Portals

Seen

"So tell me again: how do you silence this thing?" Danny prodded the McPhone, hoping to stop the obnoxious music blasting out of it.

Howard nodded along with the tune. "Why silence it? It's the Whoopie World theme."

"Dude, we're in the middle of class."

The crazy teacher paused in front of him, the skeleton's arms swinging erratically as it skidded to a stop alongside her. "Danny, I hope you're going to put that away."

He blushed, then went back to trying to silence the McPhone, resorting to smashing his fist against the screen in hopes of breaking it. "I'm trying." Maybe he could turn his hand intangible and remove the battery. It sounded like a good idea.

Randy smiled at the teacher, then reached over Danny's arm and pressed a button on the side of the machine that Danny hadn't noticed. The annoying theme cut out, and Danny blushed harder. "Whoops."

The teacher sighed and dragged the skeleton away. The half-ghost shook his head and then shot a glare at Howard, who was still humming the tune. "Why are you two, of all people, the Ninja and company? I got my powers from my parents' lab, because they are ghost nuts, but what, did you just find the mask?"

Randy shrugged. "Kinda. It appeared in my room at the start of the year."

Danny stared at him. "So someone broke into your house, left you something that gives you superpowers, and you don't question it at all?"

"It's not like the suit's tried to hurt me or anything. Unless I do something stupid with it."

"Define stupid."

Randy shrugged. "Whatever breaks my sword."

"I don't know what that means, but whatever." Danny sighed and tries to listen to the presentation the teacher was giving about some sort of plant. It was nothing he hadn't heard before, especially when he tried to help his mother start a secret garden in the Emergency Op-Center.

"So who can tell me what pollen is?"

Danny rolled his eyes. Easy.

"Howard?"

The boy went rod-straight, eyes wide. "Uh... uh, cheese...."

Danny rubbed his nose and muttered "male reproductive system" behind his hand.

"Male production system," Howard barked.

The teacher raised an eyebrow before turning back to the chalkboard. "Right. Kind of."

The boy's cheat heaved as he glanced at Danny. "Thanks for that save."

"No problem." He sighed before rolling his pencil across the lab bench. "I can do anything except English."

The teacher had just put up a new diagram when the school wide PA system screeched to life.

"Monster alert. Monster alert. This is not a drill!"

The entire class stood up in a remarkably calm way and filed out the door. Danny fell into place behind Howard and peered over his shoulder to watch as pretty much the entire hallway did the same thing.

"This must happen pretty often."

"Oh, you have no idea."

Danny looked around. "Where'd Randy go?"

Howard glared at Danny. "He went to the bathroom."

"The bathroom? During—" he slapped himself on the forehead. "Oh. God, two weeks of going ghost whenever I feel like it really messed with my secret identity mode. Ah, and I promised I'd help him. I'll be right back."