Welcome to my first Fanfic. Well, it ain't actually my first but it's the first one I've felt confident enough to actually post!

At the end of each chapter I'll be putting 'Moonbay's end of chapter notes' which is just a short chapter of notes about the characters I've added to this story. If you don't want to read them, that's fine by me. It'll just be there to help explain why some characters are as they are, such as the story behind their names or appearances.

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Full Summary

For centuries a war has been continuously waged between Ghosts and Dragons but, thanks to the whole 'Dragons are a Myth' thing it's remained secret… until now. When Danny Fenton and his friends, Sam and Tucker investigate what appears to be yet another Ghost attack but, instead, come face to face with a real live Dragon, the truth begins to reveal itself. Worse still, a single Dragon has set Danny as his target and seems intent on waging his own war on the Ghost-boy. It's up to Danny, Sam and Tucker to put a stop to this increasingly dangerous all out street-brawl - and shake off the unwanted attention - before someone gets seriously hurt.

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Legally disclaimer stuff

I don't own Danny Phantom or any of the Danny Phantom characters, much as I, like many others, would like to (Well it would eliminate the need for this disclaimer for one thing!) However the new characters e.g. Perona and the dragons, do belong to me, so, no usage without permission 'kay?

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Dragons Don't Exist… Do They?

Chapter 1

Hi, I'm A Dragon… Get Over It!

It was early evening. Fourteen year old Danny Fenton was making his way home from the Movie Theatre with his two best friends - Tucker Foley, a smart boy with an affinity for technological gear, and Samantha (Sam) Manson, your typical Goth girl.

It was a warm evening, but Danny suddenly felt that unmistakeable shiver that he had become so accustomed to since the accident with his ghost-hunting parents' experiment in their laboratory. To begin with the experiment had failed, but Danny just couldn't resist taking a peek himself. The result had been a fully working 'Ghost portal' which provided access from the human world to the ghost world - more commonly known as the Ghost Zone.

However Danny was still in the machine when the portal activated and his DNA sequence was rewritten by spectral energy. Since then he'd been able to switch between his normal human form and his new ghost one, though not always voluntarily!

This cold shiver was also a ghost power, and it alerted him to the fact that a ghost (or ghosts) was near.

"Can't we have ONE night when there are NO ghosts causing trouble!" Danny exclaimed irately, as a far off flash seemed to indicate the potential threat was in the park.

"Be careful" Sam advised "whatever's going on over there looks a little more dangerous than usual" As if on cue, there was another flash, followed by the sound of breaking benches.

"We'll just hide behind a tree 'til you need us" Tucker joked cheerfully, holding out the 'Fenton Thermos' - an actual thermos redesigned by Danny's parents to capture and trap ghosts

"I thought we banned you from carrying that!" Danny stated, remembering the time Tucker had carelessly dropped the Fenton Thermos, releasing the ghosts Danny had spent all night capturing.

"Don't worry Danny… I'LL hold the Thermos!" Sam reassured, taking it from a sheepish looking Tucker.

"Right! I'm going ghost!" Danny yelled, using his, now trademark, catchphrase. His transformation from human to ghost took barely a second, his normal black hair and blue eyes changing to bright white and ghost green respectively. Oddly enough, his clothes also changed to a black jumpsuit - what he happened to be wearing at the time of the accident. Without hesitation Danny flew ahead to the park.

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What awaited him when he got there was not what he expected to see. Just as he reached the park he caught sight of two unknown ghosts fleeing the scene. The ghost-boy - known to many in the Ghost Zone as simply 'the Halfa' - hovered there for a couple of seconds not knowing quite what to make of this, when Sam's voice cut through his train of thought.

"DANNY, BEHIND YOU!"

Danny swung round to meet his attacker head on but was stopped in his tracks by the sight of a large green dragon flying right towards him. It was gliding down towards him, which explained why he hadn't heard it coming, since it hadn't needed to flap its wings. The dragon took full advantage of Danny's hesitance and smacked him out of the sky with one of its large scaly hands, sending the Halfa crashing back down to Earth.

"You're going back to the Ghost Zone!" Danny yelled, sending two ecto-blasts in the dragon's direction. The dragon was hit hard by this attack and held back, sizing up its opponent. Apparently it had underestimated this ghost's strength. "NOW SAM!"

Sam pulled the lid off the Fenton Thermos and pointed it toward the dragon. A bright bluish white beam shot out of the end. This beam is what catches the ghost and drags it into the thermos, but, when it hit the dragon, nothing happened. It just continued to hover there looking somewhat amused, then turned its attention back to Danny.

"You mean that's a REAL dragon!" Tucker exclaimed

"Don't be silly Tucker, everyone knows real dragons don't exist" Sam scoffed, replacing the thermos's cap.

"Tell that to Danny!" Tucker retorted as Danny was once again locked in battle with the green dragon. It seemed that the dragon had underestimated Danny again however, as it got smacked down to the ground from more of Danny's bright green blasts.

As it pulled itself back up to take the Halfa on again, it flicked its ears as though listening to something. The dragon then roared with frustration and bolted off into the trees, leaving the three very confused.

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The dragon hung its head in a very ashamed manner as it approached the boy standing in front of it. The boy had bluish/white hair, pale blue eyes and wore a black shirt and dark brown trousers with a black and red dragon emblem emblazed on his belt buckle. It was also obvious that this was no normal human boy. A bluish/white tail hung down behind him which ended in a distinctive diamond shape. It swished constantly, making his agitation obvious to the green dragon.

"What did you think you were doing, Shiar?" He asked the dragon irately, his voice giving away a slight, English accent.

"I'm sorry, Shadow. I got… carried away!" Shiar replied, transforming back to his own human-like form, except his hair, which was tied back in a pony tail, was green - a little lighter than the colour of his dragon form and his eyes were a striking tan colour, easily giving away his ancestry to anyone who saw him. He also possessed a tail, also green in colour, with a spade shaped end and wore a light brown hoody and slightly darker brown trousers.

"You shouldn't even have tried to fight him in the first place!" Shadow stated bluntly "I told you quite plainly "leave the Halfa to me!" but you just don't listen do you!"

"It won't happen again" Shiar said through gritted teeth. It was quite plain to see that these two dragons didn't get on. But Shadow was Shiar's 'Elder Dragon' despite being physically a couple of years younger, and he was distinctly more powerful. Shiar had no choice but to obey.

"You bet it won't happen again!" Shadow remarked "That had to be the most amusingly pathetic display of dragon/ghost conflict I've ever seen! I had the time of my life just watching you getting pummelled! I doubt you'd want to put yourself though that embarrassment again!" he chuckled. Shiar felt humiliated by this remark and kept back the tears by concentrating on his anger towards Shadow. "On a more serious note…" Shadow continued "you also made yourself known to humans! Now get out of here while I try to deal with this problem!" With that Shiar bolted off before Shadow changed his mind and walloped him.

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Shadow watched the boy run off to God-knows-where, with a slight hint of regret. He'd have been lying if he said he hadn't enjoyed humiliating Shiar, but he did wish it wasn't necessary. Shiar was strong willed and often got 'carried away' so showing him up was the only way to keep him from doing stupid things… theoretically anyway.

But going back to the topic at hand, Shadow watched the Halfa and the humans for a little bit more. This ghost-boy was a very interesting creature. Half human, half ghost… he had beaten Shiar in battle and Shiar was no weak dragon-chick. At least Shadow knew now that the Halfa would make a much more fun opponent than the usual pack of ghosts that floated around. As the dragon watched, the Halfa transformed back into his human form and left the park with his friends, and he continued to watch them until they rounded the corner, out of sight.

"I'm quite looking forward to fighting you, Halfa!" Shadow stated, to no-one but himself.

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Danny, Sam and Tucker's theories on what they had encountered in the park had remained inconclusive, and they had decided to call it quits, go home and see if anything else came up that could explain more.

Just as Danny walked through the front door a small explosion indicated his parents were busy… probably with another ghost hunting device, and Danny prayed they wouldn't try it out with him in the room. Maddie and Jack Fenton didn't know about their son's ghost powers, and, with their current attitude towards the spectral beings, he preferred it to stay that way!

His older sister, Jazz, was sitting on the sofa, reading a magazine, only looking up briefly to roll her eyes as yet another explosion could be heard. Danny sat down on the other end of the sofa and glanced over at her.

"Jazz?" he questioned "what do you know about dragons?" Jazz looked sceptically at him over the top of her magazine. That was a stupid question! He suddenly thought to himself, but it was too late now.

"Danny, I realise that, living in this house, you may very well end up trying to hunt ghosts one day…" It's a little late for that. Danny thought "but dragons are just a myth. You do realise that don't you? I mean it's bad enough when I tell people my parents hunt ghosts! Think of the public humiliation I'd get from telling people I also have a brother who hunts DRAGONS!"

"I'm NOT hunting dragons!" Danny retorted "I'm… doing an English assignment on Myths and Legends!" Not bad Daniel Fenton… now let's just hope she believes it! And why does she have to keep looking at me like that!

"Try the Internet!" Jazz suggested after a short time, then turned her attention back to her magazine. Danny breathed a sigh of relief then hurried up to his room.

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"You told Jazz about the dragon!" Sam almost yelled in alarm. It was the morning after the incident, and Danny was explaining what had transpired between him and Jazz whilst they were walking to their lockers at Casper High - the school they currently attended.

"I didn't tell Jazz about the dragon!" Danny retorted "I simply asked her what she knew about them, y'know, what stories she might have been told about them when she was younger!"

"And?" Tucker asked expectantly.

"She convinced herself I was trying to start up a dragon hunting service!" Danny replied sheepishly "then she suggested I try the Internet!"

"Well, while she suggested it, I actually did!" Sam stated "There's tons of stuff on them there! Unfortunately, since most people believe dragons don't really exist, I can't guarantee what's real and what's not!"

"Maybe that dragon wasn't real!" Tucker piped up "remember that ghost pendant Danny gave to Paulina that time, and it turned her into a ghost dragon?"

"Thanks for reminding me, Tuck!" Danny remarked "but we've already worked out that this dragon wasn't a ghost! If it was, the Fenton Thermos would've trapped it."

"The only thing we can do right now, is wait and see if it shows up again. Danny definitely had the upper hand last time" Sam pointed out "if the dragon hadn't have run off, we might have had a chance of finding out more about it. We should hang around the park again tonight, just in case"

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Shadow was starting to get a little concerned. For the first time in centuries the dragon/ghost conflict was beginning to spill into the human's world. Three humans had already been injured by falling debris from a building, caused by a Ghost knocking Echo - a young dark blue-scaled dragon into it. But, since it was night, as when all these battles took place, no-one had noticed the ghost and the small blue dragon slink off in different directions, their fight forgotten for the moment. Shadow could forgive Echo, she was ideally suited to fighting in stealth, and had scarpered off immediately after, but Shiar had challenged ghosts right in the middle of a common human gathering area and had been spotted by two humans. For now that wasn't such a bad thing as probably no-one would believe them if they tried to tell people about it, but too many people start popping up with sightings of their own and the dragon's secret would be out. So Shadow had begun patrolling to avoid any major upsets.

It was currently dusk. Night was when the dragons could see best and since that's also when most ghosts struck, it was a fair arrangement. Shadow walked downtown, his tail hidden under the cloak he was wearing so as not to alarm the humans still wandering around and silently willed the sun to set faster. It was still too bright for him to see clearly and he needed to keep watch. Also the later it was, the less likely it was for humans to be around.

A few hours later, the dragon felt it safe to complete his watch from the rooftops. No-one would see him up there in the dark. So far the only battle he had witnessed was Echo and Novena - a female albino dragon - competing in a fairly interesting tag-team fight against a couple of ghosts. This may have been a war, but that didn't mean the battlers couldn't spice up their fights!

Just when he thought nothing else might show up, Shadow was almost knocked off the roof by the down draft from the wing of a large dark brown dragon as it shot passed him, chasing a ghost down the street. Several humans looked up in confusion at the sudden wind, but they weren't fast enough to see anything… this time anyway!

Shadow hopped along the rooftops, following the direction the brown dragon had gone. He didn't recognise this dragon so he assumed it must have been from the other dragon community adjacent to his own, but that was no excuse for this careless behaviour.

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Danny shivered. A ghost may not have been what he was looking for but he couldn't let a loose one wander around. Signalling to Sam and Tucker he switched to his ghost form and headed out to where he sensed it to be. Sure enough, within a few minutes the spirit in question zoomed past. He screeched to a halt and flew back to face Danny.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST… BEWARE!" he yelled, then shot off in the direction he'd been heading in.

"Doesn't he ever stay in the Ghost Zone?" Danny mused, watching the hapless phantom disappearing over the horizon "oh well, better get after him" Just as he prepared to give chase, a low growl made him stop. Turning around, the Ghost-boy found himself looking into the eyes of a large, brown dragon. It gave him a long hard stare.

"You must be the Halfa!" he - at least its voice sounded male - stated

"You guys can talk!" Danny exclaimed. The dragon seemed a little taken aback by this exclamation.

"You didn't know?" he asked "I thought all ghosts knew dragons could talk…" his sentence was cut short by a shockwave to the face. Both Danny and the dragon followed the attack to its source and found the attacker to be a bluish/white-haired boy, who looked to be about fourteen - the same age as Danny - standing on the back of one the last surviving benches.

"There was always a chance he wouldn't know, idiot" he growled "he's the Halfa! If he lives with humans he won't know anything about the war, and, unless I'm very much mistaken, you're very far into my territory"

"Ah, so you're the lead dragon in this area!" the brown dragon stated "Shadow wasn't it?" Another shockwave hit his chest knocking him backwards.

"Get lost!" the boy threatened

With that the dragon took the hint and flew off, leaving Danny alone with the strange boy named Shadow.

"You know me?" Danny asked

"I know of you, all dragons do" Shadow replied "the Halfa - a human/ghost hybrid. None of us know how it's possible for such a hybrid to exist, but that doesn't exclude you."

"Exclude me? What from?"

"The century old war between ghosts and dragons"

"Wait, ghosts are already dead… how can this be a war!"

"You'd be surprised what a dragon can do. And if all else fails, we send them back to the Ghost Zone!"

"But if that's true…" Danny started, somewhat confused "then why did you just save me from that other dragon?"

"He's from two towns over" Shadow replied "shouldn't have been in this area in the first place. And you…" he added, with a sadistic kind of smirk "are my opponent!"

"What have you got against me?" Danny yelled, narrowly missing several electrical spheres launched by Shadow.

"I just explained that to you!" Shadow replied "You're a ghost, I'm a dragon. Do the Math!"

"I've never been one for Math!" Danny replied, cockily "But you said it yourself, I'm a Halfa! So I'm half human too!"

"I don't care if you're half insect! The fact that you have ghost in you qualifies you, so, sorry… you ain't getting out of it that easily!" Shadow removed his cloak and revealed a pair of black leathery wings. Danny marvelled at how Shadow managed to open those wings without ripping his shirt, but then, until yesterday, he hadn't even known dragons actually existed! There was no telling what they could do. Danny managed to successfully dodge three more spheres and attempted to evade the fourth one by becoming intangible. However instead of going through him as it should have done, it hit him square in the chest, knocking him out of the sky. Shadow landed about a metre away from the Ghost-boy.

"I did warn you" he said, tauntingly "I doubt you're going to want to try that trick again! It won't help you in this fight"

Danny's reply came in the form of a two-handed ecto blast. Shadow was caught off guard by this retaliation and, although he managed to guard himself in time to avoid any serious damage, he was still sent reeling backwards, the damage to the arm he had guarded with acting as a painful reminder not to be so overconfident in future.

"And I doubt you'll want to try that again…" Danny stated sarcastically "because that won't help you either!" Shadow growled, revealing a set of teeth that reminded Danny somewhat of a vampires, except a little shorter. The dragon then took off into the air again, with Danny in hot pursuit. The two of them continued to exchange attacks - mostly missing due to the speed and agility both possessed, but eventually Shadow was starting to get the edge on Danny. The Halfa launched a last-ditch attempt attack on the dragon which, invariably, missed and Danny realised with horror that his stray attack was heading straight towards Sam who, unluckily, had chosen this very moment to finally locate where Danny was. Shadow heard Danny's shocked cry of "SAM!" and followed his gaze. Then he darted towards Sam and placed himself between her and the oncoming attack just in time. The green blast hit the dragon square in the back, slamming him into the ground. Despite being immensely relieved that Sam hadn't been hurt by his rogue attack, Danny was still curious to know why Shadow had saved her.

He flew down towards them and was just about to ask, when the dragon pushed himself back up off the ground. Shadow glared at the ghost-boy with a look that warned him to keep his mouth shut, before taking off and fleeing the scene.

"Danny? Aren't you going to go after him?" Sam asked, as he landed next to her.

"No" Danny replied "I'm going to let him go for now… I have a hunch he'll be back! Where's Tucker?

"He was right behind me, but he dropped his PDA" Sam stated dryly "he just had to check it was okay before he took another step"

"Sounds like Tuck! Come on, let's go find him. I have some more info to add to our 'dragon hunting' file"

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Moonbay's end of chapter notes - CHAPTER 1:

- Shadow's Uniform: Shadow was originally created for a Zoids Fanfic, which at present time has a middle but no beginning or ending! And as such the Dragon emblem on his belt is in fact the Zoids Neo Zenebas Logo!

- Dragons can talk: Originally when I first started writing this story, the dragons in their dragon forms used thought-speak ala Animorphs. However when I attempted a manga-style comic I found it was much more fun trying to draw the dragons facial expressions whilst they were talking so I decided, what the hell and I dropped the idea in my fics too!

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Well, that's it for Chapter 1! Chapter 2 should be up within the next week or so!

If you have some spare time please review!