I got this idea from watching Control Freaks the other day...

Full Summary: Alternate universe (AU) second season. After Control Freaks. After Sam stops Freakshow's control over Danny, there are some lasting effects. Danny's ghost form's eyes are now permanently red, but that isn't all. He's still the good guy, the hero, but now he's got a malevolent personality added in, making him somewhat of an 'anti-hero'. Despite this, Danny still uses his powers to stop evil ghosts and save people. But there's one more lasting effect; he got a power boost...

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom!

Note: In this AU, a whole year has passed in the events of Season 1. Danny has obviously fought ghosts in between episodes, so that easily works out...right:)

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An Alternate Route: Malevolent Spirits

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Prologue

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"It's either you or your friends, Danny...your decision." Sam said, loudly, but softly at the same time as she stared at the red-eyed, hypnotized Danny Phantom. Said ghost boy seemed to be having an internal struggle with himself. However, he could only watch in shock as two of Freakshow's 'minions' walked towards Sam. Sam gulped as she ended up on the edge of the train, right over a very tall bridge which was over a rather deep river, "I didn't mean that so literally!" She screamed as she fell off the ledge. The goth girl continued to scream as she fell.

Phantom stared after her quietly. Tucker shouted, "Sam! No!"

"...Sam...?" Phantom asked. His eyes widened in realization, "Sam!" His legs became one spectral whisp as he flew full speed towards the falling Sam. The ghost boy let go of the staff, letting it fall to the ground below. Not caring for the staff, Phantom flew down with his arms extended. The determined look on his face was accented by his glowing red eyes. Luckily, the ghost boy was able to fly at a really high speed, leaving a red spectral mist behind him as he flew down. The strange mist seemed to be showing that he was flying at a speed faster then almost light itself as he easily caught the goth girl.

The ghost boy slowed down the instant he caught Sam, and the red mist faded away at the same time he returned to a normal speed. Sam opened her eyes and looked down at the river below. This river led to the infamous Lake Eerie...the two e's being intentional.

Sam looked up at Phantom in surprise, "D-Danny?" His eyes were still a crimson red, but they didn't look...evil anymore, if that was possible.

"I'm so sorry, Sam. I-I don't know what came over me." Phantom bit his lip, "I did some bad things, didn't I?"

Sam smiled softly, "Nothing you can't fix." Phantom smiled back at her and was surprised when Sam pecked him on the cheek before grinning at him with a light blush on her cheeks, "Um...for luck." The ghost boy raised an eyebrow at her but accepted her explanation...for now. He flew the pair up onto the train and landed, kneeling down to put the goth girl down gently before standing up in determination.

Freakshow watched in fear as his 'minions' retained their wills, not that the staff's crystal was destroyed. All the ghosts, minus Lydia who wasn't there, but including Phantom, phased him into the train. Freakshow smiled nervously, "Um...when I called you 'minions'...it was, like...a term of endearment! Yes, like-like... 'I love my minions'!"

Phantom smirked, "'Minion' this, dude." Grinning evilly, the ghost boy shot a rather large green blast that knocked the stuff behind Freakshow onto the crazy ringmaster.

Freakshow remarked, "Well, that smarts."

Phantom turned to Freakshow's former slaves and said, "Ok...now, let's stay here and explain we were all controlled by an evil ringmaster!" The ghost stared at him blankly before phasing through the roof. Phantom sighed, "Figures." He phased through the roof just as the police and the ghost boy's (human) parents burst into the train. Freakshow sat up in time to see them before smiling innocently and waving.

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It had been exactly two days since the fateful 'Control Freaks' incident (as Tucker had dubbed it for some strange reason). Danny was still feeling guilty for almost killing Sam...and Tucker, of course, but he always added the techno-geek as an afterthought. Both the techno-geek and goth girl had forgiven him; he was under a spell, it hadn't been his fault! Still, Tucker had a bruise from the ecto-blast Danny had fired at him when Tucker attempted to 'high-five' the half-ghost. It wasn't a very big bruise, but it was fairly painful.

Not to mention Sam was a bit jumpy lately, which the half-ghost teen felt really, really, really, really, really, really guilty about...especially since he was starting to feel...different things about her, lately...

Anyway, Danny woke up on the second day since the whole incident on the train and found himself instantly thinking guilty thoughts about said events. Shaking his head, the half-ghost got up and went intangible to phase into his closet. Grabbing the t-shirt which a random goth guy had spray-painted black and a pair of his usual blue jeans, he quickly got dressed.

Checking his watch, his guess that he was late to school was actually correct. Danny ran out of his room and down the stairs. He called out, "I'm going to school! No time for breakfast! Not hungry anyways!" And the ghost-empowered teen ran out the door.

The ghost-powered teen ran into the nearest alley to transform. Danny's whole body flickered for a moment and two light blue rings fizzled into existence around his middle. The ectoplasmic rings split away from each other vertically; one moved up along his body while the other moved down simultaneously. As they passed over his body, the black t-shirt and blue jeans' molecules were swapped for the particles of a black and white hazmat suit. Danny's sparkling icy blue eyes were swapped for glowing crimson red ones, and his raven black hair was swapped for a snowy white. Average, ordinary Danny Fenton was now the amazing, infamous Danny Phantom.

Now in his ghost form, Phantom flew out of the alley. His legs became a ghostly tail behind him as he flew. He looked down at the street to see a police officer actually wave at him friendly-like. Phantom shyly waved back.

The day before, the three friends (Danny—in human form—, Sam, and Tucker) had been questioned about the events on the train, since they were found on it—Danny had been unable to fly them away since his powers had been a bit faulty after breaking free from the control of the staff...not to mention that new super-speed power seemed to take a good deal of energy. Anyway, the trio answered with the whole truth...except for Danny's secret, of course. They explained how the ghosts had been used by Freakshow to rob the banks and all that evil stuff, including Danny Phantom.

The paranoid townsfolk made the teenagers be attached to lie-detectors when they told this story. According to the detector, they weren't lying, so the town believed them, and 'Phantom' was forgiven. Heck, even Valerie Gray, or the 'Red Huntress', believed them; this was a very good thing for the half-ghost. Danny didn't want to have to deal with her; the truce between ghost boy and ghost huntress was still alive, luckily.

Phantom flew higher into the air and saw Casper High in the distance. He increased speed and found himself going faster then he had ever flown before. Phantom smiled as he reached the school in a good few minutes. He went both invisible and intangible and phased into the school. Seeing nobody in that hallway, he became visible and solid before landing on the ground. Two light blue rings formed at his waist and reverted him back into his human form—just as the bell rang.

'Good timing,' Danny thought as he casually walked through the crowd and towards his locker. His locker was right beside Sam's, which was rather lucky for him. (His last locker, the one near the band room, had been destroyed by Skulker the other day, which he was actually rather thankful for...he even went as far to let Skulker roam for a while in the human world as long as Phantom supervised him and that Skulker didn't attack said ghost boy.)

Speaking of the goth girl, she closed her locker in time to see Danny walking over. She smiled softly, "Hey."

"Hey." Danny responded before phasing his arm into his locker. He pulled out the books he needed and put them into his backpack. He asked, "Do you know where Tucker is?"

Sam shrugged, "I haven't seen him. I don't think he's feeling ok...why?"

"Just wondering..."

Sam looked into Danny's tired blue eyes and asked in concern, "Are you ok?" She tried to ignore the huge urge to kiss him...which was a rather strange urge. For some reason, the fact he had tried to kill her (while hypnotized, mind you) was...attractive...or maybe it was that 'how should I scare you' line he used...that had been pretty hot...Sam almost visibly blushed just thinking about these things—these devinantly weren't very 'goth'-like thoughts!

"No, not really." Danny sighed, breaking Sam from her thoughts. "Ever since...two days ago, I've been...really depressed. I'm still sorry for almost...you know, almost wasting you and everything." Danny winced slightly.

"Well, it's not like I answered when you asked, 'how should you scare me' or whatever." Sam smiled slightly flirtatiously. 'Great, why don't I just throw myself at him. Stupid, stupid, stupid...' She chastised herself.

Danny flushed in embarrassment, "Uh, right...well, there's some good news, at least. No ghosts have attacked since then. That's good, right?"

Sam, looking a little disappointed because the half-ghost didn't flirt back, replied with, "Yeah, I guess..." He still doesn't realize how much I lo—care about him.

Almost on cue, a swirl of blue smoke leaked out of Danny's mouth. This was his ghost sense, which warned him whenever a ghost or anything with ecto-energy was nearby—unless it was one of his parent's inventions, of course. There was a loud scream down the hallway and everyone began running in the opposite direction. Soon only Danny and Sam were left in the hall.

Danny struck a battle pose, "Goin' ghost!" Two light blue rings formed at his waist. One moved up and the other moved down. The large rings split into smaller ones that went down his arms and legs individually. Finally, one ring moved up his head and Danny was fully swapped for Phantom.

Phantom looked at Sam with a determined expression, "Thermos?"

Sam stared into Phantom's eyes in shock. Why were they still red? "Uh, D-Danny?" Come to think of it...they had been red after the staff was destroyed...I thought it would go away!

"What?" Phantom asked, his expression softening into a confused one. His eyes stayed red, however.

"Um...your eyes are still red..." Sam nervously answered. They don't look as evil...however that makes sense...

Phantom blinked and hovered over to his locker. He opened it quickly and looked into the mirror. He gasped in shock. His eyes were still red from being hypnotized! Was this just an after-effect? He shook his head after his ghost sense went off again. Phantom would worry about it later. Phantom spoke to Sam, "We'll figure that out later." He looked down the hallway in time to see the ghost.

It was a giant ghost bug, flying towards them at a high speed. Phantom clenched his fists and flew in front of Sam just as the ghost bug was about to collide with the goth. Phantom unleashed a flip kick that knocked the ghost flying through the roof. Phantom looked at Sam urgently, "Thermos, please!"

Sam nodded and pulled out the Fenton Thermos. She threw it at the ghost boy, who caught it with ease. The red-eyed Phantom waved and smiled a grateful smile before going intangible and flying through the roof.

Sam watched the ghost boy fly through the roof and muttered softly, "Please be ok..."

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It had been a week since the whole Freakshow thing. Life was easily returning to normal...or, as normal as it can get in the most haunted place in America.

A ghost wolf was running down the street at a high speed, shooting ecto-blasts from it's eyes, out of it's mouth, and sometimes out of it's paws. It suddenly jumped towards a random teenaged male, who screamed in fear. A green ecto-blast knocked the wolf flying off the teenager and Danny Phantom flew after it. The teenager, plus everyone else nearby, ran away from the right as ecto-blasts were thrown around.

Phantom unleashed a kick that knocked the ghost wolf onto it's back. The half-ghost pulled out the Fenton Thermos, dodged the wolf's claw, and quickly sucked the ghost into the Fenton Thermos; Phantom did so all in one swift movement. Satisfied with his victory, the half-ghost put the thermos back on his belt before flying off into the air (his legs fusing into a spectral tail behind him as he did so).

The crimson-eyed ghost boy put a finger on the Fenton Phone on his right ear and adjusted it so the microphone was in front of his mouth. The Fenton Phone's let him speak to either of his friends without needing to hold a cell-phone or anything, plus it filtered out spectral noise (minus half-ghosts). It worked like a cell-phone when it came to talking, since you could interrupt the person speaking, but it was able to let you talk to more then one person, or even more then two! It was really handy for all three members of Team Phantom to talk to each other.

Anyway, Phantom said into the microphone, "Hey, Sam; I caught that ghost wolf."

"That's good. Can you hurry to my place? I need to talk to you." Sam's voice sounded friendly enough.

"Sure. I'll be right there." Phantom responded before letting go of the Fenton Phone to concentrate a bit more on flying; the half-ghost put his arms out in front of him with his fists clenched. He continued to speak, "It must be private, or else you'd just talk now, right?"

No response for a moment, until, "Yeah, it's kinda private...anyway, I'll let you concentrate on flying, kay?"

"Kay." Phantom responded casually, before saying, "Bye."

"Bye." And the goth hung up.

Phantom quickly increased speed, not wanting to keep a pretty girl waiti—'Wait, "pretty girl"? Where did that come from!? Sam isn't...well, yeah, she is, but...I guess...' Phantom was so busy thinking that he wasn't able to go intangible in time when he noticed the mansion-like house in front of him.

"OFFFFF—!" Phantom moaned before backing up to observe the house. He was glad to see it was Sam's house. Forgetting the internal debate moments earlier, he flew to Sam's window. Knocking on it, he was surprised when he got an electric shock from touching the window! He hovered back from the window in surprise.

The window suddenly opened and Sam stuck her head out. The goth girl smiled apologetically, "Um...sorry...my parents had your parents install a ghost-prove window..."

"Oh, great." Phantom sighed. He felt a strange, but familiar, tingle in his left hand, the one he used to knock on the window. He watched in surprise as a light blue ecto-ring appeared and moved along his body—like it did in Mystery Meat and Fanning the Flames—reverting him human mid-air. Danny shouted in surprise and fell a few feet before quickly going ghost again. The red eyed ghost boy shook his head in confusion.

Sam gasped, "Danny! Are you ok!?" She looked panicked.

Phantom hovered up and quickly flew into the window, phasing through Sam to do so. He landed on the floor gently and shifted into human form. Danny said, "I guess my parent's anti-ghost things all make me change back now or something."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I should have told you before you touched the window, but I forgot." Sam apologetically smiled.

"That's ok. I'll just have to be more careful around here when I'm in my ghost form." Danny shrugged and brushed himself off.

Sam saw the tired look in his blue eyes and asked, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine...just a little tired..."

"Well, ok...anyway, I just wanted to talk to you about...something important." Sam nervously rubbed the back of her neck.

Danny stared and suddenly started guessing, "Are you moving away? Are you grounded for eternity? Did somebody die? Do you have a crush on me? Did the doctor say you're going to die in two months? Are you and Tucker in a big fight and refuse to forgive the other? Are you half-ghost now or something? Are you—?"

"Danny, enough!" Sam glared, slightly annoyed.

"—Sorry..." Danny muttered.

Sam sighed and replied, "None of your guesses were correct." She paused and blushed slightly, "I, ah...I've been...thinking lately...ever since that whole Freakshow thing..."

"Sam..." Danny began.

"Danny, sh." Sam placed a finger gently on Danny's lips. She continued softly, "When you were hypnotized...I realized that...this whole being a superhero thing...means I could possibly lose you someday, either to somebody hypnotizing you or...killing you." She flinched slightly, looked down, and sighed sadly, "I...I don't regret anything. I don't want to regret anything in the future. I don't want...to regret...not telling you...how I feel about you." She paused and looked up at Danny nervously.

"Sam...?" Danny breathed, staring at her quietly.

Sam shushed him again before hesitating. She bit her lip and opened her mouth, "I...I l...l...I lo..."

Danny suddenly smiled, "Here, let me." Sam didn't even have time to ask what he meant, let alone breath, because the half-ghost suddenly (gently) took her hands in his own and pulled her close...and into a kiss. The goth girl gasped softly into the kiss, but didn't hesitate—much—to kiss Danny back. Sam wrapped her arms around his neck and Danny let his hands rest on her waist. They stared like that for a moment before pulling way from each other, blushing. The half-ghost whispered, "I love you, too."

Sam's blush increased and she smiled softly, "...I love you, too...Danny Phantom." She smirked a bit smugly.

Phantom blinked and looked down at himself. He blinked, "I...went ghost?" He slapped himself in the forehead and smiled sheepishly, "Opps. Um...I should work on that." He quickly transformed back into his human form.

"Well..." Sam smiled mischievously, "we have a lot of time to practice." Before Danny could reply, she had already pulled him into another kiss. They simply ignored the fact Danny went ghost again...until he ended up phasing out and falling through the floor. Sam stared down in surprise until she heard his voice (which was able to be heard through walls if he was intangible) speak up.

"Uh, I'm ok!"

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"Oh...my...God."

Danny and Sam were holding hands the next day at school. Both of them had smiles on their faces as they walked down the hallway. Tucker was staring at them in shock. Said techno-geek was the one who had used God's name in vain.

"You two...how...when...wow." Tucker said, lamely.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Sam shrugged. Danny just smiled.

Tucker frowned, "But...how did this happen? I mean, don't get me wrong, you two were always lovebirds, but...I mean..."

"Hey, we weren't always lovebirds!" Danny said, looking annoyed, "I specifically remember a time when Sam wasn't our friend."

"Yeah...but you did have a crush on her."

"Tucker!" Danny hissed, eyes glowing red in both annoyance and urgency.

"Hey, your eyes—!" Tucker started.

"—Are red in ghost form, we know." Sam sighed, "We still haven't figured out why, though."

Danny added, seemingly forgetting Tucker's earlier remark, "We were hoping you would figure it out."

"Hm..." Tucker thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "I'm not sure...but...maybe a piece of that crystal wasn't destroyed and is linked to you? It's possible that it's keeping your eyes red and possibly effecting your personality."

"Come to think of it...you have been a little violent during fights." Sam said to Danny.

Danny shook his head and gave her a dry look, sarcastically remarking, "No, really? Was it the punching, kicking, or ecto-blasts that gave you that idea?"

"See, and you're sarcastic!...Wait, no, that's a general teenage thing...never mind." Tucker frowned.

Danny sighed and, looking defeated, spoke, "Well...I did get some pleasure crushing Freakshow with those crates...and when that ghost spider the other day was going to eat Sam, I almost destroyed it with that ecto-blast...and then there was that training course last week in the lab..." The image of the totally eradicated targets in his parent's lab came to mind. But then the not-destroyed one of his sister came to mind. "But I'm devinantly not evil. In fact, I've felt even less 'evil' since that whole thing. I haven't gotten angry at Jazz as much as I used to, I don't make fun of Lancer anymore, and I've gotten over Tucker revealing just moments ago that I had a crush on Sam before we were friends..."

Sam blushed, "Speaking of which...is that true?"

"Yeah." Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "But I was never sure why exactly I liked you. I thought I got over it after blaming it on hormones, but...then you became our friend and...then I got ghost powers and...that dance a year ago, the fake-out make-out, the Ember thing...my crush started to come back, and I was actually afraid of it." He paused and spoke seriously, "I don't want to ruin our friendship, Sam. That's why I'm going to be the best boyfriend you have, had, or ever will have...had...ever." Danny finished lamely, not sure about his grammar in the last sentence.

"Wow." Admitted Tucker, "I wonder if I made a speech like that, I could get a girl to like me?"

Sam ignored Tucker's remark and smiled at Danny, "Wow, I don't...I don't know what to say. Except...did you just say 'boyfriend'?" She raised an eyebrow.

Danny blushed, "Well, uh, what I meant to say, was, um—!"

"Never mind." Sam laughed before glancing at her watch casually, "Well, I better get to class. Seeya later." She walked off.

"Dude...you are my hero." Tucker praised Danny.

"Gee, thanks...how come you've never said that when I'm actually, you know, saving your life?"

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Just a rather long prologue an AU Season 2. A small amount of Danny 'angst' (for the lack of a better word; I know 'angst' means 'fear', but... :P). Oh, and that 'super-speed' thing that Danny did in the beginning flashback was what Pariah Dark did in the beginning of Reign Storm to easily catch up to Vlad's runaway duplicate...that move shall simply be known as 'super-speed' in the future. Oh, and notice that Phantom left a red mist just as Pariah did...

This story, like a few stories I have on this computer, will have chapters written like an episode of Danny Phantom (with the theme song after a short 'prologue' to the chapter), except there won't be a title card like there is for most of the stories I have in this format. There will be titles to the chapters, but I won't describe the title card for them. You can make one up in your mind after reading the chapter, though, if you want.

Oh, and the rating of this story is mainly effected by teenage hormones...especially Sam's.