Danny found himself in an electronics shop. It was messy and quiet, and it appeared as if no one was in. A bit confused and worried that somehow the badge put him in the wrong place, he looked around a bit more. His eyes found the door, which had a bell above it to announce customers. Danny jiggled the door and rang the bell, and within seconds a short, elderly Chinese man hobbled into the room. He looked up at Danny with a smile.
"Hello! I am Lao Shi. Never had a customer, never had a sale. Are you looking for something?" he asked. He pulled a stool over and sat upon it, patiently staring at the boy. Danny shrugged awkwardly and forced a smile.
"Um, sir, is Jake Long available?"
Lao Shi raised an eyebrow. "He's busy at the moment. What is this regarding?"
"Oh...how do I say this? Ask this? Er..." Danny shrugged and cleared his throat. "I...I'm aware your grandson is the American Dragon." Unfortunately, that had not been what Lao Shi wanted to hear. His eyes widened and then he glared at Danny.
"Jake is busy." he repeated coldly, "What is your business and who are you? What do you know?"
Danny frowned. "I'm sorry, sir, I should've introduced myself first. My name is Danny Fenton. I'm from Amity Park." He looked around for anyone who might see and looked back to the old man. "I'm secretly Danny Phantom." With that, he transformed into his ghost half. Lao Shi stared at him without blinking. "And I'm here because I wanted to talk to your grandson about temporarily teaming up to fight off the monsters as of late."
Lao Shi, who had seen many magical creatures and things in his life, was not terribly shocked at all by Danny. However, he was undoubtedly suspicious of him, and he needed to know more. He raised his voice. "Jake!" he shouted. Almost instantly three teenagers ran in, and then stopped short and crashed into each other as Danny came into view. As they stared at him, wide-eyed, he waved, arm halfway up.
"Um, hi?" he asked more than said. "...Jake Long? The American Dragon?"
Jake's eyebrows were knit close and he frowned. "How do you know my name and who I am?" he demanded, crossing his arms. Behind him, Fu Dog peeked in from the back room and saw Danny. The dog walked out calmly standing on two legs. Danny jumped in surprise when he saw him. Fu smiled.
"Hey there, how ya doing?" he asked. Danny blinked, cocking his head to the side.
"You're...you're a talking dog."
"And you're a ghost. How about that?" Fu Dog patted him on the back and joined Lao Shi, who gave Fu a disapproving stare. Trixie placed her hands on her hips, giving Danny a stern but not aggressive look.
"How much do you actually know about the magical world, ghost kid?"
"Yeah, I mean, you just saw a talking dog and was actually really surprised." Spud pointed out. Danny shrugged.
"Not a lot." He transformed back into human form. "I've only been like this a year, half-ghost I mean, and I just found out about you guys today from another ghost. So...yeah."
The reaction to his true form had been significantly less dramatic than when he talked to Randy and Howard. Everyone seemed only mildly surprised, and even then they got over it almost instantly. Too long had they seen odd things, and Danny's secret was hardly interesting to them. In fact, the lack of reaction surprised Danny more than anyone else.
This resulted in Trixie giggling. "Look at him, he thinks we're gonna be shocked by this." She approached him and slapped him on the back. He grunted and Trixie looked back to her friends. "Isn't he just adorable, thinkin' he'd surprise us?"
Danny glared at her. "Gimme a break, I just found out about all of this today. I'm doing this because I need your help. I've already teamed up with the Ninja of Norrisville-"
"You did what?!" Lao Shi interrupted. Danny blanched and backed away, looking frightened and embarrassed by the elder dragon's reaction. "The Ninja is not supposed to find out about the magical community until he finished his four year term, if at all! Even then, it's only for the best of the best ninjas! That knowledge is almost never given out to them!"
"...He and his friend are both helping me." Danny admitted sheepishly. Lao Shi groaned, and ran a hand over his face in exasperation. Fu patted Lao Shi on the shoulder, abstaining from speech. Jake's arms unfolded.
"And you're here to ask for me to team up with you?" he asked.
"For us to team up with you?" Spud furthered. Danny smiled weakly.
"Yeah." He revealed the dragon badge. "This is a teleportation device. It will take you from my home in my room to this shop. With it we can work together to stop the guy responsible for this havoc."
Lao Shi narrowed his eyes. "Where exactly did you hear all of this?"
Danny shrugged. "The Ghost Master of Time, Clockwork. He told me to come here. Has the magical world heard of him?"
"We have," Fu Dog confirmed, "it's just that no one's seen him in thousands of years except for you. He's very secretive and no one even knows how to get to him. Except for you."
Jake frowned and looked towards his grandfather. "He wouldn't have given the ghost kid this information if it wasn't serious. It's, um, probably more serious than we realize, G."
"How do you even know him?" Lao Shi snapped again. Danny grimaced in response.
"A while ago, I was in some serious trouble. In the end he saved me. It's a long and depressing story. He told me now that I must team up with Jake and the Ninja or else we're doomed." he explained. Seeing Lao Shi not looking any more pleased, he continued. "He told me that the magical community has wanted to speak with me for awhile. I promise that I will agree to let the Dragon Council ask me and my friends anything they want and swear to whatever they want." He grinned. "I'll give the badge to Jake. He'll be able to come back here whenever he wants with his friends. I promise not to say anything about the magical world, and I'll send Jake home at around six."
Fu turned to his friend. "You know that the secretive old guy wouldn't have allowed any of this if it wasn't necessary. I say allow it."
"I agree." Jake said proudly. "With the Ninja, the Am-Drag, and the Phantom working together, we can stop anything." Trixie and Spud shared a look and then turned back to Danny and nodded. Outvoted and outmatched, Lao Shi looked away. He muttered something to himself in Mandarin and finally glared again at Danny.
"Fine! Go! Get to work so you can stop this as soon as possible," he snapped, "and the Ninja and his friend are going to have a word with the Dragon Council as well. Now go!"
"Sweet!" Jake said. Danny beamed.
"Thank you so much, sir, I really appreciate you allowing Jake to come!"
Lao Shi said something in Mandarin again and went into the back room, irritated all the while. Danny held the badge out. "Alright, everybody hold onto me and we'll be off." The three grabbed onto him. Danny concentrated, rubbed his thumb over the badge, and instantly they were in Danny's room and light faded.
Howard was playing with a McFist pad while Randy was face-first with crossed eyes in the open Nomicon. Sam and Tucker were chattering. Everyone looked towards them as they appeared. Tucker spoke. "American Dragon, Jake Long and his friends...what are your names?"
"Trixie Carter."
"Arthur P. Spudinski, but call me Spud."
"Okay." Tucker wrote it all down on the laptop. Sam crossed her arms and stood up.
"And you're willing to keep this a secret too?" her eyes narrowed. Spud threw his hands up.
"I'm not saying anything. I haven't said anything about Jake. And I'm not gonna say anything now." he said politely. Sam's gaze turned to Trixie. The girl rolled her eyes.
"Yes, yes, I'm keeping this all very hush-hush. Relax."
Sam grumbled. Howard got up, and Randy awoke from the Nomicon and got up too. Randy put out his hand and shook hands with all three of them. "Hey, I'm Randy Cunningham, ninth grade ninja."
Howard shook hands as well. "And I'm Howard Weinerman, Ninja's best friend."
"S'up? I'm the American Dragon." Jake stated. Howard crossed his arms.
"Yeah, about that...like, is the American Dragon just a title for a ninja or is it literal?'
Jake smirked. "I forgot, I haven't even shown you my awesome transformation. Danny's so far is just a pretty light show."
"Hey!" Danny protested, "I have a cool transformation!"
"Yeah, it's very pretty. But do you have Sailor Moon ribbons?" Randy asked. He pulled the Ninja mask out of his pocket and pulled it over his head. He was wrapped by ribbons and covered in a Ninja outfit instantly. "I am the best and have the coolest one!" the freshman proudly declared.
None of the other room occupants looked very impressed. Danny, Sam, Tucker, Trixie, Jake, and Spud had all seen weirder things, and Howard had seen this ninja transformation time and time again. Jake merely snorted. "You think that's cool? Just watch this!"
His eyes turned slit-like. A blue, smokey aura surrounded his body, leaving scales and wings behind. When it passed, a bright red dragon was before them. Danny crossed his arms.
"Seen it." he said, "The Master of Time showed me and I've seen ghost dragons do something kind of like that."
"You're just jealous." Trixie said, crossing her arms and smirking. Jake nodded in agreement. Sam rolled her eyes again.
"Whatever." she said simply. Tucker hadn't even looked up to watch it as he typed, disinterested in what was going on. Everyone had seen too much that day to be shocked. That is, except for Howard and Randy.
The two boys were staring, mouths agape and eyes wide as dinner plates. Both were breathing heavily. "Holy...cheese..." Randy muttered, almost too quietly to be audible. Howard threw a hand to his face and simply stared while Randy stared too. By this point Jake was getting uncomfortable.
"Can you guys stop? It's not that shocking."
"It totally is! There's a freaking dragon right in front of our faces and that's not supposed to be shocking?!" Howard shrieked.
"What he said! What the juice?!" Randy exclaimed. "Boom! This is so...so..."
"Bruce!" Howard declared. Jake turned back and smirked at Danny.
"I think I win the coolest transformation contest."
Danny scoffed. "Whatever. Let this meeting come to order."