The crazy week starts on Monday, as most weeks do.
That Monday is special though, in a way that no other Monday had been beforehand.
It's a Monday on which Danny Fenton turns off the portal.
He has gone on numerous trips through the Ghost Zone before, but during one he noticed the ON-OFF button flickering between the whirls of ectoplasm, and he knew exactly what to do with that information.
So on that fateful Monday Danny goes into the portal with only one thought: turn it off.
And turn it off he does.
The whirlwind of ectoplasm goes down until there are just a few flickers, and then it dies down completely, leaving behind nothing but a few splatters on the walls of the machine.
No additional damage happens, he's safe and sound.
Danny goes to school, happy to have accomplished something.
And in the meantime a small rat gets into the house…
This Monday is, in Danny's opinion, the best Monday he has experienced in years. Not a single ghost attack, not a single excuse he had to make for his teacher to leave. He even spent lunch working on an assignment! He didn't finish it, but he worked on it!
He's so happy with everything he isn't even bothered by the chaos in his house.
And boy is there chaos.
"What happened?" he asks with a smile, and the chaos stops for a moment. His father has an ectoblaster in hand, his mother—a Fenton Splicer, Jazz, holds nothing, but stands on the stool, safely away from the floor and holding herself as if she has seen a ghost. Hah.
His question is met with deafening silence. And then he hears a squeak.
There's a white rat staring straight at him from the doorway of the lab.
Before he has time to react, the chaos resumes, as his family tries and fails to catch the rodent that disappears down the lab. He tries to say something, but his mom and dad disappear down the stairs in a wild chase.
He looks at Jazz. She's still shaken. Welp.
"What happened?" he asks again, this time bewildered. He feels a smile tug at his lips as he hears his parents curse in the lab below. Rat 1 – Fentons 0.
Tuesday starts off with a headache. It's not enough to dampen his mood though.
And perhaps it's caused by… well. Enthusiastic approach from his parents about catching that rat. With no effects.
He saunters down for breakfast to dejected looks on mom's and dad's faces, and Jazz whispering affirmations to herself. The rat shows up twice during the meal, both times on the perch of the lab shelves visible from the kitchen table. Danny waves at it. It flickers its tail at him in what he assumes is a friendly manner.
This Tuesday must be a good day too.
It is.
Aside from the persistent headache the day goes almost like the one before that. He attends all the lessons, and during lunch he even completes the assignment he started on yesterday! It's a good day. He gets some painkillers from Sam and powers through it when the headache gets worse. He comes home with a smile on his face, seeing the house in complete chaos, even worse than yesterday, with Jazz and his parents nowhere in sight, furniture turned over and blasted with ectoblasters. The rat greets him from the top of the turned over chair, squeaking at him. Hah. Rat 2 – Fentons 0.
Wednesday starts off with an even worse headache, and an unexpected weight on his chest. He blearily opens his eyes to see the mischievous rat sitting on his chest. The rodent squeaks at him and runs across his face (which first—AGH! surprising and startling, and second—Ew! Little paws on his mouth? Bleh.) and disappears somewhere behind his bed.
Huh.
Okay, he might stop laughing at Jazz for being scared, that was creepy.
But also kinda cool.
Man, it would be cool to catch the rat and have him as a pet.
Anyways, right, headache. He slips away to the lab and rummages for a first aid kit, as that's where painkillers usually are. He finds them no problem, fishes out two pills and swallows them dry. Next destination: kitchen. He grabs cereal and milk, happily munching on them as his family trickles into the room. His mom immediately makes a beeline for the coffee maker, his dad grabs fudge from an emergency storage, Jazz comes bearing a broom, wearily eyeing everything in search of the rat.
Danny considers telling them about the morning meeting, but they all look too stressed to bother them. Oh well.
"Don't worry about the rat too much, he's one intelligent beast, you're just wasting your time," he says eventually, and all three shoot him dirty looks.
"It ate through cables in our weapons, Danny! It needs to be stopped!" his mother moans dejectedly.
"What if it gets into GAV? What could stop it?" his father says matching his wife's tone… but then he stops. Thinks about his words. "CAT. We need a cat!"
"Great idea, dad! I'll look into animal shelters after I come back from school."
"Thank you, Jazzerinces. That rat will be deader than ghosts by the time the cat is done with it!"
'Deader than me at least,' Danny thinks with a grimace. Man, has the rodent really been such a nuisance? At least it got rid of some of his parents' deadly inventions it seems.
Good boy.
School goes even better somehow. Not only does he attend every lesson for the third time in a row, but he also gets to watch Lancer's face go through a plethora of emotions as he hands in a finished assignment. The teacher seems to go through several stages of grief before settling on a smile and wiping a tear that escaped his eyes.
"Good job," he says, and Danny feels something grow in him.
He goes out to Nasty Burger with Sam and Tucker to celebrate. Sam actually congratulates him on trying. He feels good.
Thursday morning… He doesn't feel so good. There's an ache spreading through his body and pulsing dully under his temples. He feels… weak. Like a disposable straw used one too many times in lieu of buying a new one, soaked over and dried way too many times.
Maybe that metaphor got away from him, but he doesn't feel well enough to make much sense.
He drags himself off the bed and goes through now familiar motions of getting himself painkillers and thinks as he waits for them to start working.
He hasn't been fighting nor taking anything but the pain medication, the only thing that could have any effect on him could be the portal… but it's closed.
Wait. It's closed.
He groans, realising a little belatedly that he perhaps shouldn't have closed the one thing that kept him alive after he died. On the other hand, how could he have known it would have a negative effect on him, eh?
And it's not like he can turn it on again himself after what happened the last time.
He doesn't want to die a second time. Thank you very much.
Well fuck.
The day drags on like never. He prefers ghost hunting to the horrible ache he feels.
He does try to work on a maths assignment, but the numbers make little sense. At least he fills the paper with symbols to show he tried…
Sam and Tucker look at him worriedly the entire day. He chooses to ignore it.
When he comes home, the house is strangely silent. He finds a note saying Jazz and his parents went on a short trip to get a cat.
Oh boy.
He eats the dinner alone, and leaves some food for the rat, hoping he'll take a hint. It might be his last meal after all.
Tired, aching all over, and slightly nauseous, he lies down and immediately falls asleep, unbothered by the noise from below as his family trickles in.
Small paws pitter-patter across the lab in an attempt to escape the huge feline chasing him. He has no time. He has to hide. But where?
Small paws pitter-patter under a table, but the cat sees, under the drawers, but the cat sees, under the— He notices a crack in a huge machinery. He makes a run for it. He enters.
The cat is hot at his heels.
He climbs the walls to find something besides slick metal to hide into. The cat jumps to get him.
Instead he finds…
A button.
The clawed paw connects with his back exactly as he feels extreme pain. And then there's only green.
Danny wakes up with a startle. There's a point of energy, close by, that fills him with every status effect ever just by existing. He doesn't bother checking for surroundings as he phases straight to the basement towards the source—towards the portal.
It's open.
It's on.
It's working.
And there, among the swirling mess of green ectoplasm, lie two animals—a cat and a rat.
Danny has no clue what happened, but he quickly brings both out of the machine and lays them on the examination table. They're not warm, but he finds their heartbeats although slow. He remembers something about animals' pulses being faster than humans, theirs are almost as slow as his, and he definitely isn't the norm.
Wait.
Wait…
He pokes the rat with invisibility. He retains it.
He pokes the cat with invisibility. He…. uh… she retains it.
He could be wrong. He could be very wrong but… something tells him that the accident with the portal can be replicated. Many, many, times. And that it has just been replicated.
Holy fuck.
The cat awakens briefly and sniffs at the rat for a few seconds, before conceding he's dead. Probably, Danny doesn't know much about cats.
The rat awakens, also briefly, but turns into a ghost (!) and floats idly to plop down on the cat and go back to unconsciousness.
Huh. Danny can work with that.
Danny goes up the stairs as his family gathers. He has a wolfish smile on his face.
Jazz pales.
"Guys, meet Rat," he extends the hand on which the cat has perched on, "And Cat." He shows them the rat, nibbling harmlessly on his finger. His mother gasps, Jazz whines in fear, and his father sighs heavily.
"No."
"Yes."
"Absolutely not."
"Cat is a nice fella."
"The cat—"
"I was talking about the rat, I named him Cat!"
Mom facepalms. He takes that as a yes, after all she's not protesting!
Cat scurries up his arm and disappears under his shirt as Rat gets comfy on his arm. Perfect. He feels powerful, and thanks to those two he even might be.
The portal might be on again, but Friday is a good day, too.