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Chapter Text

Name: Randy Cunningham

Grade: 9th

Title: What I did during my summer break

My summer started out the same, me and my bff (best friend forever) Howard played the original Grave Puncher Trilogy. We played for five days straight (NEW RECORD!!!), beating all 182 levels before I had to be dragged to camp for the rest of the summer.

Yeah you heard that right, I go to summer camp. It’s the kind of camp you would see in those old slasher movies, it has busted old cabins, surrounded by a creepy forest, and filled with reject jocks and wannabe populars. It reeks like an 80’s B-rated horror movie and I wouldn’t even be surprised if some psycho serial killer is out loose in those woods. I’ve been going to this camp since I was six years-old, my mom claims it’s so I could, ‘get out of the house and breathe some fresh air for a change,’ personally I think it’s because she wants to make my summers as miserable as possible.

But other than the porta-potty swirlies, getting dumped into the lake in the middle of the night, and other horrors I face on a daily basis, it’s not all that bad. I have a friend there that makes camp a little more tolerable, his name is Danny Fenton. A few things to know about him is that he loves space and lives somewhere in Illinois, his mom used to attend this camp with my mom when they were kids, it’s part of the reason me and Danny know each other. And like every summer for the past eight years, Danny and I have been dodging campers and too-cheery counselors for eight and a half weeks straight until all the campers come together and have a huge campfire by the lake. It’s probably the only time Danny or I are not being chased.

Usually, after returning from camp I like to just hang out with Howard again, and play Grave Puncher until I’m dragged back to school. But something epic happened! See it started a couple days after I returned from camp, I just pre-ordered the new Grave Puncher video game that’s coming out in November, just left the Game Hole where I was hanging out with my biffer, and was busy talking to Danny…

“I’m sorry your parents are building a what?” Randy could hear Danny face-palming on the other side of the phone. Something heavy banged somewhere in the background making his friend on the phone let out a heavy sigh.

“I said my parents are building a ghost portal- a freaking ghost portal!”

“Dude, that’s so bruce.” Randy said, partly because it annoys Danny whenever Randy talks in Norisville lingo and secondly because he believes Mister and Missus Fenton are the cheese! They are full-time ghost hunters and are literally ripping a hole in the fabric of reality! He really hopes that Danny’s parents will let him come over next summer, maybe even give him a summer internship too.

“No Randy, this is not ‘bruce’, in fact it’s the opposite of 'bruce'. Do you know how long they have been building this? Since I got back from camp! And for the past week it has been non-stop drilling, I can’t even sleep at the house with all the noise coming from the basement!” Danny let out a huge breath, “It’s just going to give Dash and his friends another reason why they should keep shoving, ‘loser Fenton’ in stupid lockers once school starts again.”

Okay so Randy could see why Danny is being such a grump when it comes to this, he really does, after all, if Bash and his friends started poking fun at him having a mom that’s a ghost hunter he would be a little embarrassed about that as well. But that doesn’t mean he won’t stop thinking that his friend’s parents are the coolest.

“Okay first of all you are not a loser,” Randy argues as he unlocks the door to his house, taking off his shoes and heading towards the kitchen, man he’s hungry. “After all you’re not the one with a keytar, remember?” Just as he was about to open the fridge, he spots a sticky note with his mom’s handwriting, she’s going to be gone for the next couple of days. No surprises there really and that just means Randy will get to have the left-over pizza all for himself-cool.

Danny’s laugh snaps Randy out of his thoughts, it wasn’t a sarcastic or bitter snort that comes out of him so he’ll definitely call this a win, “Yeah I guess you’re in even worse shape than I am, I’m definitely praying for you buddy.”

Randy takes it back, he would rather deal with Danny being a grump than this, “Hey, you were supposed to say, ‘No, you aren’t a loser Randy, you’re too bruce to be one.’” He tried to mimic his friend’s voice but it only got a snort in return. He rolled his eyes, taking out a McEnergy (Now with 110% more caffeine!) before going up the stairs and towards his room.

“You know I can’t lie well.” Danny says, and Randy was about to open his mouth, only to stop once he opened the door.

Did a cowboy just jump out of his window?

Shit, was he being robbed?

“Randy, you there?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. But I think I’m going to have to call you right back.” He hung up on Danny before his friend could say anything else. He did a quick scan around the room, noting that anything that has some sort of value was still in its place, which confused him even more and put him on edge. Should-should he call the cops?

His eyes landed on something that wasn’t in his room before. Laying innocently on his table was an ornate wooden box, it was smooth and shiny, with intricate designs forming a circle with a golden insignia in the center that almost looks like a ‘G’ on the lid. It looked like it should belong in a museum, or in his grandma’s attic back in Japan.

Now Randy may not be the smartest person on the earth, but he has watched a lot of horror movies over the years, and when there’s a mysterious almost ancient box just sitting innocently in your room, it’s almost never a good thing. He should just dump it in the swamp, or sink it into the lake just right outside the city, it’s what a smart person would do.

...

But then again Randy was not the smartest person so he just had to open the box.

“The Ninjanomicon…” The words slipped out of his mouth before he even knew what he was saying, which weirded him out a little but he quickly brushed that aside when he threw the weird book over his shoulder. He looked down at the box to see if there was anything else and there was. He felt his heart stop when he saw a familiar red and black mask with a note attached to it.

You are the Ninja, It read.

Wait, hold on.

Pause for a minute.

He’s the Ninja?!

“Oh. My. Sweet!” Randy didn’t hesitate to put the mask on his head, the mask glowed and strange symbols encircled him, turning into strands of red and black cloth and enveloping him in an awesome suit. Meanwhile his mind was cycling through hundreds of years of fighting knowledge within seconds, power was seeping into his body, he felt more energized, and felt like he could do things he couldn’t dream of!

He couldn't believe this.

He, Randy Cunningham, is the Ninja, the sworn protector of Norisvile!

Just wait until he tells his friends about this, Howard is going to flip out and he could rub it into Danny’s face that the Ninja really did exist! But just as he was about to get his phone to call Howard about it, he saw one more note at the bottom of the box.

You can’t tell anyone.

“Aw, now that’s wonk!"

And the sucky part is that I can’t tell anyone, not even my bff Howard. Not because he has a big mouth (which he does-sorry Howard). I mean I trust Howard that he won’t tell a soul about my secrets, but the box did say that, ‘I can’t tell anyone.’ Maybe I could just tell Danny? I mean he doesn’t even go here and I know without a doubt that he won’t tell a soul, especially not after the summer of 2010. I still get chills thinking about it.

“Alright, pencils down!”

And now I’m starting to think this wasn’t the best topic for my essay, nice job Cunningham, you’ve only been a ninja for a week and you’re already screwing it up.

Meanwhile in Amity Park:

Danny was tired, absolutely freaking tired.

Danny let out a yawn as the English teacher, a middle-aged guy named Mr. Lancer, continued to drone on about…something or other. The fourteen year-old can’t really seem to find the energy to care what his teacher was talking about. Too busy trying to stay awake in order to avoid getting in trouble on the first day of school.

Mr. Lancer was writing something on the board when Danny had to shake his head in order for his eyes to open. A few of his classmates looked at him weirdly before going back to doing anything that doesn’t include writing down what the teacher was putting up. Some were texting on their phones under their desks, or passing notes when Mr. Lancer’s back is turned, or in Dash’s case aiming spitballs at people’s heads.

Danny felt something slimy hit the back of his neck followed by a few snickers from the jocks behind him. Great, Danny has only attended high school for only two days and he already hates it here.

The bell rings and sighs of relief fill the room as students pack their bags and rush out the door, ignoring Mr. Lancer’s scolding about how he’s the one who dismisses students, not the bell. But it fell on deaf ears and soon the English teacher gave up muttering something about needing to eat lunch anyways.

“Yo Danny!” Danny turned his head to see his best friends, Sam and Tucker, walking towards him from their respective classes.

Danny let out a yawn, “Hey guys.”

“Jeez, you look like a wreck.” Sam gave him a look of concern as she walked past Danny to shove some books into your locker.

“Yeah, your parents still working on that portal?” A couple of students who overheard Tucker let out a couple snickers, making Danny sigh. Just like Danny predicted, the moment he stepped into school he instantly heard jokes left and right at his expense. Mostly about how his parents latest project will blow half the town to smithereens. It’s really not that unusual compared to the other comments he heard before, but just once Danny would like to have regular parents, who have regular jobs, so that way he could have a chance of a social life. Is that too much to ask?

“Yeah,” Danny let out another yawn as the trio made their way towards the cafeteria, “it’s gotten to a point where Jazz and I are sleeping up at the Opt-Center, which somehow is worse than dealing with all the construction down in the basement.” He rubs his back absentmindedly, still sore from sleeping on the floor for the past three nights.

“I still don’t get why you just didn’t ask to go stay over at Tucker’s.”

“Yeah man, is it because of the meat sweat? Cause Foleys don’t do meat sweat.” That earned a snort from Sam as they turned a corner,

“Oh yeah? What about that time-”

“We do not speak about that time!”

“Guys would you just cut it out!” Danny snaps. Both the goth and the tech geek stopped their argument to blink at Danny in surprise, even Danny was surprised at his own outburst. Guilt starting to swell at the bottom of his gut. “Sorry. Look, you guys can go ahead and grab some food, I’ll just be outside taking a nap.” Without another word Danny turned around and made his way to the field.

It took a while for Danny to find a secluded spot outside, especially one where it was far enough away from the football field so Dash wouldn’t see him, but once he did find a spot, it didn’t take long for Danny to close his eyes and get a quick nap in.

Only for it to be ruined by his phone ringing. A very familiar ringtone grating at his ears.

At first he ignored it, too busy enjoying the nice early-autumn breeze. Eventually it stopped and Danny was able to fully enjoy the peace and quiet, soon he felt himself getting more drowsy and was about to fall asleep when his phone rang once again. A part of him wanted to ignore his phone, turn it off so he could have some peace and quiet for the rest of lunch, but he decided against it. He knows that ringtone anywhere, the annoying peppy tune that made Danny’s ears bleed and glared at the phone in annoyance.

Stupid Randy and his stupid ringtone.

Danny picked up the call on its third ring. “What do you want?”

His friend snorted, though it did sound a little out of breath, “Rude.”

“You would be too if you had to sleep in the Opt-Center for the third night in a row.”

“Please, I won’t be able to sleep until I try every single invention your parents created. Your parents are ghost hunters dude- ghost hunters! That is like the brucest thing ever!” There was something weird going on with Randy’s voice, it sounded like it was muffled with something. But that’s not Danny’s concern at the moment, right now Danny wants this conversation to be done so he could at least sleep for the last twenty minutes of lunch.

“Yeah sure, I think you’re the only person in the world who thinks being real-life ghost hunters are ‘bruce’. Anyways, is there a reason why you’re calling me?” And disturbing me from my well deserved nap?

That made Randy pause for a moment, “Oh right, forgot for a moment.” Right after he said that, a huge BANG! Could be heard on the other side of the line followed by a huge roar that made Randy let out a shriek and Danny to pull his phone away to save his poor ear drums.

“Uh…everything okay over there?” Now, Danny knows Randy is a trouble magnet, he’s known the dude since he was like six, but this sounds a lot more dangerous than Bash and his friends chasing Randy down the hall. He might actually be concerned for the guy.

“Oh yeah, I’m doing awso- OOF!” He sounds like he just slammed into some lockers, it made Danny winced. Randy let out a groan, before pausing and muttering something about how he wasn’t getting pwned. Which made Danny even more confused.

“Right! Okay,” Randy grunts, “so I have this friend…named uh Reginald-yeah! And he may or may not have recently found out that he is the next protector for his city!” Something heavy pounding on the floor could be heard on the other line, luckily getting further away as Randy kept talking.

“Okay…”

“Yeah so Reginald Bagel- yup that’s his name- Reginald Bagel is the new hero for the city with little to no experience and now he’s fighting a monster and he doesn’t know how to beat it!” Somewhere in the distance something roared. Randy let out a nervous chuckle.

“Thoughts?” Danny had to process this for a minute, trying to figure out what the hell Randy was talking about. “I’m sorry what?”

A huge crash was heard on the other side and there was that roar again, louder this time.

“Just answer the question!”

“Okay, okay fine!” Danny thought for a moment, “Okay so is there a tutorial?”

“What?” Heavy pounding was heard on the other side of the phone, getting closer but Danny pressed on.

“You know a tutorial, how to hero 101, instructions, anything?”

"OH MY JUICE! I forgot the instructions! Thank you so much Danny, I owe you one, bye!” With a ‘click’ the call ended leaving Danny’s head swirling around with questions, that phone call made him antsy and on edge. He doesn’t think he’ll be able to sleep, much less focus for the rest of the day when he’s too busy worrying about his friend. And of course this was a perfectly good time for a stream of cold milk to be dumped dumped right on top of his head, followed by snickers of the last person he wanted to see at the moment.

“Whoops, sorry Fen-turd, I guess I must have mistaken you for a trashcan.” That earned a couple more snorts from Dash’s friends.

“Eh, I’m pretty sure it’s a common mistake, especially with that kind of fashion sense!” Paulina butted in. The group of jocks and cheerleaders continued to laugh as they walked away. Leaving Danny soaking in a pile of milk.

“Great,” Danny mutters as he shook his head to get some of the excess milk off, “This day cannot get anymore worse, right?”

“AHHHHHH!”

So apparently Danny was wrong, it can get so much worse.

Let’s set the scene shall we?

At 3:30 pm Danny, Sam, and Tucker took the bus to Fenton Works, in order to study, do some homework, decide that’s dumb, and spend the rest of the evening playing video games.

At 3:48 pm, the trio of friends went inside. They said hi to Jazz, who was busy getting homework done, battled an army of possessed hot dogs in the fridge to get some snacks, and planned on heading up to Danny’s room to take advantage of the quiet for as long as possible.

At 4:00 pm, Jack Fenton barged into Danny’s room dragging all the kids down to the basement, where Mr. Fenton gave a speech about his hardships, setbacks, and his love for fudge, before unveiling the finished ghost portal.

At 4:15 pm, Jack would have continued speaking for the next hour, if Maddie Fenton didn’t interrupt her husband saying that the sooner he turns on the portal, the sooner they could all dig into Jack’s celebratory fudge.

It’s 4:16 pm, and everyone is waiting with bated breath as Maddie and Jack Fenton finish the last touches of the portal, before putting the plug in. For a second it seemed like everyone was holding their breath and Danny couldn't help but feel excited. His parents were about to tear a hole in the fabric of reality!

Except instead of a big flash, there was a small spark and then nothing.

Around 4:45 pm, after almost thirty minutes of trying to find the mistake, to correct any miscalculations, anything and everything to make the portal work, nothing had any effect. Finally, Maddie let out a sigh and said that they should stop and continue to work on it tomorrow. She said sorry to the kids and guided Jack upstairs telling him that they will just break out the failure Fudge instead.

It’s 4:46 pm, Jazz left soon after their parents did, leaving the trio of fourteen year-olds alone in the basement lab. While Tucker and Sam were taking a look at the lab, as this was probably their third time down there, Danny can’t seem to stop staring at the portal. His parents worked on this for almost two weeks, with years before that saving up money for the materials, and years spent on calculations dedicated to this stupid contraption. He’s angry that after all that work his parents put into it, it still didn’t work.

It’s 4:50 and after four minutes of looking, Sam had an amazing idea, a wonderful and awesome idea. And while Danny did have his doubts and was a little nervous, Danny could admit he was a little curious. So he donned a hazmat suit that his dad gave him for his fourteenth birthday, ripping off the embarrassing sticker of his dad off his chest before stepping into the skeleton of the ghost-portal. Or Fenton-Portal as his dad called it. He was about five steps in before everything went to shit.

At exactly 4:51 pm, Danny tripped on some wiring. Not wanting to land face first on metal flooring, he leaned his weight onto one side, not knowing that his hand touching the wall was actually pressing the on switch. Danny heard a little, ‘click,’ and before he could really process it, he was instantly shocked with painful volts of electricity. It was burning him alive, sizzling his insides, and making him numb to everything but pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

Pain.

PAIN.

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

He closed his eyes in pain, it sent his breath away, made him feel his heart stopped beating, and then all he saw was white. His head was all spacey, and floaty, numbing the pain.

At 4:52 pm, the portal stopped buzzing and instead of an empty hole in the wall there was a swirl of neon green, a dull hum in the air, and a fourteen year-old kid stumbling out of the portal.

“DANNY!” Sam and Tucker both shouted, diving towards their friend to break his fall, Sam was on the ground with Tucker landing ungracefully on top of her. She let out a muffled "Oomf!" from the unexpected weight, she expects another weight on top of Tucker, only for it to never come. Instead, she felt something cold and weird flowing past her making her shiver. When she opened her eyes, she was met with a passed out, white-haried Danny. It surprised her so much she let out a scream and shoved Tucker out of the way.

“What the hell!” Tucker shouted, his arms flailing before landing on his butt. The two teens took a minute to catch their breath, the eerily green glow being the only source of light in the basement. Sam was the first to recover, slowly crawling back to Danny. She took note of his white hair, his inverted-colored hazmat suit, and sickly pale skin, definitely nothing like Danny from thirty minutes ago. But what scared her more was how his chest didn’t move, and that he was cold to the touch- to the point that she feels like she would get frostbite if she just let her hand stay on his shoulder. Fuck, did she just kill her best friend?

“Sam!” Tucker’s shout snapped her out of her thoughts, it made her aware of the unbearable pressure that was clogging up her throat. But she quickly ignored that to turn her attention to her other friend, who was pale from fright, with his eyes widening in horror. At first Sam was confused as to what Tucker might be seeing, until Tucker pointed a finger and Sam’s eyes followed where the finger was pointing at. Sam must have been too stuck in her head to notice neon green eyes staring straight into her soul.

“D-Danny.” Her voice came out as a whisper, she didn’t know what to do and she’s pretty sure she can’t just type: ‘I accidently killed my best friend, only he’s not dead, he has white hair and glowing green eyes. What do I do?’ on google and expect a solid and helpful answer.

“You alright man?” Tucker came in closer, still pale, and still hesitant, but still there. Danny however did not look like he was present at at. His eyes were roaming over everything, but it seemed like he was not processing what was happening. Sam was just about to tell Tucker to call for Mr. and Mrs. Fenton when she heard the familiar sounds of heavy boots storming down the stairs. It seems like that snapped Danny out of whatever he had going on, since his eyes started to widen, and he looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack.

“Kids, is everything okay down here!” Jack turned the corner, only to freeze his eyes widened as he took the scene in front of him. Maddie came down a second later, her mouth gaping, and shoulders slumping. Oh god, Sam was a dead, dead girl wasn’t she.

“Uh… Mr. and Mrs. Fenton-”

“It’s not what it looks like!” For a second Sam shot Tucker a glare before elbowing him in the sides, the geek let out a yelp before giving her his own glare.

“The ghost portal…” The Fentons slowly made their way towards the teens, Sam casted her eyes down waiting for the inevitable anger.

“The ghost portal works! Ha-ha, I did it!” If this was anger, Jack had a weird way of showing it, especially with his dance.

“Oh Jack, we must have forgotten to include any calculations on the chances of the portal having a delayed start!” Maddie exclaimed, slapping a head over her forehead as if that was a bigger deal than her youngest child’s changes.

“Delayed starts- hah! Who cares about that, Maddie, when we have a fully working ghost portal on our hands!” Jack’s laugh seemed to vibrate the very walls and floor of the lab. The big man took Maddie into his arms swinging her around as the couple continued to celebrate and laugh, Sam took a chance to look at Tucker only to find he was just as confused as she was. Finally when Jack set Maddie back down on the ground, the woman seemed to take notice of the frozen teens, even with her head covered it was obvious she was a little confused when she looked at the teens.

“Where’s Danny?” Huh? Sam quickly looked down to see she was carrying nothing, but that can’t be right. She can still feel Danny, his tense shoulders, his fidgeting, she could even feel and hear him sucking in breath! But she can’t see him. She turned to look at Danny’s parents, both growing more anxious the longer she didn't answer. And she really doesn’t want them to freak out, cause if they freak out Sam’s pretty sure she will freak out. Luckily Tucker was there,

“Wait, you mean you didn’t see him? He told us he was going out to Smarty-Mart to go get some snacks!” Oh seriously Tuck?! Why would they believe that? The closest Smarty-Mart is almost two miles away! The adults were quiet for a moment, just staring at the two visible, and one invisible, teens. Sam couldn’t help but fidget under their gaze. And just when Sam thought they were about to demand where Danny actually is, both parents smiled, and Sam let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“Well, alright then!” Jack said as he dragged Maddie up the stairs with him as they celebrated their working ghost-portal. When they couldn’t hear their voices anymore did Tucker and Sam allow themselves to turn back to where Danny was supposed to be. At first Sam saw nothing, just her hands holding nothing. Then she saw something starting to appear, it was like watching something with a bad TV reception, all staticky and at times hard to see, but then Sam saw neon green eyes, white hair, and a black and white hazmat suit. And just when Sam could see Danny clearly, a bright light circled around Danny making both Sam and Tucker shield their eyes and take a step back. When the light faded, Sam was met with a familiar blue-eyed, black haired teen with a white and black hazmat suit.

No one said anything, they were just three teens staring at each other in an almost catatonic state. A phone vibrated off to the side, it was Danny’s phone. Without thinking Tucker took Danny’s phone, unlocked it and stared at the screen.

“Uh, your dad wants you to pick up some more fudge while you’re at the store.” That seemed to snap Danny out of his trance.

“What the fuck just happened!”

It was exactly 5:12 pm when Danny calmed down enough to sneak out of the basement and head straight towards the direction where Smarty-Mart was. It took Danny an extra hour to get there and back due to his new…abilities, kicking in at the most inappropriate times. In his hands he held a bucket of his dad’s favorite fudge, and some other things to make it seem like he actually went to the store for him and his friends.

It was 11:15 pm and Sam and Tucker were still talking about the portal incident to make sense of it all, while Danny just stared at his untouched candy, waiting for everything to just make sense. And when he felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket, Danny took a quick look to see Randy had texted him. And while he knows it’s a bad idea to let his texts go unanswered, Danny just couldn’t. So he turned off his phone, tossed it to the otherside of his bed, and continued to stare at his candy.

Chapter Text

Introduction: So you want to be a hero?

Day 4: four days after the accident.

Okay, so Danny would like to wake-up now. He promises he’ll stop snacking on mint ice cream past midnight from now on. And he won’t watch anymore horror movies when he’s alone. He just wants to wake up because this can’t be real! 

He pinched himself, hard. His reflection mimicked his flinch as a sting of pain shot through his arm, but instead of waking up in his bed or the lumpy sleeping bag in the Opt-Center, he was still staring at his reflection. His white-haired, green-eyed, ghostly reflection. Which did freaked him out at first but after waking up for the fourth time in a row to this reflection, Danny has reluctantly became use to it, thank god he has the ability to change back into his normal body… he just has to turn back. Preferably now so he won’t be late to school, again. 

And he could totally do this! He just has to imagine his other form (and isn’t that scary to think about). He just has to imagine his heart actually beating, his body temperature being above room temp., the feel of blood moving through his body…

And… change! 

His green eyes and white hair stared back at him. He let out a groan slamming his head down on his dresser as hard as he could, only instead of his head hitting the hard wood of his furniture he phased through it. The momentum left him unbalanced making him tip forward towards the ground. And instead of hitting the carpet floor, he fell straight through the floor. 

Luckily he became tangible after that. 

Unluckily he landed face-first onto the kitchen tiled-floor. 

He let out a pained groan. He heard a Whoosh, and suddenly he had to remember to breathe. He had to remember that hearts are supposed to beat, and had to not break out in a sweat when he felt the temperature around him heat up. This is what being normal is like, he had to remind himself as he got up, rubbing the tender spot at the center of his forehead. This is what being alive is like. 

And isn’t that a scary thought. 

“Danny, what are you doing still in your pajamas?” Danny turned around at his mother’s voice. Her head was uncovered revealing an unkept orange bob-cut and a pair of violet eyes. She was looking at him in concern, nursing a cup of coffee. 

Quick, say something! 

“Oh! I just… forgot-yeah!” He plaster on a small grin, making sure he didn’t meet her eyes as he shuffled past her. “You know me, I love learning, and doing homework, and other stuff I have to do for school.” His mom said nothing but deepened her frown, making Danny break out in a nervous sweat. 

“But you’re right! I should go probably change, don’t want to be late and miss out on learning- bye!” He didn’t sprint, cause that would make his mom more suspicious. No, he just walked with purpose, cause that won’t raise suspicion at all. Danny let out a yelp when one of his legs phased through the last step before the second floor, his chin hitting the floor. He could taste a bit of blood in his mouth. 

God fucking damnit. 

Danny was only at school for a total of fifteen minutes but he knows that it’s going to be more of a nightmare than usual. From face-planting on the stairs (again), to his hands going intangible making it a struggle to open his locker or carry his books, and that one time where Danny sunk beneath the floor all the way down to the boiler room. Danny knew that today is going to be hell. 

And it was. Dash just wouldn’t leave him alone, most of his teachers (somehow half of them being Mr. Lancer) assigned him a mountain of homework that would be due on Monday, and oh yeah- he keeps going through things! 

Having ghost-like powers sounds cool on paper sure, but Danny has quickly learned that they are such a pain in the ass to deal with in real life. But at least no one suspected anything, guess there is some perks to being the bottom of the food chain when in high school. And at least his friends didn’t see him differently after the portal accident, in fact they’re super supportive. 

Maybe a little too supportive.  

“Danny, you can’t ignore these powers forever, imagine all the good you could do! You would be able to free the frogs from being dissected in fourth period Biology, or save people from being robbed, or trash those fossil fuel monstrosities!” That was Sam, ever since he got his powers, Sam has been on a mission. And sure, Danny would love to go out and be a hero- it’s been his dream since he was like five. But, Danny can’t help but be hesitant now, especially when he's now a viable candidate for being kidnapped by the government. 

“But more importantly- think of all the chicks you could impress! Saving them in back alleys and all that stuff. It’s like every girls fantasy to- OW!” Tucker curled up the moment Sam punched the tech geek’s side, flopping over picnic bench dramatically, “...what I meant to say is that I’ll definitely help you out,” he wheezed, “be like your ‘guy in the chair’ and stuff.” He gave Danny a shaky thumbs up, while Sam simply rolled her eyes at his dramatics. 

“I don’t know, there’s just so much that could go wrong, my secret could be let out, I could be grounded till the age of eighty, or be dissected molecule-by-molecule in a secret government lab.” Danny, played with his mystery meat lunch, scrunching his nose, what did they even put in this thing anyway? 

“Besides, Amity Park is probably the blandest town in the world, nothing ever really happens here.” Danny added as an after thought, and from the sounds of Tucker and Sam they also agreed. Because really, what could happen in the, “Safest town in America,”? 

Step 1:  Figure out how to change between your identities before going hero for the first time. 

Day 11:

Hello universe? Yeah this is Danny Fenton, and all he wants to say is: what the fuck? 

Did he do something in a past life or something? Because really, this is not funny. 

It started like any second Friday of the month, Danny finished his chores, ate dinner with his family, then zoomed down the stairs to the lab (secretly celebrating that he didn’t phase through the stairs this time), before turning on the family computer. After setting up the equipment as he waits for the system to start, he double clicks on a very familiar application at the bottom-right corner of the screen. 

Now, Danny would like to believe that he’s pretty good at video games, he may not be a frequent high-score achiever like Randy, but he’s definitely played enough where he’s decent at it. And because the two friends only had a few things in common outside of going to the same camp, they had an awesome idea. Once every few weeks, the two boys would log onto DOOMED, one of the few video games both teens have an interest in, and play for hours until one of them falls asleep (Danny), or would get be force to turn it off (also Danny). 

This was an important tradition to the both of them, neither one of them has missed a single game since they first started it almost three years ago. So, you could imagine Danny’s surprise when he found that Randy was offline, even after waiting fifteen minutes the purple-haired teen still didn't show. Look, Danny knows that Randy is horrible when it comes to being on time, there has been many instances where Randy was either late for an event at camp, but he always showed up in the end. Besides the dude is never late when it comes to their game night. And almost forty-five minutes later, Danny realizes two things, one, Randy probably won’t be on tonight, and two, something has to be going on if Randy isn’t coming on. 

It pushes a certain memory of a weird phone call between him and Randy, his panicked voice, a roar in the background.... It was pretty weird, but also knowing Randy, the dude was probably trying to break a new record at the arcade he liked going to. Yeah, that had to be it. He just wanted to get a new high score.

So why is he still worried? 

Maybe Danny should give him a call, just to check up on him and everything. 

He pickles up his phone, about to dial up his friend when he froze. He felt an intense cold igniting inside of him, it felt like it was slithering up his spine to the throat, until he had to force himself to exhale. Mist came out of his mouth, confusing him at first because the lab was nowhere near freezing. Only to hear a loud woosh! of heavy doors sliding away. He turned his attention to the Fenton Portal, a swirling neon green staring back at him. 

That, that’s not supposed to happen, right? 

Oh, and then it got worse. 

Something came out of the portal, a darker green than the portal, a little transparent, and took the form of an…octopus? Danny blinked a couple times when a second octopus came out. 

Okay. This is actually happening.

Now Danny, the smart thing would be to quietly get out of the lab and call for help, preferably his mom. And because Danny is kind of a smart person, he does just that. 

Unfortunately, Danny seems to forget that the universe has a vendetta against him lately. Because right when he was about to turn the corner to get up the stairs he accidentally bumped into one of the work tables. It made something metal tumble from the table, and making a loud clang zeroing the ghost-octopi straight towards Danny. 

“Uh hi, you wouldn’t want to hurt a kid right?” Fuck, he was so screwed. 

The ghosts recovered from their shock real quick, one of them immediately snaking one of their tentacles around Danny’s waist and yanking him upside down straight towards them. Danny couldn’t help but tense, letting out a yelp at the action. But he recovered quickly. He started thrashing, and wiggling trying to let the ghost-octopus (or was it ecto-pus?) loosen up on its hold. Unfortunately, it seemed to do the exact opposite tightening it’s hold on Danny till his ribs started to ache from the pressure. 

Ugh, there’s got to be a way to get out of this right? 

…

Oh right, Danny has the ability to go intangible. Now all he has to do is find a way to transform, and he prefers soon because the ghosts are flying straight towards the portal. 

Okay, think about being dead, having no heartbeat, being cold as ice but not feeling any different. Think, think, think, think!

“I-I’m going ghost!” Bright light consumes his vision, he felt his heart-beat slow to a stop a second-later, and the pain of the ghost tightening around his chest lessen to the point where he can breath more easily (if he were alive). Honestly, Danny was just getting desperate at this point, but hey beggars can’t be choosers, if screaming about turning to a ghost works, then sure. 

Danny didn’t waste anymore time, he gritting his teeth and closing his eyes in concentration. This will be his first time turning invisible because he wants to and he really hopes it works. One of the ghosts let out a weird sound, almost sounding like he was confuse for a moment. It made Danny squint one of his eyes open to see the two octopi looking around, and Danny was not in either of those tentacles. 

Danny could already feel a headache coming on, and sweat to form from the strain, but he forces himself to push through it, banking on the ecto-pi giving up if they can’t find him. 

And it seems like the universe was giving him mercy just this once, because after a couple minutes of swerving their heads around, both octo-pi just looked at each other in confusion before flying towards the portal. The Fenton Portal doors sliding to a close a second later. 

Danny couldn’t help but let out a sigh drooping to the floor in relief. Awesome, he did it, yay. That was probably the scariest thing he ever did and he would like to not do that again, thank you very much. 

 Either way, it’s getting late and all Danny wants to do is eat something before crashing on his bed. All he just has to do is turn back and everything should be fine. 

What was not fine though was the glowy rings suddenly appearing and turning him back, and to instantly loose all feeling in his legs, making him buckle over and land roughly on his back. The teen let out a groan as black spots litter his vision, his limbs felt like weights were tied to them, and everything just hurts. 

Is this what being his by a bus feels like? Danny didn’t have a chance to think of an answer to that as he simply blacked out a second later. 

Step #2: Always have a trusted friend to help supervise when you test out your powers. You don’t want to float off to space, now do you?

Day 12: 

Danny was making a bowl of cereal the morning after, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and staring at his frosted cereal. 

He blinked once. 

Then twice. 

And then he dropped the milk. 

“Oh my god, I can fly.” Which shouldn’t be a surprise considering he has ghostly abilities, but still! Pumped up from this new discovery, Danny quickly ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs, with one goal in mind for the day. 

“Danny, clean this mess up or I’m telling mom!” Oh right, the dropped milk. Whoops. 

Amity Park is a small suburban town, with an even smaller downtown area. It has a population of just under 500,000 with the tallest buildings being six stories high. The town is surrounded by forests, pretty in the winter (if you exclude the blizzards), and provides plenty of shade during the summer. However, not many people go into the woods, mostly due to the stories of glowing figures living in the woods and abducting hikers and campers. It that hasn’t happened in almost 20 years and not a lot of people disappeared compared to those in the past. But because of the history, many people tend to avoid the woods as much as they can. Which means that Danny could practice flying for as long as he wants. Certainly because he doesn't want to freak out everyone if they found him.

“OOF!” Also because he doesn’t want people to see him bump into the trees or looks as him while he’s swimming in mid-air like a dork. Danny grumbles a few curses, before pushing off from the tree. He’s hovering maybe a foot or two off the ground, and he’s pretty sure the snail on the fallen bark is going at a faster pace than him. This seemed a lot more easier to do on T.V.. 

Maybe he should just leave and do it another day. He still has to do his homework, and definitely find a way to find out what’s going on with Randy. 

So how does he stop floating? He tries to maneuver his body so that way he’s standing straight, but instead he cartwheels in mid-air and slammed his head on the fallen bark. For a minute black dots swam in his vision. 

Okay, so that didn’t work, what else? He closes his eyes and breaths until the pain ebbs away and the dots start to disappear. After that Danny decided to it would probably be best if he uses a tree to help right himself up. He gripped the fallen bark by his hands and started to inch closer to the tallest tree. When it was in reaching distance Danny pushed himself off the bark and clumsily swim towards the tree. 

Unfortunately, Danny used a little too much strength in that push and flew and little farther up than he would like. And by a little farther, he meant that he’s way too high to reach any trees. 

And he’s still going up. 

“Shit.” 

Somewhere near the entrance to one of the hiking trails of the forest, a couple in their mid-twenties was getting their gear out of their car. One of the woman was packing the last of the granola bars into her backpack while her girlfriend was taking a video of their dog who was busy chasing his tail a few feet away. The woman holding the phone simply laughed at the husky’s antics, and then gushing when the husky stopped and tilted his head to the side. God he’s just so cute!

But then the dog started barking up to the sky, which is kinda unusual, since the dog is pretty calm most of the time. It was only when she looked at where the dog was barking did she know why. She couldn’t help but gape at the sight, her phone falling out of her grasp. 

“Mar, Mar!” The shocked woman shouted, but her girlfriend didn’t respond. When the girl turned around she saw that her girlfriend was looking at a map, of course. 

Marching over the girl yanked the map away from her girlfriend’s face. Mar giving her girlfriend an offended look, only for it to be ignored when her girlfriend held her face by the chin and force her head to turn up at an angle. 

Katie just kept string at her girlfriend’s face, expecting to see a myriad of emotions on her partner’s face. But she really didn’t expect her girlfriend to gently take her hands off of her, nor look at her with such an awkward face.

Mar didn’t speak for a few seconds, “Uh…Katie, are you okay?” 

Katie, scrunch her face, “Of course I’m not okay! I just saw a literal person in the sky, swimming like they’re in water.” Katie would have laugh if she wasn’t too busy freaking out because seriously, how is that possible?

Mar just stood there a few moments, looking at Katie then back up at the sky to see nothing, then finally back to Katie looking like she made a decision. “I think it’s best if we go home.”  Katie let out what sounded like a squawk as she kept raving about a white and black clothed person. Her girlfriend simply said that they should just stay home and recover from whatever this was.  Mar couldn’t help but be concern when Katie kept talking about it as they drove back home. 

Well, good news Danny learned how to stop flying. 

Bad news, he fell. 

He thinks he should stay in this form for a while because no bone should be sticking out like that and Danny is not in the mood to deal with pain right now. 

Step #3: Exercise! No I’m not kidding- you think people just get powers and automatically get a six pack? This is real life, not some movie. Jeez😒 

Day 17: 

Danny feels like he’s going to die. He’s going to die a slow and horrible death and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. 

“You call that running Fenton, Foley? My grandmother can run better than you two combined and she’s dead!” 

“Danny,” Tucker gasps, “I don’t think I can hold on any longer.” 

“Me,” God his sides burn, if he keeps this up he thinks he’s going to throw up his kidney’s. "Neither."

“And, time!” Relief flooded the two boys as they past the goal marker on the track. Once they reached the turf where the rest of the class is, they walked tiredly towards the water fountain Tucker pushing Danny out of the way to get their first. Danny was too tired to care, but vowed to take revenge once he finds the energy. 

“You know this is a good way to train, right?” Danny turn to glare tiredly at Sam. The goth teen for her part didn’t even look like she went on the mile run, there’s no sweat, she’s not out of breath even though she ran for most of the mile, and was one of the first people to finish it.

“After all, you did faint three times in the past three days. Fighting those ecto-pis, and then to the ghost lunch lady, twice. This is a perfect excuse to build up some stamina, after-all.” 

“I hate you.” Sam let out a little hum, inspecting her black water bottle. 

“Ouch, that stung,” Danny would like to call bullshit, especially since her smirk seems to be growing by the second. 

“And to think I was going to share this nice, ice-cold, straight out of the freezer, water bottle with you.” She even has the audacity to shake the metal bottle, ice clearly being heard from the inside. Right when Danny was about to take it though, Sam simply ran, knowing that Danny doesn’t have the energy to keep up. 

“I hate her.” He said again. 

“Evil, evil woman.” Tucker readily agreed. 

“Fenton, Foley! Get your butts over here so we can move on and play some tackle football!” Ms. Tetslaff shouted, this earned a round of cheers from the more athletic looking kids, while other people ( cough, cough , Danny and Tucker, cough, cough ) simply groaned with dread. 

Yup, Danny is going to die, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.

Step #4: Always, ( Always!!) focus when you’re fighting bad guys. You would be surprise how many people do not follow this one. 

Day: 20

Write your report on the purple-back gorillas, Sam said. It’s a good way to get your grade back up while speaking up about this very important issue, she said. All Danny wanted was to get this stupid report done so that way his parents won’t give him an earful once progress reports come home-is that too much to ask?! 

Apparently it is, cause the universe, the same exact universe that seems to hate him for no apparent reason. Thought it would be a good idea to put a wrench in those plans. Specifically by sending a ghost-robot-bounty hunter to capture him, skin him alive(or well dead in this case), and plaster his skin onto his wall!

Which first of all, ew. And second of all, can Danny even survive that? And would his skin even grow back? Though curious he does not want to know, thank you very much. 

“Woah!” Danny turned a sharp left when he heard the sharp whistle of a missile (and seriously, a missile?!) Feeling the heat as it barely missed it’s mark. The ghost-robot, or Skulker, simply laughs like this is entertainment for him. Which it was, some kind of sick, twisted- 

A loud annoying ringtone greeted his ears, one that was very familiar that it made Danny skidded to a stop, similar to what those old Saturday cartoons would do. He yanked his phone out of his pocket, a recent addition- thank you Tucker, and immediately pressed the answer button. 

“Hey-”

“Where have you been?” For the past couple of days, when not panicking about the upcoming test, Danny would try calling or texting his friend, even checking on the game's server to see if he was online. But there was no new calls, his texts weren’t even labeled as read, and it seemed like Randy has been avoiding Doomed for the last couple of weeks.

Randy let out a hiss, most likely already figuring out what Danny meant, “Yeah sorry about that, I was kinda busy with school.” 

“School,” Does he seriously think he’s fooling Danny?

“Yup.” Wow, not even a stutter. 

“Huh, if you care about school so much than how come you tried to run away to the circus in order to avoid summer reading?” Danny couldn’t help but be like a disappointed parent, crossing his arms, glaring holes into the screen.”

“That was only one time-!” 

“Oh, I didn’t know you forgot about the time you tried again when we were ten, or the year after that, or the year-” 

“Okay, okay, I get it! But I’m serious, school has been kicking my butt.” Yeah, Danny’s still not buying it.

“Oh and why’s that.” 

“I, I joined the marching band.” That made Danny pause. 

“Since when did they accept the keytar as an instrument?” That earned an offended gasp from his friend over the phone. 

“I’ll have you know, my good sir, that the keytar is-” Danny would have listened to the end of the sentence if he didn’t feel a violent chill crawl up his back and see a faint blue mist curling out of his mouth. 

“Found you, ghost child.” The bounty-hunters voice was paired with the chilling sound of a blaster heating up. 

Shit. 

“Yeah, yeah, hey sorry have to go, promise my mom something-bye!” And just like what Randy did almost three weeks ago, Danny pushed hung-up on his friend and shot straight into the sky, barley missing the bright green blast from Skulker’s blaster.

Step #5: Pick a name. This is the most important step, after all no one wants to idolize a superhero if their name was bug-eyed man or something. 

Day 23:

“Casper.” Tucker offered.

“Lame.” Sam shot back. 

“Ghost man.” 

“Danny, you do realize that somehow that’s worse than Casper, right?” 

“The specter?” 

“No, doesn’t feel right.” 

“Apparition.” 

“Ah, now I see why you’re failing that art project.” 

“Hey!” Danny said in offense. “If you don’t like any of our names, why don’t you offer some?” 

“Yeah Sam, after all this whole hero thing was your idea.” Tucker immediately agreed. 

“Alright, alright, fine.” Sam threw the blue throw pillow off her lap and down on the carpet floor. Tucker immediately picked it up, and put it back on his parents’ couch. It took a minute with Sam closing her eyes and stroking her chin as if she was in deep thought before snapping her fingers. 

“I got it!” Danny waited in anticipation.

“You should be called Inviso-bill!” Danny immediately hit Sam with the discarded throw pillow. 

“Now I see why you didn’t take art, Sam!” That earned him a hard shove off the couch, followed by a pillow to the face. The two battled it out with pillows, fathers coming out from them, making Tucker panic. 

“Guys stop! If my mom comes back to see ruined pillows she’s going to kill me!” Sadly for Tucker, it fell on deaf ears.

If you follow all five steps then congrats! You are now officially a hero! If not, then what flowers do you want on your gravestone :)?

Day 25

Okay, he could do this, he actually believes that he can do this. 

It’s been about a month since the portal accident, and sure during that time he had a few more accidents. But so far everything is working out. Danny defeated his first big-bad ghost dubbed the lunch-lady, outsmarted a bounty-hunter, and defeated a possessed Sam who got turned into a dragon. 

Yeah don’t ask. 

Danny and Sam were dancing, it was the last song for Homecoming, most people already left, and Tucker ran out a minute ago being chased by a familiar green-skinned ghost who kept shouting about a ball. Neither one could not stop laughing when they saw Tucker ran out, screaming at the top of his lungs. 

Sam has a soft smile on her face, and Danny couldn’t help but smile back. Danny was just about to say something, only to pause when he felt a phone vibrate in his pocket. 

“I’ll be right back.” Sam simply nodded saying she’s going to get some punch. With that Danny walked outside the gym, taking a moment to appreciate the cool breeze before taking out his phone to see who was texting him. 

Keytar Historian

• hey, sry 4 being a flake :/
• want 2 play doomed tmw? 

Danny sent a quick thumbs up, before putting his phone away. Yeah, maybe everything is finally going to be okay. 

Chapter Text

Friday- 30 Days Until Probation Is Over:  

“For over 800 years, the city of Norrisville has been protected by a ninja. No one knows that every four years a new warrior is chosen” 

“A freshman to fight the forces of evil. I am the Ninja. I am Randy Cunningham!-” 

“Lame!” Randy did not let out a scream, he did not. Randy turned to look down from his bed at his best friend Howard. The ginger was nowhere near impressed as he continued to eat his container of fried chicken. 

“How long were you standing there?” he questioned. 

His short friend simply shrugged, “Long enough for me to know that that song is lame.” 

“Come on Howard,” Randy put his keytar to the side to focus on his friend,  “you know I gotta have a cool song now that I’m THE NINJA!”  He still couldn’t believe it. Even after almost two weeks of having the mask. He got to fight a monster that seemed to come right out of a classic horror movie and defeated a monsterfied-Bucky!

Should he be more worried about that though? Randy has always seen these monsters and robots causing havoc since he was a kid, he never really questioned where they came from but now eh…

“Still lame.” Howard said as he shoved a whole drumstick into his mouth and bringing out a clean bone, which ew but also impressive. “If I were you I would tell the whole school about it. Think about it, Cunningham! We wouldn’t even have to do something stupid to get into the Fish Cage!” 

Howard then let out an exaggerated gasp, dropping his chicken bucket on Randy’s bedroom floor, “Even better, sophomore chicks would talk to us Cunningham! Talk. To. Us!” 

Randy couldn’t help but shift uneasily where he was sitting, the blankets on top of his bed were bunched up under his hands. Sure Randy has thought about it, several- multiple times in fact, but he also has enough common sense (a voice that sounds like Heidi in his head couldn’t help but comment, ‘surprisingly’) to know that telling the school would be a very bad idea. 

“Yeah, good thought, good thought. Or- and I’m just compromising here- we just tell only one person.” He offered. Howard seemed confused at first, scrunching his eyes and tilting his head to the side. It took Howard 5 seconds before he finally got it. 

And spoiler alert: he did not like it. 

“No, no, no,no,no!” Waving his arms in the air, Howard continued to double down before he angrily pointed a finger towards Randy.

“We are not telling Fenton about this! I met you first, ergo-” since when did Howard know what ‘ergo’ meant? “I get best friend privileges, which means I get to know and he doesn’t.” Randy couldn’t help but roll his eyes, dropping down from his bunk bed with one of his hands on his hip. 

“I can’t believe you're still on this Howard, I can have two best friends, besides you know I can’t keep secrets for long when it comes to you or Danny, I just choke. Choke!” Just then both teens stopped when they heard something vibrate near them. At first Randy thought it was his phone, but it’s in his back-pocket and it’s silent, Howard’s phone doesn’t really vibrate, not after the nacho-explosion of 2015, making Randy more confused on where it’s coming from. Until his eyes zeroed in on red-lights flashing in his backpack, blinking in and out at a fast pace. 

Dragging the backpack closer, Randy unclasped the straps that were holding his messenger bag together to reveal the Ninjanomicon flashing almost angrily, blinding the two boys. 

“…”

“Nope.” Was all Howard said before making his way out of Randy’s room. The purple-haired teen couldn’t help but sputter before shouting Howard’s name. 

“What do you want me to do Cunningham! It’s a literal magic book, it could be flashing like that because it wants our souls. Well it’s not going to have mine! Now if you’ll excuse me I saw some leftover pizza in your fridge. So while you’re off schloomping, I’ll be eating some Rick & Tony’s Meat Surprise!” With that the shorter teen slammed the door shut leaving just Randy and the book. 

Sometimes Randy wonders why he’s even friends with the dude, he was saving that slice of pizza for later! 

With one last look at the door, Randy turned his attention back to the book, he let out an uneasy breath before sitting criss-cross on his floor. “Okay Nomicon,” He whispers, “What sort of mythical awesomeness do you want to pass down to me.” The book opened on it’s own pages flipping with drawings litter all over the page and before Randy knew it, he was sucked into the pages. 

Being sucked into the Nomicon is definitely a weird experience, it’s like something is pulling him by the face before releasing him and letting him free-fall into Japanese like-sceneries made of paper. He feels light, but not. He feels like he’s not entirely there but he is. He still feels pain in the pages, but only a small sting like your pinching yourself. It confuses the hell out of Randy, but he can’t deny how every time he face-plants the scenery always seems to take his breath away. 

This time he looks like he fell on a tall rock pillar, unstable and wobbling a little too much whenever he moves. After slowly getting up, he couldn't help but gulp when he saw nothing but mist below him, and hold his breath when the rock he was standing on was leaning too close to one side. Randy felt himself panic, his arms moving in exaggerated circles as the rock moved back and forth, until it stayed at an unsteady balance. 

When Randy Finally caught his breath he looked forward and was taken aback to see five ninjas, surrounding him at all sides.

Well five doodle ninjas. They seem to vary in size, one tall and bulky, another one seems to look more like Randy, tall and on the twig side, another was smaller and more curvy. The fourth one looked a little bit too skinny like they haven’t eaten in days. And the last seems to be of medium height but standing rigid, almost like those soldiers he saw on those WW2 campaign posters. All five of them were colored-in with red and black squiggles that seemed to move on their own. It kinda weirded Randy out, especially the stares, black dots that seemed almost soulless.

“Uh…Hi?” Is this some training exercise? Like is he going to learn some bruce moves that could knock-out five enemies at once, cause that’ll be the cheese! At least he hopes it’s that. 

“Randy Cunningham.” Randy almost fell off the rock pillar, he was definitely not expecting that! It sounded like a thousand voices were speaking all together at once and yet devoid of emotion.

“ You have violated our trust and now, you must be tried.” 

Randy’s mind screeched to a halt. What. 

“What?!” 

But the doodle ninjas ignored his protest, “ In order for you to continue being the ninja you must plead your case. Failure to do so would-” 

“Woah- woah!” A high-pitch voice made everyone pause, Randy and the other four doodle ninjas all looked towards the too skinny ninja, who at the moment was wobbling very dangerously over the edge, the rock going back and forth, way more violently than Randy’s did. Until finally, the doodle ninja fell. 

“AH!” And disappearing into the mist. Randy almost wanted to jump in after him, but a loud groan from the large bulky ninja, and the curvy ninja slapping her face made him pause. 

“God damn it, not again,” The buff one said. 

The rigid ninja didn’t loosen up her posture, but her black dots for eyes did do an eye roll, a literal eye roll, both of her eyes were going around in a circle. Randy was about to ask what was happening, before he heard a familiar yell, but this time coming from above. Randy turned his head up to see the stick ninja falling until he landed hard on the rock pillar, doodling birds and stars, tweeting and flying around their heads. 

“I’m okay!” He slurred. The doodle ninja stood up on wobbly feet, his eyes spiraling, before shaking his head and giving a shaky thumbs up. That seemed to have made the other four more frustrated, letting out groans. 

“Yeah no, shit Sherlock.” Said the curvy ninja. 

“Yeah, way to go Larry! Always ruining everything- jeez!” Shouted the bulky ninja.

Somehow, Randy’s questions have doubled.  

Out of the corner of his eye Randy saw the ninja that is closer to his body type, signing with their hands in rapid succession that somehow made the soldier-like ninja stand up straighter. 

“West is right, we have more important matters to attend to.” She said before looking back towards Randy. 

“Randy Cunningham, We have been expecting you.” Her voice was like ice, making Randy shiver with anxiety. What does he even say? As far as he knows he hasn’t done anything to call in the… the… who are these people? 

“Ah yeah that’s me, Randy Cunningham!” He lets out a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. “And uh, what’s this about a trial? As far as I know I haven’t done anything to warrant you guys!” He then paused, looking at each of the doodle ninjas uneasily. “And who are you guys again, cause if I would have known I would be attack by five doodles, I would have brought an eraser to at least fight back.” 

The soldier-ninja muttered something under her breath and it seems like the big ninja heard it because he was letting out a snort soon after, “We, Cunningham, are the Guardians of the Nomicon, chosen by the First to protect the sacred texts and to judge any and all new candidates of the Norrisville Ninja.” 

Uh, say what now?

“But I don’t get it! I thought I was already chosen to be a ninja, someone even snuck into my house and left all the stuff on my table-and now that I’m talking about that sounds really creepy.” Once again, should he call the cops on that or just leave it be? 

The hand-signing ninja made a series of signs at a fast pace, but it seems like none of the other ninjas had trouble understanding it, cause the curvy one seemed to nod her head in agreement on that. 

“So, you guys are going to elaborate or…” 

“You were just a possible candidate out of several of candidates that could've been picked. And for some odd reason he picked you.” Okay Randy was really starting to hate this girl-ninja-doodle. 

“And not even two weeks have gone by before you broke one of our more sacred rules!” The soldier-like ninja shouted. 

Randy felt frustration boil up to the surface making him shout, “What the juice are you even talking about!” His mind replayed the past two weeks and to remember if he did anything that seemed to have angered this crowd. 

“-I know what you're up too.” Howard, that was Howard’s voice. Randy turned his head around, the momentum making the rock shaky but still holding in place. It was a projection of both Howard and Randy, talking somewhere behind the school. The feeling of having done this before was scratching something in his brain. 

“ You do?” Projection Cunningham asked, his eyes widening in surprise. 

“ Yeah, first you’re gone and the ninja’s here. Then ninja’s gone and then you’re here. ” Projection-Howard points to the ground for emphasis, before giving Randy a smirk and a knowing look. 

“ I know your secret man. ” And then the memories of that day came rushing back. The memory ended with Randy smoke-bombing, the image fading leaving a yellowing paper-sky. 

They were seriously going to take the mask away because he revealed his secret to Howard by accident? 

He turns back to the group, “You're seriously going to take away the mask because I couldn’t keep a secret from Howard! He’s my best friend, I tell him everything, you can’t just tell me to not tell him!” At this it seems like the soldier-ninja glare softened just a bit. 

“We know. But after existing for centuries, fueled by the memories of past ninjas, the Nomicon has learned that outsiders, especially people we consider friends, just end up betraying the ninja in the end. Whether it be by greed, power, or even because of a petty argument, they cannot be trusted.” 

“Especially Teenagers, who even decided to give teenager superpowers?” Larry asked the group. 

Crickets were heard. 

“I-I mean I’m not complaining I just want to know.” 

The next thing Randy knows is that the curvy ninja brought out what seems to be a slipper before throwing it at Larry, knocking him unbalanced and making home fall once again. 

Okay, Randy decided to ignore that. 

“But Howard can be trusted,” He urged, “He’s been with me through everything, and he knows me like the super-secret menu from Cluckers! So I just assumed he already figured out I was the ninja.” None of the doodle ninjas said anything as they looked at each other. It’s making Randy’s heart race with anticipation, is he seriously only going to be a ninja for only two weeks? Is this seriously how this ends? 

Finally after what seemed like hours, the soldier-ninja turned her attention back to Cunningham. 

“We have agreed to put you on a month of probation.” Randy scrunched his face in confusion. 

“A what?” 

“It’s like a trial run!” Larry said, his voice squeaking at the t in ‘trial’ making everyone cringe.

“Yes Cobbler,” Groaned the soldier, “Like a trial run.” 

The pillars began to shake, making Randy look down at the rock he was standing on uneasily, when he looked up he saw that Larry and the sign-language ninja jumped off their pillars. 

“Being the ninja is an awesome responsibility, Cunningham, but it is also the heaviest of burdens.” The curvy and the bulky ninja were next to jump off, the shaking growing more stronger. 

Until finally, “Do not waste this chance Cunningham.” The fifth one fell off disappearing into the mist. Not long after, a spike in the shaking knocked Randy off from his pillar, screaming he fell into the mist. 

And right back into his room. The sound of a microwave dinging could be heard. Randy should probably head downstairs, stop Howard from taking the last slice, but all he could do was repeat what happened for what seemed to have lasted for hours, but only for a few minutes. 

“Well that’s wonk.” 

Monday - 27 Days Until Probation is over:

It’s been exactly (and yes, Randy actually kept track) three days since Randy’s surprise meeting with the ‘Guardians of the Nomicon,’ and Randy is STRESS. Ever since, whenever Randy plunges into the Nomicon there is always one of the guardians somewhere nearby, they could be behind one of the buildings, above him in a tree, or even just standing right by him! It feels like he’s the bad guy and not the guy sending the robots, or the sorcerer. 

Oh and apparently there’s a sorcerer beneath the school, an 800 wrinkled, skrunky, old man who hates teens so much that he turns them into monsters, or it’s because he’s using teens to create chaos and finally be free. Both seem likely really. And apparently the original purpose of the Ninja was to be the sorcerer's warden, but that wasn’t the part he was frustrated about, no he’s frustrated at the fact no one told him about it in the first place! 

If he knew that negative feelings turn people into monsters then he would have never let Howard be the mean judge. Howard is Randy’s best friend but he knows the dude has no filter. And because of that the whole school is mad at them, and Randy had to deal with like 20 monsters. He’s sore (because the one drawback to the suit had to be sucking off all his energy until his limbs are noodles), tired, being crushed by his guilt about starting this mess in the first place,  and all he wants to do is rest. But he can’t rest, not when the Nomicon is flashing red like it’s some strobe lights at a rave. 

Ugh, Randy really doesn’t want to open it, but he knows that he has to deal with those shoobs sooner or later. 

Randy took a deep breath. 

And he opened the book, letting his soul get sucked into the pages, falling and falling until he hit the ground hard. Randy cringes at the pain, though dulled due to the book, he still feels like he’s been hit hard on the head with a book. Oof, the Nomicon must be really mad at him if it did that. 

Once the pain subsided a bit Randy took a look at his surroundings and all he could is rocks. Rocks, rocks, rocks, dead tree, rocks, boulder, and the soldier-ninja. Her back somehow straighter than last time, foot tapping, with the furious expression on her face. 

“How could you!” She shouted. 

Randy tried to defend himself, words on the tip of his tongue. But the doodle-ninja didn’t even give him the chance. 

“Do you know how close the Sorcerer was to getting released? Do you know how much danger you put everyone through just because you wanted to what? Become ‘popular’ talk to the, ‘sophomore chicks’!” She spat out Howards words like it was venom. Harsh and unforgiving. 

“How could you be so selfish.” And that hurt the worst of all. 

Look Randy knows he’s not the smartest person. He knows that the only reason why he’s so good at history is because the history channel was the only channel Randy had that wasn’t a news station back when he was a kid. He knows that he could be a little impulsive, and that he messes up, a lot. But he’s trying his best, he trying to still be a good friend to Howard even with this Ninja business, he’s trying to be good Ninja- trying to pick apart confusing riddles and saving people because he wants to. 

He wants to be a good kid, even though he’s a screw up. 

“I’m sorry,” He says, breaking the silence. 

“Look, I’m sorry for all of this, if I knew that the Sorcerer was using students to get out, I wouldn’t have made Howard the ‘mean judge’, I wouldn’t have even gone through with this idea at all if I knew what would have happened.” 

“You have to believe me.”  The soldier said nothing, simply staring at Randy, until finally she seemed satisfied with something. 

“Your on thin ice Cunningham, don’t mess up again.” 

And just like that, Randy was forcefully schloomped out of the book. 

Friday - 15 Days Before Probation: 

Randy would just like to say that the Nomicon is a shoob. 

Because really, “ Beware the Hero who wears a mask”, should have been more specific. There was so many robots of Norrisvile’s greatest heroes- heck even him- well Ninja-him, was there! And sorry for not thinking McFist was one, the same man who owns like half the city and creates all these awesome things. 

How was he supposed to know the billionaire was an insane jerk-wad? 

(Somewhere in a giant pyramid and in a castle in Wisconsin, two insane jerk-wad billionaires sneezed) 

What makes this whole thing worse is the fact that the big buff Ninja, whose name is Biff (seriously?), couldn’t stop laughing. It was loud, and seemed to shake the whole room, they were standing in, grating on Randy’s nerves. And while Biff (again, seriously?) was laughing his ass off, Larry stood to the side shifting from side-to-side.

Randy thinks he likes Larry so far, the guy seems harmless really and looks uncomfortable being around Biff. 

“Are you done yet?” Randy asks, he can feel his cheeks still warm from being laughed at, and he really needs to get this stupid project done before he receives another F in English. 

“O-oh yeah I’m done.” Biff even wiped a fake tear away from his eyes, forcing his breathing to slow down. 

“But seriously, how dumb can you be to not know McFist is a bad guy?” 

“He does a lot for the city!” 

“Yeah but also his company’s sign is on every robot, and at an obvious place too. Did- did you not see them?” 

Randy said nothing, simply flinched his eyes to the ground because he had seen them, two fist punching in the air in a shape of an ‘x’, he just didn’t make the connection until now. 

Randy heard Biff gasp telling him he figured it out, “Oh my god you did notice,” And now Biff is laughing again. Randy threw his hands in the air marching away from the dojo and out into a hallway. This time around it seems like Randy landed in a maze of hallways and doors, some with names, some with not. Now how the juice is he going to get out of here? 

The doors to the dojo slid open again, laughing could still be heard from the other side, “Sorry about that. Biff is a total butthead.” Larry’s voice cracked a little at the end and it took all of Randy’s will power not to cringe at that. 

“Eh, it’s fine. He’s way better than Bash that’s for sure.” Biff is a bit mean sure, but so far he hasn’t done anything worse, so Randy calls it a win for sure.” 

“Still it’s not okay, and it’s not okay that everyone is treating you this way either. I for one am glad you’re here.” 

“Seriously?” Randy’s eyes widen with hope. 

“Of course, now no one is treating me like I’m a bad Ninja, cause somehow you’re worse than me!” Then that hope was crushed as soon as Larry started laughing. 

Y’know what? Randy could see why no one seemed to like the kid, he’s just a shoob. 

Randy left the skinny ninja there in hopes to find a doorway himself. Which he did, after hours of looking and when he did get out he was horrified to know that the whole night had past. Meaning the project wasn’t done. 

Meaning that Mrs. Mark is going to fail him, again. 

Thursday - 9 Days Before Probation is over: 

Randy is having a bad day. Scratch that, Randy is having a no good, very, very, bad day. 

First it was because Randy over slept due to Ninja-ing till three in the morning (Why is Bucky always the sorcerers target?). But, it’s cool, Randy is slowly getting use to getting three hours of sleep, no big deal. Then Randy ran out of Pop-Tarts, so no strawberry breakfast for him. And of course Howard didn’t walk with him to school due to new popularity as ‘gossip boy’, his bike got a flat making him late for school, Howard ate his lunch, and now Randy is in the library during study hall trying to cram as much math as possible before six period. 

But it’s fine, whatever. The good thing is that school is almost done and Randy can finally play some Grave Puncher. Just then Randy’s phone vibrated on it’s place on the table. Out of habit he looked at who was calling him and couldn’t help but slide it farther away from him. It was Danny, of course it was Danny. 

For almost a month Randy has been avoiding any hint of Danny, which means no looking at his texts, not answering any calls, and not playing DOOMED (which sucks because Randy was this close to reaching level fifty in the game). And yeah, Randy knows it’s a jerk move, but Randy doesn’t know what to say to his friend once he does answer cause the first thing he’s going to say is that he’s the Ninja, and even send a video just to prove it. 

It’s hard not to answer, it really is. Danny doesn’t live in Norrisvile, he doesn’t know that the Ninja is real, even though Randy keeps telling him it is. And after so long he has undeniable proof, much more stronger than conspiracy websites, or blurry photos from the internet. 

But it’s fine, whatever. The good thing is that nothing else could happen. 

Randy really should know by now that jinxing himself could only lead to disastrous consequences. 

Randy could hear the librarian gasp before hearing the voice of Howard’s sister, Heidi, blowing from the speakers. Students began to rush from where they were, making their way to Mr. C. Since Randy was only a couple feet away from the man, Randy didn’t need to move. He wasn’t curious about what Howard has to gossip about next that’s for sure, especially since Randy didn’t give him anything to gossip about for today. 

“What is up Heidi-nation! I am here with Gossip Boy, who told me he has some major gosp. He needs to get off his chest.” 

“Um actually Heidi I-” 

“So Howard, what’s the deets.” It seems like the library waited with baited breath. 

“I Uh-um…I know who the Ninja is!” The library was in chaos after that. Randy just sat there, his ears were ringing, and he felt panic rising from his chest. This can’t be happening. Howard knows how much this secret meant to Randy, Howard knows how important this secret is! He didn’t just do it on purpose, his sister or maybe peer pressured must have forced him to say something, because there is no way Howard did this just to gain more popularity. 

Behind him, Randy could hear the familiar thump of an old, ancient book, angrily tying to catch his attention. 

“Oh boy.” He knows that the guardians aren’t going to like this. He would be surprise if he even kept his mask after this. 

Monday - 6 Days Before Probation is Over. 

“My car!” 

In a surprising turn of events, Randy kept the mask, well barley. It seems that the hand-sign Ninja, whose name is actually Lucy, signed some things to the others and allowed Randy one more chance to prove himself. 

Randy has never been more grateful in his entire life. 

Randy loves being the Ninja, he loves that he has rad skills, he can swing his scarf around like Spider-Man, and he gets to be useful and save people. He’s a hero and everyone loves him. Even when he gets thrown through concrete and broke him fall by landing on the principal’s car. 

“My bad Mr. P!” He shouted before he jumped and ran back to where the stank’d student was. Using his impressive detective skills, Randy has found that this student failed a test and was trying to find the teacher who failed them- 

“You can’t fail me!” See what Randy means? Amazing detective skills for sure. 

The monster took the form of a snake, it’s sickly-yellow eyes building out, fangs at the ready to shoot venom. They’re tail was pure muscle, throwing Randy straight out of the building and Increasing P-slims insurance. Wait does Norrisvile even have insurance to cover an insane billionaire and a sorcerer who lives beneath a high school?

“I-I had to fail you! You put 72 when it’s supposed to be an essay on-AHH!” Crap! They’re about to bite the teachers head of. 

“Ninja Sprint!” Randy then uses his scarf as a lasso, spinning it around the air before throwing it at the student, it circled around it’s mouth forcing the stank’d monster to close it. 

  “Wow you must be hungry, why don’t you slither along,” Somewhere in the distance he heard Howard groan,  “and eat, I’m pretty sure the lunch lady has roadkill on the menu.” Where is the stank’d object?! Even with their mouth closed the student let out a hiss, their tail shaking like a rattle-snakes when it’s about to bite. And that’s when Randy spotted a piece of paper right out of the corner of the snakes mouth. 

Oh, Randy is not going to like this. 

“Ninja release!” Ninja allowed the scarf to unravel, allowing for the snake to attack him. At the last minute, Randy dodge by rolling out of the way. He then sprinted towards the hole in the wall right by him. Hopefully it was small enough to- 

The snake student let out a roar as it struggled to get out of the hole, Randy didn’t hesitate. He stuck his hand in they’re mouth (god this is so gross!) before tossing the paper into the air. 

“Ninja Slice!” Slicing the paper in half, the student immediately turned back to normal. Dazed, with a couple of bruises littered around, but normal. 

“Ninja! Ninja! Ninja!” Randy threw a peace sign to the crowd and went to grab a smokebomb, proud that he didn’t mess up for once. Maybe he’ll keep the mask after all. He was about to get out of there when he saw the former stank’d student, still sitting on the wall, looking glum. So instead Randy made his way towards the dark-skinned girl. 

Only to be stopped by the words that he read earlier this morning. 

“ A Ninja must serve the masses but he must also neglect the eyes of the masses.” Surprisingly he understood it almost immediately when he tried to comfort someone earlier after one of McFist Robots almost crushed the dude to death. And while he gets it, the ninja works in the shadows yada, yada, yada. He just can’t stand on the sidelines. 

With his mind made up he pushed through the wall of words and sat next to the girl, who was twisting one of her braids in her hands. 

“ Randy Cunningham .” They were back at the rock pillars, with Randy standing in the circle surrounded by the five guardians. “ You have failed to meet the expectations of the Norrisville Ninja for the last time!” 

“Expectations? What expectations were there! I’m given nonsense rhymes for advice and expect to follow them a certain way, that I have no idea how to do and-” 

“ Enough!” The rock pillars shook, but this time Randy didn’t stumble, he held his ground staring straight into the eyes of the soldier-ninja. 

“ By the time this week is over Cunningham, the Ninja will no longer be your responsibility.” 

Friday - 2 days until Probation is over: 

When Randy was five he wanted to be a superhero, he wanted to wear the cape, save the girl, have cool powers, and be popular. He was saved by the ninja a month later after he and Howard snuck into the high school.

And while the ninja did not have a cape, he wasn’t afraid of the monster that was after Randy and Howard, no he was brave and laughed, right in front of the beast. So, is he really going to end almost 800 years of that? 

Randy starred into the bon fire, it’s heat burning his face and arm as he held the mask high up into the air, ready to throw the mask into the flames. 

This week was supposed to be Bruce. This was Randy and Howards first spirit week and they wanted to end it with a bang, by photobombing every single picture at the bonfire. It was going to be amazing and Howard and him were going to laugh all throughout the night. 

If only Randy didn’t go Ninja and accidentally broke the prison of an ancient demon-ghost bird that ended up possessing Howard who is now bent on destroying the school. If only Randy didn’t have to destroy the Ninja, the only one who could stop the sorcerer, to save one of his best friends. 

Randy threw the mask into the flames, watching as the Tengu bird dissipated into ash, leaving a confused a dazed Howard in it’s place. 

“Ugh, my head what happened?” Howard coughed up a couple orange bird feathers, his eyes going wide as if he were about to freak out. 

“Uh, yeah,” Randy began hoping it cut off Howard’s impending freak-out. “So funny story- you’re going to laugh I swear- uh it turns out that the eye from the carp actually held an ancient bird spirit that ended up possessing you. So…. yeah?” Howard said nothing simply staring at the feathers, in his hand before looking straight at Randy. 

“Did I at least looked cool?” 

“Yeah bud, you did.” Randy couldn’t help but stare at the flames one last time before guiding Howard away from the flames. Only to turn back around when the flames of the fire seem to burst. It seemed to reach up to the sky, glowing brighter than ever before. The ashes of the tengu wrapping around the flames in a spectaticle display. And in a burst of light the fire was gone. 

Randy rushed forward to the pit to see what the juice was that before looking in amazement at a smoking ninja-mask. Hot to the touch but still in perfect condition before he threw it into the fire. 

“What-but. I can’t believe it!’ He held up the mask, even with his fingers burning from the touch to show Howard. 

“Howard, look!” 

“Um… yeah I’m looking at it buddy.” Howard looked confuse but at least he gave Randy a thumbs up. 

Sunday - Probation is over, yay. 

Randy took a deep breath before opening the book, he felt his soul being sucked into the pages and was expecting to fall down and face-plant as usual. Only he floated down and landed on a cloud, surrounded by clouds, and the soldier-ninja. 

Her body was a little bit more lax compared to the previous times he saw her, but it was still somehow straight. There were no other doodle-ninjas, no sign of anger in her stance, and this is far from the place Randy thought he would be sent to to be fired from being the Ninja. 

“Oookay,” Randy even had to do a full turn just to be sure he was not just one the edge about to fall to his metaphorical doom. “Um, not that I don’t appreciate landing face first- cause I do. But where are the others, and this is a little more happy then I was picturing.” He was picturing swords pointed at his back, and fire, lots of fire. 

The soldier-like ninja didn’t say anything, she simply stood and watch Randy for a minute. 

“You’re different from most ninjas.” She finally said. 

“Ookay?” Randy was this close to loosing it- more in a confuse way than in an angry way. 

The doodle-ninja nodded, “Yeah, you aren’t as smart as others.” 

“A bit mean on your part.” 

“Not as wise,” She took a step closer to him.

“Are you just going to keep doing this?”

“Nor are you that athletic.” Another step. 

“Yeah, you are going to keep doing this.” 

“But you are,” The doodle-ninja stopped a couple steps away from Randy. “Kind and loyal, to both people who deserve it and by people who don’t” 

“Is this going somewhere or-” 

The doodle-ninja rolled her dot eyes, literally. “Randy Cunningham, after reviewing your month of probation, and the stunt you pulled to save your friend from and defeat the Tengu, you are hereby the Norrisvile Ninja for the next four years.” 

“Oh my yes!” Randy couldn’t help himself. He was too high on happiness that he went for a hug, ignoring the shouts of wait. “Thank you, thank you, so much. You won’t regret it, I swear!” When Randy let go of the doodle-ninja, Randy couldn’t help but cower at her glare, and cringe at her bent arms from him hugging her. 

Randy let out an uneasy laugh, “Now, you won’t regret this decision starting now.” 

Conclusion: Someone should really write up the terms and conditions, I mean I won’t read it, but I’m pretty sure someone else will. 

Randy for the first time in weeks, just completed all his homework assignments. Yes, most the answers are probably wrong and yes he’s probably going to fail at least of these, but he did finish them and that’s the thought that counts. Randy stretched out his back before scooching his chair and making his way downstairs for a snack. He was just about to open the door, when he stepped on his laptop. The fourteen year-old sucked in a breath, hoping he didn’t break it. Plopping it on his desk he check the screen for any cracks, thankfully finding none, and then turned on his computer to see if it works. Which it did, thank god, but the last thing he did before turning the computer off was playing DOOMED with Danny. 

Which means it was right on the menu tab, where Randy could see 10+ messages on the friend board. 

Oh boy. 

It’s been about a week since that whole probation mess was finally over and Randy was just getting use to finally having more control over being the Ninja. And it’s been about a week since he saw any of the doodle-ninja whenever he schloomped into the book. He wonders if he ever see them again, hopefully not those guys are kinda jerks. But the Nomicon still gives him nonsense riddles, and is now teaching him some cool new skills to help protect the city with, so really Randy’s not complaining. 

But he does feel kind guilty for forgetting Danny, only calling him once. But even then it was quick, was Danny watching a movie or something? It was pretty loud and sounded like that whoever that person was was right next to his friend. But he’s not that concern, Danny is kinda an introvert really, doesn’t like attention and has the common sense, Randy’s pretty sure he’s fine. 

(Somewhere in Illionois a ghost kid sneezed, giving just enough of a distraction for the best friend-turned ghost dragon to flick him with her tail). 

Y’know what maybe Randy was just over thinking everything due to the stress of the probation. So what Randy has to keep a secret from Danny, it shouldn’t be hard. He only sees the dude two months out of the year, and only talks about videogame strategies once every few weeks through the phone, this will be easy! 

Randy grabbed his phone, texting Danny and hoping for a response back, before continuing on to the kitchen. If they were going to have game night, Randy was going to get some snacks, this is going to be a long one.

Chapter Text

Danny was wrong, this is hard. This is painfully hard and it’s taking all of his willpower not to just close his laptop and make some stupid lie that he’s come down with something, or a ghost is attacking the house, or that he’s actually a half-ghost now, then toss his computer out to the Fenton Portal and just try and find an excuse to stop going to summer camp. 

Okay so the last one is a lie because 1) its the family computer and his parents will kill him if anything happens to it and 2) Danny can’t just say he’s half-ghost, Randy would believe him for sure- the dude can be so gullible and too trusting sometimes-but mostly because he knows that if he ever tells Randy about it the guy will never shut-up. And Danny loves the dude sure, but sometimes Randy’s high-energy can be a little too much for Danny. Put that in combination with his own worry about his friend after a month of mostly radio silence, makes it hard for Danny to keep a conversation going. 

“So…how’s Jazz doing?” Randy asks over the phone as his avatar flung two exploding disks at the players blocking the hallway in-game. 

“Oh um, she’s doing good.” See what Danny means? He holds back a sigh as he blasts three opponents when the two turned the corner.

Randy shouts for Danny to duck, before flinging a plasma sword at someone behind him. All four players fizzled out with their items and EXP on the ground. 

Randy’s character is definitely an outlier when it comes to DOOMED. F or most people that play the dystopian sci-fi game, they would go for long-range weapons like blasters, laser bombs and the occasional power-up that are spread around the levels. And sure, Randy does use laser bombs and exploding disks once in a while, but his go-to weapons are more for close-combat like plasma blades. You would think this would put Randy at a disadvantage but Danny was surprised not even five minutes in, basically throwing his swords and surprising the other players. He even killed Chaos once, thinking it was more of an accident than anything else. 

His avatar was also different from most as well. His pants were baggy, with this ribbon tightening it towards the bottom where it meets with combat-boots, the top looked similar to Danny's with the only difference being that it was black with red circuit board designs around it, finishing with a bright red scarf that covered the bottom half of his face. 

"What do you think?" Randy asked during their first game session, his avatar was strutting around like a peacock, with that get-up. 

"You look like a dork." Danny laughed, even thought he couldn't see his friend he could tell that Randy was pouting. 

"Oh like yours is any better: 'Danny-boy'" 

"At least my name isn't some lame-o pun like Ninja-oclock!" 

"That's because Ninja was taken!" He even somehow made the avatar stomp his boot. 

Danny laughed so much that night that water almost shoot out from his nose, twice. 

“Danny, look out!” Danny barely had time to dodge before a blaster was fired. And speak of the devil, Chaos was there. The big behemoth had a key to one of the other levels, and was holding a huge ray-gun in his other hand. 

Shit. 

Both teens ran around the corner, after almost an hour of awkward silence the two friends reached level 25: the Labyrinth, riddled with monsters and players alike. The only way out was a key that respawns once every 12 hours, to say it was a challenge to get the key was an understatement. 

Double-Shit

Another blast whizzed by them, their avatars were skidding around a corner when they met up with a dead end. When Danny offered to change directions Randy agreed quickly, the boys turned around and to Danny’s dismay Chaos was there. They gave the boys a smirk before shooting straight at Randy before shooting at Danny. It was over within seconds with Danny’s screen flashing huge red letters that spelled ‘LOOSER’ as Chaos kept laughing. 

In frustration, Danny smacked his head against the counter, half-expecting to just phased through. Only to actually not phase through and hit his head right on the table. 

Pain shot through his head, he could feel his brain thumping through his skull, and the beginnings of a killer migraine. Man, he’s going to have a huge bump tomorrow, ow. 

“You okay?” Randy asked. 

It took a couple deep breaths, but Danny was able to manage to give out a weak, ‘yeah’, and from Randy’s hum he knew Randy heard it. It took a few moments for the pain to go down before he was able to form words again.

“Sorry about that.”  Danny grimaces when he feels a small bump already forming as he rubbed his head. “Just hate Chaos, how can one dude be that OP right?” 

“Danny, are you sure you're okay? And I’m not talking just about…whatever just happened- you’ve been acting weird all night.” Acting weird? If anything, Randy has been acting weird all month. 

It’s not like he’s ignoring his friend, he makes time to shoot a quick text and he’s literally saving the town from ghosts up till 4 in the morning!

Ugh, Danny’s fine. He’s fine! Totally fine. 

Mostly. 

“Yeah sure I’m alright.” He didn’t mean it to sound so bitter, but once Randy said those words it’s like the floodgates were opened. “But the better question is are you alright, Randy? You ghosted me for like a month-what the hell dude!” 

“It wasn’t entirely my fault I was-!” 

“In band I know, but that still-” 

“I actually quit the band after the first day.” 

…

Hold up. 

What? 

“Okay…” Danny feels a pain pounding in his head, and it wasn’t because of the headache. 

“Hehe…well funny it’s a funny story really.” Randy sounds nervous. Which is good depending on what he says next could determine if this friendship is worth it or not. He’s joking, well half-joking. More like giving him the silent treatment until they meet in person sort of thing. 

“I’m sure it is.” He tries to reign in his anger waiting for a response. 

“The truth is-” 

“RANDY LAURENCE CUNNINGHAM, YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE YOUNG MAN!” 

“...” 

“Shit.” 

Randy hung up. 

Randy hung-up. 

He’s not sure if that’s a good thing or not, especially when he just got off the whole probation thing. But he has a feeling it’s a bad thing. 

One because his friendship with Danny seems to be crumbling at the seams, and two his mom is home. 

His mom is home and he is so dead. 

The door opens gently, the sound of an ominous creak following it. Randy could already sense her anger, even if his back is facing towards her, and seems to be worsening the longer Randy tries to ignore her presence.

“Randy Laurence Cunningham.” Crap she sounds calm, he is so deader than dead, he’s- he’s…Randy doesn’t know a good word to fit but he’s sure he’ll find one later. Which means it’s time to face the music. 

He got up from his swivel chair and faced the one person that could scare him more than chickens. 

“Hey mom! What- what’s the haps?” he was so nervous he was giving his mom finger-guns and his mom seems to not like that. 

She lifted up an eyebrow “Care to explain to me why I got an email from the school saying you’re failing all your classes.” That took Randy by surprise. 

“What?! But you weren't supposed to know until the progress reports!” And that was like weeks away. 

“Are you telling me that you knew that you were failing classes?"

"You know what I don’t even want to know, and don’t even get me started on your absences!” She then mutters something under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

June Miyagi was a formidable woman, made worse by her tall height. To most she is a world-renowned psychologist, but to close family friends, Randy will say this for the third time because it must be said, she’s a scary woman! She doesn’t even need to give people a glare to get what she wants! She’ll just lift up an eyebrow and people will crumble, the only reason why Randy has a little-itty-bitty immunity towards it is because he’s been on the end of it so many times that it doesn’t affect him much anymore. 

And sure she’s strict at times, but she’s also pretty cool. She likes classic rock and would blare it on Saturday mornings when she’s cooking breakfast, she always makes sure Randy could tell her anything and not be judged, and she's a killer at video games too! 

But the second thing may cause some problems. 

 She didn’t say anything for a while. Her eyes roaming over his room, from the leftover pizza boxes, to the wrappers of gas station ice-cream, and to the piles of dirty clothes scattered around the room. It was obvious that Randy’s room has seen better days so it must look like a dump in her eyes. 

But to him it was all-nighters dedicated to stopping stank’d monsters (and question, why is it Bucky and Theresa 90% of the time!) Fighting off robots, and the occasional game-night with Howard. 

And he’s fine, by the way. He’s just occasionally taking naps in the school bathroom, and outside on the field instead of going to classes. 

Okay, so he’s like 99.9% sure he’s fine. 

Her eyes seem to widen a bit as she looks all over his room. She took a step closer, only to step on his messenger bag, luckily it was close and the Nomicon wasn’t blinking its bright, red lights. 

“Randy.” Her voice was softer than before, and her eyes seemed to look almost concerned. This was not what he was expecting. 

“Uh, yes?”

“I think I know what’s going on.” That seemed to stop Randy’s heart for a second. 

“You do?” His mom simply nodded. 

“Of course, the messy room, the missed classes, and failing grades, ugh it all makes sense!” Is this another Howard situation, or did she actually know? Whatever the case was, he needs to play dumb. 

“Mom! It’s nothing, I’m fine.” Yup totally nothing to see here, no Ninja here. 

Ninja, what’s a ninja?

“No, it’s not fine. Randy I’m a psychologist and a mother. I know when my son is lying to me about something.” 

Shit. Of course a psychologist who guests lectures at Cambridge of all places could figure it out, that makes sense. 

But just when Randy was about to open his mouth his mother beat him to it. 

“And I just want to tell you that everything is going to be okay. It may not seem like it now, but I know you can get through this if we work together.” 

Did…did she think Randy-?

“Of course you’re depressed!” She flipped her arms out towards Randy, “You go to a school where monsters appear and this whole town is infested with Robots. And of course the Ninja just doesn’t seem to care about the damages they seem to leave.” Randy tries not to take offense to that.  “Do you know how many times I’ve thought about us moving” She rolls her eyes and-

That is something Randy does not want to think about, please don’t say that again. 

Randy opens his mouth again, to deny he’s depressed and to beg his mom not to move, only for his mom to interpret him again. “Of course with the state of the housing market that’s near impossible.” 

Phew. 

“But I do have just the thing to give your mind a little break till we get you some extra help!” She smacked something into Randy’s face, he let out an ‘oomf’ from the impact but took the piece of paper anyways. It was a flier with big, bold, yellow and green words. It was a 20th class reunion for the class of 1995 hosted by a guy named Vlad Master? 

“C’mon I already booked the flight to Wisconsin and bought the rental car, we’ll be leaving next week!” She was already walking out the door when Randy finally spoke up. 

“What, but- I can’t go!” His mom paused, she turned her head around her eyebrow lifting up. 

“I can’t go because um… I need to catch up on my homework. Oh! And I need to finish a project for that class I' in.” Yes spot on Randy, lying at its finest. 

If it was even possible his mom lifted her eyebrow higher, fully turning around, her arms crossed. If anything she looks like she’s disappointed. Randy may be immune to the stare most of the time, but not when it’s paired with her disappointed parent ™ stance. 

So, he crumbles. 

“I’ll go pack my bag.” His mom squealed, giving Randy a quick hug before going to her own room. Sorry Nomicon, looks like the Ninja won’t be in Norrisvile for the weekend.

---

Bringing the Nomicon and the Ninja mask definitely was a gamble, but he made sure to weigh the pros and cons while he packed for the flight. Pro: He could make sure that both were safe in his hands rather than in his room where someone could break in. Con: His mom could find it, open the book and be schloomped in and find out he’s the ninja. 

It was obvious what Randy decided on doing. 

Spoiler alert: He took it with him. 

Randy bounced one of his legs as he looked out into the night. There wasn’t anything to see, just darkness and the occasional blink of the lights from the wings. His mom was asleep snoring away with an eye mask and a pair of earmuffs, the flight attendents had already passed out drinks and the flight snacks, and there was nothing to do for the next two hours. And Randy is bored, his Gameboy ran out of battery, and he forgot to bring his charger for his phone. The only thing that he could probably do is sleep (not going to happen), or just sit around. 

But, there is another choice. Randy snuck a glance at his mom, who was snoring away. He looked across the aisle to see that people were asleep or on their own devices. And luckily enough the people behind and in front of his seat were also asleep. 

Eh, future Randy could deal with the fallout later, besides he has a question he’s been burning to ask. 

He opened the Nomicon, bright red lights swirling around him as his soul got sucked into the book. He fell from the sky, and landed straight onto a dragon! 

Oh my juice Howard is going to flip out when he hears about this. 

“Hi Nomi- can I call you Nomi?” The dragon let out a menacing roar before turning upside down making Randy fall into the abyss. 

“Okay not Nomi! Definitely won’t call you Nomi!” He could feel his stomach in his throat, he could feel his heart wanting to rip out of his chest. It sure would be nice if the dragon picked him up now! 

The dragon dived under him, catching him. Randy allowed himself to catch his breath before he spoke again, “So uh… Nomicon, are you sure I can’t tell Danny about this whole Ninja thing?” The dragon let out a low roar, his back tensing up just like it did before dropping Randy. 

“It’s just he’s my friend too you know, my best friend.” He quickly reiterates. He then looked down, looking at the paper-like scales, “I don’t want our friendship to be ruined because of this.” The dragon said nothing. It only continued to fly up until it flew straight up to a Samurai-like mask. 

The mouth of the mask opened. 

Friendship is a weight the ninja cannot carry. 

What the juice Nomicon?! What kind of advice is that? 

“You really need to work on your advice, Nomi.” He said out loud, obviously to get a rise out from this stupid book. 

Only for the book to bring out a picture of a Ninja with a poorly scribbled stick figure drawn behind a bold blue circle with a slash through it. Alright Randy had enough of this he wants out now. 

“Maybe you made other Ninjas leave their friends but you won’t do that to me!” Coming out of the book was a little more rough than usual. Like getting a smack on the face. But Randy didn’t care if the book wanted to act like that. Randy would do the same too. 

He slammed the book closed before stuffing it roughly into his backpack. He kicked the thing under his seat. 

Now what? 

Meanwhile Our Young Ghost Hero Is Trying to Stay Alive- Or Well Half Alive….

Mom letting dad drive was certainly a choice. Sure it cuts an eight hour drive in half, but only because the ‘Jack’ loves going 200 mph over the speed limit. 

“Dad, what the heck are you doing! Look at the road, not at your stupid book!” Wow, who knew that Jazz was capable of saying a book is stupid. Someone write that down, October 12th, 2015. Highlighted it, underlined it, then put a gold star on it. 

“Oh kids, you should have seen your old man and Vladdy back in the good ol’days. Tossing the pig-skin around, starting a band, even almost killing the school mascot!” Jack went on, oblivious he almost drove over several cars, almost killed a small family of opossums, and almost ran over an old lady? Who is letting an old lady walk across a highway? 

“Oh and you should have seen June and I, we were really living it up once we went to college!” Mom laughed obviously that dad was now off-roading and running through trees, almost running over deers, and the occasional rock. 

Just-just how did his dad get his driver license again? 

“That’s nice mom and dad, but I think it would be best if you guys pay attention to the road before I develop a fear of driving through this traumatic-!” 

“Jazz, please stop talking or you’ll give me a traumatic experience about seeking therapy!” He shouted back. 

Jazz looked like she was about to say something, her cheeks turning red, a finger raised- 

“Oh, I seem to have made a wrong turn! I’ll simply reverse it and…” 

“Dad, no!” 

They drove over a cliff.  

Fortunately they only fell a few feet before they landed back on the ground. 

Unfortunately, dad kept going faster as he and mom continued on talking about their respective friends and what they would do when they see them again. 

“Oh! And Danny if we’re lucky June will bring Randy over as well. It’s been a long time since I saw him. It was what, ten years!” 

“I believe it was eleven.”

Oh and they were going to run straight into the giant castle. Oh joy, looks like Danny is going to have to reveal his secret today, no big deal. 

Fortunately, before Danny could actually transform and save his family, his dad turned the steering wheel making the van take a sharp turn, turning the car at 180 degrees so now they’re practically reversing into the castle. But then his dad did something complicated on the stick shift. First going down to third gear, second, back to fifth, and straight down to fist. 

The RV’s wheels let out a screech. And just when Danny thought they were about to hit the wall, the RV went into a full stop. 

His mom and dad were laughing, Jazz was clutching onto her seat for dear life, and Danny’s legs felt like jello. 

Out in front they could see a car pulling up to the driveway, it was a small car, a nice normal car. It looked like it could be run over by the Fenton RV easily. 

Two people got out of the car. One was a tall woman with a pixie cut hair that was colored a familiar shade of purple, the other was a very familiar teen that Danny only sees in person during summer breaks. His mom seems to see them too, letting out a gasp before unbuckling her seatbelt and running out of the vehicle. The mother and son duo seemed to turn to look at mom, June looks like she was letting out a squeal before meeting Maddie half-way. Both the women were talking admittedly, before looking back at the RV. 

Looks like that’s their cue. 

The rest of the Fentons went out of the car, Jack had this huge smile on his face with a hand up looking like he was about to give one of his infamous Jack Fenton Back Pats before putting it down sheepishly when June gave him her glare. Jazz seemed to have stars in her eyes, and Danny didn’t even make it fully out of the car before being tugged into a hug by an over-excited Randy. 

“Hey Danny! What’s been going on? How’s it hanging? Can you believe we get to hang around this cool castle! Dude, this weekend is going to be so bruce!” Danny couldn’t help but blink a couple times at a total loss because sure Randy acts like a hyperactive puppy at times but he’s never been this clingy before. 

“We are such tight friends, right buddy?” Danny can’t help but groan. This was surely going to be a long weekend.

Chapter Text

2 years and some months ago….

Danny kept on running, even though his legs burned, and his lungs felt they were on fire he kept running. Swerving in and out of trees, jumping over fallen logs, and even went off the trail. Whatever laid beyond the camp was definitely better than getting his head stuffed in a toilet for the third time this week. 

“Get back here Fenturd! We volunteered to help clean the porta potties this week and you’re helping!” No that wasn’t Dash, that was Josh. Some guy that also has blonde hair and green eyes, who loves to pick on Danny the most.

Well Danny and one other person. 

( I’ll give you a guess on who that is. )

Danny's eyes widened with hope when he saw a familiar beaten down shack. From here it was easy to tell that the roof had some holes in it, the wood, aged and decayed and looked like it needed some serious TLC, but it was also a sanctuary. Danny sped up his sprint, crashing into the door as he fumbled for the knob. He slammed the door open and closed quietly and as fast as he could. He put his whole body on the door, an ear close to the wood and listened. 

“Where are you Fenton!” 

“Yeah, we only want your help, I’m pretty sure you could use a cleaning anyway!” 

Those were Josh’s friends, Steve and Tyson, they never strayed far from their friend.

 He could hear them coming closer, as their voices grew louder and as their footfalls came closer. Danny held his breath, expecting for the others to slam open the door and take him with them, when something that sounded like rustling in the leaves grabbed all of the boys’ attention. 

“He went that way!” One of the boys shouted. 

And just like that, they were gone.  

Danny let go of the breath he was holding, allowing his heart to finally slow down from the run. Only to tense up again when he heard someone walking towards the shack. 

Three short knocks, a pause and two long knocks after that. 

Oh thank god. 

Danny opened the door and dragged his friend inside. It was a little cramped now with two people. They were forced to lean back on the shelves that housed boats that looked like they hadn't seen the water in years, decades perhaps. 

“You know, a thanks would be nice. How many times was that again?” Randy said as he rolled his eyes. He didn’t look worse for wear, a couple scrapes and a small collection of twigs and leaves were scattered in his hair. 

It was Danny’s turn to roll his eyes, “Oh thank you, my savior in shining cargo pants.” He put as much sarcasm as he could in his voice. But he knew that Randy could tell it was genuine. “And for the record last time didn’t count so shut up.” 

Randy simply snickered before shuffling further into the boat shack. Readjusting his bag as he did so. 

"How did you even do that?" Asked Danny. 

His friend simply shrugged. "Found some loose sticks in the trees and thought it would be a good diversion. And again, the last time totally counts." Danny was about to retort before Randy grabbed his bag. 

“Come on we have like thirty minutes until the counselors have to find us and the latest version of Grave Puncher: Pocket Edition just came out!” He pulled out two mini Gameboys and tossed towards Danny. The older boy caught it with ease. 

“You and your obsession with Grave Puncher. Seriously what’s so special about it you’re just punching graves.” He still turned the Gameboy on. 

“I’ll have you know Grave Puncher is a popular game series with three games, two movies, and a comic series. So, no it’s not just punching graves.” Randy’s eyes widened before he was diving back into his messenger bag, bringing out paper and shoving it into Danny’s chest. 

“Also, also, check out what I found!” Danny inspected the pieces of paper, each one blurrier than the next. He looked towards Randy, who had a smug smile on his face as if he was proven right. 

Which he wasn't.  

“Dude these are just blurry pictures, what the hell am I looking at?” 

“Uh, the Ninja, who else would it be.” 

“These do not look even remotely human, for all I know you could’ve just waved a black and red glove in front of a camera.” 

“But these are from actual newspapers!” Randy yelled. 

“Let me guess: The Norrisvilles Enquire, Mothman Express.” Randy said nothing, simply pouted as his hands fiddled with the controller. 

“Oh my god, there’s a newspaper called ‘Mothman Express’?” A second later Randy was lunging toward him trying to grab the Gameboy out of his other hand. 

“What the heck Randy?” 

“You don’t deserve that Gameboy! Give it back!” 

“Nope, it’s mine now!” 

“You just said you don’t like Grave Puncher!” 

“I would rather play your stupid video game than going back to camp and doing those friendship bracelets!” 

“Hey, those are fun! And if you can’t appreciate the- AH!

“Woah!” 

The wood gave out beneath them letting them dive face first into the murky, sludge, that they call Hallows Lake. It was disgusting and set all of Danny’s nerves on fire. Both boys breached the surface from the hole they came through. Miraculously the Gameboys didn’t follow, scattered around the shack. The boys looked at each other for a moment, taking in the algae that was clinging to their skin and snorted.

They continued laughing as they helped each other out of the hole, and laughed even more for what seemed like forever before finally calming down. 

They didn’t need words to communicate much, they both knew right then and there that everything was okay. 

But just when they settled down and waited for their respective games to boot up. The door slammed open making the two tweens jump in surprise and to their horror it was head counselor Martin that found them. 

“You two,” The forty-something man growled, “are in so much trouble.”

---

Present Day…

Danny knew this was going to be a long weekend the moment Randy started acting strangely. The teen was talking all stilted like he was a robot, and just kept putting so much emphasis that Danny was Randy's friend.  He almost assumed that Randy was being possessed by a ghost if it weren’t for the castle taking his friend’s attention away from him just for a moment. 

Randy had to do a double take when his eyes finally landed on the castle. “Jeez, I thought when mom said that Masters had a castle I expected a mansion, but it’s an actual castle! Man, this is going to be the cheese!” Normally Danny would have groaned at Randy’s use of Norrisvile slang, but he’s appreciating a break from…whatever that was from before. 

Besides if there was anyone else who hated the slang more than Danny did it was Jazz! And the utter revulsion look on her face was priceless. 

Both families' attention was pulled away from each other when they heard the doors let out a groan. The shade from the castle obscured the man’s features as he walked out onto the steps of the castle. It wasn’t until he finally stepped down from the last steps did the sunlight finally hit his features. 

He was a man that looked like he should be in his sixties rather than his parents’ age. Sporting a gray ponytail, and a nice tailored suit that must have cost more than Danny’s house. But what set Danny on edge was his eyes, something was off with those eyes making him want to do nothing more than go ghost and move everyone away from here pronto. 

Out of the corner of his eye it almost seems like Randy is tensing up too, glaring at the billionaire with an expression he hadn’t seen on his face before. It was then that Danny realized that for the first time in years, Danny has no idea what is going on inside his friend’s head. 

And that thought made him uncomfortable. To think, one of the only constant things in his old normal life, suddenly seemed to change into someone else practically overnight. It made him want to rip his hair out. It’s just wrong. 

“Jack, June… and Maddie.” Danny refocused on the conversation between the adults. June seemed to have a bug in her throat and for some reason Vlad seemed to almost back away from the group. 

“An-anyway, please, please, come in.” He led the way in slamming the door with a BAM! Behind him, Danny could hear his dad let out an, ‘oof’ making Danny turn around to see the door was closed, his dad must have hit his face against the door and is still outside. And from the small smirk on Vlad’s face, it seems like he did that on purpose. 

“Real mature Masters.” June said, crossing her arms and looking at the billionaire accusingly. 

“What are you even talking about Mrs. Cunningham?” 

“I prefer the name Miyagi, thank you.”  That made the man smirk wider. 

“Why, did dear old Reginald-” June let out an actual growl, making everyone that was in the room take a step back. Except for Randy, he just glared at the man hard, clutching onto the strap of his messenger bag like it was a lifeline. If looks could kill, the mother and son duo could have easily committed murder, there wouldn’t even be a body to dispose of.  

Unfortunately, his own mom had to step in. 

“Maybe it’s best if we find another place to spend the night in.” She offered and June seemed to brighten up at that. 

“Oh, great idea Maddie! There’s an inn just five miles away. Five stars, complimentary breakfast, and a spa!” Maddie opened her mouth but June put her hand up. 

“Don’t worry I bought the rooms so everything is already set up!” She was already dragging Randy and Maddie out the door, hand on the door knob, before being hit with said door by none other than his own dad. 

“Vladdy, my man!” If looks could kill, his dad would have been a dead man. 

“Jack, how nice of you to join us. Sorry about the door, you know how old the building could be. Just a small breeze could break a door off its hinges.” 

“No worries V-man.” His dad said as a wide smile spread across his face. Before tossing a signed football, "Go long V-man!". Vlad’s smirk was gone, too distracted by trying to catch the football. 

Only to be body tackled by his dad. The football bouncing a few times after it hit the ground. Jack let out a laugh as he got up. 

“Still got the old moves huh V-man?” Vlad simply glared at the man, marching towards the signed football. 

“I don’t have any old moves, Jack, I was hospitalized for almost a decade because of the accident you caused!” He shouted. 

Everyone was silent, even Jack was stunned. 

God, this is awkward. 

“You said that the inn had a spa?” Maddie finally says, to break the silence. 

June let out a squeal, before dragging Maddie and Jack out the door, talking about all the amenities that this hotel has. They were just a few steps away from the door before they were stopped when Vlad sprinted to them, only stopping when he was just right in front of them and thus blocking the door. Wow, for an old guy he sure is fast. 

“Or you could stay in my castle! I not only have spa-level bathrooms in the guest wing, but a bowling alley, theater, and an observatory.” How does one man have all this stuff? 

“If you have that much money then you should have at least hired an interior designer. What even is going on with the Green and Gold?” 

“Jazz, all these are Packer memorabilia, the dudes a Packer Fanatic.” 

“All the more reason to leave, the Packers haven’t won a single superbowl since 2011. I mean only a shoob supports the Packers of all teams.” Randy smirks. 

Vlad simply glares. “What, like the Cowboys, are any better.” 

“Vlad, are you picking on a child? I am sensing some serious issues and trauma you haven’t fully dealt with. I could contact one of my friends to help you get over your narcissistic personality disorder if you want.” June smiles. Vlad starts to turn red, too stunned to speak. 

June lets out a victorious laugh before dragging his parents along. Danny and the other two simply looked at each other before giving a shrug. They were just about to follow when Vlad seemed to have gained some composure. 

“Ghosts!” He shouts, catching the other adults' attention. Vlad straightens his tie. 

“When I first bought this castle from the Diary King, may his soul not rest in peace, I heard that this whole castle was infested with ghosts!” 

“Ghosts!” His dad shouts. 

Yay, ghosts. Danny thought sarcastically. 

He could hear June sigh as dad ran up the stairs and grabbed Vlad into a bone crushing hug. 

“Why Vladdy, why didn’t you say anything! C’mon Mads, let's unpack the Fenton RV!”

“Well at least we get to stay in a castle.” Jazz mutters. Danny snorts at that. 

“Yeah but did you see the way he was looking at mom?” 

“Or what he was saying to my mom?” All three kids look back at Vlad again, who was struggling to get out the hug. 

“What a jerk.” Jazz finally says. 

“I think the term you're looking for is asshole.” Randy counters. 

“No, no, fruit-loop, definitely a fruit-loop.” Danny argues. Jazz leaves saying a quick whatever before wandering deeper into the castle. Leaving Randy and Danny alone. 

Danny isn’t sure what to say. 

Only he didn’t have to say anything because the next thing he knows is that he’s being yanked by the arm and forced to run down another hall by Randy. 

He yanks his arm right out of Randy’s grasp. 

“You know I can run on my own, right.” He said as he caught up to Randy. 

Randy ignores him instead going off on his own tangent. 

“You heard what the ‘fruit-loop’ said, he has a bowling alley somewhere here!” And with that Randy sped up. Danny couldn’t help but be bewildered by Randy’s sudden attitude. And what’s with the sudden speed? Out of the two of them Randy is a better runner, but he was never this fast. 

It’s a good thing Danny has been working on his own stamina since he started ghost-fighting.

Friendship is a weight that a Ninja cannot carry. 

That is what the Nomicon said last night, or would it be earlier this morning? Anyways suffice it to say that he is determined to prove that stupid book wrong, Randy lives with a therapist, he at least knows that having a support system is important and good for mental health. 

Besides that advice was wonk! Danny and him are having a great time! They played a few rounds bowling, and helped themselves to Vlad’s enormous kitchen. And even crashed Jazz’s marathon of watching the Midnight series by pointing out how stupid the movies were. It ended with Jazz storming out of the room, red in the face and Danny and Randy high-fiving each other for their success. 

Too bad that Ninja-Business had to get in the way. 

Look Randy brought the mask and the Nomicon because he didn't want anyone to break into his room and steal it. He didn’t expect something sinister was going on much less that Vlad was in the center of it. 

It started off normal, the two boys were heading out of the theater after his mom sent a text saying that dinner was almost ready and that Vlad wasn’t going to join them. Thank cheese because ever since he laid eyes on he man, Randy can’t help but feel on edge. It might be because of how he looked at everyone like McFist does, or that he’s rich like McFist, or how he was being a shoob to his mom. It could be any of those things, it could be all of those things, regardless Randy can’t help but see the similarities between the two. And if McFist is some type of evil villain then that means Vlad must be no-good either. 

But first he needs to find out just how bad he actually is. 

Sorry Danny but looks like Randy is going to end up doing a Ninja-No-Show (Howard ™ ). 

“Where are you going, isn’t the kitchen that way?” Danny asked when he noticed that Randy was sneaking off to go hero. 

“Oh…uh yeah! But I need to use the bathroom.” Danny quirked an eyebrow.

“Isn’t there a bathroom that way?” Danny pointed in the direction to the kitchen. 

“Uh…” 

Randy ran. 

“What? Randy!” And Danny was quickly catching up. Was it just him or is Danny a lot quicker than the last time he saw him? 

Whatever, what’s important is that Randy has to lose him, by lose he means getting Danny all turned around, not actually lose him as a friend because that would be bad, and Randy doesn’t think he wants to end this little trip with a fallout between one of his only friends! 

Randy runs down the hallways, twisting and turning, till even he is a little confused on where to go. It wasn’t until he eventually went into one of the library’s did he finally realize he lost Danny during the chase. Well that good, it means that Randy could do this-! 

Randy took the mask and put it on, allowing the ribbons to swirl around him until he was completely covered in black and red cloth “Now, if I were a possible evil billionaire, where would I hide a possible secret lair?” He said to himself. 

A second later, the fireplace went out almost automatically, the fireplace slowly descending to the ground before it became a hidden hallway. 

Hah, a secret passage! Man, he loves this castle! But also knowing that the secret passage is open meant that either Vlad was coming or… he’s coming out! 

Acting quickly Randy took to his scarf, throwing it to one of the poles that hangs on the ceiling before allowing himself to be yanked upwards, and landing gracefully on the pole. He was expecting Masters to show up, maybe with a cat like in those old James Bond movies- he seems the kind of guy who would enjoy that- only it wasn’t Masters. 

The dude has blue skin, red eyes, a white cape, and is wearing a white suit and black suit. His hair looks like something that would belong to an old school vampire movie and the dude was floating? How is he doing that? 

The blue-skinned dude was quickly followed by three vultures, all three with neon green feathers, red eyes, and wearing red fezzes for some reason, The four of them were talking in hushed tones, Looks like he has to risk it if he wants to uncover what the juice this was. He jumped from the pole to the third story bookcase, making sure to stay hidden in the shadows. In a stroke of fortune, Randy was able to sneak towards a bookcase on a second level without being detected. Even better, it was close enough to hear what they were saying. 

“...deal with them, I don’t care how, just get it done tonight! I have waited long enough and I don’t want those two hindering my plans.” The ghost turned towards Randy’s direction making Randy scurry towards a corner in the shadows. Hopefully it was early enough to where the blue-skinned dude won’t notice. 

“But vhat about de kid?” One of the birds asked. Randy could barely make out a smirk from the blue-skinned dude.   

“Hmmm, it’s obvious that the young Fenton boy is fond of him and there is something special about young Daniel. I just can’t put my finger on it.” He was silent for a couple seconds before he turned back to the birds.  “Keep him alive for now, Maybe rough him up just a little when you come for his mother. Afterall, no one disrespects Plasmius.” The birds nodded, before going invisible and flying off-wait, what the juice?! 

He needs to get out of here, find out more who this person was targeting and save them before it’s too late. Only he can’t escape, not when Plasmius turned around, staring right where Randy was standing. 

“Come on out now, it’s no use hiding when I can obviously see you.”  

Well, no use hiding in the shadows now is there? 

“Ninja Rings!” Randy threw the bladed disks towards the being. Randy didn’t wait; he leapt off the ledge with a battle cry, and pulled out his ninja sword ready to-.

“Uh..where did he go?” The rings didn’t even hit their target, they just stuck to the otherside of the wall. 

Randy felt it before he heard the sound of something akin to a laser gun, firing right at the center of the back. Luckily he didn’t feel the full heat, just a sting. But he knows that once he takes off the suit, he’ll probably have a huge burn going across the back. 

Once, the heat stopped Randy turned around sword at the ready. The man simply flew down, a smirk on his face. 

“Ah, the Norrisvile Ninja, what a surprise. Usually you don’t leave your little city much these days.” 

Randy’s eyes widened in surprise, “You know about me?” He asked, usually when people outside of Norrisvile hear about the Ninja (i.e. Howard and Danny) they would scoff, believing it’s some tourist trap the city has set up. 

“Of course an 800 year-old ninja, using his vast array of weapons protecting the town?” The man let out a laugh, “How quaint.” He says, sarcasm dripping from his mouth. 

“Yeah well, this 800 year-old ninja has some moves of his own. Ninja Dash!” He used one of the tables to leap up towards the man only for a wall, glowing a bright pink came between him and the villain. 

Ow, he thought slowly sliding off the glass and landing right on top of one of the tables. He got up, his back aching just a bit as he looked up at the man. This is going to be a long fight. 

Earlier…

He lost him. Danny lost him. 

He wasn’t sure how Randy could run so fast, sure the teen had better stamina than Danny but that’s because the dude was always a slow runner. It’s why during summer camp he hid in the trees most of the time to hide from Josh and his gang. Maybe he should ask Randy about what he’s doing to get faster, right after he wrings him out for ditching him again and getting him lost in this stupid castle. Why would Vlad even want to buy something this big?

Danny felt a hand resting on his shoulder and the need to let out a gasp when he felt a small burst of ice crawling up his spine. Almost like a ghost sense, but this one felt weaker, however it set all his alarm bells off.

 “Ah, young Daniel, what a surprise.” Vlad said. 

“Ah, Mr.Masters?” Danny looked at the old man with a wary look. Vlad must have seen something funny because the dude laughed before telling Danny he could call him Vlad, he’s not that old. 

Danny would like to say otherwise, but thought it would be a good idea to not say it for now. 

“It seems you’re lost, weren’t you and that young man, Reginald, supposed to meet up with your parents.” 

Danny sent Vlad a weak glare. “First off his name is Randy, not Reginald.” He pushed off Vlad’s hand away from his shoulder before looking towards the ground. “And yeah we were but then Randy said he had to run off towards the bathroom, ditching me and getting me lost.” 

Vlad let out a sigh, “Ah, yes. Truly an unfortunate situation. Please Daniel, walk with me.” They turned back from where Danny came from and hopefully towards the kitchen. 

“You know your father and I were very close, up until that accident that made Maddy choose Jack over me.” 

“Uh, what?” 

“Nothing!” Vlad said with a smile, “Just putting out there that sometimes some people aren’t worth being friends over. Not when they keep ditching you or avoiding you- at least it seems like that, yes?” 

Danny, reluctantly, nodded. “Yeah, but it just doesn’t make sense! Randy wouldn’t shut up about every single thing he was planning on doing when we finally got into highschool. And then not a week later Randy stops messaging me memes and stupid jokes. He even ghosted on me during Game night!” Honestly, Danny’s more peeved that he sat there on the family computer for hours like some loser. But that wasn’t the main issue with this whole problem. 

Danny took a deep breath before continuing, “It’s just Randy seems like a whole different person now. I used to read him so easily before school started and now it’s so hard to read him sometimes that I’m just freaking out!” If there is one thing that everyone that’s close to Danny is that the dude hates changes. He likes constants in his life. The sky is blue, Sam is a proud vegan, Tucker loves meat, Jazz is a know-it-all, his parents hunt ghosts, and Randy is his friend from summer camp. 

He’s just happy that the change from human to half-ghost was at least tolerable, but that was only because his friends were there to help him out…mostly. 

“Danny-boy there you are!” His head snaps up to see everyone already at the table, with the exception of Randy, he was still missing. June looked towards Danny and Vlad before speaking. 

“Danny, I thought you were with Randy?”

“He was,” Randy said from behind, Danny’s eyes widened when he looked at the state his friend was in as a chill went up his spine.  “I just had to use the bathroom and got lost, my bad.” Randy was favoring his left leg, his jacket and messenger bag are missing, and there were a couple bruises and scrapes around his arms and face. 

June let out a gasp, “Randy what happened to you!” She ran over to her son who tried to brush his mom off. 

“Mom it’s no big deal, I just tripped and fell down the stairs. You know how clumsy I can be.” The purple-hair teen let out an uneasy laugh before his eyes landed on Vlad. If looks could kill. 

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that young Reginald.” 

His glare got deeper, “It’s Randy.” 

“Whatever.” Vlad then handed Randy back his bag (how did that get into his hands?) before giving it back to Randy. 

“I would advise you young man to keep your belongings with you at all times, you don’t want to lose anything of value, now do you.” Vlad’s smirks widen, and Randy’s face seems to whiten- his eyes widen in fear. 

“Ta for now.” Vlad left, and Randy was searching for something in his bag, somehow growing paler than before. 

“Randy, you don’t look so good, you’ve gone all clammy.” His mother touched the back of her hand towards Randy’s forehead. Randy mutters something about how he’s going to throw up, before fainting. 

To say the least, dinner was ruined, and Danny is trying to not go into panic mode as everyone crowds around Randy. 

Randy woke up to the sound of whispering. He can feel the unfamiliar bed underneath his body, his mother snores, and very familiar voices. The same voices belong to the one of the vultures who promised to take care of some woman. 

Mom!

Randy crawled off the Hotel’s bed. Putting on his mask and leaping into action. He didn’t say a word as he used a ninja net bomb to capture a vulture in one fell sweep. Unlike when Randy first spied on the bird, they weren’t able to get out and it looked like it was trying to get out. Randy glared at the bird before seeing a window. 

Randy quietly opened the window, before sneaking out and jumping to the roof and trying to see where to go next. 

Colorful arrow doodles seem to point a certain direction, seeing this as a sign Randy leapt off, net and vulture in tow. It took five minutes to run back to the castle. Jumping from ledge to ledge. Looking from window to window, until he finally found what he wanted.

He smashed into what looked like a study, a bear rug was in the middle, the fireplace roaring, and an occupied chair. It was Vlad Master, a cold smile on his face, stroking a very familiar red and black book. 

“Ah, young Reginald, perfect timing. I have a proposition for you.” Fangs poked out, something that no human should have. 

Randy would just like to say, he totally called it. 

Chapter Text

Tomorrow has to be perfect, Vlad can’t afford to have this plan-his plan- to have any holes, nor imperfections. Any misstep could spell disaster, throwing his whole future in jeopardy and Vlad will not waste this second chance. After all, if it’s for Maddie then Vlad will stop at nothing until she is rightfully his. 

He knows he could provide her with everything her heart desires, he has both the money and power to achieve that, something that Jack Fenton sorelylacks. 

The kids however, do throw a metaphorical wrench in his plans, unfortunately. When he first scoured the internet to find where Maddie was these days, he did not expect her to be married to the buffoon of all people, much less have-not one- but two children with that fudge-loving freak! At least he could see the potential in Jazz; intelligent, sophisticated, very much showcasing all of Maddie’s amazing, perfect qualities. That Daniel though lacks, sure he gets above average grades in his classes, but that’s barely attaining the bare minimum for Vlad to accept him as one of his own. Besides, he looks so much like Jack that Vlad can’t help but shudder in disgust whenever Danny walks into a room. 

But while he couldn’t find any more sufficient data on the young boy, he still held off from… taking care of him, wanting to at least get rid of Jack before anything else. He’s glad in a way that he held off from getting rid of the boy first, there’s something about him that strikes Vlad, a sort of kinship perhaps. Especially since him and his ‘friend’- what was his name? Reginald seems to remind him so much of his own reluctant relationship with Jack. 

It’s possible that he could mold the boy, take him under his wing and teach him. He knows that if someone did that to him when he was younger, Vlad would have appreciated it. Besides, while Daniel may seem to share multiple physical similarities with the man who ruined his future, that certainly doesn’t mean the boy is a carbon copy of him.  

With a plan in mind Vlad turned into his ghostly half, reveling in the power that is now just a snap away. It has taken him almost fifteen years to fully master his powers and he has learned so much since then. 

Without even trying, the man cloned himself, quickly ordering him to see if young Daniel needed anything. The clone simply nodded and disappeared to complete his task. 

Now if only his minions were like that. 

Just as he was about to transform back, his ghost portal opened. He didn’t even need to turn around to know who just floated into the room. 

“Ah my dear friends, you’re late.” He turns, giving the three vultures a glare, but if they were scared of him, they didn’t give it away. 

“Well sorry Mister big, scary, and blue, we’ve got turned around!” 

“Yeah,” The vulture with the glasses commented, “Your directions stink. We ended up in the Antarctic thanks to you.” Ugh, why did he have to hire these idiots. 

“Oh whatever, come we have much to discuss.” He flew through the hallways towards the entrance to the West Wing library. 

“Thanks to you bozos, Jack Fenton is still alive. But fortunately he’s still stupid enough to come here, which means you three still have one more chance to get rid of him.” He triggers the door to open, the fireplace descending slowly. Apparently though, someone wasn’t fast enough, Vlad could have sworn he saw something going up. Almost like they were climbing one of columns of his library.  

How peculiar. 

The four ghosts moved farther into the room, till Vlad reached the center. He wanted to make sure he had a perfect vantage point without raising suspicion to the possible intruder. “I would also like you to take care of a woman called June Miyagi for me, she’s the other black haired individual. She has been interfering in my relationship with Maddie for as long as I can remember, and I want that to stop.” He then gave the birds a smirk. 

Somewhere from above and behind him, he could hear the soft footfalls of someone landing on the second floor, ...deal with them, I don’t care how, just get it done tonight! I have waited long enough and I don’t want those two hindering my plans.” The ghost then turned to face the intruder, he could barely make out a shape near the far ends of the second floor, shrouded in shadows. This was all the confirmation he needed. His smirk grew before vanishing when one of the bird-brains spoke. 

“But vhat about da kid?” One of the birds asked. 

“Hmmm, it’s obvious that the young Fenton boy is fond of him and there is something special about young Daniel. I just can’t put my finger on it.” He was silent for a couple seconds before he turned back to the birds.  “Keep him alive for now, Maybe rough him up just a little when you come for his mother. After All, no one disrespects Plasmius.” The birds nodded, before going invisible and flying off, now for the fool who dares to spy on him.  

“Come on out now, it’s no use hiding when I can obviously see you.”  

After all, what's the use in hiding?

The spy seemed to have the same thought, he even let out his own battle cry as three sharp disks went zipping right towards him. 

Oh, please. 

He yawned, turning invisible as the disks soared right through him and embedded themselves on his wall. The figure leapt down in a flashing display, even cartwheeling as he landed, a very familiar sword in his hand. One he had seen only once. Plasmius floated up and behind the ninja, inspecting the individual. He certainly looked different compared to the last time he saw them. More skinny and maybe a little shorter, definitely not as showy as the last time he remembered. 

And a bag around his shoulder, one that looks awfully familiar.

Oh, he could already feel the gears turning in his head. This has definitely peaked his interest. 

“Uh..where did he go?” The ninja muttered in confusion. 

Vlad shot a powerful ghost beam towards the Ninja, only being partly surprised when the Ninja didn’t move. Sure he knows that the Ninja is certainly more durable, but the last time he fought with him, the Ninja didn’t waste time to dodge his rays. He stopped, allowing the Ninja time to recover. 

The individual turned around swiftly, sword at the ready, being held by both- inexperienced- hands.  

“Ah, the Norrisvile Ninja,” Plasmius says,  “what a surprise. Usually you don’t leave your little city much these days.” 

The Ninja’s eyes widened in surprise, “You know about me?” He asked.

 Oh, he doesn’t remember? 

No, maybe the better question should be that he didn’t tell this ninja? 

“Of course an 800 year-old ninja, using his vast array of weapons protecting the town?” Instead of making it into his own image? He let out a laugh, “How quaint.” He says, sarcasm dripping from his mouth. 

“Yeah well, this 800 year-old ninja has some moves of his own. Ninja Dash!” Ugh and again with the battle cry, how childish.  

The ninja used one of the tables to leap up towards him, but he saw that coming and constructed a plasma shield. The ninja comically sliding down, slowly. Before he fell down onto the table below. 

But it didn’t seem like it affected the ninja that much, as he jumped into a defensive stance, sword at the ready. 

Truly this shall be an albeit easy, but entertaining fight. He allowed the ninja to have the first move. 

“Ninja Sword-Slash!” He jumped high in the air, quickly approaching, and easily missing when all Vlad needed to do was turn invisible. The ninja was stunned, even turning around before slamming body-first into the wall, it did shake a couple books out of place but details. 

“What, surprised that I could go intangible? Maybe this should jog your memory!” He zapped another powerful ray at the boy, laughing as the ninja flew and hit a bookcase. But the Ninja still got up and ran straight towards him, this time with a kunai. 

“Ninja kunai throw!”. 

“Honestly, your battle cries are cute, but predictable.” wanting to end it, Plasmius formed three more clones all circling around the ninja, putting as much power behind his beams as he could. Sure the ninja could withstand a powerful blast from just one powerful ghost, but how about three? 

He got his answer soon after, hearing the scream of pain brought satisfaction to his ears, knowing that he bested the ninja unlike so long ago when he went on his first outing as Vlad Plasmius. He was going to continue, until the ninja pleaded for mercy, when his eyes caught the satchel around the boy’s shoulders again. 

It looks familiar, belonging to his more recent memories. He knows who that bag is, but whose? It’s like his memories were hazy about the individual beneath the mask. 

Interesting, very interesting.

He and his clones stopped, allowing for a barely awake boy some time to breathe. Meanwhile Vlad ripped the strap from the bag, giving the book to another clone of his and giving the bag to the third one. His clone’s eyes widen and almost immediately merge back into him, memories snapping into place, memories of seeing a knapsack with papers stuffed in haphazardly with names scrawled on them. 

Randy Cunninham, they read.  

His eyes widened when he finally remembered. Gears snapping into place, and for the first time since he met this ninja, bafflement was coursing through his veins. 

Reginald, was the Norrisvile Ninja? And from the looks of it, he seems to have barely scratched the surface when it comes to his abilities. Which means it’ll be easy for Vlad to snatch the mask and take it as his own. 

A plan is forming, one that would make sure that tomorrow night won’t go without a hitch.

“It has been fun, ninja, but I'll be off. Places to go, people to see… you know how it is.” He gives the ninja a wave goodbye, using the hand that was clutching the bag, as his body turns to mist. “Ta’!”

We 

Randy would just like to say he called it, Vlad is a total James Bond villain. 

But that should be the last thing on Randy’s mind right now. 

“Okay first of all, my name isn’t Reginald and my name in no way starts with ‘R’, so just save all of us the trouble, leave innocent people alone and give me back that book!” He took out his sword. He was hoping having something pointy would at least make Masters feel more threatened, but really it seems to make the shoob laugh harder. 

Which Randy totally gets, if he could turn invisible and let objects fly through him, he too wouldn’t really feel threatened by a sword. In fact, Randy is kinda jealous if he was being honest with himself. 

“Oh but my dear Reginald-”

“Again, not Reginald.”

“Where’s the fun in that? It would just be a tad bit boring if I just give it to you. No, how about we play a game?”

Definitely a hard pass, Randy knows what happens when those words are said, and Randy would like to keep all his fingers and or not be slashed in half by a freaking saw. 

But, the book!

“Fine,” With a sigh, Randy reluctantly put away the sword. “What’s this ‘game’ you want to play?”

“ It’s simple really, we each both get five questions, I ask, you answer truthfully and I do the same to you. Truly it’s as simple as that.” Randy couldn’t help but feel like it really isn’t as simple as that, he’s seen enough TV to know that. So he has to figure out a way to- 

“Tik-Tok Mr. Cunningham.” He’s hovering the book over the fire of the study. 

“Fine, deal!” The teenager said. 

The logs in the fireplace crackled, shifting in the flames. It almost acted like a lightbulb because Randy just got an idea. 

“But I go first, deal?” Vlad looked at him for a second with an air of suspicion before nodding. 

“Cool, cool, cool, cool. So..uh my first question… what’s up with your hatred for Mr.Fenton?” And his weird infatuation with Mrs. Fenton, but he thinks that he would have a better chance if he didn’t ask that part. 

Vlad’s eyes widened before glaring at the boy. “Because Jack Fenton ruined my life!” Vlad slammed the Nomicon down against the small table near where Vlad was sitting. It made Randy wince. 

“It all started in freshman year of college,” Oh my god is he monologuing?

“But then of course Jack had to start a band, as if we didn’t reach the do social suicide enough times during earlier that year!”

Oh my god, he is monologuing.  

He even turned around which was great for Randy because now he can sneak easily towards the Nomicon. Randy quickly crept across the study, avoiding tripping on the bear rug on the ground, and careful as to avoid any loose planks. Until eventually he had the familiar book in his hands. 

“And don’t even get me started on the time he made me into this!” A black glowing ring circled around the old man until he was in that weird, freaky ( but so cool), alter ego form from earlier today again. 

Vlad looked like he was about to turn around making Randy Panic. The door was right there!  “Oh yeah, how could he do that to you?” He went on, “Hey quick question, how did he do that to you?” That seemed to distract Vlad well enough, ranting about something or other about Jack turning on a mini Fenton-Portal and giving him Ecto-acne, dumping his social life and turning him into a half-ghost. 

Wait, does that mean that the Fenton’s portal could also turn him into a half ghost? Also would it hurt? But also also can he at least try it- just once? 

He went to open the door, he got what he came for, and freedom was in his grasp. 

So sue Randy for being just a little but petty. 

He went and opened the door, “Well this has been fun Vlad,” That made Vlad pause in his monologue. The ghost’s head snapped around and Randy will forever treasure the look on his face. Priceless. “ but I'll be off. Places to go, people to see… you know how it is.” He gives Vlad a wave goodbye as he runs out the door. “Ta’!” Vlad gives a yell and Randy picks up the pace.

“Gotta go! Gotta Go! Gotta go!” His eyes moved side to side checking frantically for an escape while the half-ghost kept gaining on him. Luckily the universe seemed to be on his side tonight because he just ran into a hallway with windows. 

Unluckily he ran into another person. 

“OOF!”

Danny is having such a great time! He’s totally being a hundred percent honest and not being sarcastic at all. After all, it’s not everyday you go to a nice castle that’s owned by this creepy dude who makes these weird comments and gives even weirder looks towards his mom. Or the fact that his friend just fainted out of nowhere, and said creepy dude just smirked. Or even the fact that Danny woke up at 3 in the morning due to his ghost sense. And guess what! Those vultures from Amity, they followed his dad here and were about to kill him. 

So yeah, Danny’s having a great time, a splendid time, a joyous time being a state away from his home.  

…

Okay fine, Danny was being sarcastic. But Danny deserves to be a little sarcastic damnit! It hasn’t even been a full day since they all got here and already shit has hit the fan!

At least he could take out his frustration on the two birds that were trying to kill his dad, he’s not sure where the other one was but from what he knows about the birds so far is that they always seem to be together. So not seeing one of them is a little concerning. 

But Danny is going to be a little positive so he won’t freak out. Maybe the bird became fried chicken to some ghosts, maybe he was bothering someone else, or maybe the old bird-brain just forgot to take his nap. It could be any of those things. That’s what Danny had to remind himself as he set his dad down before phasing through the floor. 

Danny found the two birds instantly, already gearing up to phase through to get away. But Danny was tired, he wanted to go back to his king sized bed, and he wanted these stupid birds to stop attacking his dad.

So excuse Danny for being a little happy that he gets to BBQ these vultures. 

“Hi guys!” He shouted as the two birds simply glared at him, making him smirk wider. “Remember me?” He slammed his fist into his other hand. The two birds glared, floating off from the ground and were about to fly towards him when they paused and simply looked down the hallway with wide eyes. 

Danny looked at the two birds in confusion. Just what were they looking at. 

“Gotta go! Gotta Go! Gotta Go!” What? 

Danny just had enough time to turn his head before something solid ran into him, tumbling both of them to the ground. Danny landed on the ground head first, a book slamming on top of his head and the other body landing right on top of him. The birds snickered before Danny heard the telltale woosh that signaled they got away. Which of course they did, because it was that kind of night. 

“Ugh what the juice?” He heard the person mutter, a very familiar person. Danny’s eyes widen before phasing out from the ground eliciting an ‘oof’ from the person. Danny was about to say something, a name on the tip of his tongue when he spotted a red and black color scheme. Upon his second look at the dude, it was obvious he was cosplaying as a ninja… a very obnoxious ninja it’s almost like- 

His mind drew a blank as to what he was gonna say next. All that really came to mind was the earlier anger and frustration when he heard the vultures getting away. 

He couldn’t help but shout, “What the hell’s your problem dude!” The ninja cosplayer seemed to stare at him for a few seconds with this weird look on his face, before shaking his head vigorously and giving a glare right back. 

“What the hell’s my problem? YOU were in the way!”

“Oh real mature,” Danny rolled his eyes, “Maybe next time you should look where you’re going instead of screaming at the top of your lungs!” The cosplayer rolled his eyes. 

“Oh, please. I’m a ninja, I’m probably the quietest thing you're going to get.” Danny felt his eye twitch. 

“Oh you’re a ninja? Well, maybe you should act like one and disappear.” If he could actually do that. 

“Gladly…as soon as I find the Nomicon.” The Ninja sniffed before looking around him, spinning around in a circle and stopping. His eyes widened a second later. 

“Oh sweet cheese, the book is missing!” 

“What’s so special about some books?” The ninja gave Danny a fierce glare, one that oddly gave him a chill down his spine (he didn’t even know that could happen). Suddenly his ghost sense went off. 

“Oh, you mean this book?” Both ghost and ninja looked over to see one of the vultures having the book in their beak. The vulture dropped it into the newcomer’s hands before disappearing. 

“Y’know Ninja, I was going to give back to you, scouts honor.” The ninja muttered, ‘yeah right.’ but it seemed like it fell on deaf ears when it came to the blue-skinned ghost. 

“And who’re you supposed to be, Count Chocula?” Danny asked. 

“Uh… yeah, I’m pretty sure Count Chocula doesn’t have blue skin”

“Shut up, I’m trying to be funny here.” 

The ghost smirked, “You may call me Plasmius. No, no, no need for introductions, you’re that ghost kid from Amity Park.” That seemed to pique Danny’s interest. 

“Wait, you know about me?”

“Course I do, like the Norrisvile Ninja you use your powers for good. How quaint and naive.'' Wait did he say that dude was the Norrisville Ninja?  

Plasmius acted quicker than Danny expected, throwing an ecto-blast straight at Danny, who was forcefully pulled to the side at the last second by the Norrisvile ninja. When the dust settled Danny took a hold of the ninja before phasing through the walls. The ninja let out a yelp, looking at his hands and looking like he was a second away from freaking out before they turned back to solid. 

The Ninja simply stared into space, “Well, that’s weird.” It seems like the Ninja was in shock. 

But Danny pushed through that, grabbing the Ninja’s shoulders and shaking him vigorously because he was also in shock. Unbelievable shock because.. 

“YOU'RE THE NORRISVILE NINJA!” He exists?! The Ninja has been alive for more than 800 years and he’s not a ghost! What the fu-

“Y-y-you can s-stop s-sh-shaking me now!” 

“You exist!” Shouts as he finally lets go of the Ninja. 

A pink ecto-blast was fired in between them, with a very annoyed Plasmius looking straight at them. 

Wrong place and time Danny, super villain ghost on the loose, remember? 

Danny quickly flew up to the ghost, throwing a punch. Only to be caught in Plasmius' hands. He was fast, so fast that Danny didn’t notice he was being thrown until his back connects to the wall. Concrete and stone digging into his back, knocking any air out of his lungs if he was still breathing. 

“Okay, wow that was fast. Time to stop messing around.” Punching it, Danny allowing heat and energy to swirl in his hands aiming straight towards the ghost and- 

Plasmius blocked it with an ecto-shield before sending one of his own ecto-blasts towards Danny hitting him right in the center of his chest making him crash land right by the ninja. Danny let out a groan, his hand touching his head to make the world stop spinning. Once his head cleared up a bit he noticed the ninja crouched right beside him. 

“Uh, yeah so if you’re actually done messing around now, that would be great because I kinda need that book back so-” Is he being serious. 

“Then it would be great if you could actually help!” Some ninja he is, he thought as he flew up and fought Plasmius only to be  thrown towards a wall again. This time he saw it coming though, turning intangible and flying straight towards a library. Plasmius soon followed, along with the Ninja, who kicked open the doors. One of them being thrown off his hinges. 

Plasmius seemed to hate that for some reason, giving a growl before…his body splits, turning into two clones, one of them flying straight towards the ninja while the other looks straight at him. 

Danny can’t even begin to process how unfair that is. 

Because seriously, how is that fair?! 

“You can create clones!” Danny gave out a shout. 

“Oh what, did the ghost boy not know about that?” He smiled at the teen condescendly as two more of his clones appeared surrounding the teen as they did so, “This is after years of practice, boy.” All of them spoke at once, all three readying an ecto-blast.  

Danny got two ecto-blasts ready, but hesitates to throw it. He doesn’t know who to aim it at first, knowing that if he gets two of them he would be open for the third one to get him. But, he might as well aim for the original, maybe then the two copies would disappear if he does that. But just as he was about to fire something caught all of their attention. 

“Ninja Net-ball!”  One of the clones let out a curse before a giant net seemed to come from out of nowhere and captured him. The other two clones and Danny look to see a smug Ninja Dragging the clone towards where another lump of netting was by, most likely the other clone. 

“Wow, I did not think that was going to work!” 

Danny flew over towards the Ninja, “What do you mean you didn’t know it was going to work?” The Ninja shrugs. 

“I mean it sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. What else do you want me to say!” Both heroes started to run towards the other two clones, sword and ecto-blast at the ready. 

“I mean this is my first time fighting ghosts, it’s not like I have instructions on how to beat them!” The Ninja barley just dodged a blast from his Plasmius, only to stop, his eyes widening and looking towards Danny’s own right where the book was supposed to be.

“Oh come on!” He shouted, leaving Danny very much confused. 

But fine, whatever. Danny owes him anyways from saving his butt anyways. Danny flew around his Plasmius again. Aiming straight for the hand. Fortunately his aim has been improving, hitting it right on target. The man let out a hiss, dropping the book onto one of the many tables around the area. Randy caught on quickly, diving towards the book with a clone closely following him. The Ninja, now with the book in his hands, yells out ‘smoke bomb!’ Clouding the room in a cloud of red and burning Danny’s nose  with his horrific odor. 

Ugh, Danny wants out of this room, pronto. 

He quickly flies out of the room, and goes back to the room he’s staying in and quickly transforms back to his human self. Which sometimes Danny absolutely hates because whenever he does, it’s like his energy is zapped out of him. During his first big fight with the lunch lady, Danny passed out after changing back to his human form. And though he no longer faints from in between forms, he still feels the drawbacks of getting injured or pushing too hard in his ghost form. 

“Oof!” Like not feeling his legs. Definitely something that he should have been expecting. 

Well, at least he fell on his bed, so that’s a bonus. 

---

“Hey V-man, how’s it shaking?” 

“Out of my way Jack.” It’s been obvious since earlier this morning that Vlad Masters has been a little…off, well more than usual. Being extra snappy with Jack, giving Danny these weird looks, but he’s been ignoring mom so Danny can’t really complain. 

Vlad pushed the crowd of people away as he made it out of the ballroom, heading towards somewhere. Danny couldn’t help but swirl his punch before taking a sip. So far this whole party has been kinda okayish, but it didn’t stop Danny from getting bored thirty minutes in. Maybe he should go towards the theater and just watch old football reals like Jazz, or maybe he could sneak off, go back to the library and investigate this new ghost. Plasmius has to be nearby, maybe he’s a ghost that used to live here or something? But then if he used to live here, what’s with all the pictures about a pudgy guy with a cheese hat? That’s kind of weird. 

“Danny!” The teen turned around to see Ms. Myagi in a white suit and a fancy purple blouse that seemed to almost match her hair, all while wearing an easy-going smile, “Oh don’t you look adorable in that suit and tie of yours! Very snazzy.” 

Danny rolled his eyes fondly, “Thanks Ms. Miyagi.” Danny couldn’t help but look around before looking at Randy’s mom with a frown. 

“But, where’s Randy?” Ms. Myagi’s smile dropped, just a little. 

“Still sick I’m afraid. He wouldn’t even move a muscle when I told him about going to the party. It’s like his whole body has been drained or something.” Well Danny could relate to that.  Ms. Myagi looked like she was contemplating about saying something, before shaking her head and looking towards Danny. 

“Danny, do you by any chance know why Randy has been acting a little strange?” Danny’s eyes widened at that, so it wasn’t just him he was acting strange it seems. 

“N-not really Miss. Myagi.” Danny didn’t know how his friend’s mom would react, but if it means finding out more about Randy’s strange behavior, “He actually hasn’t been responding to any of my texts or calls until recently… do you know what’s going on.” 

Ms. Myagi went to open her mouth, only for her face to crunch up in a scowl glaring right behind him. 

“Ah, young Daniel, how are you enjoying this party?” Vlad smiled, a sharp tooth poking out, one that made Danny experience some Deja Vu. 

“Uh, it’s going great Mister Masters, but-” 

“Great!” A new song came on eliciting a shout from his dad. Everyone turned around to see his dad start dancing. Jumping up and down, much to his mom’s exasperation and to Danny’s embarrassment. 

“Right…as I was saying Daniel, I have a favor for you. I need you to go downstairs and grab a present for your father. Could you do that my boy?” Vlad patted on his shoulder. For some reason, that put him on edge, alarm bells were ringing in his head and a small chill went through his spine, just like yesterday when Vlad touched his shoulder in the halls. 

Something isn’t right. But Danny can’t be sure until he does a little searching of his own. 

“Sure,” Ms. Myagi started talking, but Danny ignored that, already heading towards the stairs. Unaware of what’s about to go down tonight. 

The ninja suit has to be some sort of energy-sucking-vampire…thing because even after sleeping for most of yesterday and the day before his limbs still feel like lead, and he still looks like a step away from death. 

“It’s like a muscle, you’ll get used to it.” That’s what River, the curvy doodle-ninja, said once after Randy complained about it to her during his probation. 

And the only thing Randy wanted to say to that is that it has to be BS. Because there is no way Randy is going to keep doing this until he ‘gets used to it’. No he refused. 

Actually that’s a lie, he will keep doing it. 

“Randy, sweetie, it’s time to leave!” Yelled his mom. 

“Sure, coming.” Randy quickly packed away his stuff before looking over towards the Nomicon. It’s been unusually silent since Randy rescued it from Vlad and Randy isn’t sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Randy gently put it back into his bag, clutching the strap like it was his life-line before following his mom out of the Hotel and into the car. Their flight leaves in six hours, and since his mom found this cool town a couple miles down, they thought it would be best to spend an hour or two getting breakfast. But before that his mom was very adamant on seeing the Fentons off. 

“And I want you to apologize to Danny, young man. It’s not like you to just ditch your friend out of the blue like that Randy and it was awfully rude.” All Randy could do was huff out a small breath as he sunk lower into his seat. Yes, Randy knows he’s being a shoob. He’s well aware of that. But Randy really doesn’t want to see Danny right now, he doesn’t want to know that his friend was mad at him. 

But Randy has no say in this, and he knows his mom is right about talking to Danny. Maybe he could straighten things out preferably without him talking about his secret identity. 

They arrived at the castle, just in time to see Danny and the rest of the Fentons loading the last of their luggage into the Fenton RV. The mother and son got out of their rental as they made their way towards the family of four. His mom and Mister and Mrs.Fenton giving each other hugs or pats on the back and saying how they should totally come visit each other, Jazz gave a small wave towards him and his mom. Randy took a deep breath before slowly making his way towards Danny, who gave him a flat look, his arms crossed and looking like a disappointed parent. 

“Look,” Randy began, “I’m sorry for ditching you the other day, that wasn’t cool of me. And I’m sorry about being a shoob and ghosting you. I know it wasn’t cool of me but I’ve been going through some stuff and…yeah.” Randy couldn’t look at Danny in the eyes, not wanting to see anything that was similar to anger in them. 

Danny took a deep breath and Randy tensed. 

“Okay.” 

Randy shot his head up and gave Danny a bewildered look. “Okay…” Randy repeated. 

“That’s all you have to say.” Danny huffed out a laugh, his body relaxing once again. 

“Yeah, me and your mom talked last night about it.” 

“I didn’t know that, I’ll get from her convo this morning that a ghost possessed your dad.” Wait hold on a second, “Your dad was possessed by a ghost?!” He shook Danny furiously, just like how that weird ghost kid did the other night. All the while Danny let out a laugh, pushing Randy away. 

“Yeah, well it wasn’t as cool when it was happening. But yeah.” 

“AWW!” Randy let out a groan, “Can’t believe I missed it!” 

“Do you know what you also missed?” Danny asked as they both leaned onto the side of the Fenton RV. 

“The Norrisvile Ninja was here the other night- dude you were right, he does exist.” Randy’s first thought was to shout HA! At Danny and to do his victory dance even though he knew that his muscles would scream in protest. 

But then his second thought confused him, how did he not notice Danny that night? He would have seen Danny in a heartbeat if he did. But oh well, best for Randy not to question him or else Danny would get suspicious. 

So instead he forces down his confusion and gives Danny a big smile, “So what’cha think? He’s pretty cool, right?” 

Danny makes a so-so motion with one of his hands, “Eh, pretty talkative for a ninja, that’s for sure. But he seems…okay.” 

They talked for a few moments, Randy asking where Vlad was, Danny saying he doesn’t know nor does he care. 

“That dude is a mega-fruit loop. If I see him again, it’ll be too soon.” 

Randy snorts, “Yeah you said it.” 

“Alright Fentons, let's get this show on the road!” MrFenton called out. 

A second later his mom yelled, “You too Randy, we gotta make sure we eat before going on that flight!” 

“Okay mom!” Randy gave a quick fist-bump to Danny, who returned it without hesitation. Randy was starting to make his way towards his mom when Danny called out his name. 

“You know you could tell me anything, right Randy?” Randy could only give him a small smile before promising to text him when they land back in Norrisvile. Obviously trying to change the subject.

Because he doesn’t think Danny will ever understand this. 

Chapter Text

Danny can’t sleep.
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It’s three-twenty in the morning and Danny can’t sleep.
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And boy was Danny tired.

All Danny wants is to go to sleep, he wants to close his eyes, even out his breaths, and dream of whatever.

Danny is tired and he can’t sleep.

It’s not the usual kind, where insomnia hits him like a train and no matter how hard he tries, sleep is just out of his reach.

No, it’s because his body is too loud.

He could hear his heart-beat. Beating so slow that Danny would almost think it’s not beating at all.

He could hear his blood flowing, like water sloshing in a cup.

He could hear his lungs with each inhale and exhale, the squelching of the muscle as the air sacs filled up.

He could hear every miniscule movement of his muscles, the sound of his breaths becoming more rapid as he took it all in while panic rises with each thought.

He could hear his body, every single part of it, down to the electricity firing in his neurons. And all the while his mind begins to buzz with racing thoughts. All the what-ifs flying through his mind, it’s giving him a migraine to just keep up.

What happens if he actually dies in his human form?

What if he can’t change back? Will he just be a ghost, forever?

What will his parents think?

Does he even want to tell them?

His parents are ghost hunting fanatics, they would shoot at anything if they believed there was a ghost in the area.

But would that just mean that they would shoot at Danny too?

Would they shoot at their own son?

A part of Danny hopes not, he doesn’t think he could handle being on the other side of the barrel while his parents are firing at him.

Just imagining it, his dad or even his mom, sends him into another panic spiral.

It feels like the walls are closing in on him and his parents look at him with so much hate in their eyes.

His heart rate picks up closer to a normal human's heart beat as he imagines his parents aiming a blaster right at his center.

BAM!

His breaths become harder to control, coming in and out at such a rapid succession that it sends him deeper into the spiral, deeper into his thoughts and scenarios, each one more disastrous than the last. His tears start to sting and his sight becomes blurry, and his breaths turn into hiccups and he just sobs.

Because he is now what his parents hate the most.

Because he hasn’t slept for three days and he feels like death.

Because he is dead, he died in that portal.

Who knew that such a small decision could make such a big impact in someone's life. Change the course of someone's life in an instant.

What happens if he dies in his human form?

His mind can’t help circle back to that. But he can’t afford to spiral once again so instead he stuffs it down. He forces himself to calm his breathing, struggling with each breath, he clenches and unclenches his fists, a faint stinging pain was all that was left.

(At least he can still feel pain.)

(At least he could feel human-ish when he feels the pain.)

Sometime between evening out his breaths and when the tears stop flowing he passes the fuck out. And he takes it, he grabs onto the heavy weight of unconsciousness like it was this treasure that he’s been seeking out for the longest time.

He lets out a sigh of relief when he finally closes his eyes.

Chapter Text

Something is off…Jazz can’t really put her finger on what it is, but something is definitely off.

More specifically something is off with Danny. 

Now listen, Danny is many things. He’s obnoxious, annoying, immature, and would rather play video games than study for like 95% of the time. But if there is one thing Jazz knows about her little brother is that Danny is really bad at lying. Like that one time, Danny tried to hide he took off one of Bear-bert's eyes, or that one time Danny tried to hide the fact he broke one of grandma's vases when they visited her, and so much more that it would take Jazz forever to list it all. Maybe it’s because Jazz is studying to be a future psychologist, maybe it’s because Jazz knows Danny so well, or maybe everyone is just oblivious and Jazz is the only one observant enough to know something is going on. The point is, Jazz knows that Danny is hiding something. 

But what it is, is a mystery to the sixteen year-old and whatever it is it’s obvious that it’s hurting Danny. Her brother has been more snappish recently and brooding too- which is new. It’s like he’s a whole different person and Jazz doesn’t like it. 

Which is why Jazz is going to get to the bottom of this and help her brother get through whatever he is going through!

The only way to do that is by talking to Danny, which is why Jazz planned three days in advance for this. For the past few days, Jazz has been asking easy questions, like how school been going? Was there anything interesting happening that day? And after three days of this, she's pretty sure she wore Danny down. Which leads to phase two of her plan, after breakfast Jazz would offer to take Danny to school. They'll have a talk in the care and hopefully when Danny sees that Jazz is just worried and concerned he’ll tell her what's been bothering him and they can go from there. 

This is going to work, she repeated in her mind as she made her way down the stairs and to the kitchen. On the way she said good morning to her mom, who was making her way downstairs to the lab with a cup of coffee in her hands. She said hi to her dad while he was working on some invention (she will stay as far as she could while finishing up her cereal), and she said good morning to- 

An empty chair. 

Wait, where’s Danny? 

“Dad, have you seen Danny?” Jazz asks. 

Her dad let out a hum, screwing a screw into a circuit board, “Can’t say I have princess- but look at this!” He shoves what looks like the Fenton Ghost Finder into her face, almost smacking her nose in the process. 

“Guess who finally managed to update the software of this baby? That’s right, me!” He let out a laugh before turning the thing on. “Now hopefully it can attune to a ghost signature instead of Danny-boy.” He looks at the deceive with a confused look on his face. “For some reason it just keeps reading him for some unknown reason. Hmm, weird.” he says before going back to finishing the circuits. 

Jazz couldn't help but roll her eyes at her dad's antics, Obviously it doesn't work because ghosts don’t exist. 

Or well, maybe ghosts don’t exist, and that a maybe. But isn’t that strange? For most of her life Jazz has never believed in ghosts, there have been many scholarly articles that Jazz has read over the years and each one just pointed towards the fact that ghosts can’t possibly be real. 

But there were other possibilities that could have happened on that day when someone went invisible and took her dad’s little thermos instead of it being a ghost like her father claimed. 

So, until Jazz stumbles up solid proof that ghosts do exist, she’s just going to deny it and move on with her life. After all, what are the chances that she’ll stumble upon a ghost anyways?

After Jazz finished her food, she made the decision that she would simply just talk with Danny when he gets to school. She'll just have to wait in her car until Danny comes to school. Except Danny was already there when she got to school and it just seems like the universe is doing everything in its power to make sure Jazz doesn’t talk to Danny. Like a large crowd getting in between Danny and Jazz before school started, her friends from the debate team dragged her to a last minute meeting, and the yearbook committee had an issue with one of the layouts, which caused her to waste another break in between classes. 

But that’s fine, Jazz has contingencies in place if plan A didn’t work out. Jazz is not that naïve to know that life doesn’t work out like that, you just have to roll with the punches. 

So during lunch, Jazz went to look for Danny's homeroom teacher. She checked his classroom, his office, and even used her pass to look into the teacher’s lounge, but Mr. Lancer wasn’t there either. 

“Hey, did you hear?” 

“You mean Mr. Lancer’s weird cheer-thing going on outside? Yeah, got it all on video.” 

“Dude, send that to me that shit is so funny.”

Right, Spirit Week, Mr. Lancer has always been passionate about the week, it’s the only time he doesn’t give out homework. It didn’t take long for Jazz to find Mr. Lancer after that, finding him jumping on a trampoline with pom-poms in hand, and a big old smile on his face. 

“Hey Mr. Lancer, do you think we could talk for a second?” The teacher finished his cheer and landed right next to Jazz. 

“Ah, Jasmine Fenton, don’t you love Spirit Week? The pomp, the circumstance, but more importantly the spirit sparkles?” His arms were stretched out at an angle, doing jazz hands as if to imitate the sparkers. 

“Uh, yeah it's all great Mr. Lancer! But listen-” 

“In fact Jasmine, did you know I was part of the cheer squad back when I was your age.” He even took out an old photo to emphasize his point. 

Oh god, why did this have to happen to her? 

“Uh… nice?” That seemed to be the right answer, the teacher nodded his head in agreement and started to make his way back inside the school building before he turned back towards her.  

“Anyway, you were saying?” 

“Oh right!” Jazz quickly followed Mr. Lancer down the halls of the school building as she explained her concerns to her brother. 

“I’m concerned about Danny, lately it seems like he’s a different person and I’m just worried. I was hoping you could talk to him and see what’s going on? Obviously I know you won’t tell me what it is if Danny does tell you… but I just want someone who he could confide in. I just don’t want all of this to fester and get him in trouble.” 

That earned Jazz a huff from Mr. Lancer, “Jasmine, while it is admirable that you’re worried and looking out for your brother I think you may need to have more faith in Danny.” 

Jazz went to open her mouth, because no that’s definitely not a problem. Jazz has a lot of faith when it comes to their brother, she will always be in his corner no matter what he does. 

They turn a corner. 

Mr. Lancer continues, “Sure, Fenton has been struggling these past couple of months but he is an overall good kid.” They stopped in front of his office. 

“I will talk to him, Jasmine. But I truly do believe that Danny is fine.” He went to open the door and both Jazz and Mr. Lancer couldn’t help but let out a gasp when they saw the teacher’s office in shambles. There were even cracks up in the ceiling. Who could do such a thing and how? 

And that’s when her eyes zeroed in on her brother, wide eyed and looking like he was not expecting them. 

But he quickly recovered, glaring up at the ceiling saying something under his breath. 

A chunk of ceiling fell down, cracking on the floor, that seemed to have been the final straw for Mr. Lance, who looked like he was seconds away from exploding. 

“Pride and Prejudice! Fenton, what is the meaning of this?” 

Danny stutters, “We-well um, Jazz what are you doing here?” Bad time to change the subject Danny. 

It seems that Mr. Lancer also agreed and looking like he was at his wits end, looks like she may have to intervene before Danny gets into some real trouble. 

“Oh my, what’s going on over here?” All three turn their attention to a woman standing in the middle of the hall. She was a rather tall woman, wearing a red coat and a red skirt, with sunglasses covering her eyes. 

Jazz first thought was, who wears sunglasses inside?  

Jazz's second thought then was, she has ever seen this person before.

But it seems like Mr. Lancer does. 

“Ah, Ms. Spectra perfect timing actually. Why don’t we go to your office since someone had to wreck mine.” Ms. Spectra simply nodded, guiding the three to her office. Once Ms. Spectra opened the door and Jazz was immediately blasted with A/C. The sudden rush of cold hair even made her hair fly a bit before settling. 

Jazz shivered, “Do you have to have this room so cold?” She doesn’t mean to be rude, but she could see her own breath and could feel goosebumps forming along her arms. Who would even turn on the A/C? It's the middle of October.  

“But of course!” Ms. Spectra smiled, “I find that the cold keeps the mind sharp! Now please why don’t we all sit down and talk about whatever just happened.” 

 Jazz sat down on one of the seats, but Danny didn't; he continued to stay where he was, standing behind a chair and glaring at the floor. It was only to do Mr. Lancer clearing his throat for Danny finally slump down to his seat. 

“Children, this is Ms. Spectra. She’s our new school counselor sent by the district. Ms. Spectra this is Jasmine and Danny Fenton- he’s the student that wrecked my office.” 

“I didn’t even do anything!” Danny shouted, shooting out of his seat. Jasmine was about to calm Danny down but it seems like Ms. Spectra was taking care of it. Pushing Danny gently down while Danny responded with little resistance. 

“Hey it’s no big, stuff happens, right Jasmine?” The woman sent a wink and a finger gun her way. 

Jazz simply smiled, “It’s Jazz. My friends call me Jazz.” After all, she was helping to get Danny out of trouble, the least she could do was stay on friendly terms with her. 

“Yeah. Well, your brother calls you a jerk.” But Danny is not making this any easier. 

Jazz couldn’t help but glare at Danny, “Danny, I’m just trying to help. You’ve been acting all weird for the past few weeks, I’m just worried.” That seemed to elicit a response from her brother, not one that was pleasant though. Danny’s face seemed to have paled and he couldn’t stop himself from looking away from her and rubbing his arm. One of Danny’s signs that he is definitely hiding something. 

Jazz frowned at that, it hurts to know that Danny is keeping something from her when he wouldn’t have done that when they were younger. Mr. Lancer sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Fenton, why don’t you go to your class, I’m pretty sure I’ll create a fitting punishment by sixth period.” Danny simply scowls before leaving in a huff and slamming the office door shut. 

“Sorry about that,” Mr. Lancer says, “Unlike her brother,” Not sure she should be here either if you’re going to talk about her brother like that Mr. Lancer, “Jazz is one of Casper’s best. In fact she will be giving a speech to the student body at our Spirit-a-thon on Wednesday.” 

“Oh that’s wonderful Jazz! You must be very proud, I know I am when it comes to ‘raising the roof’ when it comes to students attitude!” On the wall there were several pictures of Ms. Spectra and students, even an award from the district.

Which gave Jazz an idea. 

“Thanks Ms. Spectra,” She then turns her attention to the freshmen teacher. “And Mr. Lancer, I believe that I may have an idea on the punishment you could give to Danny.” 

Mr. Lancer let out a hum, scratching his chin before looking at Jazz. “I’m listening.” 

Jazz knows that forcing someone to go see a counselor is a bad idea, especially if that person doesn’t want it in the first place. But Danny isn’t being very cooperative which is leaving her with a couple of options, this just seem like the best one for the moment. Besides Danny will thank her later when he gets some stuff off his chest, she knows she will. Jazz was walking down the hallway, almost bumping into someone that was putting up flyers for the annual Mid-States Unity Week Trip when she saw Danny and his friends walking her way. 

“Are you sure Jazz said that? That doesn’t sound like Jazz to me.” What doesn’t sound like Jazz?

“Hey, you guys.” She stopped right in front of the trio, curious about what they were talking about. “What doesn’t sound like Jazz to you?” 

Danny shot Jazz a glare, one she hasn’t seen since Jazz let it slip that he still sleeps with a teddy bear to Randy when the boys were 12. It's frustrating to Jazz that Danny is making her out to be the villain, something Jazz has always been frustrated about, can’t he see that she’s trying to help him? 

“Are you still mad?” Jazz couldn’t help but ask. 

“Wow, you really are the smart one, aren’t you?” Danny sarcastically says. And yes, Jazz gets it, she truly understands why Danny is mad- she would be too if her parents forced her to do something she doesn’t want to do. But this is good for Danny, why can’t he see that? 

“Danny, I know that your angry but-” 

“Yes I know, you're concerned, worried, or whatever. And while I’m sure I will appreciate it in the future, I really don’t right now.” That made Jazz roll her eyes, of course the only time Danny is being a little mature about something is this. 

“But you have to talk to somebody Danny, having three friends doesn’t really give off a strong support system.” That earned a glare from two out of the three friends. Okay Jazz is pretty sure there was a better way of saying that. 

“No offense.” She says to Sam and Tucker before turning back to Danny, “What I meant to say was, Danny you just need to confide in someone, it doesn’t have to be me and it doesn’t have to be mom or dad. But Danny, you barely do anything besides go home after school. What about all those clubs you wanted to join?” 

That seemed to have been the wrong thing to say according to Danny’s deepening glare. “Well, maybe this is me now, huh? Not everybody’s pumped up with school spirit like some people. ”

And then something strange happened. 

The anger left Danny’s face, his eyes widened and he started shivering.  

Just what is happening with her little brother? 

“Danny, are you okay, you’re shivering.” But just when Jazz was about to put a hand onto his shoulder, he smacked that away before running off. 

“What- Danny!” He didn’t even turn back. Jazz turned around to ask Danny’s friends what his deal was, only to realize they’re not here either. What is happening? 

“Ahh! It’s a giant hornet!” Jazz turned around towards the screams to come face to face with a literal giant hornet. 

Jazz eyes widened as she took it all in, it was green with slime coming out of its mouth terrorizing the students, until it turned its head and locked eyes with her. 

Jazz felt like she was a statue, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t think, and she’s pretty sure she stopped breathing as the wasp flew towards her, black tongue whipping out as if ready to swallow her whole. 

Jazz let out a scream. 

“Back off Ghost Bug!” Before she knew it, something kicked the wasp hurdling it towards the wall, but instead of wrecking it, the wasp disappeared. 

…

Was- was that a ghost? 

Wait, were those two ghosts?!

GHOSTS EXISTS!?

“I can’t believe you didn’t see a ghost!” Jazz said as she took the dirty dishes to the sink. Danny simply let out a sigh as he continued to clean the stove from tonight’s failed dinner (don’t ask). 

“As I have said for the last three times, Jazz, I only saw a giant hornet. So I ran, like a loser. ” Jazz feels like she’s missing something, something important. So she turns around and looks at Danny.

Jazz says nothing for a couple of moments before sighing, “You really are not going to  listen to me are you?” 

“Nope.” was all Danny said before throwing the sponge towards the sink and leaving the kitchen saying something about heading to bed.

So, it’s gonna be like that huh?

“Fine, but you leave me no choice.” 

“Wait what?” 

Jazz yells, “Mom, dad! Danny wants to tell you something!” Danny’s eyes widen, and looks like he’s beginning to panic and Jazz could only smirk. 

Sorry little bro, looks like you should have told Jazz before it had to come to this. 

Until Danny threw Jazz under the bus and said that Jazz saw a ghost at school today, and then her parents were talking about ghosts and peeling them atom-by-atom through the Fenton Ghost peeler. 

Nice to know her parents had their priorities straight. 

It takes Jazz almost an hour to calm her parents down, and in that time Danny ran off to bed without another word. But at least her parents went upstairs once she appeased her parents when she answered all of their questions. 

She waits for a couple of moments just to see if anyone will come back down before taking out her phone and dialing a very familiar number on her screen. Sure Danny won’t accept help from her, but maybe he may accept help from someone else. She just hopes Howard isn’t there. 

The phone picks up after the third ring, “Jazz?” Randy lets out a ‘oof!’ and a thump was heard in the background, she could hear two voices arguing until finally, he answered. 

“Why hello Jazz, didn’t know you were calling.” Howard says, “So about that-” 

“The answer is still no.” Jazz says before Howard could say anything else. Ever since that one face time call, Howard has been harboring a mega-crush on her, and after almost five years, it feels like it’s never going to leave. 

“Anyway, can you give this phone to Randy? I need his help with something.” She could hear the orange-haired teen letting out a groan.

“Cunningham, it’s for you!” Randy once again let out a yelp before speaking.  

“Hey Jazz, sorry about Howard. What do you need help with?” 

“I need your help with Danny,” Jazz says as she leans on the kitchen counter. 

“Sorry Jazz, but no can do.” 

“But you didn’t hear what I had to say!” She couldn’t help but start pacing frustration twisting in her stomach. 

“I know but Danny and I have three rules when it comes to this friendship. Don’t steal the others snacks, don’t tell their other friends their secrets-” 

“Wait, you and Fenton share secrets- without me!” 

“And three, don’t help out their big sisters with stuff- all part of the bro code.” 

“Cunningham!” 

Jazz couldn’t help but blink at this exchange, “Not even if it’s good for Danny?” 

“Oh please, Danny would tell me if something is up.” 

“Cunningham!”

Randy muttered a curse, “Anyways gotta go! I have to deal with an angry Howard now, buh-bye!” He hung up the phone. 

Well, that went absolutely nowhere. 

Jazz then tries to go to Sam and Tucker the next day, just to see what they know. But it somehow ends with Danny accidentally pulling the fire alarm, and him almost getting suspended. 

She then tries to go to Ms. Spectra for advice, only to see that Danny was wearing a diaper and a top hat in her office. 

Yeah, Jazz didn’t want to know about that part. 

Jazz then tries to go to talk to Danny again, after all four or fifth times the charm, right? 

But she didn’t expect Danny to-to!

What the hell did she just see! 

“Danny!” She couldn’t help but scream as she saw his little  brother flying off. It didn’t seem like he caught her screams but his friends sure did. They even tried to gaslight her into thinking it was something, else something her imagination made up. And while she would have put her foot down until Danny’s friends finally give up and tell Jazz the truth. She realized something. 

Danny’s closed off because he doesn’t feel comfortable telling Jazz he’s part ghost. 

Danny’s snappish and broody mood lately was because of this pressure he’s putting himself under. 

How come it took Jazz so long to realize this?

“Did- did Dany just turn into a…and then he…just what is going on!” Jazz feels like she’s about to faint. Tucker looks like he was also seconds away from his own freak-out, his smile looking more like a grimace than anything. 

“It’s not what you think Jazz!” His voice was cracking towards the end, and suddenly his mouth was stuffed full with ice-cream. 

“Of course it’s not what Jazz thinks, Tucker. Ghosts aren’t real.” Sam says with confidence and not like she shoves a double-scoop cone in his face.

But she just saw two ghosts the day before, and then she saw Danny turn into one right now! But Sam and Tucker were with her in the alleyway where Danny transformed and they didn’t seem fazed by it. In fact the two were covering for him. 

Oh, Jazz sees where this is going. 

“You’re right Sam, I've probably been spending too much time with my dad, I mean ghosts? Who would think such a thing?” She then looked at her watch, “Oh my gosh, is that what time it is? I got to go work on my speech. See ya!”

She wouldn’t even mention the relieved sighs she heard Sam and Tucker give out when she was on her way out. 

“No, it doesn’t work like that.” Jazz heard Danny argue over the phone, crumpled up paper on the floor, textbook next to him on his bed, and a frustrated look on his face. 

“No, see the propulsion works by combining fuel and oxygen from the oxidizer to create an explosion, creating the needed energy to produce the thrust needed to fly the rocket.” 

…

“Of course I know what I’m talking about and- no I’m not going to help you do your physics work I’m already swamped enough Randy!” 

…

“I will murder you in your sleep.” He hisses out. 

Okay maybe it’s time to break this up. “Uh, Danny?” She made sure her voice was loud enough to catch his attention, and was rewarded with Danny saying a swift goodbye to his friend and giving Jazz a glare, something that has been becoming a usual occurrence these past couple of days. 

But hopefully she could fix it. 

“What do you want?” Jazz didn’t say anything, she didn’t think Danny looked any different, maybe a little paler and he now has bags under his eyes, but he still looks human. 

“What?” 

“Nothing.” She then walked closer to Danny… hmm. 

“Ow!” Danny yelled after Jazz pinched his arm, the fourteen year-old rubbed his arm, “What the heck was that for?!” 

“Uh..no reason.” Jazz gave a quick smile to her brother purposefully ignoring Danny’s muttering of how weird she is. He needed a break after all. 

“Look, I just want to say I’m sorry for forcing you to see the school counselor and I’m sorry I’ve been hard on you lately but…you know I think you’re great, right?” That earned a scoff from her little brother. 

“Yeah, right that’s not what I heard.” He looked down at his textbook, obviously trying to ignore whatever Jazz was about to say. But she is not going to let that slide. 

“Then you heard wrong.” Jazz let out a sigh before continuing. “Look I know I can be pushy, a know-it-all, and a jerk sometimes.” Jazz waited a couple of seconds for Danny to correct her, only to give him a glare when he didn’t say anything at all. 

“Oh no, keep going, this is great.” The little brat was even wearing a smirk on his face, the jerk. 

Ugh, fine whatever, “All I’m saying is, is that I’m your sister and I care about you. And even though you might not think I would understand, just know I will always be there for you.” She smiles and thankfully he smiles back. 

And this is all going great! Even better, it looks like Danny was going to confess about his ghost powers! 

CRASH!

Unfortunately, her parents had to interrupt. 

Both Danny and Jazz ran down the stairs and into the living room to see the couch being burnt to a crisp and her dad holding the Fenton-Peeler in his hands. 

Dad turns to look at mom, “I’m just saying, if we can find that ghost at Jazz’s school, we’re going to peel that ghost like an onion!” 

“Well we can’t completely vaporize it.” Her mom argues. “Don’t you want to at least examine the remains?” 

Nice to know her parents had their priorities straight. 

“I think I’m going to go upstairs.” Danny finally says, he looks a little green and has this panic look on his face. Jazz totally gets it, if she were in his shoes she would probably feel a little scared too. 

“Yeah, I think that’s best for now.” She then gives Danny a small smile before giving him a hug. “Night, Danny.” 

“You’re a freak!” 

Jazz likes to think she’s a smart woman, she has memorized the DSM-5 in two weeks, she is getting all A’s in all her classes, and is taking a couple classes at the local community college on the side. 

“Not a ghost, not a boy!” 

Jazz also likes to think that she is a patient woman, she’s not that quick to anger like her mom or Danny, she knows when to push boundaries, unlike her father, and she even considers herself a peaceful person. 

“Who cares for a thing like you!” But when Jazz saw her little brother sink to the floor while a mass of black ooze floats above him, sucking his energy like she was a vampire. All Jazz wanted to do right then and there was rip that ghost to shreds. It’s a good thing Jazz was smart, because she came prepared. 

“I don’t know who this boy is, but I would love to give him a second opinion.” She grabs the Fenton Peeler from her bag and turns the machine on, thankfully it works though it’s a little weird on how it comes on. But once the suit fully envelops her, she aims straight at the ghost and fires. 

The she-ghost screams in agony as she’s consumed in green light, before the energy throws her straight to the wall. When the screams died down and it looked like the ghost won’t be coming for a while (can you actually kill a ghost?) She runs over to Danny and holds her hand out for him to grab. 

“You okay?” She asks. 

“Yeah, I think so.” Danny says as he takes her hand to help him stand up on wobbly feet. 

“Uh, I hate when she does that.” 

“Yeah, it does look rather painful.” Jazz quickly agrees. 

“No!” both siblings turn around to see Ms. Spectra, now all old and wrinkly, staring at her knobby knuckles as if it was the last thing she wanted to see. 

“What’s the matter, Spectra? It almost looks like you saw a ghost.” Danny quips, earning a glare from the ex-counselor. 

“You will regret this! Mark my words- you will…AHH!” She is then sucked into the thermos that was tied around his back. Her screams didn’t disappear until Danny put the cap back on. 

Jazz is so proud of her little brother. 

“Nice job,” She complimented. 

“Thanks!” It was then did they both realize he was still stuck as a ghost and not in his human body. 

Crap, c’mon Jazz think!

“Ahhh! Oh no, a Ghost! I better run before you possess me or something.” She then ran out of the storage room and out the doors where Mr. Lancer was. He seemed to have a relieved smile on his face going on and on about how her disappearing act saved spirit week. 

“It’s like a cloud of doom and gloom that has overshadowed this school vanished the moment you disappeared.” She then looked up into the bleacher to see that Danny was cheering on as well, a smile on his face and looking lighter than Jazz had seen him all week. 

Jazz knows that this won’t last forever though, if Danny was going to keep his little secret and plan on being a hero then life will get harder for him the longer it goes on. But Jazz can understand his reason, and she could understand why he won’t tell her. But until then, Jazz will support him from the sidelines, just until he is ready

Chapter Text

[The video starts with static, before clearing up and showing a clip of a forest fire] 

“Destruction.” 

[The video goes to static again before switching to a video of a people running away from something.] 

“Chaos.”

[The video goes static once again] 

“And-” 

[The screen is static before it shows a low resolution video, hands were covering the lens before it went back to static again.] 

“ Come on, you worthless-!” 

[You could hear something hitting the camera, showing this time a blurry video of a person with orange hair before going to static again.] 

“Piece of-!” 

[The camera fizzes in and out a couple times.] 

“Junk!”

[It settles on a blurry figure, before it slowly starts to tip over.] 

“No. no, no, no, no!” 

[ It falls] 

“God, my parents are going to murder me…” someone mutters. 

[The camera fizzes out one more time before it settles on an up close blurry figure. After a couple of minutes, the resolution changes to a more clear resolution. It’s a teen, around the ages of fourteen or fifteen. The boy has an unkept orange haircut, and green eyes.] 

“Alright, just one last tweak here and…” 

[ The boy smiles leaning back from his chair, to reveal he is wearing a basketball jersey, he smiles before shining a flashlight to his face] 

“And, death!”

[Cheap sounding thunderclaps rang as the teen boy flicked his lamp desk light on and off. He did this for a couple of seconds before throwing the flashlight away, pushing the desk lamp out of view, and giving the viewer a serious look.] 

“My name is Wesley Weston, and up until now I was just like you all, living blissfully in my ignorance until I caught evidence of these!” 

[Wesley then shoved a couple pictures up towards the camera, all blurry and hard to see. The first being a blurry cloud of blue mist surro unding a school, the second a silhouette of what seems to be a giant robot with the night sky behind it, and the third, well it seems that his thumb was the main focus of that picture.] 

“Evidence that Amity Park is not just a normal town,”

[The boy sets the pictures down before giving off a low chuckle.] 

“See, it’s so much more than that. For the past two months I have been collecting evidence that something is going on within this town, something even the local government doesn’t know of yet.” 

[Wesley rolls a corkboard with tons of blurry pictures and red strings looping them all together all pointing too…] 

For you see folks, Amity Park is on the site of an ancient hell hole connecting the living with the dead! It has been recorded since ancient times, long before colonizers took-” 

-Pause- 

The Wesley on the screen stopped mid-rant, before a tanned finger came into view and turned the computer screen off. Once it did all Wesley could see was his reflection, staring back at him with a bored stare as the principal put her computer away.

Principal Ishiyama simply stared at the fourteen year-old, Wesley was pretty sure it was because she thought she knew more than him, when in fact she did not.  

“Mr. Weston,..” She pursed her lips almost as if she was contemplating something, “It seems that your uh…hobby is getting out of hand.” 

Wesley couldn’t help but scoff, “This, Principal Ishiyama, is not a ‘hobby’,” Yes, he did the air quotes, “I am simply informing the public about the truth of Amity Park!” 

“By calling the settlers of the 1800’s colonizers?” She deadpanned as lift an eyebrow.

“I said what I said,” Wesley sniffed. He even allowed himself to smirk when he heard the principal mutter an agreement. 

But, the principal still voiced out her meaningless concerns, “Regardless Mr. Weston, these videos spread misinformation, you can’t just say this stuff without proper research- which you do not have when it comes to ghosts!” Wesley rolled his eyes at that comment. Sure that’s what she thinks, but she doesn’t have an observant bone in her body, not that it’s her fault though. It has taken years for Wes to hone his skills till they were on point. Besides, he has photographic evidence. 

“And of course, you’re not listening to me.” The bell rang in time with the principal’s deep breath and when it was all over Principal Ishiyama gave Wesley a hall pass. 

“Just go to class, we’ll talk about this later.” Wesley simply nodded, thanking the principal for her time and walked to his last period of the day, World History, one of the only classes he likes. 

He gave Mr. Lancer his slip of paper, just as the mid-forties man was finishing up roll-call. The teacher didn’t bat an eye with him though, most likely because he was used to Danny’s frequent tardiness. Speaking of Danny, he turned towards the seat next to him and as he expected it was empty. Wesley can’t help but be a little curious as to why the fourteen year-old always had a habit of being tardy, or just missing classes.

But just before Mr. Lancer could close the door for the period, Danny came zooming in, Mr. Lancer just blinked at his classmate before marking something on his clipboard. 

“Ah, late again Mr. Fenton.” Mr. Lancer didn’t even pose it as a question, while the out of breath teen wheezed out a ‘here’ before slumping in his seat. 

Typical Fenton, honestly. 

“Right, let’s get started, we will be finishing off our presentations for the week. Mr. Weston, you’re up.” 

Wesley walked with confidence from his seat to the front of the classroom. 

He has been working on this presentation for the past four days, skipping two nights of sleep for this.

He inserted a flash drive into one of the plug-ins into the computer, while the computer was warming up, he turned off the lights of the classroom and turned on the projector. 

“Alright,” He whispered once the projector came to life showing a black screen. He made his way back to the computer before addressing the class. 

“Friends, enemies, the bully who makes my life miserable.” 

“Hey.” Dash said, waving his hand. 

“I would like to ask you a question: do you feel like Amity Park is safe? Actually no, let me rephrase that, do you think that Amity Park is quote-unquote: the ‘safest town in all of America’?” He waits a couple of moments before continuing. 

“Well I think not, for you see something has been forming in the shadows, something sinister, dark, and one that reeks of death. People-!” He takes the clicker away from Mr. Lancer’s hands and clicks to his power point. 

“I am here today to prove to you why Amity Park is actually a gateway portal to hell!” His classmates were all gaping with awe and obvious interest. 

But then Star had to ruin it. 

“Uh, Wes…it says that there’s three hundred slides to this power point.” 

“Oh congratulations, you could count. Anyways- before I get to reason number one, we must first know about the background.” He clears his throat, “As you can see according to the-” 

Someone snorted and that seems to be the catalyst for the whole class to fall into hysterics. 

“Gateway? Portal? Oh, Weston, you crack me up.” Dash said, wiping a tear from his eye. 

“Yeah what’s next, are you going to say that ghosts actually exists?” That seemed to make the whole class fall into hysterics once again. Wesley couldn’t help but be speechless, were they serious? After all the things they have seen the past two months they still choose to deny it? 

“Well- uh...not exactly, but that doesn't mean there's nothing wrong with this place!”

“I know for a fact that Ethan saw that blue dragon when it appeared in the mall! And I know that most of us have seen floating meat becoming a monster! And what about the giant dog that disrupted the basketball tryouts last week? Need I remind you that monster almost bit my head off!” The whole class was silent, no one even seemed to blink at his statements. Perhaps they got it through their thick skulls that Wesley was right. 

“Cough, cough, Freak, cough, cough” The class was brought to hysterics yet again. 

“Oh really mature.” Wesley snaps to the class. 

But before he could continue his tirade, the lights turned on, he was about to yell at the person who was responsible for it only to gulp when it was Mr. Lancer standing next to the light switch. “Mr. Weston, it appears you have misread the project parameters, I specifically assigned you to the formation of the Byzantine empire. But I do love the spirit.” Mr. Lancer said as he wrote something on his pad of paper. 

“Does this mean I get at least a C-?” This, for some reason, earned a laugh from Mr. Lancer. 

“Hardly, F.” 

“What-” 

“Say anything more and I’ll see you in detention.” 

“But, you can’t do that to me, not when I practically slaved over this project! I even  have photographic evidence- look!” He quickly took out the three pictures from the MiTube video out of his pocket. Whether it was an act of mercy or plain curiosity, his teacher took the photos and eyes them critically.

“Mr. Weston, this is just your thumb.” 

“Yes it is my thumb, but if you look closely right at that left corner you will see a-” 

“That is two weeks detention Mr. Weston.” Yeah, Wesley supposed that was deserved. 

Amity Park, Most Haunted Town in America? (NOT CLICKBAIT)

Likes: 12
Dislikes:45

Comments: 

GoldenBoy: Wow… this is absolute garbage! 

MerryChrysler: Oh please, anyone could tell that those photos are fake. Even if they are too blurry to see- which makes it all the more hilarious. 

Jared19: pls, if ghosts really do exist then how come we don’t see them lol ???

Idiots, all of them were idiots. Wesley closed his computer with a little more force than necessary, but he didn’t care. Not when his reputation was on the line, he is supposed to be known as smart, he is supposed to be hailed as the next great figure in history. He has photographic memory and an IQ of 126! But to look at these comments, it only fueled him with frustration. What's the use of being smart if no one believes that he’s right? 

He went over to his board trying to see if there was anything that could prove his theory correct. But he even knows that to the naked eye most of his evidence means nothing, his pictures of ghosts, that he has seen with his own eyes, could be mistaken as mists. Someone already spread a rumor that the different monsters that seem to be attacking the school were for a promotion for some movie coming out, and let’s not get started on the thumb picture. 

Wesley heaved out a sigh, he needed to walk. Hopefully some nice fresh air should help his brain out and give him some ideas on proving his theory correct. 

He only had to walk 15 minutes before he saw something that would change his life forever. 

“AHHH!” Wesley froze right outside Nasty Burger, when he heard someone screaming above him? Perplexed, the young man looked up, only to give a scream of his own. Luckily he dodge at the perfect time or else he would have been a pancake when the person crash onto the ground. 

“You’re mine now, ghost child!” Wesley looked up to see what looks like a cyborg aiming a blaster right at Wesley. 

“Not a chance Skulker!” Wesley snapped his head around to see the person already up on their feet as if the guy didn’t fall out of the sky. The stranger, now that Wesley looks at the stranger he does look a little familiar, gave the cyborg a glare before shooting up into the sky and blasting some sort of green energy out of his hands. The cyborg was knocked out of the sky and appeared to have crash landed a couple blocks away, most likely in the park. The flying boy quickly rushed after the robot, leaving Wesley alone at the back of a Nasty Burger, staring at the sky as if the two flying individuals would appear again. 

But they didn't. 

Wesley took off in a run, towards the direction of the two flying individuals. It didn’t take long to find them, just follow the sounds of blasters firing and screaming and he found them in no time. The two ghosts were in the center of a clearing, the cyborg shooting blast after blast, and the younger one on the defensive, flying and looping- the weapons just barely missing its target. 

The cyborg growled, “Just stand still!” Missiles joined the fight and the ghost-boy flew higher into the sky before diving back down again straight towards the cyborg, gaining speed as his height decreased before taking a sharp turn up. It seemed that the ghost was too fast for the missiles, which are now aiming straight towards the cyborg. 

BOOM! The force of the blast shook the ground, sending Wesley to land on his butt, a bright light overtook his vision as the voice of the cyborg cried out a no, a second later the light died down and the park was silent once more. It seems like the fight is over. Wesley slowly peaked over the bushes he was hiding in to see the familiar looking guy looking down at what appears to be a thermos. A second later the bushes next to the kid in the hazmat suit rustled making both the stranger and Wesley tensed up. 

And to Wesley’s surprise it was an out of breath Tucker and a serious-looking Sam Manson. Sam holding a silver and green looking blaster, and Tucker with one of his PDA’s in hand. But where was that Fenton kid? Usually you wouldn't see any of the three apart for long, well unless the goth and the tech geek were fighting, but to see them without the space nerd was really weird.  

“What’s my time?” The white-haired stranger asked. 

“Four-” Tucker took in a gulp of air before straightening up, “Fourteen minutes and thirty-eight seconds.” 

“Cool, new record!” 

Sam rolled her eyes at the boy's response, “Record or no record Danny, you really should keep the wreckage to a minimum. I mean look around you!” 

“Oh, my bad. Maybe next time I’ll just tell Skulker to avoid the trees when aiming literal missiles at me.” 

“Besides, they can grow back Sam but Danny won’t. Even if he is half ghost.” Tucker added much to Wesley’s confusion. 

Because Danny Fenton…being a ghost? That’s just not possible, because one- Danny does not look like that, he has black hair, blue eyes, is warm-blooded and favors a vintage NASA t-shirt over anything else. He does not look like he stepped right out of a rejected sci-fi movie. And two, Danny a ghost, yeah right. Wesley may believe the impossible but that’s only because they’re all based on scientific fact, Danny being a ghost is probably the most ridiculous…

Why are there glowing rings surrounding the Danny-stranger? 

Why does the Danny-stranger look incredibly alike to Danny Fenton, even right down to that vintage NASA shirt? 

“Ugh, fine, you have a point, Tuck. Anyway we should probably head back to your house Danny, you still have to think up what you have to do for that haunted house.” 

“Yeah man, the last thing you ever want is to taste Dash’s gross underwear-yuck!” 

Danny gave out a snort to his friends' retreating forms, “Yeah believe me I know.” Dany Fenton says before following. 

Danny Fenton….

The same Danny Fenton that always seems to disappear at the most inappropriate times, right before a monster appears. 

The same Danny Fenton who has parents that are ghosts hunters. 

The same Danny Fenton who has ghost hunters for parents who was planning on building a ‘ghost-portal’. 

There was never a natural portal to hell here in Amity Park, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton must have torn one themselves. And Danny Fenton is a ghost. 

Danny Fenton is a ghost.

Danny Fenton is a ghost. 

Danny Fenton is a ghost. 

“Danny Fenton is a ghost!” That was the first thing he said as he slammed the front doors of Casper High that Friday morning. He marches straight through the halls, ignoring the stares people were giving him, pushing past a poster advertising the Mid-State Assembly being held next week and went straight towards the loser trio. 

“You!” He points a finger straight at Danny’s face.

“Uh… me?” Look at him acting so dumb, like he was truly confused on what Wesley was accusing him for. 

“So what are you huh? A secret government project? A ploy made by your parents for-for things!” Okay so Wesley wasn’t too sure about what he was doing but he was mad, oh he was so mad. Danny was sitting right through his presentation yesterday and instead of backing Wesley up (because his parents were ghosts hunters and he’s a ghost!) the bastard just sat there without a care in the world. 

He is the sole reason why he got an F on that stupid project in the first place! 

(And it definitely wasn’t because he ignored what Mr. Lancer wanted from him. Nope, no sir.)

“Uh, dude I literally have no idea what you’re talking about.” Danny fixed him with a glare, his friends beginning to block Danny from Wesley’s view. But Wesley won’t have that, he wants conformation, he wants his C- back. 

“You know exactly what I’m talking about Fenton. The strange absences and tardiness, the random monsters-” 

“I think those are just promotional stuff for the upcoming movie.” 

“Shut up Foley, and the strangeness that’s been plaguing Amity Park recently, you’re behind it! You're being everything that's wrong with this town because you’re a ghost!” The hallway was silent, you could almost hear a pin drop. Danny was now looking wide eyed and almost like a caged animal. Sam looked like she was about to bite his head off, and Tucker looked a little green faced. Oh, he definitely hit the nail right in the coffin, Wesley allowed himself to smirk, satisfied that he figured it all out and soon the whole school will know about it. 

Mr. Lancer will have no choice but to give him that C- now. 

But then, he heard a snicker, then a chuckle from another person, and complete outright laughter from another, until the whole hallway was filled with people laughing at it all, someone was even on the ground clutching their sides. 

“Wha… What's the meaning of this? Why are you all laughing?!” 

It was Kwan who spoke first, “Why would a loser like Fenton be a ghost? Even if they do exist, they would definitely be much more fun than him.” 

“Yeah and the next thing you know, you’re going to like tell us that all those promotional stunts were actual monsters.” 

“They are! I even have pictures-see!” He pulled out his most prized possessions for the people to look at. 

“Dude, that’s like a picture of your thumb.” Which somehow resumed the whole hallway laughing at him once again. It only died down thanks to the bell ringing for first period, but Wes could still hear some chuckles and students mocking him as they made their way to class. Enraged, the fourteen year-old turned around towards Fenton. 

“You may have won this round Fenton, but mark my words I will get you back for this.” He threatened, swiftly turning around and marching his way to his first class, purposefully ignoring Fenton and his friends as he did so. 

It’s been about a week and Wes is not closer to finding out how to expose Fenton to the whole school. He tried everything, faking a ghost attack, scaring Fenton, providing (poor) photographic evidence to the whole point the whole student body thinks he’s gone crazy instead of just the freshmen class. 

He heaved a sigh as he stuffed his books into his locker. He has done everything but stalking or going straight to Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. You gotta have standards after all. 

But what’s he going to do now? 

“Remember Mr. Fenton, tonight’s haunted house better be great or you'll be facing detention.” Mr. Lancer’s voice cut through the crowd of students leaving for the day, the ginger turned his head to see his English and World History teacher walking away from Fenton. Clipboard in hands and yelling at students to walk, not run in the halls. 

Oh my god, Wesley just had a great idea.

“Mr. Lancer!” Wesley pushed back a group of students as he made his way to the teacher, “Mr. Lancer, I want to talk about my grade.”

“If it has anything to do changing said grade then no can do Mr. Weston.” Mr. Lancer opened his office door, before taking a seat at his desk, not even bothering to look Wesley in the eyes.

“Actually Mr. Lancer I was wondering if I could get some extra credit by helping you judge the haunted houses.” That earned a snort from the teacher. 

“Goodbye Mr. Weston.” The teacher said with enough exasperation even Wesley picked it up.

But Wesley was not one to give up so easily.  

“Did I forget to mention that my father has the most state-of-the-art camera on the market? It wouldn’t hurt to film a couple things around, maybe even videotape a certain teacher’s face when she realizes she’s been beaten.” It didn’t take a genius to know why Mr. Lancer was bribing two kids to build haunted houses. Mr. Lancer and Ms. Tetzlaff’s rivalry has been here longer than most students here. And just like he predicted, that offer seems to be very enticing to the teacher. 

“Are you bribing a teacher Mr. Weston? You know I could give you detention for that, right.” 

“And you know that I know it won’t happen because you want to videotape Ms. Tetzlaff's reaction to you winning in 4K. So what do you say?” 

Suffice it to say, when Wesley walked into Danny’s room later on in the night, the surprise expression Fenton was wearing was so hilarious he allowed himself to zoom in on it. Oh revenge is truly sweet. 

Until all the colors drained from his face when he was face to face with a giant spider. Wesley let out a scream, almost dropping the camera in the process, but thankfully he didn’t. Unfortunately, the only reason as to why the camera didn’t drop was because the spider (who was so tall it’s back was almost touching the ceiling, he might add!) webbed him up to a gigantic spider web, along with Mr. Lancer. 

“HELP!” Wesley screamed, struggling in the webs. He looked around in horror as the spider came closer and closer to the teacher and student. 

“Hmm…this has potential. Sticky, gross, I like it!” Wesley couldn’t help but give a look at his teacher. 

“How are you not scared! There’s a giant spider about to eat us!” He shouted. The teacher simply scoffed. 

“Mr. Weston please, I for one do not get scared easily. Besides, it's obvious that this spider is just an animatronic.” The spider let out a roar, it spit drenching Wesley’s face. But the teen boy didn’t recoil in disgust at that instead he just looked at his teacher as if he lost his marbles.

Which he definitely did because how on earth is that an animatronic?!

“I am actually mildly impressed with this, a few more surprises and you might have this thing wrapped up.” 

“I’ll take what I can get!” Danny shouted, grabbing a huge blaster and aiming it at the spider. Neon green foam flies over, hitting both Wesley and the spider, which poofed out of existence and in its place was a cutesy pink rubber spider. 

“Are you telling me,” Wesley began as the webs disintegrated. He marches straight over to Fenton digging his finger into the other teens shirt. “You're doing all of this to win a stupid bet!” 

Danny gave Wes a look that screamed, ‘duh’ as he tossed the bazooka Sam’s way, “Uh, yeah. What, do you think I want to eat Dash’s underwear- yuck!” 

“You’re insane!” 

“And yet I’m not the one that’s delusional.” The little shit even smirked at that, his eyes glowing a neon green. 

Are you seeing this shit, Mr. Lancer?

No, he was not. In fact he was too busy fawning over the other come-to-life props to even notice Danny’s eyes switching colors. 

“Hey, if you two are done acting like five year-olds now would be a good time to help.” Sam cuts in as she marches straight towards the duo. 

“Relax Sam, I have this under control. We’ve got enough Fenton foam to keep Lancer safe. And as soon as he says the words, ‘Danny wins,’ I’ll toss- I uh mean turn everything back to normal and call it a night.” Danny fired the blaster, the foam hitting a giant mutant rat back into a chair Mr. Lancer had the audacity to look grief-stricken. 

Are you seeing this shit, Manson?

Thankfully Sam was indeed seeing this shit and looked like she was on the verge of losing it. 

This is of course when Wesley’s night went from bad to worse. 

BOOM!

The roof caved in and in swoops… a mix between a gladiator and a knight? Well the helmet looks like it belongs to a gladiator- the only difference being the plume of purple fire coming out of it with body armor reminiscent of a knight. His armor was a dark gray. His menacing horse was black as night with bat wings, and flaming green hair. 

Foley was also there. 

“Okay, this has been fun, but no amount of proof is really worth this.” Even Wes knew his limits. He made his way back to his camera, picking it up when he felt a woosh of cold air going right to him. Suddenly it seemed like the ground disappeared right from under him, giving him a slight vertigo as it did so. When the cloud of dizziness finally dispersed, he took a look at his new surroundings. 

He was back in the school’s gymnasium, it was dark and empty. Just how did he get here? 

“Grrrr….” Wes tensed up when he heard that growl, something that seemed to shake his bones and send a deep pit of fear into his stomach. Slowly, Wes turned around to see a giant glowing green bulldog, its ruby red eyes staring straight into his soul as his sharp canines munch on something Wes would rather not think about. 

“H-heh, nice doggy.” Wes whimpers. That seemed to set the dog off. It gave out a bark, one that seemed to shake the very ground before getting low to the ground with his tail wagging high in the air.  

Fuck. 

Wesley let out a scream as he ran away from the dog, who quickly gave chase. The sound of his shoes squeaking on the floor were easily drowned out by the angry dog’s barking. 

“I’m not a chew toy!” He shouted at the dog when his mouth came a little too close for comfort. 

Wesley sped up getting closer to the gymnasium doors, just like how he ran away the first time. He pressed his whole weight onto the bar, expecting for the door to just open! But the stupid door won’t budge!

Fuck!

So he did the only thing he could do, run and scream, but that didn’t last for long as the dog body slammed into him making him skid across the gym. 

The dog let out a growl as he inched closer to Wesley and all Wesley could do was scoot back in vain. 

Just how did he get here!

The dog lunged straight towards Wes, its mouth opened ready to bite his head off. Wes let out a scream in fright, closing his eyes and just awaiting the pain. 

But soon his screams died down, and very much to his confusion his head was still attached to his shoulders. He opened his eyes and suddenly he was back at the haunted house again with the loser trio looking at him with a weird look.

“You alright Weston?” Tucker asked as he took off his fake glasses?” 

“Yeah, what gave you a fright?” Danny said, he had this self-satisfied smile on his face for some reason.  

“Wha-but the-uh-what?” His brain was still trying to reboot from that scare.

“Gosh, it looks like you need to go home,” Sam added as she walked closer to Wes with his dad’s camera in her hands.

But Wesley still had a goal, he wanted to complete it, “But-but-ghost!” 

“Wow, I didn’t know my house frightened you this bad.” Danny said, his voice was overly too sweet to actually sound sympathetic or apologetic, but Wes was too shaken to care. 

“I think it’s time for you to go.” He didn’t know who said that, but he simply nodded walking out of the abandoned mansion on auto-pilot. 

It wasn’t till it was 3:17 in the morning, when Wes finally processed what happened before he left. 

“That little shit!” He seethes. 

Well played Fenton, well played.