Notes: Geez, this new semester's kicking my butt. I've barely had time to think about writing for this story; most of my time's been spent sleeping or reading chapter after chapter from texts. And I appear to have fallen into a sort of depressed rut I've been trying to dig myself out of, so even when I have time I have little motivation to write. Kids, never let your first semester of college lull you into a false sense of security.

So here I bring you this little ficlet, sitting in a coffee shop and trying to forget the world with hot tea and evil future self reincarnates. I have a feeling this might have to become my new writing ritual. Hopefully it's not too bad despite the blatant lack of editing, but didn't want to keep you guys waiting any longer for something.

The Plasmius Exploration Vessel

"Wow!" three young voices echoed each other as they marveled at the ship of sorts in front of them.

The Plasmius Exploration Vessel was small, sleek, and shiny. It was more dome-shaped than anything, yet it was obvious by the partitions in the metal that it was expandable to much bigger sizes. The glass in the three-person cockpit was tinted so that anyone inside would be hidden from prying eyes, however sharp they may be. The whole contraption had a subtle white glow from its spectral properties which helped it maneuver through the Ghost Zone – not to mention allowed it to gain much faster aerodynamic speeds and phase through objects.

Next to the Specter Speeder 2.0, seeming bulky and dull to its right, the Plasmius Exploration Vessel was a thing of the gods. As it should, since Vlad had built it specifically to outdo Jack's newest invention. It was a contest of sorts – one that only Vlad was aware of.

Dan, currently in his ghost form, lay a gloved hand on the metal surface. He could almost sense its capabilities just from its feel. He watched Jenna as she also ran a hand over it, shivering slightly at the low temperature of the craft. Just as the last child in the room approached the craft, however, Dan turned and shot a small ectoblast her.

"Nobody said you could touch it! It's my Uncle Vlad's!"

Box Lunch retrieved her ectoblasted hand with a pouty glare. "You let Jenna touch it!"

"Yeah, but Jenna's my friend," Dan replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Box Lunch is your friend too, Dark," Jenna said teasingly, a mischievous smile making its way to her lips. Box Lunch looked torn between glaring at Jenna and beaming at Dan.

"No she's not!" Dan snapped.

"Uh-huh. Sure," the human girl replied, drawing out the last word. Before either of the two ghosts could reply, she lifted the glass on the cockpit to reveal the three seats inside. "So are we gonna take this thing into the Ghost Zone or what?"

Dan smirked. "What? You want to go into the Ghost Zone? I thought you were scared to go there."

"I'm not scared! You've just never had anything I can go into. You always wanna just fly in with Box Lunch."

The boy flashed a toothy grin. He excitedly jumped into the driver's seat of the machine and looked confidently around at the controls. It couldn't be that hard, right? And it wasn't like anybody would notice at Fenton Works. After all, being at his grandparents' house meant much less supervision. And an easily accessible ghost portal.

The ghost girl rolled her eyes. "Dark! We could just fly in. Why do we have to take that thing?"

"Because Jenna can't fly!" he snapped, turning red glaring eyes towards her.

"Nice of you to notice for once, ghost boy," Jenna mumbled mirthfully, and Dan gave her a sheepish smile as she hopped into the ship with some difficulty. Begrudgingly, Box Lunch followed the two, and Dan was left sitting in the middle with his tongue stuck out in concentration.

Jenna looked nervously at him. "Hey, Dark? Are you sure you can drive this thing?"

"Sure! I've seen my grandpa drive the Specter Speeder a million times! It can't be that hard!"

"You're gonna crash. Ghosts are meant to fly, not drive, Dark!" the blue-skinned girl said, shooting nervous glances around the vessel as the glass window was lowered. Dan pressed a button and he dashboard lit up with eerie blue lighting.

A couple of minutes went by, and Jenna looked at the half-ghost impatiently. "Are we going or not?"

"Hold on! I'm looking for the button to make it go!"

"Don't you have to use the things on the floor? Like in a car?"

Dan froze, looking down and turning red when he remembered that it was indeed the pedals that would make the ship accelerate. Being too small to reach them still, he adopted a ghostly tail and hovered above it. Jenna squealed in excitement next to him, throwing her arms around his shoulders.

"This is gonna be so much fun!"

Box Lunch, in the meantime, glared daggers into the human girl.

The excitement was contagious, and Dan's eyes lit up as he looked ahead into the open ghost portal and floored the pedal with his tail.

The vessel quickly rocketed forward, and the three children screamed as it veered in the wrong direction. Dan had yanked the wheel in his surprise at the sudden acceleration, and the vessel was forced to turn intangible as it sensed an approaching barrier. However, it wasn't able to avoid the collision against the opposite end of the Fentons' lab because both Box Lunch and Jenna freaked out at that moment, jabbing several controls and confusing the machine.

Dan was too startled and busy moving the steering wheel this way and that to think of it, but Box Lunch was still able to turn the three of them intangible as the ship crashed into the wall with a loud bang. The ten year olds were propelled out because of their intangibility, thankfully avoiding being painfully thrown around the cockpit. Box Lunch dropped the intangibility, and Jenna and her landed on the floor while Dan skidded forward a bit before crashing head-first into the wall. A pained yelp escaped him, and he lay still on the ground. His two friends rushed over to him, staring down with worried frowns.

The boy groaned, but otherwise didn't move or open his eyes.

"...Dark?" Jenna asked tentatively, and Dan groaned again.

Box Lunch shook the half-ghost a little, and when he didn't respond she frowned determinedly. "Don't worry Dark, I'll save you!"

"What are you..."

Jenna didn't have time to finish her question. Her eyes widened as she watched the pigtailed girl quickly lean down and... that wasn't mouth-to-mouth! That was a kiss!

The boy's red eyes immediately flew open as he felt something over his mouth, and they widened more than they ever had as he saw that Box Lunch... was...

His blood-curdling scream was muffled by Box Lunch's little kiss. The energy that suddenly flowed through him allowed him propel himself off the floor despite the pounding headache that was building up inside him. He screamed again as he backed away from the girl who was helplessly grinning at nothing.

"Blyad!" he cursed in Russian, any other words escaping him in his shock. "Bozhe moy, blyad! Ahh!"

Box Lunch giggled and Jenna glared darkly at her. At that moment footsteps thundered down the stairs, however, and everybody except Dan turned to the lab entrance. Box Lunch disappeared just as the eldest Fentons barged in.

Maddie and Jack paused at the foot of the stairs as they surveyed the dented and damaged Plasmius Exploration Vessel, Dan's friend looking worriedly around the room, and their grandson yelling to the high heavens in Russian while frantically wiping at his mouth.

Jack paused and scratched his head in confusion while Maddie sighed, making a mental note to herself to fix the broken ghost shield erected around the lab. Vlad was not going to be happy when he saw the state his invention and son were in, after all.