The first two chapters were written by Shadowfox. Snowblitz . I did NOT write the first two chappies. I have adopted the story from where she left off. Didn't wanna let it die. I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does.

Danny groaned as his dad yelled at him to come down to the lab right now, they had something extremely important to show him. Why was he the favored child in these matters? Why couldn't they call down Jazz every once in a while? He didn't believe in ghosts, and that was that.

Still, he had to admit he was curious. His parents had been in the lab almost constantly for months, they had to be making something big. It had been barred from him and his friends, and although he didn't exactly take pride in his parents' business, he enjoyed messing around in there with Sam and Tucker occasionally. All three of them had been curious ever since the first week, he was sworn to reveal whatever it was as soon as he found out.

So he tromped down the steps, yellow tape taken off at last, his father eagerly bounding up to him like an overexcited puppy. "Danny boy! Come see it!" He led Danny over to a certain portion of the extremely messy lab.

There was an object draped in a white sheet, quite a large object. His mother, smiling just as widely as Jack, tore off the sheet with a flourish. Danny gaped at the large...Thingamajig. He didn't know what to call it- it looked like a giant hole, big enough to step into easily.

"What is it?" He asked, going against his secret promise to himself to show no interest whatsoever in his parents' machines. Jack beamed with pride. "It's a portal to the Ghost Zone! We've been working on it for months!"

Jack's enthusiasm was catching. Despite himself, Danny started wondering what would happen with something that felt suspiciously akin to excitement. Of course it wouldn't work, because ghosts weren't real, but maybe something interesting would happen all the same.

"Go on, honey." Maddie urged. Jack was holding the wires for the machine. With a huge smile on his face, Jack plugged the wires into each other.

The machine sparked. Nothing else happened.

Jack and Maddie visibly sagged in disappointment. Danny, although he had been expecting this result from the start, felt sad for them too. Not like he could do anything, but..

"Come on, Maddie." Jack said. He sounded miserable. "Let's go. It didn't work." It hurt Danny's heart to see them walk off so broken, when a minute before both had been bouncing with excitement.

Well, he had a promise to fulfill, depressed parents or not. He called Sam on his cellphone, jogging up the stairs to meet her when she arrived.

~*v{o}v*~

"Wow." Tucker said, gazing up at the very impressive machine. "So this is what your parents have been working on? No wonder it took them so long."

Sam had not yet said anything. Danny nodded. "It's cool, but it doesn't work, of course. 'Cause ghosts don't exist. Look, they even plugged it in." He kicked the wire that should have started the machine, had it been working properly.

"You should go in." Sam said suddenly.

"What?" Danny yelled, then realized the tone of his voice. "I mean, are you crazy? Do you want me to die? Who knows what type of crazy things that machine might do if it accidentally turned on or something?"

Tucker caught on. "Danny's a chicken. Chicken! Bawk! BAWK!" Danny glared at his 'best' friend. "Thanks a lot, Tucker." Sam was now grinning insanely. "Yeah, Danny, afraid of a few ghosts?" She asked.

Danny shook his head vigorously. "No, ghosts don't exist. But that doesn't mean my parents' crazy machine can't kill me!" Suddenly he started smirking. "If you two are so dead set on me going into this thing, why don't you come in with me?"

Tucker and Sam exchanged looks. As one, they shrugged. "Sure." Sam said, grinning. "After all, me and Tucker aren't chickens."

"W...What?" Danny sputtered as they headed towards the gaping maul of the portal. "You aren't actually going to...You are." He sprinted up to them and spun both around. "Alright, fine. If you want to explore this death trap, I'm game. But first, lemme get at least marginal protection..." As Danny rooted around in a closet-like thing, Tucker and Sam exchanged victorious looks.

Danny emerged triumphant with three identical black-and-white outfits. "I don't know why, but my parents seem to have this delusion that I need extra HAZMAT suits." He rolled his eyes. "Anyways, here. Sam, if you want to change in the bathroom, you know where it is. Tucker, you can take my room."

Sam looked with revulsion at the outfit. "I have to wear this?" She said, sounding nauseated. "Oh, fine." She huffed and then headed up the stairs. Tucker took his outfit wordlessly. "Be back in a sec, dude." He said.

~*v{o}v*~

Danny once again looked at the dark entrance to the portal, taking a deep breath. He had an extremely bad feeling about this... Sam noticed his hesitation and mocked, "You scared?" Danny shook his head firmly and strode bravely into the blackness.

Nothing happened. As three pairs of eyes gradually adjusted to the dark, Tucker and Sam started exclaiming on all the pulsing lights and other things inside the portal. "Cool!" Danny remained tense, but finally relaxed enough to walk around a bit. The portal was surprisingly spacy.

And that was when disaster struck. Danny tripped and stumbled over a loose wire and put a hand on the wall to steady himself.

Unfortunately, his hand landed right on a green button reading "ON". Danny, Tucker, and Sam stood frozen as the machine whirred to life.