Author's Note: "I'll tie up the loose ends next chapter which will come out who knows when. Hopefully sooner than 6 months this time." "6 months this time..."

"6 months..."

7.5 months later

Ok yeah, it's totally my fault. I had grad school and work stuff taking up most of my time, but that all ended back in December, and I honestly could have finished this back then if I'd just sat down and worked my way through the writer's block. Still, I think this is a pretty exciting chapter and I hope it was worth the wait.

The First Day 3: Trust

Danny had a hard time waking up the first morning of class, but he soon got into the swing of things. He even managed to slip through most of his classes largely unnoticed. The ghostly teen was beginning to think he might be able to live the life of a relatively normal student here. That is, until he got to advanced combat.

It was a fairly small class, with four other kids besides himself and Manny. There was a blue robot girl, a girl in a purple and black helmet with wings… Danny froze when his eyes locked onto the last girl in the class. Valarie. He'd heard she was here, but this was the first time he'd seen her. He wanted to disappear, or sink into the floor. Of course, he could do that, but he didn't want to seem like a show-off. No, it was best to leave that to his new roommate.

El Tigre was already calling attention to himself. He'd jumped into the room with a smirk and was already dashing around the training equipment like he owned the place. The rest of the students were just standing around and talking to each other. Except Valarie. She was staring Danny down with an unreadable expression. It just served to make him more uncomfortable.

Valarie had had a personal vendetta against Danny Phantom before the Disasteroid incident due to a series of misunderstandings. Danny had hoped that after saving the world and revealing his identity that things would clear up between them, but she'd never talked to him afterwards. He hadn't really had a chance to talk to her, what with crazy fans and interviews and everything else. Here they finally had a chance to set things straight… and Danny was terrified.

His thoughts were interrupted when the teacher entered. "Hello there new students!" The Crimson Chin boomed. "Congratulations on being placed in the Advanced Combat class! I think the best way to start out and get to know each other will be to split into pairs and start sparring. So!" He pointed to Manny and the girl in purple and black. "You two and…" He pointed to the robot girl and a boy in a grey cloak, "you two and…" He finally pointed to Danny and Valarie "You two! Just start with some simple blocks and jabs."

Danny felt his stomach drop, like he'd just gone over the first big hill on a roller-coaster. He turned to Manny to avoid looking Valarie in the eye, only to find that his roommate looked almost as nervous as the ghost boy felt.

"Hey… uh..." Manny stammered uncharacteristically. "I know Cuervo from home and uh… we kinda got a weird history. So, would you mind switching partners with me?"

Danny silently thanked whatever force dictated these events. "Yes." He said a little too quickly. The ghost boy dashed ahead and threw a punch at Black Cuervo. She looked at him in surprise, but dodged effortlessly by jumping into the air. The jetpack in her wings kicked in and she took off. Danny followed her, phasing through her attempt to kick him in the face. Man, this girl was aggressive! As they continued to fight, Danny glimpsed Manny and Valarie sparring at the other end of the gym. El Tigre was swinging from one piece of equipment to the next in order to avoid Red Huntress's incoming projectiles.

This didn't last very long. They hadn't been fighting for more than a minute before the Chin broke them up. "What's going on here? Why aren't you in the pairs I assigned you?" All the teens ceased fighting.

Manny grinned sheepishly. "Uh, I can explain?"

"I assigned you to those pairs to compliment your fighting styles." The teacher explained. "Tigre, you're having a hard time against Red Huntress because she uses a lot of projectiles and you're more of a melee attacker." He sighed. "I know it's hard for you to see right now, but I have plans for this class, plans of justice!" Everyone looked at him in confusion. "So, get back to your assigned pairs."

Danny looked over at Valarie, who had flown up to him on her hover-sled. Her expression had changed from unreadable to seriously cheesed off. "Uh-heh… well… this is awkward." The ghost boy stammered.

"So, you are trying to avoid me." Valarie said angrily.

"Well, uh, I wouldn't say…"

"You just can't stop lying to me, can you? You've lied to me for as long as I've known you!" She fired a blast at him, but he dodged.

"I know, I'm sorry!"

"Oh, now you apologize?!" She fired another ectobolt, "You know, at first I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt. You must have had a good reason to keep your secrets. But even months after you revealed your secret to the whole world, you never came to apologize, or even explain yourself!" Another volley of missiles. Again, all Danny did was dodge. "I thought you were my friend, but you were just keeping an eye on your enemy, werent you?" More ectoblasts. More dodging. Now Danny was up against a wall.

"No, it's not like that! Of course you're my friend, I just… I didn't know what to say."

"Why should I believe anything you say?!" Valarie fired everything she had at once, blasting Danny through the wall.

"Hey now, don't overdo it!" The Chin exclaimed, finally stepping in. The hero stepped through the ruble and helped Danny up. "What's the matter, why weren't you fighting back?"

"Uh… it's complicated." Danny replied. Valarie harrumphed. The Chin looked between the two of them and an idea began to formulate in his head. "Ah… I think I get what's going on here. There's a lack of trust here. We'll have to fix that. Trust is the oil that keeps the machine of justice running smoothly!"

"What." Valarie said flatly.

"What you two need is to work things out with a trust exercise."


"What, am I supposed to fall down and let him catch me?" Valarie asked as the three of them met in the menagerie, where the school kept all its animals for the purpose of teaching and stocking the kitchens.

"No, we're going to lock you in a leaky dive suit, drop you in the electric eel tank, and let him fish you out." The Crimson Chin explained, overlooking said tank.

"No way." Valarie protested.

"And then you get to do the same thing to him!"

Danny gulped.

"Well, maybe." Val changed her mind.

"Great!" the teacher said with way too much enthusiasm. Before he knew what was happening, the Red Huntress was in a leaky diving suit and Danny was supposed to pull the thing out. It was easy enough. With his strength, pulling the suit out by the air pump hand over hand was no problem.

"Now it's your turn." Valarie said with an eager smirk, climbing out of the diving suit.

Danny did his best to remain calm. There was no real reason to worry. As mad as she was at him, Valarie was still a good person, and she'd never be able to get away with letting him drown in front of a teacher anyway. Then again… the Chin didn't seem awfully aware of what his students were up to. Of course, he could just phase through the suit… but that'd defeat the purpose of the trust exercise. He wanted to prove to Valarie that he trusted her, and that she could trust him.

He'd been under for a minute when his doubts crept in. Maybe she's just taking longer because she's not as physically strong as I am. Yeah, that's it. Two minutes later, the leaking water was up to his waist and he could hear the crackling of electricity from the eels. There was no way she'd abandoned him… something must be wrong. That had to be it. He wished he could see what was happening up on the surface, but he couldn't even hear anything over the crackling electricity, which was growing stronger with every second. He was beginning to feel the tingle of electricity through his legs. It wouldn't be long until the electrical shock was enough to do some serious damage. Of course, with the rate the water was filling up the diving suit, he'd probably drown before then. Danny shook the thoughts out of his head. He could get out if he needed to, but not before. He needed to do this to patch things up with Valarie.

The water was almost up to his shoulders when the suit finally jerked up. Relief washed over him as the diving suit broke the surface of the water. His breath had fogged up the glass, so he couldn't see outside very well, but there was definitely a figure standing at a machine that was pulling him up.

"What took so long?" Danny asked jokingly as he climbed out, "Did you need to stop for a bathroom break or something?" His laugh was cut short when someone grabbed him by the neck.

"Making potty jokes, punk?" Walker asked grimly. "That's just rude. An' bein' rude's against the rules."

"What!? Walker?" Danny chocked out. As he looked around, he noticed Walker's goons were flying around the place. While his classmates and teachers were nowhere in sight. He tried to break out of the ghost warden's grip, but Walker slammed him into the wall of the eel tank, dazing him.

"Surprised to see me?" Walker asked. "Shoudn't be. Revenge is the name of the game kid, and you've given me a whole lotta trouble."

Danny tried to phase through the wall in an attempt to escape, but the ghost warden grabbed him by the arm, pulling him back. So Danny changed tactics, and created an ectoplasmic blast in his hand.

"Uhrg!" Walker cried in pain, but he was tough. He shook it off. Danny had only ticked him off more. He raised a police club to strike the ghost boy. "You're gonna pay for all the rule-breakin' you—augh!"

The club was shot out of his hand by a pink ectobolt. Walker dropped Danny in surprise and the boy gasped as he was finally able to breath normally again.

"Get away from Phantom, you freak!" Valarie yelled, firing another pink ectobolt at the ghost warden. This one hit him straight in the stomach, sending him crashing straight into the wall of the electric eel tank. Danny took the opportunity to give Walker a few of his own ectoblasts before Val scooped him up on her sled.

"Thanks for the save!" Danny said gratefully.

"Don't thank me yet, we've still got all his goons to take care of."

"How did they even get in here? The ghost shields around this campus are impenetrable without a Fenton Phase Synchronizer."

"They didn't get through the shields." The Red Huntress explained. "They used the dimensional portal to go past them."

"Ah, that'd explain it…"

"Everyone, the teachers and the students, have been trying to push them back to the portal room and send them back to the ghost zone, but it's like trying to herd cats!"

"That's because they don't have a good way to catch them. Fly towards the boys' dorms, I have a few things that'll help." Danny said, pointing to the roof a few meters to their left.

"You want me to punch a hole in the roof? Are you nuts?" Valarie asked in exasperation.

Danny stared at her flatly and turned them intangible.

"Oh… right."


Inside his room, Danny pulled three Fenton Thermoses and a Fenton Ghost Vac from under his bed.

"There are nearly a hundred of those guys out there!" Valarie reminded him, "This isn't going to be enough!"

"Maybe not, but it's better than nothing." Danny pointed out. He turned them intangible again and they flew back towards the epicenter of the conflict. They found their classmates fighting the ghosts out in the large, air-hanger-like space surrounding the school. Danny spotted Danielle doing her best to hold off a couple of Walker's lackeys with her own ghost-rays.

"Danielle, catch!" He tossed her a Fenton Thermos. He landed next to the teachers and handed a second Fenton Thermos to the Crimson Chin. "You can use this to catch the ghosts."

"Great! We'll capture the ghosts of injustice in the traps of truth!" The Chin exclaimed. "Give one to every teacher!"

"Well, uh, I only have one more." Danny explained.

"Vait!" A diminutive, balding professor called. "I think I could duplicate this on a large scale! Teaching Assistant!" He called, and a short boy with swirly brown hair appeared.

"What is it Professor Professor?" the boy asked.

"Jimmy, does that Hyper Cube of yours have enough parts in it to make a really big one of these?" Professor Professor asked, handing him the Fenton Thermos. Neutron looked over the cylinder for a few seconds before looking up with a grin.

"Absolutely! I don't even have to make a new one, I can just use the growth setting on my shrink ray!"

"Vonderful! You get on that!" The professor ordered.

While Jimmy used his ray, Danny flew back into the fray, joining up with his roommate.

"Dude, where've you been?" El Tigre asked, as he fruitlessly tried to slash through the ghosts.

"I was still in the diving suit from the trust exercise! Was Valarie the only one who remembered where I was?" The ghostly teen asked.

"Eh, don't take this the wrong way… but I think she's the only one who noticed you were gone." Manny said sheepishly. "I didn't even realize until she zoomed back on that hover-sled yelling about how she had to go get you."

"Gee, thanks a lot."

"Sorry man, I…" Manny's witty retort was interrupted by the Fenton Thermos, which was now the size of an elephant and pulling in every ghost in sight… including Danny and Danielle.

"Ach, right, I hadn't thought of that." Professor Professor mused as he watched Dani struggling against the force of the giant machine.

Luckily for our heroes, they were both with people who had the presence of mind to save the day. Valarie grabbed hold of Danielle's arm and pulled her away with the hover-sled, while Manny used his grappling claw to hold onto Danny and a nearby pillar. Soon Walker and all his goons were captured, and Jimmy switched the giant thermos off.

"Well… that could have gone better." The boy genius admitted. "But I still managed to save the day!"

"Perhaps." A stern voice echoed from across the open cavern that housed the school, "But the day wouldn't have needed saving in the first place if you hadn't disobeyed me."

The whole school turned as one to see Miss Seingado standing in the shool's entryway. Her face was as calm and collected as ever, but her eyes were so fierce Jimmy could feel them burning into him from across the way. (Not literally, but at a super school, that wouldn't be surprising)

"Now Miss Seingado, we don't know that…" Professor Professor defended his teaching assistant.

"That portal was not able to open into the Ghost Zone before Mr. Neutron tampered with it." The principal continued, with more of an edge in her voice. "Whether it was an accident or not, one thing is clear. The ghosts were let into the school."

Jimmy felt his heart racing and his face burning from both anger and embarrassment. He tried to remain calm, but his words still sounded louder than they should have.

"I barely modified the portal generator at all! And besides, I opened it to another point within the school, there's no way my changes could have opened a portal into the Ghost Zone!"

"So you admit that this couldn't have been an accident." The principal continued coolly. "It's just as I thought. This is the first day of classes and a task force of ghosts just happen to be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of a portal into the top secret super school. A highly experimental, controversial, and expensive super school that could be shut down if things go wrong. Someone is trying to sabotage the school."

"But not me!" Jimmy insisted desperately. "I worked hard to get into this school, I'd never try and get it shut down!"

"So you say. And yet you were the last person to use the portal before the ghost attack." Miss Seingado shook her head. "Honestly, you'll be lucky if you're merely suspended."

"Miss Seingado that is enough!" Professor Professor exclaimed, stamping his foot. "You have no proof, just circumstantial evidence! The most you can do is put the boy under investigation."

The boy genius felt a wave of relief and gratitude to Professor Professor wash through his building anger. He did his best to hold onto his positive feelings. If he lost his temper now, he'd be suspended for sure.

For the first time anyone could remember, Miss Seingado looked taken aback. She looked at all the teachers, and most of them were staring at her with shocked, confused, or even angry expressions. The principal cleared her throat. "I'm sorry. You're right of course, I went too far. I'm just concerned for the wellbeing of the students. If the school is shut down, many of them have nowhere else to learn how to use their powers, nowhere else to be themselves." She bowed out quickly.

She wasn't the only one. Jimmy dashed away from the crowd of teachers and students and teachers, most of whom were staring at him. He heard Carl and Sheen call after him, but he couldn't stop. His wristwatch was beeping a warning signal. All of his vital signs were in the red zone. He needed to get away and calm down before he made things even worse.

Author's Note: See, exciting! I hope I did ok with the action... that's never been my strong point. Next time we get into the real meat of the story!

... The new tagline for this story is "A similar update schedule to Proton Jon's Superman 64 Let's Play!"