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Maddie Fenton would consider herself to be knowledgeable. She prides herself in her intelligence. She was a scientist first and foremost.
But she was also a mother. A mother of two kids; a wonderful daughter named Jazz and a son, that often made her scratch her head and think, named Danny.
It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, oftentimes he would point out things in her and Jack’s inventions that would intrigue her. He would get her thinking about her approaches as a scientist. He would suggest changes to make them less violent. It was refreshing to hear another opinion, Maddie would admit.
But there were… things about Danny himself that would make Maddie confused.
Like how fearful he was of ghosts yet would advocate for them alongside his two friends as if ghosts had actual feelings and weren’t just bloodthirsty monsters. Or the way his eyes would seem to flash a different color when he got emotional, which was at first brushed off as a trick of the light but then it happened far too often so something had to be going on. And how he used to be so on top of his studies, had to be in order to achieve his dream of going to space, yet now doesn’t seem to care at all.
Danny Fenton was certainly a curious thing.
Earlier this morning, Maddie had seen him grabbing the Ghost Gabber out of the corner of her eye. It didn’t seem like he thought she noticed. She was confused why he’d grabbed it without asking, but she had let it slide then.
However, Jack was now asking for it because he had wanted to make some new adjustments to it. He believed he figured out how to make it stop repeating after Danny,
Maddie hoped it would work. It was a brilliant invention and she couldn’t wait to use it out on the field, yet for some reason, it would keep repeating Danny and only Danny’s words. It seemed to think that he was a ghost which was impossible. She would know if her only son were a ghost.
“Jazz, sweetie?” Maddie said, gaining the attention of the teen who was currently studying at their dining room table. “Have you seen your brother?”
“No, I think he went over to Tucker’s,” she responded. “Why?”
“Oh, it’s nothing important,” Maddie assured. “Remind him to clean out the ecto-filter when he gets home, okay?”
“It’s not going to explode if it doesn’t get cleaned out at this moment, right?” Jazz asked suspiciously.
“We should be fine if it gets cleaned out before the end of the week,” Maddie replied. “I just want it done today, just to be safe.”
Maddie gave Jazz a kiss on the head before exiting the room and making her way up to Danny’s bedroom. She opened the door to find the place surprisingly clean, but also with no Ghost Gabber in sight.
“Huh, weird,” She said out loud to herself. “It’s not like he’d bring it with him to Tucker’s, right? So it must be in here somewhere.”
Maddie noticed that the room had become cold due to an opened window, so she decided to close that first before looking for her missing invention. However, she tripped on something, causing her to flail around a bit before she regained her balance.
Huh, it didn’t look like there was anything there.
She crouched down to inspect the ground in an attempt to figure out what could have caused her to trip. It had only taken her a minute to find the culprit: a loose floorboard.
Curious, Maddie slowly lifted up the floorboard, what she found was concerning and interesting. There were a few clothes stained with blood and ectoplasm. Two small notebooks filled with writings in another language she did not recognize. A Fenton Thermos, one of the older models. And finally, a tape recording labeled under a familiar date.
The day of Danny’s accident.
Maddie had noticed the missing tape from their security footage, but she had been so caught up in her relief that Danny was okay and alive and that the portal was working, that she didn’t really give it a second thought afterward.
But now, that she has the tape, all she can think of is why does Danny have it? Danny had told her, Jack, and Jazz that he was sitting too close to the portal when it had decided to start up on its own and give him a bad shock. Maddie knows what happened, so why was Danny trying to hide it from her?
Unless… that’s not what had happened.
But what could be so bad that he took the tape?
Maddie placed the floorboard back in its place, leaving everything inside except for the tape which was still in her hands. All she knew is that she has to watch what happened on that day.
Maddie returned downstairs and poked her head into the dining room, “Jazz, can you call your brother and tell him that he needs to come home? He doesn’t have to come immediately but tell him that he better be here within an hour?”
“Why?” Jazz asked, already moving toward the phone. “Is something wrong?”
Maddie stared at the tape that was concealed in her left pocket. “I don’t know yet,” she admitted.
And with that, Maddie went down to her lab in the basement.
“Hey, Mads!” Her husband greeted. “You got that Ghost Gabber?”
Maddie only shook her head and pulled out the tape.
“Ooh, what’s that?” Jack asked, “Are we gonna watch football? A wonderful idea! I’ll get the popcorn!”
“No, Jack,” Maddie said, causing Jack to stop in his adventure to retrieve popcorn. “It’s a videotape that will show us the day of Danny’s accident.”
“But we already know what happened?” Jack stated, confused. “Why should we watch it? Doesn’t that invade privacy or something?”
“I believe that Danny is hiding something from us,” Maddie admitted. “I found this hidden in his room.”
“Then what are you waiting for?” Jack exclaimed. “I’ll get the popcorn. Oh, and some fudge!”
Maddie gave a small smile at her husband’s antics before setting up the TV and putting the tape in, she waited until Jack returned before pressing ‘PLAY’.
She was prepared for many different scenarios, but she wasn’t expecting this .
She watched in horror as her son pulled on the HAZMAT suit and stepped into the portal.
“But, if he was inside, then how did he survive?” Maddie wondered aloud. The electrical shock from the inside would have been way more than enough to kill a human, so if Danny was inside instead of outside…
She got her answer.
After Maddie heard a scream, one that she hurt to hear. A sound that never should have come out from her own son’s mouth, she watched in shock as a familiar being stumbled out of the portal.
Phantom.
She was even more shocked when glowing rings appeared around him and her son then stood where Danny Phantom was.
Was her son Danny Phantom? A ghost? But it was impossible! How could that even work? Had he been possessed after entering the portal?
The recording ended. Leaving them to think in silence.
Maddie hadn’t even noticed that someone had entered while she and Jack were watching.
“Mom…Dad?”
She turned to see Danny himself, staring at them with fear oh so clear in his eyes.
He knows that they now know.
Maddie was a mother, but she was also a scientist.
She stood up and approached Danny.
“Uhh, Mom?”
A scientist first and foremost.