Dani lazily scribbles in her notebook with not a thought in her mind.
"Dani, are you listening?" Jazz scolds the younger girl.
The ghost girl didn't even bother to answer the trick question, it was obvious that she wasn't listening at all. She was in the midst of a tutoring lesson from the redhead. After, miserably, failing the entrance exam for the highschool it was made clear to Jazz that Dani wasn't caught up in the educational world. So, the college woman took it upon herself to administer lessons on the basics of academia to Dani.
But it was harder than the redhead imagined; Dani shows no interest in learning much past reading and writing. It took Jazz almost two hours to convince the ghost girl the importance of arithmetic in the world. Dani swears she's trying her best to be a good student, but these things were simply boring to her. No offense to the teacher.
"Do I seriously need to learn who the first president of the United States is?" Dani moans.
"Yes you do, it is a part of the history of the country you live in," Jazz insists, tapping the whiteboard she was writing on.
"Who cares! If it's history then it's in the past."
"And it is important for one to know history so as to not repeat it."
"Pfft I highly doubt I'll make the same mistakes some old fart did a hundred years ago," Dani mocks, while putting her head down.
"Famous last words."
"Besides I need to be out there watching over the city, not learning about George Washington!" Dani huffs as glances out Jazz's bedroom window.
Jazz steps over to Dani's side and peers down into the joyful streets of Amity City, "If Danny doesn't need to be down there then neither do you," she speaks softly.
Jazz hadn't suffered the same harsh punishment as Danny, but she decided to spend most of her time inside. Tutoring Dani and college took up a lot of her time. At least that's what she told herself. The woman didn't have many friends in the first place so a grounding would be useless. Just like her younger brother, she didn't have many social skills. And she didn't have a "Sam and Tucker" during her highschool days either. That didn't bother her much at the time since she was always hitting the books in preparation for college. Ha. What good did that do? Jazz chuckles to herself.
She'd be damned if she regretted her choices now. The woman negotiates with the younger girl promising to take her out to a movie if they can get through one more lesson. Dani jumps up happily at the mention of entertainment and stares patiently at the board with laser focus. Jazz laughs at how alike Dani was to her brother. She was a clone of his DNA after all. The redhead moves back to the whiteboard and continues the lesson with a smile. She would make sure Dani passes her next attempt at the exam.
Danny stands in horror of the monstrosity before him, he's seen many ghosts in his time but none quite like this. The maliciousness that dripped off the aura of the figure in front of him was sure to haunt his dreams for the next week. The teen wasn't even sure the man was a ghost to begin with, he seemed so human-like. Danny had to stop this man now he felt it in his gut. All worries of consequences and repercussions disappeared from his mind as he called out the famous words.
"I'm going ghost-"
Fenton was interrupted, mid transformation, by a heavy tackle to his right. It was like a train hit him, and he closed his eyes from impact for a moment. A whip of wind stings his face. He half-expected to be thrown into a low wall in the food court. Danny opens his eyes to a 50 foot drop toward the mall parking lot. He gasps and shoves his way out of the grip of his attacker. He stabilizes himself realizing he was somehow on the mall rooftop. Danny glances over to see a short figure standing from their knees. His eyes widen when he takes notice of the dark blue hoodie. This was the suspicious guy he called Valerie about and was about to go follow. The piercing blue eyes that now glared at him confirmed it.
"Who the hell are you?" Danny demands angrily. "And how am I on the rooftop?"
Danny notices a few strands of white bangs popping out from underneath the hoodie, just like his hair when he transformed. The figure ignores the teen's questions and dusts himself off before facing the opposite direction.
"Stay out of this. This isn't your fight," he snarls.
And just like that the boy disappears in a swirling hole of inky darkness. From Danny's view, it looked like he was just sucked into a black hole. What the hell. This day was quickly turning into Freaky Friday. He assumed the ability he just saw was how he got onto the roof so quickly. Instant teleportation? Hm. That's a new one. Then his mind flashes back to the dark wizard he saw in the food court. Who the hell were these people and where did they come from? He'd get his answers, he was sure of it. But for now he had to go deal with the freak downstairs.
Danny strides toward the wall, silently transforming, and walks right over the edge. But instead of freefalling, his feet stuck to the wall like glue and he marched down the north face of the building. He confidently jogs forward a couple feet before phasing through the concrete wall of the mall. He easily slips inside and lands on the floor underneath him. Phantom scans his surroundings and sees a family of scared citizens bunched up in the corner. The little girl being hugged by her father glances up in delight at the sight of her favorite superhero.
Danny shoots her a wave and continues his search for danger. He didn't have to look far, coming across a large wall of green flames towering up the large support pillars. At the rate this fire is going it will engulf this mall within minutes. He instructs the family and hiding spectators to make their way towards the other side of the mall to escape. Danny dashes to the banister and peers down to the fight happening below. The wizard was throwing more fireballs at the mysterious boy from earlier. His fighting style was unusual considering he was allowing the attacks to come so close; rather the fire was phasing right through him. The kid kept a cool demeanor with his hands deep in his pockets. Danny could hear the cackling wizard from here and all the cruel insults he was slinging at the boy.
Phantom leaps onto, and over, the ledge before slowly levitating towards the background. The teen kept his presence unknown until he was directly above the wizard. He takes aim with his hand like a gun and shoots a tiny ray at the unsuspecting foe's back. There was a howl of pain and the wizard was blown forward onto his face. Danny let out a little chuckle at the man struggling to get up. The blue-eyed boy glares at Danny in annoyance.
"You really can't follow directions, can you?"
"Sorry dude but when someone threatens my town it automatically makes it MY fight," Danny exclaims.
He proves his point by blasting the recovering wizard with a more powerful beam. The foe was thrown into the glass panels of the fashion store nearby. The mystery kid raises an eyebrow at Danny's handiwork before addressing him once more.
"You say that now…"
Danny floats towards the crash site of the wizard to see nobody there. He can't say he was surprised with how easy the fight was going. A disappointment after seeing the malice dripping off of him earlier. Phantom lands and approaches the blue-eyed figure who was staring absentmindedly into the distance.
"Your enemies always take off like that after one hit?"
"They're usually down after one hit," he comments. "And now he's disappeared again, all thanks to you."
"The guy was burning the freaking mall down!"
"That's the least of my concerns if he's continuously allowed to roam free!" Blue- eyes(Danny's nickname for the kid) snarls, whilst walking away.
"A simple 'thank you' would do!" he shouts to the leaving boy.
Blue-eyes sighs, "Just stay out of my way." The mysterious fellow disappears into his signature black hole portal.
"You're in MY town!" Danny calls out.
Phantom turns toward the amassing fire and inhales deeply before blowing a gust of icy wind from his mouth. The wall of flames simmer down as ice creeps along the pillar and floor. Danny figures that was enough to tame the inferno, so firefighters can come extinguish it. And speaking of, he heard the heroic unit rushing in from a nearby emergency exit. Danny decides to sneakily slip through the wall and allow them to do their thing.
Outside is a nightmare: concerned and evacuated civilians crowd the gigantic parking lot; police did their best to control the people, but news crews were already setting up to probe this new town event; paramedics were on scene tending to any possible injuries, and the firefighters were running around with heavy equipment and hoses to fight this vicious fire. The flames had already eaten through several stores and half of the food court, something that Danny hadn't realized until reaching outside.
Daniel reverts back to human behind an EMS truck and makes his way across the street with his hands in his pockets. He felt his vibrating phone. The teen almost had a heart attack. SAM AND TUCKER! How could he forget about his own best friends. Danny pulls his phone out to give them a ring, and notices several missed calls from friends and family. Most of them being from Sam and Tucker. He taps on Sam's name and puts the phone up to his ear, hoping that everything was okay. He listens to the drawn out beeps until she picks up the phone with a "hello?"
"Sam! Are you okay? Where are you?"
"I'm fine, I was one of the first ones to make it out. I'm near the 'C' lot. How are things with you and Tucker?" she exclaims.
"We got split up," Daniel lies through his teeth. "I'm about to call him right now."
Danny issues his goodbyes and ends the call, before tapping on Tucker's name next. The teen said he had gotten out through a side exit on the opposite side of the food court when the screaming started. Thank God, they're okay. Danny feels bad for not checking up on them earlier but he was so intrigued by the two mysterious guests. And he was still bewildered by the whole thing. The trio met up and exchanged quick recaps of their experiences: Sam was slightly annoyed about leaving the items she wanted behind, and Tucker was cheesing about meeting some girl during the whole ordeal. When it came time for Danny to share his story, he froze and was hesitant on releasing the information he had yet. What if it had to do with what Clockwork said about different dimensions leaking in? What if this had something to do with Malucard? No shot was he going to expose them to that danger.
So Danny did something that doesn't normally do but has been doing quite often, lie. He told them he had run off to the bathroom when everything went down to "go ghost", but when he arrived on scene nobody was around and all that was remaining was a fire. Tucker was quick to accept the halfa's story but Sam not so much. She didn't say anything but her mind was running a million miles per hour.
Everyone knows about Danny's powers so there's no reason to hide his transformations and he knows that. Plus, she or Tucker never mentioned anything about someone being the cause of the fire. Though she had an idea already considering the flames were green. And what did he do after going ghost? Come out here? He didn't think to save anyone or minimize fire damage? If he did then he surely didn't tell them that. It was very unusual for her heroic friend. She wasn't buying it.
Danny notices the small frown appear on the thinking girl's face, but he discards it as anxiety of the mall fire. And he couldn't blame her; things haven't been this crazy in a while. After all is said and done, he was extremely happy to know that his mother hadn't found out about his transformation. He really wasn't trying to be grounded till he was 18. In fact he wanted to wrap things up with Sam and Tucker so he could report home before his mom got suspicious.
Danny said his last goodbyes to his friends before heading off in the direction of his home. Nothing unusual happened on his journey back, as much as he wanted things to pop off. The teen walks up his porch steps and enters his house as soon as the moon surfaces behind the clouds. He greets his awaiting parents and his mother wraps him up in a bear hug. They had heard what happened on the news and were beginning to become worried when he didn't answer his phone. Danny reassures the concerned couple that he was fine and in fact was extraordinarily tired from today's events.
On his way to his room he passed his sister's, in which the door was ajar. He knocks and peeks inside to see the room empty. He calls down to his mother about the whereabouts of Jazz and she explains that she went off to the movies with a friend. Danny raises his eyebrow and marches into his room, closing the door behind him. He immediately starts texting his sister, knowing that Jazz didn't have any friends.
Yo, where are you?-D
Wouldn't you like to know. I'm out with a friend. -J
Stop playing with me, didn't you see the news?-D
I know it's crazy right?-J
So where are you?-D
Scroll up-J
Jazz…-D
What? You don't believe I have people to hang out with? I could be with Johnny for all you know;)-J
You really like fucking with me huh? Nothing's ever a straight answer.-D
Danny was quickly being irritated with his sister's little antics. All he wanted to know was her location so if anything happens then he'd know where to start. A chirp and his phone screen lighting up alerts the teen to an incoming response.
Jeez, I'm just messing with you. Take a joke, Danny. I'm at the movies on 5th street with Dani; I told her that I would take her to the movies after class.
Danny tosses his phone onto the bedside and sits on his bed with a sigh. He didn't know what class she was talking about. The teen was 99 percent sure that Dani didn't attend any type of school. Fenton didn't bother to even think about that at the moment. He wasn't lying when he told his mom about his exhaustion. Danny isn't prepared for the usual nightmare, he just wanted one night without them. In fact the hero would rather roam the Ghost Zone than sleep. A meeting with Clockwork was needed. The teen is surprised that the time ghost hadn't even sent him a message. Was he not curious about what happened?
Every time the halfa attempted to sneak out, he always found his mother working in the basement laboratory. She is the dragon guarding the princess in the castle and he's the hopeless knight. An idea pops into the young ghost boy's mind, Vlad. He could use Vlad's portal and make contact with Clockwork. The only problem being the ghostly man himself. Convincing the selfish prick to allow him use of his portal iss an unlikely possibility. One that he may have to take. Or the teen could find other means into the Ghost Zone. Some ghosts have told him about temporary portals that could appear through the town. But the chance of catching one was even lower, plus he didn't know where it would spit him out.
It was looking like another night of unanswered questions and relentless nightmares. Until he hears a knock at his window. At first he waved it off as some bird, but it quickly became an incessant tapping. Danny groans before lifting himself out of bed and trudging over to the window. He glances from the glass to an empty street. Weird. A puff of blue escapes his lips causing the teen to instantly go on guard. Something wasn't right. Ben opens the window and pokes his head out, looking up and down the block for any commotion.
"Yeah you better run!" the teen taunts sarcastically before shutting the window.
Great now I'm hearing things? He asks himself on his walk back to the bed.
"'You better run?' What, are we in a teen sitcom?" a familiar voice echoes behind him.
Danny turns around swinging at the intruder, only for his fist to go through the boy's face. Fenton loses his footing and stumbles forward, phasing through the intruder's body. Ben chuckles at the teen's misstep but the smile quickly disappears upon noticing Danny's anger. Ben puts his hands up in surrender as the older teen stalks toward him.
"You wanna tell me what you're doing here?" Danny snaps at the kid.
"Of course, I was going to get to that until you swung on me."
"Well forgive me for confronting an intruder in my own house."
Ben sighs, "Alright you're on edge seeing a new ghost."
"You don't know the half of it," Danny snorts, sitting on his bed.
"I know enough to understand that things are going from bad to worse."
Danny gives the young man a thorough examination; he is still sporting the blue sweatshirt that Danny first noticed him in. Although his face is more visible this time. The boy's snowy hair curled over his pale face, obscuring his slender features and bright blue eyes, despite his best efforts to keep it separated in the middle. The teenager thought it was amusing how rapidly things in his community took off. He's conversing with the stranger, who certainly knows who set fire to the mall this afternoon. He didn't even know the kid's name.
"What's your name?"
"Ben…Omega, but they call me Omega."
Danny chuckles, "That's now what the wizard called you today."
"First of all, he's not a wizard, and second, he's the exception."
The term "exception" makes Danny grin, as he too has experienced many "exceptions" in his life. Despite the fact that he would much rather call them anomalies, he liked how much more complicated that term made it sound.
"Well…" Danny quips.
Ben raises an eyebrow before echoing, "Well?"
"I know you didn't come here to say hello."
"You're right; I came here to remind you to stay out of my business."
This time, Danny was unable to contain his laughter. Who does this child believe he is? Danny didn't want to intrude on whatever little meeting this kid and the wizard were having, but the dude set fire to the damn mall; what was he supposed to do, sit back and watch things unfold? Danny sneers at the youngster in front of him for his arrogance. This youngster should, if anything, avoid bringing his "business" into Danny's hometown.
"You just got out of diapers and you think you can tell me what to do?" Danny scoffs, crossing his arms.
Ben's hands tremble at his sides as his eyes narrow in response to the insult. He's acting all kind, warning this jerk, and what does this asshole do? He abuses his generosity with a cheesy joke. Perhaps Ben would have been better off having VooDoom cast this moron into hellfire.
"I get it… You got some cool powers and now you think you got the biggest balls around, but lemme give you some advice-"
Ben snatches Danny and teleports them several hundred feet into the night sky, breaking their conversation. Danny didn't know what was going on; one second he was in his room, and the next he was being propelled into the sky.
"I have HAD it with your fucking mouth!" Ben snarls.
Danny grins as he transforms into his ghost form and headbutts Ben, causing them to come to a halt in their rise. Ben Omega gets thrown over Danny Phantom's shoulder like a paper ball after the Phantom grips the front of Ben Omega's sweatshirt. Ben knows he's falling out of the sky fast because of the wind wailing in his ears. Saying that Omega isn't shocked by Danny's extraordinary strength would be a lie. Ben halts his downward trajectory and looks up at the well-known Danny Phantom. How annoying this whole mess has become to him.