with Terrence to find him on the phone with his parents, arguing over something that sounded rather important. It had left the blond in near tears — one of the rare times where Danny had seen his usually composed friend in a nervous breakdown. Apparently, his parents were threatening to withdraw him from Casper High because he wasn't making any 'headway', whatever that had meant.

"Oh, wow," Valerie breathed in awe as she looked around as Terrence opened the front door for them. "Jeez! You could totally be at the top of the school's food chain if you showed a hint of all this, even just one percent! You could be top dog!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms out wide to emphasize the extravagantly decorated living room. Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, she recoiled from the harsh glare that the blond was giving her. "Whoa, why so touchy?"

"Because that's exactly what I don't want," Terrence grumbled as he plopped into the sofa opposite a television set so large it took up half of the wall behind it. "I've had enough of that in freaking elementary. I begged my folks to transfer me for a reason, dang it!" He ran his hands through his short blond hair. "Look, Valerie, I don't say anything about my family for a reason," he started, voice softening as he looked at her. "I don't want people to look at me because I'm rich. Penny and the Dannies, none of them knew heck about me when we became friends, and I really just liked it that way."

Danny took a seat beside Terrence as the blond huffed, the half-ghost boy reaching over to pat him on the back. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Terr," he grumbled in a lighthearted manner. "I like to think I know enough about my non-blood-related best friends."

"That was then," the blond grumbled back. "My family has a tradition. We're packaged off alone once we're teens and expected to earn some kind of 'investment' back by the time we're sixteen." He scoffed, putting his head in his hands. "But that's beyond the point. Anyway, I know what Dani's getting herself into. The 'popular kid'life is terrible. It's empty, shallow and really, really vapid. That was what I was trying to get away from in the first place when I begged my folks to transfer me, but the only good thing about it is that I'm out of the shark-fest that's the A-listers and officially a nerd."

Penny beamed at him as she sat down on the sofa's armrest beside him and wrapped an arm around the boys. "Aww, really? The good thing isn't you meeting us?" She grinned at him playfully.

Terrence laughed dryly. "Yeah, yeah..."

Danny chuckled, but he paused as a cold wisp of air left his mouth, thankfully going unnoticed by Valerie. "Guys, I have a ghost problem rampaging nearby," he whispered, leaning in towards Terrence and Penny. "Movie night is going to have to wait, so I have fly." Making a quick and hasty excuse, the black-haired boy dashed out the open door, though not before putting his bag down carefully. Once he was beyond Valerie's line of sight, he took another look around and transformed into his ghost form once the coast was clear.

The white-haired ghost boy took to the skies in a glide that was well-practised after his late-night ghost hunts, his fists bright with green ectoplasm. "I'm coming, ghost-face!"

Dani was having the worst day of her life.

First, both Penny and Jazz had stood her up for the party, the former claiming that she had prior plans and never had intentions to attend Tucker's bash at all, and the latter excused herself with a thinly-veiled disappointed glance in her direction, saying that she needed to do her homework. The fact that both her best gal pals had practically deserted her with a look in their eyes that all-but-said they weren't happy with her had nearly crashed her day before it started.

Nearly.

When she had gotten to the party in a brand new outfit— all sequins and glitter — she'd been rather unfortunately met with an odd sight of everyone in the popular kid group wearing clothes that were more or less what she and her closest gang wore on a daily basis. Tucker and Dash were even wearing exact imitations of her older brother's favourite 'Japan flag' shirt, baggy jeans and red sneakers combo, much to her puzzlement. So, overdressed and very much lost, she'd gotten the rather rude informing that the dress code had been changed to 'loser chic' because no one could afford anything glitzy and new after the garage sale she'd held earlier on that day.

Then, later on when she'd tried to enter a conversation held between a few cheerleaders, she'd found herself entirely lost as they cheerfully spoke without bothering to talk to her at all. She hadn't even been able to find a common topic to squeal over — they hated her favourite animes and comics and were busier over gossiping about the Goths than anything else. It had been the same thing with the jocks, who cared more about who scored what in their last game.

To add insult to injury, she had tried to call Penny — or Terrence, who was the only one of her usual gang who was reliably with his phone — and had gone straight to voicemail, even when she knew all of them had her number and always picked up, no matter how late. Terrence's voicemail had even left with an insult, telling her quite point-blank not to call him again if she 'was Dani and still at that stupid party of yours'. She didn't know what to do. Even Danny hadn't picked up his phone since that morning, though he was perhaps more excusable in that he was still at school.

However, that didn't make her situation any less frustrating.

Making things even worse was her discovery of the haunted tech she'd ended up selling most of the popular kids to fund her new outfit, all of which they had brought together to Tucker's place to show off, from the Fenton Ghost Weasel her father had exaggeratedly displayed to her that week to old versions of the Fenton Thermos and failed mini-Portals. It had been a very nasty shock in her system when she saw the junk melding together and fusing wires to create a huge, hulking mecha, with that blasted Technus or something at the giant robot's head, cackling madly.

The white-haired ghost girl worried her lower lip as she confronted the overshadowed hunk of metal in Tucker's front yard, her hands blazing brightly with ghostly energy as she tried to figure out how she could eliminate him before any of the A-listers took notice. Her brow pinched together as Technus wandered closer to a power line, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling at the thought of the mad scientist being given access to more power. "Don't you dare get any closer!" she yelled, blasting him. It barely left a dent in his mechanical armour. "I'm not going to give you any chances to empower yourself!"

"Huh? Get me stronger?" Technus puzzled out. Then, he seemed to realise what she was talking about and proceeded with a mad cackle. "Ahah! Thank you, ghost girl, for giving this lovely idea to me!" Reaching out one of his metal arms to the cable, he paused before he pointed his other at her. "But as you know, as a supervillain trying to take over the world, I really cannot afford to have a superhero like you playing along to disrupt my evil plans! Say au revoir for now, girl!" he pronounced in his nasal voice.

The Fenton Ghost Weasel appeared on his free arm, the vacuum head pointed straight at her as he turned it on... only for the thing to jam near instantly.

"Really? Jammed up again?" Technus exclaimed. "Well then, I suppose that I should just take care of you the old fashioned way!" Even as he drew more power from the cable, he shifted the metal components of his arm into a cannon Dani could vaguely recall resembling the one wielded by the Teen Titan Cyborg. "Taste the power of my sonic cannon!"

The high-pitched whirring of the cannon charging up caught Dani by surprise as she tried to figure out how to stop him, making her swerve drastically to avoid getting caught in the path of the bright green beam. That was close, too close, Dani thought to herself with a grimace on her face as she glanced back to where the beam had torn through, only narrowly missing her because she had moved out of its path in the nick of time. She was lucky she remained uninjured after that attack.

"Dani, heads up!" A blast of bright green ectoenergy shot through the air to hit Technus' head part, stunning the mad scientist ghost for a moment and enough to let the older of the Fenton Twins appear on the scene with his fists blazing. Danny shot up next to his sister, reaching a hand out to her. "You alright?"

The girl grimaced. "I'm fine, Dan," she said, shaking her head. "Do you have the Thermos on hand?" she asked hopefully, looking up at him. The containment unit would end this battle quite fast if they could just uncap it.

He blanched. "I left it at Terrence's. Dang it. New plan." He fumbled in the pockets of his black pants before he pulled out a phone and tossed it to her with a steady hand, nearly overestimating her reach and causing her to fumble with it for a moment or two. "Call Terr! Ask him to get the Thermos to us in five minutes. I'll hold off Tecnus until then!" Without waiting for her to say anything, or to give her a chance to say that their blond friend was not on speaking terms with her, Danny charged at Technus.

"Wait! Dan, dang it!" Dani cursed, turning the phone on and dialling Terrence's mobile number, looking worriedly after her brother just in case he needed help to take down the blasted ghost. As a precaution, she kept the phone away from the ghost's sight before he got the bright idea to incorporate it into his systems as well. With a defeated sigh, she called Terrence.

"Danny?" Terrence asked, his voice a little distant, suggesting he was on speakerphone. "What's the sich?"

"It's not Danny, Terrence," Dani said, following hurriedly up with a cry of 'Don't hang up!' as the blond told Penny to hang up the call on their end. "Terrence, please. I don't know why you're so angry with me, but just hear me out. Danny's fighting Technus right now and unless we can knock him out cold, we have no way of defeating him for long enough that we'll be able to send him back to the Ghost Zone. I'm not asking this for my sake right now — please help me by bringing the Thermos to me. I can't let Danny get hurt."

Terrence was silent on the other end as a rummaging sound was heard through the speakers of Danny's phone. "Dani, look, you have to understand this," the blond said on the other end, "Danny is always going to love you to death. He'll do just about anything for you and he'll do it without asking you to do anything for him in return. He'll do that because you're his sister — his only sister, the one who knows everything he goes through and more. You will always have that family bond."

"But that's not the case with us, Dani," Penny said over the phone. "We're your friends. We don't have that family obligation to always be at your side. Friends will come and go, Dani, and unlike family, where you'll learn from your mistakes because they'll tell you, it'll be just too easy to get your friends to hate you, and when that happens, they won't say a word about it."

"That's just the problem! I don't know what's wrong!" Dani nearly shouted into the receiver, frustration in her tone. "Why are you so angry with me? What did I do wrong?"

"You thought it was a good idea to go to that party, Dani, and, well, that I won't blame you for, but what you did afterwards, that hurt. You don't know how much it hurt to have another friend just push you aside for popularity, Dani!" Terrence hissed through the phone.

"Another... Terrence, I..." Dani paused, pressing her lips together. "Terrence, I had no idea that I was blowing you guys off so much. I was just so caught up in the excitement and... I'm sorry, Terrence. I'm so sorry."

"Oh, you'd better be!" Terrence yelled as both he and Penny raced up, the former lugging the hefty Fenton Ecto-gun while Penny had the Fenton Thermos on hand. "Danny, clear a path! I'll try and land a hit on his head for you guys so Penny can suck him up!"

The white-haired ghost boy flashed them a thumbs-up as Dani flew over to join him, and the twins alternated between blasts of green energy to distract Technus' attention away from Terrence as the blond set up the cannon's blast. "Nice to have you with us, guys!" Danny shouted as he flew above Technus, ignoring a brief barb by the mad scientist.

"Fire in the hole!" Terrence yelled as soon as he had a clear path, the green blast of ectoenergy shooting through the air to impact Technus straight in the head, stunning the ghost and his mecha suit enough for Penny to uncap the Thermos and suck him up in a whirlwind.

The Asian girl screwed the cap shut and gave it a shake for good measure. "Gotcha!" With a grin, she handed the Thermos over to Dani as the girl flew down with her brother.

"Thanks, guys," Dani said softly. "And... I think I've learnt my lesson. I don't think I fit with these guys, actually... you're my friends, and that's never going to change."

Terrence grinned at her as he leaned on the cannon, and Danny pulled her into a one-armed hug. "Glad to have you back."

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