EDIT 8/11/15 – Starting an overhaul on some of my older chapters as they are not up to par. Enjoy! :D

"Are you sure this crackpot invention is gonna work?" Jazz crossed her arms. "Like the Fenton Bat that didn't pass through humans when you swung it. Oh, or before that, the Fenton Shrieker that wasn't supposed to deafen humans, but I could certainly hear it! And, and, before that-"

"Don't worry, Jasmine." Jack patted her on the back, then turned around to further point at stuff that didn't make sense on a whiteboard they had set up. Danny groaned.

"Right back at you, little bro. We're the only normal ones in this family!"

"I know. And Sam and Tucker'll be getting worried." Danny put his hands in his pockets, waiting for the portal to not work.

"That weird Goth girlfriend and the techy guy?" Jack asked. "You should have brought them along so I can talk to them about GHOSTS!"

"She's not my girlfriend! And she doesn't like ghosts."

"Maybe that's what she wants you to think. Ah, young love." Jack smiled and drifted into memories. "Maddie and I worked on this portal since we were in college, and it really started us out on our loving and normal- Maddie, how's the portal? I can't wait much longer, I need to go to the toilet!"

Jazz facepalmed.

"Alright now, honey," Maddie finished her checking of the portal and jumped back, giving the thumbs up to her husband, who was hopping around in his haste to get to the Fenton Flusher (Flushes ghosts into an anti-ectoplasmic cage they just can't escape, but it's also a completely normal and working toilet. Mostly). "You guys stand back when Jack plugs it in. After all, you aren't wearing jumpsuits."

"I'd rather be a ghost than wear one of those things," Jazz mutters as Jack, two wires in his hands, gets ready to connect them and thus start the portal.

"BONZAI!" Jack slams the two together, but all it does is spark. Jack attempts it again. Nothing.

"What? I- I don't understand." Maddie's face drooped. "Twenty years... all for nothing?"

Jazz opens her mouth to say something, but Jack and Maddie start walking slowly out. "We'll... we'll be back in a little. We need to think."

"And use that useless Fenton Flusher... oh Maddie, can it really be just a toilet?"

"Wow," Danny walks up to the stairs and looks up. "I've never seen them that sad before."

"I know. I hope they're alright." Jazz looks over at the portal, an annoyed expression on her face. "I wish I could make them feel better, fix something, but you can't fix a stupid portal that is scientifically proven not to work."

This gave Danny an idea.

"Do you think we should check the portal out, Jazz?"

She shoves him. "You'd have to be as crazy as our parents! And you have schoolwork!" But Danny could turn out quite persuasive when he wanted to be.

"Can't I just go in for a second?" Danny pressed. "You told me yourself that it doesn't work. And I'll do the stupid extra credit. And-"

Jazz sighed and held up a hand for her brother to stop. "Fine... as long as you wear one of the jumpsuit-things."

"Really?" Danny blinked.

"Really, Danny. There's that black and white one that Mom and Dad keep wanting you to wear."

Five minutes later, Danny was all suited up in a white and black HAZMAT suit with a picture of Jack's face on the front. Jazz rolled her eyes.

"How do I look?" He asked.

Jazz ripped the face off. "Honestly, I don't know who's going to see you down here, but you are not going anywhere with that on." Danny's face reddened.

"Oh, right. Haha. I was... gonna get that off in a second."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jazz asked, arching an eyebrow. Danny shrugged her off.

"I'll be fine." Danny smiled. "Besides, it doesn't work anyway, does it?" Jazz noticed him rubbing the back of his neck, a telltale sign of Danny's nervousness.

Jazz had no answer to that, no reason to act like the boring, paranoid sister and prevent him from going. However, she had an unshakable sisterly sixth sense that something bad was about to happen. She placed a hand on his warm shoulder and kissed his head. Her brother, despite his scrawny size, was just like his father in the way that he was always so warm, even in the dead of winter. "Just be careful, Danny."

"Ewww, Ja-azz! I'll be careful, don't worry!" Danny stepped inside the portal, suddenly aware of how dark it is. "I... think..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" He answered quickly, taking a few steps forward. It was kind of warm in here, not uncomfortable, but almost nice. It may have been because of the jumpsuit he was wearing.

No crossed wires, no fraying ends... if he hadn't seen it fail seconds before he would have betted that it worked. Twenty years, he guessed, would make anything seem authentic. Even-

Whoops! Danny tripped on a wire, and grabbed the side of the portal to steady himself. He noticed the thing he touched was smooth, and it bounced back up when he let go of it. Danny squinted at it, and then he froze. His heart caught in his throat.

It was a button. More specifically, it was an ON button.

FENTON PORTAL ACTIVATION SEQUENCE COMMENCE

The speaker sounded an awful lot like his mum.

What idiot puts the 'on' switch inside of a ghost portal, Danny thought, trying to find the funny way out of this situation. That's like putting the trigger to a gun inside the barrel.

Then again, it was Danny's dad they were talking about here, and he had done that with a blaster before.

And it was an unfortunate comparison too, considering that that may possibly have been what he had just done, pulled the trigger. After all, happens to a spaceship when it takes off? Danny knew from the many books he had read about liftoff is that if you were to stand in one of the rockets, you would be incinerated. Gone. Finito. Of course, he was just talking to himself about rockets, a favourite subject because if he stopped talking to himself then he might actually believe that this was happening to him and that there was a very real chance of him dying now.

"Danny, what's going on? What did you do?" It was very light in the portal now, the centre glowing with a green energy, brighter and brighter. Danny stared at it for a moment, body stiff with fear. It was very much working now. Was it just him, or was it getting that bit... hotter?

"Danny, get out of there!"

ACTIVATION SEQUENCE COMMENCING IN 3...

With a sudden gasp, Danny turned and fumbled his way through. It almost seemed deeper than it was before. And so hot!

"Jazz!"

"Danny! Keep talking!

2...

His eyes blurred from the blistering heat and from the blinding light. He tripped, and fell.

"Jazz! Help!"

"Danny!"

"Jazz..." He was filled with the dread of knowing that he could never make it, even if he were the fastest runner alive. He'd have to have some sort of super power.

1...

Then the portal started, sending more electricity through Danny's thin frame than if he'd been hooked up to a generator.

If Danny had been in pain before, it was nothing compared to now. All Jazz heard was the constant, unwavering scream. She gasped. "Danny! Can you hear me?!"

Then, the scream stopped. Jazz's breath caught; he can't be... he couldn't be...

FENTON PORTAL ACTIVATION SEQUENCE COMPLETE. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT MR. JACK DANIEL FENTON DOES NOT ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR GHOST RELATED INCIDENCES SUCH AS KIDNAPPING, HAUNTING, PERSONAL INJURY, POSSESSION, WORLD DOMINION OR STEALING OF FUDGE AS A RESULT OF USING THIS PORTAL. HAVE A NICE DAY! BROUGHT TO YOU BY FENTONWORKS: WORLD CLASS GHOST HUNTERS, IF ONLY WE WERE IN THE RIGHT ONE.

She stared dumbly into the portal, uncomprehending, almost hypnotised by the green swirl. The lab was silent except for the steady whirr coming from inside the green.

"Danny, what have I done?"

"Ugh, what... Ohhhh!" An eerily blue-coloured form similar to Danny's emerged from the portal and crashed straight into Jazz. The thing was, he didn't hit her, but... passed straight through her? The boy landed facefirst on the ground behind her. Jazz shivered involuntarily.

Jazz's breath caught. She watched the blue revert to a black and white jumpsuit and in it a rather tanned boy with snow white hair and what appeared to be a glow around him. Ghost? Well, it certainly wasn't human, that was for sure.

Despite this, he looked strangely similar to Danny, from the hair, a seemingly ghostly version of her brother's, to the jumpsuit, which just liked like an inverted version of the one Danny had put on. Jazz felt herself backing towards the stairs, shaking her head. That couldn't be Danny.

"That's... a ghost?" Jazz asked herself. "Am I going mad?" She thought for another second. "My parents aren't mad?"

Now, that was a revelation.

She had just reached the first step when the figure let out a loud groan. The voice had an eerie echo to it, but Jazz could recognize the voice of her brother. This ghostly figure had to be Danny.

"Danny?" Jazz knew it was him now, who else could it be? She kneeled down next to him and took his hand, but it was cold. Not like Danny's at all.

He was so light, it was effortless to turn him over on his stomach. She positioned his head on her lap and checked his pulse.

There was none.

"Jazz?" Danny croaked. He shifted and opened his eyes, but instead of the icy blue they normally were, they were a ghostly green.

That was impossible, he should be dead. He wasn't even breathing.

Which only meant one thing.

"Jazz, what was that sound?" The sound came from upstairs. "What are you doing down there. Wait... Did the portal start up after all? Did you find a ghost we can blast to pieces with our new and improved Fenton Blaster?"

"Jack, you know we can't do that. With the Fenton Laser we can tear it apart molecule by molecule and study the remains!"

Jazz sneaked a look at Danny, who had fallen asleep again. He was a ghost, or at least, he certainly looked like one. Their parents hunted ghosts.

But ghost or not, Danny was still her brother. Jazz shoved him under a lab table and pulled a few boxes over to hide him, her heart thudding hard in her chest.

"Jazz, what are you doing?" Jazz jumped.

"Oh, I'm-" She stuttered, but her parents were already over at the portal.

"I told you it would work! Obviously just needed a little warm-up time! I never doubted it for a second." Jack stood proudly by the portal and patted it lovingly while Maddie took pictures.

"Danny would love this! Where is he, anyway?"

"Oh!" Jazz's eyes drifted to a picture of Danny, Sam and Tucker perched near the stairs. "He just... went out to Sam's, Dad."

Jack nodded and turned back to the portal. "Shame! We needed somebody to take a look at the Ghost Zone!"

There was a loud groan. Nearby, on the other side of the room, one of Jack's inventions beeped insistently.

"GHOST!" Jack and Maddie shouted. "In this room!" Jazz's heart leapt to her throat. They started searching with the device, getting closer and closer to Danny's hiding space. Jazz stretched her hands over the table.

"Mom, Dad, wait! It's not what you think, I can explain-!"

"No time! Outta the way, Jazz! We're professionals." Jazz watched through her fingers as they pushed the boxes away to reveal-

"Ghost located. Thank you for using the Fenton Finder."

Danny. Normal Danny, without any ghost auras or weird hair. Jack and Maddie stared first at their son, then at the contraption.

"What's wrong with the Fenton Finder? It's gone haywire!" Jack poked and prodded at his invention, but it did nothing to help the situation.

"Jazz, what is your brother doing underneath the lab table?" Maddie stared in confusion. "I thought they were at Sam's."

"Oh! Uh... ready or not, here I come? Ah, poor Danny, it looks like he fell asleep. I'll just take him upstairs so I can freak out – no, don't move, Mom, I got it covered..." Jazz picked up Danny, noticing he was a lot heavier than he was in the weird, white-haired version seconds before. She carried him quickly up to his room, drew the curtains, and checked his pulse.

Steady, strong, normal.

She watched the rise and fall of his chest with an uncanny intensity. Also normal.

The only thing that wasn't normal was his temperature; he felt like a fridge. Upon sticking a thermometer in his mouth, she discovered it was below hypothermic. But that was impossible; he should be dead.

My baby brother should be dead, Jazz thought, and it's all because of me.

Brilliant idea of yours to tease your brother into going near one of their parents' inventions. The longer it took to build them, it seemed, the more spectacularly they failed. And that portal had been in the works for twenty years.

She heard a gasp. "Wh- what's happening? Where am I?" Danny sat up, heaving heavily.

Jazz abandoned all basic first aid which strictly instructed that you must never alarm the patient. She pulled Danny into a massive hug. "Little bro, you're okay! I was sooo worried about you, when you came out of the portal!"

Danny looked perplexed. "That portal gave me a nasty shock, didn't it? I fell unconscious." He chuckled. "Teaches me to never attempt to help my parents again."

"That wasn't the only thing, Danny..." Jazz began slowly.

"What? What happened?"

This was going to sound crazy. "Danny... uh, I don't know how to tell you this, bro, but you sorta turned into a ghost for a second there. You had this really white hair and... glowing green eyes." Jazz cringed, expecting the disbelieving reaction; it was what she would have done, had this bizarre situation been happening to her.

"A WHAT?! Jazz, have you gone mad?" Danny started laughing, swinging his legs over the bed. "You're nearly as crazy as Mom and Dad." He got up and walked over to the bathroom, giving the mirror a quick glance and not even noticing he didn't appear. "See for yourself! I'm just as dorky as I was before. You were in a state, Jazz. What did you think, I just went ghost-" White rings formed at Danny's waist, and transformed him back into the ghost. Jazz gasped. "-or something? Uh, Jazz, hello, are you even listening to me? I'm fine!"

"Does floating through the floor count as fine to you?" Danny's legs hadf turned that weird blue hue again, and he was literally sinking down where he stood.

"Jazz, what are you-" Danny let out a rather unmanly yelp as he looked down. "Help me! Help me! I'm sinking!" Jazz ran over and dragged him up by his shoulders.

"Think I'm crazy now?" Jazz asked. Danny shook his head slowly, and flew (literally) over to the mirror again.

"I can't see my reflection!" Danny stared disbelievingly at the mirror.

"It wasn't there before." Jazz started to explain. "You see, we studied this in Psychology. Sometimes your mind makes you see what you want to see in the heat of the moment rather than-"

"Jazz! I have more pressing issues right now than a lecture!" Danny stared at his legs. "I'm floating!" He pressed a finger to his throat. "And I don't feel my pulse! Jazz, I really am a ghost!"

"Calm down, Danny." Jazz knew more about maths, science and most other subjects than most adults, but the one thing that Jazz had refused to listen about, ghosts, was coming back to bite her now. Still, a solution presented itself to her. "Try and change back, and it might help you. You don't seem to use your abilities as much as in this one."

"How?"

"I dunno. Just try it, we've got plenty of time." Jazz shrugged.

There was a pounding at the door. Danny gasped. "Honey," Maddie stuck her head through the door. "Oh, hello Jazz. Where's Danny?"

"Oh! He's right next-" Jazz blinked, and looked quickly over to Danny, but he wasn't there. "I mean... he's... in the shower?"

As if in response, the shower clicked on. Jazz smiled innocently. She hadn't heard him go in the shower, but obviously today wasn't a normal day.

"Oh, he might as well. His hair's looking a little weird lately." Jazz didn't quite know how to respond to that. "Tell him to get ready to go out. Family celebratory meal at the Nasty Burger! Fifteen minutes!" She shut the door again.

Danny's intangible head poked out from the side of the wall. "This is bad, isn't it."

"How did you do that?" Jazz jumped. She wasn't used to this ghost thing.

"I dunno, I just didn't want Mom to see me and I was really surprised when she didn't. Then you started saying I was in the shower so I raced over there and turned it on. I didn't really think about it." He turned visible again.

"What if you just imagine yourself... human again?" Jazz wasn't big on this 'imagine it' logic, but it was better than no idea.

"Uh... okay." Danny thought a minute while he was calmer, and sure enough he did change back, with the white rings and all.

"They must be linked to your emotions in some way too." Jazz reasoned."It makes sense- actually, none of this does, but as much sense as I can make of it."

Danny sighed and leaned on his desk. "A few hours ago and we refused to believe ghosts exist. N-owww!" His hand went intangible and he crashed his head on the desk.

"Hey, Danny, it's alright." She heaved her brother back into a standing position, still shocked at the coldness. "It can just be our little secret."

"What about Sam and Tucker?" He suddenly pulled away. "I tell them everything. But I'm not sure how they'll react."

"Come on, kids! Nasty Burgers are moulded and stored at lunch. The longer we take, the less appealing they'll be!" Jack's voice sounded from the bottom.

Jazz looked at Danny's nervous face, and smiled reassuringly.

"Tell them what you feel comfortable telling." She offered, before going into her room to change.