Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or X-Men: Evolution. They solely belong to Butch Hartman and Marvel Studios, respectively.
The Case of the Missing Twinkies
It was only three days after the entire incident; three days since clones of Danny Fenton/Danny Phantom/Phantom-X appeared; three days since Danielle or Dani, as she preferred to be called, was created by Vlad Masters/Vlad Plasmius; three days since she was taken in to the Xavier Institute after turning on her creator when she found out, the hard way, why he created her. In addition, Jack and Maddie Fenton have decided to adopt her as one of their own. Currently, Dani was returning home with Jack and Maddie after a trip to the Bayville Mall. Her soon-to-be adoptive parents had taken her shopping for some new clothing. The half-ghost girl clone was barely starting to call Jack and Maddie "mom" and "dad" despite that Vlad was her "father" due to her being his creation.
Right now, Dani was barely entering her new room while Jack and Maddie took her new clothing to have it washed in the washing machines. To her, it was enormous in comparison to being grown in a chamber pod, where she was created. There was a large bed for her to sleep comfortably. Windows that allow sunlight to come in. Last but not least, a closet and a dresser with a mirror.
Suddenly, Dani gets a telepathic message from Professor Xavier.
"Danielle. I would like you to please come downstairs to the lab."
"I hate it when he does that." Dani grumbles.
Thankfully, she knew where the lab was located, courtesy of being given a tour of the Institute. Turning intangible, the girl phased through the floor to get to the metallic area of the lab. Upon landing and turning tangible, Dani sees Professor Xavier and Hank McCoy or Beast for the obvious reasons, waiting for her.
The bald telepath could sense her nervousness, mainly because she was cloned from Danny by Vlad to fulfill his agenda before turning on him. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and said to her.
"It's okay. You will not be harmed."
Hank grabs a vial full of a violet-colored liquid before he approaches the girl and says,
"Here. A special medicine that your soon-to-be parents help me create." Hank gently said.
He sees Dani look at it skeptically before Hank assured.
"It's okay. It's created for you to drink it."
Dani hesitantly takes the vial and drinks it; every last drop. After smacking her lips, she looks at the empty vial.
"Hey. It tastes like grape."
Professor Xavier smiled warmly. In his perspective, Dani truly was a child at heart, despite being a clone. Soon, Hank said to her.
"I need you to wait here for ten minutes so I can take a blood sample from you to see if your medicine is working as it should."
Dani nods in understanding before she sits on a chair and waits. After 10 minutes, Hank takes a sample of her blood before she is dismissed.
"With the serum in her bloodstream, I'll wait for an hour to see what her blood test will show me." Hank comments.
"Let's just hope that this temporary solution works as intended." Xavier said. "And that in time, a safe and permanent solution to stabilize her will be found."
It was merely almost an hour before Dani's stomach started to growl.
"I'm hungry." she comments to herself.
When the ghost girl phased through her door to get to the kitchen. However, right when she was about to turn a corner, Dani stops to see Hank in the hallway. She turns invisible when she sees him looking around before placing some sort.of box into what seemed to be an enormous urn.
"Well, that makes six boxes here." he comments to himself.
After placing the lid, Hank walks off as he says to himself.
"Hopefully, the results will be finalized soon."
Once the coast was clear, Dani turned visible and walked towards the same urn that Hank was in front of. She opens the lid and pulls out the contents.
Only to discover that she was holding a box of Hostess Twinkies in her hand. The girl's eyes went wide before she grins and licks her lips. Looking to see that no one was nearby, she grabbed the other five boxes of the twinkies before closing the lid and ran in haste back to her room.
Several Minutes Later...
The bed had six empty twinkie boxes, a big pile of open wrappers, and one satiated half-ghost girl. Dani let's out a belch before she sighed in relief.
"Good stuffing." she comments to herself.
Suddenly, when Dani walks out of her room, she stops in her tracks as she heard Hank's voice.
"That's odd."
She turns invisible before sneaking to the corner to see Hank scratching his head as he looks at the now empty urn. Dani remains silent as she listened to Hank.
"I thought I had six boxes of twinkies in here." he comments in wonder.
Closing the lid of the urn, Hank walks back to the lab as comments to himself.
"Well, at least I have more hidden in the Institute."
Hank didn't realize that Dani was nearby and invisible. After hearing what the ape-like mutant had said, her mouth started watering as she thought in excitement.
"There's more...?!"
Suddenly, she remembers something that was very important.
"Oh crud! Got to get rid of the evidence!"
Dani rushed back to her room, gathered all of the garbage and the empty boxes before phasing through the walls and into the backyard. Thinking where to bury it, Dani looks at the garbage cans before she thinks.
"Not the garbage. Too conspicuous."
Dani felt like she was running out of time as thought quickly on what to do.
Finally, she looks at her hands before rolling her eyes.
"Duh! Ghost powers!"
With that in mind, the half-ghost girl looks around to see where to incinerate the garbage, within good reason.
"If Mr. Logan smells this, I'm toast. Unless..."
Soon, Dani flies to the waterfalls where the hangar entrance was located behind it. She drops the garbage into the water before using her ghost ray to incinerate it into ash, as well as causing a steam cloud to rise up before dissipating.
Seeing that there was no trace of garbage or wrappers, the girl dusts her hands of supposed debris.
"And that's that." she says.
Dani flies back to the Institute as she whispered to herself.
"Now I just have to see where Mr. McCoy has the other twinkies."
In the lab, Hank was with Professor Xavier as the bald telepath asks.
"So, what is your assessment on the serum for Danielle?"
"Well, so far, it's keeping her stabilized for the time-being." Hank responds as he was typing.
When he pressed a key, the computer screen shows Dani's DNA as he said.
"As long as she takes the serum every month, her DNA should hold steady without disintegrating, like what happened to her..." he paused before clearing his throat. "brethren."
"Any symptoms?" Professor Xavier asks.
"From my observation, none." Hank answers. "But I'll keep monitoring her, just to be safe."
It was then that Professor Xavier noticed a subtle change in his colleague's behavior as he asks.
"Is something the matter?"
Hank sighs before he said.
"Well, I had six boxes of twinkies stashed away in a hiding place, but the next thing I knew, I find them missing." he shrugs. "But then again, maybe I'm losing my marbles."
Professor Xavier gave Hank an amused look at his quip before he said.
"Well, I just hope that all of your other pastries are well-hidden."
"More importantly, the thief doesn't somehow find the others." Hank comments.
Day 1
Hank grabs a box of twinkies from another hiding place, which was deep inside the pantry of the kitchen. Before closing the door, he looks around the kitchen to see that the coast was clear. Once he closed it, he leaves the kitchen, thinking that his stash of twinkies was safe.
However, Hank thought wrong.
Hiding invisibly behind the stove, Dani watched Hank, specifically which shelf of the pantry he took a box from. Floating towards it, she opens the door and sees what she sought out; two more boxes of twinkies hidden as she grabbed them. Suddenly, as she closed the door and floated down, the girl heard footsteps approaching.
Thinking fast, she turned herself and the boxes invisible and moved out to another area of the kitchen. Then, the door opens to reveal Bobby, Amara, Jamie, and Jubilee talking with each other. As Dani floated away, a topic got her attention.
"So, have you heard about the twinkie bandit?" Bobby asks.
"The one who found one of Mr. McCoy's stash of twinkies?" Jubilee asks for clarification.
"The very same." Bobby replies
"Yes." Amara said. "I'm amazed that the bandit did it right under Mr. McCoy's nose."
"I'm miffed that they didn't share with us." Jamie said with a pout.
The rest of the New Mutants present chuckled with humor as they continued to chat amongst each other of the twinkie bandit, and trying to figure out who could pull it off, without even realizing that the very individual floated away unseen, making off with her plunder.
As before, the result of today's plunder was two empty boxes, a smaller pile of wrappers and a satiated Dani who lets out a belch once again and sighs.
"Not as much boxes as before, but overall, good stuffing." she says to herself.
After destroying the evidence again in the same place, Dani was about to enter the kitchen when she heard a familiar voice.
"My twinkies are gone again?"
Horror-stricken, Dani turns invisible before she takes a peek in the kitchen to see Hank scratching his head once again as he has a confused look.
"This is the second time it has happened." Hank comments.
Soon, Jack and Maddie enter the kitchen with grocery bags due to returning from grocery shopping on Ororo's behalf as the Fenton woman asks.
"Is something wrong, Hank?"
"Well, I've had a hidden stash of twinkies swiped yesterday. Now, my second stash has been swiped." Hank explains.
Jack mulled it over as he said.
"I have a gut feeling that it could be a twinkie ghost!"
"That's an unlikely possibility." Hank said in response. "Daniel or Danielle would've sensed it if it were."
"Hm... good point." Jack comments in agreement.
"Do you want us to build a ghost proof safe for you?" Maddie offers.
"No, thank you." Hank said. "I appreciate the offer, but I have more of them, stashed in the Institute, but different hiding places."
"Oh, that's good." Maddie said.
Meanwhile, Dani looks on before she thinks to herself
"I better book it back to my room."
And so, Dani flies back to her room, unnoticed.
Later in the afternoon, there was talk amongst the students about the supposed twinkie bandit swiping another secret stash of Hank's twinkies right under his nose. It was becoming an inside joke as well as a mystery on the bandit's identity.
"How long til they, like, catch the bandit?" Kitty asks.
"I don't know, but whoever it is, they're pretty good." Scott comments.
"To steal them rahght under Mr. McCoy's nose, that takes a lot of skill." Rogue compliments.
Day 2
Dani followed Hank invisibly to the next secret stash located in the Institute. However, she wasn't able to steal them quickly as the previous two times.
"Darn it! I have to wait until he leaves!"
Hank was busy looking around to see if he is able to catch the thief red-handed. With two thefts, he didn't want to take any chances. So, Dani had to come up with a plan to get past him and her grubby hands on her quarry. To her, Hank was truly vigilant; looking for any sign of the thief. However, when she was observing him, Dani noticed that he only looked around, but not looking back at the twinkie boxes he was guarding.
An idea formed rather quickly as Dani changed her strategy. He grabs a book from the living room and returns to the area. She drops it, having it to make noise. Noise that Hank noticed. He curiously walks towards the source to see the book that he was unaware of Dani using as a means of a distraction.
Picking up the book, Hank cups his chin.
"Strange. What is this doing here?"
Hank leaving his vigil was all Dani needed to move in, grab the boxes, turn them invisible, and make off with her prize.
As Bobby, Roberto, Ray, and Jamie were walking down the hallway while talking to one another, Hank returns to his vigil.
Only to find his boxes of twinkies gone once again.
"What the...?!" Hank was shellshocked that he let his guard down. "How are they doing that?!"
The boys ran to see what recently happened before they instantly pieced it together.
"The twinkie bandit has struck once again." Bobby comments.
As the other boys snicker at Hank's misfortune, the ape-like mutant scientist walked off grumbling about his twinkies being swiped again.
Meanwhile, Dani just finished the last twinkie before she belched and sighed as she did the previous two times. Suddenly, she hears a knock on her door. The girl panics as she quickly hid the 4 boxes and large pile of twinkie wrappers under her bed.
Then, Danny walks in as Dani quickly hopped onto her bed and put on her most innocent face.
"Uh...what were you doing?" Danny asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing." Dani quickly fibs with a nervous chuckle. "Nothing at all."
"Okay..." Danny said in confusion. "Well, Mom and Dad have just ordered take-out for everyone."
"Okay. I'll be along in a minute." Dani said
Danny casts a suspiious look at his soon-to-be younger sister before shrugging and closed the door behind him. In the instant he was gone, Dani wiped the sweat off her forehead in relief.
"That was a close one." Dani whispered. "Too close."
Day 3
The next stash that Hank unsuspectingly led Dani to was considered the jackpot in the ghost girl's perspective; ten boxes full of twinkies. By far, the most that Dani has ever swiped and eaten. A round of whispers about the twinkie bandit swiping the biggest loot went about in the Institute.
In Professor Xavier's office, Jack, Maddie, Hank, Ororo, and Logan were there with the bald telepath as Hank gave his progress report on Dani's condition.
"So, what is your assessment, Hank?" Professor Xavier asks.
"Well, after monitoring Dani, the serum shows no negative side effects, and it's temporarily holding well." Hank replies.
"Have you found a permanent way to fully stabilize the poor girl?" Ororo asks with concern.
"Not yet, but Jack, Maddie, and myself are not giving up." Hank said. "Unlike Daniel's archenemy, I wamt to find something that would be safe for her as well as stabilizing her on a permanent basis."
Once Hank gave a sigh, Logan saw it and had an amused look before he asks.
"Got robbed again?"
"I'm serious." Hank said. "It's like I turn my back for one minute. The next thing I knew, my stash is instantly gone. I may have to consider in taking Jack and Maddie's offer in building a ghost-proof safe to keep them protected."
Even Professor Xavier had an amused smile at Hank's comment.
Once Logan left the office, about to take a ride on his motorcycle, he hears plastic crinkly noise. Looking down, the burly man sees an open wrapper.
"What's this?"
He picks it up to see that it was an open twinkie wrapper. Logan detects an order before he sniffed the wrapper to see what it is.
The scent of the pastry was there, as well as a certain scent that he is now familiar with, ever since her decision to stay at the Institute. Logan smirked as he pieced it together and now knew who the infamous twinkie bandit is.
"Got ya now."
At her usual hiding spot, Dani finished incinerating the evidence of her latest twinkie theft. After she lands onto the ground and is about to walk back into the Insititute, she sees Logan with his arms crossed and a raised eyebrow.
"Shorty."
"Oh! Mr. Logan!" Dani chuckled while scratching the back of her head. "What brings you out here?"
"That's what I want to know." Logan replies while pulling out the wrapper from his pocket. "This look familiar to ya?"
Despite that she looked nervous, but deep inside, Dani was panicking.
"Uh oh! Don't tell me he knows!"
"Uh...no." Dani nervously said. "Why would it..."
Unfortunately, her body chose the wrong time to betray her as Dani belched. Logan smelled the aroma of the twinkies in her breath as he smirked while humming.
"So you're the twinkie bandit the whole time." Logan deduced correctly.
"Busted!" Dani thought.
"Perhaps your folks will be interested in hearing this." Logan said while waving his finger in a come with me gesture.
"I'm doomed." Dani moaned.
It was a long talk in Professor Xavier's office; mainly Dani being lectured by Jack and Maddie. In addition, the Fentons grounded her for stealing Hank's twinkies. Once word got out that it was Dani being the twinkie bandit, of course, some of the students rubbed it in her face about getting busted by Logan of all people. They were also amazed how she didn't get caught until today.
The next day
"Oh..." Dani groaned.
Dani awakened in the morning with a stomach ache from consuming too many twinkies. Currently, Maddie was sitting on the side of the bed. At first, the Fentons thought it was a side effect of the serum, bit when Hank showed the results that it wasn't, they were relieved. Even Jack assured to his wife that Dani would have the so-called Fenton Iron Stomach in her genes and that the stomach ache won't affect her for long.
"Are you okay?" Maddie asks.
"No." Dani groaned. "I think I'll lay off the sweets for a while."
"I agree." Maddie said. "But you shouldn't eat that many sweets."
"Point...taken."
Maddie gets up as she said.
"I'll be back, sweetie. I'll get some baking soda to soothe your tummy ache."
Once the Fenton woman left the room, Dani started to slightly get better. Then, she pulls out a package of blueberry flavored poptarts and opens it.
"After I eat this, I'll lay off the sweets."
She quickly consumed it before Maddie returned with the baking soda. After crumbling up the wrapper, she used the energy of her ghost ray to incinerate it. Thankfully, the burning smell quickly dissipated due to the open windows. Five minutes later, Maddie returned with the glass of baking soda and water.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Kurt looks in the cabinet of the kitchen before he sees something missing.
"Hey! Who took the last pack of poptarts?"
Logan was reading the newspaper as Professor Xavier was present in the kitchen. The burly Canadian sighed before he said.
"One mystery solved..."
"Another open case." Xavier finished as he rubbed his temple.
Finished with this spin-off. I may create more spin-off stories that are either one-shot or multi-chapter in the future. For now, keep your eyes peeled
And don't forget to Read and Review.