Casper High, Amity Park, IL
As the early days of October 2005 continued, Casper High students settled into the auditorium, where they watched a slideshow on the projector, courtesy of their vice principal, who stood at the podium.
Sitting in a chair on Lancer's right was Jazz. On the left of Lancer was a man well past his teenage years and fell around his mid-twenties.
This man was pale, with combed-back ginger hair and green eyes. He had stubble on his lips, was skinny in spite of having a potbelly, and wore a white shirt, gray khakis, black work shoes, and a yellow tie.
Out in the auditorium, Danny Fenton and Valerie Gray are sitting next to each other, Meanwhile, right behind them are Pacifica Northwest and Mason Pines. Given how badly he had done in the CAT last year, Danny sat up and listened intently, whereas Pacifica, Mason, and Valerie looked like they wanted to do anything else besides listen to Ronald William Lancer talk until day's end.
They weren't the only one's. Most kids, including Tucker and Sam, wanted to be elsewhere.
"Your future is not carved in stone, people, but it may be carved with a No. 2 pencil." Mr. Lancer said, holding the pencil mentioned.
"Oh please…" Tucker, Sam, Mason, Valerie, and Pacifica muttered to themselves, with many kids thinking the same thing.
Some of the murmuring teens were shushed, with Danny doing the same to his new friends.
"Quiet, guys! I'm trying to listen!" Said Danny, in his human form.
As the letters C.A.T. and the words of the test were spelled out on the projector screen appeared behind Lancer, he explained, "As most of you have probably forgotten, you will be taking the Career Aptitude Test two Saturdays from now."
He turned to Jazz Fenton with a warm smile and began saying, "Do well, like Ms. Fenton here who got-
"-the highest score in Casper High's history-" Danny repeated with Mr. Lancer verbatim, albeit in a dull manner.
Suddenly, slides of two obnoxiously rich people flinging money around clicked onto the screen, followed by a fancy car, a mansion and a yacht came to view.
"-a successful future will be secured." Mr. Lancer said before turning to the man in his mid-twenties that drooled while sleeping in his seat, glaring at him. "Failed like Irving "Third Degree" Burns, here, who got the lowest core in the history of the CAT, and you will be doomed to a career at the Nasty Burger,"
As the man in question awoke at the sound of his name, a slide of the local fast food burger joint appeared on the screen of the projector.
Offended, Irving stated, "Hey! Working at Nasty Burger takes brains, you know! If those 42 Nasty Secret Herbs and Spices in our Nasty Sauce are overheated, it could cause an explosion that could take out a whole city block!"
The deafening silence and the unimpressed looks on all of the students' faces told Irving everything that he knew about his life.
"...Oh, who am I kidding. My life is over." Irving uttered in defeat.
"...Suddenly regret eating there, now," Mason muttered to himself.
"How did that food chain dodge OSHA violations for this long, I'll never know," Pacifica added.
Mr. Lancer held up the answer booklet of the C.A.T. while saying, "These aren't just the answers to the test. They're the answers to your future. So study."
The bald, flamboyant middle-aged man held up a briefcase and placed the booklet inside. Mr. Lancer then closed it and handcuffed it to his wrist.
"Remember, it's your future. Do you want fries with it?" Lancer sarcastically questioned before marching off the stage.
"Hey, DJ," Valerie questioned, turning to an unusually serious and attentive Danny. "You good?"
Clockwork's Lair, Ghost Zone
Little did Danny Fenton or anybody else know, a couple of entities were watching them within a secret room of a clock tower surrounded by gears. Two of them were the main members of a group of thousands of spectral beings known as the Observants; green skinned entities with white cloaks, black capes, and possessed heads that were mainly composed of a large eye with red irises.
The other entity in the room was the Specter of Time himself, Clockwork.
One of the Observants who glanced at Danny in a small temporal gate, ordered, "What are you waiting for? Take him out now, Clockwork!"
Clockwork gave the two Observants a blank expression, mentally annoyed at their presence in his domain.
"...Do you know what's the problem with you Observants? The key is in your namesake. You merely observe." Said Clockwork.
"As the ancient overseers of the Infinite Realms, we are bound by oath to only watch," The other Observant stated.
"You know this, Father Time," The first Observant added.
"Yes, I do." Clockwork agreed. "I also know that you never act, which is why you send me to do your dirty work.
Looking at the raven haired boy walking to the next class he had.
Clockwork then states, "It takes a test for Daniel to succumb to Madness? Fine. Perhaps it's time for a test of my own."
Research & Development Laboratory, Amity Park B.O.R.D. Branch
A week had passed and the B.O.R.D.'s chief scientists had been working hard on Project Sotoragg.
Agent Alpha had entered the laboratory within Research & Development, and inside was Dr. Alto Clef, Dr. Amino and Dr. Drakken who stood around a table which had a large cloth over it.
"Agent, welcome." Clef said with an eerie grin. "You wished to see our progress with Project Sotoragg?"
"Correct, we are running out of time, and if this project proves successful, then Phantom will be history." Agent Alpha replied with a smirk.
"You really want this guy dead, huh?" Drakken questioned, much to the annoyance of Alpha and Amino.
"Moron! Phantom is already dead! He can't be killed twice!" Amino exclaimed.
"Cessation is the correct term for when one's being or soul is reduced to nothing, rejoining creation and ceasing to exist as an entity. True Death as the archaic civilizations saw it as." Clef explained. "But enough about that, Agent Alpha wishes to see our results."
"If you don't mind." Agent Alpha said with a nod as Drakken then lifted the cloth off the table.
Underneath the cloth was a tall emaciated humanoid figure with black oil-like skin and yellow circuitry lines around its body that gave off a skeletal appearance. The entity had large clawed hands, stubby feet and a featureless face with the lower jaw missing and a single eye represented as a yellow circle.
"Christ! What the hell is that thing?!" Agent Alpha yelled, startled by the horrifying specimen.
"Agent Alpha, I give you STP Version 5.5 (Five-Five), Codename; Malware." Clef spoke as Agent Alpha examined the specimen. "It is quite the union…"
"...Between beast…" Amino spoke.
"...And nanotechnology…" Drakken finished.
"Why are you finishing each other's sentences?" Agent Alpha asked, confused.
"Nevermind that, focus on the specimen." Clef said, trying to keep on the subject. "Malware is a sophisticated amalgamation of the technopathic life form I produced with the Helix I acquired, and the genetic engineering courtesy of Amino and the nanotechnology and cybernetics courtesy of Lipsky."
"Drakken!" The blue skinned scientist exclaimed before Clef began to speak again.
"Malware, awaken."
The yellow lines on Malware's body started to glow, then the hideous cybernetic organism sprung up and stood idly on the floor in front of Agent Alpha and the scientists.
"Malware, display arsenal." Clef ordered, to which Malware lifted its arms up as several weapons sprouted and formed on the Galvanic Mechamorph hybrid.
Many of these weapons included several energy cannons, missile launchers, wrist blades, electric whips, several explosives such as energy grenades and remotely detonated bombs, energy blades and shields and powerful lasers that shot out of its face and hands.
Agent Alpha was quite impressed by the display of weapons that the Sotoragg Prototype had.
"I must say gentlemen, this ghoulish monstrosity you've created has quite the arsenal."
"Oh that's not all, Agent!" Drakken said, taking over the presentation. "Not only is Malware equipped with the latest and best anti-spectral weapons on the QPQ market, but it can even turn into vehicles for transportation! Observe. Malware, transportation mode!"
Malware then moved over to the testing field near the lab and soon began to transform into various vehicles, such as a car, a motorcycle, a tank, a small aircraft and even a spacecraft.
"...I am truly speechless." Agent Alpha said in amazement. "How is this all possible?"
"Malware is a Galvanic Mechamorph, a biomechanical species that has the ability to bond with and assimilate technology, including various appliances, machinery, vehicles, computer systems and of course weapons." Clef explained.
"The Galvanic Mechamorph also can improve and upgrade the technology they interact with, perfecting the mechanics and functions tenfold." Amino added.
"Just imagine it, a beat-up old car would be turned into a hypersonic race car! A generator into a reactor! A gun into a weapon of mass destruction! Think of any technology you know, this technopathic marvel can make it better!" Drakken said with amusement.
"Wow, that actually sounded smart coming from you for once." Amino remarked, receiving a glare from Drakken afterwards.
"So it not only has an endless supply of weapons and can become any vehicle, but it makes the technology is uses better? Oh, this is going to be exciting! Phantom will wish he never set foot in the living world when Malware is done with him!"
"Yes, it could, if not for one significant problem." Clef said, souring Agent Alpha's mood.
"And what would that be?" Agent Alpha asked.
"Malware is not a true Galvanic Mechamorph, not entirely. As we said, he is a union with one such component being a human body. Why else do you think it possesses a distorted version of a human skeleton?" Amino explained.
"Though it can maintain its molecular structure, we have discovered that Malware's impure nature causes it to suffer a metabolic imbalance that prevents the specimen from completely holding its technological builds and shape together." Drakken also explained. "Because of this, Malware sustains itself through feeding on technology and data."
"But it still functions all the same, correct?" Agent Alpha asked.
"Well yes, but-"
"But nothing! Deploy Malware immediately!" Agent Alpha ordered.
"We still require more time before Malware is ready for the data collection phase." Amino argued.
"How much time?" Agent Alpha asked, in which Clef held up two fingers.
"Two weeks, that's all we need. Just two weeks, Agent, and we can deploy the Sotoragg Prototype, thus ensuring the next one will have plenty of data on Danny Phantom."
Agent Alpha looked at all three scientists. He and the Guys in White were running out of time to prove to the White House that their organization was needed, and this specimen could hold the key to the continued funding from the government. Agent Alpha let out a sigh before speaking.
"Alright, two weeks then. I'll hold it to you gentlemen. Unless I am needed further, I will return to my station."
Agent Alpha then left Research & Development, leaving Clef, Amino and Drakken to themselves.
Diner, Amity Park, IL
For the first time in a while, Danny and Tucker decided to hang out after school. No Sam, no Mason, Pacifica, Valerie, or Jazz. Just the two of them, old buddies.
Danny managed to snag Tucker's after school time during lunch time when Sam was away. This brought a breath of relief to Danny. He didn't want to think of her, let alone see the goth girl.
Not after the other night.
Tucker agreed with enthusiasm, yearning to talk to his best friend after dealing with the trio being in a tiring and stressful state of limbo. To make things up to Tucker for lost time, Danny paid for a few rounds of gaming at the local arcade. Once they were done, Danny and Tucker decided to head to the local diner.
Danny paid for both his and Tucker's food and enjoyed their food while finally catching up.
"Dude, you've been at the talk of the school for months!" Tucker gushed before taking a bite out of his Sloppy Joe sandwich.
"...I have, haven't I? I guess I haven't noticed," Danny chuckled nonchalantly, looking down at his normal hamburger.
"How could you not? First, you told off Dash, then embarrassed the A-Listers with your secret Olympian-built body in PE, you made Paulina scream bloody murder, and then you got Star to leave Kwan. That's a complete one-eighty from the negative social standing from last year." Tucker pointed out.
"...What? Tucker, I'm still at the bottom of the barrel. Not to mention that I'm still being targeted by those people you've just listed, but now they're aiming to trounce me." Danny said, raising an eyebrow.
"Sure, you're as bottom tier as they come. But what you don't know is that rumors about your new attitude and hidden physique have amassed a small cult following," Said Tucker with a hint of pride and envy.
"Cult following?" Danny repeated. "Of what?"
"Of B and C-Lister girls." Tucker said with a smirk.
"...You're joking, right?" Danny asked, hoping this was a prank.
Tucker then pulled out one of his many PDAs, then pressed a few buttons and showed Danny a list of contacts.
"Check this out," Tucker said, handing the PDA to Danny. "Easy on Sash, Danny. I just made a monthly payment on her."
Danny rolled his eyes, then looked at the device, only to find a list of phone numbers with various names of girls Danny may or may not be familiar with.
"Brittany, Ashley, Mia...What the heck? Tucker, aren't most of these girls from the student board association and the school band?"
"Uh huh!" The beanie-wearing black kid said with a knowing smirk. "They can't show it for obvious reasons, but the chicks are digging the new you. Girls are saying that you give off bad boy vibes."
'...Me? A bad boy? Who do they think I am? Johnny 13?' Danny mentally snarked.
"You're oddly happy about this." Danny noticed with a frown.
"...Well, I might have gotten a few dates in exchange for possibly putting in a good word about them to you." Tucker nervously chuckled.
"Tucker…" Danny groaned, mildly annoyed at the African American boy's antics.
"What? Can you blame a guy for hustling? You gotta leave some action for ol' boy, you know?" Tucker lightly justified. "Besides, I knew you wouldn't go for any of these chicks. None of them weren't good for you."
Danny couldn't help but laugh.
"Same old Tuck. I can't stay mad at you." The raven haired boy shook his head. "Well, you're right about one thing, girls aren't my strong suit. I think I'm stepping back from the dating scene."
This took the self-proclaimed lady's man by surprise.
"Dude, I was joking," Tucker said, only to be met with silence as Danny ate his food.
"...You're serious about this, are you?" Tucker questioned despite knowing the answer.
"I'm saying, maybe my sister has gotten the right idea about waiting until college," Danny mentioned. "Maybe I have a better chance of scoring a date than I do right now."
'...Since when has he become so insightful? It's like he aged several years. Did the stuff with Sam and Paulina mess with him that much?' Tucker wondered mentally.
"Not to tell you what to do or anything, but we're in high school. As in, the best years of our lives?" Tucker reminded Danny. "Come on, there's nothing wrong with having some fun, right? Live a little."
Danny gave Tucker a solemn smile and said, "...I want to, but my priorities are a little different these days. Right now, I want to focus on school. Especially with the CAT coming up."
"Oh yeah. Do you have a plan to pass it this time?" Tucker queried out of curiosity.
"Knowing Jazz, she'll most likely be giving me pointers… Even if I didn't ask for them." Danny said while rolling his eyes.
"Figures," Tucker nodded. "You know me, I've already studied. But I do have to help Sam later out. She's struggling with the study material."
"...Oh, right," Danny said in a low and distant tone, looking out the window with a dead expression that honestly disturbed Tucker.
Seeing Danny react in that manner caused Tucker to stir the conversation to a different topic.
"Hey, Danny… Something's been on my mind lately," Tucker spoke which immediately grabbed Danny's attention.
"What's up?" Asked Danny.
"Remember when you would have random freakouts?" Tucker suddenly questioned.
"F-Freakouts?" Danny repeated in a stuttered, awkward as to where the conversation was going.
"Yeah. You had at least one of them last year for some reason." Tucker pointed out. "What's up with that, man?"
Danny went silent for a moment, mulling over the so-called freakout moments he had. The only thing he could think about that correlated with Tucker's claim was all the times his powers suddenly went active in his human form out in the open, causing him to become hysterical.
'...Oh, that's about right. Then again, I didn't want my powers during that time, so of course I overreacted.' Danny mentally justified. 'But you don't know that, Tucker. I didn't want you or Sam to know.'
"...Oh, that." Danny said, averting his eyes to the plate of food. "I guess you would think I was going nuts Freshman year. Who wouldn't?"
"It's cool, dude. I can tell that you were going through a rough patch, even before the fall formal. Wanna talk about it?"
"Uh…" Danny hesitated.
"Bro, you don't have to." Tucker assured him. "If you change your mind, I won't tell anyone. Not even her."
Danny sighed and said, "...I may have had a near-death experience in my parents' lab before school started last year."
"Hold up, what!? What do you mean by a "near death" experience?" Tucker asked, pushing for more details with concern evident in his voice.
"I-I don't want to get into further details. I'm still…processing stuff. When school started, I started having panic attacks, that's why I would freak out. The ghost attacks didn't exactly help me either," Danny explained, twisting lies with truths in favor of his previous behavior last year.
"When I was mugged this year, it drove me to want to protect and reassure myself. So, I started to work out by hitting the gym. That's why I'm more assertive," Danny concluded.
Tucker was left speechless as he mentally put previous events into perspective with newly received information.
"Dude, why didn't you speak up about this?" Tucker questioned, hurt that an old friend went through pain silently.
Danny smiled at Tucker sadly one more time.
"...I didn't want you guys to worry about me," Danny weakly stated.
"Bro, stop. Given our group's current state, it wouldn't make a difference anyway." Tucker commented, causing Danny's shoulders to slack.
"...You have a point there," Danny sighed. "I want things to work out, to go back to the way they were. But nothing's working. Sam's not budging on her choice any time soon. I think she actually hates me now."
"That's crazy talk, man!" Tucker said with a harsher tone. "She's just having a big cow and blowing this whole thing out of proportion!"
Danny then thought of what she told him as Phantom that Monday night and placed his hand on his forehead as he said, "...I don't know what to do."
Before Tucker could respond, a voice spoke into the fabric of reality that was unheard by lower dimensional entities.
"...TIME OUT."
As if the fabric of reality answered the entity's command, time slowed so rapidly, it eventually stopped completely, freezing it in place.
A blue-white light flared in midair, turning into a clock hand that swept a blue disc of light into being. It disappeared, and adult Clockwork, in his adult form, took in its place with an unconscious Spirit accompanying him.
The Spirit resembled a familiar goofy blue skinned Poltergeist, but instead of being pudgy while wearing overalls, he was muscular, stout, and wide. His demeanor was genuinely threatening, having a scar under his right eye, yellow sclera and red irises, a grown beard with gray steaks, and a right silver hook that replaced his amputated hand. For his attire, he wore a dark gray beanie, a navy blue freight worker uniform over a dark gray trench coat, and black fisherman boots. He had a necklace with an anchor dangling on it, a rusty chain as a belt, and seaweed that covered his shoulders and head.
Clockwork then placed a medallion around the Spirit's neck, allowing the Spirit to awaken from the effects of Clockwork's power.
He looked to see Clockwork, then asked in a low yet cold tone.
"What business do you have with me, Hooded One?" The bearded Spirit inquired.
Clockwork pointed his Time Staff at Danny, asking him, "Do you remember the boy, there,"
The bearded Spirit looked at Danny and scowled.
"I couldn't forget that monster's face if I wanted to," The bearded Spirit spat.
"Listen, you've been transported ten years back in time. Before he fell into Madness. I have orders to deal with the threat he will pose later." Clockwork explained. "You wouldn't mind playing with this younger Ghost Boy for old time's sake, would you?"
While glaring at Danny, the bearded Spirit uttered, "...I'll oblige,"
With that, the bearded Spirit turned invisible and phased out of the dinner, buying his time. Clockwork smirked, then pressed a button on his staff.
"...TIME IN."
Clockwork vanished in a swirl of blue light, allowing time to resume. Soon enough, Danny and Tucker left the diner, unsuspecting the looming threat that will approach them.
"Danny, it can't end this way! It's always been the three of us!" Tucker said.
"IKNOWTHAT, TUCKER!" Danny said, projecting his voice before sighing. "But I just don't know how to handle this crap from here! You and I will always be cool with one another, but I can't see a way forward in this Sam situation. I don't want to just drop her like how she apparently dropped me, but everything is eating me alive and-"
Danny paused as a familiar supernatural chilling sensation sent shivers down his spine, causing his Ghost Sense to go off.
"...Oh crud."
'Great, just what I needed….'
"Dude, did I just see your breath?" Tucker questioned.
Suddenly, Danny saw a nearby fire hydrant explode as a ghostly figure emerged from the geyser of water that erupted. From there, Danny watched as the figure used their telekinesis to throw the torrent of water at him and Tucker.
"LOOK OUT!"
Danny tackled his best friend out of the incoming, saving them from being pelted by water that seemed to have been scalding hot.
"H-Holy shit! Dude, we almost ate it!" Tucker said, nearly panicking, still on the ground.
Danny pulled him frantically, saying, "Less talking, more running!"
The two of them ran for their lives as the enraged Spirit chased them.
"SHOW YOURSELF, GHOST PUNK!" The bearded Spirit demanded. "WE'VE GOT A SCORE TO SETTLE!"
Many of the townsfolk began to scream and run away as the bearded Spirit threw boiling torrents of water, hitting cars and buildings.
"Why's he following us!?" Tucker asked Danny. "Phantom's not even here yet!"
'Kind of hard to do my thing when you're next to me, Tuck!' Danny mentally complained within his mind.
Danny then spotted a phone booth half a block away and an alleyway with a dumpster up ahead. This gave the Alpha Human the opportunity he needed.
"Hey, I'm going to call my parents for help! Head to the alleyway and hide behind the dumpster ahead!" Danny instructor.
"Dude, no! He'll just go after you!"
"I'll be fine! Just do it!" Danny said before running off.
"DANNY! WAIT A SECO-!" Tucker called out, but saw that it was no use convincing his friend otherwise. "Oh man…!"
The glasses-wearing boy was forced to go to the alleyway and pray that his friend would survive the ghost attack. Little did Tucker know, Danny Fenton had run into the phone booth and transformed into the town's superhero, Danny Phantom.
The ghost boy flew back to face his new opponent, who seemed eager to fight him.
"THERE YOU ARE!" The bearded Spirit said with a menacing smirk. "I've been waiting ten long years for this fight."
"...Uh, what?" Phantom uttered, confused at his opponent's comment. "Dude, I don't know what you're talking about. I've only been at this for over a year."
The bearded Spirit fired a beam of navy blue spectral energy, sending Danny crashing into a nearby jewelry store. The female cashier shrieked at the sight of the ghost boy crashing through the window and jumped away from the collision of Danny into the display case.
The customers ran out of the store, including the cashier. Danny got up from the attack, turned intangible to get all of the small shards of glass from off of him, then used his freeze power to seal nurse the wounds before flying back to the fight.
"Lucky shot, Captain Hook!" Danny said before raising his left palm and firing a green ecto-ray of his own.
The bearded Spirit scowled, then created a rotating cubic Ghost Shield that blocked Danny's ectoplasmic blast with ease.
"What the-!?" Danny Phantom questioned before firing a barrage of spectral energy from his hands. "Why? Won't? IT?BUDGE!?"
"Fool! Your feeble attacks are nothing to my Protective Cubic Barrier!" The bearded Spirit spoke. "Now…"
The bearded Spirit fired a spectral chain out of his Ghost Shield, wrapping the ghost boy by the leg.
"Hey! What are you-!?" Phantom blurted out.
"...Suffer the wrath of my Chains of DOOM!" The bearded Spirit bellowed as he flew around Amity Park and smacked the ghost kid around the hard surfaces of people across the city.
Danny, obviously sick of being constantly thrown around by enemies, tried to go intangible but failed. Instead, he used his freeze power to freeze and shatter the bearded Spirit's chains.
"Back off, Salty Beard!" Danny said, managing to blast the bearded Spirit to a nearby billboard.
He ended up floating above the Nasty Burger near Casper High. Eventually, the bearded Spirit accompanied him, firing a smaller cube laced with destructive negative ectoplasmic energy. Danny immediately dodged the cube, only to find that it erased the billboard that the being crashed into.
'...Man, I would have been a goner if that touched me. Seriously, who is this guy?' Danny pondered before certain details began to appear in his mind. "Wait. The corny dialogue…the freight worker uniform… strong use of telekinesis…obsession with cubes…is he…?'
"Hey, Kelp Face!" Danny shouted. "You wouldn't happen to be related to the Box Ghost, wouldn't you?"
Seeing that the kid was close to the truth, the bearded Spirit smirked with his left hand glowing with toxic green ectoplasmic energy.
"...Wouldn't you like to know?" The trench coat-wearing Spirit said.
Without warning, Danny Phantom was knocked through the restaurant's ceiling via a large anchor construct. He crashed onto the table violently back first. The civilians at the eating establishment fled Phantom immediately got up then confronted the floating bearded Spirit in the air.
Behind the counter, two Caucasian employees were not planning on staying at the Nasty Burger.
The male brunette looked at his co-worker, then said, "Let's get out of here!"
However, Irving Burns stopped them and said, "No! You can't leave! As a duly deputized Nastronaut, you took an oath to protect the Nasty Sauce from overheating at all costs."
The man then pointed at two tall with a small dial on the side with a color warning scale and its needle in the green area.
The two teenage Nasty Burger employees looked at Third Degree as if the older man was crazy.
"At minimum wage? I don't think so!" The female fired back before she and her co-worker dashed out of the back door.
The manager ran to the doorway and shouted, "You can kiss Employee of the Month goodbye!"
Danny kicked the bearded Spirit to one of the tables in the restaurant when he overheard the exchange.
The white-haired tanned-skinned hero flew over to the vats as he said, "That's right! He said if this stuff gets too hot, kaboom."
He glanced over at the condiment station, where there was a box of multicolored Nasty Sauce packets. Phantom picked up one with a plan in mind.
The bearded Spirit used his telekinesis to throw boxes of equipment at the ghost child, falling into his old patterns.
"Brace yours -Huh?" Uttered the hostile ghost.
The Spirit was struck by a packet of Nasty Sauce splattered in an ectoplasmic adhesive, courtesy of the Phantom of Amity Park.
"Hey, Flying Dutchman-!" Phantom said in a sing-song tone. "BEWARE!"
Phantom used his right index finger and fired at the Nasty Sauce packet. This overheated the packet, causing it to triple in size rapidly.
As Danny turned intangible to cover his face while the bearded Spirit covered his eyes. The explosion sent the ghost kid through the wall and blew the top off the Nasty Burger.
When Danny Phantom turned visible, Irving Burns stumbled out of the front door of the smoking restaurant.
"Run for your lives!" He said before he and the rest of the crowd sprinted away while screaming.
"...Well, that worked," Phantom muttered, getting up from the ground. "Was that really the Box Ghost or was he some distant relative…?"
The green-eyed Alpha Human noticed the Time Medallion left behind by the bearded Spirit.
"I don't know what's going on, but this medallion might give me a clue." Phantom inferred.
Holding onto the Time Medallion, Danny took off to the skies while thinking, 'I better give Tucker a call and let him know I'm alive.'
With that, the Phantom flew away from the Nasty Burger and faded from view.
Clockwork's Lair, Ghost Zone
Watching the fray, the Observants were not happy with the outcome of Clockwork's handiwork.
"Your test has failed, Clockwork!" One Observant pointed out.
"Indeed. He's growing more clever as he is dangerous! Like HIM!" The other Observant stated.
The first Observant mentioned, "He has your Time Medallion!"
"He has your Time Medallion!" The second Observant mentioned.
"You said that twice." Clockwork dryly commented.
"Our point still stands!" The Observants said simultaneously, standing their ground.
Clockwork sighed, then uttered, "Your fears, they are misplaced."
"Keep watching." One of the Observants spurred.
"The boy will fall from grace, then you'll see things our way." The other assured as the group continued to watch the time gate.
Basement, Fenton Works, Amity Park
Before going to bed, Jack Fenton stood in the basement, observing the piece of material he took from the Sunday when Danny Phantom had battled Nicolai Technus.
He still couldn't believe how lucky he was to have stumbled upon it, but he didn't let the opportunity to learn more about his most hated ghostly adversary. While studying the material under the microscope, he recalled a saying Vlad would tell him from time to time.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
For some reason, the way the billionaire recited such a saying had a sinister tone that Jack couldn't help but notice. While it was good advice, Jack started to become more aware of the tension between himself, Maddie, and their old college friend.
Particularly, Jack could see his wife's reluctance to be in the same room as the man and caught several glimpses of a scowl in his direction, only for Vlad to flash a fake smile and force a facade of kindness.
Come to think of it, Jack recalled that Jazz and Danny became more cautious around Vlad as well.
He would wonder why this would be the case. What made his family wary when in the presence or mentioning his best friend? Did Vlad do something that made them uncomfortable? What was the denominator that he was missing which everybody else seemed to have picked up on?
The man removed his eyes from the microscope and shook his head, thinking, '...There you go again, Fenton. Overthinking things. Besides, your wife and kids would have already come to you if something was wrong. And Vladdie would have done the same if we still had problems… right? …Right?'
Before Jack could second guess himself, his wife entered the lab and called to him.
"Jack, honey? Are you down here?"
Jack turned to his wife's direction and gave her a big smile.
"Yes ma'am!" Jack said standing beside one of the examination tables.
As she approached her husband, she raised an eyebrow.
"...Jack, what are you doing at the workstation? I thought we were resuming working on Project Ferrum Gigante in the morning." Maddie said.
"Oh, right," Said Jack. "I'll admit, I may have found and pocketed a sample of Phantom's suit on Sunday before we left."
"You what?" Maddie blurted out, now frowning at her husband. "Jack Fenton shame on you! How could you hide this from me?"
Jack rubbed the back of his neck, then said, "Sorry, babe. I was being a little selfish, I won't lie. But there was something that I wanted to confirm, and I couldn't pass up the chance."
"Confirm?" Maddie repeated, letting her scientific mind come to the forefront. "What are you studying?"
Jack stepped aside and said, "Have a look yourself,"
Maddie walked over to the workstation and then looked at the two pieces of fabric.
"Are these the materials you're studying?" Maddie questioned.
"Mhm." Jack nodded.
Maddie swapped the white material from the black one that was placed under the microscope. She examined both pieces of material, taking her time in the action.
"They look similar…Albeit different colors. What's with the white one?" Maddie mentioned.
Jack explained, "The black material is Phantom's suit, and the other came from the leftover material of Danny's HAZMAT suit."
"You're kidding!" Maddie gasped, observing the two materials again. "...Wait, Jack! Both of them are the same material!"
"Yes, they're nanofiber-based with cellular shape memory alloy. A Fenton Works original." Said Jack, crossing his arms. "The only difference is that Phantom's suit is coated in ectoplasm. Completely bound to it down to the molecular level."
Maddie stepped away from the microscope with a worried expression. "...Jack, I don't understand… What does this mean?"
The large man furrowed his eyebrows and said, "...I don't have all of the answers but at least we know that Phantom thief stole Danny's jumpsuit."
"But why?" Maddie questioned. "Ghosts can materialize their forms with clothing!"
"I don't know. I don't have all the answers, but I can only come to one conclusion." Jack said with a hardened expression. "For whatever, I think Phantom is haunting our family."
Casper High, Amity Park, IL
It was another school day. Daniel Fenton, secret ghost-hunting Alpha Human, had just got out of the boy's restroom during lunch period.
Like always, he kept the red hood of his jacket on, his head low, and blended in with the crowd to avoid troubles. However, recently, the raven-haired boy had begun to stand up for himself, attracting unwanted attention.
Some, including Pacifica, Jazz, and Valerie chalked it up to puberty and hormones, but Mason theorized that his ghostly obsession with helping people and protecting others had intensified over time that it began to bleed into his human form.
Regardless, Danny's new assertive attitude became the hot new topic of the school's many social circles in Casper High. This made Danny keep to himself and scarce around large groups of people.
Danny eventually found his locker, then opened it up while swapping books.
"...Let them talk, just keep your head down." He muttered to himself.
"...Hey, Danny," A familiar voice spoke from the boy's left side.
Closing his locker, Danny saw Star standing, holding her books with a small smile on his face.
"O-Oh, hey Star. I didn't see you there," Danny said, offering a small smile of his own. "How are you doing?"
"...Better, I guess. I'm living with my mom now and took her name." Star said, while her expression changed to that of humble gratitude. "...About the other day…T-Thanks."
Danny shook his head and said, "Don't think much about it. I mean, what are friends for?"
"...Do you really think of me as a friend?" Star questioned, sounding genuinely touched.
Danny stated, "I like to think that we are since we're starting fresh… That's ifyouwant to be."
"...I'd love to," Star said, holding out her hand. "I'm Star Astray."
Danny took her right hand with his own, "Danny Fenton."
The two sealed the deal with a handshake, only to turn their heads from hearing the sound of screaming down the hall.
"...What was that?" Star inquired, startled at the sound.
"...Nathan." Danny said with a concerned expression before weaving through the people in the halls.
"Hey, wait up!" Star said, following behind Danny.
Danny walked for fifteen seconds, heading toward the other side of the hall. Danny stopped when he spotted three faces that neither Star nor himself wanted to see.
It was the jocks; Dash, Kwan, and Dale cornering Nathan. The next thing that they knew, Nathan was thrown into the locker, much to his detriment.
"LET ME OUT OF HERE! PLEASE!" The nerd shouted, banging at the locker door from the inside.
"As if! Bring some more change next time, loser!" Dash said, prompting Dash and Kwan to laugh.
The three walked away, high-fiving each other while Nathan banged on the locker door, with his pleas falling on deaf ears. Hearing the cries of the poor boy shook Star.
'...I used to laugh at that?' Star questioned. 'How could I find this funny!?'
Once the trio of bullies left, Danny jogged over to the locker and opened it, getting Nathan out of his prison.
"Easy, Nate," Danny said, helping get the curly-haired nerd out of the full-sized locker. "I got you."
"T-Thanks, Danny. I-I got cornered after Dash spotted me." Nathan explained, looking disheveled. "I couldn't get to the r-roof in time."
Danny nodded, adjusting the boy's glasses correctly as he said, "I get it. I had to learn to plan ahead. I suggest doing the same to avoid them."
"...I'll keep that in mind. I-I don't do well in small and cramped spaces." Nathan timidly stammered, further hurting Star on the inside.
'...He's claustrophobic?' Star learned, further increasing her newly found disdain for bullying. 'And they still got away with this?'
As Danny held the nerd's glasses and watched Nathan wipe tears from his face with a handkerchief pulled out, he spotted Star approaching him.
"Sorry that I left," Danny apologized. "I had to…you know,"
Star nodded in understanding, while Nathan flinched when the former blonde laid eyes on his body had gone stiff.
Nathan took his glasses back, then said, "I-I should go."
"Nate, wait a sec! It's fine. She came with me to check on you." Danny reassured him.
Nathan's eyes furrowed in suspicion, not buying Danny's claim.
"Since when did Starla Andromeda Lynn start caring for guys like us?" Nathan questioned, looking directly in the blonde's eyes with an accusative tone.
"I-I…" Star stuttered, taken back by the boy's anger.
"Hey, let's calm down-"
"No!" Nathan growled at Danny before turning to Star. "Shelley Stoker Junior High, Barker Elementary! Those were the worst times of my life and she was a part of that! My friends and I would get pants, pelted by food, targeted at dodgeball, and gotten wedgie after wedgie by her boyfriend and his posse of bullies, and she'd laugh with the rest of them!"
He turned to Danny with an enraged expression.
"So don't tell me to calm down!" Nathan said, causing Danny to turn silent. "If anything, you should be more angry than me! Did you forget the time when she forged a Valentine's Day card you'd thought Paulina gave you, and she got the entire class to laugh at you!?"
Star averted her eyes to the school floor, recalling past events that were mentioned with a renewed sense of guilt for her actions.
"...I don't recall you helping me last year when I was bullied," Danny mentioned calmly, catching Star and Nathan off guard. "Did you?"
"U-Uh…" Nathan stuttered. "T-That's not…"
"-Fair?" Danny finished. "No, it isn't. Neither is being bullied, doing nothing about it, or our school for allowing it to happen. I mean, do I have to bring up who haunts Locker 724?"
Star and Nathan flinched. They've heard of the rumors about Sidney Poindexter, and the last thing they wanted was to be reminded of his death. The scandal nearly closed Casper High down for good in the fifties.
"Yeah, I was upset about being treated like crap in the past." Danny continued. "But I made peace with Star the other day, and I've just started over with her today. She's not with the in-crowd anymore, so I think she's allowed to be given another chance."
Nathan bit his tongue but glanced at the former cheerleader with eyes that harbored no trust in them.
"...Well, not everybody can be as forgiving as you," Nathan said with bitterness etched in his voice. "Nor are most people willing to believe she can change how rotten she's become."
Star bit her lip as she thought,'...Great, I've been riding the popular Sanchéz and the rest of those assholes for so long that everybody hates me. I'm no better than them or my shitty dad… I've got to start fixing things. But, like, how do I start?'
"...What is with all of this noise that I'm hearing?" A nasal voice called out, prompting the three to turn around.
The teens were approached by a middle-aged, Caucasian male in his late forties. He wore a white collared shirt and a black tie over a red sweater, brown khakis, and black loafers.
This is Mr. Paul Faullca, their current Algebra teacher.
"Mr. Faullca! I'm glad you're here!" Star said.
"Ms. Lynn? What's going on?" The math teacher questioned. "Could you explain the screaming I've heard from the teacher's lounge?"
"It's Astray now, sir, but it all started like this…"
Star began to recount what she saw when following Danny. As she reported the bullying to him, Nathan was left speechless. He didn't expect somebody who was the second most popular girl in his year to bat for a guy she used to laugh at.
Before Star could finish, Mr. Faullca held his hand up.
"Enough!" Mr. Faullca said with a stern expression, forcing Star to cease her report. "...I'd expect this kind of slander from Ms. Manson, but not you."
"Slander? But Mr. Faullca, we both saw Dash throw-"
"-And catch footballs on the field, while he and the rest of the team won us multiple school games all throughout last year. And will not tolerate baseless nonsensical accusations to ruin our reputation and affect your classmates over petty grudges and dramas."
The three gasped before an outraged Star shouted, "ARE YOU KID-"
"AH! One outburst like that might affect your standing in my class," Mr. Faullca warned. "And I believe I will be grading your tests this week. That goes for any of you who give me lip."
Star immediately shut her mouth as the man turned his back to the three teenagers.
"...A word of advice, Ms.Astray. Don't stick your nose in other people's business. Just go back to worrying about yourself like you always do." Mr. Faullca stated before walking away.
Once Mr. Faullca was out of earshot, Star felt her temper boil over.
"...Can you believe the nerve of that dickhead!?" Star growled. "He just flipped everything I said back on me! This can't be allowed! It can't!"
Danny, while angry himself, let out an exasperated sigh. Nathan, meanwhile, looked down with a bittersweet smile on his face.
"This has to be against the rules!" Star growled. "He can't be allowed to do this to students! I'm gonna get a lawyer and-"
"...Just drop it, okay?" Nathan said with a low and defeated tone. "You guys did your best...Thanks for trying to help, Danny."
Nathan looked over to Star and said, "...I may not forgive you for what you've done, but I appreciate the gesture."
With that, Nathan grabbed his bag and left the blonde and the raven-haired boy by themselves at the end of the hallway. Star turned to Danny with a soft but remorseful expression on her face.
"...Is this normal for you?" The former popular inquired. "Being treated like this?"
Danny frowned but honestly answered, "...Honestly, I'm used to things being worse."
'...Worse?' Star said with her lips parted and eyes widened.
"Anyway, it was nice talking to you again. I'll text you later." Danny stated. "That's okay with you, Star?"
Star nodded lightly, still processing what she'd experienced before watching Danny walk back into the crowd, disappearing from sight.
Study Room, Library, Casper High
"...So, I got to fight a Spirit yesterday that could pass as Box Ghost's grandpa and I found this on him," Danny said, setting Clockwork's Time Medallion in the middle of the table where Mason, Pacifica, and Valerie surrounded him. "Any thoughts?"
"...Not gonna lie, that kinda looks tacky," Pacifica said, cringing at the medallion's design.
"Hold on, gonna need some time for research," Mason said, pulling out a book on ghostly artifacts from his messenger bag.
"Maybe my dad could help us out," Valerie suggested, sticking out her wristwatch as its nanotech formed two wire cables and attached itself to the medallion.
Valerie managed to get her father on the phone while asking Danny questions regarding the nature of the medallion. After thirty minutes of investigating and researching, Mason closed his book.
"...Well, I got nothing." Mason with a sigh. "There's not a single charm or trinket in here that resembles this medallion in the book. I need more time to look into this, but I've got to find an obscure archive. A normal library wouldn't hold books for something like this."
"...This is bizarre. This item is too complex to properly scan at this time." Damon Gray stated over Valerie's phone. "Whatever Daniel James has found, it's one of, if not, the most advanced piece of technology in the world."
Everybody looked at each other, astonished at the mysterious medallion.
"...Don't worry about it, Dad. Thanks for helping us out." Valerie said before hanging up the phone and retracting the wires back to her black and red wristwatch.
"...Maybe the key to cracking this thing has something to do with the letters written on it," Pacifica suggested, pointing to the initials on the Time Medallion.
"Maybe…" Mason nodded. "It could be some kind of coded message. If only it had a cypher…"
"Give it a rest, guys," Danny advised. "We have all the time in the world to figure out the thing."
Danny then pushed the medallion to Mason, who was taken aback by the action.
"...You're giving this to me?"
"Duh. If you can face off against a bunch of gnomes, survive an encounter with a Wraith, a shapeshifter, and figure out the author behind the books of the crazy stuff in Paz's hometown, I think you're more than qualified to crack this." Danny said with complete faith in Mason's ability.
"...Wait, gnomes are real?" Valerie asked Pacifica.
"Yeah, Gravity Falls is a weird place," Pacifica confirmed.
Mason took the medallion with vigor in his spirit, saying, "Thanks, D. It'll take some time, but I'll solve this."
"I know, but it's no rush." Danny nodded. "We should move on with our homework."
"Yeah, I want to knock that out now so we can jump straight to patrolling after school." Valerie agreed with the others nodding.
Nasty Burger, Amity Park, IL
A week passed since Danny had given Mason Pines the Time Medallion. He had checked out three books he managed to purchase thanks to his great uncle. He scoured each page in his spare time, and not one of them had any information about the thing. Not coming close to his investigation was driving up the wall.
Now, he was walking to the Nasty Burger, trying to take his mind off of it by trying to solve other issues.
Mason carried two things in his hands. One was his cellphone, and the other was the Time Medallion.
Mason silently peered at the phone screen and went through multiple names with numbers underneath them within his contact list. There were names such as Dad, Danny, Ford, Valerie, Pacifica, Soos, Stan, Tambry, Tucker, Wendy and so on. Right above Mom, there was a name that he hovered on.
Mabel.
God, he wanted to hear his twin sister's voice. It had been months since they last spoke to each other, and it already felt like years. He had been so excited to be taken under a like-minded person's wing that he didn't anticipate what it meant for his relationship with his sister.
He needed to reach, to let her know that he still hadn't forgotten about her.
Mason pressed the call key and waited for her to pick up.
He waited, and waited, and waited as the phone rang. Yet, instead of letting the phone ring, the line died and went to voicemail.
"...Please leave a message for (541)-"
A pit of dread filled Mason's stomach as he felt the stinging sensation of tears forming from the corner of his eyes. He was losing his sister, and he didn't know what to do on how to fix it. He wiped his face once he heard the tone go off.
"...Hey. It's me again. It's Dipper. …Sorry that I keep flooding your voicemail box, I just wanted to check in again. Mom and Dad keep me updated with stuff at home, but I want to know how you're doing with you being busy with school and all. …Listen, I know things are different without me there, but I just want you to know that there's not a single day when you don't cross my mind. I can't promise that things will be the same, but they'll get better. I know it. Give me a call whenever you can, okay? Pet Waddles for me, too. Love you, Sis."
When Mason hit the end key, he let out a sigh. He then looked at the Time Medallion with an exhausted expression.
"...Great, still I'm still getting no answer from Mabel, and now I'm stuck with no leads for what this stupid thing is." Mason mumbled to himself. "Seriously, what the hell did Danny get off of that Poltergeist?"
"Hey, Mason!"
The younger Pines twin quickly stuffed the Time Medallion in his pants pocket when he noticed Tucker jogging in his direction.
"Oh, hey. What's up, dude?" Mason greeted, giving the African American kid an awkward wave.
"What do you mean? When it comes to Too Fine, there's always time to chow on the Signature Nasty Pounder." Said Tucker before noticing something off about his new friend. "...You good, man?"
"U-Uh, yeah. I'm good," Mason said, clearing his throat. "Wanna grab a table together or…?"
Tucker shrugged, saying, "Why not? It beats being alone."
Tucker and Mason entered the restaurant and were happy to see that there was a lack of a line present. But they were shocked to find the person running the cash register.
It was Star Astray.
"...Welcome to Nasty Burger, how can I take your-, huh?" The blonde said before stopping midway. "Foley, Pines?"
"Star?" Tucker questioned. "Since when did you have to start working?"
"As soon as I had to start living in a single-parent household," Star snarked, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, I'm not passing any judgment. I work at my great uncle's electronics repair shop on the side." Mason said. "We all gotta start from somewhere."
"I agree. A man can appreciate the hustle," Tucker before coming on to Star. "And I gotta say, the uniform and the ponytail is a nice look."
Noticing the lecherous gaze on Tucker, Star scoffed and said, "One, ew. Two, like, choose a table and order something already."
Once they did so, Tucker and Mason paid for their meal, grabbed the receipt, and walked all the way to the back of the restaurant where a lone table by the window awaited them.
It didn't take long for their food to come, perhaps five to seven minutes. Tucker got a large burger, fries, and a soft drink. Mason settled for chili fries and a cup of water since he didn't trust the burgers made from the restaurant at all.
Star conveniently headed to the employee bathroom. As soon as she closed the door, Dash, Kwan, and Dale all entered the restaurant and placed their orders, then chose a table that was closer to the entrance. Once Star arrived back to her post, she noticed the jocks talking amongst themselves and groaned in embarrassment.
'...Oh great, those creeps are here.' Star thought to herself. 'Can this day get any worse?'
While eating food, Mason and Tucker began to make small talk. The two found themselves talking about their childhood experiences which led to talking about horrible nicknames they were called while growing up.
"So, like, what are some of the worst things some have called you growing up?" Mason questioned.
"...Could you go for nicknames instead? Some kids threw a lot of slurs at me in middle school before higher-ups cracked down on the intense racism." Tucker explained in an awkward manner.
Mason winced, then thought, '...Wow. Nice place to live my ass! Amity Park sucks.'
"Say no more. Nicknames it is." Mason agreed.
"Get this, back when I would hang out with Danny and Sam, I would often dismiss crazy stuff from happening. Coincidentally, things get worse, some I'd get outed for jinxing the situations." Tucker explained. "You'd never guess what people started calling me."
"What?" Asked Mason.
"...Bad Luck Tuck," The beanie-wearing teen revealed.
Mason snorted, "...Bad Luck Tuck? What, were you cursed?"
"When it comes to girls or scoring big, I'm the unluckiest techno geek in school." Tucker shrugged. "At least, that's what Sam always says."
"That's hysterical," Mason chuckled at the boy's expense.
"What about you? Got a nickname that could top mine?" Tucker challenged.
"Definitely. Mine is so bad, it spawned a dozen offshoots throughout my earlier years." Mason explained. "But you're gonna need context first."
"Context?" Tucker repeated out of curiosity while raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah. It's a long story, but get this. I had a really gnarly birthmark on my forehead growing up. It's gone now, but that was so horrendous, a classmate drew a freaking constellation with it." Mason explained, holding his curly brown bangs up to expose his bare forehead.
"Which constellation?"
"Ursa Major,"
Tucker nearly choked on his food. The boy had to take a big gulp from his soft drink to save himself.
"Wait-wait-wait!You mean to tell me that you used to be called-"
Mason nodded, "-Dipper. Yeah, I know. It's embarrassing, right?"
"Bro, that doesn't sound so bad. I'm surprised they didn't call you Big Dipper."
"You know how cruel other kids are. They'd gotthatwrong by shovingLittleDipper down my throat on purpose just to belittle me." Mason further elaborated. "It didn't help that my parents and twin sister found it cute and rolled with the nickname."
"You have a twin sister?" Tucker questioned. "Is she single?"
Mason furrowed his brows and said, "First off, ew. Secondly, she's in California with our parents, and most importantly, you're not her type."
"Ouch. Can you blame a guy for trying?" Asked Tucker.
"No offense, but you come onto girls a bit too strong. It's giving me Gideon Gleeful vibes, and youdon'twant to be a Gideon." Said Mason.
Tucker responded with a question, asking, "...Um, who's Gideon?"
"A stubborn little troll who can't take no for an answer," Mason stated, causing Tucker to accept the brunette's answer.
"Anyway, Mabel is older than me by five minutes," Mason explained, chuckling at the good memories he had with Mabel. "When she caught on to Dipper, she started making up these silly little sub-nicknames."
"Got any examples? I gotta hear them." Tucker insisted.
"Let's see, she'd call me Dip-Dip, Dipstick, Diptholomew, Sir Dippingsauce,"
The last nickname managed to get to Tucker as he held his gut while erupting into a fit of laughter.
"...S-Sir Dippingsauce!?" Tucker wheezed, which made Dipper snort. "Ooh, man! Your sister's something else!"
Mason chuckled while he solemnly thought, '...She sure is.'
The commotion over at the boys' table didn't go unnoticed as Dash, Dale, and Kwan, who eyed the two like predators.
"Aye, Dash." Whispered Dale. "Are you texting Paulina?"
"Yeah, give me a sec…" Dash said, smirking while texting on his blackberry.
Star, while waiting for another customer, felt her phone vibrate. The blonde took her phone from her pocket and looked at the origin of the notification in shock.
It was from none other than Dash Baxter himself.
The girl scoffed and put her phone away, not bothering to look at whatever bullshit the football star quarterback sent her.
Soon enough, Tucker and Mason finished their food, threw away their trash, and left their relatively clean trays on the table while they started walking out of the restaurant.
"Hey, me and the guys are planning a study session for the CAT this week," Mason mentioned while walking to the front doors of the Nasty Burger. "You wanna join?"
"Sam's pretty much all set in the study material anyway, so why not?" Tucker eagerly accepted.
Right when Tucker and Mason exited the Nasty Burger, Dash, Dale, and Kwan left the joint.
-An Hour Later-
It was Star's break time. She needed it, given how stuffy being in front of the kitchen could be. The first thing she did before leaving the restaurant was to check her phone. Normally, she would have deleted some of her old contacts, but she hadn't found the time to do so because of her getting acquainted with her new job and preparing for this upcoming Saturday's test.
While looking at her phone, she was reacquainted with Dash's notification. She had half the mind to trash it, but curiosity had gotten the best of her.
And so, she read Dash's text and was shocked at it's content.
"Aye, Paulie. Me n the boys r at NB. Found Fentard's loser friends. The 3 of us r movin' outta here soon to tail and trounce em."
…That was a little over an hour ago.
'...No. They're fine. Dash and Kwan are stupid, but they wouldn't go that far…right?' Star tried convincing herself. '...I need some fresh air.'
The newly hired Nasty Burger employee walked outside of the premises to take a breather when she noticed two unmoving figures lying near a dumpster across the street from the Nasty Burger.
Curiosity got the best of Star once more, and so she investigated and ended up shrieking at the horrifying sight.
Laying next to the dumpster were the unconscious and battered bodies of Tucker Foley and Mason Pines.
With no hesitation, Star dialed 911 and alerted the authorities.
Kitchen, Fenton Works, Amity Park
Danny managed to return home hours early before curfew thanks to the cooperation between Phantom and the Ghost Huntress, which many of the news articles had started addressing as "The Scarlet Huntress".
Now, he was using his downtime to study for the CAT at the kitchen table. He had the study material as a couple of books on one side, and a Scantron with a number two pencil on the other.
The kitchen television was on as background noise, which ironically allowed Danny Fenton to focus better.
"Hm…I think I'm starting to get the hang of this…" Danny muttered to himself as he answered another question by bubbling in one of the four letters listed on the Scantron.
"DANNO, FRIENDLY REMINDER! WE HAVE A FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT THIS FRIDAY, SO COME HOME ON TIME!" Jack Fenton bellowed from in the basement.
"Okay, Dad!" Danny responded.
'...Hopefully Dad can pick the movie this time. I don't think either of us can anymore of those romantic comedies Mom and Jazz had us sit through last time.' Danny mentally groaned.
Although he concentrated on his work, his ears detected the footsteps of his older sister approaching him. The ginger-haired girl peered at the book and his answer sheet, allowing a full blown smile to bloom on her face.
"...Whatcha looking at Jazz?" Danny inquired, never turning to face his sister.
The high school Senior blinked, but remained happy as she said, "...Nothing! I'm just happy about your progression. You've improved by alotsince you started in Casper last year."
"Well, I guess I have. But there's always room for improvement." Danny said, willing to improve his education.
'...Good, he's taking school more seriously. The last thing that I want him to do is to sacrifice his dream. He deserves to pursue it after all that he's sacrificed.' Jazz thought while watching the boy continue working.
The two stopped what they were doing when the television began to play the Channel 4 evening news.
"This is Shelly Makamoto of Channel 4 News, bringing you coverage of the latest current events live in Amity Park." Said a young Japanese American woman with neck length asymmetrical bob cut and brown eyes, standing in front of a camera while footage of the Nasty Burger with two ambulance vehicles nearby started to load two gurneys inside them."Two young men were found lying on the alleyway of Gallows Street and Casper Avenue in critical condition. A call was made thirty minutes ago by an anonymous worker from the local Nasty Burger, who stumbled onto the horrific sight during their break. Thankfully, the two are both breathing and were safely transported at the nearest hospital."
This made Danny and Jazz turn to each other, looking uncomfortable at the news.
"...Do you think it could have been a Spirit?" Danny asked, clearly worried.
"Danny, crime is going to happen whether this town is haunted or not." Jazz explained. "You can't be everywhere at once."
"I know, Jazz…But I can't shake this feeling, you know?" Danny said, sounding guilty before Jazz gently shushed her little brother while pressing her left index finger on his lips.
"Hush, that's your ghostly obsession talking." Jazz said in a soft sisterly tone. "Ghost powers or not, you're still human. Don't push yourself too hard or beat yourself up when things are beyond your control."
Danny remained quiet for a moment, then slowly nodded. He was about to speak to Jazz some more when his phone began to ring.
"Hold on, I gotta take this," Danny said as he pulled out his phone from his pocket.
Once he opened it, the youngest Fenton recognized Pacifica's phone number on the screen.
Opening the phone, he hit the answer key and asked, "...Hey, Paz. What's going on?"
"D-DANNY! O-Oh, thank God you answered!"
Alarms were immediately ringing inside Jazz and her younger brother's heads from the sound of Pacifica's voice. It seemed that she had been ugly crying for quite some time.
"What's wrong? Is she okay?" Jazz questioned in a whisper.
"I don't know yet! Hold on!" Danny whispered to Jazz away from his phone before talking to Pacifica from his line. "Hey, hey, hey! It's okay, Pacifica! I'm here! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine! B-But Dipper, he's-!" Pacifica said, on the verge of rambling.
"Dipper? Paz, I don't understand who your-" Danny questioned.
"-IT'S MASON, DANNY! HE'S AT THE HOSPITAL! HE'S HURT!" Pacifica clarified loudly, unable to control her emotions.
Danny and Jazz heard this clearly, causing the boy to gasp and utter, "What!?"
Amity Park General Hospital, Amity Park, IL
It didn't take long for Danny Fenton to head to the hospital. After the phone call with Pacifica, the boy knew that he owed one of his good friends a visit. Jazz covered for him while he was away, as Danny planned on seeing Mason's condition himself through legitimate means.
Unfortunately for him, Danny was denied by the receptionist.
"...I'm afraid that the patient is not available for visits from people who are not his parents, relatives, and/or guardians." The girl haired Latina woman stated, working as the receptionist. I'm sorry, young man."
Danny lowered his head in shame, then said, "...No, it's fine. Thanks again, ma'am."
The hooded Fenton was about to walk when an older voice called to him.
"Excuse me, are you Daniel Fenton by any chance?"
Danny turned around to find Stanford Pines walking up to him, wearing his great nephew's messenger bag and carrying the boy's clothes in a plastic bag in his left hand.
Unlike his Professor Paradox outfit, Stanford Pines' civilian clothes consisted of a tan coat, a red turtleneck with a black belt that slings across his chest, black pants, and large brown boots.
'...This must be his great uncle that talks about. The one who built his own portal.' Danny thought to himself.
"...Uh, y-yeah. That's me." Danny responded with his awkward nature seeping out.
"I've been meaning to meet you for quite some time, though I wish it were in…lightercircumstances," Ford stated before extending his six digit right hand. "Stanford Pines,"
Danny took his hand without thinking, then feltfivefingers and one thumb giving him a reasonable grip.
'Holy crap! He does have an extra finger!' Danny mentally freaked but managed to keep an outwardly calm exterior.
As the handshake ceased, Danny asked the man, "...So how is he? Mason, I mean?"
Ford's expression darkened as he explained, "His left rib and right arm suffered fractures, and his nose is broken. The other wounds are minor scarring and bruises, but the overall damage will take a couple of weeks to heal."
'Oh, Mase…Who could have done this to you?' Danny said, feeling utterly horrible for his friend's situation.
Seeing the saddened boy's expression, Ford stated, "Son, I know how you feel. But there's nothing you and I could have done in this situation."
Danny opened his mouth but closed it to preserve his secret identity.
"Before this mess occurred, I heard you boys were studying for a standardized test coming up. You should go back home and rest up for it. I'll tell Mason that you visited."
Danny nodded before walking out of the hospital with a face filled with utter melancholy.
Little did he know, Ford took out the Time Medallion and glanced upon it.
"...Up to your old tricks are you, Zeitgeist?" The older Pines questioned. "What's your angle?"
Casper High, Amity Park, IL
Danny could barely sleep. His obsession wouldn't let him. Instead of focusing on his studies for the CAT, his mind wandered to the news, to Pacifica's woes, and to Mason's hospitalization.
He was Danny Phantom for God's sake! A superhero!
The Alpha Human could walk through walls, disappear, and fly, and yet when Mason needed him the most, Danny couldn't help the guy who set him on the path of becoming a superhero.
Right now, Danny Fenton felt like a failure, both as a hero and as a friend.
Once again, his mind was bombarded by darker intrusive thoughts as he walked along the sidewalk outside, a couple of minutes away from campus.
'What's the point of having these stupid powers when I'm not there for people when it matters most!?' Danny thought to himself. 'Ugh, useless! …Can this day get any worse?'
Just then, Danny received a text from Star, and what he learned from it shocked him."
'...It was Dash!?' Danny thought, on the verge of snapping. 'And he hurt Tucker too!? ARE YOU FU-'
"HEY! I GOT A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU!"
Danny stopped in his tracks and turned around to find a pissed off Sam Manson stomping toward his direction.
"...Great. One thing after another…" Danny mumbled from under his breath as he stood face-to-face with a girl he no longer had romantic feelings for.
His former best friend.
Seeing the girl's right hand from a mile away, Danny sidestepped Sam's slap, causing her to nearly trip, only being caught by the arm thanks to the boy's quick reflex.
"Y-You…!" Sam growled. "YOU…!"
"What do you want, Sam?" Danny said in a dead tone, hiding his growing animosity to the entire situation.
"...You're a real piece of work, you know that Fenton?" Sam managed to spit, but Danny remained unphased. "You just had to butt into shit that wasn't your business, didn't you!?"
'Ugh, this again. I broke her heart, and she managed to break mine. When is she going to let this go and move on?' Danny pondered, no longer being held hostage by the girl's guilt-tripping.
Danny refrained from rolling his eyes, and asked, "Can you get to the point already? I want to get to school early."
Sam's face flushed red as tears began to pour from her face, something he hadn't seen in over a year.
"You know what, fuck you!" Sam roared. "I'm so sick of your attitude! If you hadn't but on that day and played hero, Tucker wouldn't be in the hospital! But no! Now he's stuck with a broken leg and a swollen face! He can't even come to school for the TEST because of you!"
Danny froze in place, recalling Star's text and Mason's injuries.
…Wait, he didn't even know that Tucker was admitted there until now. He could have visited him! And now…
'...They can't do their tests! DAMN IT!' Danny realized in his mind, bowing his hooded head low.
As Sam gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, she said, "You didn't even bother visiting him last night! You're the fuckingworst!"
Danny chose not to reply to Sam. Instead, he simply walked past her and walked straight to school with glowing irises.
But instead of them being a pair of glowing green, they were burning red.
Sam did not take kindly to this and followed him, demanding that he'd listen for once.
-In the Hallways on campus, Seven Minutes Later-
On campus, Paulina was giving the three jocks a verbal lashing.
"What the fuck did you three do!?" The Latina hissed.
Kwan, while pale, bowed his head down in shame and fear. He knew what was going on. Channel 4 covered his handiwork.
No, it was a joint effort between Dash, Dale, and himself.
"I don't know why you buggin', shawty," Dale said after smacking his lips, not at all showing a bit of remorse. "We did what you told us to, I got to stomp on some losers. It's a win-win."
"...No mames! You can't be that fucking stupid!" Paulina said with a burning red face. "I told you to rough those dorks up, not jump them like some thugs from off the street! The whole point was for them to show up to school and send a message! Now it's on the news!"
"Babe, calm down! We just did what we normally do at school, that's all!" Dash said with a nervous grin.
"Normal mi cula, Baxter! None of you sent anybody to the hospital on campus, let alone off campus! The loser that was sent to the ER was over fifty years ago and you all know by now what happened to him!" Paulina spat, pointing her left index finger with a sharp and perfectly manicured nail. "...Jesús, Maria, y Joseph, if anybody finds out about this…!"
Paulina, recognizing how enraged she was, took a moment to calm down and looked over to the three.
"...You should have told me where you guys were before doing anything last night!" Paulina scolded with a less aggravated tone.
All three of the main jocks looked at each other in confusion.
"The hell you on about? Baxter texted you last night before we made our move." Dale mentioned.
"What? No he didn't!" Paulina refused.
"Yes I did! Here, I'll prove it!" Dash said, fishing out his phone and showing Paulina his receipts… only to smack on the back of the head.
"OW! What the shit, Paulie!?" Dash growled. "What was that for!?"
"DAVID BAXTER, YOU RETARD! You've sent this to STAR, not me!" Paulina screeched, causing the others to pale.
"Y-Y-You what!?" Kwan panicked. "Damn, she's got evidence on us!"
Dale pushed Dash aggressively and said, "...Shit! Now look at what you did! You dun fucked us all up!"
"I'm sorry, okay!?" Dash said to Paulina, now sweating out of nervousness. "I didn't think this would get out of hand! Besides, I just wailed on them! Dale's stupid ass went all hood-rat and stomped them out, anyway!"
"HEY, WATCH WHO THEFUCKYOU TALKIN' TO!" The African American football star shouted.
"SHUT UP!" Paulina shouted, causing the two quarreling "ALL OF YOU JUST…"
"COME BACK HERE! WE'RE NOT DONE TALKING!"
Paulina, Kwan, Dale, and Dash turned over to where the school entrance was due to the commotion.
They found out what the commotion was about when they saw kids moving out of the way for Danny Fenton, who seemed to have been avoiding an angry Sam Mason that called for him.
"Oh, it looks like we're not the only ones having a bad day, right guys," Dash said, trying to lighten up the mood between his friends.
"I'll say. Gringo looking like he's ready to kill," Paulina muttered, finding "Freaky Fenton" less creepy and more disgruntled.
Dale scoffed and said, "Like he could do anything…"
Kwan felt his heart jump, watching Danny's movements like a hawk, and noticed how his body wasn't hunched but slightly leaned toward them with his back straight and hands clenched lightly.
He could tell that Danny wasn't there to talk, and any wrong word or action could cause something violent to erupt.
What they didn't notice was that the hood and his hair were obscuring his glowing red eyes.
Dash, wanting to maintain some kind of "normalcy", decided to talk to his favorite punching bag.
"Hey Fentard!" Dash said, waiting for Danny to stop in front of him.
Danny did so, then took off his hood as he waited for Dash to predictably say the wrong thing to him.
"Having girl problems again? Maybe if you weren't a dumbass, you'd still-"
As his eyes burned crimson, Danny lunged at Dash and knocked him out cold with a sucker punch with the strength of a normal human. Dash's head crashed into a random locker door, sending him spiraling to the ground with pieces of his teeth falling to the floor.
Many girls and some boys, including Paulina, screamed in horror at this. Sam couldn't believe her eyes.
Dale and Kwan along with many others who had gathered in the crowd couldn't believe how fast things had escalated.
Danny was about to continue his attack when Dale jumped on his back to try and hold him down with a chokehold. This stirred up quite a commotion in the hallway as Star made her way through the crowd and watched up close as to what was happening.
Danny couldn't focus on that as he was preoccupied with a jock screaming in his ear to "Go to sleep" as the dude clamped down on his neck. This wasn't an issue for Danny, regardless if his supernatural strength didn't follow into his human form. Dale was struck a few times in the kidney by Danny's elbow, got his right foot stomped on by Danny's right heel, then was flipped over by the boy, which ended in Dale shouting as his right arm had been sprained and nearly twisted.
At this point, Kwan tried intervening by tackling Danny to the ground in order to stop his rampage. Unfortunately for the Asian American, Danny overpowered him. At this time, Valerie and Paficia found themselves at the front of the crowd and were astonished at what they saw.
When the youngest Fenton got on top of the boy's chest, all Danny could think about was all the times he had been picked on by Kwan and what Star had to go through because of Kwan.
Danny, fueled by rage, Danny started hammering onto the boy's face repeatedly without his ghost powers.
"HEY! GET OFF OF HIM!
"DANNY! STOP!"
"YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM!"
Many of his friends, old and new tried peeling him off of Kwan, but Danny pushed them back all the same. He was tired of everything. The insults, the humiliation, getting harassed with nobody helping him or anybody else. Danny just wanted the bullying to end, and it unfortunately resulted in violence.
Before any permanent damage could be inflicted on Kwan, an unlikely savior came to his side.
"HEART OF DARKNESS! THAT'S ENOUGH, DANIEL!"
The next thing everybody knew, Mr. Ron William Lancer had successfully pulled Danny away from an unconscious and bruised Kwan Lee, putting him against the wall with his hands behind him.
"CALM DOWN, NOW!" Lancer growled, prompting Danny to concentrate on breathing as the adrenaline steadily lowered.
This did nothing to lower the tempestuous rage that burned within Danny Fenton.
Once Lancer managed to get Danny to a calmer state, he glared at the boy with utter disappointment.
"This…is unacceptable behavior. This school does not condone violence, especially of this caliber, Mr. Fenton." He firmly stated. "Come. To the principal's office with you."
Mr. Lancer dragged Danny to the principal's office. As he was forced there against his will, Danny saw the shock and fear in the eyes of his classmates and fellow students. This included people like Star, Nathan, Mikey, Sam, Pacifica, and Valerie.
Sam was especially affected as her eyes averted downward while growing a pale expression. Danny followed the gaze, then noticed how bloody his knuckles had become.
Before accepting his fate, he noticed Paulina had moved farther away as he was about to pass by the shaking girl.
Snarling in anger, Danny told her, "You better hope that it was worth it!"
With that, Danny Fenton turned away from the pale Latina, now having to face a turning point in his life whether he was ready or not.
Clockwork's Lair, Ghost Zone
The Observants pointed to Danny's eyes turning red while punching Kwan repeatedly.
"There!" The first Observant cried. "His increasingly aggressive nature is a sign! One of terror that's yet to come!"
The second Observant turned to the ever-age-shifting Specter of Time, urging, "Destroy him now, Clockwork!"
Clockwork paid no mind to the other two watchers of the Ghost Zone as we wandered to a separate time portal and glanced at it.
It showed a Spirit that wore black armor with familiar faces on the top and torso of the spectral being.
"I know what I'm doing," Clockwork reassured the ancient spectral beings. "I see that the pressures of expectations have taken its toll on the boy, and he's made a wrong decision,"
Taking his Time Staff, Clockwork used it to view flashes of future events that he cycled through like a slideshow.
It showed Danny's loved ones; Jack, Maddie, Jazz, Tucker, Sam, and Mr. Lancer all dying from an explosion in front of a Nasty Burger in front of his eyes, him moving to Vlad Master's mansion elsewhere, the mansion exploding, then displaying a shadow that loomed over the planet the while the black figure with fangs and flaming hair laughing maniacally before covering it completely in darkness.
"If that's all it takes to drive him to Madness, then the Phantom's fate is sealed." Clockwork determined with a knowing smile.
To Be Continued…