Randy and Howard were shaking, eyes wide. Both pairs of eyes were locked onto Danny, who rubbed the back of his neck and blushed. His eyes drifted around the room and then back to them. "Um...Randy Cunningham? The Ninja?"
That surprised them. They recoiled and Randy blinked a few times before talking. "...How...how did you know that? Who are you?"
"He's Danny Phantom, dude!" Howard whispered sharply. Danny nervously chuckled.
"There's this...er...ghost in the Ghost Zone who told me about you. And this must be your friend, er...what's your name?" Danny asked Howard. The boy yelped.
"I'm...I'm H-Howard Weinerman, Mr. Phantom, sir!"
Danny this time finally laughed. "You don't have to call me sir. I'm your age." he chuckled. Randy frowned.
"How can that be? You're a ghost, you must be really old." he said. The ghost boy shook his head.
"No. I'm your age. Can you two keep a secret?" They both quickly nodded. Danny scanned the room for anywhere where anyone else could be looking and then looked to them again. A bright ring surrounded him and passed over him, transforming him into his human form, black hair and blue eyes. Both of the boys gasped, eyes even wider than before. Randy stuttered a second.
"...Holy cheese! You're..."
"I'm a human. Yeah. More specifically, half ghost." Danny's hand covered his face as he blushed. "I'm Danny Phantom. But my real name is Danny Fenton." His other arm wrapped around his waist and his eyes drifted away from them. Randy and Howard stared at him more, taking in his features.
He was just like them. An awkward teenage boy. Randy pulled himself together and was brave enough to approach him. "So, um...Danny Fenton? How did this happen? How long have you been like..." Randy gestured to him, not sure which word to use. Howard walked to Randy's side.
"Like...half ghost?" Howard finished for him. Danny cleared his throat and returned his eyes to them.
"I've been like this for about a year. And what happened was..." He sighed. This was never an easy tale to repeat. "...my parents were trying to create a portal to the Ghost Zone in my basement-"
"Oh, that's so honkin' bruce!" Randy exclaimed. Danny and Howard glared at him and he gave a weak laugh. "Sorry. Continue."
Danny rolled his eyes. "My parents are ghost hunters, by the way. They were, as I said, trying to create a portal to the Ghost Zone. But when they plugged it in, it didn't work. When they were out of the house with my older sister, my friends asked me to show them the defunct portal."
"I bet it's a lab accident. Lab accidents in comics always lead to superpowers." Howard said in a hushed tone. Danny picked up his words and silenced. Howard sighed. "Sorry."
"It's okay. Anyways, my friends Sam and Tucker wanted to see the portal. I showed them and Sam said I should check it out, saying there had to be all sorts of cool stuff on the other side. I gave in and she-"
"Sam's a girl?" Randy asked.
"That's a boy name!" Howard furthered. Danny rolled his eyes. Such a newbie hero team.
"Her full name's Samantha Victoria Manson. But don't ever call her that, because she'd kill you. And I've been friends with her for, like, ever." A peaceful smile came on his face, which both the Ninja and Howard noted as they narrowed their eyes and smirked. They both began to snicker at him. Danny snapped out of his reverie and his face went entirely red.
"Sam and Danny, sittin' in a tree..." Randy sang. Danny groaned.
"You guys have literally known me for about ten minutes and you're already doing this? Really?"
"Yep." Randy confirmed. Danny couldn't chase away the red from his face and he looked down at his feet.
"Anyways, she tossed me a jumpsuit. I pulled it on and went into the portal. I wasn't looking where I was going and ended up pushing the on button on the inside. Next thing I knew I was being electrocuted and I woke up later on the floor of the lab with both of my friends freaking out. The rest is history."
"Ow." Howard winced. "That sounds like it hurts."
"It did. It hurt a lot." The red finally fled from the ghost boy's face and a forlorn memory whipped through his mind. He shook his head. "Anyways, you both probably have an idea of why I'm here. Those...imp things. I have more of an explanation as to what's going on, but it's safer to talk at my house." He pulled the Ninja badge from his pocket and held it up as the boy stared at the glistening badge, on which the sunlight danced as it met its surface. "This here is a teleportation device. It will bring you right back to Randy's room and to my house whenever you please. After I get you to my house, I'm going after the other member of our trio. His name's Jake Long, and it'll be a lot easier to explain when he's with us."
"Hold on. I'm not going anywhere without Howard." Randy protested.
"Yeah! The Ninja's my best friend, and he's fighting with me." Howard added. "Or, at the very least, I'll provide important moral support. Yeah. Moral support.
Danny smiled. "That's not a problem. You can come with, Howard. I had figured on it. This badge takes as many people as who's touching who's holding onto it. So just hold on tight and we'll be off. I'll bring you both back here at around six. We'll have our first meeting on how to beat the enemy. Are either of you in?"
"We're in!" both boys exclaimed without a second thought, giddily grinning and bouncing. Randy headed for the door.
"I'll be right back," he said, "just gonna tell my mom we're going out." He headed out and was back within a few moments. Randy and Howard stood side-by-side, looking at Danny in anticipation. Danny rolled a hand over the badge and looked back up to them.
"Hold on tight." They grabbed onto him and Danny concentrated and rubbed his thumb over the badge. Both boys gasped as the light engulfed them, and within seconds it faded and they were in Danny's room. Sam and Tucker were sitting on the bed, and they both grinned when the three came into view.
"You got the Ninja! Good job," Tucker said, tapping on a laptop with adventure logs. Then he scrutinized Howard. "and you brought with you...?"
"Howard. My name's Howard Weinerman." he said proudly. Tucker nodded.
"Okay. I'm assuming you're friends with Randy and part of his little superhero crew, like Sam and I are with Danny." He typed the information up. Sam stood up.
"Did you explain to them about your secret? I would guess so. You're in human form." she said. She then glared icily at Randy and Howard, who were surprised and backed up from her stare. "Let me make something crystal clear. If either you ever breathe a word of Danny's identity to anyone, I'll-"
"Relax, Sam, he's explained everything. Even his undying love for you, which we also will not share." Randy said. Danny and Sam both gasped and turned bright crimson.
"That's a lie! I told them nothing of the...the sort!" Danny snapped.
"I know! Because...we're not a couple! Or lovebirds!" Sam furthered. The ninja and his friend, both done with their mission of embarrassment, took a seat on the bed. With that, they ignored Sam and Danny's mortified glares. Howard whistled as he took in the room.
"You're a space nut, Phantom?"
"That's bruce." Randy complimented. That earned them a strange look from the others.
"Who's Bruce?" Tucker asked. Randy shook his head.
"No, no, bruce is what we say when something's cool. Like...the Ninja is so honkin' bruce, for example." he explained. Danny scoffed.
"I heard your lingo at your place. No idea where you picked it up, but I guess if you're happy..." he trailed off. Howard frowned.
"Okay, so we've got a ninja and a ghost boy in the same room, and our lingo's the weird thing? What the juice?"
By now the three had just given up and Sam turned back to Danny. "Anyways, you better go get the American Dragon. Tucker and I will explain everything to Randy and Howard about Jake Long while you're off."
"Gotcha. Here, give this to them while I'm gone." Danny handed Sam the badge and took out the other Chinese dragon badge. With another flash he was gone, and Sam handed the object to Randy. He and his friend gave the item a fascinated stare.
"So..." Howard started.
"Honkin'..." Randy continued.
"Bruce!" They both shouted.