Starting over can really suck but it's no use dwelling in the past best thing to do is move on right? So Happy Holidays and sorry again if this came out a bit late.
Chapter 1
Acceptance
After having a quick breakfast, Principal Powers set out to work to finish with some minor details before heading out on her other task of the day. It didn't take long for her to arrive on top of the large floating campus and walk into the building with confident and powerful strides that demanded respect from all and any student that has ever entered these halls. But today they were devoid of any teenage life forms.
She walked the path towards the science department where Mr. Medulla—the science teacher—was sure to be at this time. Sure enough, the sound of voices reached her ears as she neared; one belonging to Mr. Medulla and the other belonging to the freshmen hero support teacher Mr. Boy.
Just as she was about to open the door to the science lab, someone addressed her from behind in a familiar booming manner.
"Good morning Principal Powers,"
Upon hearing her name, she turned to see the blue and white gym clothes and hat of non other than Coach Boomer. "Good morning," she nodded and greeted in a pleasant tone, "How are you today Boomer?"
The strict gym teacher made a face and replied a bit acrimoniously, "Not good. You know that machine we have and that we use every freshman orientation that regulates the different tests there are in order to determine and evaluate a kid's powers and where they belong?"
"Yes, the Power Placement Simulator. What about it?" she enquired curiously, hoping that it wasn't something else to be added to the new school year list of things to get done before the start of the new semester. So far it wasn't shrinking all that much.
"The darn thing was giving me trouble, especially with the car drop," seeing the slight look of exasperation creeping upon his boss' face he quickly added, "Don't worry though, I managed to get it all under control and fix it," he reassured her, "One of the springs in the auto projector was rusty and got stuck," he explained, "but a bit of oil should be able to fix that for now. Just until the janitor can replace it with a new spring."
Coach Boomer peered over the principal's shoulder to see where she was headed off to. He read the letters on the door behind her signifying the science lab. "Are you off to see ole Einstein about those darn mutant gerbils?" he pointed to the door with an annoyed look and a glare emitting from his eyes. No doubt meant for the mad genius within the confines of the room.
"Yes I am," Powers confirmed with an affirmative nod, "I have to check up on him to make sure that everything is all right now, then I have to be off to go and attend to another matter, the one I emailed you about last night.."
Coach Boomer looked confused for a second before the memory of the principal's message finally became elucidated "Oh! Yes… Now I remember. Something about a new kid coming in this year right?" The coach paused for a bit and gave brunette a quizzical look, "I thought you said you weren't coming in toady because of it."
"Well that was my intension at first but Mr. Medulla asked me to come for he had something to tell me that he said would greatly interest me," she clarified for the coach.
"Oh," deciding to change the topic Boomer asked, "So who's the kid's parents then? Is it Nebula or how about that duh…um… that cheetah girl… what was her name again…" He faltered for a second as he racked his brain for the name.
Powers sighed and rolled her eyes fastidiously, "Speed Killer," she offered.
The coach snapped his fingers, "That's it!" Looking a bit smug about knowing her name, overall, not noticing the white clad woman in front of him slowly was shaking her head, "She had a kid a few years ago with some lawyer. Is that the kid?"
"No, and besides her boy is only ten years old, we won't see him for about four more years," she corrected.
"Oh, I see. So who then? Because I'm pretty sure that all the kids that are suppose to be new freshmen this year and next, had already been found and notified about their acceptance at Sky High. I mean, all the superheroes with kids all over the world already know that sooner or later their kids will be going here." The coach added still not quite sure why the principal of the best school for super-powered teens was going to personally go address a student if one or both of their parents have powers.
"That's just it Boomer," Powers said, "This child doesn't have any super-hero parent or is even the descendent of one."
"The physical educator was taken back by surprise for a brief moment. That was certainly one of the last things he could have expected. "You mean that they're a random pick?" He stopped short and then resumed in an unabashed tone, "Well we haven't had one of those in years to say the least. This will definitely be interesting. It's been nice seeing you and good luck, I have to go and get the simulation room ready for all the newbies coming in this year." The man gave a small wave and walked off towards his office near the gymnasium.
Principal Powers also bid him a good-bye with a small wave in return and walked inside the classroom. All was in place and ready for the new school year that begun in only a week. The beakers and chemicals were all in storage or set up in their proper place with all the necessary safety equipment nearby. The familiar and rather large cranium of Mr. Medulla was in the front of the chalk board writing out a few calculations out while Mr. Boy stood opposite of him silently observing and bobbing his head every now and then. Both teachers unaware of the principal's presence as both men's backs were turned to her.
"Hmm… I see what you mean Medulla. So by readjusting the proportional pull in the gun we can—Oh!" Mr. Boy exclaimed in surprise, finally taking notice of the woman in the room when she cleared her throat to gain their attention. "Why hello there Principal Powers, I-I didn't see you there," the teacher greeted cheerfully with a smile, "Mr. Medulla here and I were just figuring out some ways to increase the range and efficiency on net launchers." He gestured towards the blackboard that was covered with different calculations and a small diagram of a standard net launcher to the right.
"That… and as well as making it so that different materials that correspond to the multifarious genetic structures of some villains," Mr. Medulla said with a hint of pride in his voice, "It won't be so easy for someone to extricate themselves from on of these as soon as they're operational." He held out a gun that looked like it was still in the first stages of development thus in a way it was more like the skeleton of the invention.
"Is this the invention that you wished to show me?" Powers asked clearly impressed with the ingenuity of this invention. Something like this would really be a great help to the heroes of the world.
"Yes it is," he answered. "But also so that I could inform you about the slight problems there are to this type of weaponry."
"What sort of problems?"
"There are some side effects that come with using it," Mr. Medulla began to explain. "There's also a slight difficulty with construction as well. When it is fired there is a small shock wave that lets out the same components in the net but in a gaseous form. In the worst case scenario it can sometimes be poison that stuns the nervous system for a while of the user and anyone with in the shock's range. If a hero's gene structure resides within the same category or genetic family of components then there is a possibility that said hero could suffer the same consequences as the villain it was intentioned for."
Powers grimaced at the thought. That was definitely a huge set back to the invention. One could only imagine the problems that it could cause in a real battle to defend humanity.
After a shot pause while the principal took in all the information she spoke, "I see," she said in her usual composed manner, "And the problem of construction…?"
"You need an even mix of every single component, mineral, chemical, and substance there is." Mr. Medulla said straight forwardly, "Some of them are—"
"Hard to find or obtain, and can be highly dangerous if exposed to another chemical." She cut him off filling in the rest of the blanks herself.
"Exactly."
The woman in white sighed trying to keep down her rising disappointment as much as possible. 'Oh well, all the best inventions always have their own set backs before progress can be made,' she thought tiredly. Looking down at her watch she realized that she was running a bit late. "I'm sorry about this but I have to be off now."
"We understand," Mr. Boy said, "I here that we're accepting a new student this year that doesn't have any power inheritance from any of the parents."
"That's right and if I want to be back home in time for dinner, I have to go right now."
"Well good luck then. I personally look forward to seeing their face here at Sky High."
Without another word Principal Powers turned herself into a comet and flew out the doors of the school and into the sky. During the daylight she blended in perfectly with the clouds and their pure white contour. 'I just hope I can still catch him in time,' she thought to herself high up in the sky.
--
School was finally over and even though it was only the third day back it felt like an eternity for the three teens currently occupying their usual table in the farthest corner of the Nasty Burger. Their bodies slouched tiredly on the booth seats none having the energy at the moment to even pick up their order and bring it to their mouths to eat.
"Ugh! I can't believe this," groaned the gothic member of the group with disgust clearly dripping from every syllable, "Three days back in school and already I want to rip out my hair."
"Tell me about," added Tucker putting his face on the table, "I mean five pop quizzes and a test all in just three days. Where do teachers come up with this stuff?"
"They probably meet underground in some remote location and just plan ways to make our brains hurt and our lives miserable," quirked Danny picking up his burger and taking a bite out of it.
"Oh come on Danny I don't think they actually do that," Sam said rolling her eyes.
"Wouldn't surprise me if they actually did," Tucker muttered not even bothering to lift his head up from its current position.
Danny chewed slowly not really tasting anything (not that there was much to taste). So far the first week back to school had been anything but fun. Dash seemed to have gotten even more obnoxious during the summer coming with a whole new arsenal of names to call Danny by, and Mrs. Tetslaff seemed to have gotten even meaner and her dislike for those who were "weak" seemed to have grown as well. The whole time during gym all she did was make them go through an obstacle course as fast as they could then make them play a game of flag football against the football players in that period. Which, luck would have, had Dash in it.
Thanks to his powers and the ghost hunting he's done in the past year and a half, only a really stupid person would still classify Danny as weak. But on the downside he had to keep it a secret in order to protect his alter ego as the town's ghostly savior. So his baggy clothes did well to hide the fruits of his labor so that no one would ever guess Danny Fenton was really Danny Phantom.
So for now until he graduated he'd have to live with a mean gym teacher and a stupid bully. On top of it all he had a huge pile of homework already and there's been the usual amount of ghosts as always. Unfortunately since he was back in school it was harder to hunt them down and send them back especially on school nights and during school hours. His parents were getting pretty tired of their youngest child coming home late, and the teachers were all but sick of having Danny being excused and not coming back to class for half an hour or so.
Oh the joys of High School…
The only good thing about today was that it was over and that the other day he had beaten Vlad's plot to steal the Infi Map from Frostbite and had left the older half-ghost something that was sure to be very painful and hard to remove from his back side.
"Well at least today's over right," Danny said trying to be a bit more upbeat, "And we don't have too much homework, so what do you guys want to do?"
"I don't know about you guys but all I want to do is go home and take a nice long nap with my precious technology and then maybe watch some TV before bed." Tucker stated holding his PDA in his hands and scrolling down the screen, "Ooh, there's a new episode of Technology of Tomorrow on tonight!" he said excited.
Danny and Sam just looked at each other and got back to eating there food in silence while their friend went on about how great it would be. Tucker blathered on just like Jack Fenton blathered on and on about ghosts making it pretty hard for his two best friend to stay awake through the whole thing.
"…and their suppose to be unveiling the newest prototype of the FX 250 tonight in Japan in honor of the founder of non other than—I'm boring you guess aren't I"
"I'm not sure that Danny counts as bored. I'd say more towards brain dead." Sam pointed towards Danny who was snoring in his seat using his half-eaten burger as a pillow.
Tucker then got a devilish grin on and Sam instantly knew what that meant and a similar smile came upon her face as well. "Ready?" he asked.
Sam nodded and started down the countdown, "One...two…three...GHOST!!!" They both cried out in union making their friend jump up in surprise and fall out of the booth onto the floor with a yelp.
The dazed teen looked up to see Sam and Tucker both laughing hysterically at him. Danny shot the two of them a frosty glare, "Oh ha-ha you guys, real funny."
"Oh man… sorry due but it was too much to resist!" blurted Tucker between breathes.
"Yeah and you know what else is hard to resist?" Danny's eyes glowed acid green for a second before returning to their usual azure blue.
Tucker gulped and instantly stopped all good cheer in his throat. If there's one thing in the world that could get Tucker to shut up was Danny when he was in a 'mischievous' mood and when he had that evil glint in his eyes.
"Danny cut it out," Sam chuckled, "You're scarring Tucker and some kids behind us,"
"Good." Danny said proudly.
They finished up their food and threw the trash away and just walked around town and some how ended up near the old train station where most of the cargo was unloaded. It wasn't too busy with none of the workers giving the three high schoolers any more than a two second glance. So they stopped at one of the old box cars that were no longer in much use these days and just sat down to take a break.
"You know, I think this is the first time we've just walked around doing nothing without a ghost popping out every ten minutes," noted Sam looking around the train yard.
"I think the last time we actually had time to sit around and do nothing was… I can't really remember." Danny said.
"I don't think that it counts for much coming from you Danny," Sam said innocently.
"What's that suppose to mean," Danny rose to the bait that Sam was dangling in front of him.
"It's just considering you have the attention span of a rodent I doubt you can even remember what you even did yesterday."
Danny stuck his tongue at her which she returned happily with a gently shove. Tucker meanwhile just stood back and watched tirelessly as the two teens in front of him continued to almost flirt with each other back and forth. It was hard to believe that with the time these two spent together and all of the obvious signs that they were still in denial of their feeling towards one another. He just hoped that they would come to his senses soon or he'd lose a bet with one of his online techno-geek friends.
Neither of them noticed the bright light zoom across the darkening sky nor did anyone of them notice that they were no longer alone. A woman dressed smartly in a white suit came out from behind one of the old box cars. Her heels hitting the ground were what got the teens' attentions at last for all the other workers had already left home early and they had been the only human being around in that area for a while now. The sound sounded like a bomb to the trio as their heads snapped up to look at where the sound had come from.
All three of them tensed up, a worker or a guard wouldn't have made Danny as nervous as the woman before him. Unlike most adults she had an intelligent, and authoritive look to her and something in the back of the raven-haired boy's mind told him that this was someone who wasn't easily fooled.
Their eyes met; brown to blue and not straying anywhere else. She stopped ten or so feet from where the teens were now standing watching her every move.
"Hello there," she said with a kind smile, "Is one of you Daniel James Fenton of Amity Park?"
Danny exchanged glances with Sam and Tucker and cautiously said, "I prefer Danny um…"
"Powers," the woman said, "I'm Principal Powers, and I wish to speak to you," she looked over to the other two teens, "In private, if that's all right with you."
Danny looked unsure, "Um okay,"
Sam pulled him aside ignoring his cry of discomfort of being pushed around, "Can you excuse us for a moment Ms. Powers. Thanks!" Sam pulled him a few yards away along with Tucker close behind.
"Ow ow ow ow!!!! Jeeze Sam warn a guy next time will you," Tucker whined as he nursed the soon to be red mark on his arm where Sam had held on to so hard to.
Ignoring him she turned to face Danny, "Danny what are you doing?" she scowled, "How do we know that we can trust this lady, how do we know that she's not some spy from the Guys in White or from Vlad?"
"Sam, take it easy," Danny held up his hands hoping to calm the fiery Goth down a bit, "I don't think she's with the GIW or Vlad. Sure she's dressed in white but come on, have you ever actually seen a girl GIW agent before?"
"You got a point there," Sam grudgly admitted. "But still—"
"Sam it wouldn't hurt to find out why she's here and what she wants with me," Danny reasoned.
"Fine," Sam huffed in defeat, "But me and Tucker are going to stay with you,"
"Hey guys," Tucker piped up.
"What?"
"That lady is looking over here."
"Alright we hear what she has to say and then we go," Sam whispered as the three of them walked back.
"Sam relax," Danny whispered back.
As soon as they were back within hearing distant where the mystery woman that had revealed herself to be known as Principal Powers was waiting patiently. Danny glanced towards Sam and Tucker and then at Powers and said, "Okay so what is it that you want to talk about." He felt relieved that he had managed to keep his suspicion and nervousness out of his voice.
There was just this weird vibe that the young hybrid was getting from Powers that he wasn't so sure about. It didn't feel like a bad vibe though just strange.
"I'm here to discuss with you a very important matter, one that I wish to discuss with only Mr. Fenton here," she said sternly looking at the two behind the boy.
Sam looked a bit angry and was about to say something but Danny beat her to it, "Anything that you can say to me you can say in front of my friends."
Powers raised an eyebrow at his response a bit taken back and oddly impressed at the same time. The kid had guts for sure. "Very well then, like I said before my name is Principal Powers and I am the head of a very special school for gifted teens like you Danny." The boy suddenly grew pale and exchanged nervous glances with both of his comrades, "It's called Sky High and it can help you harness you powers so that you have control over them as best as possible, and you are eligible to be accepted there."
"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about…"
Powers didn't buy it for a second and Danny knew it making him even more nervous. "Oh but you do know what I'm talking about. For you see this school was built and designed specifically for teenagers with powers like yours—of course powers tend to vary between individuals but they're powers non the less."
"There has to be a mistake then," Sam offered backing up Danny.
"Yeah," Tucker added, "You can't tell or even prove that Danny has any sort of powers."
"Make note that we don't make mistakes," Powers began to explain, "You see we have a system that searches through a data base of all blood samples and DNA tests run on any child in the world, and also the family trees of parents who already have powers and those powers are inherited by their children.
"Danny's gene structure showed signs of having extraordinary gifts. This is a chance for him to harness his power and get them under control and learn more about them and other subjects as well."
Danny thought this over. There really was a school where there were other kids that were just like him? It didn't seem possible and it was sure to be a trick and Danny didn't have any intension of someone pulling a wool over him anytime soon.
"Prove it." He stated crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Pardon?" Powers blinked a bit confused.
"Prove it," Danny repeated, "f you're the principal of this so called school then that must mean that you also have powers, so prove it."
The principal smiled and raised her hands, "Comets Away!" in a flash her body became a white comet that zoomed through the train yard doing some loop in the air and maneuvering through different obstacles with precision ease. Danny, Sam, and Tucker just stood there with their mouths wide open as the women turned back into a person in front of their very eyes. "Is that proof enough for you?"
All the dumbfounded teens could do was nod their heads.
"I know this might come to you as a bit of a shock but this really is a great cane for you Mr. Fenton." She symphonized, "So if you come to a decision here's my card," she handed Danny a small business card with her cell, house, and office number, "The new school ear stats next week so you have some time to decide. There's no need to rush and one more thing before I leave…" Danny looked up from the card, "At Sky High you're free to be different. Comets Away!" She turned herself into a comet once more streaking across the now dark sky like a shooting star.
Danny was still looking at the card with a lank expression as he was deep in thought.
"Well that was definitely different," Tucker said breaking the silence. "You think that she was telling the truth?"
"Probably but we've seen so many weird things in our lives I don't think that she was making it up," Sam said. "What do you think Danny? Danny. Danny. Hello earth to ghost-boy,"
Danny snapped out of his thoughts, "Huh what?"
"I said what do you think?"
"I think that…well… I honestly don't know what to think," was all that the confused ghost-boy could say. The whole thing seemed to have passed in a blur and he was still trying to retain in all of the information.
"Maybe we ought to go home and think this over," Tucker suggested looking at his watch, "It's almost curfew and if I miss it just one more time my mom is going to freak. What about you guys?"
"Sam here Tuck," Sam said rolling her eyes, "My parents are seriously starting to get on my last nerves."
Danny changed into his white-haired, green-eyed alter ego, "Come on then, I'll take you guys home." Taking one friend in one arm he took off into the sky. Tucker's house was the closest he dropped him off first leaving just him and Sam alone. They fell into a silence that made Sam worry a bit for her friend. Danny seemed lost in deep thought and his eyes weren't really seeing anything, just looking out in a daze.
"…Danny are you okay?" she asked worriedly.
"Of course why wouldn't I be?"
"Because you passed my house four blocks ago,"
The super teen grimaced and switched directions back towards Sam's house, "Sorry about that Sam," he apologized, "I guess I'm still thinking about what that lady had said and the school and all."
"Hey don't worry about it," she reassured him, "You know that no matter what Tucker and I will help you out the best we can."
"Yeah I know it's just that… it's just so hard to believe that there's an actual school out there where I can be normal for once."
"Then go." Danny looked at her in surprise, "Danny you deserve to feel an ounce of normalcy every once in a while."
"But what if this school is far away and there's a ghost attack here?"
"Danny relax, Tucker and I have been hunting ghosts with you the whole time ever since you got your powers and we managed to pick up a few things as well. This is my stop."
He turned her intangible and flew her threw the roof of her room before setting her down. She turned to him and said, "This sounds pretty cool for you learn a bit more about your powers and this doesn't sound like something Vlad or the GIW cooked have cooked up."
"Yeah I guess your right but what—"
Sam placed a finger on his lips to silence him, "Danny you should go and don't worry Tucker and I can handle things here until schools lets out every day right? And even if it turns out to be a trap then we'll just do what we do best." She said confidently.
Danny smiled, "Thanks Sam,"
"Anytime,"
"But I'm still confused about something. What's with all the sudden change in heart anyway? I mean it didn't sound like you wanted me to go back at the train yard." He pointed out smirking.
"Please that was so that Powers lady knew that we weren't people to mess with," she scoffed."When she showed us what she could do, that's when I genuinely thought that she was telling the truth." Sam rolled her eyes in a pointed way.
Danny burst out laughing, "You unbelievable,"
"And don't you forget it," she shot back.
"So you really think that I should go?" Danny inquired.
Sam looked at him and said, "I think that we ought to find out more about this school and talk to Jazz as well, that way the four of us can come to a decision about it." That made Danny smile. Sam always was the straight thinker and rational one in the group.
"Well I got to go. See-ya tomorrow?"
"Sure thing,"
Danny departed from Sam's room invisible and flew in the direction of his home, arriving just minutes before his ten' o'clock curfew. He changed back and entered through the front door to find no one there. Shrugging he descended up the stairs to his room. He threw his back pack on the floor and laid flat on his back on his bed starring up at the NASA posters on his ceiling. Rolling over he took out the card from his pocket and looked and his cell phone lying on his night stand then back at the card.
Making up his mind he picked up his phone and dialed the cell number inscribed on the card. After a few rings someone picked up.
"Hello,"
Danny took a deep breath, "Principal Power, this is Danny Fenton and I'd like to know more about Sky High…"
Oh jeeze this sure did take a long time and it sure did take a lot of sleep sacrifice to complete this in time so a Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this and I hope that you all enjoyed my little gift. Hopefully I can get another chapter of one of my stories up by New Years.
Alos I'm still looking for a new beta reader so if any one is interested just let me know okay becasue I'm no good at any of this grammer stuff and if it wasn't for word my spelling probably wouldn't be any better than a three-year-old's.
Happy Holidays.