Chapter Text
Danny nervously approached Mr. Lancer’s Vice Principal office with Sam and Tucker, wondering what possible reason Mr. Lancer had for calling them there at 8pm on a school night. Danny’s best guess was that they were in trouble for some reason or another, as usual, given that all their parents (and Jazz) had already been at the school for the final Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting of the year, which was supposed to be from 7pm to 8:30pm.
What Danny didn’t expect when he entered the office was to discover that Kwan, Paulina, Star, and Mikey were all there too—yet no parents. There was also an elementary-age kid there, maybe around the age of 7 or 8, who Danny assumed was Kwan’s younger brother. He must have been babysitting him while his parents were at the meeting.
Lancer looked up from his desk. “Ah, there you—A Clockwork Orange, Daniel, what are you wearing?!”
Danny looked down at himself. “Um. A t-shirt and jeans?” Although, the black shirt’s image was a little school-inappropriate, he supposed, given that the MCR album cover it depicted featured two blood-covered people. “If it’s about the image, blame Jazz, it’s a hand-me-down from her. The picture’s an album cover of a band she likes.”
“Jasmine gave that to you? Just what type of band—you know what, I don’t want to know. Please tell me you did not wear that to school today.”
Momentarily confused, Danny then realized that he had skipped both of the classes he had Lancer for (English and Chemistry, the latter which he was only teaching because the prior teacher quit once the ghost attacks started). So Danny told him, “I could say that, but that would be a lie.”
Lancer looked like he wanted to say more, then shook his head with a sigh. “Just, please don’t wear that to school again, or anything else with very violent imagery. Now, since everyone’s here, let’s get to it: I called you here today because the entirety of the PTA meeting, save for myself, has been captured by that pirate kid ghost again, although this time he appeared to be some sort of Naval Officer rather than a pirate and the ship was more in the style of an early 20th-century warship.”
The students, understandably, began to chatter, some in panic and others already trying to form a rescue plan. Kwan was attempting to calm his brother, who appeared to be on the verge of crying.
“Wait, but why didn’t they take you?” Star asked Lancer.
Lancer sighed. “I had to run to the bathroom, and by the time I returned the boarding plank was closing; the music started drawing me in, too, but the ship then went through a portal…”
“A portal? Into the Ghost Zone?” Tucker asked with surprise.
Danny tensed. “Music?” he said, more focused on that. He growled. “I am going to kill that bitch!” He pulled out his cell phone and flipped it open, quickly pulling up the contact he needed and dialing, walking towards the back of the room as he did so.
“Hey! Why are you calling someone?!” Kwan demanded.
“Maybe he thinks his parents have a phone?” Star suggested.
“Phones don’t work in the Ghost Zone,” Mikey pointed out.
“And he wouldn’t say he wants to kill them,” Paulina said, then added contemplatively, “Or would he…?”
“Heya, Babypop!” Ember greeted.
“What the hell are you doing?” Danny demanded.
“Excuse me?”
“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t know! I thought you were done working with Youngblood?!”
“I am. I promised you I was done with the mercenary shit.” Ember sounded confused.
“Then why did the little shit just take off with a bunch of the parents again, with a witness claiming they were drawn in by music!?” Danny asked with a growl in his voice.
“Well, if he did, it sure ain’t me helping—I ain’t the only music ghost, you know.”
Danny paused. No, it did not occur to him that there might be another music-based ghost around Amity Park’s region of the Ghost Zone.
“Where are you now, Babypop?”
“I’m at the school, the VP room, why?”
“Sweet! I’m nearby, see you soon!”
“What? Wait, Ember—” Danny cut himself off, realizing she’d hung up.
“Hold up. Ember? As in, the ghost?” Mikey asked incredulously. “You know Ember?”
“Ah, yeah, kinda,” Danny cautiously revealed.
Ember and Danny had become friends over the past few months, since shortly after the first Youngblood incident—after which he had thought the kid ghost had decided to play cowboy, but he must have switched again, back to a ship albeit one of a different variety. It started with just a tentative truce, but then Danny and Ember had started hanging out during patrol, then just in general, the association quickly evolving into a friendship—or maybe something more, Danny reluctantly had started to acknowledge, especially following his breakup with Valerie a month prior, which Ember had helped him through.
There was one issue though: Jazz knew all of that, but Sam and Tucker didn’t yet know anything beyond the truce, meaning they’d be very surprised if Ember used her typical greeting of—
“Babypop!” Ember shouted as she flew through the wall and nearly tackled him as she pulled him into a spinning hug, then giggled.
“Hi, Ember,” Danny said, a little dizzy from the spin.
There were screams from the other students, except for Team Phantom, although then they morphed into cheers of joy upon realizing it was their idol.
“Aww yeah, that’s nice!” Ember said as her ponytail flared brighter; she turned to look at the humans, but kept one arm slung over Danny’s shoulders. “But, you can stop screaming—I’m actually here to help this time, not be worshipped.”
Sam crossed her arms and frowned. “Danny. Explain.”
“Explain what?” Danny asked innocently, knowing very well what Sam meant.
Sam made a vague gesture towards Danny and Ember.
“We’re friends.”
“Since when are you and Ember friends?” Tucker asked incredulously.
“Babypop, you didn’t tell them about us?” Ember said with a dramatic false sadness.
“I, er, was going to… eventually…” Danny trailed.
“Okay, forget about that drama,” Paulina interjected. “More importantly, we gotta save our parents—”
“Wait, why ‘we’?” Mikey asked. “Can’t Phantom do it?”
“There were a lot of ghosts last time,” Paulina said. “Do you think Phantom can take them all himself? Especially on their home turf? Plus, once he saves them how will he get them out? No, we gotta help, using that ship Danny’s parents have.”
“Is that big enough though?” Kwan asked.
Tucker nodded. “Yeah, they just finished building a bigger one, since we broke the previous one when we used it to rescue Dan—er, I mean after we used it for a joy ride in a manic urge to stick it to the man last week?”
Danny put a hand on his face. “Subtle, Tuck.”
Lancer frowned. “Rescue…? What do you mean?”
“Forget about it,” Sam said with a dismissive way. “Anyway, let’s go save our parents.”
“And Jazz,” Danny reminded her.
“And Jazz.”