A/N: Hiya, all you Danny Phantom phans in phandom (say that fast 3 times!). Man, have I missed doing this! And I'm pheeling so silly right now that I think I should write all the words starting with 'f' with a 'ph' instead in honor of our phavorite half-ghost! Ahem. Back to the story. I have been mulling over this story phor way too long now but I phinally got off my phanny and wrote it! I never meant it to be a long story like most of my stories are, mainly because it was meant only phor Mother's Day—or a you can see, also phor the day before Mother's Day, which is today! And if you know me at all, you know that all of my stories are serial and interconnected to each other; and so, it should be no surprise to you when I tell you that there a phew little spoilers if you haven't read my story, Gold Tested in Fire. (Yep, I purposely didn't put a 'ph' in that last word of the title of my story because, after all, it is a real title of a story! XD) Just giving y'all phair warning! But I also want everyone in the whole wide webworld to know that I'm dedicating this story to Vivid Obscurity, AKA Distant Radiance, who wrote to me a few months back and encouraged me to get off my butt and write again. And, of course, a huge thank you to my awesome beta, pearl84 phor all of her priceless help; and to my just as awesome phriend, Angelus-alvus phor helping me with the summary… And so, don't phorget the silly little disclaimer that I don't own Danny Phantom or its cannon characters. But I DO own this story and the OC in it! Well, no more phun and games! Time phor the show. Enjoy!

Mother's Day Mayhem

(When Mom's not happy, it's scary!)

Chapter 1—Unexpected Visit

Jack and Maddie Fenton and their son, Danny, were gathered around a small table in the Fenton lab. The adults were very excited about sharing some information with their half-ghost son and were insistent that he come at once. Still, at first, it seemed to Danny that it was not starting off on the right foot…

"I'm sorry that I won't be able to finish getting you that Mother's Day gift, sweetcakes, but we're working on it," Jack Fenton said to his wife with a slight frown.

Maddie smiled sympathetically at her husband. She had the goal of getting thirty ghosts' information compiled in their computer's memory banks by Mother's Day, which was tomorrow. But it wasn't meant to be. Still, she was not disappointed as she then replied encouragingly, "That's all right, hon, but like you said, it's getting there anyways, which is all I wanted anyways."

Danny frowned in confusion when his mother was now smiling; but before he could comment, his mother just continued.

"Still, we did get up to nineteen ghosts whom we have gotten dossiers on," Maddie Fenton said with some glee in her voice as she pushed a button on her laptop. But then turning her eyes to her son, she added, "What do you think about our list, Danny?"

Danny opened his mouth to reply that she hadn't shown him the list yet, but once again got interrupted.

"Yesiree, that Boo-merang is turning out to be the best invention so far, especially when I, Jack Fenton, invented it!" Jack immediately piped in with a prideful grin.

"Right, hon," his wife patiently replied as she finally turned the computer screen toward their blue-eyed son and added a bit sheepishly to him, "I wish I could say that most of the ghosts we used the boo-merang to track, catch and interview were, uh, good ghosts, Danny, but they weren't—though some are, of course!"

Before Danny could examine what was on the computer screen or comment on what his mother had said yet again, his father hurriedly continued, "And, oh, we forgot to tell you, Danny! We found out that it's much easier to program the Boo-merang using the 'Spook Snoop'1!"

"The what?" Danny blurted out, clueless.

"The Spook Snoop!" Maddie beamed in as she suddenly and inexplicably whipped out the device seemingly out of thin air. "It's yet another gift your father gave me for Mother's Day and it takes the guesswork out of identifying the ghosts' ectoplasmic signature!"

"Yeah, usually we have to just play around with the Boo-merang's dials until we 'tune into' a ghost's signature, you know, just like those old fashioned radios your grandparents had," Jack added. "It was a real hit-and-miss kind of thing and sometimes the dial would just stay stuck on one ghost."

Danny reflexively rubbed the back of his head at the memories when he was the object of that stuck dial! But he had no more time to think about that, because his parents weren't finished yet and it was his mother's turn…

"And the Spook Snoop is even easier to use than the Boo-merang to hone in on ghosts because it uses stealth laser beams to target and analyze a ghost's ectoplasmic signature! We don't even have to see the ghost—and they don't even know they are being scanned—or even harmed—with it!"

With a big goofy grin on his face, the man went on, "Yeah, get it, Danny? That device really snoops on spooks, er, ghosts, so I let your mother name in honor of her special day…." And just as he wrapped his arm around his wife's waist, he added with a bigger and goofier grin, "But really, every day is special with her in it!"

Danny stifled his groan but didn't really have any chance to protest since his father had quickly let go of his mother and continued, "Anyways, even with that cool new gizmo and all, our compiling all of this stuff on ghosts is still going slower and harder than we expected, son, because, heh-heh, well, the ghosts haven't been exactly cooperative when we ask for information."

Danny mentally rolled his eyes in slight amusement this time when his father paused and frowned in thought all of the sudden. The teen could have told them all they wanted to know the easy way—which was his hard way! Still, he really didn't know why his parents nearly always equated all of their latest projects as 'gifts' to each other, and would name them in honor of the nearest celebration—this 'Mother's Day' gift being no exception. But, then again, he never really knew why his parents pursued just about all of their projects anyways—except that, well, they were his parents! He mentally shook his head at his next thought. Geez, and he thought his mother would only want her favorite perfume for her special day! Still, his parents seemed to roll with it and he might as well, too. Nevertheless, his father still interrupted his trying to at least glance at the computer screen.

Scratching his head in bewilderment, Jack finally rattled on, "Yeah, it's kind of spooky…heh-heh. Ahem, I mean, most of them were too busy spouting off old clichés or just too angry to talk at first. " The orange-suited man puckered his face in concern as he added, "Why, we apologized right away that we hadn't meant for the Boo-merang to knock them out. I thought I had finally calibrated it to stop a few feet from the ghost it honed in on…Hmm…Or maybe I need to recalibrate the Spook Snoop?...Uh, looks like I might have to check on that soon..."

Maddie and Danny tried to stifle their giggles as they remembered what happened the last time their loved one try to calibrate the toaster oven…

But since there had been a pause among the three shortly after his father's comment, Danny finally got the chance to look at the information that his mother had been trying to show him since he had gotten here…

The teen smirked when he saw Technus's name beside the 'spouting off too many old clichés' comment and Ember's being identified as 'just too angry to talk'. He unconsciously nodded his head when his eyes glanced further down the list—and was secretly glad that his parents hadn't encountered any particularly powerful ghost. But then he frowned when he hadn't even gotten halfway down the page. His brow furrowed more when he thought he spied a mistake on the same line as well.

Pointing to the place on the screen, he asked, "Who is this 'Oddbody family' you have listed right here, Mom? And why did you repeat yourself there? Is that some kind of typo?"

"Oh, you don't know them, sweetie?" she replied with slight excitement to only his first question. What a great Mother's Day gift, too! She knew someone new in the Ghost Zone that her son didn't know!"

Danny shook his head.

The woman said, "Well, it was just last week when the Spook Snoop detected this 'Level Three' family, and, of course, we used the Boo-merang to find them."

Jack gingerly added, "Fortunately for the ghosts this time, the Boo-merang slammed into their house rather than one of them!"

"And, of course," his mother continued, "We immediately wrote down the address of their home before we got to talk to them, well, really, we only got to talk to the mother."

"Ghosts have actual addresses?" Danny couldn't help but blurt out, once again surprised. He quickly glanced at the computer screen and hitched up the left side of his mouth in slight disappointment in himself. He hadn't noticed those notes when he read the list, but especially didn't know about ghost addresses.

Maddie grinned again. Her son was already giving her an early Mother's Day gift since, again, this was yet another little detail about the Ghost Zone that he didn't know!

"Well, we couldn't have discovered that ourselves if you hadn't lent us your Ghost Zone map, sweetie. It was a great start; and it really makes a lot of sense when you get the hang of it," she replied, encouragingly. But she really didn't want to go into all that right now since she was more excited to tell her son about those ghosts.

"But anyways, sweetie, we finally got to meet Mrs. Oddbody. She was very nice and invited us into her home for tea and cookies. It must have been very special because she served the tea with what she said was a very priceless heirloom tea set."

"Yeah, that, and she was very excited and told us that she hardly got any visitors, much less any human ones until we came along," Jack chimed in. "And the best news is that all that ghost food filled me up but didn't make me gain any weight!"

Maddie and Danny grinned at that remark. After all, their loved one had been working on losing weight since last Father's Day and especially since the latest Vlad affair, and he was making remarkable progress.

Maddie then remarked, "In any case, Danny, I'm glad we met her because I have to say that we were getting a little discouraged with all of the ghosts we have met so far, because, uh…" She paused a bit. She really didn't want to upset her son, but she always told the truth. She hesitantly continued, "Don't get us wrong, sweetie, but we usually ended up having to use our weapons when we were trying to leave."

"No offense taken, Mom," Danny softly chuckled. "I totally get where you're coming from."

After all, the young hybrid knew only too well that most of his encounters with ghosts involved using his own weapons to some degree.

His mother smiled weakly and said in relief, "Thanks, sweetie." After all, ever since she had learned about Danny's secret, she had become more sympathetic toward ghosts and now focused all of her efforts concerning ghosts to help her son.

"Well, let me finish telling you about her, then. Mrs. Oddbody was very chatty about her family. And she had a wonderful sense of humor, too. She said her husband was a junk dealer and had to be gone for long periods of time collecting, er, all of that junk. So, she thought their name was very apropos to her husband's odd collection of junk.

"At least it wasn't an odd collection of bodies!" Danny couldn't help but think with amusement before his father interrupted his musings.

"Don't know where he kept the stuff, though," Jack interjected, "'cause the place was spotless!"

"Don't you remember, hon, that Mrs. Oddbody said they had a huge basement that he used as his junkyard?" his wife replied.

Jack scratched his head in thought but then sheepishly said, "Uh, sorry, sweetcakes, but I must have been more interested in sampling her snacks at that point than I thought."

Maddie smirked in agreement. Still, she continued with a slight chuckle, "It's okay, Jack. You can hear about it now! In any case, as we were chatting, I notice the pictures on the nearby mantle in her living room. They looked like they could be of her family, and when I commented about them, she eagerly showed them to us. She seemed to be quite proud about her husband. And it was obvious from the pictures that they only had one child, which was a boy. But there was something odd about her son."

"Don't you mean something oddbody about her son, sugardoodle?" Jack said with obvious tease.

Danny rolled his eyes this time.

"Ha-ha, Jack," she deadpanned. "But seriously, she kept gushing about her husband and then about her son when she was finished talking about her husband. But then, she seemed to get all odd about her son."

"What do you mean, Mom?" Danny asked, now even more curious about these ghosts.

The woman paused once again about the memory. She had seen a picture of what she thought was a sweet-looking, freckled-face, nine-year-old boy—even if he obviously looked like a ghost! And to her, the boy ghost looked a lot like his mother—and Maddie ended up liking his mother—so she still didn't understand why the ghost mother would say all of those things about her son. Nevertheless, Maddie answered her own son.

"It all started when she handed me the picture of her son after raving about him. I told her that I thought her son looks so angelic. And to my surprise, his mother both agreed and disagreed with me!"

"Huh?" Danny blurted out.

"Well," his mother began, "Like I said, it all started when I commented that I thought her son looked so angelic and…" And she started relating her conversation with Mrs. Oddbody about her son…

"Oh, what a sweet-looking boy you have there, Mrs. Oddbody," Maddie commented as she studied the face in the picture frame. "He looks like an angel!"

"Yeah, he can be an angel alright when his halo is hiding his horns!" the ghost mother casually replied.

Maddie frowned with confusion. Did she hear that right? She asked, "Ah, I'm sorry, Mrs. Oddbody. I don't think I heard you correctly."

But the ghost abruptly changed the subject. "You know, Mrs. Fenton, we've been talking for a while, so you can call me Lesley."

"Thank you, Lesley, and you can call me Maddie, then," the human female replied before pointing over to her husband while ignoring the fact that he was still snacking and not really listening, and adding, "And that's my husband, Jack."

"Please to meet you both again, Maddie," the ghost replied with a grin.

The human female smiled but continued their conversation, "I don't mean to be rude, but did you just say your son has horns?"

The ghost chuckled before saying, "Well, not really. You see, Lesley…"

"Lesley?" Maddie interjected. And blushing slightly, she continued, "I apologize again. But didn't you just say that your name is Lesley?"

Mrs. Oddbody laughed as she replied, "Yes, it is! But my son's name is also Lesley! But he's 'Lesley Junior' because my husband's name is also Lesley! But I call my hubby 'Les' and he calls me 'Lily' and we usually call Junior 'Junior' just so we don't get confused, like obviously you are now! Isn't that funny?"

The ghost then started giggling at her own joke.

Maddie frowned to herself about the ghost's strange behavior as she thought, "Hmm...Lesley, Lesley and Lesley, Junior?…Your name isn't 'Oddbody' for just any reason!" But her thoughts were interrupted by the other mother.

The ghost had just stopped laughing and started to speak once more, "Junior's just a little devil when he wants to be. Oh, he can be sweet too, when he's around me, that is."

Maddie had just picked up one of the priceless teaspoons to stir her tea when she offered, "I'm sure he's just a little rambunctious, just like other boys his age. In fact, my own son…" But the woman paused and unconsciously wrapped her hand around that same spoon when it was obvious by what was happening that the ghost wasn't listening...

Suddenly, one of Lesley's eyes started to twitch—a lot—just before she continued, sounding a bit more bothered on this round, "But he thinks I don't know what he does when he's not around me. And it has nothing to do with his wonderful imagination!"

Maddie's face scrunched up again as this conversation was getting weirder and weirder by the second. In fact, she was getting a bit nervous because the female ghost's skin tone darkened and the pupils of her eyes were beginning to change in color from ghostly green to glowing red as her talk about her son became more agitated…

"You know, I'm really proud of how clever Junior is, but I don't want him to use his guiles to snitch things from his father's basement! I've caught him a few times, but not enough to teach him a lesson!"

All of the sudden, Lesley Oddbody's eyes began to twirl in a mixture of red and white, like a pinwheel spinning in a breeze; and her green hair began to stand on end before separating into several long clumps of hair that began to undulate wildly.

Maddie slowly stood up from the couch in fear as the ghost's hair now seemed just like the snakes that made up the hair of Medusa!

Even Jack had noticed the change by now and he, too, stopped eating and slowly came to a stand.

But before the human couple could think of what to make of all of this, the ghost's mouth wrenched open. Large craggily fangs and a snake-like tongue jutted forward and it seemed as if they were spitting out her words this time. "I've also heard some amazing stories about Junior that makes me swell with pride! He can take just about any of the junk he has taken from his father's basement and weave it into his fantasy world! And he knows that I don't approve of it when he hurts other ghosts when he's doing that! Whenever I find out, I whale the tar out of him—and take his pet away!"

Maddie and Jack slowly reached in each of their pockets toward their weapons at this strange—and radical—turn of events. Still, it didn't seem as if the ghost was threatening them because she wasn't even looking at them as she ranted on.

But then, suddenly, Lesley's eyes stopped twirling and her green hair stopped undulating before it softly fell to her shoulders as it had been before the conversation even began. The pupils of her eyes turned from red to green again and a perfect pearly smile returned to her petite mouth.

She then looked at the human couple in confusion. Weren't they just sitting down just a second ago? She then realized what happened and sheepishly smiled as she apologized, "Uh, I'm sorry if I upset you. I do get carried away whenever Junior misbehaves. But I really do love him and only discipline him like a good mother should. I really want him to grow up to be a very wonderful ghost. And, oh, please do sit down."

Maddie and Jack nodded gingerly as they pulled their hands away from their weapons and slowly sat down again. But underneath, they were eager to go!

The ghost mother sighed and added, "If only I could curtail his shenanigans right when they're happening! Anytime I do catch him in the act, my, well, other self—which is really harmless— scares him for months afterward and he behaves all that time—well, that and a good spanking and taking his pet away does the trick!"

She suddenly giggled and the human couple forced a smile on their faces so that she wouldn't get in that 'scare mode' again. At this point, they were going to agree to everything so they could get the heck out of there!

The silence that fell upon the threesome unnerved the human couple.

But then, Lesley sighed again and said, "Would you like some more tea and cookies?"

"Uh, no thank you…" Maddie began, privately thankful that her husband didn't want any more food. "And, even though we've had a lovely time, we really must go."

"Oh, so soon? You just got here; and I've so enjoyed your company," Lily mildly protested.

"Yes, heh-heh, time does fly when you're having fun, doesn't it?" Jack awkwardly uttered, before looking knowingly at his wife.

Maddie didn't need any more coaxing as she came to stand.

Jack readily got up as well before he slipped his hand into his wife's hand and started to guide them toward the door.

"Yes, it does; but still, it's such a shame. But I understand," the ghost mother replied just as she got up and started to follow them.

But just as Jack put his hand on the door knob and began turning it, he froze at the ghost's next words.

"But before you leave, could you do me a favor?"

The human couple gingerly turned around just as Maddie said as calmly as she could, "Of course."

"If you ever see Junior misbehaving, could you let me know?"

"Absolutely!" Maddie readily agreed, since she knew that the odds of that happening was absolutely zilch!

The ghost smiled and replied, "Oh, thank you. And feel free to come visit me anytime!"…

"And, of course you know that we have made doubly sure to avoid the Oddbodies ever since!" Maddie told her son at the conclusion of her story. But then remembering how she had found something in her pocket that day that didn't belong to her, she said only to herself, "If only I could because I somehow ended up with one of her priceless heirloom teaspoons by accident…I was so upset about what was happening at the time that I must have slipped it into my pocket by mistake when I was reaching for my Fenton Ray Wraith Gun!"

"Yeah, they really should be called the Weirdo-bodies!" Jack snorted.

Danny snickered before he replied, "Wow, Mom. Dad! Talk about: when mom's not happy, it's scary!"

His parents faces broke out into grin as he continued, "And, If you don't want to ever see them again, then you know that I don't! Still, even though Lesley, er, I mean, Mrs. Oddboddy was scary, I guess she was harmless enough since she didn't attack you. There aren't too many of those kinds of ghosts, you know."

"Well, now that I think about it, maybe I should just let this project stay as it is," Maddie began.

"Are you changing your mind about it, then, sweetcakes? Jack moaned with a frown. "But it's too late to get you anything else for Mother's Day, then!"

Maddie smiled crookedly and said, "You know that I don't really go for those non-ghost kind of things, honey. Making me the 'Spook Snoop" and just taking all of us out to eat is enough."

The man's face broke out into a smile as he gushed, "You are the best, sugardoodle!"

But Danny wasn't listening; instead, he was lost in his own thoughts. "Darn, then she won't like the perfume I was going to buy today…Hey, wait a minute! I can get her some ghost-perfume! That will be easy to get in the Ghost Zone. I know just the place to get it, too!"

He looked at his parents and cringed now that they were all of the sudden kissing! He cleared his throat and said, "Uh, can I go now? I, uh, got some stuff to do."

"Oh, sure, hon," his mother replied just after she parted from her husband.

Danny quickly turned and practically ran out of the room as he called back to them, "Okay, see ya!"

Just as he exited the area, the teen morphed into his alter ego, Danny Phantom, produced out his wulf claws, dug them into the atmosphere, and jumped right into the jagged portal his claws had made.

The place he was going to wasn't so far from the Fenton portal; and so, he was certain this would be a quick trip. And yet, some hours later, he realized how wrong he was…

Danny frowned in discouragement as he flew throughout the Ghost Zone, searching for the ghost perfume. He had been looking for hours since he left his parents, er, bonding. Still, of all days, the ghost peddler who was usually in this area wasn't here! He glanced at his watch and sighed. It was already that late? He yawned this time. Though he didn't like it, he would have to come back tomorrow, even if it was Mother's Day. If he got up as early as possible, he could still get the perfume before his mother even got up!

Still, that meant he would have to make himself get up way earlier than he ever wanted to get up on the weekends.

He slightly groaned, even though, underneath, he was glad to do that for his mom—and because he deserved the inconvenience for procrastinating like he always did when it came to buying presents for anyone.

But not matter what, he was determined to get his mother's gift, even if it meant returning back here tomorrow…

However, little did Danny know as he returned home and got ready for bed, that he wasn't the only one in a dilemma.

At that same moment, Mrs. Oddbody had just discovered that one of her priceless heirloom teaspoons was missing and she was wailing about it to her family…

1. I completely made up this new Fenton Gizmo. But it sure sounded like the 'Spook Snoop' should be part of the Fentons' arsenal!

A/N: Hope you liked this first installment. Look for Chapter 2 tomorrow! Don't forget to let your thoughts fall right into that little box below. See y'all soon! truephan