Dear Danny,

I know things have been rough for you these past few weeks, but you're strong, and you can get over them. I'm already headed to college, so I won't be there for your first day of being a junior in high school. You're a bright, intelligent young man, and whatever happens, I'm always going to be there for you, no matter what the circumstances.

You'll never be alone, little brother. Sam, Tucker, and I all love you so much. I'm sorry I can't be there to see you smile when you walk with them into the school. But I know that you'll be okay; you've never failed yourself, even if you may think so.

Well, it's time for me to leave. Have a good year at Casper High, Danny. I'm sure you will do your best, and I look forward to seeing your face in the newspaper when you save the town once again. Remember: no one can stop you from doing what you believe is right.

I cannot describe in words how much I feel for you, little brother. But hopefully, these three can explain enough: I love you.

~Jazz, your big Sis

I snorted in disgust at the charming letter and crumbled the light blue piece of paper in my hand, squeezing it until it was nothing more than a small ball. I shot the unwanted love into the trash can stationed in the corner of my room as I kicked off my neon green converse and flung them onto the floor, ignoring the fact that it was messy enough.

I couldn't believe Jazz still thought I was that naïve, wimpy little brat I was when I was fourteen. She had completely ignored all the signs I had given her that I didn't want any of her stupid mushy shit anymore.

I rolled my eyes as I stood up, walking to my desk and stepping over the multiple bags of chips and cans of soda that littered the ground. I climbed into the welcoming embrace of my favorite place: the computer, and grinned as I opened up the google chrome window that shone the familiar dim light of the screen onto my face.

The mouse scrolled down as I picked from my bookmarked sites the one I visited most frequently, and the one that I also kept the most secretive. My little haven of gay pornography. It hadn't been until I was about fifteen when I had finally realized that girls just weren't my thing; I had tried dating my former gothic friend, Sam, but that turned out to just make things more awkward than they already were.

I had kept my little secret to myself, and no one knows about it except me; even Jazz, who never ceases to invade my personal space, isn't in on it. It gave me something to look forward to when I fell asleep at night, and it gave me the feeling that I was unique, even though most people thought it was wrong.

I had managed to not even let it slip into the school gossip, which was quite an accomplishment since those cheerleaders can find out almost anything about anyone. Which reminded me: the first day of school was tomorrow, and I still needed to go to the mall to pick out an outfit. Mom and Dad said they would let me go by myself if I promised not to spend over fifty bucks. Psh. Fuck them.

Instantly getting out of the mood at the idea of having to get up early in the morning and go into the crowded halls of Casper High, I turned off my laptop and sighed, putting my hands up to my forehead and rubbing my temples in a calming motion.

Nothing was like it used to be when I was fourteen; everything had changed, like some kind of alternate universe had merged with ours. After saving the world from the 'disasteroid', my life—er, half life—turned upside down. Sam had kissed me! At that moment, I thought things were going to turn out perfect, like in the story when the hero gets the girl and leads a wonderful life. Not quite.

I had always pretended to go along with Sam's little fantasy of being my boyfriend, but when she had kissed me, the sky had felt like it was falling down on me, as if some god were punishing me for something I didn't do.

That was the way it went for a few months; Sam bragging and showing me off to people who didn't care that we were together, and had more important things to think about. I was one of those people. Eventually, I had just cracked one day when we were watching a movie together at her house.

I knew that me 'dumping' her had broken her heart, but I really could care less about her girl problems and social status. I needed to worry about so many things that she couldn't even comprehend. Like, for instance, being half ghost and protecting the town of Amity Park, or making sure that I didn't get killed when Dash had a bad day and decided to take it out on me.

Girls were just so hard to understand…so complicated and confusing, like if you do one thing wrong, they hold a grudge against you forever. Sam had gotten mad at me when for Christmas I bought her a gothic leather glove, even though I thought she would love it. Turns out she threw it away because it was made of leather and it 'just wasn't fair to the poor animals'. God.

I rolled my eyes and once again got up, deciding to get ready to go to the mall and get the whole shopping ordeal over with before my parents got mad at me for not buying a new outfit. Taking a minute to stretch and crack my back—damn, that felt good—I couldn't help but wonder what the next day would be like. I had a strange gut feeling that it wasn't going to go well.

I ignored it and rummaged my hand around in my closet, finally settling on a black long sleeved tee with a white skull on it, accompanied by some ripped and rather worn blue jeans. I quickly ran a brush through my shaggy black and neon blue streaked hair, remembering when I had first gotten it done and grinning; I always loved the punk look.

After cleaning my two spiked ear studs, I slipped on some comfortable buckled combat boots and grabbed the Fenton Thermos, shoving it into the midnight black bag I always carried around.

I closed my eyes and felt relief wash over me as two common white rings passed over my body, sending a wave of cool, icy pleasure to shoot through my veins. As time went by, my ghost half had become more and more welcoming. It was as if there was something waiting for me; waiting for me to know that everything was a dream, and that the only way I would ever feel truly alive…was to be dead. With every month that passed, the ghost zone pulled me closer to its eerie confines, eager to make me experience the love that was death.

But it wasn't the time to be thinking about morbid things like that - I had a mall to get to. I became intangible, finding it easy to phase through the floor of my room and into my parents'. With absolutely no second thought, I floated over to my mom's dresser, opened the drawer that was closest to the top, and shuffled my hand around inside until I pulled out her wallet.

I took some twenties and stuffed them into my bag, placing the leather object back inside the dresser, and then grinning. It was always so funny to take things from my parents, because they would never suspect their 'loving, innocent' little Danny would ever dream of stealing from them. I supposed that keeping up the 'wonderful and honest' son act for such a long while had its benefits, such as having no one suspect me of plucking something from right under their noses.

I chuckled and shot out of the window, smirking as I felt the crisp fall wind push back my silver and black dyed hair. I had gotten bored of just the plain white, so I got Sam to give me some twilight streaks in my ghost half's hair, along with the electric blue ones in my human form's.

I sighed contently when I passed through a cloud, letting its slightly refreshing mist encase me in a blurry, cream-colored smoke. When I was once again blasted by the sun's bright light, I shook my head to clear the last of the wispy material and continued on, feeling lighter and happier than I had been the past few weeks.

Sometimes I just wanted to get away from it all; to act like everything was like it used to be, and that every day I would get to punch a ghost in the gut, then hang out with Sam and Tuck at the Nasty Burger without worrying that the Goth would ignore me. But of course, nothing in the world was that easy. As much as I hated to admit it, it was just like Jazz said: when you make decisions, you have to live with them, no matter what you really want to do.

I thought back and remembered what was probably the stupidest and worst decision in my entire life. It was when I stuffed Dan Phantom back inside the Fenton Thermos and left him with Clockwork. It was just beyond a blundering mistake; if I would have just let him get the explosion over with, maybe I could have convinced him to train me, or perhaps even take me on as an apprentice so that I could control my powers better. Even though Vlad had offered me that very same option when I met him, I sensed the obvious difference in power between Dan and the half ghost billionaire.

Yes, Vlad has had over twenty years to perfect his powers and put them to good—or, in his case, bad—use. I know he is quite strong, and I recall how intimidated I was by him whenever I would battle him, even though I never showed it. But compared to my alternate, evil self, he is a weak and pathetic excuse for a villain. Dan is a full ghost, and therefore retains the ability to continue to learn new abilities, unlike us hybrids that get to a certain point where their human half cannot contain the amount of skill it takes to hold them any longer. When you are a full ghost, things become much clearer because of the fact that you can never really die, contrary to popular belief.

And Dan is a great deal stronger than even the most famous of ghosts, despite what many people think. But of course, there's a reason for that. As I already know, human-ghost hybrids are the rarest among rare of specters, with only three in the history of the world. The first being Vlad, the second being myself, and the third being the clone Vlad created that was modeled after me, named Danielle, or Danni. Ever since the beginning of the summer, I've been researching hybrids and how their DNA is different from normal human and ghost DNA, and exactly what their limits are and how I can overcome them. Danielle was more than willing to let me take a blood sample from her, though Vlad's was a little more difficult to obtain. I eventually had to use a ghostly wail to knock him out and get a vial of blood, and it was a small amount. And then I took my own. I even managed to extract a few drops of Dan's ectoplasm from my suit, though it took more than a week to carefully put the cells, one by one, into blobs that were big enough to study; it reminded me of a jigsaw puzzle.

I compared all four of the samples to each other multiple times, and came to a startling conclusion. Because of the fact that there is both ectoplasm and human blood running in a hybrid's circulatory system, the heart is much stronger and able to take much, much more damage than a normal heart. In every single cell running through a hybrid's body, the wall is multiplied more than ten times thicker, causing the cells themselves to take lethal doses of drugs, alcohol, poison, or physical damage that an average human would die from, and make it little more than a small sting.

That being said, a hybrid will exist almost for fifteen times longer than a human, and more than ten times longer than a normal ghost. Yes, ghosts do eventually perish. Every time they attack, or obtain an injury, they use up some of the ectoplasm in their body; when it is gone, they are reduced to a pile of ash. But hybrids have blood as well as ectoplasm, so our attacks are even more powerful and do not use up as much energy or stamina. And even though Dan got rid of his human half a long time ago he had already mastered his powers, and therefore still has all of the abilities that hybrids have, though he is a full ghost. That is why Dan is underestimated by almost all ghosts. I'm sure that if he wanted, he could break out of the Thermos anytime. But that's what I admire about him; his self-control. He knows that if he breaks free, Clockwork will just alter the time line so that no harm will come to the human world; in other words, Dan would just end up back in the Thermos. He is able to free himself...

He's just waiting for the right time.

"Ugh…" I groaned as I felt an incoming headache; I put a hand to my head and frowned when a dull pounding thumped against my glove.

'I must have been thinking too hard…man, I really am dim…' I thought steamily, my already bad mood becoming even worse as I reflected on the rather idiotic mistakes in my short life. I may have been only sixteen, but dammit, it was hard to live happily when your parents are trying to murder you and you have to save the world almost every other week.

I sighed in frustration, my spectral tail twitching in annoyance, as I realized how very stupidly I had acted up until that point. I had actually once believed that I could stop all ghosts from causing harm in the human world; what a laughable theory. There are hundreds of billions of ghosts in the ghost zone, and of course I can't be all around the world at one time, for even though I trained daily, I could only produce a couple hundred clones, and that's not even a thousandth of what I would need to halt all paranormal activity.

Even if I managed to split into that many clones—which is impossible—my powers and strengths would be divided by so much that I probably wouldn't be able to take even one ecto-blast before I got knocked out. I simply didn't understand why I used to be so…so….well, so dumb.

But as expected, I didn't learn all I knew in one night. It took me nearly two years of spying on Vlad when he was in his lab, stealing his notes and papers, and exploring and taking data from the ghost zone to obtain this information. And I still have so much more I need to know if I am ever to become powerful enough to beat Clockwork and release Dan, because there's no way in hell that that old coot would let me take him away without a fight. Some shit about it 'not being the right way to handle the time and space that controls the alternate worlds'. Or something like that, anyways.

Then again, I did have some information on Clockwork that would eventually make up for my mistakes; through my...research...I found out that the master of time has been hiding something pretty damn powerful; well, besides Dan, anyways. Turns out that Clockwork created some kind of collar that can latch onto a human, and the ghost that owns the collar can will the human to do whatever he wants. I'm sure there was a catch to this fact, but whatever. I didn't really know what made that collar work, but I knew that I wanted it. And as everyone is aware of, what I want, I get...or else.

As I flew, an idea slowly made its way into my brain. One last day of summer break; why not end it with a bang? I wanted that collar, and I could get it, seeing as how it would be easy to slip into the ghost portal while it was dark. No one would find out...and if they did...well, hehe, they would regret it not long after. All it would take was a little patience, timing, and stealth; nothing too complicated for me. After my trip to the mall, just wait for nightfall, slide into the ghost zone, steal the collar from Clockwork, and end it. Perhaps I would even take the Thermos that Dan was in, just for the hell of it.

A yawn escaped my lips and my half-lidded eyes narrowed when I spotted the mall beneath me. The thing about the mall is that the only good place to transform was behind an old oak tree in front of the entrance. Right. In front. Of the frickin' entrance.

I shut my eyes and tried to become as intangible as I could, because as I had gotten more powers, my basic powers like invisibility, ecto-blasts, and weak shields were getting less easy to handle. Hoping to whatever entity that lived in the sky at that moment that I wouldn't be seen, I opened my eyes and shot downwards, dodging a few squawking gray doves and mocking birds as I made my way towards the tree.

Passing lightly through the gold and crimson autumn leaves, I landed silently on the crackly brownish grass and brushed my suit free of some remnants of a clingy cloud.

I once again smiled as white rings revealed my human half, and I absentmindedly ran some fingers through my streaked hair. I really did love that punk look; I guess I always did, but then again, I was never very bold. It took quite a while for Sam to convince me that I would look totally awesome, and I had to admit; I believed her.

Shifting the black bag that was over my shoulder and tightening my boots, I walked out from behind the fall-stricken oak and gazed upon the mall and its entirety. Because of the fact it was early evening on Sunday, I spotted many teens and girls and boys holding hands, and parents leading their children to and from their cars in the parking lot. Man, I was so lucky I could fly.

I chuckled and pushed myself up the steps that led to the main opening of the giant shopping complex, taking a second to look at my reflection in the glass of the doors and fix my hair a little before pushing them.

I was instantly blasted with an ambush of voices, booming music, footsteps, and the sounds of multiple cell phones beeping or emitting ring tones. I had to blink several times before the blurs of colors and mix of noises and voices registered in my mind. I really hated going to the mall; it was much too busy and full of people who had nothing better to do than walk around and buy things with money they probably didn't even earn themselves. Not that I was one to talk; I was the person who just stole over a hundred bucks from his own mother.

It took a few minutes for a clearing to finally appear and I took it, slipping in between a pudgy woman wearing much too tight of a blouse and a tall man wearing a business suit who had a cell phone to his ear. I ignored the fact that I had bumped right into the woman's rear and rolled my eyes as I continued on, pretending like I didn't hear the faint, "Perverted young man!"

Seriously, women were so vain. Almost as much as Vlad...almost.

I snickered and went on slipping and bending my way through the crowd of people that varied from hippies with rainbow peace headbands to teen girls with skin-tight spaghetti straps. Sometimes I wondered why the hell these people even bothered to take their time to drive here when they were just going to be bombarded by others who had done the same.

I shrugged to myself and breathed in relief as the hustle and bustle gradually thinned out when the wide expanse of the mall's main lobby came into view. It was basically a giant circle outlined with many popular stores, most of them being for teens and young people. The adults usually shopped on the other side of the mall, where Bells and K-mart and Sears were located; they could be so boring.

I immediately walked into the closest and one of my favorite stores: Hot Topic. God, I could live in that place. Whether it was my birthday, Christmas, or some stupid holiday that no one cared about, I always got something from Hot Topic; the things there were so...original. It gave me a sense that I was unique in my own special way...you know, besides the whole 'being half ghost' thing.

I stepped into the haven of black, neon, and metal, inhaling the sweet smell of midnight roses, which was the special perfume that they used to make the store seem more…well, awesome. I let my eyes skim over the vast jungle of t-shirts, converse, sour candy, and furry animal hats.

A long sleeved gray shirt with silver paint splatters all over it caught my eye, and I grinned as I saw that it was 50% off, which made it cost only nine bucks. I grabbed the shirt and threw it over my shoulder, along with a pair of torn black jeans with gold swirls coming up from the flared bottoms.

I also picked up some fried maggots—the cheddar flavor—and a black and purple belt that had 'B.A.D.' in Gothic lettering across the back of it. Smiling, I walked up to the counter and paid for my things, not at all minding that it was my mom's money I was buying them with.

Well, I had gotten a new outfit; time to go home.

::::::::

By the time I finally got back to FentonWorks it was already dark, and I could see stars beginning to peek out beneath the sheet of darkness that was the night sky. It was a new moon, which meant that ghosts weren't allowed to travel into the human world because of the fact that portals closed faster without the moon's power to hold them open. Walker had given me an exception, and it was that I wasn't able to use my ghost powers any time after midnight until five o' clock A.M. the next morning. That would give me enough time to go to Clockwork's tower and back, as long as I could find it without much difficulty.

Phasing back into my room, I set the new clothes on the bed and placed the extra change from the purchase in a box that I kept under my pillow; better safe than sorry, right?

My eyes flashed to the glowing red alarm clock sitting on the dresser. It was only 8:39...plenty room to make it home before midnight. I didn't bother changing, since I would have just slept in my clothes anyway, and quickly grabbed a specter deflector, a mini ecto-gun, and a bottle of a special concoction that my dad had just come up with. Apparently, there were supposed to be microscopic detectors inside of the liquid, and when they came in contact with ectoplasm, they were programmed to disintegrate it. Which basically meant that if I were to spray it at a ghost, they would be eaten away from the inside out. Wow, wouldn't that be a lovely sight.

With all my equipment packed away inside of my bag, I slung it over my shoulder and opened the door to my room, peeking out into the hallway and looking for any signs of life. I didn't have to worry about Jazz, since she was away at college, but hey, it never hurt to be careful. I put one foot out, hesitantly, and stepped out, ever so slowly making my way down the hall and the stairs.

I stopped in the kitchen, my eyes quickly adjusting to the growing darkness and the eerie outlines of the refrigerator and the various appliances spread out on the counter tops. I darted my eyes back and forth, reassuring myself that my parents were asleep, and silently walked down into the lab.

Green glows emanated from almost everything, inventions and beakers strewn across tables and the tiled floor and vials and test tubes filled with strange liquids and plasmas sitting on stools. In the back of the lab, a large and bulky contraption stood, its iron doors sealed shut and outlined in metallic yellow and black tape, stating that whoever dared touch it should be cautious. Beside it, a small pedestal protruded from the ground, a red button on the top with the white word 'ON' scrawled across it.

I smirked, floating over to the button and jabbing it in with my thumb. A creaking sound filled the previously noiseless air, the metal doors of the ghost portal parting and letting loose an almost blinding green, swirling window into the other dimension.

Without a second thought, I shot into the light, smiling as screeches and echoes of lost souls rang through my ears. I wordlessly dodged green blobs and weak blasts of ectoplasm, knowing that even if they hit me, no damage would be done; some ghosts just didn't know when to stop. I really hoped that Clockwork's tower would allow me to find it that night, because damn, I could possibly spend hours just wandering around, nowhere near my destination.

I flew left and right quickly, narrowly avoiding the chunks of oddly colored rocks and boulders that were floating around me. I was very thankful that none of my regular ghostly enemies had sensed me inside their territory yet; I could, of course, beat them to a bloody pulp, but they tended to be quite annoying sometimes, despite their obvious weakness. The only one of the local paranormal threats I admired was Skulker, mainly because of his persistence and determination to 'capture' me. Not like that would ever happen, though.

I rolled my eyes inwardly, remembering my first fight with the metal skeleton of a ghost. Man, he had seemed so dangerous back then; it was almost sad to see memories of being beaten fade away so easily. Ember, Desiree, Skulker, Technus, Freakshow, even the Box Ghost. They had all had some effect on my life, and I was slightly grateful for the challenges they had supplied me with. But of course, I would never hesitate to stuff any of them into the Fenton Thermos if they tried to attack me, memorable rivals or not.

My neon green eyes scanned the area, picking out any and all movement and swiftly eliminating it before something bad occurred; I knew I was being paranoid but hey, when there are billions of deadly ghosts surrounding you that you mostly can't see, you have a right to be sort of afraid!

There was no sign of Clockwork's Tower yet, just miles and miles of doors and empty space.

'Come on, Clocky, stop hiding from me...' I thought, blasting a piece of purple stone that had just happened to get in front of my path. I sighed as I flew along, wondering where the hell the time master was holed away this time. I knew he wasn't scared of me coming to find him; he wasn't scared of anything, despite people saying that everyone is afraid of something. I wasn't even sure that he knew I was looking for him. Well, technically, I wasn't searching for him, I was searching for the collar. But to get to the collar, I needed to find Clockwork.

I shook my head, annoyed at the fact that I wasn't able to locate my destination.

'It'll show up eventually...I just have to be patient...' I thought as I made my way across the vast expanse of swirls and doors.

"Where the fuck is that old coot!" I growled, but stopped short when a floating object caught my eye. I flew closer to it, examining the oddly shaped..uh...thing. It was circular, with a hole in the middle of it. Eight ends stuck out from it, reminding me of...a gear?

"Oh...duh!" I could have smacked myself. Quickly, I gazed around myself, stopping when a strange building came into vision. 'That's where he's hiding...' I thought, swiftly shooting towards Clockwork's tower. 'Time to get that collar...'