Hi everyone! Just to warn you-Jack might seem a little OOC in this. And by OOC I mean intelligent. But he needs to be in order for a couple of elements to work out the way I want them to.
Also, the title of this fic is based off of "Freaky Friday," but the only reason I did that was to grab your attention. This fic doesn't resemble the movie in any way. For it to do so, I'd first have to have seen the movie, which I haven't. And don't plan to.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
Danny and Jazz had just sat down at the circular, chrome kitchen table for dinner when an orange blur ran up the nearby stairs and came to a halt next to the table. The blur materialized into Jack Fenton, clad in his usual day-glo orange spandex, carrying a silver and green weapon with the FentonWorks logo imprinted on the barrel.
"Check out the latest in Fenton Anti-Ghost technology!" he exclaimed as he held the gun out for his two children to see. "I call it the Fenton Switcher. It takes a ghost's consciousness and puts it into a preprogrammed target. That way, if a ghost is trying to attack, I can use this baby to trap the ghost inside of any mundane object. And then I'll finally capture a ghost! Check it out!" He aimed the gun at Danny.
"Uh, Dad, is it okay if you don't try out your new weapon on me?" Danny quickly asked as he shielded himself with his arms. Jack laughed as he lowered the Fenton Switcher.
"Danny, Danny, Danny. You know all of the technology your mother and I make only hurts ghosts. Watch." He brought the barrel of the gun up to himself. However, he accidentally flipped a switch on the gun before pulling the trigger. The gun emitted a green beam that hit him and caused him to emanate a glowing green aura for a second, but then it died down. A digital readout on the gun read: target selected.
"See?" Jack asked as he aimed at Danny again. This time, though, his thumb flicked the switch back into its original position before he fired. Danny was hit with the beam and glowed with an aura of his own for a second before his, too, disappeared. However, there was a tingling feeling that lingered a little while longer.
"Jack!" Maddie exclaimed as she entered the kitchen and saw what was going on. "You know better than to test out your weapons on Danny! Now put that thing back in the lab pronto, or no dessert!"
"Aww…" Jack groaned as he trudged downstairs. He came back up and sat down just in time for Maddie to place a tall pile of chicken in front of him. She placed a mid-sized plate in front of Jazz, and sighed as she put a small one in front of Danny. Her son just didn't seem to have an appetite lately, and it worried her. If he didn't eat, he wouldn't grow and he would keep getting pushed around at school and keep coming home with so many cuts and bruises every night. She placed a fourth plate in front of her own seat, and the family sat down to eat.
Jack started on his chicken, but after a few pieces he discovered the oddest thing-he wasn't hungry any more. He stared at his plate in awe. This was the first time he could remember not being able to finish what was on his plate. Even as a young child, his parents had bragged to their friends about how their little Jack would always eat whatever was in front of him; he was the least picky eater any of them had ever seen. And now he was…what was the word for it…full?
Danny picked at his food for a little bit, but after a minute or two he started feeling extremely hungry. Ravenous, in fact. He took a second piece of chicken, then a third, and reached for a fourth, but sadly realized that his plate was already empty.
"What's the matter, Jack?" Maddie asked. "Aren't you hungry? Even Danny's cleared his plate already."
"I guess I'm not feeling myself," he replied. He looked at the remaining pile of chicken and immediately began feeling nauseous. He pushed the plate away from himself.
"Are you gonna finish those?" Danny asked hopefully. Jack shook his head and Danny immediately piled the rest of the chicken onto his plate. Maddie was overjoyed to see her little boy finally eat. And eat. It wasn't long before the entire pile was gone.
"Well, it looks like everyone is finished," Maddie noted as she looked at hers and Jazz's plates. "Who wants dessert?" Danny and Jazz raised their hands, but Jack sullenly stood up from the table.
"I'm not really hungry. I think I'll just go to bed," he said. His wife, son, and daughter looked at him as though he'd grown a second head. Jack never skipped dessert. Never. Something was wrong. Perhaps he was coming down with something.
"Jack, did a ghost take your appetite?" Maddie asked half-jokingly. She expected him to yell something about ghosts and run down to the lab to examine himself for any symptoms of overshadowing.
"No, I don't think so. I think I'll just go to bed," Jack replied. The other three Fentons stared at his back as he lumbered upstairs. Now Maddie knew that there was something seriously wrong. She was about to go upstairs when she was interrupted by Danny.
"Mom?" he asked.
"Yes, what is it, sweetie?"
"Do we have any fudge?" Danny asked, a hopeful gleam in his eyes. Maddie smiled softly as she pointed to the cupboard where she stashed fudge away from Jack whenever he misbehaved. Danny's face cracked into a grin as he headed over to the cupboard.
Jack was deep in thought as he sat down on the bed he and Maddie shared. Something was wrong with him. This wasn't like him. Something very strange was going on. Perhaps he should call Sam and Tucker to see what they thought. Wait a minute, Sam and Tucker? Weren't they Danny's friends? Why would he want to call them? Where did a thought like that come from? If anything, he should be calling his old college buddy, Vlad. All of a sudden, an inexplicable surge of animosity flared up inside of him.
Fruit loop, he found himself thinking. Wait a minute, what?
"Jack, honey? Are you okay?" Maddie asked as she entered the room and silently closed the door.
"I'm not sure, Maddie." He gave a massive yawn and fell back onto the bed. "But hopefully I'll feel better in the morning." He drifted off into a deep sleep. Maddie smiled when she heard a loud snore. At least some things hadn't changed.
"Danny, you're going to make yourself sick!" Jazz chastised as Danny continued to gorge himself on fudge.
"So good…" Danny moaned happily as he took yet another piece. Jazz sighed and put her head in her hands. The sudden change in eating habits simply couldn't mean anything good. But on the other hand, her brother did stand to gain a little weight. He was skin and bones as it is. She sighed again and left him to his dessert.
That night, Danny crawled into bed and fell asleep almost immediately. As he slept, he felt that tingling feeling from the Fenton Switcher again, but this time it was a little more intense. He tossed and turned, and finally he rolled over and felt something warm next to him. He shot up in bed and squinted around in the darkness at the lump that was lying next to him in bed.
"Jack, I know you haven't been feeling like yourself lately, but could you please try and not move around so much?" His mother groaned groggily as she partially raised her head from her pillow.
Wait a minute, his mother?
Danny yelped as he fell out of the bed in an orange avalanche.