A/N: Wow – a few seconds of animation introduction and look what happened to my imagination! Woooo! (Dances crazily) Anyway, this is basically what I think happened. I dunno if there was a pilot episode or anything before this showing exactly how he got his powers or not – I assumed the first episode was 'Mystery Meat'. If there was a pilot episode, I've never heard of it. – TP

Disclaimer: Character fraud is wrong, people! You should know all characters, places, items and stuff belong to Butch Hartman and his posse, not to me. I have made no money out of writing this (though it was a lot of fun!). This was categorised to allow for minor swear words and possible insulting comments. This goes for all chapters in this story (so I don't have to repeat myself later).

A/N: Oh yeah. All Italic speech is thought. It is in the mind, not said aloud.

The school bell rang loud and clear through the various corridors of Casper High announcing the end of another day. Teenagers suffering from various stages of adolescence filed out of classes and visited their lockers, happy the afternoon was finished and they were finally free to leave the cold brick building and have some fun with their friends before returning tomorrow.

Not true for one freshman.

"Sorry Danny. I'd love to come round tonight, but my Auntie has come to visit from Iowa and I can't quit," said Tucker, opening his locker and dumping a pile of Spanish textbooks into the bottom.

"I'm busy too, I'm afraid," said Sam, sounding disappointed. "My Mum's making me go dress shopping for the dance next month. I told her I don't want to go, but she insists."

"That's OK you guys, I'll find something to do on my own. Lancer's given us that big pile of Biology homework. I'm sure that'll keep me occupied for a while," replied Danny, closing his locker.

"Ooh. Have fun with that," said Tucker, wincing in sympathy. "Anyway, I've gotta run. Dad's picking me up from school so I'm not late for my Aunts' arrival. That, and we're eating Mexican tonight, and I don't want to miss out on the burritos. See ya!" He skipped off down the corridor, whistling the Mexican hat dance to himself.

"That dude is one seriously crazed up fruit-loop," murmured Danny, shaking his head.

"Too right," agreed Sam. "I can walk to your house with you but I can't stop. The shops all close at five and Mum wants to have plenty of time to browse. She says I have to try the damn things on before she even considers buying one." She giggled dismissively.

They walked out of the double front doors and across the courtyard, joking about Sam wearing a dress. She wasn't really what you'd call a girly-girl and it was hard to imagine her getting all dolled up. In fact, it was hard imagining her in anything but her usual gothic attire.

"It's not like I'm going to the dance anyway," she insisted repeatedly, avoiding eye contact with Danny as she said it. Danny, who had no grasp on subtlety or the female mind whatsoever, didn't take the hint.

They arrived at the monstrosity on the corner that Danny called home in a relatively short time.

"Well, time for me to go and try on everything in the shop," said Sam, sighing. "See ya tomorrow, Danny."

"Bye Sam. Have fun," he replied, waving farewell as he stepped up to the front door. He opened it and stepped warily over the threshold. In this house it paid to be cautious, as you never knew what would and could happen. It had been known for a newly installed invention to malfunction and cover you with green ectoplasmic slime, or worse, as you innocently returned to your humble abode. Luckily, it was safe to enter this time.

"Hello?" he called out uncertainly. "Anyone home?"

Receiving no answer, he shrugged, dumped his homework-laden bag unceremoniously onto the hall floor and stomped through to the kitchen where he immediately made a beeline for the fridge. He pulled open the magnetised door in his quest for refreshment where he was hit by a cool and pleasantly refreshing blast of air and bathed in the soft glow of a low-voltage light bulb. Moving aside the various Tupperware boxes full of 'ghost samples', he discovered an unopened carton of orange juice hidden at the rear.

'User friendly my ass,' he thought bitterly, trying in vain to rip open the 'easy-tear' corner of the carton. He gave up after a few moments fruitless struggling and used a pair of kitchen scissors he found in the cutlery draw. Some juice splurged out onto the worktop anyway, as is the poor design of drinks cartons, and he wiped the spillage up with a damp cloth. He grabbed a clean glass from the draining board and finally poured himself a drink.

'Oh yuck! Mum got the one with pulp in it again!'

Sighing with slight annoyance, he replaced the carton of orange juice in the fridge, slotting it into one of the conveniently located door-shelves next to the milk.

'Pulp is so minging! Bleaugh! Oh well, I suppose I better drink it now I've poured it.'

Danny took a seat at the kitchen table. The whole house was silent save for the dripping of a leaky tap. He sighed again, this time from boredom, and took a small sip of his drink. He winced at the strong taste and gooey texture of the pulp.

It was odd for him to be home before Jazz was. Usually, he'd arrive around seven after a visit to the arcade or the cinema with Tucker and Sam. Yesterday, they had gone round Tucker's house and watched a rented DVD whilst eating their way through a large pile of cookies, chocolate and ice cream. Needless to say, Danny hadn't been very hungry when he returned home that evening. Danny thought briefly about making a start on his biology homework, but decided there were better things he could be doing with his time.

Like sitting here and listening to the tap dripping.

This he did, slumping onto the table with his arms folded and his chin resting on top, staring absently into nothingness through vacant blue eyes, seemingly mesmerised by the steady tinkle of the dripping tap.

'Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip… This is my life. I should have offered to go dress shopping with Sam. Anything would be more interesting than this,' he thought.

The serenity was broken by a loud crash from the basement. The sudden noise made Danny jump in shock and surprise. He wasn't at home alone then. However, he had known this anyway. His parents both worked from home, he just hadn't wished to disturb them with his presence. Now however, they may require some help. Abandoning the gross pulpy orange juice and the dripping tap, he ran down to the basement.

In his home, the basement wasn't a basement at all. It was his parents' lab, where they carried out all their insane ghost experiments. Jazz said it was a stupid obsession and wouldn't amount to anything, but Danny found it kind of cool, if a little creepy. The other year they had made a lot of money by mapping out the genome of ectoplasm, revolutionising the way ghosts are hunted and experimented. Well, his mother had. His dad had just danced about a bit and had his photo taken next to his mum in 'Spook Hunter's Monthly' magazine. Danny wouldn't call that amounting to nothing. He and Jazz had got new computers out of it after all, so he wasn't going to complain.

He found them in the lab now, both dressed in the protective jumpsuits they seemed to wear all the time. They were bickering over something trivial, as usual.

It appeared Jack Fenton, Danny's father, had accidentally tipped over the toolbox causing the loud crash and spilling hammers, screwdrivers and spanners onto the floor. Maddie Fenton, Danny's mother, was telling him off as he crawled around on hands and knees picking up the tools and replacing them in the heavy metal box.

"Really Jack, you can be so clumsy at times…" she scolded.

"Mum? Dad? Are you all right? What happened?" asked Danny, descending the staircase.

"Oh hi sweetie! We weren't expecting you home so soon. Don't look so worried, your father just knocked over the toolbox again. There's nothing wrong," she replied.

"What's that?" asked Danny, pointing at the far wall.

"Oh, its just a little something we've been working on," commented Maddie, picking a screwdriver off the floor next to her feet where it had rolled.

"Little?" said Danny, sarcastically.

He was looking at a huge metal archway built into the wall. A smooth sided tunnel extruded beyond it by about three metres before reaching a dead end. Various wires were hooked up to the archway and little lights blinked in unison on a control panel next to it. All in all, it appeared to be a large hole in the wall that lead nowhere and probably cost a lot of cash to build.

"What exactly is it supposed to be?" asked Danny, curious. He squinted and tilted his head whilst looking at it, as if that would help his understanding.

"This? Why it's the Fenton Portal! It's a gateway between here and the ghost world. At least it will be once we finish," explained Jack excitedly.

"Ghost world?" said Danny, confused.

"Sure – you never wondered where ghosts come from?" Jack replied.

"Dead people?" suggested Danny, shrugging. Jack laughed.

"Oh, I remember when I was that naïve," he chuckled, pointing at a blueprint stuck to the wall. "No Danny, there is another dimension where ghosts exist and we seek to find it. The Fenton Portal creates a weakness between the two dimensions using complex electromagnetic pulses and a high voltage current. It will create an entrance allowing us to enter and view the as-yet unseen ghost zone." He used air quotes as he said 'ghost zone' to emphasise the concept of it existing.

"Of course, there is a possibility that ghosts could get through our opening to this world as well, but we're prepared for that," said Maddie.

"Whoa – wait just a minute! You're telling me that ghosts could come through that," exclaimed Danny, eyes widening.

"Well sure. If we can get in, they can get out. Don't worry, Danny – they can't hurt you. Not unless you give them reason to, or if they're poltergeists, or if they're out for vengeance on the human race in general," she said, not really helping curb the worry. Danny gulped fearfully.

"We're nearly ready to try it out. Your mother just has one more panel to weld into place," said Jack, smiling.

Danny watched as his mum pulled her protective goggles over her face and welded the final joins between the panels with a blowtorch. He followed the dancing bright blue flame with his eyes, watching the hot yellow-white sparks fly from the metal as she worked.

"There," she said, backing up as she extinguished the torch. "All done. You can try it now, Jack."

"Stand back," he said, grinning like a maniac as he eagerly picked up the plugs that supplied the power. Danny and Maddie ran to stand behind him at the control panel where it would be safer. Jack jammed the plugs together, making the connection. He then tapped a few of the brightly coloured buttons on the control panel, Danny and Maddie watching as interested spectators.

"Odd. It doesn't appear to be working," said Jack, frowning. He tried the combination of buttons again. Nothing happened.

"Maybe we followed the blueprints wrong," suggested Maddie.

"No, we definitely did it right. It's just, for some reason, it's not working as we'd hoped," he replied.

"Maybe it wouldn't have worked anyway," suggested Danny, tentatively.

"I bet my calculations were wrong," said Maddie, expression dropping. "Why did I not check them beforehand?"

"Oh, this is hopeless! It's never going to work. It didn't work at college either. All it did was give Vlad acne and cause the school's fuses to short circuit. It just wasn't meant to be," exclaimed Jack.

"Don't be so negative. It'll work – the theory is correct at any rate. We'll just have to modify it a little. We'll try again tomorrow. Come on, we've been down here all day. Lets go upstairs and I'll make us some coffee," she said, climbing the staircase. "Maybe it's just something small, like a loose wire or a faulty connection."

"Maybe…" said Jack, depressed. He followed her forlornly upstairs and into the kitchen. "Everything I invent fails," he muttered to himself.

Danny remained in the basement, feeling sorry for them. He couldn't remember ever seeing his parents so disappointed. Not even when he brought home that letter a few years ago explaining that he had started a fight with a kid two years younger than him. (It wasn't Danny's fault. The kid had it coming – he had made fun of Sam and called Tucker four-eyes and geek. Danny had been provoked to attack. Besides, they would have done the same thing… right?)

He knew how much this experiment meant to them. Their every waking hour was devoted to the hunting of ghosts and they dedicated themselves totally to it. For their greatest achievement to fail would have been a crushing blow to both their ego and the purpose of their entire life's work. Danny looked at the offending invention and wondered if there was anything he could do to help. Besides, he wouldn't mind a closer look at the thing for himself out of pure curiosity. It was probably the biggest product his parents had ever patented, and it was calling out for him to explore inside.

'Danny…. Danny…. Look inside me, Danny…'

He found his own jumpsuit hanging up on a peg. Both he and Jazz had one as Maddie insisted they be protected whilst in the lab. Not that either he or Jazz actually wore them that often. Jazz especially, who avoided the lab as if it were the plague and refused to wear the suit as she thought she looked too much like her mother in it.

Danny's suit was a tight-fitting Lycra affair, silvery-white in colour with black detail around the waist and collar. He removed his trainers and slipped it on over the top of his jeans and T-shirt.

'Better to be safe, not sorry,' he thought as he zipped up the front. He didn't know what the portal could do whilst he was inside and he wanted at least some minimal protection. The suit had black gloves and boots also, which he pulled onto his hands and feet. He examined what he looked like briefly in the vanity mirror above the decontamination sink.

'Wow. Fetching,' he thought sarcastically, thinking what a laughing stock he'd be if anyone from school saw him dressed like this. He looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Sam would probably like it though. She liked anything weird.

He wandered over to the portal and peered inside. The sides were all brushed steel, and he took a brief moment to appreciate the fine welding his mother had performed. The panels were almost seamlessly joined and plastic-coated wires interlocked and crisscrossed throughout the whole construction. He took a few cautious steps into the tunnel, surprised by how dark it was. The whole thing was eerie and unnatural and seemed to hum with an otherworldly power beyond his imagination. He noticed something on the ceiling. He squinted up at it, trying to figure out if it was just a shadow or something else more interesting. Whilst his mind was preoccupied on the ceiling, his body sub-consciously reached out an arm to lean against the cold, metal walls for balance.

His hand brushed against something, which moved unexpectedly inwards with a sharp click. Danny spun round to see what it was he had touched and received the shock of his fourteen-year-old life.

It was a button.

A big, round, green button.

A big, round, green button labelled 'ON'.

The machine began to whirr and vibrate. Sparks fizzed along the wall panels and static charge caused hairs to stand to attention.

And Danny was caught in the middle.

'Uh-Oh!'

There was a tremendous flash of light that surrounded and engulfed everything. Danny raised his arms to protect his eyes from the glare. He opened his mouth to yell but no sound came out. He was paralysed, unable to move or call for help.

Suddenly, he was in excruciating pain. Sharp pins and needles stabbed every inch of his body, both inside and out. He felt colder than he had ever felt before, yet there was a fiery burning sensation searing away at his flesh. Things were happening to him. He couldn't explain what exactly, but he didn't feel the same anymore.

The light was replaced by dark as the pain started to recede and he crumpled to the ground.

A/N – Cosmo says the portal is 'seemingly harmless!' Tell me what you think. I'd love to read your opinions (but please don't flame). More chapters coming soon – TP