A/N: Yes, I realize I've been MIA for ages. I really should upload more, but I get lazy sometimes with this story. Forgive me for that.


"My dad's going to kill me for the missing fudge," Danny said.

"Not if he doesn't know it was you. But hey. When you have munchies, nothing else has priority except ending them," Hyde said with a grin. Let's just say that after Danny woke up, the fridge ended up having a more significant lack of food. The evidence of the fudge being gone was the empty pan. At least his hunger was satisfied. It was why he put the pan back in the kitchen and left almost immediately.

"That seemed to have been the case, given the fact that I did it anyway," Danny said.

"How about you go and visit your new friends? They all have your number. Besides, that Trish girl might interested in showing you a good time," Hyde said. He had the most uneasy feeling that Hyde was winking when he said that, regardless of the fact that he didn't technically have eyes.

"You are disgusting, you know that?" Danny asked.

"No. I'm perverted. There's a difference," Hyde said, his grin showing through his tone.

"You need a life," Danny said with a roll of his eyes.

"I did. Once before. At least this is almost as fun," Hyde said before chuckling. "Huh. Maybe today will be a good day."

"Not for me if you continue to irritate me. Man, am I glad it's still the weekend," Danny said.

"Danny! What's good, bro?!" a voice exclaimed, making him turn his head. Jeff had his head hanging out of the window of his car, and he was waving at Danny as he drove along the side of the road.

"Yup. Say hello to your stoner friends," Hyde said with a grin before he fell silent. Danny restrained himself from physically rolling his eyes and instead stopped and waved at Jeff. He met the car on the side of the curb, and a closer look let him know that Chris, Stephanie, and Trish were the car with him; the latter of the bunch gave the halfa a wink. He was almost unsuccessful at nearly tripping over his own feet.

"Control yourself for two seconds kids," Jeff said in a joking tone before looking at Danny fully. "You doing anything?"

"Not at the moment. Still the weekend," Danny said. "I needed to get out of the house cause..."

"Lemme guess. Your munchies struck you immediately," Jeff said with a knowing grin.

"No one in my house touches my dad's fudge on account of him going crazy over it, and I did it to satiate some munchies. One day of smoking, and I'm already devolving into suicidal tendencies," Danny said while shaking his head, making all passengers in the car laugh.

"Well, you're welcome to hang with us. After all, I got..." Jeff grinned while looking around him before showing him a bag of weed. Though Danny noticed he kept it well hidden in case anyone was looking. "Interested?"

"I'm not trying to become hooked on the stuff," Danny said with a pointed look.

"Too late. Alright, you don't have to smoke. It's your loss. But you at least have to hang with us," Jeff said.

"Trust me. The only one around here who might bite you is Trish, and it'll be a good kind of bite," Stephanie said with a smirk, making Danny go red while Trish laughed as she hit her friend on the arm.

"Where are the others?" Danny asked, doing his best to dispel the red from his face.

"Sapphire's out with our boy Mark, and Clark's out to try and work his magic on some poor, unsuspecting woman. Bless him," Chris said with a mock sniff. Danny gave the people in the car a second once over.

"I should say no to save my virtue," he said idly. Nevertheless, he opened the car door and got in anyway.

"But regardless of common sense, you're coming with us anyway. Great decision Fenton," Jeff said, raising a thumbs up. "And if you're wondering how we know your last name, we saw you coming out of the giant house with the Fentonworks sign up top. Not hard to figure out at that point."

"So much for anonymity," Danny said dryly as they began to drive off.

"So what is his royal highness in the mood for?" Jeff asked with a grin."I wouldn't mind a burger, personally, but..."

"Honestly, do we really have any other decent place other than Nasty Burger?" Danny questioned.

"None that I've bothered to check out. Nasty Burger it is," Jeff said as he stopped a light.

The rest of the car drive was just filled with idle chatter. As Danny soon discovered, Jeff had quite a talent for talking a mile a minute. Though he also had the tendency to tell decent jokes while doing so. At least it was always light around this group, and that was something he would always be glad for. If it ever wasn't, well... everyone had bad days.

"So your parents are ghost hunters?" Trish questioned.

"Not very good ones, honestly. But, at least my dad isn't. I'm pretty sure most of the time my mom has to watch him just so she doesn't end up hurting anyone besides the ghost. Like himself," Danny said dryly making her chuckle.

"Sounds like you have great parents," Trish said with a smirk.

"Oh, the coolest," Stephanie said with a smirk.

"I hate you all," Danny said with all the enthusiasm of a sloth.

"Mmm-hmm. Keep saying that and one day we'll believe you," Jeff said with a grin as he pulled up to Nasty Burger.

And it was here Danny decided to repeat "I hate you all" the entire time that it took them to get into the fast food joint. It was Hyde's suggestion, and Danny actually decided to go with it. It drove everyone crazy.

"Alright! We believe you! Or at least I do!" Jeff exclaimed, making Danny laugh until he was barely on his feet. Unknown to everyone except Danny, Hyde was in a similar state except that he didn't have feet. Weird bonding moment with his mental companion. Or whatever you wanted to call this situation.

"Oh, I'm thirsty like you wouldn't believe right now, but it was worth it. I could feel the blood vessels in your brains about to pop," he said.

"I would've likely would've popped your head like a pimple before that happened," Stephanie said, her tone slightly irritated.

"You could most certainly try," Danny said, his tone full of teasing. Then he spun to the side to dodge her swipe at him.

"Christ, you're fast," Stephanie said when she saw he moved next to Jeff with just one dodge.

"I'm decent at dodgeball," Danny said with a shrug as they made it to the counter.

"And a master of irritation," Trish added.

"Funny. My sister says the same thing. I still take it as a compliment," Danny said with a grin.

"Enough of that. We're at the desk. I'm going to order for you if you don't stop, and I will be cheap with it," Chris said, since he was the one with the deepest wallet in here. Here Danny made the gesturing of zipping his lip, but at about the same time, his ghost sense went off. Regardless, Chris smirked at the gesture.

"Thought so," he said.

"Mind if we cut in?" a voice said, making Danny stiffen just off reflex. He looked around to just behind where Trish and Stephanie were standing, and he noticed that Johnny 13 was standing along with Kitty. But they were dressed different. It seems they had both decided on a much more subtle approach, because Kitty seemed to have worn something that made her skin less ghostly looking. Johnny's natural skin didn't really look that unlike the skin of a regular person, so he was fine. It seemed they were making efforts to actually not blow their cover as ghosts. Which really confused Danny.

"I certainly don't hope you expect me to pay for you two as well. My parents give me a lot of money, but that doesn't mean I want to spend it all. Hell, I barely want to buy for Danny over here," Chris said, jerking his thumb at the halfa.

"I feel the love. I really do," Danny said flatly, making everyone grin.

"Considering we were very close to killing you a few minutes ago, I'm amazed," Stephanie said dryly.

"Oh, I'd say everyone gets that feeling every now and then," Johnny said with a grin in his direction. Danny aimed a smile at him, but it wan't an easy going smile. It was that dark smile he was starting to see more and more. And his ribs suddenly hurt.

"Yeah, you hear him say the same thing over and over again to irritate you and see if you wouldn't be at his throat with a knife," Stephanie said with some irritation.

"You said to keep saying it..." Danny said with an innocent look, but eyes full of mischief.

"Good God, you are infuriating," Stephanie said.

"Funny. Ember says the same thing quite often," Kitty said idly.

"That's because it's fun to prod the people that make it so easy to mess with their heads," Danny said. "Both you and Ember just make it to easy. Make it difficult. That's what makes the difference."

"It's not exactly a switch I can flip," Stephanie said, giving him a deadpanned look. "Jeff, help me out here."

"I'll have the... hmm?" Jeff's head turned once he realized his name got called. "Oh, um... what she said." Stephanie rolled her eyes along with Kitty and Trish while Danny, Chris, and Johnny chuckled.

"Believe me. That I know well. Almost makes me wish I had chosen Danny here," Kitty said with her a purr in her voice, rather ironically. That made Danny choke on his spit and sent him into a coughing fit. Johnny glared at Kitty. The stoners looked at Danny in amusement.

"You used to date his girlfriend? You must've left some impression if it didn't last," Stephanie said with a devilish grin. Danny knew she was taking the piss out of him for annoying her so badly. He couldn't blame her.

"One date, and if you recall, I was used as bait to get Johnny upset," Danny said, who was glaring daggers at Kitty. But this didn't seem like his "I'm going maim you for this" glare. This was, "I'm very irritated and going to make death threats towards you" kind of glare. Which was the kind of glare that didn't offer broken bones and bruises to nurse.

"Yes, that was true... Doesn't you weren't a fun time. Still, time must go on," Kitty said, making Danny growl. He remembered feeling happy at the idea that Paulina had asked him on a date. And then it turned about to be Kitty. He would've made her for a ghost immediately if he had the common sense he had now.

"So you just used him to make Johnny jealous?" Trish questioned.

"Hey, a girl can only take a wandering eye so much," Kitty said.

"The joys of being freely single," Chris said with a grin.

"Joy, since the one girl I considered dating died not too long ago." The atmosphere suddenly went from cheerful and teasing to incredibly morbid. "And the next you consider pulling a stunt like that, I'll unscrew your head off from the shoulders. Emotions are not to be played with."

And that's when the stoners saw something in Danny's eyes that suddenly worried them. His rather cheerful disposition was gone, and there was something in his eyes that was particularly... deadly. There was no other word for it. It was a sharp, intimidating look that held a great amount of intensity. And focusing on that look, they managed to miss the small shudder Kitty gave at his look. She was very much aware his emotions changed on the dime nowadays.

"It was a long time ago. It was a mistake," Kitty said carefully. Almost on demand, the look in his eyes disappeared and he looked fairly calm again.

"Just don't do it again. How about we order?" Danny said to the others.

"Uh... yeah. We'll do that," Jeff said as he turned to the others. They shrugged as they looked back at Danny, who suddenly didn't look like he was about to commit a second degree homicide in the middle of this place.


"Danny?" Trish questioned, making Danny sigh. He knew his sudden bout of anger wouldn't go unnoticed.

"About..."

"I know. I'm sorry. I kind of just... lost it for a second there. Happens more than I care to admit, honestly," he said, idly fiddling with one of his fries.

"Why's that? You normally seem... calm," Jeff said.

"Two of my friends died not that long ago. Ghost attacks," Danny said solemnly. Suddenly his appetite wasn't there anymore.

"Oh man dude. I'm..."

"Don't even even say it. It's not your fault. Though I have to say it uh... makes me rather moody at times. I'm trying to think about it less and less," Danny said, forcing himself to take a bite of his burger.

"We noticed. And as for you and... her?" Trish asked, jerking a thumb at Kitty.

"The memory irritates me more than anything now. Today I'm just a bit sore," Danny said, popping a fry into his mouth.

"Believe me, it's not one of my proudest moments," Kitty said honestly. Danny seemed to notice that she actually meant it before nodding. Then again, the statement was open to very specific perceptions.

"Still... that's not easy man," Stephanie said.

"No. But it does get easier. With time," Danny said.

"Alright, enough with the depression. Let's eat, and then we can head out," Chris said.

"Fair point," Danny said.

"Hey Pha... Fenton," Johnny quickly corrected himself, and Danny turned in his direction to address him. "Remember grand ol' Penny?"

"Penny..." Danny gave the name some thought and his mind wandered to the ghosts. Penny... Spectra. "Yeah. She's a soul sucker. What of the old hag?"

"Hag?" Jeff questioned.

"If you saw her, you'd know," Kitty said. "Without something to help with her looks, she looks like a wrinkly sandbag." That got a fairly good laugh out of everyone, especially Danny and Johnny." Neither of them were fans of Spectra. She didn't really have friends for a good reason. She had an unhealthy feeding of the misery of people she was remotely friendly with. Not a great way to make friends. In fact, the only thing really linking her to any kind of ghost was pretty much everyone's disdain for Phantom. Except for Bertrand. He was just unfortunate enough to be saddled with her.

"Are you sure you aren't talking about my chemistry teacher?" Chris questioned with a grin.

"Whatever she looks like, I doubt could look even worse than Spectra does," Danny said.

"Paint us a picture," Trish said, and Danny was too happy to oblige.

"Unless she has enough makeup to paint an elephant, wrinkly skin, sunken eyes, hair that looks like gray spaghetti, the works," Danny said casually, making them grin.

"Now I'm more than certain you're talking about my chemistry teacher," Chris said with a wider grin, making his companions laugh again.

"Come on. Even old Ida doesn't sound that bad," Stephanie said.

"I don't know about that..." Jeff and Chris trailed, making Stephanie turn to Trish for support.

"They kinda got a point. She did not age well," she said with a shrug.

"Thanks for the backup guys. It means a lot," Stephanie said flatly. Jeff laughed before putting an arm around her in an assured fashion.

"Just go with us on this one Steph," he said. She didn't respond, but looked to Danny instead.

"I don't suppose you have a picture of her?" she asked.

"Why would I have that? You want my pocket to melt?" Danny questioned, making the others snicker.

"Good point. It'd actually be kind of weird if you did," Stephanie said.

"Yeah, no kidding," he said as he finished the last of his burger. "I'm ready when you all are."

"Finished," Chris said.

"We all good? Alright. Let's go, Stone Boo," Jeff said, making Stephanie take his arm off her.

"You call me that again, I'm breaking up with you," she said flatly, making everyone laugh like a hyena. Jeff included.


"NOOOOOO!" Jazz jumped so hard, she lost the grip on the book she was holding and it fell flat on her face. That sounded like dad. As she had been helping Danny helping ghosts on too many occasions, she started rushing downstairs with a ghost blaster in hand. She skidded into the kitchen and barely managed to stop herself before she hit the wall as she was waiting to see which ghost had somehow managed to get into the house.

"What happened?! Ghost?" Jazz quickly questioned urgently. Only to calm down once her eyes assessed the situation. There was no ghost. Only Jack kneeling on the ground with a pan in his hands. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that her mom had jumped to the same conclusion and came running into the kitchen with a blaster that made hers look like a peashooter. It was even more amazing she was able to run that fast carrying something so heavy.

"Ghost?!" Maddie questioned before like Jazz, she stopped to assess the situation in front of her. "Jack? What's wrong?"

"My fudge!" Jack said, sounding thunderstruck. "It's gone!" Jazz quickly went from worried to irritated. She thought a ghost had somehow snuck into the place. It was just her dad crying over his missing fudge. Then again, that in itself was strange. No one touched his fudge. Everyone learned real quick that their father had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the stuff. Then her mind went back to Danny coming home smelling like pot.

"Ugh. What a time to get a brother who gets into smoking pot," Jazz thought before focusing on the situation at hand. "Are you sure you just didn't eat it again dad?"

"It was only made a few days ago. I'm more than sure," Jack said before his eyes zeroed in on his daughter. "Did you eat it?"

"Not the biggest fan of fudge, remember?" she reminded him.

"Unheard of, but ok," Jack said, making Jazz shake her head. "Maddie?"

"Don't look at me Jack. I'm in the same boat as Jazzy, honestly," Maddie said before noticing they were missing one person. "Where's Danny?"

"Ah ha! We have our culprit!" Jack said, overdramatically pointing his finger in the air. Both mother and daughter mirrored each others' expression of disbelief. Then again, they shouldn't have been very surprised.

"It's fudge. Not a murder case," Jazz said rather dispassionately. "We'll just ask him when he gets home."

"The penalty will be one fresh new pan of fudge," Jack said, not seeming to hear them as he walked off.

"How did you end up marrying someone so obsessed with fudge?" Jazz questioned.

"To be honest, I have no idea how it got so out of hand. But it's part of who he is. Besides, I kind of fibbed about the part about not like fudge. It's why I tend to make more than one batch," Maddie said in a type of conspirator level of tone. "Do you think it may have been Danny?"

"Either he all of sudden inherited dad's craving for fudge regardless of the consequences, or we have a fudge bandit on the loose," Jazz suggested.

"Both of those options don't sound very appealing. You know how your father gets about his fudge," Maddie said.

"Believe me. I know well," Jazz said while shaking her head. "I legitimately thought a ghost somehow found its way in here."

"So did I," Maddie said, casually putting the behemoth of a blaster on her shoulder. Then she spotted the one Jazz was holding. "You get that out of her our lab?"

"Doesn't hurt to have some protection against ghosts in this town," Jazz said, making Maddie smile.

"Smart girl. I just wish your brother would do something similar. Especially after what happened to his friends," Maddie said with a sad sigh.

"Oh, I think you'd be surprised," Jazz said vaguely.

"At least you all are safe. In any case, I better make a pan of fudge so your father will calm down. Some for myself as well, while I'm at it," Maddie said, moving the pull the ingredients out of the cabinet.

Jazz shook her head. This town may have had a ghost problem as bad as motels have a roach problem, but they still didn't quite have anything on her nutjob of a family.


"Bleh," Ember said rather plainly as she played a few chords on her guitar. She was bored out of her mind. You could only play so many songs before you started to get bored. It's not like she had an audience to play for. That made all the difference.

"Where the hell is Kitty?" Ember thought as she put her guitar to the side. Almost as if her thoughts were brought into reality, Kitty suddenly walked into the door with Johnny behind her. "Good grief. Where the hell have you two been?"

"Hello to you too," Kitty said flatly.

"Do you have any idea how bored I've been?" Ember questioned.

"There was seriously nothing for you to do?" Kitty questioned.

"Let's see. I can't start a show cause the dipstick will take it as trying to enslave the world again, and he may or may not be right. Taking over the world is out. You already know who's responsible for that. I'm minus a boyfriend, even if he was an utter dumbass. And apparently, nothing exciting is going on. No attacks, no parties, no anything. So yes. I was out of things to do other than play my guitar, and even that will only last me so long without an audience," Ember explained, sounding fairly miffed.

"Well, next time we'll take you with us if you're that bored," Kitty said.

"And you were..." Ember trailed.

"With Phantom and his friends," Kitty said, making Ember raise an eyebrow.

"Seriously?" she questioned.

"Well, we were passing by and just decided to join him," Kitty said.

"He's not so bad if your plans weren't related to world domination," Johnny said.

"That's just the issue. Shouldn't we be trying to get rid of Phantom?" Ember said.

"You forget. That's always been more of your guys' thing. After that whole overshadowing event, I can't hate him too much," Kitty said. "Well, if I ignore what happened a few days ago. That hurt."

"I'll say," Johnny said.

"Still can't get any worse than what he did to Skulker. That... was something else," Ember said, recalling the day. Phantom had never looked so much like a wild dog on a rampage.

"Speaking of him, I haven't seen him around recently," Kitty said.

"That I don't mind. Just don't leave me here to die of boredom again," Ember said.

"I'll remember that for next time. Just try to keep your eyes of Phantom," Kitty said with a smirk.

"You want me to hit you?" Ember questioned, making Kitty laugh. "At the very least if you suggest something that offensive, I'll kick you out."

"Still, are you bored anymore?" she questioned.

"Thankfully, no. You have bad taste in jokes though," Ember said.

"Ah, you just don't have a sense of humor," Kitty said.

"The image would make me barf. It'd be like a stripper going after the Pope," Johnny said, making Ember smack him on the back of the head. "Ow! What'd I say?"

Ember smacked him again while Kitty rolled her eyes. She saddled with the pinnacle of intelligence right here.


A/N: Hopefully I won't take almost another year to update. lol. My bad. Just slacked a little on this.