Me: Chapter 3 time!
Danny: Updates :)
Me: Again, sorry for the loooooong wait guys. Meh, it's here now!
Danny: Anyway, thanks to Inuyuke and James birdsong for reviewing! This chappie is just for Inu, because I know how much she likes this fic!
No Worries, Chapter 3
The meaty smell of cooking burgers hit Danny as he walked in through the front door of Fenton Works. His parents were in the kitchen. Jazz, his older sister, sat quietly on the sofa, reading a book on psychology.
All was peaceful, except some sort of tension seemed to hang in the air. Danny shrugged it off and walked into the kitchen. His dad smiled immediately, but his mum still was quite cautious around the halfa.
She put some thick gloves on and took a plate out of the oven. "I cooked you a home-made burger with some salad, Danny." Maddie said as she placed the meal on the table.
Danny ate slowly, trying to start up a conversation. Jack ignored him; he was building a new ecto gun and his face was buried in a book of complicated instructions. His mum gave short answers like 'yes' and 'no'.
Danny eventually gave up trying to talk. He chewed on his burger for a few minutes, then Jazz came in.
"I finished my book," she announced to her family.
Maddie nodded and mumbled something like, "that's great sweetie." She was mostly paying attention to her husband, who had now cut his finger with the screwdriver.
"What's wrong with mum and dad?" Danny asked Jazz.
"There still trying to...get used to you being a ghost, I guess." Jazz replied.
He shrugged. "I suppose they are."
She turned to face her brother. "Have you talked to them about it much?" she asked.
Danny shook his head, "no. I've been too busy. Skulker's been back at least twice already. I now know he wasn't kidding when he said that I was a much more valuable prize."
"Oh Jack, look what you've done now!" Maddie tried to reach for the bolt, but it had fallen too far down the pipe for her to reach.
Jack also tried to reach for the bolt, but his hands were bigger. "You told me to wash it in the sink!" he argued.
"Just be more careful next time," Maddie replied.
Jazz nudged Danny. "Quick, here's your chance," she said, "go and get it for them."
Danny sighed and got up out of his chair. He pushed past his parents and phased his hand into the pipe. He found the bolt and pulled it out smoothly, turning it and his hand tangible again. He gave it to Maddie.
"Here you go," he said, waiting for her to take it.
She hesitated and flinched when she felt the unnatural icy touch of Danny's hands, but she still took the bolt from him.
"Uh…thanks." She fixed to bolt onto the side of the ecto gun.
"Anything else you need help with?" Danny asked her when she didn't say anything else.
Maddie hesitated. She honestly didn't like Danny's ghost half at all; it brought back horrible memories of her trying to kill her own son. Jack however, didn't seem to mind.
"Could I test this on you Danny? "Jack held up what looked like a ghost tracker, complete with pointless flashing lights and a radar.
Danny took it from him. "How does it work?" he asked his father.
"It locates ghosts. It's really not that complicated." Jack turned the invention on.
"Uh, didn't you make something like this before?" Danny said as an arrow appeared on the radar screen and pointed directly towards him.
"Well…yes. But this one looks so much cooler," Jack replied.
"And it looks like it works, too," Jazz joined in the conversation.
"Danny, what's this?" Maddie interrupted the rest of her family. She gave her son a small brown envelope addressed to him.
Danny took it, a sense of dread washing over him. "That's the third one in about a day. I don't like this," he mumbled to himself while opening it.
"Third what?" Maddie asked, peeking over Danny's shoulder.
"Nothing, don't worry." Danny pushed her away. He didn't really want to share his problems with anyone.
He opened it up cautiously; strangely worried that something might jump out at him. A battered slip of paper was tucked inside, which Danny pulled out. This time written on it was only one word.
"Wes," Danny said out loud.
"What was that?" Maddie asked.
"It's from Tucker, it's fine." Danny replied hastily. "Where did you get this anyway?" he turned to his mother.
"It fell out the instruction book for the gun," she explained suspiciously, "but why would Tucker put it in there?"
Danny faked a shrug. "No idea," he lied, "maybe it fell in there, I don't know."
Maddie raised an eyebrow. "That instruction book arrived 40 minutes before you got home, Danny," she said, "no one apart from me and your father has seen the book. And now you say Tucker put it in there?" she sighed. "I'm not going to press on this subject anymore," Maddie went back to helping Jack, who was struggling to get his gloves back on after bandaging his cut, "but if something like this happens again, I want the truth."
Danny nodded in understanding and left the kitchen before she could say anything else.
When he was halfway up the stairs to his room, Danny's phone rang. The caller ID told him it was Tucker.
"Hi Tuck, what's up?" Danny pushed opened to door to his bedroom as he talked.
"I researched that word for you," Tucker told him. "It's Japanese for museum."
"That's great, thanks," Danny took a mental note of the word, he would write it down somewhere later.
He was just about to hang up, when he remembered the other two notes he had found.
"I found some more of those letters. One of them says dillow y funll. The other says wes."
"Well, you know what wes Is."
"What?"
"Remember that ring you gave Sam? Wes is Sam upside down."
Danny sat down on his bed, deep in thought. "They must be some kind of clues," he decided. "but what about dillow y funll?"
"I think it's an anagram," Tucker said, "It doesn't sound like a sentence to me."
"How can you be so sure?" Danny asked, "It could be another language."
"I'm just guessing!" Tucker sounded agitated, "Look, I'll look it up for-"
"Child!" A loud voice came from behind me.
Danny recognised it instantly.
"Technus." he turned round to face the ghost, hanging up his phone and turning into Danny Phantom. "What do you want?"
He raised his green arms for effect, "I, Technus, master of all things that beep and flash, have come here to destroy you and take over the world!"
"Didn't you already try that?" Danny asked, getting slightly bored.
"Danny!" Jack burst into the room, clutching a newly-finished ecto gun to his chest. "I finished it!"
"Not now dad," Danny pointed to Technus, "I have bigger things to worry about at the moment."
"Let me help!" the man insisted, "I can try out my new weapon!"
"Fine."
Jack ran up to help his son as he began to shoot at the technology ghost. Technus dodged most of the attacks, but one of the blasts from Jack's gun hit him squarely in the chest, knocking him backwards against the wall.
Danny flew forward, aiming a punch to Technus' stomach. It hit its target, winding him. Technus stood up shakily and began to hover again, a few feet above Jack. Danny shot upwards to be level with him.
"You're not going anywhere," he said to Technus, reaching for the thermos in his back pocket. The halfa opened the ghost catcher up, pointing it at his enemy.
Technus was sucked inside with a bright blue flash, leaving Danny to shut the lid and float back down to Jack.
"We make a great team, son," Jack patted his son on the back, "we should do it more often!"
"Maybe Dad, just maybe." Danny said with a smile, reaching for the warmth of his human half. He transformed back and followed his father downstairs.
"How about some fudge?" Jack said as he walked into the kitchen. Maddie and Jazz weren't in sight.
"OK." Danny sat down at the table and grabbed a plate. His dad sat down beside him, holding a bowl full of sweet vanilla fudge.
"So Danny…" Jack picked some fudge and put it in his mouth.
"Yeah?"
"I've been meaning to ask you something very important." he sounded uncharacteristically serious.
"What's that?"
"How did you uh…come to be half-ghost?"
They both sat in a slightly awkward silence for a moment as Danny tried to think of what to say. He didn't really want to tell his father that it was all his fault.
"I don't really want to talk about it…" Danny rubbed the back of his neck, trying to find a way out of the question.
"That bad, huh?" Jack asked.
Danny nodded.
"Well, when you fell like talking, I'll be ready." Jack took another piece of fudge.
"Danny!" Jazz burst into the kitchen and grabbed on to her brother's shoulders, "You have to get out of here!"
"Why?" Danny shoved her off, annoyed.
"It's the guys in white – they're back!"
"How?" Danny jumped up. "I thought I erased their memories?"
"When you told the world your secret, they were obviously watching as well," Jazz explained in a hurry.
She grabbed his hand, "Come on, we've got to go!"
"Too late," Jack said from behind them.
"Daniel Fenton," Danny and Jazz saw one of the flawlessly-dressed agents as they whipped round, "you're under arrest for multiple counts of theft and abduction. Also, we need to bring you in for experiments. Lots and lots of painful experiments."
"No!" Jack stepped in front of his son protectively. "You can't take Danny!"
"Actually, yes we can," another agent held up a piece of paper. "This is a warrant. We work for the government, and you have to do as we say or we can and will send you to jail."
Someone grabbed Danny and put a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. Danny tried to phase through them, but they were clearly ghost-proof.
"You're coming with us, Phantom." Danny was dragged helplessly out of the kitchen and out of sight.
"What do we do?" Jack turned to his daughter. "They're going to hurt him…and…and I should have been there for him."
"We'll find a way to get him back Dad, don't worry." Jazz replied as optimistically as she could.
Danny: Hey guess what everybody, it's a cliffy! Yay!
Me: Someone once told me that sarcasm was the lowest form of wit, Danny dear.
Danny: *sighs*
Me: Anyway people, can you guys review? I know Inu will, 'cause Inu's awesome. But I know from my story stats that loads of other people are reading this. If you don't have an account on this site, you can still leave an anonymous review!
Danny: Thanks guys! Hope you enjoyed!