YAY! I updated! Hurah! Go angel, go angel, go angel! Haha. But seriously folks, sorry I took so long. School started yesterday and I'm already sick of it. Speaking of school... I really should start my homework before my procrastination gets me in trouble... again... o-O
As always, thanks to Epona for betaing.
---
"Excuse me Miss," Sam froze at the police officer's voice. "We've had multiple reports of a toddler running around Amity. As far as we know, he doesn't have any parents, and we're afraid he might get hurt."
Sam sighed. They weren't going to lecture her about not being in school. Smiling at the concerned authority figure, she shook her head.
"I'm sorry Sir," she said. "I haven't seen anything, but I'll keep an eye out." The man sighed in annoyance. "I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's told you that…" Sam added. The officer smiled at her.
"Either that or 'Why do you want to find that kid? He's a ghost!'" The man laughed. "Well, I got to go. This kid's getting more attention than Danny Phantom right now."
"D-Danny Phantom?" Sam asked. The officer ignored her stuttering.
"Yeah, you know, the ghost kid. He's a trip, that one. Can never him! Ah well, I have to get back to work. Oh, and miss, if you see anything, call the police please? I don't want to have to worry about a poor, abandoned kid getting hurt." Sam nodded.
"Um… Officer?" she started. "Where was the last place the toddler was seen?"
"Uh… either the mall or the preschool. Can't remember which one though… Thanks again though ma'am! And tell us if you see anything." Sam watched the man turn away.
"A ghost toddler?" she thought out loud. "Man, Danny's going to laugh when he hears that one!"
---
"Okay Maddie, I got the Fenton Foamer, Thermos, and the Ghost Gabber! Anything else?"
Maddie wasn't listening to her rambling husband. Instead, her attention was on the two-year-old cradled peacefully in her arms. Smiling slightly, she set him on the couch and turned to Jack.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Jack raised a curious eyebrow, and shoved the three devices into his wife's hands.
"Maddie, what gives?"
Maddie blinked innocently. "W-What do you mean?"
"I mean, you seem to have lost your ghost hunter's touch."
"What?" she asked, clearly offended. "I haven't lost anything!"
"Are you sure? Cause you've been acting strange lately…" Jack gasped and jumped back. "ARE YOU A GHOST!"
Maddie jumped up in shock. Her eyes darted over to the slumbering toddler.
"Shhhh!" she shushed. "You'll wake him up!"
Jack frowned. "That's what I—"
"Shhhhhhh!"
Jack blinked and lowered his voice. "That's what I mean!"
"I already told you Jack…" Maddie whispered. "He is here for experimental purposes only. Nothing else! If we're nice to him… he'll trust us."
"But he's asleep…" Silence.
"Yes, he is... but..."
"But…?"
"But… I need to practice! Being nice to a ghost is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. It's not something that I'm going to get used to right away, so… I need to… practice…"
Jack smiled. "Ohhhhh, good idea Maddie! I'm sorry I doubted you."
"I forgive you Jack, but don't jump to conclusions like that…" she laughed, then looked at Danny. A sweet smile replaced her laughter.
"Come on Maddie!" Jack grinned. "I have something I want to show you downstairs. It's the newest ghost hunting weapon I created. And now we can actually see if it works!"
"Okay, I'll be there in a second." Jack's face lit up with excitement, and he quickly raced downstairs. "Jazz?" Maddie turned to her daughter. Jazz was still standing in the doorway. Her eyes were wide and her mouth open in disbelief. Maddie didn't pay attention to her reaction. "Can you watch Danny for me please? I don't want him to wonder off. Thanks."
Jazz's eyes followed her mother into the kitchen and down the stairs before darting over to the sleeping toddler. Shaking her head and coming out of her trance, Jazz slowly made her way to the boy.
"D-Danny?" she whispered. "Danny?" The baby ghost wouldn't move. "I have to get a hold of Sam and Tucker." She mumbled. "Maybe they can help." Rushing over to the phone, she picked it up and held it to her ear. There was no dial tone.
"What the—?" She hit some buttons.
Still nothing.
She checked to make sure the phone was plugged in. Jazz would've screamed in frustration if she wasn't afraid of waking up Danny.
"MOM!" She called after darting into the kitchen. "Why doesn't the phone work?" Maddie's head appeared at the foot of the lab stairs.
"Oh… remember when you called me at school, sweetie?" Jazz just nodded. "Well, we got cut off because your father tried to plug the Specter Speeder into the living room wall. When he flipped the switch, it overloaded the transformer down the street, causing a temporary blackout. I hope the neighbor's don't mind... They seemed kinda annoyed when they stopped by..."
"I said I was sorry!" Jack yelled from the basement.
"Then why do we still have power?" Jazz asked, referring to the lights and the machines running downstairs.
"Back up generators. Your father and I created them incase there was a power shortage and a ghost invasion at the same time."
"And we don't have phones because…" Jazz asked. Maddie laughed.
"Phones? You can't fight ghosts with a telephone, sweetie." Jazz sighed.
"You can call the police with a telephone."
"Why would we need to do that? Jazz, I'm a ninth degree black belt. Everything Amity Park's police force can do doesn't even compare to the things that I can. Now go watch Danny, okay?" Jazz sighed, but agreed. Shutting the lab door behind her, she headed into the living room.
"Okay," she said to herself. "This really isn't that bad. I can figure out what happened to Danny, and figure out how to change him back. Not to mention the slight possibility that Sam or Tucker could come here."
"Wow, does evewyone talk to demselves hewe?" Jazz jumped at the tiny voice. Turning around, she saw her green-eyed, white-haired brother staring up at her.
"D-Danny…?" Jazz asked, somewhat shocked. Her brother nodded his head.
"Yups! I'm Danny Phantom! I'm dis many!" He held up two fingers. Jazz gapped. "And I wike ice-cweam!"
"Danny…" Jazz rolled her eyes. "Mom and Dad aren't here. So you can cut the baby act now." Danny grinned.
"Haha! You tawk funny!" Jazz's eyes widened and she kneeled down to his height.
"Your… your not acting are you." Danny just stared at her with a big, goofy expression. "Oh my gosh. Okay, Danny, do you know who I am?"
The toddler nodded. "Yous a weiwd lady dat tawks a wot."
"No, I'm your sister Jazz! Danny, something happened to you. Something bad. I don't know what it is, but you do. Can you tell me so that I can fix it?" Danny's brow furrowed.
"Nuffin happened to me." He said. "I's don'ts knows what yous tawking about." Jazz sighed. Her eyes dropped to stare at the floor in defeat. After a moment, she looked up, her attention drawn to something hanging around the toddler's neck.
"Danny? What's this?" she asked, pointing to the Time Medallion.
Danny looked down and smiled.
"It's my pwesent!" He shouted and pulled the necklace into a hug.
"Who gave you your present?" Jazz asked sweetly. Danny shrugged.
"I's gots it when I was wifh the one eyeboll peoples." He smiled. Jazz blinked and tried to hide her confusion. A silence crept in-between the two until the teenager finally gave up on the list of villains running through her head.
"Who?" Danny just smiled, and began playing with the medallion. He was holding it out in front of him and using it as a pretend steering wheel. He even added the car noises.
"Danny, can I see your present?" Danny frowned and pulled the medallion away. He shook his head no. "Please Danny? I just want to see it really, really quick…"
"No!" Danny protested. "It's my pwesent! Get youw own!"
"But I don't have one… can you please share with me?" Jazz put on a fake sad face and the toddler's brow furrowed again.
"Um…"
"Please Danny? You're gonna make me cry…" Danny smiled.
"You cwy cause you don'ts get what yous wants?" he asked, cocking his head to the side. Jazz sighed, a little irritated.
"Danny, just give me the stupid thing!" She made a grab at it, but Danny jumped back.
"No!" he shouted. "It's mine! I's wants it! And I'm gonna keep it fowevew, and evew, and evew, and evew, and..." he took one good look at the medallion in his hands and frowned. "I's don'ts wants it anymore…" He tossed it to Jazz.
"Yes," she muttered under her breath as she looked the medallion over. "Just as I thought: CW, that's Clockwork!" Clockwork was one of the only ghosts Jazz has never met, and one of the only ghosts she knew next to nothing about.
A few months ago, she had stumbled across a medallion in Danny's room. When she asked him what it was about, Danny just replied:
"Oh, that's just Clockwork's Time Medallion. Don't worry. He's one of the only ghosts that doesn't want to waste me or put my pelt at the foot of his bed." Jazz had never brought the subject up again.
But now, she wished she had. This Clockwork person obviously knew what had happened to Danny, and if what Danny said was true, then Clockwork wouldn't have been the one to turn Danny into a two-year-old. But if Clockwork didn't do it…
Who did?
"Danny, why did Clockwork give—?" Jazz stopped when she noticed she was alone in her living room. "Oh… great…"
---
"Well Maddie, what do ya think?" Jack boomed with excitement as he held up his new device.
"Um… Jack, it looks just like the Ghost Gabber…"
"That's because it is! The Ghost Gabber 2! I made the installments myself." Maddie smiled sweetly.
"What does it do?" Jack pointed his weapon at the wall.
"Well, since the last Ghost Gabber didn't do too much, this one does that, and more!"
"M-More than nothing, dear?" Maddie asked a tad confused.
"Exactly! Not only does it take things ghosts say and transfer them into things you and I say everyday… but it also gives the ghost a nasty shock that'll temporarily paralyze them… Oh! And it makes tea! Gotta love the tea." Maddie smiled and shook her head.
"It's nice Jack… And I'm sure it'll work…"
"Well we can find out!" Maddie froze.
"What?"
"We can find out if it works! Right now! We have a ghost! Man Maddie! This is the greatest day of my life! I'm so glad you suggested we use Danny Phantom as our genie pig for oncoming experiments!" Maddie stared.
"Oh yeah… my… idea…"
"Let's find out right now!" Before Maddie could object, Jack was running for the stairs.
"J-Jack! Wait!" She called after her husband.
---
"Danny?" Jazz asked, looking behind the couch. "Danny? Come on! This isn't funny! I need to figure this out before Mom and Dad come back!" There was a crash upstairs. "DANNY!" she shouted, and rushed up to her room. Her reading lamp was shattered into countless pieces on the floor. The two-year-old ghost was standing not to far from it. He stared at the lamp, and then looked up at Jazz who had a horrorstruck expression on her face.
"I didn't do it!" Danny quickly defended backing up slightly and bumping a mountain of books over. Danny looked back at Jazz. "I didn't do dat either!"
Jazz sighed. "Danny, you scared me! Don't do that again."
"Okay…" Danny muttered. He was hiding something behind his back that Jazz had just caught.
"Danny? What's that?" She motioned behind him. Danny quickly tried to hid the strange object some more.
"Nofin!" he defended. "I don'ts got nofin!"
"Danny…" Jazz started and took a step closer. Danny quickly went up to Jazz's open window, revealing his item at last.
It was a carton of eggs.
"DANNY, NO!" Jazz shouted. She made a dart for the boy, but she was too late. The baby hybrid dropped the carton. The dozen eggs fell to the ground with a SPLAT.
Jazz glanced outside and winced.
"Ew… it's like an egg massacre…" she muttered, then looked at Danny.
"I didn't do it!" the boy said again.
"Yes you did!" Jazz complained. Danny shook his head.
"PWOVE IT!"
"I just saw you do it!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Uh-huh!" Danny hung his head.
"I'm sowwy…" Jazz just stared at her little brother.
"Danny, if I didn't know your life was in danger… I would yell at you right now..." Danny just smiled.
"JACK, WAIT!" Jazz and Danny jumped at their mother's protest, and again as her door shot open. Jack was standing in the doorway. The Ghost Gabber was in his hands and he had it pointed at Danny.
"Dad! What are you doing!" Jazz asked, exchanging nervous glances between Danny and Jack.
"Testing out my new invention, Jazzy-pants!" Jack cheered. Maddie appeared behind him.
"Jack, wait! I think we need to build his trust before—"
"Nonsense! He trusts us now! No time like the present!"
"Hi Daddy!" Danny waved frantically. "What's dat!"
'Ghost identified. Preparing to send electromagnetic pulses…' the device in Jack's hand beeped.
"What?"Jazz shouted. "Dad, no! Wait!" the device began to charge.
"JACK!" Maddie boomed. She bumped her husband and the blast hit the ceiling; leaving an enormous hole. Jazz gapped at her ceiling, Danny smiled and giggled at it.
"I definitewy didn't do dat!"
Maddie ignored them both.
"JACK FENTON! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!" Jack cowered at his wife's words. He didn't even know what he did!
"Maddie, I—"
"I THOUGHT I MARRIED SOMEONE WHO WAS KIND TO CHILDREN! NOT SOMEONE WHO WOULD TRY TO HURT THEM!"
"M-My ceiling…" Jazz whined. Danny looked at the three in front of him. He had fun here. He really did. But he was bored again. So it was time to find something new to do.
"But Maddie, he's a ghost! He's not even a real—"
"I DON'T CARE IF HE WAS A VAMPIRE, JACK!" Maddie snatched the Ghost Gabber 2 from her husband. "A CHILD IS A CHILD! WHAT? ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT TO JAZZ? OR DANNY?"
"Of course not!" Jack quickly defended. Maddie growled. Turning on her heal, she stormed down the hall. "Maddie! Wait! Come on, Maddie!"
Or Danny?
"DANNY!" Jazz finally snapped into reality and looked beside her…
Her brother was gone.
Jazz heard giggling from outside. Darting over to her window, she saw her little brother walking on the other side of the street.
"DANNY!" she shouted again. Rushing out of her room and down the stairs, she only stopped in front of the kitchen to face her arguing parents.
"I'mgoingtogogetDanny!" Not waiting for an answer, she continued running. She darted out the door and down the steps.
"DAN—Omph!" Jazz's view flipped upside-down as she slipped on the eggs Danny dropped from her room earlier. The clear sky was all she saw until the figures of her parents slowly came into view.
"Jazz, sweetie, are you okay?" Her mother asked, helping her daughter up.
"Yeah…" Jazz shook her head to clear her vision. She tried to look around her mother to see if she could still find Danny, but her dad stepped in front of her.
"Jazz, I said you were grounded! I meant it too young lady!"
"But—"
"No buts except for your egg-covered one inside young lady!" Jazz's shoulder's sunk. She looked back just in time to see Danny disappear behind the corner…
---
Three guesses how I got the egg story. 'hangs head' I turn my back for 2 minutes! 2 MINUTES! How can you possibly get past me, into the fridge, past me again, and over to the balconey in just TWO FREAKING MINUTES! 'crys' Maybe I should pay a tad more attention when I'm babysitting my brothers...