Chapter 45

"You are beyond grounded!" Maddie shouted.

"Young man, you have a lot of explaining to do!" Jack yelled.

Danny grimaced.

"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I was…well, you see…" Danny trailed off.

"Go to your room!" Maddie demanded.

He did as she said. Part of him was just glad to be back to normal. Another part of him wished things were simpler – and actually truly normal. On the way to his room, he ran into Jazz.

"Hey."

Jazz hugged him tightly then pulled away. "Good to have you back, little brother."

He chuckled. "Glad to be back. Mostly…"

"So what are we going with? What's the cover story?"

He shrugged. "There is no cover story."

She frowned. "I guess, it would be hard to know what to say. You're never going to tell them the truth, are you?"

He shook his head adamantly. She pursed her lips but nodded in agreement.

"They put Vlad into a thermos and then the Ghost Zone. That was the one highlight of this terrible week."

"That's good. Wish I had seen it all," he chuckled.

"Danny, we need to get that stone. Remember what Frostbite said?"

"About going nuclear? How could I forget?"

"If that is true, we only have one more week."

Danny gulped, realizing she was right. Amidst the craziness of everything, he nearly forgot about the stone.

"Oh! Also, the election's tomorrow," she added.

"Great."

Maddie came up the stairs. "I said go to your rooms this instant!"

Danny shrugged at Jazz, and they went their separate ways.

"No!" Danny yelled, as Vlad placed Tucker next to his family. They were all hand-cuffed to pipes in this old warehouse. He pushed Sam beside him and locked her to the pipes.

"Danny!" She cried.

He shook his head. "Vlad, please stop! You don't have to do this. You must still have some shred of humanity left in you!"

"Oh Daniel, how you so easily forget," he said, changing in front of his friends and family. "You and I – we're the same."

Out of nowhere, Danny changed into his ghost self. His friends and family gasped.

"You're Phantom?!" Sam shrieked.

"Our own son – a ghost?!" Jack yelled.

"I can't believe our son is the evil ghost boy!" Maddie cried.

"No Mom! Please, it wasn't me – I –"

"Time's up, young badger," Vlad said, raising the stone.

Danny raised his hand up towards it. "No!"

Bright green light enveloped everyone, and then everything went dark.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Danny jolted upright, smashing his alarm clock to pieces. "No!" He screamed.

"Danny!" He heard his mom's feet running up the stairs. She came inside, out of breath. "Are you okay?! Oh my gosh…what happened to your alarm clock?"

"I – um – I was just having a nightmare…And the alarm clock fell…"

She raised a brow then looked concerned as she approached his bedside and sat on his bed.

"What happened in your nightmare?"

Danny gulped. "Nothing."

"Danny," she said, raising his head to her by his chin. "Please talk to me. Tell me what's going on. You haven't been yourself lately."

He frowned. "It's complicated."

"Why did you run away? It's not so bad here, is it?"

"Mom, I didn't run away," he assured her.

She shook her head. "Then what were you doing? Where did you go?"

"I –" he faltered. He couldn't tell his parents the truth. But maybe he could tell a half-truth. "I've been helping the ghost boy."

"What?!" She shrieked.

"He isn't the one behind the explosions – it's another ghost. His name is Plasmius."

"This is almost worse than running away!"

"I'm sorry, Mom. I knew you wouldn't approve. It won't happen again," he told her.

"You're still grounded," she said as she crossed her arms. "And stay away from Phantom, Danny. He's dangerous."

"Don't worry. You'll never even see me in the same room as Phantom," he said, ironically.

"Good," she said, kissing his forehead. "Now, get ready for school."

"I can't believe Mom took away my driving privileges!" Jazz complained once they got out of the car. Their mom sped off.

"This week just keeps getting better," Danny said, sarcastically. Then he spotted Sam and Tucker. "See ya later," he said, waving to them.

"Danny! Dude, you had us really worried," Tucker said.

"I know, and I'm sorry."

"It's okay, man. Just next time, tell us! We didn't mean to rat you out to your mom, but we got kind of nervous."

"Agreed," Sam said.

"Deal," Danny said, relieved they weren't hanging this over his head.

After school, Sam and Tucker invited Danny to go to the video game store.

"Sorry guys. I'm grounded for the rest of eternity," he shrugged.

"Aw dang – but that new game is having test runs. The sequel to Doomed!"

"Wait, Doomed II: Resurrection?!" Danny freaked out. He shifted between his feet. "Maybe just a few minutes."

When they arrived, the store was packed with a line to get in.

"Aw man! This is gonna take forever."

Sam told the boys to follow her, and she led them to the front of the line, where there was some sort of bouncer outside. He was goth, like Sam, with a nose-piercing and eyeliner on. He gave her a nod, then blocked Danny and Tucker.

"They're with me," she told him.

He nodded and let them through.

"Whoa!" Tucker and Danny said simultaneously, gawking at the big screen where people were playing the game.

"Okay, your 10 minutes are up!" A worker said to the group before them. "Next!"

The three of them went up and were given headsets and game controllers. They played for 10 minutes, battling different villains in the game. They had difficulty making it through level 1, but eventually did. By the time they made it to the end of level 2, they were out of time.

"Wow! That was awesome!" Tucker exclaimed as he removed his headset. "We can pre-order the game over at the front counter."

Danny's phone started ringing. He took it out and cursed. "It's my mom. She's freaking out. I've gotta go," he told them, rushing out the back door without another word.

"Pre-orders are exclusively sold here," the cashier told Tucker. "You may want to tell your friend that. If he doesn't pre-order today, he'll have to wait another 2 weeks."

"Wait here!" He told Sam. "Danny!"

He opened the back door and was about to yell for Danny. He saw him right there on the phone with his mom still. He stayed quiet so as to not interrupt.

"Yeah, Mom, I'm actually walking down our street now as we speak. See you in a few," he said, before hanging up and sighing heavily.

Then something unexpected happened: a white ring formed around Danny's waist. It split in two and traveled up and down his body. As it moved, it revealed a black and silver hazmat suit, before eventually revealing snowy white hair. Wind blew all over as he skyrocketed up into the air, knocking off Tucker's beret.

His jaw dropped as he staggered backward. What did he just see?