Short Story #1: It was just a prank! A harmless little prank! (Part 1)

INSPIRED BY: RedHeadsRock1010's: Family of Fools One-shot!

(WILLING TO DO ANOTHER PART TO THIS JUST LEEME KNOW IN A REVIEW)

Today had been a pretty normal day for the mysterious trio of Amity Park. Well, if you include the ghost fights, and that one of the members of the trio was half-ghost, then yeah, it was pretty normal, "Geez Skulker, how many times are you going to annoy me today? This is what? The third time I've seen you today? Don't you ever take a break?" A white haired teen groaned in annoyance, "Why don't you go spend some time with your girlfriend? Maybe that way you will stay out of my hair and you two wouldn't get into so many arguments!"

"As many times as it takes to get your pelt and put it the foot of my bed, whelp! As for my girlfriend, how I treat her is none of your concern." The mechanical ghost declared before charging at the white haired adolescent, guns blazing. The teen dodged the ecto-blasts with ease before firing some of his own at the hunter ghost. One of the blasts actually hit Skulker and it stunned him for a moment. The ghost teen took advantage of this brief window of opportunity and flew to the ghost and kicked him, which made made him land into a nearby building and then to the hard pavement below.

Suddenly there was a bright blue light and then disappeared almost as fast as it came, "I sure hope that's all the ghosts for tonight, I'm pooped." A voice groaned. The white haired teen flew down to the ground to the owner of the voice. A familiar white light emitted from his torso and split into two separate rings, one going up and one going down. Snow white haired changed to raven and neon green eyes changed to a beautiful sky blue.

"I know know what you mean Tucker." On cue, the raven haired boy yawned right after he spoke, "Maybe we should keep him in there for a while. It's not like Ember's gonna miss him or anything.". Tucker simply nodded in agreement. Tucker Foley, just one of the members of the illusive trio that had all of Amity Park stumped. Tucker was the tech person in the group, he loved technology and meat. He really came in handy when a certain technology obsessed ghost decided to wreck havoc in town.

"You would think ghosts would know not to mess with Danny after the amount of times he's kicked their butts." A female voice stated. The female of the group, Samantha "Sam" Manson. She was the logical person in the trio, she used her head and knew how to aim and use ecto-weapons. The other two in the group might even say she's the best they've known. Sam was an ultra-recyclo vegetarian, which means she doesn't eat anything with a face on it. On top of that, she was a goth, even if her parents didn't necessarily approve of her decision, she claimed that it showed her individuality and refused to wear anything that's not black or purple unless she really wanted her parents to do something for her. To make things even better, she's loaded, nothing compared to Vlad Masters, but still, she had quite a bit of money.

"Yeah, you'd think that. Heck, I'd love to think that, but with my luck on top of bad-luck Tuck over there, that's not happening." The raven haired boy laughed, which earned him a death glare from Tucker which only made him laugh more. The final member of the trio, Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom as he was known to Amity Park. He was the son of Amity Parks leading ghost hunters, Jack and Maddie Fenton and was quite well known for his witty banter, both on Earth and in the Ghost Zone. Danny was also superhero with a hero complex that Sam swears will be the full death of him one day. That's right, Danny Fenton is technically half head. The technical term for 'what' Danny is halfa, a half human half ghost hybrid. An accident almost two years ago in his parents lab had given him ghost powers. After his first battle with Lunch Lady about a month after said accident, he decided to use his powers for good and help people, unlike another and only other fruit loopy and true halfa he knew.

The raven haired teen looked at his watch, 9:55 it read, "Not good, my curfew is in 5 minutes! Bye guys! See you tomorrow! Oh and by the way, happy early April Fools!" He exclaimed with a big toothy grin. He quickly stuffed the thermos that contained Skulker in his backpack and quickly turned back into Phantom and waved at his friends and took off.

On his flight home, the young halfa kept thinking about what innocent pranks that he could pull on his parents and sister that may (or may not) include his ghost powers, but he kept drawing a blank on the subject. He didn't want his parents to think that it was ghosts that were causing the pranks and that's going to be pretty hard to pull of and explain, and he's pretty much pulled every single 'innocent pranks that a child can pull on their parents without getting in trouble' in the book. Even Jazz was hard to think of a good prank, she'd probably be anticipating something from the ghost teen to pull a prank on her and she'd probably definitely take into consideration that he'd use his ghost powers to pull off said prank, so pranking her wouldn't be as much fun. The young halfa frowned at the thought.

Finally, the giant neon sign that read "Fenton Works" came into view. A good 10 feet from the building the young Phantom went into a dark alley and transformed back into his human form. On his way to the door, he read his watch, 9:58 it read. He still had two minutes, he wouldn't be late for his curfew for once! He walked up to door and walked inside sighing in relief that his parents weren't there ready to scold him for being late, "I'm home!" He yelled as he closed the door. He heard a muffled, "Welcome home son!" from his dad. Danny placed his backpack on the couch before headed upstairs to get ready for bed. If tonight was like any other night this week so far, he'd get about 3 to 4 hours of sleep before he'd get interrupted by a ghost and have to go fight it. The raven haired teen walked up the stairs and went into his room where he changed into his pajamas and jumped into bed, practically falling asleep before his head even hit his pillow.

Jack and Maddie Fenton had the perfect prank to pull on their son. Sure, he might know it's a joke right away, but maybe he'd humor them and just go along with it. Their plan was to take Danny down to the lab when he was asleep and when he woke up, they'd treat him like a ghost, being careful not to hurt him, of course, and if he freaked out for some reason they'd just explain it was a prank. If they were lucky and everything went according to plan, maybe they'd get him interested in fighting and hunting ghosts, but that's pushing their luck. Both elder Fenton's knew that their son had a dream to become an astronaut and go to the stars, even if his grades weren't the best, if he pushed himself more in his last two years of high school, he might just be able to reach his goal.

The two ghost hunters would be lying if they said knew where he got the interest from, neither one of them had any interest in remembered the look on Danny's face when he had looked at the stars through the telescope they got him for his birthday for the first time. His eyes sparkled as bright as a star if not brighter. She remembered him turning to her and quietly saying to her, "Mommy, when I get older, I want to go up there…". Oh how she missed those days, she hasn't seen Danny that happy since then, how she longed to see that expression her child's face again. She knew that they had grew apart as he got older and she was scared of her relationship with her only son to completely vanish. That's why she had to do this, all she wanted was a relationship similar to that of when Danny was a child. She was willing to take the chance of him not going along with their prank, if it meant that she had a chance to bring her closer to her son, after all… it was a harmless little prank right? It's not like they were going to do anything to their son that would hurt him, they loved him too much.

Snapping out her thoughts, Maddie looked at their watch, it read midnight, Danny should be asleep by now, "Alright Jack, you ready?" She asked.

"Ready as always Mads! I'll wait down here." The fudge loving man replied happy as always.

With that, Maddie quietly as possible went up the stairs from the lab to the kitchen where she remained as quiet as humanly possible to the stairs that would lead her upstairs. She quietly walked up the stairs and slowly walked towards her son's room. When she reached it, she stopped in front of the door to his room. Danny's bedroom door was notorious throughout the house for being really squeaky when anyone opened it, Maddie would have to be careful if she didn't want to wake up Danny. She gripped the knob and slowly pushed the door open, squeaking only slightly, she sighed in relief. However, that relief was short lived, the further she pushed the door open, the more audible the squeaking noise was. She held her breath as she finally opened the door wide enough to slip in and for her to carry Danny downstairs. She sighed in relief once again that she didn't wake up the sleeping child. Maddie slowly made her way to her son's bedside where she watched his sleeping figure with a smile on her face. It's had been quite some time since Maddie had seen her son's sleeping figure like this, she only watched him sleep when he was sick, which wasn't very often.

Maddie couldn't help but kiss her son on the forehead, which caused him to stir a little, but she didn't think anything of it. She swiftly and easily lifted Danny into her arms. She made a mental note to talk to Danny about his eating habits, he was severely underweight for a kid his age and height, but that was for another time. Maddie quietly made her way back downstairs into the lab where Jack was waiting sitting on the air mattress they had brought down when they had first thought of this idea. Maddie gingerly placed Danny on the examination table where Jack carefully placed his arms and legs somewhat loosely in the ghost-proof restraints (They decided to do this to be more 'realistic' with their plan). They both went to the air mattress and sat there silently. Now all they had to do, was wait for Danny to wake up.

When Danny woke up, he automatically knew that he wasn't in his bed. His bed was soft and comfy, whatever he was on now was the exact opposite. He slowly opened his eyes and tried to get his surroundings. Panic settled in when he quickly learned that he wasn't able to move his arms or legs. He lifted his head to the best of his ability to confirm that he was in fact, restrained to an examination table, the question was where. Danny wasn't the biggest fan of examination tables, even since he was little and it didn't help that on top of that fear, since he got his ghost powers and his parents found out about Phantom, they've wanted to 'rip him apart molecule by molecule'. Thanks to that friendly little reminder, he was finding it quite difficult to remain calm.

Now more awake, Danny tried to phase out of his restraints, only to fail. Whoever had captured him must know he's part ghost, why else would they have ghost-proof restraints? He started to go through a list of people who would have access anti-ghost equipment; Vlad, Valerie, Walker, the Guys and White and… he didn't even want to think about it. They wouldn't do that right? Even if it was them, all e had to do was tell them and everything would be hunky-dory just like in the alternate reality. Wanting to stop thinking about who captured him, he started to think about where he was. He started to look around to the best of his ability and he immediately recognized where he was and it freaking terrified the crap out of him; he was in parents lab, on an examination table, in ghost-proof restraints. Now he REALLY started to panic and questions flooded his mind; Did they find out about my secret? If so how did they find out? How come I don't remember being brought down here? Did they see my transform? Danny decided to look around some more and when he saw his parents sleeping on an air mattress. He screamed.

Jack and Maddie jerked up rather suddenly when they heard a scream, a rather loud one at that. What they saw scared them; their son was crying and forcibly trying to get out of the ghost-proof restraints that they put him in. Jack and Maddie were quick to get up and try and comfort their son, now wanting nothing more than to tell him it was all a prank and he didn't need to freak out. Maddie made her way to the table, she could hear her son whispering something under his breath, though, still audible, "This... can't be happening… no… no… how…why...". Each word getting louder and louder, it saddened both parents to see their son in such a state and it didn't help that they were angry as well, not at Danny, but at themselves for putting their son in the state that they never ever wanted to see him in. However, they were both curious as to why their son was acting like this, why was he this afraid?

Maddie slowly extended her hand towards Danny's shoulder. As he got closer she could see that he was shaking, not a lot, but enough to be noticeable, "Danny, sweetie, it's alright. You don't need to be scared." She said, barely being able to hold back her own tears that were threatening to spill.

"No….. go away… go away… no… stop please…." Each word out of the teens mouth brought both Jack and Maddie Fenton to the break of a full on breakdown themselves. Each word like venom, stinging the hearts of both parents, reminding them that they were the cause of their son's mental breakdown.

The door to the lab suddenly opened with a loud thud and footsteps were very quickly heard coming down the stairs. When the footsteps stopped a redhead girl was standing at the base of the steps, her face and eyes widening at the horror of the situation that was before her, "What did you two do…" she whispered to herself. She slowly walked over to the examination table, completely disregarding her parents presence and hit the buttons that were located under the table. The restraints were then off of the young teens wrists and ankles and he quickly turned into a fetal position on his side, hugging his knees and sobbing, "I'd like an explanation as to why my little brother was strapped to an examination table after he's calmed down capeesh?." Her voice was quite commanding and quite authoritative sounding, but was still rather calm, given the situation. The elder Fenton's simply nodded as they watched their daughter pick up Danny and took him upstairs.

Jazz Fenton had every right to be mad, and boy did she take advantage of said right. She was fuming to the point where you probably could have seen smoke some out of her ears. She gingerly sat her traumatized little brother in his bed and gave him a hug and he wasted no time returning the gesture, "It's alright little brother. I bet they weren't going to hurt you. There's no way that they could have known. Even if they did know, you know that I wouldn't have let them do anything to you." She comforted as the youngest Fenton child remained silent, not that she could blame him.

After Danny figured out that she knew his secret, one of the first things that she asked him was his greatest fear of being a halfa was besides his secret identity being revealed. Danny knew that he could be truthful with his sister. Even though she'd try to psychoanalyze everything he told her, he knew she wouldn't tell anyone, plus she already proved that she could keep a secret. So, he told her the truth, that he had two greatest fears. One of which was turning into his jerky older self that he fought. Hopefully Clockwork is keeping a good eye on that thermos. The other one was being experimented on by anyone in general, but he further explained that the root of the fear was being experimented on by his parents.

Time had past, about an hour or so before Danny finally cried himself to sleep. Now that he was asleep, Jazz could finally get an explanation out of her quietly got up and exited her brothers room before heading downstairs where she found her parents sitting sorrowfully on the couch. She secretly pitied them, for they were going to get an earful and have to face the wrath of Jazz Fenton. No one was going to intentionally or unintentionally hurt her precious little brother if she could do something about it, not even her own parents were safe from her wrath.

She very audibly made her way towards the couch that her parents were occupying. A mad expression clear as day on her face as she sat down on the table in front of them. She knew that they weren't going to initiate conversation, so she started it for them, "Start from the beginning." She said sternly.

"First off, Jazz, we're sorry we didn't-" Maddie began, only to be cut off by Jazz.

"No no no! I'm not having any of that 'I'm sorry' crap! It doesn't change what you did. What I want are answers, not an apology and if you're going to apologize to anyone, it should be your son who's now traumatized because of you two!" She roared as her facial expression didn't change.

The elder Fentons knew that the child was right. They shouldn't be apologizing to her, they should be apologizing to Danny, who was now terrified out of his mind and probably hates them because of what they did, "Well, alright. Well in case you didn't know, today's April Fools Day and well… our idea was to treat Danny as if he was a ghost the whole day and see if he went along with it or not. We had no idea that he'd react the way he did…" Maddie explained, her daughter's eyes became wider as she continued to speak, her facial expression went from that of anger to shock and surprise and finally back to anger.

"You mean to tell me… this was all a prank?!" Each word was louder than the last, Jazz's tone of voice getting lower and lower with each word. All the ghost hunters could do was simply nod, "Why… why would you even think that would be a good idea for a prank?"

"We've noticed over the last couple years, that Danny has been 'drifting away' from us and we wanted to fix that. We thought that if we did this... prank, that Danny would gain an interest in ghost hunting and that would bring us closer together…" Maddie replied with sorrow in her voice, "I guess we were wrong…"

"Very. I can't believe you two…" Jazz hissed as she abruptly got up and left to go back upstairs. It was at the this moment, that both Jack and Maddie Fenton realized, they had just lost both of their children. All because of one thought, 'It was just a prank! A harmless little prank!'.

Update: I'm currently working on the second part to this and another one-shot! Hopefully I'll have them ready tomorrow! Stay tuned~