Chapter 5:

Another Little Problem


After Sam and Jazz had, literally, dropped the sleeping ghost-boy back into bed, (seriously, he sleeps like a rock,) the three remaining members of Team Phantom had stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, marking out their strategy.

Tucker had come up with a long list of cures, sorted by type, so they could lay off the breathing exercises for a while. Some of them had actually made Danny's hiccups worse.


Danny woke up exhausted - as Phantom. He glanced wildly around the room, searching for eyes - and weapons - that wouldn't take kindly to finding the wrong Danny in his bed. Thankfully, the door was shut, and the house was quiet. He found the other members of Team phantom scattered around his room, sound asleep.

Tucker was leaned half-across Danny's computer desk, a puddle of drool forming next to him. Sam was in the floor, her phone on her chest, seeming to have fallen asleep while using it. Jazz had pulled one of her own chairs into the room. She was leaned back in it, head tilted to the side, hugging some book called "Psychological Cures for Physical Maladies".

Danny looked at the clock, and realized his mother would be calling him down for breakfast soon, unless she was down in the lab and forgot. He tried to transform back into Fenton, but the rings didn't appear. He tried again. Nada.

He really hoped his mom was in the lab.

He went into his bathroom, watching his reflection as he tried to coax the transformation rings out of his core, longing more than he ever had for the strange, warm-yet-chilly, tingling sensation to wash over him. But it didn't come.

He started to panic. Had something happened. He remembered slipping on a bottle of shampoo the night before. It hadn't knocked him out, he was just too tired and too afraid of making more noise to untangle himself with his Dad just outside the door. Hiccuping more than ever, he had closed his eyes, listening for his father, trying to calm himself, and praying that his dad didn't open the door... And, then, he had woken up in bed.

The others must've carried him there sometime last night, then set to work on a battle plan against the hiccup scourge. But, why couldn't he change back? He wasn't... "I didn't... d-... die the rest of the way... did I?" He half-whispered to his reflection, more calmly than he really should have been. He stared himself down, intently, for several long moments.

*Hiccup* (Fenton)

"Nope. We're good." He said, in a deceptively bored tone, releasing a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. Tucker stirred, looking like his head might fall off the desk. Danny tried to get him into the bed, (making them more comfortable was the least he could do for his incredible friends,) but his super-strength wasn't carrying over into his human-form like it had been gradually doing.

He tried to transform again, testing it out in human-form. Nope. He whispered his battle-cry out loud, careful not to alert his parent or wake his friends. Still nothing. He settled for getting Tucker and Sam some pillows. Jazz was fine. She slept like that all the time.

He crept to the empty section of his room and tested some of his other powers out.

Invisibility: nope.

Intangibility: nope.

Flight: nope. He was still sore from yesterday.

Ice powers: nope, nope, nada.

Dream invasion: he tried in on Tucker. Ouch. No. Danny rubbed his head, while Tucker mumbled something about meat and snuggled deeper into his pillow. Sam mumbled something about veggies and threw her pillow at him.

*Hiccup* (Phantom)

The pillow hit Danny instead. He tried his powers again. Check, check, check, and check. Everything worked. Though, he decided against testing his dream invasion powers again. It had occured to him that he might hiccup and get stuck... Well, at least he could see where his parents were, now.


AN: Hey, everybody! :) Thirty-six followers? I can't believe it! Thank you, so much! :D It's currently 2:23 AM, and I'm still awake, so I thought I'd go ahead and post this, for all my fellow sleepless fanfictioners :)

So, Danny is losing more control of his powers than he thought. *Slightly-evil giggle* I think I said this in the beginning somewhere, but I have absolutely no idea how long this fic will end up being. I've already written eleven chapters, and I have no clue where I'll go from here. It might become a revelation fic, but it probably won't be. I know how I want it to end, but it could happen in chapter twelve, or it could wind up chapter twenty-three, for all I know.

Also, I know my chapters are short, but this seems to be my default size... hehe. It just doesn't seem to flow right, otherwise. Once the fic is finished, I might go back and combine, but I probably won't.

Wow. I think this is the longest author's note I've ever written. I'm gonna catch some Z's, before I can blabber any longer.

Anywho, please review :) And, as always, God bless, and I hope you enjoy :) - Ellie