Chapter 1: Dead End
All across Amity Park, teenagers of all ages were waking up to their alarm clocks. Eager to make the best of this new year of school. They were wishing their parents a good morning and receiving breakfast in return. However for one household...
"Mom. Dad. For the last time I do not want to hunt Ghosts!"
Those are not usually what you expect to hear on a Monday morning. But in the Fenton household… It's become a bit of the norm these days. With that makeshift alarm clock that is Jasmine Fenton, Danny Fenton age fourteen awoke. 'Guess Jazz is awake.'
Danny groaned as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, "Note to self. Stop staying up late to play Doomed." He rolled out of bed and trudged towards the bathroom. When he looked into the mirror he could see the dark circles just beginning to form around his eyes. He felt exhausted.
After taking fifteen minutes cleaning up in the bathroom he made his way into the kitchen, Bang, narrowly dodging a blast of Ectoplasm.
"Didn't see you there Danny thought you were a ghost." A six foot nine tall obese man holding a bazooka stated to Danny from the far corner of the room. If one had to pull a distinguishing feature from him it would probably be he looked like an overgrown dwarf. His arms and legs much smaller than the rest of his body.
"Dad! If you are not careful, one of these days you will turn him into one!" Danny turned to his sister Jasmine and smiled. She really was the best person in his family much like their parents she was tall but she also looked the most normal. Jasmine a five foot eight "young adult" with hip length long auburn hair and aqua eyes.
"Jazz you can't turn someone into a ghost with Ectoplasm it's just harmless goo." Maddie Fenton, matriarch of the household calmly stated as she walked over to Danny. She gave me a smile and wiped platter of Ectoplasm from Danny's cheek.
"That's right Mads there's no need to worry Jasmine."
"If there's nothing to worry about dad then why don't you eat it! You both are wearing jumpsuits at all times does that mean you are exposed to radiated material? Are you exposing you own children to carcinogenic fumes and material at all times? Have you actually tested to make sure the 'goo' is harmless for humans and if so where is your scientific study! Is it even peer-reviewed? No? Then you could potentially end up harming us in the long run!" Jazz yelled as she pulled her brother away and quickly stripped him of his shirt and started shoving him out of the kitchen. "Hazmat bath Danny stat." She turned to her parents with fire in her eyes."Where was I oh right Not only that the fact you both fire off weapons in the house and our kitchen is atrocious for our physiological development. It will take years of therapy to heal us of all the mental scars from your criminal negligence!"
"Well there was that one time with the Ecto acne and V-man in college."
"Hush Jack you are just making it worse."
"See! You both know you are horrible parents!"
Danny didn't hear much more of the argument as he went downstairs to jump into the hazmat shower. He honestly hated it, the machine was quite invasive and seemed to peel off a layer of skin with the jets but he couldn't really argue with Jazz she had a point. Their parents weren't exactly 'Safe' with their experiments.
Shivering as he stepped out of the shower Jazz had her back to him as she held out new clothes for him to put on. As he got dressed he turned to see his parents latest amalgamation. "What exactly is that thing they are working on?"
"Its apparently a much larger version of their college project that almost killed their friend." Jazz said glaring at it.
"Killed their… Why are they making it here!"
"Because apparently they are cracked pots in the science community and can't get the funding to be real scientists." Jazz said as she quickly looked over her shoulder to see if he was fully dressed if not still a little wet.
"What do you want me to do with my clothes from earlier?"
"Don't touch them. I'm going to have dad throw them in the furnace." Jazz said as she started to pull him upstairs.
"Jazz do you really think mom and dad are that bad as parents?"
"Danny I'm going to be 100% honest with you. Mom and dad are fantastic inventors they make amazing gadgets and gizmos and probably have the ability to solve all the words problems. But they are not parent material. They don't take care of us like your friends Sam and Tucker's parents do. We are in constant danger when they fire off a gun or mom starts using her blow torch at the kitchen table. One of these days something horrible is going to happen to one of us because they don't follow basic OSHA guidelines. "I care about you Danny and I want you to have an amazing long and fulfilling life and if i was old enough I would take you away and we could live in relative safety far away from their crazy Ghost obsession." During her speech Jazz had looked around the room waving at the gadgets along the walls. When she turned back to Danny she noticed a glazed over look in his eyes, "Danny!" she snapped.
He quickly shook his head and refocused on her, taking a moment to process everything she said, "Wait what's Ocean? Jazz I think you read a little too much into this."
Jazz sighed, choosing to just give up on her dumb brother, "Shut up you unwanted wretch let's get to school."
"Hey!"
-DP-
"Wait so let me get this straight You dad fired a gun at you." an African American boy spoke casually to Danny.
"An Ectogun, but yes." Danny said bored as he leaned back against his locker
"And your mom said nothing about it." the boy said furrowing his brow and pointing at Danny.
"Yup." Danny said before yawning.
"And your sister is not calling protective services." The boy said as he started to play with his Cell phone.
"I think she's thinking about it." he replied looking down the hall to see his sister talking to some girl friends.
"And… Dude do you even care." The boy said placing a hand on Danny's shoulder in concern
"Look Tuck I lived with this all my life." He gestured to himself, "This is my normal."
"But dude that's so messed up. I mean if it was anyone else I would call CP with or without your OK but I know you and let's be honest your folks aren't ..." he waved his hand as if trying to find a polite word or phrase to ease the blow.
"Normal?" Danny finished with a dead stare.
"Yeah, that's the word." Tucker snapped his fingers before wincing at his friends expression.
"So where's Sam?" Danny asked changing the subject.
Tucker raised a brow as he adjusted his hat. "Well seeing as the earth has made its…" Tucker started looking at his phone showing Danny a World rotation App. "223 rotation around the sun and it's the first day of school… she's in the cafeteria trying to change the school lunch menu." Tucker said with a resigned look on his face.
"You mean…" Danny noticed a figure walking towards them and raised his hands up to stop tucker… who was looking down at his phone.
"Yup that ultra recycle garbage." Tucker snarked before looking up at Danny only to see him bite his fist with a look of horror.
"Sams right behind me isn't she?" Tucker said deadpanned.
"That's Ultra recyclo vegetarian." An angry female voice said from behind Tucker
Tucker turned around to see the black haired lavender eyed goth behind him. If magic were real in Tuckers scientific mind Sam probably would pull out a spell book and turn him into a toad. "Manson."
"Foley."
The tension between the two grew as Danny pictured lightning flash between their dead stares.
"Sam Tuck come on you two relax."
"I would relax more if he wouldn't make jabs at my lifestyle choices." Sam glared at him.
There was a lot more venom then Danny was used to hearing between the two of them. Makes him wonder what really happened between those two over the summer.
The staring match lasted a moment before Sam went to speak again. Tucker quickly raised a hand silencing her however looking over her shoulder to a tall blonde cheerleader by the water fountain. "One moment my celestial goddess is just over there." He started to walk over adjusting his hat and smiling.
"Tucker!" Sam yelled glaring at him with a frustrated pitch to her voice
"Hello beautiful my name is Tucker. Tucker Foley that's TF for That Fine and you have the TF stamp of approval all over you. Wanna call me, Beep me, beam me your number from your gorgeous lips."
"Uh ew." The blonde said grossed out by his flirting.
"That just looked painful." Sam stated looking at Danny but his eyes seemed to be focused just to the left of Tucker and Star.
His eyes were zoning in on a gorgeous caramel beauty. Paulina the most popular and beautiful girl in school. Paulina whos eyes bright teal and her hair was a silky ebony that reflected the light of the hallway. Paulina whos shirt was pink and cut perfectly to reveal her trimmed waist. Oh that beautiful expanse of skin she was so…
"Paulina" Danny droned out mouth agape.
His jaw dropped and a small dribble of moisture escaping his mouth.
Sam glared before smacking him on the back of his head.
"Huh wha?"
"Hey Fen-turd! What are you doing staring at my girl!"
Danny turned in shock to see a five foot nine football jock stomping over to him with a glare. The teen had his hands balled into fists.
" whoa Dash what's the problem?"
"I'll tell you what's my problem." He growled as he grabbed a fistful of Danny's shirt before lifting him and shoving into the locker. "Stay away from my girl." he enunciated slowly.
"Understood." Danny nodded quickly praying that he wasn't going to eat Dash's fist in a minute
Dash dropped Danny on the floor before stomping off to wrap an arm around Paulina and leading her away.
Behind the all American blonde haired blue eyed jerk was a stocky Asian who stomped over to Tucker and pushed him away from Star and wrapped an arm over her shoulder and lead her away from the techno geek.
"Ah another year of Great Expectations. For he loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be." A voice sighed.
Danny looked over to see a paunchy man looking at the group with boredom.
" ."
"The broken heart. You think you will die, but you just keep living, day after day after terrible day."
"wha..."
"Tell me Daniel can you name the book I just quoted. We spent most of last year on it?"
Danny gave him a blank look only for to glare down at him
"Get to class Fenton. I see that I have my work cut out for me again."
Danny sighed as he was helped up by his friends and they all made their way to class.
-DP-
Danny sighed in irritation as he slowly trudged his way towards home. Jazz apparently had some student council meeting even though it was the start of the year. Without a license he had to take the long way home.
6 blocks later and exhausted from carrying a bag full of books he finally made it to his front door. The house was quiet but he knew that meant nothing in Fenton house.
"I'm calling ahead just so i don't get shot!" Danny yelled from the front door with caution
"But knowing you both you will shoot me anyway." He muttered under his breath as he grabbed the Fenton-creepstick 2.0 AKA a metal bat with the name Fenton on it. He used the shine in the metal to peek around corners before continuing down the hall and to the door to his parents lab.
He saw a button on the wall with a sticky note on it 'Press so you don't get shot. Love mom'
Danny pressed it in caution raising the bat in case he needed to hit a flying object.
"Alert ALERT Alert ALERT Children are home." Out of the walls came speakers flashing lights and siren sounds
"Well that's new." Danny said only barely backing away from the lab door flying open and cracking the wall before he was lifted by his shirt and dragged downstairs.
"Danny-boy you need to see our latest invention! It is finally ready and you need to see us start it up!"
"Dad put me down! You know what Jazz said this violates at least 20 different ocean violations or something!"
"Danny-boy I don't care about the open sea I'm an inventor and a scientist and you are about to witness the greatest part of history in the making!"
"Jack put Danny down. Also sweetie you sister was right about one thing you both should have your own protective suit so here you go. Orange wouldn't look good on you anyway." Maddie said as she threw a suit at him that was white and black.
"Now Danny put that on."
Danny looked at both of his parents strangely as his mom set up an easel and his dad appeared to be drawing on some blueprint paper.
"Uh alright I guess." He started pulling on the jumpsuit and making sure everything is alright.
"Hey mom where's the hood on this thing?"
"Danny your a Fenton and you don't need any facial equipment it just gets in the way of your brain!"
"Dad that's not how that works at all."
"Danny boy I'm a scientist! All that safety crap is just to keep all the normal people from the real scientific discoveries! I haven't used any safety equipment and look how I've turned out."
'Oh yea dad please go on to explain how you are probably 2 explosions short of a superhero movie or full blown Cancer.' Danny thought in irritation as he glared over to his mom.
"I want headgear."
"Here Danny borrow these goggles then." Maddie Fenton handed over a set of goggles similar to her own
"Great now let's fire this baby up!"
"Jack sweetie it might help the excitement if Danny understood what exactly we were working on."
"Oh right. Explanations. Danny boy we have designed a machine to be a portal into the Ghost-Zone. It's a Zone….. Full of Ghosts! We plan to go in and grab a ghost and study it… For Science!"
"It's a portal designed to view into the unforeseen world of the dead Danny."
"That actually… sound really cool." Danny said in awe as he sat back listening to all the calculations and mumbo jumbo his parents ranted about.
"Enough numbers Maddie! Scientific accolades await!" Jack jumped up as he lifted two plugs and slams the plugs together in excitement. There is a whirl of power and many flashing lights. Maddie and Jack smile in excitement as they rush to the stations to watch the readings. Maddie practically bouncing in place at the readout machine.
"It works it works We did it!" Jack shouted
"Now it a moment the portal will open and we will.. What? No...No!" The sparks of electricity started to die out till everything hummed to a halt.
"NO!" Jack shouted as he started pressing buttons and pulling levers Unplugging and re-plugging to no avail
"Why?!" He shouted before his wife started to pull him away upstairs.
"Its alright Jack come on."
"It was working!"
"I know dear."
Danny looked at the machine in confusion. Why did it stop working? Maybe it was something inside the machine.
Danny got up and started to walk inside to look around. He had to give it to his parents this had to be one of their nicer looking experiments. It was less scrap heap and more sophisticated piece of work. But would it kill to have a light on the inside? He reached his hand out to touch the wall only to feel something give way under his palm.
He could hear a hum and suddenly he was centered in the middle of a great big flash. He felt himself being knocked off his feet and like he was being pulled in 12 different directions at once. Left right Up down He didn't know what pull was going to win. He was blinded by all the lights and he vaguely smelt the smell of smoke and something sweet being left on the heat. Toast? Bacon? He wasn't too sure but if it was left on the heat any longer it was going to burn. Oh there it was a burning smell or was that fire. That's not good. In the next moment he felt a great big shove pushing him out of the machine and it was greatly disorientating. This must be what it feels like to be hit by a car, or a train. Letting the world slip into black Danny let himself rest.
-DP-
"Mom?"
"Oh Jazz we didn't realize you were home."
"Yea I got back a few minutes ago. Why is dad crying into the peanut butter?"
"He's upset dear the project didn't pan out as we had hoped."
"Oh that big gate downstairs?"
"Yes it just sort of flickered then died on him when he tried to show it to your brother." Maddie said dismissively
"Oh that would do it. Where is Danny anyway."
"He probably went up to his room after he saw the failure."
"You don't know?"
"I was a bit busy with your father dear."
Jazz looked at her mother with concern as she makes her way upstairs to start working on her homework. Danny was probably goofing around in his room anyway.
Jazz wasn't entirely sure how long she was working on her homework when she heard a knock on her door. Getting up she answered it to see her mother half holding her dad and holding out a wrench.
"Jazz be a dear and put this away while I put your dad to bed. He bypassed the liquer security system and needs to sleep it off."
Jazz looked disgusted as she made her way downstairs to the lower floor. AS she descended into the basement the more ominous the lab felt. There was a green glow in the basement and she smelled smoke and meat. Like something was cooking and left on too long and burnt...hair? Like when she burnt an inch off her hair when she tried used a curling iron for the first time. Her steps got slower as she was hit with a startling realization. Where her parents doing live experiments in front of Danny? What more trauma could her brother endure?!
That poor animal. She slowed her steps to take a deep breath and prepare herself for the poor dead animal in a cage. As she made her final step into the lab and went to set her moms wrench on the workbench she turned around to see a swirling green machine and beneath it a mound? She stepped closer looking at it in confusion was that a black and white dog? It appeared to be black and crisped like burnt flesh. She took another step closer and what she thought were paws looked like hands. Hands? She kept stepping forward but her mind was telling her to stop and turn back.
Jazz fell to her knees as she looked at the half burned figure of her brother at the base of her parents machine. She slowly reached out to touch him pushing as gently as she could on his shoulder as she did she felt a squish and watched the meat slide revealing cooked flesh and sinew and a white… Oh god that was his bone!
"Danny ...Danny wake up?" She said
"Danny.. Come on."
"Daniel Fenton wake up this isn't funny!" She shouted at the body and she stopped in shock. She looked down and started to realize he was hard, and just barely warm. And he wasn't breathing.
Jasmine Fenton let out a sound that she probably thought was animal so full of pain and anguish it could wake the dead and in this instance it probably did.
--
AN: So I hope you all enjoy this story, my sister and myself are working together on this one and the idea was a bit too good to pass up. Anyway Please review ith any errors you might find here or send me a message so I can come back and fix it. Till next time.
AN2: quick update fixed some things: THE STORY IS NOT DONE YET :)