Chapter 1: Accident

It was a normal Friday morning, and by normal I meant normal for Danny Fenton as a loud explosion coming from downstairs woke him up.

Danny was a 14-year-old teenage boy, with an abnormal family, who lived in the peaceful town of Amity Park. His parents, Maddie and Jack Fenton, were ghost hunters. They spent days inventing new gadgets that most of the time didn't function properly to capture things that, in Danny's opinion, didn't even exist. As for his sister Jasmine, she considered herself and acted like a very mature adult, which greatly annoyed him. But someone had to be responsible in the family, right?

Danny ran downstairs towards the origin of the sound, only to find smoke coming from the basement where his parent's lab was. He ran downstairs and saw his parents coughing and waving at the grey smoke.

"What happened", he asked them.

"It's nothing to worry about sweetie. Something just went wrong with the Ghost Portal", his mom replied.

"Again", his father complained.

"What's a Ghost Portal", Danny asked. That got a smile back on his dad's face.

Jack Fenton was obsessed with anything related to ghosts. He would talk about them non-stop and would always try to get his kids involved. So for him, Danny asking questions was a good sign of his son being interested in becoming a future ghost hunter. But what Jack didn't know was that Danny only wanted to become one thing and that was an Astronaut.

His dad suddenly took out diagrams out of no-where and placed them on a wooden tripod.

"You see… We built a round machine that, when turned on, will connect us to the Ghost Zone… The place where ghosts live", Danny's dad explained, with the pictures of the cylindrical machine and of a ghost coming out of it, on the blue prints. Danny looked sceptical.

Ghosts? Ghost Zone? … What is he talking about?

But his father wasn't done.

"We just have to connect these two wires", he said lifting the huge, heavy things off the floor and putting them together. They waited but nothing happened, only a couple of sparks. Both parents sighed and Jack slouched.

"I guess we'll never get it to work", Maddie said as they went up the stairs and left.

Danny stared at his depressed parents as they left. He had never seen them like this.

Maybe I could… No…

He hesitated. He really wanted to help, but where to start?

"Hurry up Danny! You'll be late for school", his sister's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh no", he said to himself as if just remembering. He ran up the two sets of stairs by threes until he was up on the second floor and in his room.

He got dressed quickly in his white t-shirt and blue jeans with his red running shoes, before turning to the mirror in the bathroom beside. His blue eyes scanned his appearance. They immediately landed on his unruly black hair. He grunted irritably as he unsuccessfully tried to flatten it with his hands.

"Danny! Sam and Tucker are here", Jasmine screamed from the bottom of the stairs.

He gave up on his hair and went back to his room to grab his school bag. He then ran down stairs to meet his two best friends.

Sam and Tucker were Danny's only friends and had been for as long as he could remember. Sam, the only girl in the gang, was unique to say the least. Samantha Mansion was a Goth. Everything with her was black and purple and it fit her attitude perfectly. She wore a small black skirt, purple leggings, a black t-shirt, black combat boots and purple lipstick. She also wore the top of her black hair in a high ponytail. As for Tucker Foley, the techno geek, he was obsessed with electronics and you seldom saw him without his beloved PDA. He usually wore khaki pants, a plain long sleeve shirt and a red hat, with glasses in front of his eyes.

Danny got to the living room where his friends waited for him. As he left with them he lost himself in his thoughts…

I've never seen mom and dad so depressed over one of their inventions before. I wish there was something I could do, even if I don't really believe in what they do… But what… I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I should ask for help…

"Danny?"

Sam's voice brought him back to reality as she waved her hand in front of his face a couple of times.

"Huh?"

"Are you okay", she asked. He nodded.

"It's nothing", he lied, but he knew she hadn't believed him.

They walked towards the school entrance and as Sam was about to ask him something again, the bell rang.

"I'll see you guys in class", Danny said. His friends didn't say anything as they watched him leave. Sam gave Tucker a worried look. He shrugged and left for his locker.

Danny heard the second bell ring.

Great… I'm late… Again!

He heard footsteps approaching and turned quickly only to see three football players coming his way.

"Well if it isn't Fen-turd", one of them said as the others laughed.

"Dash", Danny replied backing up until his back hit his locker.

"Who wants to do the honours", Dash asked as he cracked his knuckles menacingly, taking a step closer. Danny swallowed loudly.

First week of school and I'm already getting stuffed in my locker…

Dash took another step closer.

"Come on guys… I'm late for class", Danny said.

"That you are Mr. Fenton", a voice said. They all turned to see the vice-principal, Mr. Lancer, heading in their direction.

"I'm sorry sir. Dash-

"Was telling him the same thing…" Dash tried to cover himself.

"Of course. Now head to class, gentlemen… I would hate to give out detentions on the first week of school", Mr. Lancer, who had always favoured the popular students, told them. They didn't need to be told twice as they all left the premises quickly.

________________

The morning passed quickly and soon it was lunchtime. Danny met up with Tucker at their usual picnic table.

"Hey Tuck. Where's Sam", Danny asked as he took a seat in front of his friend.

"Probably complaining about the Lunch Menu again", he said, rolling his eyes at their ultra-recyclo-vegetarian friend. He took out a bag of chips to eat with his hot-dog as Danny took out his turkey sandwich from his bag. Sam sat down next to Danny with her salad. Tucker and she exchanged a look and he nodded.

"Okay, Danny. Tell us what's wrong", Sam said. He looked up from his food confused.

"You've been spacing out on us all day dude", Tucker said.

"It's this invention my parents are working on", he started saying.

"Another one", Tucker asked.

"This one is different though. They've been working on it for months now. Secretly", Danny said, "Then this morning there was an explosion in the lab. When I went down to see what happened, my dad explained that they had been working on a Ghost Portal that connects our world to the Ghost Zone. But when he went to test it out, nothing happened."

"And? Why is it your problem", Sam asked.

"You should have seen them. They've never been this upset over anything. They're probably still locked up in their room", Danny said.

"And you wish there was something you could do", Sam guessed and he nodded.

"There you guys go again with that weird connection of yours", Tucker muttered, but Sam had heard him as she was glaring at him.

"Maybe we should check it out", Tucker suggested.

"I don't know…"

Danny wasn't sure what to do.

"What are we doing this week end then", Tucker asked.

"My house is off limits. You know how my parents are", Sam squeezed the life out of her juice box by just the thought of her sunshine, pink-loving, excessively quirky parents.

Tucker backed away and Danny just cringed as he took the juice away from her and changed the subject.

"We could hang at my place tonight and go to the movies tomorrow", he suggested. Tucker nodded his approval.

"Great. There was this one movie coming out tomorrow that…" Sam started saying but the boys weren't listening anymore. They were stuck in some sort of daze. Sam rolled her eyes.

"Guys", she asked, "Guys?" The Goth waved a hand in front of their faces but they didn't even blink. It was a little creepy…

"Guys? What's with the drooling", she asked.

"Paulina…"

They both said in a hypnotized voice.

"Oh, please! Paulina", she asked in disbelief, "You can't get shallower than that."

And she was right. Paulina, head cheerleader, and her best friend, Star, where the most popular girls at school and the worst people you could ever run into in Casper High. Their popular table was usually filled with teens that had money and attitude in common, meaning rich and mean people like Dash, Valerie, Star and Paulina were head of the gang.

As Paulina and Star passed through the school grounds, every boy stopped what they were doing to get a glimpse at the head cheer's flawless perfection.

Sam sighed in frustration as she waved her hand in front of her best friend's faces and nothing happened. I give up…

___________________

As the last bell rang for the day, signalling the start of the weekend, everyone cleared out of the school quickly and hurried home.

"Hey Sam", Danny said as he arrived at her locker.

"Hey", the Goth-girl said as she closed her locker door and swung her bag on her shoulder. She turned to face him.

"Where's Tucker", she asked.

"He went home. Said he wasn't feeling well", Danny said. Sam nodded.

"So you still coming over", Danny asked.

"Yeah", she replied turning to leave, "Let's go."

When they got to Danny's house, Fenton's Works as the big sign on it said, he noticed it was too quiet.

Weird…

He walked towards the kitchen.

"Mom? Dad", he called out twice but got no answer, "Jazz?"

When he got to the kitchen he pulled out two sodas from the fridge. As he closed the door, he noticed a note taped to its usually empty surface. He pulled it off and red it out loud.

"Danny, your father and I went out to buy groceries and to change our ideas a little. Jasmine will be babysitting all night so you have the house to yourself. You know the rules. There are leftovers on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Tucker and Sam are free to stay. Love, mom", he then put the message on the counter and passed Sam one of the cans.

"That means we can check out the lab", Sam said.

"I don't know…"

"Come on Danny… A Ghost Portal? Don't tell me you're not the least bit curious", she said.

"Fine", he gave in, not really having anything else to do.

They went down the stairs and, as soon as the whole lab came to view, Danny heard Sam gasp.

"Awesome", she said as they walked toward the cylindrical whole filled with grey metallic plates and thick wires.

"Let's check it out", Sam said as she picked up a white lab suit. Ewe…

She tore off the sticker of Jack's face from the front of the suit.

"You really want to do this", Danny asked with his eyes still locked onto the portal's entrance.

Sam walked up beside him and handed him the white outfit.

"Come on Danny. Knowing your dad, he probably just forgot to press the on switch", Sam said.

He laughed and shook his head. Then he slipped the lab suit on and took a couple steps forwards until he stood at the mouth of the ghost portal. Just as he was about to enter Sam stopped him.

"Wait! I'm coming with you", she said, "But there's no way I'm wearing that… No offence", she added as he shrugged. They both entered the machine carefully as to not trip.

Then Danny spotted the control panel with two big buttons, a red and a green. The red one was pushed in.

"I guess you were right… Should we push the green one", Danny asked.

"Try it", Sam suggested.

They hadn't realized the consequences to their actions as Danny pressed the green button in. But it was too late. With a small click and a flash of light, the machine was turned on and the two teens fell on their hands and knees, screaming in pain before passing out.

This is my first Danny Phantom story so I REALLY NEED your reviews to tell me if I'm in character and if Im doing everything right, thanx :D