Author's Note: Thanks to all the people who read the first part of this story and thanks to ShadowDragon357 for being my first reviewer EVER. I tried getting this part out as soon as I could since I wanted to give you guys a taste of what the story is actually going to be like. It's basically a more detailed prologue. I changed it from first person to third since I felt like that would be better for this story. Thanks again and here is Chapter 1. Sorry for any writing mistakes too.

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Charlatan's Flaw Chapter 1:

Daniel Fenton sat down at the desk in his parents' workshop and tinkered with the small inventions tossed haphazardly inside a medium sized box. He liked coming down here to see what new gadgets and gizmos his parents were creating. They used their inventions to fight against ghosts and other weird things. Their newest invention was located at the end of the far wall – a ghost portal. Supposedly it was created to connect the ghost world and the human world so that his parents could research ghosts more effectively. He wondered about what kind of awesome things would be on the other side of it. So far, it was their proudest achievement. Well, it would be if it actually worked. Danny got up and slowly made his way to the portal.

A few days ago, his parents had finished it after years of work. They had told Danny and Jazz that once they had made a prototype during their University years but stopped after an accident. The accident was never specified, although his father, Jack, had always seemed guilty whenever it was mentioned. Danny sighed and looked at the portal. It was made entirely out of some special type of metal his mother had created and accented with a neon green, like all Fenton products. It was very tough and durable, yet very light and resistant to the various environmental changes. Just like the metal on the Ops Center at the top of their house and the metal his father's thermos was made out of. Danny was about to look inside when he heard footsteps overhead.

"We'll be back later, Danny. We're late for Jazz's 6 o'clock speech at the high school. It's a pity that you don't want to go," Maddie shouted from the top of the stairs leading to the basement, "oh and remember that we'll come back at eight to pick you up for dinner!"

"Yeah I know, mom."

"And don't forget to turn everything off in the basement when you're done!"

"I know," he yelled back, exasperated. He'd only been in the basement a billion times before.

"We'll see you in about 2 hours, okay? Bye!"

"Yeah, I'll be waiting!"

Danny waited until he heard the Fenton RV roar out of the driveway. He looked over at the control panel near the ghost portal. It seemed to be functional. It was plugged into an outlet and the dials were all on the number five setting. Every light on the panel was glowing and the wires were fastened to the wall, unlike the wires inside the portal. Those were strewn all over the floor, tangled with each other. Danny was about to enter the portal when he saw a sign in his mother's handwriting near the entrance which read:

Danger. Hazmats required

"Whoops. That could have been messy," he chuckled to himself. Danny looked inside the boxes near the Fenton Thermos and found two hazmat suits. One of them was blue and looked too big for him. The other one was white and seemed to be his size but had his father's face on the front of the chest area.

"I can't go walking around with this on my chest," he told himself. He hastily ripped the sticker off of the suit but in doing so, part of the backing stayed on. "I hate when that happens," he said as he tried to get the sticker bits off, starting at the middle. The glue was too strong and Danny gave up on it. He walked over to the portal, opened it from the control panel, and stepped in. The heavy doors opened and revealed the inside of the broken device.

The lights inside the portal gave it an eerie glow. Danny kept walking until he hit a giant mirror at the edge of the portal, "Well, I guess this is it," he sighed, "what the heck is this thing for?" He gently touched the mirror, taking care not to break it in case it was more fragile than it looked. There seemed to be small wires behind it. These must be the things that make it work,he thought. "It doesn't look like anything is wrong on the inside…maybe I need to check the control panel again," he said softly as he started walking towards the entrance of the ghost portal.

He was halfway there when suddenly a light above him sparked loudly, causing Danny to curse and stumble. His left foot got caught in the bundle of wires and he tripped. Trying to catch himself, Danny threw his hands out in front of him on the wall – right on the "ON" button.

As soon as Danny's hand pushed the button, all he could do was scream. Blinding whiteness filled his vision and unbearable pain spread throughout his body. He felt like he was being torn apart and he wanted it to stop. He wanted it to stop so badly. He wished he would just die so that he wouldn't have to deal with the pain anymore. After what felt like an eternity, it stopped.

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Danny woke up to an aching body and wet eyes. He drew in a shaky breath and tried to get on his feet but he fell back to the ground. He looked at his foot and saw the tangled wires around his white boot. His white gloved hands moved to untangle them but stopped halfway. Danny looked over at his boots and gloves again, noticing for the first time that they were not the color they originally were. He looked down at his suit. It was black now, not white like it used to be, just like how the gloves were white now, not black.

Shocked, he quickly untangled himself then went to the mirror at the end of the ghost portal. It was glowing faintly green now and swirled around. He could barely make out his reflection in it but what he saw made him almost fall again. Danny was looking at himself but it wasn't him. The boy in the mirror had hair the color of snow and bright green eyes.

"Oh what the hell just happened?" He shouted. Then, at that moment, he started to float upward towards the ceiling. Danny started flailing and freaking out. He put his arms in front of him to stop from hitting the ceiling and closed his eyes, bracing for the impact but it never came. Danny opened his eyes and was shocked to see that he was floating through the floors of his house. He was currently passing through the kitchen which was located right on top of the basement and under his room.

"Oh my god. I'm dead aren't I?" He managed to cry out before he passed out...again.

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Once again, Danny woke up sore but this time, he was sprawled on the floor of his room. He quickly looked at the clock in his room. It was only seven thirty. His parents and Jazz had only left an hour and a half ago. "I'm not dead," he exclaimed happily, "I'm not dead!" He got up on his feet and headed to the bathroom. Once he got there, he looked at the mirror and saw that his hair and eyes were normal, not ghost-like. The hazmat suit was normal as well. He ran down to the kitchen, stopped at the basement door, and wondered whether what happened was a dream or not. His clothes, hairs, and eyes weren't weird colors anymore so Danny was confused.

He took a deep breath, then opened the door that lead to the lab. Nothing seemed out of place. Danny exhaled and walked down the stairs. He slipped the hazmat off, headed towards the ghost portal, and then looked over the controls. He pushed the open button and waited for the portal to reveal nothing behind the heavy doors. To Danny's surprise, there was a bright green glow swirling around the mirror at the end of the portal. "Whoa, I guess it actually works now," he said, a bit puzzled, "but did it start working because of what I did? I guess it really wasn't a dream then."

But what about the whole "I was a floating through things looking like a ghost" thing? Am I dead? Is this a hallucination? Man, this is too crazy for me to think about. What if – his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the Fenton RV pulling into the driveway. A few seconds later, his mother's head appeared at the top of the stairs.

"Danny, we're back! Are you ready?"

"Yeah mom, be right there!"

"Danny, why is the lab glowing?" she asked as she started walking down the stairs.

"Uh, that's the ghost portal," he said awkwardly.

"The ghost portal? How?" she exclaimed as she ran down the remaining steps, "it wasn't working before! Did you do something to it? Jack! Get down here!"

"Um, well you see, mom," Danny stammered, "I uh just kinda…tinkered with it?"

Danny's father walked down the stairs, "What is it, Maddie? A ghost?!"

"Danny's fixed the ghost portal!" she told him, ecstatic.

"What? The ghost portal's working? Good job Danny! Seems like you get your fixing skills from your old man!"

"Heh, yeah dad," Danny chuckled awkwardly, "so, um, don't we have reservations at a restaurant or something?"

"Well, that can wait, son. What we have here is a lot more exciting than any old restaurant!" his father boomed excitedly.

"Unless you've been planning this dinner for months!" Jazz stormed through the basement door, "Come on, we have to go! Mom!"

"She's right, come on let's go. Jack, we'll check out the portal when we get back," Maddie told Jack and Danny.

They all piled into the Fenton RV and sped away to the restaurant, arriving there just in time. After the waitress showed them to their table, each Fenton ordered their meal and waited. Danny felt super starved after the whole "fixing the ghost portal" ordeal. The food finally arrived and Danny dug in. He was having a great time eating and was halfway done with his food when his spoon just slipped from his invisible hand. Wait, invisible?! Danny looked at his hand. Last time he checked, his hand was NOT invisible. Or intangible for that matter.

"Oh crap," he said, eyes wide.

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Well, there's the first chapter. Hopefully it isn't too bad. The next chapter will deal with new stuff. Sorry for any mistakes I may have made, I didn't have time to check it over. Did you guys guess that the partially ripped sticker is shaped like a "DP"? Well, if you didn't, now you know. Anyways, I still don't know how long it'll be for each chapter to come out either. At most, probably two weeks and shortest time would probably be once a week. Thanks again and till next time!