Chapter 1

"Mr. Manson, your arm needs bandaged. Sir, please let me see it." Danny Fenton spoke in a voice that was steadier than anyone would have thought him capable at a time like this. Jeremy Manson didn't look up at the intruding boy, but continued to weep over the bodies of his dead wife and daughter. "Please, sir." Danny pleaded, "You are going to bleed out. They wouldn't want that. There has been enough death today." Danny's voice shook a little when he said the word death, but his voice didn't otherwise give away any emotion.

Jeremy finally spoke. In a quiet voice he asked, "Why? Why are you doing this to me now? Can't you see what I've lost?" Jeremy didn't hear a reply at first, so he sat up to look at the boy who had been best friends with his Samantha, his daughter. Jeremy's violet eyes met Danny's ice-blue, and Jeremy flinched. In the young boy's eyes the blond man could see only pain, the same pain Jeremy himself was feeling magnified. That was when Jeremy noticed the other bodies.

When the bus first crashed Jeremy only had eyes for his family. He barely noticed the other injured and dead people. Now though those dead seemed to stand out in the cramped space of the bus. Just behind the youngest Fenton was the rest of his family. Jasmine, Jack, and Maddie Fenton were all dead. Beyond them were the bodies of Tucker Foley, Paulina Sanchez, and Star Andrews. Jeremy was brought back to the present when the ebony haired boy said, "Yes. I know what you've lost, but they wouldn't want you to die. Let me help you."

Jeremy swayed, and realised just how much blood he was losing. He finally gave in and lowered Pamela to give Danny his arm. Danny looked around and spotted his over shirt, coated in blood, back by his sister Jazz. He had used it to try and stop her bleeding, so he couldn't use it again. Left with no choice Danny took of his long sleeve under shirt, revealing his many many scars. Danny ignored the gasps around him as he got to work. He tore the shirt into usable bandage material and started wrapping Jeremy's arm.

Jeremy was becoming dizzy from blood loss. Danny noticed the man swaying and said, "Mr. Manson, I need you to focus on me can you do that. You need to stay awake. I don't know if you have a concussion, but it would be a bad idea for you to fall asleep if you do. Why don't you talk to me? It will keep you awake." Jeremy made an effort to listen to the boy, and he looked up from his arm to see the many scars on Danny's torso.

Danny asked Jeremy to talk, to keep himself awake, so Jeremy asked, "How did you get those?" Jeremy wasn't sure, but he thought he saw the boy flinch.

"How did I get what Mr. Manson?" Danny asked, hoping desperately that Jeremy wasn't referring to the scars.

Sticking to Murphy's Law the blond man said, "Your scars. There are so many."

Danny frowned, but didn't say anything for a few seconds. Finally he said, "It's not something I like to talk about. There were only four people, including me, who knew the answer to that question. Sam and Tucker and Jazz, they knew, but now I'm the only one."

"Your parents didn't know?" Jeremy frowned. He knew that the Fentons could be somewhat oblivious, but they would know about their son having this many scars. Some of those scars looked like they could have killed the young boy. "They had to have known you had these scars."

Danny shook his head as he finished tying off the make-shift bandages. Mr. Manson would have pushed farther but Danny stood up and walked back to where he'd been sitting before the crash. He bent down and found Sam's backpack, and then danny pulled out a large black long sleeve shirt and put it on. Then Jeremy watched as the boy sat down next to his sister and finally cried.

Jeremy hadn't stopped crying, but even though the boy's actions brought his mind back to his dead family, watching the teens grief over his own family was almost as crushing as the deaths of his wife and daughter. The ambulances pulled up, and they started loading people out of the bus onto the side of the highway. Once Jeremy got off he watched as they laid the Fentons together with his family and the other three children. Danny lost everyone, as far as Jeremy knew. Danny lost even more than Jeremy had. Jeremy may have lost most of his family, but Danny lost all of his family, and his only two friends.

From the moment Danny started to cry everything had become a blur for Jeremy. Nothing was able to bring him out of his thoughts. He didn't notice what people said around him until he heard, "Sir can you hear me?"

"What?" Jeremy asked stupidly.

"I need to check you for injuries." The paramedic said. "Does anything hurt?"

Jeremy frowned and squinted as the medic flashed light in his eyes, but he answered, "I'm dizzy, but Danny bandaged my right arm."

Dutifully the flashlight was set down so the paramedic could look at the bandage. The woman nodded her approval and said, "Looks like this Danny might have saved you. We'll take you to the hospital momentarily, but my bet is you only need rest. You are lucky."

Jeremy frowned but didn't comment as the woman walked away. He didn't think he was lucky, if he was lucky his family would be alive with him.

Danny was a couple yards away from Jeremy, and in a similar situation. As soon as the ambulances arrived Danny had been questioned about his health. Danny wasn't surprised and just told them it wasn't his blood. The medics understood and left him alone after they checked that he didn't have a concussion. The paramedic told Danny he was just a little bruised and he'd be fine to go straight home after they got to the hospital. Danny just nodded to get rid of the guy.

Once everyone's injuries were assessed, and the bodies identified, the ambulances were loaded and set off for the hospital. They arrived at the hospital and Vlad was already there. Danny successfully dodged the man by ducking behind Jeremy Manson as he was walked into a hospital room. No one noticed Danny in the room with them until the Doctor finished rewrapping Jeremy's arm and moved to leave. "Danny? What are you doing here?" Jeremy asked.

The doctor left and Danny answered, "I'm sorry for intruding. I'm just avoiding someone." Jeremy raised an eyebrow asking Danny to elaborate. "There is a man out there who thinks that he is now my legal guardian according to my parents will. What he doesn't know is I tricked my dad into writing the wrong name on that part of their will?"

"How did you manage that?" Jeremy wondered how the thirteen-year-old tricked his father into writing his son's name wrong.

"I was adopted when I was two, so while my name had been Danny Fenton to everyone around me, legally that isn't my name. Legally my name is Daniel James Potter. I distracted my dad enough while he was writing my name that he wrote Daniel Fenton instead of Daniel James Potter." Danny explained.

To say Jeremy was impressed would be an understatement. Jeremy had heard that this boy got terrible grades, but obviously that rumor was untrue. Danny Fenton/Potter was a genius. "So what's going to happen to you then?" Jeremy asked.

Danny shrugged. "I'll probably freeze Fenton Works, or shut it down. Then I'll end up in foster care I guess."

"Wouldn't it have been better just to go with this man you're avoiding?"

"No. He's not a good person, and I don't think I would be a good person under his influence." Danny said.

"So what would you do given the choice?" Jeremy asked.

"Where would I go, you mean?" Jeremy nodded to Danny's question. Danny thought for a minute then answered, "I would shut down Fenton Works as quickly as possible. Live at my house like I've always done. Get a job or create a business, if I couldn't find a job that worked, and continued my education privately. I'd work hard and get my GED in a year or two on my free time, and then I'd reinvent Fenton Works. My parent's have a lot of really advanced technologies, but they haven't utilized them well."

Jeremy was right. This boy was amazingly smart. He thought it was a shame that this boy would end up in an orphanage. They were left in silence for a while until the doctor came back and told Jeremy he was free to go, but Jeremy was hesitant. He paused and said, "Um, I wanted to thank you."

"For what?" Danny seemed confused.

Jeremy gave the boy a small smile. He was smart and modest. "The doctors said you saved my life with that bandage job, so thank you, for saving my life."

Danny blushed and looked down. "Anyone would have done the same."

Jeremy insisted, "They didn't though. You did."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "You're welcome, Mr. Manson."

Jeremy turned to leave again, but was still hesitant. "Was there something else?" Danny asked. Jeremy shook his head. "Then why haven't you left."

Danny watched curiously as Jeremy hesitated at the door. The man didn't have his usual composer, Danny attributed it to blood loss, and he opened his mouth once or twice before he looked Danny in the eyes and asked, "I was wondering if you wanted to come home with me. You don't have anywhere else to go, that I know of, and I have a large house." Danny couldn't stop himself from gaping. He thought this man hated him, but here he was offering his home. "I understand if you don't want to. Pam never was very inviting. I'll just go-"

Danny cut him off, "I would love to go with you. Thank you for offering." The boy's answer made Jeremy smile. Danny hopped up from the chair he'd settled in and Jeremy left with the boy in tow. He walked down the hall to the lobby where they came in. Then Danny stopped him, "Stop. The man I was talking about is in there. Here come this way." Danny lead Jeremy back to a side entrance and they ended up in the parking garage next to the hospital. Danny rubbed his neck again, Jeremy thought it must be a nervous tick of the boy's, and asked, "So where to Mr. Manson."

Jeremy took out his phone and called his chauffeur. Once he gave the servant his location he hung up and looked down to his odd companion. Danny Fenton was an enigma. Pamela had always thought the boy was a troublemaker, but Jeremy thought that was a harsh judgement. Still there were so many things that he just didn't know about the boy. The boy most the time seemed weak, goofy, nerdy, somewhat lazy, and shy, but then there were moments where the mask slipped and a complete stranger showed through. At those moments Danny could seem confident and experienced and nothing like the boy he so often portrayed. That made Jeremy think back to those scars. Jeremy couldn't think of a situation that could cause those types of scars. Not even child abuse explained them, not that the Fentons could ever hurt Danny.

Danny must have noticed Jeremy's expression because he asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Jeremy jumped, he almost forgot the boy was there, "It's nothing, I just realized I know nothing about you." Jeremy couldn't get rid of the frown on his face.

"Oh." Danny's feet shuffled awkwardly then he looked up to the lavender eyes of Mr. Manson. "You know, I don't know anything about you either. Sam was always talking about her war with her mom. I have an idea though."

Jeremy had to stop himself from crying again when Danny mentioned Samantha and Pamela. He blinked a few times and asked, "An idea?"

"Yeah lets play a truth game. The rules are fairly start by asking a question. Then the other person has to answer truthfully, and then the other person asks a question back. You can pass and choose not to answer a question, but it ends the game on the next turn. After you pass you have to ask the other person one last question. If the person answers the question then you lose, if they don't you win. So what do you say?" Danny explained his game.

Jeremy thought it over for a second. It sounded like a pretty good idea, he agreed, "Sure I'll play, but let's get in the car first. Our ride's here." Jeremy said while pointing to the black luxury sedan.

They got in the car and Jeremy started, "What is your favorite color?" Danny gave him a look that said, really, that's your question. "What? It's just a warm up." Jeremy defended his lame question.

"Okay. My favorite color is blue." Danny answered leaning back in his seat. "My turn. What's your favorite hobby?"

Jeremy answered, "I garden. What about you? Same question."

"I like to star gaze." Technically it wasn't a lie. Danny's favorite hobby was star gazing when he was human, now though Danny liked to look up at the sky while flying at night. It was still start gazing, just not what most people would think of.

"I didn't know you were a stargazer." Jeremy commented.

"That's kind of why we're playing, isn't it? Yeah, I like the sky. When I was little me and my mom would go star gazing and she'd tell me all the scientific facts about space. I even wanted to be an astronaut for a long time." Danny paused, then said, "Were you always rich? I know that your wife was the one with the family fortune."

It surprised Danny when Jeremy shook his head no. "I was higher class, but never rich. I was, well off, but I didn't know the meaning of rich until I married Pam and moved to America."

"You didn't live in America?" Danny asked curiously.

"I grew up in a town outside London, England, but it's my turn." Jeremy said, "You said earlier you were adopted by the Fentons when you were little." Danny nodded so Jeremy asked, "What do you know of your biological parents?" He was curious because the name Potter was famous in the wizarding world, not that Danny would know that.

Danny scratched his head, thinking. "I don't know much. There names were Lily and James Potter. Other than that I really don't know, I do know what they look like though. I've got a picture. Lily had auburn hair, just a shade darker than Maddie's, and emerald green eyes. My dad had black messy hair like mine, square glasses, and brown eyes. Jazz always told me I looked exactly like my dad, except she said my dad looked really playful and mischievous. Jazz always insisted I had a kind look, like my mom, something about the eyes. I think she was reading too much into a photograph." Dannys said.

The answer was shorter than Jeremy expected, but it left the man gobsmacked. He hadn't expected Danny to really be the son of the famous Lily and James Potter, but now that he knew he wasn't sure exactly what to say. Danny apparently saw his surprise because he asked, "What were my parents famous in London or something?" Danny laughed.

"Something like that." Jeremy said. Danny was about to ask about it, but Jeremy stopped him. "I'll tell you everything I know if you answer the next question." Danny was wary but nodded and let Jeremy go again. "How did you get those scars?"

Danny was silent for a long time. He wanted to know about his apparently famous parents, but he needed to answer Jeremy's question to get that information. He started slowly, "There is an activity I partake in that is dangerous. It's not illegal, but no one but me, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz knew I do this. It's not something I really wanted to do with my life, but no one else can do it, so I do. I won't tell you what I was doing, but that is how I got most if not all of my scars."

The answer was vague, which Jeremy had expected, but it did give him a little to work with. At least now Jeremy knew that Danny voluntarily did something that lead to his scars, and no one had forced the teen to do something dangerous. It at least allowed Jeremy to form some questions that he could ask later. By the time Jeremy had finished thinking over Danny's evasive answer they were almost to the Manson Manor. "Okay that doesn't really answer my question, but I'll still tell you about Lily and James Potter. We're almost to my home though, so I'm not going to tell you right now. I have to prepare to tell Ida about what happened. If you remind me later tonight I'll tell you about your parents." Danny nodded and after a minute more they arrived at the mansion. Jeremy was slightly surprised at how comfortable Danny was in the mansion. Even though the boy had been here a few times Jeremy had a hard time believing Danny had become so familiar to the mansion in those visits. Jeremy brushed off the weird observation, after all Danny could have just come over a few more times than Jeremy knew of.

Jeremy walked up his walkway and unlocked his door. Ida was wearing her regular pink cardigan, sitting in her wheelchair in the kitchen. The rambunctious ninety-year-old shouted out, "Hello, Jere." She almost always called him Jere. "What are you doing back so soon? The trip get canceled?"

Jeremy suddenly felt his mouth go dry. He said, "Ida, I need to talk to you."

Ida seemed oblivious to his discomfort and said, "Okay, but can it wait a few minutes. I need to watch the stove. I'm was just making hot chocolate."

Danny decided to spare Jeremy and said, "Let me, Nana Ida." She insisted that Danny call her that. "I'll finish for you, and I'll make some for Mr. Manson and myself as well."

Jeremy said, "Thanks Danny, but why don't you call me Jeremy. I never really liked going by Mr. Manson at home."

Danny nodded and took over the stove adding more milk for Jeremy and himself, allowing Ida to sit with Jeremy at the breakfast table. Jeremy sighed, but didn't seem keen on starting. It was worrying to Ida, who said, "Well, spit it out, Jere. And why did you come home with Danny?"

"As you know, me and Pam", his voice cracked a little on Pamela's name, "were chaperoning a field trip for Sam's class today. The Fentons were the other chaperones." Jeremy swallowed thickly. "There was an argument on the bus. The Fentons, including Jasmine and Danny, were standing in the isle with Tucker, Pam, Sam, two other girls, and me. Then the driver hit something, ice maybe, and spun the bus." His voice was very quiet now. "I was thrown into a seat, but the rest were in the isle on the ground when the semi truck hit us. They're gone." Jeremy started crying again.

Shocked tears ran down Ida's wrinkled cheeks, and it broke Danny's heart more than it was. He was barely holding back his own tears at Jeremy's tale. Ida looked to Danny who came over with three large mugs of hot chocolate. "D-danny, what does he mean, They're g-gone." Her voice was shaky and scared.

Danny looked Ida in the eyes and set a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Everyone who was sitting survived the crash, but Sam and Pamela they didn't make it." Ida clutched her hands over her mouth and let out a sob. Danny pulled her into a gentle hug and tried his hardest not to become a blubbering mess with the oldest Manson. By the time Ida calmed down their untouched drinks were cold.

Danny released Ida and took the three drinks to the microwave. When he returned Jeremy and Ida thanked him. They were silent for a while, but the silence started to press on Ida and she asked, "What about your family, Danny?"

Danny took a steadying breath and said, "Mom, Dad, and Tucker died instantly. Jazz died within two minutes after the crash from blood loss. I couldn't save her."

Ida decided to try and keep his mind off of that while she could. "What about the two girls?"

Danny seemed to relax a little once he was off the topic of his family. "Paulina Sanchez and Star Andrews went as fast as everyone else. I guess we can just be grateful it was fast." Suddenly Danny stiffened, his ghost sense went off. "Excuse me." He said. "Bathroom."

Danny locked the bathroom door and flew out only to see Vlad floating around the block. "Finally I found you, little badger." The creepy older halfa said. "I wanted to see you, after today I was worried."

"I've been avoiding you." Danny said bluntly.

"Come now, I know we don't get along all that well, but is that anyway to greet your new guardian." Vlad asked lacking his normal smirk. Danny guessed he wasn't able to smirk after hearing of him mom's death.

"Maybe not, but you're not my new guardian. I tricked my dad into writing my name down wrong on that portion of the will. On that technicality I will be able to choose whether I go with you or not, and we both know how I'll choose." Danny probably would have been smirking himself under different circumstances. "And don't even think of using overshadowing to get me this time. Plasmius. I will not hesitate to overshadow my own people to arrest you for illegal possession of weapons."

"I don't have illegal weapons, Daniel." Vlad said menacingly.

"That doesn't mean I can't plant one." Danny said calmly. "I'm sorry Vlad but I'm not playing games. Not right now. Now I'm going to enjoy my last moments of peace before I have to go home and face social services. Goodbye." Danny didn't wait for Vlad's response, he just turned invisible and flew back to the Manson Mansion.

The rest of the day flew by quickly. Danny called the contact number for his mother's sister Alicia. He got lucky and found her in town that day, so instead of leaving her a message like he planned he told her about Maddie, Jack, and Jazz himself. Danny told Jeremy that he'd called his would-be guardian about the technicality in the paper work that he'd worked in. Then he spent left after dinner for his house. He didn't have the key's so he phased through the door. The ghost alarms blared and Danny rushed downstairs to the lab to shut it off, but he didn't manage it. The lab.

Just as he opened the door the oh-so familiar smell of ectoplasm, metal, and fudge hit him like a wave. On a table to the right was a half finished gun his mom was building, and to the left was a charred wall with ectoplasm puddled on the table beneath it. Around the lab there was humming and whirring sounds coming from various machines, but still it was too quiet. Something was missing. Danny fell to his knees and sobbed as reality came crashing down on him. His parents and Jazz were gone forever.

Danny barely even noticed the alarm anymore. He lost track of time sitting there crying, but the door bell sounding with the alarm brought him back to the present. He stood up shakily and turned off the alarm before running back to the front door. It was one of the rarely seen neighbors. She immediately started ranting, "We put up with a lot of noise from you Fentons-"

"Laura." Danny cut her off. "I'm sorry. It was an accident. I can promise it won't happen again." He had been trying to stop crying to answer the door, but after he realized that his family's ruckus never would be heard again he gave up on not crying. Of course Laura noticed.

"Danny, what's wrong?" Laura tentatively placed a hand on Danny's shoulder. She wasn't close to the family, but the young boy was sobbing.

Danny spoke slowly, so he didn't make a mistake. "There was an accident today. It killed eight people, including Jazz, and my parents."

Laura gasped, "Oh my god! Are you okay? What happened? Are you here all alone?" Laura asked worried.

"You don't have to worry about me, Laura. I only got a bruise. Just please don't call social services. I have somethings I want to wrap up here at home, and I can't do that once they figure out I'm alone." Danny asked.

"But Danny-" Laura started.

"Laura, would you come inside?" Danny moved aside expecting her to come in after him.

Laura was hesitant, but then again Danny was alone. "I guess." She walked past him. He closed the door and gestured for her to follow. He moved back down the stairs to the basement lab, but this time he didn't stop. Laura reminded him of how little time he had.

"Why don't you sit?" Danny gestured to a folding chair by a clean lab table.

Laura sat down and watched for a while. Danny moved quickly and with purpose. He moved first to the portal. He made sure it was locked and checked that no one had entered or exited using the portal since his last patrol. Once he was satisfied he did something he never thought he'd do. Danny pulled the plug. Having been on the inside when the portal was started the portals ending was a much neater affair. It simply faded the swirls of ectoplasm faded out and dispersed like steam.

With the portal taken care of for the time being Danny moved onto the blue prints. He took his personal laptop and plugged it in. He deleted everything extra to make room and then he scanned in every blueprint. As he did so he wrote down the names on a document on a separate computer. To double check that he had everything. The only thing missing was the ghost gabber.

Laura chose to speak up. "Why did you invite me in, Danny?"

Danny glanced up and Laura saw Danny's frenzied grief. "You were protesting not calling social services. I appreciate your concern, but it was going to cause a lot of problems a lot sooner than I need them. I invited you in to tell you why you shouldn't call anyone." Danny looked back to his scans. He finally found the ghost gabber, and that was everything. He didn't look to make sure Laura was listening before he continued. "There are very few people at this point that know I have no where to go, but people will know soon enough that I'm alone. It wasn't a small accident. But before people figure out I'm here and come for me I have things I need to do. I have a lot to do, and dwindling time to do it." Danny stopped and looked Laura directly in the eyes, so she could see his desperate gaze. "Please. We've never been close neighbors, but this is probably the last time you'll see me before I leave, and as a last favor, don't call the authorities."

Laura was at a loss for words. Here he was this young teenager, begging her not to call social services not so he could grieve in peace, which she would understand, but to work. "Fine, but why do you need to work? What do you need to do?" She asked.

Danny relaxed for the first time since she walked in. "Thank you. This is a little bit of a long story."

Laura replied, "This is the last time I'm going to see you right, you might as well tell me now."

"There have been multiple occasions where a government agency known as the GIW or Guys in White, have confiscated my parents lab. They come in here with a warrant and some money and they take the lab as they bought it. Each time I've had to sneak back in and protect the lab in some form, because of this agencies aims." Danny started to explain.

"No one is going to arrest me for knowing this information, are they?" Laura asked feeling nervous at the direction of this story.

Danny gave her a small smile, "No. They won't even know you have any information, and after today it won't matter either way. As I was saying", Danny continued, "This agency has a good objective, to rid the world of ghosts, but they are going about it the wrong way. The ghosts mainly reside in an alternate dimension called the ghost zone. The GIW want to destroy this dimension, therefore destroying all ghosts, but they've miscalculated."

Laura was leaning forward in her chair unconsciously in her interest. She thought the youngest, now only, Fenton was stupid. Apparently that wasn't the case. "They are trying to destroy a whole dimension?" She asked.

Danny nodded at her, then went back to cataloging inventions. "They even have a way to do it. They were almost successful once, but you should be thankful they weren't. The GIW's miscalculation has to do with their understanding of the ghost zone. They believe it is a parallel dimension, when it isn't. If they were right they could destroy the ghost zone, and nothing would happen to anything outside that dimension, because the dimension wouldn't be in contact with ours. That's just where they made the mistake though. That dimension, the ghost zone, is in contact with our dimension. The two dimensions intersect through naturally forming portals all over the world throughout all time. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Danny asked suddenly aware of how technical he was sounding.

Laura squinted, "It think I get it, but it's pretty advanced for me."

"Here look at this." Danny tore the blueprints the the ghost gabber in half and crinkled the pieces into separate wads. He set them out on the table and grabbed a lighter. "Okay. Say this paper wad is one dimension, and this one is another." He said pointing to the two papers. "They are parallel, not touching." He lit one on fire. "This one is being destroyed right now, but the other one is safe, because the two never come in contact." Then he slid the other wad of unburned paper closer, until it was almost touching the burning one. "This is how the GIW view our worlds." Danny placed a wall of sheet metal between the pieces of paper. "They think we can just put up a wall, and we would be safe, even if our worlds were just separated by a paper thin barrier. That's where they are wrong though. Our worlds aren't parallel, they touch in many many places." Danny removed the sheet metal and let the untouched piece of paper catch fire. "It's more extensive than that though."

Laura was amazed by this description. Danny was amazingly smart, and he was teaching her about extra dimensional mechanics. "What do you mean it's more extensive?"

Danny grabbed another blueprint, the Fenton Phones. He pointed to one side, "This is earth, or as the ghosts call it, the human zone." Then he flipped the paper and pointed to it. "This side is the ghost zone, or as the ghosts call it evermore. This is what happens when you burn evermore." He lit the page on fire from the ghost zone side, and Laura watched in as the page burned.

"So what does that mean? Why does that mean you need to work here?" Laura asked.

"The GIW don't yet understand that destroying the ghost zone would destroy earth. Eventually they will learn, if they don't destroy our dimension first, but for now they are ignorant. I'm working to save as much of my parents work as possible before the GIW realize that this lab, full of technologies they would use to destroy the ghost zone, is unprotected. Without my parents here they could snatch up this lab faster than I can blink, so I need to get as much of the dangerous inventions secured as quickly as possible." Danny concluded.

In Laura's basic understanding from what she had learned the only conclusion was that Danny needed time so he could save the world. "Can I help?"

"What?" Danny froze while throwing blueprints into a metal can.

"I said can I help. It seems to me that you're saving the world, and I want to help." Laura said. She laughed as her words registered with the icy eyed boy, who flushed pink with embarrassment.

"Umm, yeah. I guess. I've done the first two steps, but this place has a long way to go." Danny said.

"Okay boss. What's next?"

"Well I, we need to burn all the blueprints. Why don't you work on that while I fetch a bag from upstairs?" Danny said.

The two of them work well past midnight, but once they were done all the the inventions were packed away into storage devices in a bag, and there was nothing left in the lab save the unplugged portal. Danny lead Laura upstairs and after some tea he bid her goodnight and good bye. Then he went down stairs one more time and let loose a highly concentrated ectoblast that melted the portal until it was a puddle on the floor. He got everything he needed or wanted off the lab computer and then melted that too.

That was it. Everything was either melted, in a storage device, or on his computer. The lab was gone, and Danny wasn't sure how to feel about it. On one hand seeing the lab so bare made Danny want to cry again, but on the other there was also a sense of satisfaction that seemed to just barely lessen his grief. At least it was done, and now he could sleep. Danny fell asleep almost before his head reached his pillow, and he stayed in a dreamless sleep through the night.