Chapter 1: It's the Most Horrible Time of the Year

Danny hated Christmas. For one, people were ridiculously cheery during this holiday and the days preceding it for absolutely no good reason (Jesus wasn't even born in December!) other than it was cold and people needed something to make them feel not horrible. And two (this being the most prominent reason) he would have to deal with Vlad Masters, Affluent Magazine's billionaire of the year, and his stupid son, who also happened to be Danny's half brother, Daniil Masters.

Of course, if you called him by his full name you likely wouldn't see the light of another day, which was why most people knew him as Dan, Dan Masters. And the bane of Danny's existence.

Once upon a time Danny's mom, Maddie Fenton, had been married to someone other than his dad, Jack Fenton. His mother's first marriage had been to his parents' old college buddy, Vlad. It had ended in divorce just after their second year, but they had had a kid in that time, and now Danny had to deal with his jerky older half brother.

Danny hated his brother as much or possibly more than Christmas itself. He was, after all the major reason Danny despised the holiday in the first place. Of course Danny just had to suck it up and deal with it. And also maybe go and see his older sister, Jazz, for counseling later.

"Mom, do we have to invite Vlad and his kid this year?" Danny whined. Okay so maybe he wasn't really dealing with it.

Maddie turned from nailing up some last minute Christmas decorations in the living room. For once she wasn't wearing her teal hazmat suit. Danny's parents spent so much time working in their lab in the basement that they simply wore them around the house as well, but Danny didn't think his mother had even ventured into the lab yet. Since this morning, she had been going over last minute preparations. It seemed like she was stressing just as much as Danny.

She sent her son a disapproving look. "His kid is your older brother, and he loves you, Danny."

Danny couldn't help it. He burst out laughing right there. His laughter quickly petered out into nervous chuckles when he notice his mom sending him the stink eye. "I'm sorry, Mom, but I have to disagree with you on that."

With a sigh Maddie turned back to putting up a wreath. "I'm serious. Dan loves you, Jazz, and Danielle. He just has a hard time showing it. He's...troubled."

Danny snorted. "You got that right."

"If it makes you feel any better, you can invite your friends over if their families will allow them to come," Maddie said.

The announcement made Danny only feel slightly better. His friends probably could make it to the dinner on Christmas Eve, seeing as neither of their families celebrated Christmas, what with Sam being Jewish, and having already finished celebrating Hanukkah almost a week ago, and Tucker being Muslim. The bad thing was, he didn't know if he wanted to invite them. Danny wouldn't wish an evening with Vlad and Dan Masters on his worst enemy, much less his friends.

"Hey, I don't know what you're complaining about. Dan's cool," Danielle said from the living room couch. She didn't even bother to take her eyes off of the TV.

Danny turned to his twin sister with a thunderous scowl. "You're dead to me."

She briefly looked up from flipping through the channels and shrugged. "I can live with that."

"Hey, speaking of 'dead', we could show Vlad, Dan, and your friends the ghost portal!" Maddie suggested, looking much too excited for a person talking about death.

"Mom...no," Danny whined.

The Fenton Ghost Portal was just what one would expect: a portal into the ghost world—or as Danny's parents called it, "the Ghost Zone". It was the continuation of a project they had started all the way back in college. After twenty years, Danny's parents finally thought they had successfully completed it, just like the other nine times. Since they had moved from Wisconsin to Amity Park almost twelve years ago and restarted their project there, they had tried nine other times to rebuild the portal. If nothing else, Danny had to give it to his parents for commitment.

"I gotta agree with Danny on this, mom," Danielle added.

"Thanks, sis," he said. "You're no longer deceased."

She gave a halfhearted 'yay' before going back to channel surfing.

Something suddenly struck Danny as unusual. "Hey, where's dad?" he asked. His dad was nowhere to be seen and it was nearly lunch time. It wasn't like Jack Fenton to skip a meal.

The floor suddenly shook under his feet-likely from an explosion in the lab/basement, adequately answering Danny's question. The reason a loud bang didn't accompany the localized earthquake was that the basement had been soundproofed due to some neighbors voicing complaints of the sounds of construction during the middle of the night.

His mother gave a annoyed huff. "I'll go check on him. Why don't you finish putting up the decorations while I'm down there?"

"Sure thing, Mom," Danny said to her retreating form.

As soon as his mother had closed the basement door, he made his way for the front door.

"Hey, didn't you say you were going to put up the decorations?" Danielle said distractedly.

"Yeah, about that, I was hoping you'd do it for me," he said as he got his coat down from the rack.

His twin looked up from the TV with a raised eyebrow. "What the hell makes you think I'm going to do it?"

"Because I'll give you a dollar?" Danny said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a bill.

"Sold!" She jumped off of the couch and grabbed the dollar out of her brother's hand in a flash.

"By the way, where are you going?" she asked, pocketing the bill.

"To go hang out with Sam and Tucker, but if they're busy, I guess I'll just drift around town like a hobo," he said with a shrug.

"Cool. I'll tell mom if she asks."

…

Danny visited Sam first.

When Danny knocked on the door of the Manson residents—which was a huge mansion because Sam was actually loaded—Pamela Manson, Sam's mom, answered the door. Once she saw who had knocked, the fake smile she had plastered on her face slipped a bit, but to her credit, stayed mostly intact.

"Oh, hello Danny. Samantha is in her room," she said.

"Thanks, Mrs. Manson," he said cheerfully and headed for the stairs.

Pounding drumbeats and screeching guitar riffs could be heard from all the way down the hall at the top of the stairs. As he got closer to his friend's room he could make out some of the words to the song. It sounded familiar. Maybe from the band Tool? Her mother must have pissed her off or something. She always listened to Tool (especially their first and second album) when she was angry.

He knocked on the door, hesitantly at first then a little louder when the first knock went unanswered. "Hey, Sam! Open up! It's me, Danny!"

She suddenly appeared in the doorway in all her gothic glory and pulled him in before he could even say hello.

"You know you could have texted ahead that you wanted to come over," she said as she turned down her stereo. "If you had arrived only a few minutes earlier you might have walked in on me and my mom arguing."

Danny shrugged and sat down on the edge of her bed. "I only got it for my last birthday. I still forget I have it sometimes. Give me a break."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"So what was it about this time?" Danny asked cautiously.

She shook her head. "I don't remember. Something stupid probably. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It's the holiday season and I need to stay positive."

"I wish I could have your attitude about the holidays," Danny grumbled.

She gave him a sympathetic look. "Is Vlad and Dan coming over this year?"

"Yes, it's their year to visit. I guess I should be glad that we don't have to cram into the family RV and go all the way to their mansion in Wisconsin like last year, but, God, Dan and Vlad are unbearable in any place," he said, allowing himself to go limp and slump onto her bed, staring face up at the ceiling. "Anyway, my mom said I could invite you guys this year, and honestly it had never occurred to me that I could do that, but do you even want to come? It's going to suck, and I know Tucker's been traumatized by Dan in the past so...?"

"It's cool. I've never actually met your half brother, by the way," Sam said.

He sat up. "Oh, yeah I guess you haven't. Lucky."

"Hey, he can't be that bad if he's related to you," she said, taking up the chore of being the positive friend.

"Do you even hear yourself, Sam?" Danny said incredulously. "You say your mother is terrible all day long and she's related to you!"

"Hey, I'm not so sure about that. I've never actually seen my birth certificate," she said.

Danny raised and eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Wow… Anyway, you wanna go somewhere with me? I think Nasty Burger is still open. We'll get Tucker on the way," Danny said.

She answered with a simple "sure", and grabbed her bag and coat. After quickly putting on her winter wear, she led the way down the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Sam's mother said, stopping her just before she could open the front door.

"We're going to the mall. Danny needs help with some last minute Christmas shopping," Sam lied smoothly. It often surprised Danny how easily she could lie to her parents. In fact, her lying sometimes even bordered on compulsive, like in this moment. He wasn't sure if it was truly necessary to pull a lie for this.

Pamela looked between them then nodded. "Alright, but I want you back before sundown. Don't you need a ride? Charles can give you a ride." Charles was the name of Sam's personal chauffeur, who she hardly ever asked to drive her anywhere.

"It's only to the mall, Mom," she said. Before her mother could protest further, she pulled Danny out the door.

…

It wasn't too long of a walk to Tucker's house. Their town, Amity Park, Illinois, was pretty small, only having around fourteen-thousand inhabitants and had an area just over ten square miles. Luck seemed to be on their side, seeing as the wind wasn't even blowing, making the thirty-degree temperature feel only about forty.

The moment Danny knocked on the door, Angela Foley, Tucker's wonderful mother, pulled Danny and Sam in. "It's freezing out there! Did you two walk all the way here?" she asked frowning at both of them.

Instead of trying to defend his and Sam's ability to tolerate cold weather, Danny said, "Can Tucker come with us to the mall? I have to do a little last minute Christmas shopping." So Sam says, he added in his head.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I can drive you three there if you like."

Danny nodded and smiled gratefully. "That would be fine," he said. He glanced at Sam who gave a small smile as well. Knowing her and her hate of cars and all things bad for the environment, she'd probably prefer to walk. He silently thanked her for just going along with it.

Angela smiled brightly. "Alright then. I just took some cookies out of the oven. Help yourself before we go."

"Thanks, Angela," Danny said, his mouth already watering.

Angela Foley showed them the plate of still cooling cookies before going up to Tucker's room to tell him Danny and Sam were there. Not much later, Tucker came bounding down the stairs and joined His two friends in the kitchen.

"What up my peeps?" he said before picking up a cookie. Almost instantly he dropped it with a yelp. Sam snorted and almost choked on her cookie with laughter while Danny tried to look sympathetic while holding back laughter himself.

"Oops, sorry, I should have warned you some of them were still really hot," Tucker's mom said as she entered the kitchen after her son.

"You guys could have warned me too you know," he said awkwardly with his burned tongue halfway hanging out of his mouth while he glared at his two so called friends.

"But what would be the fun in that?" Sam said jokingly.

"Here, Tucker," Danny said handing his friend a cookie. "The ones on this side of the plate are cooler."

"Thanks Danny. I guess I know who my real friend is," Tucker said glaring at the goth girl.

"Oh, hush Tucker, she didn't mean anything by it." His mom lightly swatted his shoulder. "Now, you said you had to do some last minute shopping. We should probably get to that," she said to Danny.

"Oh, um, yeah," he stuttered.

Now that he was at Tucker's house, he wished they could stay and just hang out there, but he had propagated Sam's lie, and now he was going to have to stick to that story. And this was exactly why he didn't like lying.

"Come on, Tucker, we need to get to the mall before it gets too late," Danny said, cramming the last bit of cookie into his mouth.

They all piled into Angela's car and were there in only a few minutes.

"You can message me when you're ready to come home," Tucker's mom said, sticking her head out of the car window.

"Actually, we were planning to go to Danny's house after this," Sam said, springing another unknown plan on Danny. "It's only a few minutes walk from the mall."

Angela looked between them a little nervously. "Okay, just be careful."

"We will, Mom. Bye!" Tucker said as his mom started to leave.

As they started to head for the front entrance of the mall, Tucker turned to Danny. "So what's this really about? I know you wouldn't be willingly going to the mall around this time of the year."

"Well, we have Sam to thank for that. She's the one that came up with the mall excuse," Danny said, giving Sam a halfhearted glare.

"Sorry, Danny," she said.

Danny shrugged. "It's okay. The real problem is Dan and Vlad Masters. They'll be here by tomorrow. I was wondering if you'd want to sacrifice an evening to come have dinner with me and my insane family."

"Sure," he said but Danny caught the slight hesitation. "I'm always up for free food, as long as you're not serving ham."

They went through the sliding doors, and were instantly hit with warm air.

"Don't worry. We're having turkey," Danny said, as he took off his thick winter coat and tied it around his waist.

"Hey, by the way, which do you think is worse?" Tucker asked. "Going all the way to Wisconsin or them coming here?"

"Them coming here," Danny answered almost instantly. He had time to think it over on his walk with Sam to Tucker's house, and he had decided that, yes, them coming to his house was worse. "For one, because they're encroaching on my territory—" Sam had to snort at that and mutter 'boys'—"And two, we only have one extra room, so I have to share my room with Dan."

Tucker winced. "Sorry about that, man. That really sucks."

"Have you met Danny's half brother?" Sam asked curiously.

"Yeah, and he's an asshole," Tucker said.

"I think I'll just reserve my judgment for when I meet him myself," she said rather diplomatically.

"Trust me Sam, you'll come to the same conclusion we have," Danny said.

He finally got to take a look around the mall. "Oooh, boy," he muttered sourly. As if his mood wasn't bleak enough with the thought of having his half brother over.

The mall was of course, much worse than his house. Along with the obnoxious amount of decorations and too cheerful music playing loudly from the speakers in the mall's ceiling, there were tons of Christmas sale signs shouting at you with bright colors and huge lettering, demanding you go into their store and partake in the traditional worship of capitalism.

As that string of thought crossed his mind, he realized he had been hanging out with Sam too much lately.

"This is terrible, honestly. I'm getting flash backs from that one Santa Clause encounter I had when I was five," Danny said flatly.

"Which one was that?" Tucker asked.

"The one where the reindeer tried to eat my hat."

Sam snickered, and Danny shot her a glare. "It's not funny! That scarred me for life!" he hissed, partially joking.

Still chuckling slightly, Sam said, "We didn't have to actually come to the mall, Danny. We could have just walked to your house after Mrs. Foley left. You do understand the meaning of a cover story, don't you?"

"Good friends don't let their friends lie to their parents," Danny said absently as he glared at the shiny bobbles hanging all over the place.

"The intention was still there. I'm still going to hell," Sam deadpanned.

"Can we all just take a trip there now? It can't be any worse than this," he said sourly.

Sam stopped walking, making the rest of the trio stop, and gave Danny a look. "We are absolutely free to leave anytime. The doors don't suddenly lock as soon as we enter."

"I have to at least buy something, Sam!" Danny cried. "It's the principle of the thing!"

Sam and Tucker shared a look.

"Alright then, whose this 'last minute shopping' for?" Sam asked.

Danny shrugged. "Danielle, I guess. I probably owe her something for going to the mall without her."

"Hey, Danielle likes churros right?" Tucker said, hooking a thumb at a churro stand.

Danny gave him a flat look. "That's not really something I can give her for a present."

Danny paused at an accessory stand. There was a cheep black and white striped scarf hanging with a matching pair of gloves from one of the hooks. "How about this?"

"A scarf and gloves?" Sam said raising her eyebrow. "Kinda a lame gift don't you think?"

"Well, I figure it'll be better than the canary yellow mittens and pepto-bismol pink scarf our grandma knitted for her the last two years."

Sam made a face. "Fair enough."

Danny paid for the cheap gift, and, after stopping and buying a churro for Tucker, they started to leave the mall. They got out to the parking lot when Danny's phone buzzed with a text. It was from Danielle.

Hey, Dan And Vlad are here early, just wanted to warn you.

He muttered a curse under his breath.

"Bad news," he said as he shoved his phone back into his pocket. "Vlad and Dan are here a whole freaking day early."

"So what?" Sam said resolutely. "We've got your back."

Danny's expression twisted. He and Tucker shared a look, and he shook his head. Dinner was one thing, but this was another. He knew that Tucker really didn't want to be around his extended family anyway, not after last time.

"No, things are going to be pretty crazy at the house right now," Danny said.

Sam gave him a look. "You wanted us to come over for dinner, remember?"

"Yeah, tomorrow, where there's a few feet of table between hostile parties and food to distract them," Danny explained. He looked too Tucker. "Just call your mom and tell her there was a change of plans, okay?"

Tucker nodded and pulled out his phone while Sam still looked like she wanted to argue. Angela pulled up at the mall front in a matter of minutes. She insisted to drive Danny home as well even though it really was a very short walk from the mall to his house.

As she pulled up to the curb to drop him off, he spotted a new car in the driveway.

"Well, I'm sorry you kids didn't get to spend much time together," Angela said as he got out, "but I hope you have a nice time with your family."

Danny almost scoffed. Instead he gave her a forced smile and waved goodbye to her and his friends.

As Danny opened the front door, he simply hoped that Dan wasn't directly on the other side of it. However, his hopes were dashed when he saw Dan sprawled out on the couch with his booted feet messily propped up on the coffee table. Thankfully, he wasn't the only one in the living room. Danielle sat beside him still flicking through channels. Danny would have guessed she hadn't moved at all since he left, but it seemed like she had indeed finished putting up the decorations.

Like a predator zeroing in on its prey, Dan's gaze snapped to Danny as soon as he entered through the door.

"What's in the bag?" he asked nosily, likely just for the sake of being annoying.

Danny's grip tightened on the shopping bag. "None of your business," he snapped.

In a flash Dan was off of the couch and trying to pull it out of Danny's hands.

"Hey, Hey! Alright it's a Christmas present," Danny shouted trying to keep it away. Though Dan hadn't really tried to pull it out of his hands, he knew he could if he wanted to. He was just toying with Danny at the moment.

Dan only paused, then actually grabbed it and turned their lopsided wrestling match into a game of tug of war. "Whose it for?" Dan asked not even putting much effort into trying to take it away from Danny.

"Dan, come on," Danielle said from the couch.

Dan stopped but didn't let go of the bag. Ignoring Danielle he asked with a shit eating grin, "Is it for me? Gee, Danny, you shouldn't have."

"Screw you! It's for Danielle!" Danny said, and began again trying to pull the now stretched and misshapen plastic bag out of his grasp. "Let go!"

Dan huffed and rolled his eyes. "Fine," he said, letting go while Danny was still pulling. He nearly toppled over.

Pulling the wrinkles out of his clothes, Danny muttered, "I thought you guys weren't going to be here until tomorrow."

Dan shrugged. "Guess we just made good time," he said nonchalantly.

"Wonderful," Danny grumbled.

"Could you stop harassing my twin and come sit back down. I found that creepy claymation Rudolph movie we all know and love," Danielle said holding up the remote.

"Oh, come on, Ellie," Dan said, and suddenly pulled Danny into more of a headlock than a hug. "I only get to see you guys about once a year."

She gave him an unamused look, and he let go of Danny with another dramatic sigh. Danny quickly got out of arms reach from his half brother.

"Where's our parents," Danny asked Danielle, though Dan decided to answer.

"Down in the basement." He nodded towards the basement door. "Mom and Jack are showing off some weird thing. The ghost portal, I think they called it," he said, as if he didn't know damn well what it was.

"Oh, no," Danny groaned.

As if things weren't already bad enough, Danny's mom poked her head out of the basement door and said, "Hey, I think we're ready to test the portal! Somebody go get Jazz! You all need to see this! It's going to be great!"

Danny's jaw dropped. Were they serious?! They were going to test their more than likely nonfunctional creation now? Right before Christmas? When everyone was here? And why was he asking these things when he already knew all the answers?

"You come down here too, Dan!" Maddie continued.

Shock was replaced with petty satisfaction, and Danny gave his older brother a smug smile. "Yeah, Dan lets all go down there an be one big happy family!" His words dripped with sarcasm.

Dan simply gave him the finger, to which Danny returned, still smiling smugly. "Just go get Jazz," Dan sneered, turning to go down to the basement.

"Hey, don't tell me what to do," Danny snapped back.

"Go get Jazz," Danielle repeated as she pushed off the couch.

Danny gave her an overly dramatic look of shock. "Uh, really, you're gonna do me like this?!"

"Yeah," she said flatly and headed for the basement just behind Dan.

Danny childishly stuck his tongue out at her retreating back before heading upstairs to his elder sister's room, after he put Danielle's present in his room.

He knocked on Jazz's door and then again when she didn't answer the first time. She still didn't answer, so Danny went in without invitation. He groaned when he realized why she hadn't answered: she was wearing her head phones, probably listing to some podcast or recorded lecture about some psychological condition while she was also reading something else.

"Jazz!" Danny practically yelled, finally getting her attention.

She pulled off her head phones with a frown. "What do you want, Danny?"

"Mom and Dad want us all to go down to the lab. They're going to turn on the Ghost Portal."

He could clearly see all five stages of grief flash over her face in an instance, finally ending on resigned acceptance. She let out a world weary sigh as if she had aged years in a matter of seconds. "You mean try and fail to turn on a portal to a nonexistent 'spirit realm'?" Jazz said using air quotes.

"Yeah basically, but I think the official term they're using for it now is 'the Ghost Zone'."

"Oh, great," Jazz said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, I know, but we have to go be supportive, I guess," he said with a shrug.

"Not supportive," Jazz said, swinging her legs over the side of her bed. "Sympathetic when it fails, but not supportive. When this little endeavor come crashing down, they might actually give up on their insane obsession once and for all if we don't encourage any more of this behavior."

"Well, that's a cold way to look at it, but okay."

Jazz stood up from her bed and straightened out her shirt. "Come on they're probably waiting anxiously for us down there."

Danny followed Jazz down the basement steps. The basement of the average person was likely full of boxes with old items no one wanted or needed to display around their house stored inside. Some people might even have a pool table or table tennis set in their basement. The Fentons, on the other hand, had a mad science lab in theirs.

Harsh fluorescent light beat down from the ceiling to illuminate the two rows of tables full of the junk his parents called inventions. At the back of the room sat a dinosaur of a computer with a forest of wires coming out of it.

And of course, let's not forget the giant gaping hole in the wall.

This was supposed to be the Fenton Ghost Portal. Right now it was just a hole in the back wall of the basement, but when Danny's parents started it up it would be a hole in the fabric of reality itself—or at least that was what his parents told him.

"There you are! I was about to go back up there and get you," Danielle said, leaving Dan's side to confront her twin.

"Blame Jazz for the delay," Danny said, jabbing a thumb towards his older sister, who shot him an annoyed look.

Danny's dad spotted the group of teens and walked up to them. "Hey, Danno why don't you go say hello to Vladie before we get this thing started."

"Sure thing, dad," Danny said unenthusiastically.

Danny broke off from his sisters. He of course had to shoot Dan a glare as he passed him.

Vlad Masters was standing uncomfortably close to Danny's mother by the afore mentioned Jurassic era computer, apparently looking at some data.

"Hey, Uncle Vlad," Danny said with faked enthusiasm. His mother visibly relaxed when Vlad's attention shifted from her.

"Daniel, how nice to finally see you. It was unfortunate that you had just run off when we got here," Vlad said, perfectly polite and charming. Danny knew for a fact that underneath that perfectly preserved facade of niceties, was a grade-A asshole.

"Yeah, well, I didn't know you were coming or I would have stayed," Danny said. It was probably a lie, but whatever.

"I see. Perhaps I should have called ahead," Vlad said.

Yeah, a little heads up would have been nice, Danny thought.

"Alright let's get this show on the road!" Danny's father said going up to the panel next to the portal.

"You should probably go back to your friends. You wouldn't want to be too close to the machine when it starts up, what with your father's craftsmanship," Vlad said.

Danny pointedly ignored the passive aggressive dig on his dad and went back to his friends. Of course, not without shooting Dan another glare as he passed him.

"Run the start up sequences, Mads," Jack said.

Danny's mother tapped on the computer a few times then looked up from the screen and said.

"All systems are a go. Flip the switch!"

Danny's father proudly did as told, flipping the lever in the open panel next to the machine.

The tale tell whirring of machinery starting up could be heard from the portal. The Fenton siblings (especially Jazz) still weren't impressed, that was until a small light at the end of the tunnel could just be seen. As everyone tensed and the doubters started to question 'what if they weren't crazy after all?', it all came to an anticlimactic end when the machine made a several clicking sounds like a malfunctioning printer and the light slowly faded out.

"I knew it," Jazz muttered, almost sounding disappointed.

"I don't understand. What went wrong?" Maddie said as she frantically flipped through some notes scattered around the computer table. Meanwhile, Jack Fenton quietly stood by the machine looking like a kicked puppy. "All the calculations were right. We did—"

"Maddie, perhaps it is best not to fret over it now. We can come back to it later with fresh eyes," Vlad said, taking Danny's mom by the shoulders. Danny almost gagged at the sight.

"But if we can suss out the problem now—" she started to say.

"Maddie, dear, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Perhaps we should get preparations started for dinner tomorrow to take our minds off of this," Vlad said.

There was a moment where she looked like she wanted to protest until finally the light died out of her eyes and her shoulders slumped. "You're right. We shouldn't be obsessing over this so close to Christmas." She pulled out of Vlad's hold and went over to her husband. "Come on, Jack, honey."

She pulled Jack away from the machine and out of the basement, followed by Vlad and the rest of the party. Jazz closed the door behind her, seeing as she was the last one out.

The adults left the kids still standing by the entrance into the basement, going into the kitchen, supposedly to work on dinner plans for tomorrow.

"I'll just go with them, seeing as I'm the only one that can cook in this house," Jazz muttered. She started to follow their parents and Vlad into the kitchen, but paused and turned on her heal. "Mom said you might have Sam and Tucker over for dinner Christmas Eve, is that right?"

The way she callously disregarded their parents' feelings in favor of planning dinner made him internally seethe. "Yeah, they agreed to come."

Jazz sighed. "That means we'll need to do some last minute shopping so I can get something for Sam to eat."

Danny tried not to glare as she turned around again and walked into the kitchen.

He leaned on the closed basement door, letting his head fall back against it. "Great, as if the holidays couldn't get any worse," he muttered.

Danielle let out a sigh. "You just know they're going to be mopping over it for at least a week."

"Last time they started it up, it took them a whole month to get back to normal," Danny said.

Danielle let out a humorless chuckle. "Yeah, last summer was kinda ruined after that."

Danny snorted. "At least it wasn't bad as the summer Dan went all psycho and—wait where is Dan?"

Danny couldn't believe he actually asked where Dan was, like he cared, but he seemed to be nowhere in sight.

He and Danielle shared a look. "Did you see Dan come out of the basement?" Danielle asked.

Danny rolled his eyes and pushed off the door. He went back down to the lab, Danielle following behind. There they found Dan standing in front of the empty portal, back turned to them. He didn't react to the twins reentering the lab, either not caring or not noticing them at all.

"Hey, Dan, did you not notice all the rest of us left?" Danny called out annoyedly.

Dan glanced back, but his mind still seemed to be half in another place. He mumbled something too quietly to hear from all the way across the lab.

Danny turned to Danielle to see if she had heard, but she just shrugged and shook her head.

"What did you say?" Danny asked.

"I thought I felt...saw something there," Dan said, his voice sounding distant and strange. It set Danny on edge.

"Well, I'm sure our parents would love to hear about it later. Why don't you come out here with us?" Danny said.

A small frown formed between his eyebrows, as if considering the request, he then turned away, muttering something under his breath again and started to walk into the machine.

Danny ran up to the mouth of the portal and caught Dan's sleeve. The older boy turned to him with a sharp glare and brushed his hand off.

"Go back up there if your scared. I just...want to look at it," he said.

"Dan, you really shouldn't," Danielle said. "Even though it didn't work, you still could get electrocuted if you accidentally touch something."

His mouth twisted and he seemed to know that he was being stupid, but he was too stubborn to admit it—at least in front of Danny

"Don't worry, Ellie. I'll be out in a minute. Go back up," he said, nodding towards the stairs.

He took a few more steps into the interior of the machine, until Danny's anger finally broke and he stepped in front of Dan. "That is it! You always come here and fuck shit up, and one of us has to deal with it later. Not this time!"

Danny yelped when his half brother suddenly seized him by the front of his shirt and hauled him almost a foot off the ground. "Look you little shit," he snarled in Danny's face, "I have just as much right to be here as you do. She's my mother, too!"

Danny wretched himself out of his older brother's hold. He stumbled and braced himself against the side of the tunnel. He didn't notice that he had accidentally pressed a button in a panel that had been left open by mistake, and no one noticed the quiet mechanical whine that started up with it.

"Well, you don't act like it!" Danny threw back, straightening out his shirt. "When was the last time you said more than two words to her in one sitting?"

"Guys!" Danielle shouted, cutting off whatever Dan was about to say. "Could you at least come out of the potentially deadly machine to fight?" she said, taking a step forward and outstretching a hand.

Dan started to turn his head to say something over his shoulder, but paused, his eyes fixing on the back of the tunnel. Danny tried to turn to look, but a wave of excruciating green light hit his back.

It was burning cold, like being submerged in a tub of liquid nitrogen. The closest thing he could compare it to in reality, was that time Dash stole his coat in fifth grade and held him down in a snowdrift for a good couple minutes before a teacher saw them and made Dash let him up.

Danny's cells screamed as they were consumed in cold fire, the pain of it filling every space in his mind until it finally, mercifully shut off, his senses unable to take anymore.

…

Danielle was only at the lip of the tunnel when it started. She could only freeze in horror as the energy built at the back of the tunnel. It happened so quickly, but she had the best vantage point. The others likely hadn't seen the green lightening arching around the tunnel's walls before the whole interior of the machine was consumed in green light. In fact, one of those green bolts had hit her outstretched hand just before the rest of the swirling green mass met with the opening of the tunnel.

She hit the floor of the lab, hardly registering it throughout the static in her head.

…

Dan saw the green light at the back of the tunnel, and it was like time slowed to a crawl.

It called to him, something deep inside of him. A well of warmth blossomed in his chest, as if reaching out to the green glow. This is what he had felt before, this strange instinctual desire to touch the light.

And then it hit him.

It was painful, but not as much as he thought it would be. He felt something within himself expand and erupt, like a moth had broken out of its chrysalis. It hurt, like his heart had exploded, but it also felt necessary. It had to happen, it should happened.

A weight fell on his chest, and his arms reflexively curled around it. He dimly realized it was Danny. He had passed out. A second later he made the connection that he also had to get out of there.

He started to move forward but quickly realized that was the wrong way (or was it?). It pulled at him, wanting him to go farther in, but he needed to get back to Earth, not wherever...that was.

He turned around pulling Danny with him. Somehow he made it to the edge of the portal.

He dumped Danny unceremoniously on the floor then fell to the ground, as well.