Frozen Yogurt
A/N: Thanks for reviewing already guys! It means a lot to me. And yeah, I'm rather liking this version better too :3 Again, I'm so sorry this went abandoned for so long. Promise that updates will happen at least once a month, what with finals coming up. Without further ado, the story.
Chapter 2: Bacon and Wheat-Waffles
Danny got downstairs just as the bell rang.
"I'll get it!" he called out, opening the door to reveal a smiling Sam and Tucker.
The two teens walked in, dropping their backpacks against the wall of the entryway, Danny tossing his own bag alongside theirs.
Maddie popped her head through the entryway of the kitchen. "Oh, hey there you two. You're just in time for breakfast," she said fondly. Those two were over at Fenton Works so often it sometimes felt like they were her kids.
The three sixteen-year-olds early sat at the round kitchen table. Maddie placed a few trays of waffles, bacon, and eggs. She turned around to get the orange juice and some cups as the teens dug in. Tucker moaned at the flavor.
"Your cooking is fantastic Mrs. Fenton!"
Sam and Danny made noises of agreement as they shoveled food into their mouths. Sam smiled as she ate her waffles, which were wheat. Mrs. Fenton always remembered Sam's eating habits and planned out vegetarian plates accordingly. It was really sweet of the stay-at-home inventor.
Maddie, having finished setting up breakfast, sat down at the kitchen table across from the teens. Heavy thumps were heard as Jack came down the stairs.
"Mads, do I smell bacon?" he boomed excitedly.
"Yes, dear. Is Jazz up yet?"
Jazz entered the room just as her mother finished speaking. The college student wore a smart white button up, its sleeves pushed up above her elbows, and black slacks. Her hair was cut in a short bob, but her trademark aqua headband stayed put. A chorus of "good morning"s and "hey, Jazz"s came from the occupants of the table. After greeting everyone, Jazz ruffled Danny's hair good naturedly and pulled up a chair.
The room was mostly quiet outside the sound of chewing and noises of appreciation. That is, until Tucker broke the comfortable silence with a loud burp. The Fenton males chortled, while Sam and Jazz shot Tucker looks of amused disgust. Conversation flowed after that point, the adults asking about school and Jazz sharing college stories from the previous semester. She was glad to be able to spend time with her family now that she was on vacation. Eventually Danny pushed his chair back and went to clean his plate in the sink, his friends following suit.
"Thanks for the food, mom. It was great," Danny said over one shoulder as they left the kitchen.
"Yeah, thanks Mrs. Fenton," chorused Sam and Tucker.
As the teens made their way to the living room Danny let his parents know that they'd be waiting for the rest of the class in the lab.
"Alright, Sweetie. Be careful around the equipment," his mother shouted cheerfully from the other room.
The trio stopped to grab their bags before trekking down the stairs to the lab. His parents had cleaned it the night before, but even when supposedly tidy, the lab was a chaotic sight to behold. Glowing, half-finished experiments littered the tables. A large section of the wall was taken up solely by racks of ecto-weaponry, and a sleek metal vehicle was at the far end of the lab, parked just in front of the currently closed ghost portal. The ever-present eerie hum of the portal was like music to Danny's ears. He was the only one who could hear it though, as Sam and Tucker had never heard a thing. Jazz had suggested that his enhanced hearing had something to do with it.
Turning to his friends, Danny asked, "Did you pack everything?"
"Yep," said Tucker. "The whole works."
Sam nodded in confirmation. They all knew better than to leave things to chance when their classmates would very likely be put in danger.
The rest of Mr. Lancer's English class trickled in through the door, most of them carrying only a small backpack and lunch-box each. Jazz had joined them after a few minutes and the four of them kept watch to make sure nobody accidentally set off any of the more unstable experiments. Eventually Mr. Lancer himself came down the steps, followed by Danny's parents. Students milled around restlessly in groups through the lab, immediately forming into their cliques and exchanging gossip. Mr. Lancer cleared his throat, but no one took notice. After trying and failing multiple times to get the students under control, Maddie took pity on the teacher.
"Children," her sharp voice cut through the crowd and the teens fell silent. "Thank you. I ask that you line up in front of the Specter Speeder 4.0. That would be the large vehicle behind you. Quickly, please."
Mr. Lancer coughed awkwardly and thanked her, then made his way over to take attendance. Maddie shook her head in exasperation as she watched him go, then walked with her husband to the front of the crowd.
"Alright, then!" boomed Jack, getting everyone's startled attention. "Let's go over the safety precautions. Firstly, do not try to leave the vehicle at any time during the trip."
Jack continued talking, going over a series of increasingly redundant rules for several excruciating minutes before Maddie cut him off.
"To wrap this up, let me summarize. We will not be leaving the Specter Speeder for the duration of this trip, so feel free to get comfortable. The windows by your seats can be opened, but as we will be in the Ghost Zone, open windows will provide a means for aggressive entities to enter the cabin. As such, if any of you attempt to handle anything in the Speeder other than the incline of your seats, you may leave us open to attack from malevolent specters. Needless to say, do not touch anything"
At that, Kwan and Dash tried to discreetly send each other mischievous looks. However, they weren't subtle enough to avoid Mrs. Fenton's gaze, which narrowed in on them in hawk-like precision.
"And rest assured, if you have exposed us to attack by ghostly means and manage to remain unharmed, the perpetrators will not continue to be so lucky." The pointed look that the Fenton matriarch shot the teens had them gulping and silently rethinking their prank.
"Okay, everyone pile in! No time to waste!"
The high schoolers jumped at Jack's loud voice, finally scrambling into the vehicle. The students could be heard chattering nervously while finding their seating. As usual, there was a clear distinction between the preps and various other cliques in the seating arrangements. Mr. Lancer by the cockpit at the head of the Speeder that contained Maddie and Jack. The preps immediately claimed the middle seats, with Danny and his friends at the very back. The rest of their classmates had chosen to sit scattered throughout the cabin. Sam and Tucker nudged their friend into attention as Jazz walked in to the Speeder, sitting next to them across the aisle. The young woman shot her little brother a reassuring smile before explaining that she had volunteered as a chaperon.
Minutes had passed before the class was startled by the speakers above them crackling to life.
"Attention, passengers! We will now be entering the Ghost Zone, so buckle up!"
There was silence in the room for less than a second before the excited buzz of roughly a dozen students started up louder than before. The Specter Speeder began humming, and hands flew to clutch at the arm holders as it began to hover about a foot off the ground. The trio exchanged resigned looks as it moved forward towards the portal. This was really happening, and they all knew this trip would inevitably end in disaster. Tucker, however, tried to put on a cheerful face and look on the bright side.
"Hey, cheer up, guys. Maybe we'll go unnoticed for the few hours we're in here." The looks that Sam and Danny shot him showed exactly how likely that was to happen.
"Well, excuse me for trying to be a little optimistic," he grumbled with arms crossed.
Students began shouting as the Specter Speeder moved forward to cross the bridge between dimensions. In moments the class had entered the warped reality of the Ghost Zone. Fascinated hands pressed up against the thick windows, eyes wide as they took in the endless neon green expanse and purple crags that loomed sharply above them in shattered islands. The hum of the Speeder was deafening in the awed silence. The teen hunters, however, didn't bother to admire the view, instead immediately beginning to scan their surroundings for any threats.
The awed looks on their peers' faces didn't last long. The Ghost Zone's terrain hardly got more interesting over the half hour they had traveled. Maddie and Jack hadn't said much, only broadcasting an observation or two for the benefit of those taking notes. The purpose of this trip was to observe new data on which to write a research paper, after all. Mr. Lancer had come up with the class assignment in order to find a "hip" and "radical" means for the students to learn. The bored expressions his students wore were clear indicators of exactly how effective a teaching method that had been.
Complaints had started up by now, Nathan having been the first to voice his boredom. It had only spread from him, with everyone but the trio needing to be periodically shushed by Mr. Lancer, who was also shifting in his seat and fidgeting with the pen he normally kept in his shirt pocket. The teacher wished once again that he'd brought a book to read.
Danny and his friends, however, didn't allow themselves the luxury of boredom, as they were all intently examining the Zone for any ghosts that wandered to close to the Speeder.
As the group of humans traveled deeper and deeper into the infinite depths of the spectral realm, in the distance, a white haired ghost lifted his head sharply, a predatory smile stretching his features as he sensed a piece of machinery emanating electricity as it traveled nearby. Whatever that was, it'd make a fine addition to his collection.
It'd been hours of watching the same landscape that they'd seen most every week for the last three years. Thankfully, as the elder Fentons didn't want to get lost, they'd traveled in a straight line, and had thus so far avoided seeing any of the floating doors that held the lairs of lesser-powered ghosts. Danny and Tucker hadn't torn their sight from the windows, and while Sam was all for erring on the side of caution, this was getting ridiculous.
"Do you guys want to play a card game?" Danny and Tucker turned to her slowly, the scandalized looks they wore startling Sam into giggling. Her hands flew up to her mouth immediately, but despite the warning look she gave her friends, Tucker and Danny's shock soon gave way for mischievous glee.
"Did you just giggle?"
"No."
"You did, you just giggled!"
"Shut up, Tucker!"
"Aww, Sammykins, that was so cute."
"Danny, I swear if you say another word I'll-"
Their playful teasing was cut off as a puff of silvery smoke escaped Danny's mouth. Instantly alert, they went into action. Sam got up to let Danny out of the row, her hand going to the pocket containing her Fenton Wrist Rays. Tucker discreetly fingered a pocket on his belt, ready to snap out an ecto-pistol if need be.
"Daniel, where are you going?"
"Sorry Mr. Lancer, gotta go to the bathroom."
Danny ignored his teacher's exasperated sigh and ran to the lavatory in the back of the Speeder. Locking himself in, he concentrated on breathing deeply. His focus didn't waver as he felt like he was being tugged in two, and a moment later he had managed to create a clone. Even after years of being able to manage that feat, he still couldn't help the proud grin he wore.
His clone moved to leave the bathroom and take his seat as Danny shifted into ghost form. Not pausing for a second, he flew through the Speeder, morphing back just as quickly. He didn't want his parents to notice his ghost form on the radar.
Using his powers in his human form was second nature by now, and the energy he gave off while doing so would be masked by the Zone's natural energies. Flying invisibly, he scouted out the area, trying to pinpoint where he had sensed the ghost. Focusing as he was on sensing ghostly energy, he didn't notice the crackling bolt of electricity that zoomed below him towards the Speeder. Technus, not paying attention to anything but the shining technology in front of him, failing to realize that Phantom's energy clung to the vehicle. No matter how tempting the mechanical equipment, the technopath would sooner turn tail than provoke the halfa.
Finally figuring that his Ghost Sense was triggered by a passerby, Danny allowed himself to fade back into his clone.
"Nothing. As far as I can tell, it was a false alarm." Tucker and Sam relaxed their grips on their weapons, recognizing that their friend had shifted his consciousness back into this copy. He had spoken too soon however, as all of a sudden, the Speeder stopped in it's tracks. The comfortable humming of it's engine morphed into a high-pitched whine before fading. A neon green glow flickered around the walls of the vehicle ominously. Danny rubbed his neck sheepishly and shrugged at his glaring friends.
Yelling erupted from the cockpit where Maddie and Jack were seated, frantic cries of "Ghost!" and "Redirect the Emergency Power to the Weapons System!" reaching the ears of the students, who reacted by promptly stirring themselves into a panicked frenzy. The notion of being trapped inside a small metal space with a ghost was hardly a pleasant one.
The speakers came to life, glowing as they amplified a voice familiar to the trio. "IT IS I, TECHNUS! MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY AND- Is that who I think it is?"
Danny had stood up, flanked by his friends, all of them ready to defend their peers. They smirked as the previously invisible form of one of the undead technopath appeared in the center of the Speeder.
"...whoops."
And with that, Technus shifted into a crackling, sparking mass of lightning blue electricity and shot off towards safety of the Zone. Maddie burst through the door leading to the students, a glowing pistol in hand and ready to fire, but she had no target. The cabin soon descended into chaos as the class came to the realization that for the first time they had been in real danger from a ghost attack. They were in a foreign dimension filled with dangerous beings and had nowhere to go from where they were trapped in the Specter Speeder.
Cutting off the frightened and panicking students, Maddie forced herself to calm her heart rate, put on a no-nonsense look, and calmly intoned, "I understand that was frightening, but you need to calm down before anyone hyperventilates or hurts themselves. We are prepared to defend against any ghosts, but I doubt that the spook will come back." Her smooth yet firm tone brooked no argument, and soon the teens had calmed enough to descend into quiet conversations with their peers again. Seeing that the students were once again mostly calm, if not a bit subdued, the ghost hunter turned to join her husband in the cockpit once more.
"Jack, how are the engines looking?" she tersely inquired. Her husband glanced up from the panel in worry, knowing his wife well enough to hear the stress in her voice.
"The Emergency Power is holding us up for now, but," he paused, "Mads, we're running on fumes. We'll need to land. Whatever that ghost did, it bled the power dry from the Speeder." Her husband's serious and distressed tone conveyed how dire the situation was becoming.
Running a shaky hand through her hair, Maddie Fenton steeled herself. "We'll land on one of the nearby islands. Hopefully the engines will reboot if we hook up that new Ecto-Convertor to the power source and run it through the Emergency Power."
Jack nodded and got to work on redirecting some power outputs so they could save on energy. While they hadn't tested the prototype yet, it would have to do. They had no other options.
Maddie left the room to let the children know that they would be landing. The speakers no longer worked, so she'd have to put on a brave face again and let them know in person.
The trio sat down, while at first they were satisfied at the fact that no one had gotten hurt when Technus showed up, they soon realized that the Speeder was floating stationary rather than continuing forward.
"Maybe we're just pausing before turning back. You know your parents won't want to put any students in danger now that they know that ghosts can enter the Speeder."
"I don't know Tuck, I mean, we haven't moved at all. What if we're stuck?"
Exchanging uneasy looks, they all turned to Mrs. Fenton, who had just come in through the door. She might provide answers.
"Due to the mishap with the ghost a few moments ago, a small amount of power has drained from our reserves. We'll be landing on an outcropping soon to recharge the engines and then we'll be on our way back. There's no need to worry, and we'll all be back in the lab by the end of the day."
While Mr. Lancer and their peers let out sighs of relief, Team Phantom, including Jazz, read into what wasn't outright said. Maddie probably withheld information from them so that they wouldn't panic. It was possible that the Speeder was in much worse condition than she had let on. Regardless, there was nothing that they could do.
A few minutes after Maddie had gone back to the cockpit, the Specter Speeder began to descend. A smooth landing on a relatively flat island that connected to a familiar winding path of purple rock later, and they began to calm down. They hadn't crashed, after all. Their surety drained away as moments after they landed, the hum of the engine died down, taking with it the lights and the power in the Speeder.
Jack exchanged a worried look with his wife. That was the last of the emergency power. Without that, they couldn't even start the Ecto-Convertor to attempt to get back enough power to make it home. Deciding that they could at least try, he reached down beneath the console to where they kept the prototypes, only to find himself empty handed.
"Uh, Mads? Did you remind me to put the Emergency Prototypes back in the Speeder after I cleaned it?"
His wife gave him an incredulous look.
"Jack, do you mean to tell me that you left our only chance of getting back in the lab because you forgot to take inventory? After I told you to do it countless times this week?" Maddie Fenton's voice was soft and sweet in a way that it only ever was when she was furious.
Gulping, Jack rubbed a hand on his neck sheepishly, and nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak and accidentally provoke his incredibly amazing and terrifying wife. She pinched the bridge of her nose and took deep breaths. A determined look crossed her face.
"I suppose we'll have to walk, then."
"...Mads, we can't just let the kids out there, it's too exposed. And there's no path that leads directly to the portal."
"We don't have a choice, Jack. We can't just stay here until we're attacked or we starve to death. I'll go out first to check the coast is clear."
After a moment, he nods and opens the window by the front. Maddie steps out, her feet touching the uneven ground. A minute passes with no incident. Taking out a scanner, she nodded in satisfaction that the area was clear of any condensed ectoplasmic energies that would signify a ghost. It was less sensitive to subtle energies as the scanner was being operated in the Ghost Zone, but it would do.
"We better tell the children to exit the Speeder. There's a path here. We should follow it, see if it leads anywhere useful." She figured that if they came across a ghost or its lair, they could capture it and see if their obsession had prompted them to collect something that they could use to help them get back. Explaining her reasoning to Jack, he agreed to get the children out.
Past the moments of panic of the Speeder shutting down, the students eventually spread out on the ground in small groups and pulled out lunch. Munching on a sandwich, Dash smugly declared, "Ha! I bet I can take on any ghosts that show up! I bet that they're all hiding until I get back to the human world. They wouldn't mess with The Baxter."
"Uh, Dash, I don't think we're getting back through the Speeder. It looks kinda dead."
"Duh, Kwan. Didn't you hear Mrs. Fenton say that they'd be recharging the power. It'll be back on in no time."
Unconvinced, Kwan looked over to the strange bus, seeing Mr. Lancer looking shocked and worried as he spoke with the elder Fentons. Star, his girlfriend, put a hand on his shoulder. Somewhat comforted, he turned back to the group and Dash's boasting.
"Gather round, everyone! Now." At first, no one recognized the strong voice that brooked no argument. But once they turned to see Mr. Lancer, standing there with arms crossed and a raised eyebrow, they quickly gathered. He'd never sounded so authoritarian before. Maddie shot him an impressed look as he continued speaking.
"There's been a malfunction in the vehicle, so we'll be walking back to our world. Grab your stuff and let's get moving. We'll be following Mr. and Mrs. Fenton."
Hands shot into the air to ask just what was going on, and despite having questions shouted at him by a group of distraught teenagers, Mr. Lancer remained firm. Eventually, the concerned and agitated students lined up by the elder Fentons, backpacks in hand.
"Stay together, we'll be taking roll call every half hour. Don't wander off the path, we don't know what could happen if you fall."
Team Phantom, who had been worriedly discussing their options at the back of the group, put greater distance between themselves and their peers. At least Sam had recognized the path as one leading to Dora's realm. It'd be a safe haven. That is, if they could manage to survive the journey there.