Season 1 Episode 16
Paternal Instinct
"The Father of All Shows!"
It was Friday afternoon in Amity Park, and everything was quiet that day. But that didn't stop Dani Fenton from training herself and learning more about her ghost powers with the help of her two best friends, Sam Manson and Tina Foley.
They were all currently in the lab of Fenton Works when Dani hovered to the air in her ghost form and then flew at her best speed she can master with her spectral tail. Tina aimed her measuring gun as she swooped by and it caught Dani's max speed to be one hundred and fifteen miles per hour.
"Hundred and fifteen miles per. Lighten up the speed gun, girl." Tina said to Dani while she changed her tail back into her legs.
Dani turned herself intangible before she phased through the wall and then returned from the ceiling as she became solid again. "Intangibility, check." Sam said while he checked it off on his clipboard.
Dani then turned herself invisible as she hovered there with her arms crossed while Sam and Tina glanced around in confusion. "Dani?" They both asked in unison.
"Invisibility, check." Tina said, until Dani suddenly flew into her body and overshadowed her when her eyes glowed green.
"Hi, I'm Tina! Don't let the PDA, glasses, and lack of muscles fool ya, I'm a stun!" Dani said through Tina before she phased out of her body again with a childish giggle.
Tina scowled at her in annoyance. "I hate it when you do that."
Dani floated in the air and looked at her friends, ready for something else. "Okay, hot stuff, let's ramp it up." Sam said with a smile as he held out a remote and pressed a button.
Several hoops sprang out of the ceiling and several guns popped out from the walls and prepared themselves to fire. Dani flew up and jumped over one of the hoops, flip-swung from the second before she catapulted herself over through the third hoop without even touching it (the hoops were to test her superhuman agility). The guns then fired darts while Dani dodged them to test her superhuman reflexes.
Cutouts of ghosts suddenly sprang out from behind the counters. Dani used her ecto beams to burn them out to test her aim (even jokingly burning out a cut out of her brother, James, with her finger).
Then several steel walls sprang from the floor, though Dani merely turned intangible as she phased right through them carelessly, and looked like she was relaxing on her bed while her friends watched her float away. She gave them a thumbs up as she turned solid...until she accidentally slammed into a wall with a grunt and collapsed onto the floor.
Dani rubbed her head to get the dizziness off as Tina and Sam walked up to her. "Hi, I'm Dani Fenton! Don't let the concussion and bruises fool ya, I need more practice." Tina said jokely, repeating what Dani said through her earlier.
Dani frowned at her techno-geek friend as she placed her hand on the floor and turned part of it intangible. It slipped underneath Tina's feet and, with a surprised yelp, she phased right through the floor and out of sight.
"...Wow, it's quiet in here." Sam, after a moment of silence, said with a smile.
Theme Song:
(She's a phantom)
(Dani Phantom, Phantom, Phantom)
Young Dani Fenton, she was just fourteen
When her parents built a very strange machine
Designed to view a world unseen
(She's gonna catch 'em all, cause she's Dani Phantom)
When it didn't work, her folks, they just quit
Then Dani took a look inside of it
There was a great, big flash, and everything changed
Her molecules got all rearranged
(Phantom, Phantom)
When she first woke up, she realized she had snow white hair, and glowing green eyes
She could walk through walls, disappear, and fly
She was much more unique than the other gals
And it was then that she knew what she had to do
She had to stop all the ghost that were coming through
She's there to fight, for me and you!
(She's gonna catch 'em all, cause she's Dani Phantom)
(She's gonna catch 'em all, cause she's Dani Phantom)
(She's gonna catch 'em all, cause she's Dani Phantom)
While the parents were both oblivious to the fact that their youngest daughter was actually training in their lab, Matt and Jackie both sat in the living room together. Matt stared miserably at a picture frame of himself with Dani when she was just a toddler, both of them smiling while Matt hugged Dani, and they looked like they were both having a good time.
"Dani and I used to be so close." Matt said sadly as he stared at the picture.
His wife, Jackie, was playing with an action figure of herself and a green ghost as she made herself punch the ghost. "Aha! Take that! And nobody makes a meat puppet out of Jackie Fenton!" She acted out until she then handed her husband a piece of jerky. "Fenton Jerky?"
Matt sighed and sadly took the jerky. "Gracias…" He glanced back down at the photo as he smiled a little from the good memories he had with his daughter. "We shared everything: secrets, bunsen burners, soda…"
Jackie smiled at the good old times. "Ah, yes, nothing says bonding like backwash."
"Dani's just shooting up so fast, those special times seem to be slipping away." Matt sighed again as he hugged the picture frame. "Oh, I miss them."
Jackie frowned at her husband solemnly. "Matthew, they all have to grow up sometimes…" She then raised up her action figures in the air again. "'Curse you, Jackie Fenton, you've defeated me once again!' Haha!" Then the doorbell suddenly rang, catching Jackie's attention. "I'll get it!"
She dropped both of her figures and quickly rushed to the door as she answered, where she found a mailman who was actually a ghost. However, the obese huntress seemed too careless to even notice that he was actually floating with a ghostly tail when she took the letter from him.
"Thanks, sir." Jackie said before she dug through her pocket and pulled out a quarter to tip him, but it phased right through his hand. "Oh, and try to get some sun. You're pale as a ghost." She slammed the door shut in front of his face before she went up to Matt. "Hey, Matt, some kind of invite for ya. I can tell, because it has the word 'invite' on it."
Matt took the envelope, opened it up, and examined it. He then perked up when he smiled brightly and jumped to his feet in triumph. "Yes! Just what the doctor ordered!"
Back in the lab, Dani grunted and strained as she tried to activate her duplication power (the ability to make one's copy or more) after she watched her new archenemy, Vladia, do it. She has then spent most of her days trying to master that power as well, but it was apparently a very complex ability to master.
While Sam and Tina only stood there and watched with odd looks, Dani began to glow when she only managed to split her heads into two instead. Her best friends gasp in shock at the sight.
"Wow, now you can eat a Nasty burger and fries at the same time." Tina commented with a smile.
"Yeah, problem is I can only split myself this far." Dani-head one said with a frown.
"Vladia Plasmius can split into like four different Vladia's at once!" Dani-head two said as she held up four fingers.
"That's what this weekend's about…"
"Nonstop drills…"
"No homework."
"No family."
"No interruptions." Both heads finished in unison.
"Hey, Dani!" Matt suddenly called out from upstairs, making her cringe before she glanced up at the stairs.
She quickly changed back into human form, but because of her failed attempt to duplicate herself, her human form ended up with only one eye, making her look more like a cyclops as she yelped in surprise. Tina quickly raised her hand and slapped Dani on the back of her head hard, and it luckily made her eyes split back into two as she blinked them.
Matt ran into the lab with a bright smile. "Pack your bags, because we're going to a Father/Daughter Science Symposium in Florida!" He said excitedly as he showed the invite to his daughter, which trembled from his eagerness. "Doesn't that sound fun?!"
Dani only slumped in disappointment, since that wasn't exactly what she wanted to do for her weekend.
Matt and Dani both got everything packed for themselves while Sam and Tina both returned to their homes. Dani then had a chance to talk with James about them splitting up with each of their parents for the weekend, with Dani hanging out with their father and James hanging out with their mother.
"At least you're going somewhere. I'm doomed to special family alone time with Mom." James said to her as he slouched in somewhat disappointment at the thought. He then examined his father's invite that came from a group he has apparently never heard of before. "The 'A.I. DALV Group'." James cocked a curious eyebrow. "Hmm, never heard of them. Are they legitimate?"
"Legitimately boring, I'm guessing." Dani said dully with her arms crossed.
"Now to make sure you're protected from the road, honeypie, I made you this." Jackie said to her husband before she held out a metal belt and strapped it around his waist. "It's the Fenton Specter Deflector, guaranteed to repel and weaken any ghost who comes in direct contact with you."
"A little girly, but I guess it'll work." Matt said as he twisted it with interest before he smiled at his wife. "Thanks, hon." He then kissed her on her cheek. "Oh and Jackie, please don't trash the house while Dani and I are away." He then walked away.
Jackie sighed in annoyance as she frowned. "Sucked the house into a parallel dimension one time, and you men just can't let it go, can you?"
Later on, Matt drove his daughter to the airport, and they were both kind of surprised that this A.I. DALV group has already sent them both a private jet to the symposium before it made its way to Florida with its passengers. While the jet flew over the terrain, Dani and Matt sat across from each other all alone in the private. Although Matt was clearly excited about this weekend in hopes of reconnecting with his daughter, Dani was still a little miffed that she was not training her powers for the weekend.
"Come on, Miss Pouty-Pants, this weekend is supposed to be about us! Those A.I. DALV people sent this private jet just for us! How perfect is that?" Matt asked Dani, trying to sound chipper for her sake.
"Do you want the truth or one of those little white lies that doesn't hurt your feelings?" Dani asked sarcastically with her arms and legs crossed while she gave her father a blank face.
Matt sighed at her attitude. "Forget it, Dani, just look out the window at that warm, sunny Florida Coastline."
"Folks, this is your captain speaking!" The captain of the plane announced through the intercom, catching Dani's and Matt's attentions when they glanced up in wonder. "If you look out the window on your left, you'll see the cold, bleak Colorado Rockies."
Dani's eyes went wide with surprised confusion. "The Rockies?! That's nowhere even near Florida, what gives?!" She exclaimed, wondering why the captain was flying them to the Rocky Mountains instead of to Florida like the invite said.
"And if you look out the window on your right side, you'll see me." Matt and Dani panicked when the captain said that so casually, like he was planning this all along. "Bailing out of the plane as it creds out of control...and crashes!"
They looked out the window and saw their pilot jumping out of the plane with a parachute and a walkie talkie. They both then ran into the cockpit and saw nobody inside until the jet began to plummet out of the sky and threatened to crash land.
Matt took a seat and he strained at the controls, but the tilter wouldn't budge like the pilot has purposely sabotaged it. "The controls are jammed, Dani! How do we get out of this?!" He exclaimed.
"I know only one way…" Dani said to herself.
She ducked behind the seat and changed into her ghost form before she touched her father in an attempt to turn them both intangible. However, his belt suddenly activated itself and shocked Dani while she yelped. She groaned in pain as she wobbled up to a wall before changed back into her human form while she tried to get the dizziness off.
Matt noticed this and gasped in concern as he went up to check on her while he placed his hands on her face. "Sweetie, are you okay?"
Dani quickly swatted his hands away to not get herself shocked again. "Yeah, Dad, I'm fine! How do we get out of here?!"
Matt stared at her in brief confusion until he finally spotted two parachutes leaning on the wall. "Dani, parachutes!" He tossed his daughter one as she grunted from her father's force. "Let's go!"
They both jumped out of the cockpit as they plummeted out of the sky before they quickly deployed their parachutes while they slowly descended to the forest below them.
Just then, their pilot captain then came up to them with his walkie-talkie. "Folks, at this time, I'd like to inform you that you've been the victims of a cruel host." He said before he shifted into the same mailman ghost that sent the invite in the first place. "Thank you for flying Air Evil Plot." He cackled evilly as he flew back into the jet and took off, leaving Dani and Matt behind to roam the Colorado Rockies.
Dani crossed her arms and glared in annoyance. "Oh, come on, Dani. Don't be so glum, look at the view!" Matt said, trying to look at the bright side as they descended towards the forest.
After Dani and Matt landed safely on the terrain, they both took off their parachutes and began to walk through the forest on foot while Matt sliced through the tall bushes with his machete to see where they were going. They both took a quick break as Matt wiped his sweat off his forehead.
"Good thing I had my Fenton Machete tucked away in my boot, eh Dani?" Matt said to his daughter.
"You carry a lot of stuff, Dad. How about a Fenton Cellphone so we can call for help?" Dani suggested sarcastically.
Matt cocked an eyebrow. "Cellphone? You can't fight ghosts with a cellphone, but not that we'll find any here." He then began to slice through the bushes again while his daughter followed him from behind. "Besides, who needs help? I'm perfectly comfortable with us ruffin it in the woods." After a few more slices, Matt suddenly froze and gasped when he found a large, fancy log cabin right in front of them. "...or we could stay at this rinsey mountain chalet. I'm open."
They both suddenly heard beeping as a golf cart pulled up next to them. The driver happened to be none other than Matt and Jackie's old friend from college, Vladia Masters herself.
"Why Matthew and Danielle Fenton." The billionairess said with her permanent sinister smile, the one that always made her look like she was up to no good.
"Vladia Masters?!" Matt and Dani asked in unison, looking surprised.
"Oh, what an amazing, unexpected, and totally unplanned surprise!" The billionairess then reached down and picked up a pink gift basket for Dani and a blue one for Matt. "Personalized gift baskets?" Matt smiled as he walked to the cart.
Dani, however, knew better than to trust her after her first meeting with the billionairess at Madison, Wisconsin during the college reunion, which Dani once realized that it was just a trap for her mother, Jackie, to make her look like a fool. When Vladia was in college with her parents, there was a lab accident that left her hospitalized for years. But as a side-effect, the woman also gained ghost powers and became a half-ghost herself. Unlike Dani, though, Vladia used her powers for personal gain and used them to steal money for herself, which was the real reason why and how she became a billionairess.
She has also been spending her twenty years devising ways to steal Matt away from Jackie, despite them already being married and having children. But Matt was Vladia's love of her life and she would do anything to take him away, even if it meant killing Jackie, who served as an obstacle for Vladia. Dani also learned that Vladia has never forgiven Jackie for marrying Matt and ruining her social life, and has tried to kill and humiliate her mother multiple times. Jackie was a very loyal person, so she thought that Vladia has forgiven her for almost hurting her and Jackie still considered Vladia a friend, even though she had absolutely no idea and was completely oblivious about her old college gal's true intentions.
Like before said, Vladia's smile and evil nature in her eyes always made her look like she was up to no good once again.
"You're up to something." Dani muttered as she gave her archenemy a suspicious knowing glare.
"Oh, you think?" Vladia said to the girl with a smirk. After Matt hopped into the cart with the gift baskets in his arms, Vladia then spoke quietly through her watch. "They're here, kill Jackie."
"What was that?" Matt asked her when he barely overheard what she just muttered.
Vladia panicked a little before she quickly smiled innocently at the man of her dreams. "I said...flopjackies! Pancakes! I have pancakes!"
She then floored her cart as its wheels skimmed on the mud, sending it flying onto Dani's face and shoulders, making her slouch and glare while she growled.
Back at Amity Park in Fenton Works, James was in the living room talking on the phone with probably a friend of his. "Okay, I'll see you later." He said before he hung up the phone.
"Hey, Jamesrince, check this out!" Jackie said when she came up to her son with a small pole in her palm. "It's my Jack-o-Nine Tails! How about a quick tutorial?"
"How about a quicker no? I'm not interested in ghost fighting, Mom. In fact, I'm heading out." James grabbed his bag and was about to walk out of the house.
"Hey, rope it in, little mister. Be careful, teenage girls are like wild animals!"
To prove her point, James opened the front door to head out, but instead he froze when he found a giant, green rapid rabbit ghost right in front of him as it growled at his face, making him scream in fear. James then jumped back before it could snap its fangs at him.
Jackie quickly ran in front of her son and aimed out her Jack-o-Nine Tails. "BACK OFF, HE'S A MINOR!" She exclaimed before she fired a rope that released itself as a grabber with her face on it and nine rope hooks. It wrapped around the rabbit and squeezed it hard until it exploded into ectoplasm with fur and covered Jackie all over with it.
James smiled at his mother gratefully and mildly impressed. "Mom, you saved me from that monster!"
"Yep, that's what I do, son. That and needle point, which is artsy and relaxing. Now come on, I'm putting this house under ghost lockdown!" Jackie activated her device again, only for it to land on her head instead.
Back at the Colorado Rockies, Matt and Dani made themselves at home in Vladia's private log cabin. Matt (who had his Specter Deflector deactivated) looked over some of Vladia's books in on the shelves and Vladia looked over her reflection in a mirror while Dani sat dejectedly on a loft chair.
Dani glanced around and saw different kinds of pelts of different animals that have been hunted down, and she then yelped when she saw a bear pelt at her feet as she held her legs close. She narrowed her eyes at Vladia, who was still in front of the mirror with her night jacket. What really caught Dani's attention was the reflection of her name on her jacket on the mirror when it showed itself as 'AIDALV'.
Now it all made sense to her: the 'A.I. DALV Group' didn't exist at all, it was just Vladia's name backwards, and there really was no Father/Daughter Symposium at Florida. As Dani suspected, it was just another one of Vladia's plots to take her father, Matt, as her husband. Not only that, but she also wanted to adopt Dani as her own daughter/successor again like during the college reunion, just because she had ghost powers just like Vladia, but Dani knew that they both had very different intentions on using them.
"So, what brings you two to these parts?" Vladia asked when she looked away from her mirror with her signature creepy smile.
"You'll never believe it." Matt said with disbelief in his voice as he looked up from his book about 'ghosts'. "We were on our way to the symposium and our pilot forced us out of the plane, right over your house!" He then turned his attention back to his book.
"Yeah, it's almost like it's some sort of villainous plot!" Dani said, trying to make it sound obvious to her father as she glared at her archenemy. "What an incredibly well-plant coincidence."
Vladia walked up to her casually with a bright smile on her face and a hand behind her back. "That would be an oxymoron, dear girl. Oh, and speaking of morons...how has your mother been these oafish days?" She asked as she gave the girl a smirk. Dani only glared at her even more as she growled and her eyes glow green from her anger that she just practically insulted her mother. Vladia pretended to be afraid of her anger as she weakly waved her hands in front of her and smiled amusingly. "Oh, the scary eyes…"
She then fired pink beams from her eyes as Dani yelped and avoided the beam before she fell off her chair and it made a smoking hole on the chair. Before Matt turned his head, Vladia went up to him flirty before he turned back to his book. "Matthew, I'm so glad you're here. It gives me the chance to apologize for Jackie's behavior at our college reunion." She said casually.
Dani got back up to her feet as she gave Vladia a flat look. "Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Mom possessed by some filthy, putrid, lonely, single ghost?" She gave Vladia a smirk as she pointed at her.
Vladia then fired another pink beam from her finger behind her back, but Dani turned intangible in time as it passed harmlessly through her and then turned solid again. The girl then fired her own green beam from her finger, burning the old woman's skirt as she yelped and jumped a little while she held onto her rear before she briefly glared at Dani.
Before Matt could even notice after hearing one noises, Vladia quickly closed the book and took it from him while she smiled at him warmly. "Well, if she hadn't been so weak, perhaps that never would've happened, hm?" The woman said casually while she tried to ignore the smoke coming from her skirt.
"Now, Vladia, Jackie may be a bumbler, but she means well." Matt said as he went through a row of books that were all about ghosts and other types of science studies before he pulled one of paranormal activities.
"I know, Matthew, and I've forgiven her for many things: causing the accident that ruined my life, stealing you, the backwash incident…"
There was something Vladia just listed off that caught Matt's attention when he dropped the book in surprise. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, back up!" He turned to his old college friend in confusion. "What was that?"
"Causing the accident that ruined my life?"
"N-no, after that."
"The...backwash incident?"
Matt slapped his head in frustration before he began to use his hand gestures for emphasising. "NO! In. The. Middle!"
"Oh! The 'stealing you' part?" Vladia sighed when she walked in front of him and stared into his eyes lovingly. "Oh, you can always see it right through. Oh, Matthew Fenton, I'm just gonna come right out of it." She took his hands while he stared at her in confusion. "Please, dump Jackie and stay here, you and Dani both can." Dani looked surprised at first until she became furious when she clenched her hands into fists and glared angrily at Vladia while her eyes glowed green again. "What do you say?"
Matt stared at her in stunned silence for a very long time...until he began storming out of the cabin, looking absolutely furious with his fists swinging angrily. Dani followed him, looking pleased by her father's answer to Vladia's confession.
"Bye, Vladia, and as a lonely single woman in your forties, might I suggest internet dating, or a cat?!" Dani called after her mockingly as she and her father walked back into the woods that night.
"Mark my words, Matthew, nobody says 'no' to Vladia Masters! You will rue the day you've spent my affection, and I WILL. NOT. GET. A. CAT!" Vladia exclaimed angrily.
Back at Amity Park in Fenton Works, James cowered behind his mother while she prepared herself for any more animal ghost intruders that have been invading their home. Of course, they were both unaware that this was all a part of Vladia's attempt to kill Jackie so she could take her husband and daughter as her own when she tricked them into her log cabin.
"You know, in retrospect, perhaps I shouldn't have gutted the Fenton Works Ghost Shield to make your father's anti-ghost belt." Jackie admitted mostly to herself. Two eagle ghosts with four talon claws suddenly phased through the ceiling, ready to attack again.
"AH! More ghosts!" James exclaimed as he ran behind his mother.
The eagles swooped down at such speed that, before Jackie could activate her Jack-o-Nine Tails, they butted her away to the wall and the device flew into James's hand. He glared angrily at the ghosts with a determined look as they unsheathed their claws and prepared to clobber Jackie. James aimed out the Jack-o-Nine Tails and wrapped it around both of the eagles before he battle cried as he slammed them to the ground, vaporizing them to oblivion
As the device retracted the ropes, James smiled at it. "Yes!" He cheered to while he held it up in triumph.
"Wow, note to self: make a James action figure." Jackie said to herself with an impressed look by her son's actions before she held up an action figure of herself and squeezed it.
Back at the woods of the Colorado Rockies, Matt and Dani have found themselves a nice spot to camp for the night when Matt made a tent out of twigs, began a fire in the center, and found two large logs to sit on. He then dropped to pill packets to the dirt, gave them each a dip of water until they popped out as individual sleeping bags. Matt then sat next to his daughter, who was looking very bummed about this weekend.
"Fenton Jerky?" Matt offered as he held it up.
"Pass." Dani said sadly as she looked down.
Matt then looked a little bummed as she was. "Dani, I know this weekend isn't going exactly as planned, but...at least we're spending it together, right?" He placed his hand on hers, but because his Specter Deflector was active again, he began to shock her.
Dani shouted a little as she retracted her hand from his and held it close. "Ah, okay, okay, I get it! Stop touching me!" Matt looked a little confused about why he seemed to shock her every time he touched her. "Look, I-I'm gonna sleep over here." She walked away and up to her sleeping bag and laid as far away from the tent.
Matt took his sleeping bag as he crouched down into the twig tent, looking a little hurt. "Good night, Dani. I love you."
"Love you, too. Good night" Dani then turned to try to go to sleep. Matt sighed before he slipped into his tent. As Dani tried to sleep, she felt a familiar chill up her spine and her ghost sense went off, making her eyes go wide before a giant, hairy green foot stomped right in front of her face. "Either Dad needs to shave his legs...or this is really bad news."
Dani looked up nervously and a giant bear ghost with four arms towering above her. It roared as it grabbed her, making her shriek in fear. From the tent, when Matt tried to sleep, his eyes went wide when he heard his daughter screaming, alerting him. He peeked out of the tent and saw her sleeping bag empty as her screaming was heard out somewhere in the woods.
"DAD!" Dani exclaimed from the woods.
"DANI?!" He exclaimed in concern.
In a blink of an eye, Dani found herself getting thrusted into a loft chair inside Vladia's cabin when she looked around and saw that she was surrounded by several ghost animals, all growling at her. She finally looked at the center of the animal party, where found her archenemy, Vladia Plasmius, grinning evilly at the girl.
"Nice petting zoo, Plasmius." Dani said with a glare as she hopped off the chair and changed to her ghost form and got ready to fight. "Where's your lonely gal cat?"
"Ah, there's that teen wit again." Vladia said, holding some kind of green, hand-held conoprod and then shocked it at Dani's stomach. She shouted in agony when she got the shock of her life until she unwillingly changed back into her human half.
Dani stared at her archenemy with wide eyes. "What was...what was that?!"
"Oh, this? I call it the Plasmius Maximus: it has just short-circuited your powers for the next three hours...that's midnight. I tell you this, because I've seen your grades and I know you're terrible at math." Vladia then gestured to all of the ghost animals growling. "These are my latest experiments, what do you think? Oh, that's right, who cares what you think? I'll give you five minutes before I send my minions out to destroy you. The clock's ticking, Danielle, I suggest you take it." With no other choice, Dani screamed as she ran out of the cabin and into the woods for dear life. "Get her." It hasn't even been five minutes yet and the ghost animals began to chase after Dani. "Five minutes, five seconds. Oh, apparently, I'm bad at math, too."
Inside the woods, Dani pushed tree branches away while she tried to run away from the mutant rabid ghost animals pursuing her, now that she was completely powerless and defenseless. She jumped from trunks and a water stream while the rapid ghost animals continued to follow her, until she tripped over a tree root and tumbled to the ground. As Dani tried reaching for a tree branch, a mud-covered hand suddenly grabbed her by her wrist and dragged her to the top of a tree.
It was her father, Matt Fenton, whose jumpsuit was camouflaged with mud, and was holding a rope with his goggles over his eyes. "Remind me later how much trouble you are for leaving the campsite, nabbed." Matt said sternly to her daughter.
"Wow, that doesn't hurt." Dani said to herself when she noticed that his touch wasn't even shocking her, even though he still had the Specter Deflector on. She guessed to herself that there were still some benefits for being depowered by the Plasmius Maximus.
Matt settled her down on the branch before he dropped the rope over the four-armed bear ghost's ankles and hoisted him to the air. "Be right back."
He rode down the rope to the ground level, where he tied the rope to the tree truck. He sharply faced the mutant ghost animals and pressed on his belt as the mud covering his suit cracked off.
Matt then got into a martial arts stance. "Come on, put one on me." He challenged the mutant ghost animals.
An animal ghost lunged at Matt, as he jumped to a tree, flipped around it, and swing-kicked the ghost animal away. He jumped from the branch and landed back on the ground as the ghost animals surrounded him, until he pulled out a small cylinder as it expanded into a green double-edge staff and he spun it around expertly when he got into a pose.
"How could he not have a phone in there?" Dani asked herself until she smiled a little with interest. " I really need to get me one of those Boo-staffs."
Matt battle cried as he charged at the ghost animals and prepared his staff. He swung his staff around while each hit on an animal made them disappear and vaporize into oblivion on a jackalope, a three-headed beaver, and a four-talon eagle. He flipped onto a tree and pushed himself off onto the ground. Matt then narrowed his eyes and jumped over a ghost moose that charged at him and he swung his Boo-staff at it, vaporizing it. Two twin cyclops rabbits roared at Matt, but he only twisted on his goggle lens and fired a couple of beams from them when he vaporized both of the rabbits and destroyed them.
Three smaller animals were about to attack Matt as well, but they froze when he pointed his staff at them. "Boo." He said merely, enough to make the animals run away in fear. After he dealt with all of the mutant ghost animals, Matt turned to his daughter, who slid down from the tree. "Now, young lady, would you mind telling me who kidnapped you and what you thought you were doing?"
"You...are...awesome!" Dani said happily as she ran over to him and hugged his arm.
Matt gasped as he smiled in appreciation. "Aww, thank you…"
"Iwilldestroyyou!" A tiny ghost gopher squealed from a tiny hole, only to get quickly topped on by Matt's Boo-staff when it got vaporized.
Matt deactivated his staff while looked around cautiously. "But we better keep moving in case those ghosts come back." He then ran off deeper into the woods.
"Uh...wait for me!" Dani said nervously before she followed suit.
About an hour later, Matt was currently holding his daughter piggy-back style while he looked around cautiously for any more signs of any rabid mutant animal ghost attacks.
"I, uh, think we gave those ghost animals the slip. Uh...shouldn't we figure out a way to call Mom?" Dani asked her father reluctantly.
"As much as I hate to say this...I think we should go back to Vladia's." Matt said it in a tone of disgust at the mention of her name.
Dani jumped off his back. "But, she's my archenemy-I mean...she said all those horrible things about Mom and even tried to hit on you dead on!"
Matt narrowed his eyebrows under his goggles in somewhat agreement with his daughter. "We both know she's a creep, but she's a creep with phone and transportation...and pancakes. Here, put this on." Matt then took off his metal belt when he strapped the Specter Deflector around his daughter's waist as she yelped. He locked it up with a key and tucked it away. "I know it's not exactly your style, but it's for your own protection." And then he continued down the woods.
"Great. At midnight, I get my powers back, at twelve o'one, the belt zaps me, and at twelve o'two, Vladia tries to make out with my dad." Dani then grimaced at the two last thoughts. "Those are going to be the worst two minutes of my life."
Back at Amity Park in Fenton Works, James was in the jumpsuit closet as he looked at his reflection when he tried on one of his father's own jumpsuits and slipped the goggles over his head and eyes.
Just then, Jackie ran into the closet with ghost weapons in her hands and arms. "James, I-" She began, but froze when he saw James in her husband's jumpsuit. "Matt, you're home!"
"Mom, it's me, James?" He said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"James? Why, look at you, you're a spitting image of your father." Jackie sniffed happily while she leaked a tear. "I knew this day would come. That's why years ago, I had this made for you." She ran to the jumpsuit closet and pulled out a replica of one of hers, but it was two-sizes too big for James to wear.
James managed a small laugh as he smile weirdly at the jumpsuit. "...nice."
"Sorry about the size, I thought you'd be swimming in my end of the gene pool, the end that's filled with ranch dressing, melted cheese, and fudge...lots of fudge."
"Look, this is just a sociological experiment. I figured I owe it to myself to experience all this ghost stuff one time so I can hate it in a more informed context."
Jackie looked very perplexed by her son's large vocabulary she could barely understand half of a time. "...I have no clue what you're saying, son, but what I do know is that ghost fighting is in your blood!"
"No way! I'm not like you and Dad!" James then turned away from Jackie with his arms crossed and his chin up. "I'm a brilliant, reasonable, matured, and sophisticated boy."
"In a blue hazmat suit."
"In a blue...AH! Quit messing with me!" James turned sharply to face his mother again. "No more talk about ghost fighting, okay?"
Then suddenly from out from the walls, the mutated ghost animals returned when they phased through the walls as they growled, ready to attack them again. "No talk, ACTION!"
Jackie ran to the weapons and tossed James a bazooka before he rapidly fired anti-ecto beams, making a couple of the animals disappear without a trace. Jackie brought out her Jack-o-Nine Tails and jumped beside her son as they both smiled at each other before they both shouted and charged at the animals.
Back at the Colorado Rockies, Matt and Dani walked out of the woods when they made it back to Vladia's log cabin as Dani looked down at her watch. It was currently eleven fifty at night, meaning there was only ten more minutes before her powers would return (and the Specter Deflector would electrocute her mercilessly).
"Great, ten to twelve." Dani said to herself before she looked up at her father. "Are you sure you want to do this? Even if she does have a phone and transportation, I doubt she'll even let us go back home."
"Dani, if we're gonna get out of here, we need Vladia's help. And don't worry, just stick with the plan." Matt said to his daughter.
Dani glanced at the key strapped to his belt and ran up in front of him before he reached the door. "Before you go in there and flirt our way out of here, I just want to say...I love you!" She hugged her father while she snagged the key and hid it behind her back.
Matt returned the hug. "I love you, too." They released each other before Matt knocked on the door.
Vladia answered the door and was very pleased to see the two people she most desired: the love of her life who was already married with the woman she despised and a perfect half-ghost daughter she tried to kill earlier with her rapid mutant ghost animals.
"Matthew! Danielle! You've returned to me!" She said with delight before she leaned to her teenage archenemy. The woman glanced at her watch and smiled at her sinisterly. "Oh, and not a moment too soon." Dani only remained silent while she only glared back at the billionairess.
"Dani, go somewhere else while the adults talk." Matt said to his daughter while he gave Vladia a flirtatious look. She was a little surprised at first until she smiled at the man of her dreams.
"Oh sure, you and Vladia get cozy. If you need me, I'll be over there...hurling." Dani said as she grimaced in disgust before she walked away to leave her father to deal with the billionairess.
Inside the cabin, Matt and Vladia sat next to each other on a couch together alone as they talked with each other. Matt tried to earn her trust by using her deep crush on him against her, since his daughter did make a good point to him earlier: that even if the billionairess woman did have a way for them to head home, they both doubted Vladia would even let them leave with her permission.
"Matthew, you must be exhausted, carrying the weight of that mistake you made years ago." Vladia said with a smile.
"We all make mistakes, Vladia...maybe I'll make one now." Matt said to her flirtatiously, but then cringed nervously while his eyes went wide when Vladia rubbed some red lipstick on and smooched her lips. He quickly placed his hand on her lips, preventing her from kissing him. "Up, up, up! I don't know if I'm in the right condition to possibly...I've been in the woods all night. I need to freshen up a little."
Matt sat up and hid his look of discomfort from Vladia as he walked away. The old woman smiled at him with eagerness. "I shall await, with red lips!"
Matt walked up to his daughter, who was leaning against the wall, and leaned close as he whispered quietly to her. "Keep ol' red lips entertained until I can find a phone!" And then left down the hallway.
Dani smirked a little after he left. "Dad is gone, which means…" She said quietly to herself before she undid the Specter Deflector off her waist and looked up at Vladia, who was reading off a book. "Time to spend a little quality time with Auntie Vladia, but first…" She reached up to the old grandfather clock (that was currently reading eleven fifty-five) and she pulled the minute hand down to eleven forty-five. Dani then walked up to Vladia casually with her hands laced in front of her. "Hey, um, Auntie Vladia…"
"Oh please, Danielle, don't try to butter me up, especially with your powers shorted out for another fifteen minute." Vladia said before she smiled amusingly at the girl. "You're barely a threat to me with them, without them…" She chuckled and then made her eyes glow solid red as she glared at Dani threateningly. "Well I wouldn't need fifteen seconds, would I?"
Dani made an innocent face while she shrugged. "How can you say that? You think my dad made the decision to come back on his own? We're a family." She then smiled with fake understanding as she placed her hands on her hips. "We both talked about it tonight, and I want to stay here with you, too."
Vladia looked very touched by Dani's words. "Really?" Tears began to leak from the old woman's eyes before she stood up with a look of hope and joy in her eyes. "You don't mean…"
"Yes, I do!" Dani held out her arms out for a hug. "Come on, give me a big hug, new mom!"
Just when Vladia was about to hug the girl, Dani saw her opportunity and she quickly strapped the Specter Deflector around her archenemy's waist. She glanced down when the belt zapped her as she cried in agony until she glared angrily at her archenemy. "You little brat! You tricked me! You know what this will mean for you, don't you?!"
"Oh yeah..." Dani looked down at her watch until it beeped midnight. She then changed into her ghost form, with the effects of the Plasmius Maximus finally worn off and her powers were no longer short-circuited. "A much fairer fight!"
Vladia glared murderously as she got in a ready stance as she changed to her ghost form. She growled at Dani, but then she got shocked a little by the belt while it weakened her and her abilities a little, just as Dani hoped. As Vladia rubbed her head, she noticed that Dani was charging straight at her before she shoved her away and the ghost woman crashed into the wall above the fireplace.
Meanwhile, Matt searched around the hallway in a desperation for a phone to call help. "No phone." He mumbled to himself before peeking into a room, only to find a couple of expensive off-road cars. "No phone!"
Dani was about to air kick at Vladia when the woman phased through the wall, but she turned intangible again while she wrapped her cape on her. Dani shouted and phased through the wall right through her. Matt opened another door, but then only found two dirt ATVs and continued down the hallway, just before his daughter flew right across the ATV room to another wall while she shouted.
Vladia struggled when she tried to rip the Specter Deflector off her waist while Dani phased through the floor right behind her. However, the ghost woman thought fast when she fired a weak blue ghost ray at Dani, who shouted in surprise, and sent her crashing above the fireplace before she slammed onto the floor with a grunt.
"Foolish girl, even with diminished strength, I'm still more powerful than you!" Vladia said while she smiled arrogantly. The woman then attempted to duplicate herself, but thanks to the anti-ghost belt weakening her energy, she only ended up getting two heads instead, similar to what happened to Dani before the trip.
"Huh? What? I can't duplicate my form." Both of the heads said in unison as they glanced at each other.
Dani cocked an odd eyebrow by this odd turn of event. "Jeez, I don't know which head to hit." She said to herself before she smirked. "So...I'll have to hit 'em both!" She then flew to the air and charged towards her archenemy with her ghost tail and both of her fists out in front of her. "At a hundred and fifteen miles per hour, I bet this hurts!" And then she punched both of Vladia's heads dead on, hard.
Meanwhile, Matt peeked through a door on the roof of the cabin and found a helicopter. "Helicopter, but no phone...and Dani thinks I'm a nut." He mumbled to himself as he cocked an eyebrow.
Dani blasted an ecto beam right at Vladia, kicked her straight in the stomach, and then punched her straight in her cheek with an uppercut. Vladia wobbled where she stood in weakness while Dani stood in front of her, ready to finish her off. However, the ghost girl merely blew at the ghost woman, making Vladia collapse onto the floor in weakness and defeat.
"Fine, Dani, you've defeated me, but you've forgotten my pets!" Vladia said with a smile before she whistled with her fingers. Her mutant ghost animal army phased from the floor. "Finish her!"
The animals growled as they began to attack Dani again, under Vladia's orders.
"Finish me? Why are you mad at me?" Dani asked with a small chuckle and a shrug. She then smiled when she pointed her thumb over her shoulder. "I'm not the one who made your pelts into wall art."
She pointed at all of the pelts of the animals hanging on the wall: the ones that belonged to the rapid mutant ghost animals, before Vladia experimented on them. Now, the ghost animals angrily turned on Vladia as they growled menacingly at her before she stood up to her feet.
"Don't even think about it, you spectral freaks! I'm still more powerful than you!" Vladia exclaimed to her former ghost animals.
Dani then electrocuted the woman with her own Plasmius Maximus as she shrieked in agony when it short-circuited her powers and changed her back into her human form unwillingly. Vladia's hair was frizzled, her clothes were tattered, and her face was bruised after being fried up from the shock.
"And now...you're not." Dani said with a clever smile until she leaned closer to her now powerless archenemy while she frowned. "I'll give you a five minute head start, Plasmius."
"Really?" Vladia asked hopefully.
"Minutes, seconds…" Vladia's smile dropped when she knew what was coming next before Dani smirked at her again. "You know how bad I can be at math. GET HER!" Vladia yelled to the heavens as she ran out of her own log cabin and into the woods as her own ghost animals chased after her.
Dani walked up to the door and smiled at another job well done as she changed into her human form, just before her father walked in. "What happened to Vladia?" Matt asked his daughter in confusion.
Dani turned to her father while she smiled. "She...ran out for a bite. How are we getting out of here?"
Matt sighed in frustration. "I don't know, and I can't find a phone! There wasn't one in the cars, the ATVs, the helicopter-" He then suddenly paused short and froze in realization before he slapped his head for being an idiot.
Dani smiled when she knew what was on his mind. "...maybe we could just take the copter?" Matt smiled at his daughter.
Matt piloted the helicopter in the air for the rest of the night until the sun began to dawn as he and his youngest daughter returned to their hometown of Amity Park, after a long weekend of being tricked into staying with Vladia, being attacked by ghost animals, and tricking Vladia with her own desire for their love (which was more painful and uncomfortable for both of them).
"Now, Dani, you're not gonna mention any of this to your mother, right? She'll be insanely jealous if she found out, so…pup's the word." Matt said to Dani, who was drinking some soda.
"Actually, I think 'pop's' the word, and don't worry, my lips are sealed." Dani said as she smiled at her father before he smiled back. She made a look of regret. "I'm sorry I've been such a brat to you, Dad...I-I really did have a good time." She then offered her soda to him. "Backwash?"
"Oh, Dani, that's very thoughtful of you." Matt then believed that he was not as far apart from his daughter as he thought he was.
Later on, he landed the copter in front of Fenton Works when they finally arrived back at Amity Park.
"Quick, James, they're back!" Jackie said when she looked out the window before she turned to James, who had a handful of cleaning supplies after they both cleaned up the house from all the ectoplasm that the ghost animals left behind. "Remember, not a word of what went on here."
"My lips are sealed, and as long as the house is ghost-free, they'll never know." James said before he began to walk away, but then turned back to his mother with a smile. "Oh, and Mom...thanks." And he continued his way to hide the trash.
Jackie smiled at her son before she jumped onto the couch and picked up her needlepoint of a ghost, just when Dani and Matt walked into the house with their luggages. "Hey, hey, look who's back! How was your weekend?"
"Oh, boring/totally dull/a ripoff/snore." Matt and Dani said in unison before they glanced at each other.
"I better go call Tina and Sam and tell them that I'm back, but…" Dani said before she tiptoed to her father's height when she kissed his cheek and smiled. "You know." He placed his hand on his cheek and smiled at her before he walked away to unpack his things. Dani then turned to her mother. "So, how was your weekend?"
"Oh, you know, some old." Jackie said.
"Well, I guess everything's back to normal then, huh?" Then her ghost sense went off when she gasped.
Then James suddenly came strolling down the stairs, holding onto a three-headed beaver ghost as it ran outside past Dani with James holding onto it tight. "Get out of my house, you freak!" James exclaimed before he popped his head back to the door with an innocent smile. "Hi, Dani!" And then went back to fighting the ghost.
"Hey, back off! It's my turn!" Jackie shouted as she handed Dani a glassful of a drink before she brought out her Jack-o-Nine Tails and jumped out of the house.
As Dani watched her brother and mother attacking the beaver ghost, she took a sip of the drink, before her eyes popped open and then she spat it out while she grimaced at it in disgust. "Oh, gross! Backwash!" She exclaimed.
