I do not own Danny Phantom.
A Trip to Fenton Works and Jack's Stupidity
Danny blinked, trying to clear the haze that blocked his vision. Youngblood had gone to Sam's at three in the morning, whining that he wanted to go home. Sam had called Danny on his cell, and a groggy Danny had disarmed the system and opened the portal, allowing the young ghost to happily fly home.
"How come you don't look like you want to collapse?" Danny asked, rubbing his eyes. Lancer's class was on their way to Fenton Works and he was too tired to panic and worry about the disasters that could possibly happen.
Sam smiled. "I'm a creature of the night. I can stay up all night and be refreshed for the day."
Danny snorted. "Wish I had that ability."
"Hiya, kids!"
Danny winced at the high-energy greeting and watched his mother wave at them from the front door. "Here we go," he muttered. "Don't know why I came to school. I could have just stayed home."
"Come in, come in," said Maddie, ushering them inside. "We have cookies downstairs, so don't be afraid to help yourselves!"
"I really hope this will go by quick," whispered Danny.
"Don't count on it," returned Tucker.
Maddie led them all downstairs to the lab, where a selection of weapons were laid out on the metal tables. She described each weapon in detail, which Jack chiming in now and then. He also told the group of students the proper thing to do if they ever saw a ghost; run and call in for professional help as soon as possible.
"They count as professional help?" Tucker asked in amusement. Sam snickered in agreement.
There were only a few mild incidents, for which Danny was relieved. Kwan accidently blasted Mike with the Fenton Blaster and he had to go to the hospital for burn treatments, though it wasn't anything horribly serious. Paulina, mistaking the Lipstick Ecto-Laser for actual lipstick, also had to be rushed to Emergency.
It wasn't a pretty sight.
"I mean, two out of, what, twenty students isn't bad," said Tucker.
Sam nodded. "It's actually pretty good."
Danny breathed a sigh of relief. "And we're almost done. All that's left is the ecto-tracker and then we can go back to school and write our report on why we like this trip."
"All right, kids. This button here shows us where the ghost scum is, and this doo-hickey tells me when the little red blip thing is moving," said Jack. "And this is the Fenton Fudge Dispenser!"
Danny's eyes widened in horror as his father's finger landed on the large red button. All heads swivelled towards the Fenton Portal, the alarms going crazy as they warned them of an incoming ghost.
"Please, please, please don't be Skulker!" Danny begged softly, watching the doors slowly slide open in apprehension.
Sam and Tucker will have to cover me somehow. My parents think I don't ghost fight and Lancer thinks I do. Oh, Dad, why? Why must you do this to me?
Sam and Tucker tensed, ready to tackle their peers out of harm's way if need be and give Danny the time he needed to slip off and transform.
"Beware!"
The trio sagged in relief. The Fentons instantly whipped out ecto-guns and the Fenton Fisher.
Even my parents can handle the Box Ghost, thought Danny.
"I am the Box Ghost! Master of Boxes and-"
The coverall-covered ghost yelped in shock when Jack flung the Fenton Fisher, the glowing line coming dangerously close to ensnaring him. Maddie evacuated the class outside before hurrying back to join her husband.
Lancer quickly did a roll call of his students before sighing in relief. All were present and accounted for. The class was milling on the sidewalk, chatting in excitement but the fear was still in their expressions.
Except...
Danny, Sam and Tucker seemed at ease, not even threatened, as if they knew there wasn't a threat. But how? They had said ghost hunting was a one-time thing, unless they acquired information about ghosts from Danny himself.
But why hadn't Danny joined his parents in fighting the ghost?
Maybe he thought they didn't need his help, thought Lancer with a slight frown.
His speculative thoughts had reasonable explanations, but were they too reasonable? His suspicions had been renewed when Valerie had come into class with a scratch on her cheek. Of course, there were many ways of getting a scratch, but something about the injury unsettled him for some reason.
And now that he thought about it, there were no signs of any of the artifacts the trio had brought in for their presentation.
Daniel had said they had brought them back to the lab until they could find a way to return them to their owners. Is it possible that they had gotten them from the Ghost Zone? No…no, they couldn't have. Not even Maddie and Jack have been in the Ghost Zone. Daniel would never bring his two friends into danger…unless he already knew and memorized whatever is inside that contraption…
As Lancer continued his musing, Valerie stood at the edge of the lawn, frowning. She was still ticked that Phantom had helped the little ghost brat get away.
I knew he was no good, she thought bitterly. But of course no one will listen to me. Everyone loves Phantom. The only ones who don't are the Fentons. They may be horrible ghost hunters, but at least they have enough common sense not to trust Amity Park's so-called hero.
She really wanted to help bust that blue ghost that had come through the Ghost Portal, but her father would kill her if he ever found out she did ghost hunting as a hobby. As incompetent as the Fentons were, they were still ghost hunters, and had more than enough weapons to deal with the situation.
Sam, Danny and Tucker stole away from the crowd and crouched by the basement windows, watching intently as Danny's parents shot at the panicked Box Ghost, who was flying around the lab in a frantic manner. He was not used to having strange people shooting at him and was rightly spooked.
Danny snorted when his mother snagged the Box Ghost in the Fenton Fisher. "Finally! That took them, like, fifteen minutes! It only took us five the first time we encountered the Box Dork."
Tucker continued watching for a moment and then paled. "Um, Danny? Isn't that the Fenton Molecule Destroyer?"
Danny's blue eyes widened and he watched in horror as his parents put the Box Ghost in a containment holder and inserted it into the machine.
The Fenton Molecule Destroyer. A metal machine with one tube that the ghost was shoved in. After a few seconds of beeps and flashing lights, the thermos or box or whatever device that was used to capture the ghost came out the other tube empty, with the ghost inside being disintegrated and destroyed, each molecule being ripped apart.
Danny had gone to extremes in his attempts to break the machine, filling it with dead fish, sticking a cork down one end, but every time his parents fixed it. So Danny simply kept an eye on any ghosts they caught-which was none, so he hardly had to worry.
"Aw man!" Danny instantly transformed and phased into the lab.
The sensors went wild, but Danny ignored the blaring alarms and shouts by his parents and reached an intangible hand into the machine, shooting tiny blasts to keep the furious ghost hunters back. Retrieving the small cube, he flew back out and transformed. In mere seconds his parents had burst through the front doors and down the street in search of his alter-ego.
Sam shook her head. "Man that was close!" She leaned over and pushed the button, letting the dazed Box Ghost out.
"Beware! What happened?"
"You were about to be destroyed by my parents. You're welcome," Danny said.
The Box Ghost blinked, studying Danny until he squirmed with discomfort. "Could you stop staring at me like that?" he asked. "It's kinda creeping me out."
"Beware! And...thank you!"
The Box Ghost flew off. Danny gawked. "Did he just thank me? Oh man, this is a weird week. I'm trying to keep my secret from getting out, you two are trying to avoid getting caught around ghosts, and I'm actually being civil to my enemies!"
"Does that mean you won't put the Box Ghost back in the Ghost Zone?" Tucker asked, standing up and brushing the dirt off his pants.
"No, I'll catch him...later."
The three slipped back into the crowd of students and soon they made their way back to school under Lancer's order.
Valerie scowled when she saw a blue blur fly through the air. She had heard the Fentons screaming something about the Phantom.
He's sure becoming more of a pain than usual, Valerie thought. But no worry. I'll have my revenge. On all of them. No ghost can hide from me. And none will escape, either.