I do not own Danny Phantom.

Anyone else going trick-or-treating? I am. Little too old but, really, who cares?

Spookin' Lancer

William Lancer tapped a black and orange pen against his desk, studying his students with suspicion. It was Friday, the day before Halloween. The students were acting as he expected, shouting at the top of their lungs across the room to each other, telling scary stories when they should have been reading, Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lu pranking Miss Sanchez and Miss Benson with fake blood dripping out of their mouths.

Just ordinary, day-before-Halloween activity.

But what made him suspicious were the empty seats of Daniel, Samantha and Tucker. Sure, he was never surprised to see Daniel missing. Heck, he was surprised when he actually showed up on time. But all three absent at once? Something was up.

Danny snickered, phasing through the ceiling and hovering above Lancer's desk, invisible. He held a severed, bloody head in his hands and glanced out the window. Tucker was positioned outside in the bushes, camera poised in his hand. Sam was there as well, twitching with anticipation.

One, two, THREE!

Danny dropped the head and grinned. The grin wavered when Lancer simply stared at the sticky, brain-oozing head that dropped into his lap out of nowhere. The class, on the other hand, went crazy, screaming in fear and cowering at the back of the classroom.

Frowning, Danny phased outside and joined his two friends, transforming back into Fenton.

"That was a bust," muttered Sam.

Lancer picked up the gooey item, a disgusted and slightly amused look on his face as he walked over to the window. He opened it, and chucked the homemade Halloween prop out into the chilly October morning.

"Gross!"

Tucker's beret-clad head popped out of the bushes, chunks of cow brain covering his yellow jacket. Slowly, Sam and Danny came up beside him. Lancer leaned his elbows on the ledge and raised an eyebrow.

"So, Manson, what did you make this art project out of?"

Sam slumped. "Fish guts, papier-mâché, fake blood and paint, sir."

"Very creative. If you put that much effort into your school work, you'd be an honour student."

Danny cut to the chase. "Okay, why aren't you freaking out like the others?"

Lancer glanced briefly at his students, who had straggled back to their seats after seeing the 'severed head' was nothing more than a pathetic prank by the 'Nerd Herd'.

"Mr. Fenton, I have been a teacher for more than ten years. There have been pranks far more extravagant than yours. I am no longer easily fooled by silly jokes pulled by the likes of you." He levelled each with a stern stare. "Now, are you going to come in through the door, or the window?"

"The window," three depressed voices said in unison.

Lancer moved back and watched as the three students hauled themselves over the window ledge and sat down in their seats. He closed the window, as some students were shivering violently from the cold autumn air.

Danny scowled and whirled around in his seat to face his best friends. "He does realize this means war, right?"

Sam sighed, taking the purple scarf off her neck and placing it on top of her desk. "Danny, you heard him. He can't be frightened. And if my severed head didn't fool him, nothing will."

Tucker pulled off his red mittens and stuffed them in his jacket pocket. "Yeah, dude. There is nothing more realistic than Sam's monstrous creations. The guy is a rock."

Danny thumped a pale hand on his desk. "He said we were adequate pranksters! He said he's faced better pranksters! Better! And he said he wasn't easily fooled. That means we have to try harder! Now, are you with me?"

Sam and Tucker glanced at each other. They both knew that when Danny was determined to do something, no one could talk him out of it. With a sigh, they nodded.

Danny grinned. "All right, let's get started. We only have today to do it."

After five minutes of brainstorming, they came up with another idea. Sneaking a glance to make sure no one was looking, Danny phased out of the room. He returned a minute later with a container of spiders, which he borrowed from the science lab.

He phased his hand through the bottom drawer and emptied out the container. He went back to his seat, becoming fully visible and tangible. "Go," he whispered to his Goth friend.

Lancer leaned back in his chair as Sam walked up to him. "Can I borrow a pencil?" she asked.

"I don't know. Can you?"

Sam sighed. "May I borrow a pencil?"

Lancer shook his head and opened his bottom desk drawer. Dozens of black spiders crawled around his folders, pens, and his lunch. Wrinkling his nose, he removed a pencil with two fingers. "Very cute, Manson. Pets of yours, I presume?"

Sam silently accepted the pencil and headed back to Danny and Tucker.

"Back to the drawing board," sighed Tucker, removing a clean sheet of paper from his notebook.

Half an hour passed. Lancer raised an eyebrow as his cellphone rang. He glanced in the trio's direction and found all three writing in their notebooks, dejected expressions on their faces.

Hmm...

"Hello?" he answered.

Deep, raspy breathing was the reply. Tapping a finger against his desk, he surveyed his class intently, but could find no one attempting anything suspicious.

"Very funny. You do realize you're using up my minutes? They don't come cheap."

"Are you scared?" a hoarse voice asked.

"I don't know. Should I be?" Lancer asked in amusement.

"Yes. You should. Because I am going to KILL you. And no one escapes my wrath."

"I'm pretty sure it's illegal to threaten your teacher."

Lancer swore he heard an exasperated sigh come from the other end of the phone. "You will regret this insolence! You shall rue the day! RUE THE DAY!"

Lancer was impressed that any of his students knew words like rue and insolence. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind." He clapped his cell shut and smirked.

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker on and off. An eerie moaning filled the room. Paulina whimpered and Star drew herself tightly to Kwan, who was shaking like a leaf.

Dash snorted. "You're all a bunch of babies!"

A loud boom of what sounded like thunder echoed through the classroom and Dash shrieked.

Danny snickered. "And you think Tucker sounds like a girl."

Dash glared. Lancer sighed. It seemed like another locker extraction would be happening later that day.

Clanging of chains sounded, and the moans got louder. The class was now screaming in terror, clinging onto each other in fear. Even Valerie turned a bit pale, and moved in closer to Star.

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

A black-robed figure dropped down from the air vent, a faceless white mask on their face as another clap of thunder sounded. The class screamed, with Paulina fainting and Dash actually wetting his pants.

Lancer leaned over and calmly removed the plastic mask, revealing a shocked and frustrated Tucker. Lancer let his gaze wander up, where he saw a wire attached to the ventilation system, the cover removed.

He turned to the boy's best friends. Danny slumped low in his seat and pulled a black device from Tucker's chair. 'Tucker' fizzled and disappeared. Gasps of amazement went up through the crowd, followed by murmurs of anger.

"A hologram, eh? Very nice, Mr. Foley. I suppose the sounds came from a small, speaker-like device?"

Tucker nodded silently and held up his P.D.A. Danny got up and yanked on Tucker's cape-hard. The wire holding him snapped lose and Tucker came crashing down. They both slipped back into their seats.

"That took forever to set up," groaned Danny. He then smirked as Dash got up and raced from the classroom to fix his problem. "Well, at least something good came out of it."

Tucker removed the black cape and tossed it into a corner. "Lancer's got no emotion, I swear."

Sam sighed. "There has to be something that'd scare the guy."

Danny glanced out the window for a moment before a slow smile spread across his face. "I think I know one thing Lancer fears."

"Math?" asked Tucker.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Well, yes. I'm thinking of something bigger. But, it might get us grounded for, I don't know, life, and expelled."

Sam and Tucker grinned at each other. This was going to be good.

After Danny explained his plan, he thrust his hand in the air and asked to go to the bathroom. Though suspicious, Lancer ignored his better judgement and gave permission.

Two minutes later a scream could be heard, and a black blur sped by the English classroom's window. Then silence ensued. Lancer raised an eyebrow and turned to Sam and Tucker, and felt himself disturbed by the fear and horror on their faces.

"Aw, no! Danny!" Tucker cried, leaping out of his seat and practically flying out the window. Lancer turned a startling eye to Sam, who was crying heavily. Sam would never cry, unless something was terribly wrong.

He stood up, his chair crashing to the floor. "Samantha, what's wrong?"

Sam sobbed. "Da-Danny went up on the ro-roof to drop a f-fake bat down the vent and s-scare you, but he, he-" She could not finish her sentence, putting her head on her desk, shoulders shaking with sobs.

Lancer ran to the window, and felt his jaw drop. Danny was lying on the ground, unmoving, a small pool of blood surrounding his head. Tucker knelt down beside him, tears streaming down his face.

"Danny!" Lancer leaped out and gently shook the boy. "Danny, speak to me!"

No response.

Lancer's heart raced, sweat rolled down his back, and he went ice-cold. This was not a joke. Even he knew the trio would not go to such lengths to pull a prank, not like this. Danny had gone up to the roof to pull a prank and he slipped off.

He was this close to bursting into tears himself when laughter cleared the fear in his mind. He turned to see Tucker clutching his stomach, laughing.

"Aw, man, you should have seen your face!" Tucker howled. Danny easily pulled himself up, giggling and supporting himself on Tucker. Sam had approached the window among the other students who had gathered around to see what had happened, horrified expressions turning to relief and fury.

Lancer sat back on his knees, stunned. Sam had not been sobbing in grief, but with laughter. And Tucker had been crying because he was holding the laughter in. They really did go there...faking someone's death for amusement. He felt red-hot anger burning up inside him.

"Fenton! Foley! Manson! You three are in so much trouble!"

Danny and Tucker yelped with fright, jumping up and racing off. Sam widened her violet eyes and took off out of the classroom and out the doors, quickly catching up to her friends.

"I think we nearly gave him a heart attack," Tucker panted.

"Well, we might be grounded and expelled, but at least now he can't say we're amateur pranksters," Danny said, jumping over a garbage can.

"It was actually pretty fun. I think Dash was actually scared for a moment," Sam giggled. "He might have wet his pants a second time."

"Nah, really?"

Police sirens could be heard in the distance. Danny turned a shocked look to his friends. "No way...do you think he called the cops on us?"

Back at Casper High, Lancer snapped his cell shut, allowing the shaking in his hands to cease. He couldn't call their parents or even speak to the trio themselves over their extreme prank, so he left it to the police to offer the explanation.

Because if he tried to explain or punish, he was afraid he might start laughing, and not be able to stop.

What could he say? They got him good.