'Zit. Thanks for reading! The /actual/ planned ending of the story is a thousand words. The other four thousand are extra... the other characters coming back. xD

Go check out the other Toast stories in this challenge! http:/ /www .fanfiction. net/community/Toast/48480/ (lose the spaces, of course)

Thanks Jae B, Teribane, Trinity Fenton-Phantom, Thunderstorm101, Completely Different, Invader Johnny, stick fight3, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, Kiomori, and Nano Phantom!

Toast
A Danny Phantom Fanfiction by Cordria

Chapter 11: Danny (the long ending)

Danny Phantom, over the long months of being half ghost, had mostly gotten used to the strange, obsessive ways of the ghosts. But every now and then he came across something that simply didn't make any sense. This was one of those cases.

As he stood there, staring down at Sam's toaster and waiting for the toast to pop up, Danny didn't even try to figure the whole thing out. He knew it was rather pointless – his mind was just too human to comprehend it – so he was just going to roll with it.

If Youngblood wanted to be human for a day, he could go for it. If he wanted a birthday party in the real world (and all the ghosts agreed to play nice for a day), Danny really couldn't do anything about it. He was outnumbered about three-dozen-to-one at the moment, and none of the ghosts had mentioned taking over the world yet.

…If the ghosts wanted a piece of toast to be the official 'invite' to the party of the year…

Well, Danny couldn't figure it out why. All he really knew was that the ghosts weren't going to let him in without a piece of buttered toast in hand. He didn't especially want to go to the young ghost's party, but if three-dozen ghosts were going to show up in one place in Amity Park, Danny was going to be there too. Not to enjoy the party, mind you. It was simply to make sure the party didn't get out of hand and Amity Park stayed un-ghost-infested.

"Is the toast done?"

Danny shook his head and glanced at his companion. Her messy black hair was in a ratty ponytail, her clothes a ragged mess. The girl refused to get any help from him, but Danny didn't bother to argue. He knew exactly why she didn't want his help. "No."

"I want to go to the party!" Dani complained, crossing her arms and glaring at the toaster. "How much longer?"

The toast popped up and Danny twitched the two slices out of the toaster, quickly slathering on some of the offered butter. "Thanks Sam," he said with a harried grin.

Sam had a bemused smile on her face as she sat on her counter, staring at Public Ghost Enemy Number One and his young clone. "How old is Youngblood?"

"Who cares?" Danny muttered.

"Finally!" Dani said, her eyes sparkling as she snatched her slice of toast. "I think I heard he was turning eight for the fiftieth time. I hope there's food."

Danny glanced at her, then rolled his eyes. "Let the torment begin."

Dani vanished through the ceiling, presumably headed towards the party, but Danny held back a moment when Sam touched his shoulder. "You can't fool me," Sam said when they were alone. "You're kind of looking forwards to this."

A skeptical, arched eyebrow over neon-green eyes was her response.

"Oh, come on," she laughed, nudging him with a foot. "You've been ignoring the ghosts all day, basically, when you normally would have chased them to China by now. You've been dragging Youngblood around for hours like a little puppy. And I happen to know that you're the one who decorated the place for his party."

"One," Danny retorted, counting things off on his fingers, "Clockwork asked me to be nice to them – this is hardly my idea. Two, of course I've been dragging the brat around for hours. Did you see how much trouble he's been getting in to on his 'I want to be human for a day' wish? And three-"

Danny would have mentioned that he decorated the place only because he'd seen how the ghosts wanted to decorate (and that was never going to happen in his town – not unless it was Halloween and he needed to decorate a haunted house again), but his hand bumped against the slice of toast on the counter, nudging it over the edge. It tumbled through the ground, butter-side… up?

"Lucky," Sam said as Danny picked up the bit of toast. "It's really bad luck to have your toast fall butter-side down."

"Yeah." Danny shook his head. "I don't need the bad luck, not today." He grinned up at his best friend. "Thanks for letting me use your toaster!"

Sam shrugged and said, "Don't mention it," but she was saying it to an empty kitchen. She pushed herself off the counter and wandered upstairs, not letting herself wonder why on Earth ghosts had ever started using toast as an invite for parties.

Paulina Sanchez was walking home from her friend Star's house, her designer clothes freshly laundered and cleaned. The nightmare from that morning seemed to be behind her – she hadn't seen a cupcake since lunch – and now that she was back in her own clothes, she almost felt happy. Surely everything was back to normal for perfect Paulina.

She was just turning the last corner when something fell out of the sky to splat against her chest. Paulina froze, then looked down. A black square that looked something like a burned piece of bread stuck to her shirt for a moment before slowly peeling off and tumbling to the ground.

For a long second, Paulina just stared at the huge globs of butter stuck to her shirt. A scream of frustration built up inside of her, but she just stared as a bluish ghost landed in front of her and gingerly scooped up the fallen piece of toast. "I AM THE BOX GHOST!" the spirit bellowed, but it could barely be heard over Paulina's shrieks of terror.

She turned around and raced for home, locked herself in her room, and refused to leave until morning.

Coach Teslaff chuckled a little to herself as she snuck past the supply room, not even caring to bother why it was such a mess inside. The supply room wasn't her objective.

One of the kids from detention had mentioned to her that Lancer had managed to corner a flying toaster and Teslaff, convinced that she owned the only flying toaster in the world, was determined that it was hers and she would get it back. She peered around the corner of the door, relieved to find the room empty. "You won't get my toaster this easily," she whispered, sneaking into the room and grinning as her hands slid over the sleek slides of her toaster. "My precious," she cooed, "come to Mama."

She carefully undid the knots holding down her beautiful toaster, but before she could get a firm grip on it, the thing floated into the air. "Get back here," she demanded softly, worried that Lancer would return any minute.

The toaster didn't listen. Instead, it floated serenely just out of reach for a moment before zipping towards the window. "No!" Teslaff hissed, lunging for her toaster, but it was too late. In a shattering of glass, the appliance made its second bid for freedom and vanished into the evening sky.

Valerie still had a headache from being hit on the head by the toaster earlier that day, but at least the buttery smell of torment was gone. She sat on her hoverboard over the city, her helmet in her lap, studying the ends of her hair where it had been burnt earlier that day. When she'd gotten home, her father had instantly noticed and had gone on some tangent about how dangerous ghost hunting was – she never even had the chance to explain what had really happened.

The toaster that had just escaped from Teslaff for a second time whipped past Val's head, missing her by inches. Val flinched, nearly tumbling from her board, her heart beating in her chest. "What's up with toasters today?" she hissed. "They burned my hair and hit me… and now again?"

It crossed her mind that maybe there was a Toaster Ghost out there she'd gotten on the bad side of, but Valerie dismissed that has being a bit ludicrous. That was when her ghost alarm started to blare. Valerie looked down with a grin, studying the screen.

A ghost – a weak one at that. Valerie chuckled, feeling the anticipation of a good hunt, and was about to get to her feet and go after the ghost when she noticed something.

A second ghost appeared on her screen. Then a third, and a forth, and a fifth. "What the…"

She waited, watching, as dozens of ghosts appeared on her radar, all of them headed towards one place – a certain billionaire's mansion. "Mr. Masters!"

It was a very long day for Danny by the time he landed at the doors of Vlad Master's mansion. The man was gone on vacation for a few days and when Clockwork had shown up with Youngblood's request to have his party in the human world, the empty house had immediately sprung to Danny's mind. It hadn't taken more than fifteen minutes for Tucker to bypass all the security features and it had only been another half-hour to string up enough decorations to appease the young ghost.

"Here," he muttered, tossing his piece of toast onto the pile of charcoaled bread from the other party-goers. "Can I go in now?"

The Fright Knight studied the toasted bread carefully. "Are you sure this is toast?" he finally rumbled.

Danny ground out, "Yes."

"Fine, Sir Phantom. You can enter." The powerful ghost stepped aside and Danny Phantom strolled into the young ghost's fiftieth eighth birthday party, not nearly as tense as a half ghost should be when surrounded by dozens of his archenemies. The room was just as he had left it hours earlier – except now it was teeming with the dead.

Ember strolled up to him. "Nice digs, Dipstick. How'd you get the old fart to agree to this?"

Danny shrugged a little, scanning the crowd for any signs of desires to take over the world. The holidays might have its truce, but he'd never heard of a birthday truce. The ghosts were only on their best behavior because they wanted to be and Danny knew how fast that could change. "Forgiveness, permission, all that," he mumbled.

The grin that split Ember's face would have killed her if she'd still been alive. "Rock on." She downed the glass of juice in her hand, then manifested her guitar and strummed a few chords. "Let's get this party started."

Danny had just enough time to stuff his fingers into his ears before Ember began to wail out her latest hit single, much to the horror of most of the ghosts present at the party. He glanced across the room, catching the eye of his clone. Dani was smiling and laughing, clearly enjoying herself as she played a game of what looked like Pin the Tail on Wulf, and Danny couldn't help but smile too.

Maybe this party wasn't so horrible. If only he could get Ember to shut up for a few minutes.

Johnny 13 had a whole pile of highly burned toast sitting next to him, but it really wasn't doing him any good. He glared down over the edge of his rock at the swirling Infinite Vortex of Pain. Picking up a piece of toast, Johnny chucked it over the edge, watching it twirl through space before being sucked inside.

He hadn't seen Kitty in hours. And, by now, he was almost positive that the girl had taken off with his motorcycle. "What's taking so long?" he grumbled.

It took a few more minutes and a few more pieces of tossed toast before Shadow raced out of the green abyss, shaking its head. The shadowy creature hadn't seen hide nor hair of his motorcycle anywhere in the Ghost Zone.

Johnny scowled and kicked at the old toaster, watching it teeter over the edge and tumble through the air. "Now I can't go to the party," he complained. "Stupid toaster."

It didn't really care much about the party, but Shadow nodded sympathetically before merging back with Johnny. The bad luck ghost sighed and flung another piece of toast over the edge. There was really no point to keeping it anymore, now that he didn't need it for the party.

Now all he needed was a ride…

Somewhere down deep, trapped in the Infinite Vortex of Pain, Kitty and Skulker were glaring at each other. "This is all your fault," Kitty argued. "You and your stupid 'hunting'."

"It's not stupid," Skulker muttered, still working on getting his body completely working again. The buttery substance that had worked its way onto his circuit boards was proving nearly impossible to remove. He had control over most of his body, but his right arm was refusing to work properly.

That was when it started to rain toast. Kitty was hit in the head by two pieces before she started to watch for them, dodging the randomly falling bits of bread. "What's going on?" she demanded.

Skulker scowled at her. "How would I know?"

She was about to answer when an old – and familiar-looking – toaster tumbled out of the air and slammed into Skulker's head. Much to the displeasure of the tiny, frog-like ghost inside, Skulker's robotic suit promptly stopped working all over again.

Kitty stared down at the dented head of the ghost hunter, listening to the small ghost trapped inside curse, before crossing her arms over her chest with a huff. "Serves you right," she said ferociously just as one last piece of toast landed, butter-side down, on top of her head.

"Mom?" Jazz Fenton knew nothing about Youngblood's party – her brother had chosen to keep her in the dark, knowing how she'd feel about it. Since she knew nothing about the evening invasion of ghosts into Amity Park, Jazz had chosen to hide in the library after school was over. The books wouldn't tease her endlessly about the stain on her fingers.

Jazz stepped rather slowly into the kitchen, surveying the damage with an open mouth and a kind of glazed look to her eyes. "What happened here?"

She picked her way through the destroyed kitchen, pushing lightly on the swinging door, before making her way downstairs. Both of her parents were hunched over a computer terminal, gazing intently at the screen. "Mom? Dad?"

"Jazz!" Her mother looked up. "Come look at this!"

"What is it?" She glanced down at the screen, recognizing it as the ghost radar her parents had created several months earlier. There was a huge glowing spot near the edge of the screen. Leaning closer to see what it was, Jazz realized that it wasn't one spot – it was dozens of spots really close together.

Maddie Fenton tapped the screen. "All those ghosts came through our kitchen. Jack and I were going to hunt them down, but look at how they're congregating in one spot like that. We're trying to figure out why."

"Then you'll hunt them down?" Jazz asked, although she really didn't need to. Her parents had a one-track mind.

"Of course, Sweetie." Maddie frowned down at the screen. "They don't belong in our world. We just need to find out why they're here, first."

"Yup," Jack added, almost as an afterthought. "Just another minute or two and we'll be out of here."

Jazz blinked at the screen. "Isn't that Vla…" she trailed off, then narrowed her eyes. "I… have… homework to do." Without another word, she left her parents and stalked towards her room, digging out her cell phone as she went and typing in her brother's number. "Daniel James Fenton. What are you doing?"

Danny hung up his phone, frowning. He'd managed to keep his sister from stalking over – barely – but he knew that she'd be all over him the second he got home. That wasn't the reason for his frown, though. The fact that his parents knew the ghosts were meeting here and were planning something was kind of troubling.

The party was beginning to head into its second hour and Danny was all for it breaking up and the ghosts heading home. If his parents showed up with guns blazing, they could get hurt. "Dani!" he called over the wail of Ember's songs, although she'd thankfully changed over to the slightly-more-bearable CDs.

"What?" The girl popped into view by his elbow.

"My parents are coming," Danny said, shaking his head and gazing out at the dancing ghosts. He saw his clone wince a little.

"What are you going to do?"

Danny shrugged a little. The safest bet was to scatter all of these ghosts before his parents showed up, but he had no idea how to do it. The assorted spirits were having fun – even Walker, after the bit about the 'how to properly cut the cake' rule was fixed – and Danny had to admit that the party wasn't so horrible. He hadn't seen Youngblood so happy in… ever.

Being the center of attention definitely agreed with the young spirit. Youngblood had spent the better part of an hour showing off his 'human' body, then had taken some time to open and gloat over the strange-looking presents he'd ended up receiving. After cutting the cake and stuffing himself full, the boy had collapsed into a chair and was simply watching the happy partygoers with sleepy, half-closed eyes.

With no real reason to stop the party early, Danny leaned back against one of the walls and crossed his arms, thinking. What he needed was an excuse. Or some epically good luck when he asked these guys to leave-

A whine alerted Danny instants before the window in the corner shattered, a red-suited Valerie on a hoverboard throwing herself into the party. Energy blazed as she started to shoot at random ghosts. "Get out of Mr. Master's home!" she screamed, charging something that looked dangerously like a small explosive.

Danny blinked at her, then looked around the room. The party was clearing out and for a second, Danny grinned. What lucky timing! This was a perfect excuse to-

"Phantom."

Berating himself for not paying attention, Danny looked up into the glowing barrel of Val's favorite weapon. "Dani," he said, not taking his eyes off the hunter-girl, "get Youngblood out of here."

The messy-haired girl on the other side of the room nodded and grabbed the young boy, who was just starting to catch onto what was happening. Before any real protest could be made, the two were gone.

"Throwing a party in Mr. Master's mansion, huh?" Valerie sneered. "You're going to pay for that, spook."

"As usual," Danny said with a sigh, "you ignore a dozen other ghosts and focus on me. Why is that again?"

"You're evil. You ruined my life!"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Of course. How could I forget?"

Val snarled, her finger tightening on the trigger of her gun. Danny decided not to hang around anymore and slipped backwards through the wall, hearing the zap of her weapon take a chunk out of the wall he'd just been leaning against. He didn't waste any time, taking to the air. It was only a few second before the familiar whine of Val's hoverboard was on his tail.

He twisted towards town, ready to give Val a run for her money, a put on a burst of speed. With the furious hunter on his tail, Danny flashed over the spot where Dani was dragging a protesting Youngblood further from his presents.

Dash Baxter refused to look anywhere but at the two feet that were carrying him towards his soft and warm bed. Practice had been horrific – after ending up in the mud seven times and having to endure endless bad renditions of 'Dash went splash', he'd ended up getting on the coach's bad side and had been picked to be the one to stay after and clean up the locker room. And to top it all off, Dash's car had refused to start, meaning the athlete was forced to walk home. All in all, the young football star wanted nothing more than to go to sleep and have the day be over.

Not looking up, Dash never saw Phantom and the Red Huntress whiz overhead. He also never saw the young girl fighting tooth and nail to keep an even younger boy headed away from Vlad Master's house, despite the fact that they were only on the other side of the street.

No, Dash's mind was completely focused on how horribly practice had gone and whom he could possibly blame for it. Fenton was a good target, as always, but Dash couldn't figure out a reason to blame the loser. He didn't really need a reason… but the torment meant more with one than without one.

He also never saw the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle careen around a corner. The roar of the engine made him finally glance up just in time to see the GAV jump the curb slightly and pass by too close for comfort. The vehicle zoomed right through the same puddle that had splashed Paulina some ten hours earlier, sending a wave of water in Dash's direction.

He didn't even bother to duck. He just closed his eyes, depressingly, and felt the cold water slam into him. "I'm going to kill Fenton," he whispered as the GAV disappeared around another corner in the general direction of the Master's mansion. The words made him feel a little better.

Not much, but a little.

The ghost of the Lunch Lady was still locked in a Fenton Thermos that had been kicked under Danny's bed, much to her delight. While most ghosts considered the cramped space to be an unlucky sort of torment, the Lunch Lady was well aware of the horrors that she could have been facing out in the world. She was more than content to wait out the unlucky day inside Phantom's Thermos, so long as Phantom didn't forget she was there.

Lancer eventually worked his way back to the school, gazing around nervously for the blue-skinned ghost that had chased him through the building, intent on nothing more than collecting his car keys and locking up the school so he could go home. He needed a shower and a change of clothes, if nothing else.

Cautiously making his way through the school, Lancer checked through every open door to make sure he was alone. When he finally made it to his office, he quickly shut down his computer and grabbed his coat and car keys, fully intending for his next stop to be the relatively safety of his car.

That was when he noticed the broken window. Lancer blinked at it for a moment, then turned his attention to the ropes that used to be holding Teslaff's flying toaster in place. His eyes drifted back to the window, then he sighed. He really should do something about it.

But it was a second floor window… and there was drying paint and glue peeling on his skin. The desire to get out of the haunted school and get a shower won rather handily. Lancer decided to take care of it tomorrow. He threw on his coat and settled his keys into his pocket.

Lancer made it back to his car without any issue, keeping far away from the shadowy form of Teslaff walking through the parking lot. He didn't need her to see him covered in paint.

The teacher quickly pulled away from the school, thinking that the worst of his bad luck was over. He quickly changed his mind, however, when a roaring Fenton van nearly drove him off the road. Lancer slammed on the brakes, his car half on the sidewalk and half on the road, then sat there and waited for his heart to start beating normally again, his fingers tight around the steering wheel.

"Parking on the sidewalk is against the rules," came a sour, echoing voice.

Lancer blinked and looked out his window. Glowing eyes against white, bony skin stared back calmly at him. "Ghost," Lancer whispered.

His foot found the gas pedal almost without thought and Lancer roared down the street. He made it home in record time (breezing through two red lights) and slammed the door behind him. Like several of his students, Lancer had no desire to leave his home again.

Maddie and Jack Fenton jumped out of the van at the front door of Vlad Master's mansion, their weapons already drawn. "Vladdy!" Jack called, storming towards the front door. "I'm here to rescue you!"

Maddie wasn't quite as quick as her husband to run to Vlad's rescue, but she was right behind Jack when he kicked at the front door. Jack yelped in pain when his foot hit the door, bouncing backwards and limping a little. "Jack," Maddie chided slightly, twisting the doorknob and pushing the door open.

The two hunters stormed into the room, their guns raised as they surveyed the nearly empty room. When they saw no ghosts, both lowered their weapons slowly and turned their attention to the two human children crouched in the center of the room.

The first, a younger boy with brilliant green eyes, was digging through a pile of things on the ground. The older looking girl, her disheveled black hair pulled back in a ponytail, seemed to be frozen in the act of pulling on the boy's shirt. She stared at them with wide blue eyes.

"What are you two doing in here?" Maddie demanded.

"We gotta go," the girl hissed, but the boy was paying no attention.

Jack took a step forwards. "Did you see where the ghosts went?"

The girl shook her head, yanking on the boy's shirt. "Youngblood," she snapped.

"My presents," the boy complained, grabbing a few in his hands and holding them close to his chest. "I get to keep them!"

The two adults were about to press the issue when something out of the ordinary happened. The boy, who had just gotten to his feet, started to glow. Maddie and Jack blinked at each other, their hands tightening on their weapons. "What's-"

"Aw…" Youngblood moaned. "Already?"

Somewhere deeper in Vlad's house, a clock chimed eight o'clock. The young ghost's eyes blazed green as his wish to be human came to a conclusion. For only a fraction of a second, the Fentons could see Youngblood as the ghost he really was before he faded from view from their eyes.

The two adults were still standing there, a little stunned, as the girl scowled. Then, without even glancing in their direction, she vanished as well, leaving the two humans standing alone in the destroyed house with their mouths falling open in surprised shock.

Hours later, Danny had long since lost Valerie and had chased the last of the ghosts back through the Fenton Portal. He had returned to Vlad's house and stood in the doorway of the empty room that had held the ghostly birthday party. The place looked like hurricane had gone through, leaving almost nothing untouched. One of the old-looking armchairs was even stuck to the ceiling, although Danny really had no clue how or why it had gotten there.

He really did debate cleaning up a little before he left, but then he remembered Vlad's latest attempt to steal his mother and kill his father and decided that Vlad could clean it up himself. Before he left, however, Danny took the pile of forgotten toast and carefully set pieces up around the room. Buttered bits of burned toast teetered on the edges of tables, waited on cushions, and perched on windowsills and shelves as Danny finally took to the air to make sure all the ghost shad found their way back to the Ghost Zone.

Hopefully Vlad would bump into a piece or two (or twelve) when he got home. Because, as everyone knows, it's horribly bad luck if a piece of toast falls butter-side down.