Hello again!

Here's another story I've been working on for a couple months now, and boy did I have fun writing it! I first got the idea commuting to school one day on public transport. It is unbeta'd, but once again, I've been working on it for months and have reread it and reworked parts multiple times, so it should be pretty good. So, as usual with all my stories, please let me know if you find any continuity or grammatical errors which passed my hypercritical eye.

I HIGHLY recommend cueing up your favorite workout music (EDM, rock, rap, dubstep... whatever floats your boat) after the designated point in the story (you will see an "A/N"). I even wanted to put together my own playlist for you, but alas, ain't nobody got time fo' dat...yet.

Enjoy!

General Notes:

"This is dialogue."

'This is thought.'

This and THIS and *this* are emphasis. The *this* emphasis is more along the lines of the snarky or sarcastic.

Takes place anytime post-"Urban Jungle" and pre-"Phantom Planet."

Obligatory disclaimer - Let's make a list of things I own:

1. Not Danny Phantom

Originally published: Saturday, February 17, 2018

MORNING COMMUTE

"Gooood morning, Amity Paaarrrk! The skies are clear today as we head into this beautiful, sun-kissed April 25th. It's not too hot, not too cold. I would just recommend bringing a light jacket because today that's all you'll need! Wishing you a *congenial* day, this is Lance Thunder, Action News. Back to you, Tiffany."

"Thank you, Lance! This morning, Amity Park Regional Transit is celebrating two months of successful integration of the new underground transport system into the urban expansion scheme. City officials from all over the Midwest are flying in today to meet with Mayor Masters and the director of public transportation…"

Danny gave the television a fleeting glance as he pranced energetically into the kitchen. Jazz sat at the kitchen table, half-eaten grapefruit in front of her, enraptured with the morning news. "Good morning, Jazz! Having breakfast with your boyfriend?" he teased.

She scoffed indignantly at her brother and stabbed at the fruit with her spoon. "Will you shut up? All I said was he has nice hair."

"Whatever you say, Mrs. Thunder." Danny sat down adjacent to her with a teasing grin on his face. Jazz rolled her eyes but didn't fail to notice how his uncharacteristically sunny disposition seemed to positively radiate rainbows.

"What are you so happy about?" Jazz asked between scoops of grapefruit.

"I *may* have left Boxy in the Thermos all night so I could finally get a good night's sleep," he suggested smugly. Jazz joined him in chuckling evilly. "Plus, I woke up on time and am totally ready for this day! I think I'll even be early to school!"

"Great! Everyone deserves a break every once in a while."

"I'll say."

Beginning his morning commute to school, Danny strolled happily down the street towards his meeting point with Sam and Tucker. He looked on as he passed a local park with children and parents milling everywhere. Some boys were getting higher and higher on the swings, while the teens at the neighboring skate park slid down the ramps and did tricks. Danny recognized one of them as Spike, one of the kids who Jazz had targeted — er, *helped* — with her therapy practice.

A particular child's cry from the playground caught his attention. She shouted to her father, "Piggyback ride, Daddy! Piggyback!" The man laughed and lifted her up onto his back. Danny smiled to himself as he observed the families' last minutes of freedom before the kids went to school and the parents to work.

Danny was soon within a couple blocks of where he would meet with his friends. Birds dancing through the air seemed to chirp in tune with each other as they dove around Danny while he walked. Everything was shaping up to be the most perfect day.

And then Danny's ghost sense went off.

He sighed defeatedly. 'Another part of my morning commute. Maybe it'll be an easy one. Yeah, quick and easy.'

"Good morning, whelp."

'Crap.'

Danny whirled around. He scanned for witnesses and, seeing none, transformed into Phantom.

"Wow, Skulker. You must have absolutely no afterlife if you just hunt me all the time. It's been at least a week since our last tousle, though. What happened, use up all your rockets?"

"Hey, even I need to restock." His suit opened to reveal almost every weapon he had. "Now, are you ready to finally be a-"

"If you say the words 'pelt' and 'wall' or 'bed,' I'm going to find a way to resurrect you just so I can kill you all over again."

Skulker scowled.

Danny scowled.

Skulker smirked.

"Let's dance."

(A/N:Begin playlist.)

At Skulker's words, Danny reached for the thermos on a strap across his torso, but Skulker summoned a gun to his hand and began shooting before the boy could uncap it. Phantom leapt gracefully into the air and looped up and around backwards, throwing himself headfirst into Skulker's stomach. Danny phased them harmlessly through three blocks of buildings to disorient his foe. Between blocks two and three, they blasted past Sam and Tucker.

"Morning, guys! Don't wait up!"

Sam and Tucker could only stare stupefied.

Danny restored tangibility just outside the final building and slammed Skulker hard against a lamppost, causing it to fall over into the road and land on an approaching car's hood. The occupants, a mother and her two children, screamed as the vehicle stopped instantly and airbags deployed.

Danny looked up and saw the destruction. "Sorry!" he shouted. He sensed movement next to him and pressed his arm across Skulker's throat so he couldn't move. Instead of struggling, Skulker began to sniff.

"Do you smell…gas?" Skulker asked from beneath Danny's arm. Danny inhaled deeply and glanced back at the wrecked car with the family still inside. The fuel pump was spewing gasoline onto the ground, creating a puddle which was fast approaching the sparking lamp.

"No!"

Danny instantly released his grip on Skulker and bolted to the car. He flew into the cabin, grabbed the occupants, and pulled them intangibly out of the car to the safety of the sidewalk. The instant he dropped them, he turned around and formed a shield over the car.

The spilled fuel ignited one millisecond later.

The resulting explosion strained the green dome and made Danny grunt under the effort, but he held it until the flames subsided. He dropped the shield, and a small mushroom cloud of dense black smoke rose into the sky.

Panting, Danny turned to the disheveled family. "I'm really sorry about your ca-"

Skulker interrupted the apology by grabbing Danny's throat and dangling him off the ground. Danny roughly pulled at his aggressor's hand. "Now that the civilians are happy and healthy…"

"I don't think I'd call them…happy," Danny croaked. His eyes flashed a glacial blue as ice crept up Skulker's arm. Within seconds, the entire mechanical body was frozen solid, his face solidified into one of shock. Danny finally managed to pry the fingers loose and he dropped to the ground coughing. A shattering noise made him look up from his kneeling position.

Skulker had broken out of the ice and held a familiar taser in his hand.

A gasp.

"Maximus…"

Danny sped out of there, zooming down the street just above morning rush hour. He attempted to evade Skulker but to no avail. So, Danny went invisible and phased into the back of an unsuspecting, jet black Maybach limousine. He landed more abruptly than intended, and the jolt made Danny lose concentration and become visible again, much to the surprise of the passenger inside.

"Daniel?! What are you-"

"Just shut up and drive, Vlad!" he interrupted. Masters glared, but before he could respond, a laser cut through the perimeter of the ceiling of the car, and the whole roof peeled back like a sardine tin. Skulker smiled evilly down at Danny.

Before making eye contact with the owner of the car.

"Skulker, WHAT is the meaning of this?!" Vlad demanded.

"S-s-sorry, boss!" Without looking away from Vlad, he shot a mechanical grip out of his arm at Danny and pulled him into the air out of the car. Danny looked at Vlad's angry yet confused expression as he was pulled away from the decapitated limousine.

Skulker whipped his arm above him and slingshot Danny far into the air. "This fight will end now, ghost child!" he shouted after the boy. Danny, in a moment of fatigue, was unable to stop himself from slamming into the 30th floor of a newly opened skyscraper downtown. The impact cracked the pane of glass, and the injured hero began falling.

Fortunately, a window washer's platform was in use a couple floors below where he'd hit. The entire metal assembly rattled and bounced roughly against the building. The two panicked workers gripped the railings for their dear lives.

"Uhnt," Danny grunted, slightly unable to breathe from the pain. "Mornin', fellas. Don't mind me." He arched his back and pressed a fist against his aching lower spine. The sight of Skulker appearing above him made him groan.

"Getting tired, ghost boy?" Skulker barked.

"Hardly. This is just a morning workout," he sneered in reply.

"How about some cardio then?"

Skulker produced a laser and swiftly severed through one of the support cables for the platform and the workers' harnesses, also shattering a few windows of the adjacent office where the inhabitants screamed in terror. As glass fragments rained down around them and danced in the sunlight, the platform swung from underneath the men and Phantom. The window washers shrieked, and Danny twisted around in midair to grab the men by the ankles before they could start to drop. The trio dipped slightly from the force, but Danny levitated them successfully. The platform then swung back towards them like a pendulum on its remaining wire, but the hero pulled up and tossed the workers into the now well-ventilated office before they could be struck.

Not a moment later, the only remaining cable snapped and the platform plummeted towards the ground below, smashing a few times against the face of the building. The boy hero shot after it, just succeeding in grasping the end of a wayward cable to stop its descent centimeters before the platform could flatten the unsuspecting public below. Their attention was instead transfixed on the emergency services zooming by in the direction of the smoke from the exploded car.

"Um, excuse me, everybody, would you mind moving?" Phantom asked timidly. The crowd of people finally looked up and yelped in surprise, murmuring their shock as they scattered from beneath him. Danny set the platform on the ground and landed next to it, grateful for the averted catastrophe.

"Thanks for making roo-"

Skulker cut him off with a launched net, gluing him to the window of the coffee shop at the base of the skyscraper. Danny was pressed flat against the glass facing in and he soon noticed two of his classmates, Star and Paulina, at a table inside. Star looked up at him from inside the shop, her gaze darting between Danny and Skulker behind him. 'You okay?' Star mouthed while Paulina sipped obliviously from her latte while browsing on her phone.

Danny rolled his eyes and managed a partial shrug, successfully communicating a cynical "What can you do" attitude to her. Star mirrored the gesture with an added shake of her head to show she understood completely.

Skulker interrupted the moment of relation by smashing Danny through the window. Amidst everyone's screams as the glass fragments finished settling, Danny heard the whine of a gun. He broke free of the rapidly disintegrating net and froze Skulker's nozzle with ice.

"Come on, Skulker. Paulina's latte is already hot; you don't need to warm it up for her."

"Phantom!" Paulina swooned.

"WHELP!" Skulker shouted angrily. He tossed aside the gun and raised a mini-rocket array on his left wrist. "Have fun with my new ecto-seekers." The launcher powered up and Danny's eyes widened.

"Haveanicedayeverybody!" Phantom hurriedly shouted and blasted out the window, napkins and wrappers flying everywhere in his sudden departure. The twenty small missiles launched and flew after him. Skulker lazily stepped over the frame of the shattered window to watch Danny fly away.

The boy hero shot straight up in the air and banked towards Amity Park's namesake. The rockets stayed forty feet behind on his tail no matter how Danny maneuvered. "Oh come on!" he complained and darted intangibly through the trees. A few rockets connected with the trunks and branches, exploding on impact, but nine remained in pursuit after Danny cleared the trees. Seeing no other option, Danny stopped almost instantly on the ground and threw up a domed shield. The remaining projectiles detonated harmlessly around its perimeter. Danny, relieved, dropped the shield so he could take in his surroundings. He was standing in the middle of the street.

"HA! Missed me!" he shouted to the heavens.

A massive ectoblast exploded on Danny, singing his suit and slamming the boy into the ground. The force of the blast caused the shattered ground to fracture in an almost perfect circle, cracks connecting the spots of damage from the previous attack. The patch of ground splintered and, with an unsettling groan, caved in. Danny's limp body fell with it and slammed onto the pile of rubble thirty feet below.

"…Ow…"

The dust slowly cleared, and Danny lay motionless staring up at the perfectly blue sky. The only sound was the morning breeze overhead, whistling as it danced around the hole above. For a moment, there was blissful silence.

SCRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Danny heard tires and brakes squeal overhead and jumped to his feet to prepare for whatever was happening. The nose of a rapidly slowing city bus peaked over the edge of the hole. It came to a stop, but not before the front axle had dropped past the border. The metal of the bus moaned as it settled into an uneasy equilibrium.

Danny exhaled shortly. "Whew. That was clo-"

Skulker landed heavily in front of him, crouching slightly from the impact. The dramatic downlighting and clouds of dust made him look more ominous than ever in whatever underground tunnel they had landed in. Skulker opened his mouth to speak, but the subsiding rumble distracted him. The pair, both in defensive fighting stances, looked up as rubble dust rained down on them.

With a tremendous metallic scream, the bus inched forward as equilibrium was lost. It sluggishly tipped downward into the hole.

"Crap!" Danny jumped up into the air and floated to face the bus. One of the panicking passengers made eye contact with Danny.

Spike.

'Skate park.'

An idea sparked in Danny's mind. His eyes glowed an arctic blue, and ice shot out of his hands to form a ramp for the bus to slide down. The vehicle slammed into Danny, but he slowed it so it could glide down the ice and come to a gentle stop.

"Excellent save, ghost child," Skulker snarled as he climbed onto the ice. "I think another digit was just added to your value."

"Sorry, this person is not for sale. Maybe try the 18th century?"

Danny charged his fist with an ectoblast and punched Skulker up through the hole in the ground. He then sealed the opening with more ice so no more vehicles would fall into it.

Danny took a moment to breathe and take in the conditions of the tunnel. It was cavernous with an arched concrete ceiling. The harsh light from the opening and dust-filled air made it difficult to see into the shadows. A large pile of concrete, dirt, and asphalt filled one half of it. In the subdued lighting, he could just make out thick, severed wires dangling under the hole. Danny held up a small ball of ectoplasm as a flashlight and read the labels.

TELECOM

SENSORS

A soft whisper of a breeze caught Danny's attention. A change in pressure in the tunnel gradually became apparent to him followed by a distant eery screech. The sound began to echo hauntingly through the tunnel. Danny looked around for the source of the noise. It jumped to a louder pitch and became traceable, so he looked down.

Rails.

Danny's eyes darted up as his jaw dropped. The tracks curved around a sharp corner. A light source was rapidly approaching.

"Dangit!" Danny flew around the corner and spotted one of the new metro trains coming his way. He flew into the driver's cab and ordered as quickly as he could, "Excusemesirbutyouhavetostopthetrainnow!"

"Ghost kid?! Why should I? These people are on their way to work!" the stubborn man retorted. Danny glared and broke through the door into the passenger cabin of the train. Fortunately, all the carriages were open to each other so a message could be delivered to everyone at once.

"EVERYBODY BRACE YOURSELVES!" Phantom shouted and pulled the emergency brake handle on the wall. The train lurched, and most people caught themselves. One girl, however, missed the grip bar and fell, but Danny caught her just before she hit the ground. The two made eye contact and froze in a position much like that at the end of a duet in a musical.

"Oh…hey, Val."

"Phantom?!" She wrestled free of his grip and fell the rest of the way to the floor. "What are you doing?!"

He rolled his eyes. "Sorry, I just thought the fine citizens on this train would enjoy not dying today." Danny looked up at everyone else on the train who were now staring at the pair. "Everyone good?"

A smattering of nods and "I'm okay"s replied.

"Uuuummm, ghost kid?"

Danny turned around and returned to the cab at the sound of the driver's shaky voice. Danny returned to the cab.

The train had stopped inches from the front of the bus.

"Thank you for saving us. Sorry I didn't listen," the driver apologized.

"Don't worry, I'm used to it," Danny replied, trying to hide his frustration.

"Oh, you might like to know there's another train coming in less than thirty seconds? Peak rush hour at this time in the morning, you know?"

"What?!" Danny turned in a panic to face the passengers now staring at him (or glaring, in Valerie's case). "Not another one!"

Phantom rocketed down the length of the train, turning intangible so he wouldn't collide with anybody. The next train was less than two hundred feet away around the next corner and not slowing down, oblivious to the situation thanks to the failure of the communications and sensor systems. Danny smacked against the glass like a bug and waved briefly at the driver he recognized as Mikey's mom.

The train had less than one hundred feet before impact. Danny concentrated, grunted, and oozed his intangibility onto the train. It was extremely close; the wave of intangibility traveled down the cars mere feet before that particular length would have hit the stationary subway train.

The doomed carriages now slid harmlessly into, or rather through, the previous train. To the intangible passengers and train, the rest of the world became mere aquamarine shadows of what their forms actually were with wisps of sickeningly thick smoke trailing behind, the exact way they were perceived by the tangible citizens of the first train. Two dimensions, two realities, two worlds sliding through each other, a physically impossible overlapping of matter was enough to send shivers down the occupants' spines.

Tangible and intangible passengers made eye contact with each other with shocked and horrified expressions on their faces. Though the second train passed safely through the first, the bus, and the subsequent debris pile, the air exchange made papers and hairdos fly around in a flurry. After the last of the train had cleared the rubble, Danny dropped the intangibility and collapsed into the cab.

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much, Mr. Phantom!" she exclaimed to the panting specter lying face-up on the floor.

"No…problem…" he managed to pant out. "I do this…all the time."

"Really?"

He paused to think. "…Maybe not this exactly…"

Mikey's mom chuckled to herself. "Is there anything else we need to do?" she inquired.

"Just go to the next station and give me a moment. Oh, and find a way to shut down the other trains on this line. Coms and sensors are down." He closed his eyes and felt briefly relaxed with the gentle rocking of the train while Mikey's mom sent a text to someone. "Boy, making an entire train jump dimensions sure takes a lot out of you."

"Is that what that was?!" she asked bewildered.

"Well, ghosts are from another dimension, right? So it only makes sense. That's why everything goes all blue-y and see-through. I think. I dunno, I'm not a scientist. Hey, you got the time?"

"Wow. Yeah, it's, uh, 7:32."

Danny did some quick math in his head as he figured how much more time he had until school. "Ok, I still have eighteen minutes till the bell…" he thought aloud.

"What bell?" she asked.

"…Not important."

Mikey's mom fell silent for a moment. Then…

"Um, excuse me, Mr. Phantom, but I think there's a robot in our way?"

"Great," Danny cheered drily. He stood up and looked out the window. Skulker floated at the far end of the platform from the approaching station. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

"Have a nice day, Mr. Phantom!"

Danny launched himself ahead of the train. "Don't you ever give up?!" he shouted as he passed by all the passengers waiting at the station. He grabbed Skulker around the waist and flew them up through an exhaust vent. They came above ground downtown in the financial district. He threw his mechanical foe into the metal paneling on a neighboring skyscraper. Phantom then hovered, fists glowing, above the sidewalk facing Skulker. "Do you know how many people you've endangered this morning?!" Danny roared.

"Anything to catch you, ghost child!" Skulker retorted. A massive rocket launcher raised out of Skulker's right shoulder. The missiles looked particularly intimidating as one of them electrified. "Bug, meet Zapper."

Danny's eyes widened. He braced himself as the first of the rockets shot towards him, crackling with green energy. The teen rocketed up into the sky and away from any buildings so any explosions wouldn't damage the city as well. Phantom then blasted the projectile with a ghost ray ten feet before it hit him.

"HA!" he shouted with a grin of accomplishment.

The smoke cleared, and Danny saw Skulker had followed him and was hovering just beyond the blast radius. Skulker smirked once again and made the remaining nine rockets all electrify and launch simultaneously.

"Oh, man…" Danny blasted off a quick succession of rays, destroying almost all of them. Almost being the keyword, as one flew past his head and barely zapped his ear. It didn't turn around and seek him, though, so Danny felt momentary relief.

The following boom didn't assault Danny's ears so much as his gut. He turned around, eyes as big as saucers, and saw a private jet in the distance with its left engine on fire and the entire body of the plane sparking with the same green energy that had danced around the rockets.

Fuming, he slowly turned around to face his adversary who simply floated there with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "What have you done?" Danny growled.

"I-"

Skulker's excuse was cut short by Danny's short burst of a ghostly wail which sent him flying towards the horizon.

Narrowly missing an approaching news helicopter, Danny frantically pursued the aircraft which was now rapidly losing altitude and speed. He caught up to it and flew abreast with the wing, surveying the damage: left engine down, flaps deploying and contracting erratically, the functioning engine on the opposite wing whining from the strain. The plane was wobbling to and fro, clearly struggling to remain level as it descended towards the city rather than the airport. Danny flew through the wall of the plane and landed in a cabin of screaming occupants wearing oxygen masks.

"Everybody calm down! It's going to be okay!" he bellowed. The screams turned to cheers. Danny smiled and ran to the cockpit.

"Guys, what's the situation?" he asked the pilot and copilot. The pilot turned and looked at who was asking the question. Despite their best efforts, the horizon line was wobbling erratically out the window. Danny gripped the back of the chairs for support so he wouldn't fall.

"Phantom, thank God!" the pilot grunted while fighting the controls. "Engine one is down, engine two is failing, electrical systems are glitchy, hydraulically assisted flaps are unresponsive, and I've got a plane full of city officials on their way to witness the wonders of public transport."

"Oh, snap. What's our current altitude?" Danny asked.

"Five thousand feet and dropping."

Danny looked out the window to follow the plane's trajectory into the distance. He thought aloud, "From this distance at that height, that should drop us down right in front of-" Danny gasped, a plan forming. "Radio ahead and have Hill Street evacuated for an emergency landing!"

"What?!" screamed the copilot. "We can't even lower the landing gear, and you want to drop us down in the middle of a city on purpose? Are you nuts?!"

"Just trust me! I'm from freaking Amity Park, alright? I know the area, it's the only street wide enough, and good luck redirecting us somewhere safer with no directional control! Now just do it!"

The pilot began to pass on Phantom's instructions over the radio. Danny continued to watch their trajectory from behind their seats. He saw something in their path growing larger and began to ask, "Hey, is that a-"

"HELICOPTER!" the copilot shouted and pointed out the window. Sure enough, a news helicopter was pointed towards the panic-ridden downtown, oblivious of the approaching plane. The plane's controls were virtually unresponsive, so the copilot began to shout a warning onto the radio. Before he could get four words out, the tip of the plane's wing clipped the tail rotor of the helicopter as it flew past, sending it into a downward spiral.

"Oh COME ON." Danny darted out the plane and backtracked to the helicopter. The entire tail was missing and its engine sputtering. He flew underneath and pressed his back up against its belly. He could hear the mystified cries of its occupants above.

Danny looked ahead and saw the plane continuing to careen out of control straight towards Hill Street. Suddenly, he was struck with a memory from earlier on that morning. He darted off with helicopter in tow. One of the reporters inside opened a door to shout down at him. "Phantom, what are you doing?!" she demanded.

"Getting you a piggyback ride!" he shouted in reply. Danny and the copter continued to race towards the plane, trying to stay out of its black trail of smoke. The reporter's eyes darted back and forth between Phantom and the distance and widened with understanding.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

"AFTER THE MORNING I'VE HAD," he screamed at the top of his lungs, "I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED!"

Danny dropped the helicopter onto the back of the plane and welded the landing skids in place with concentrated ectorays. The plane's nose suddenly pulled up from the change in aerodynamics. The right jet engine whined terribly before bursting into flames and smoking as heavily as the left. After applying a few layers of ice to the helicopter skids for good measure, Danny returned immediately to the cabin of the plane.

"Sir, I don't know what happened, but our handling is even more compromised and engine two is down!" the copilot was saying.

"That's probably because of the helicopter riding on our roof," Danny quipped.

"WHAT?! Are you crazy?!" the copilot screamed.

"Why does everyone keep asking that?!" he frustratedly replied. "Is everything ready?"

"Hill Street is clear. Are you ready, kid?" the pilot asked.

"Yessir."

"Okay. Let's do this."

Danny took deep breaths and nodded. "Okay." He raised through the ceiling of the cockpit and straddled the roof of the plane.

'One thousand feet…'

Danny fired a couple holes into the metal and gripped them to give him some control over the pitch.

'Five hundred feet…'

He grunted under the exertion, but the jet began to level off and point down the middle of the street. A beheaded black limousine power-slid from a side street and headed up the vacant street in their same direction, quickly overtaken by the aircrafts and ghost boy.

'Two hundred feet…'

The plane rocketed above the ice-sealed crater and its curious onlookers.

'One hundred…'

People stared out their windows as the plane whizzed past. Danny saw a crowd of people gathering in the distance.

'Fifty…'

The fuselage rippled under Danny as it smashed against the street. Asphalt flew everywhere as the plane dug in and began to slow down. The back started to fishtail, though, so in a panic, Danny duplicated himself and sent the other him to the back fin of the plane to get it under control. Plane, helicopter, boy, and boy copy continued to plow their way down the street, leveling anything in their path, but Danny kept it all straight and true as they slowed.

After a few frantic seconds of considerable deceleration, the plane finally collided with a tree in the median and bounced back slightly. The copter body broke free of its skids and slid ahead down the roof of the plane, nestling its nose in the tree's branches. Danny was thrown against the trunk, and his duplicate lost its hold on the tail and arced through the air over the plane, landing on and merging with the now unconscious original. The black hazmat had torn in places, but otherwise faired decently despite everything. For a tense moment, everyone held their breath as the metal of the aircraft popped while it settled. The right wing of the plane sluggishly split off and dropped to the ground.

It landed at the foot of the walkway leading to the steps of Casper High.

When peace had descended on the scene, passengers inside the plane stared at each other for a moment before stripping off their masks and looking out the windows. The pilot and copilot staggered out of the cockpit and leaned against the walls for support. Everyone collectively breathed a deep sigh of relief, a few tears shedding when everyone began embracing and celebrating their survival. Students who had been on their way to class gathered on the lawn adjacent to the road and murmured quietly amongst themselves when their eyes fell on the motionless hero bleeding ectoplasm from a head wound.

At the sound of emergency response sirens and approaching helicopters, Danny Phantom slowly stirred. Everything sounded muted and distant as he sat up against the tree breathing heavily, one knee partially bent. He grunted from the pain of the impact and couldn't quite manage to open his eyes. For a moment, Danny felt alone, the serenity calming him. All he'd wanted to do was go to school, but once again, a peaceful commute just hadn't been in the cards.

"Yeah, Phantom!" somebody shouted from his left. Danny jolted and his eyes shot open.

He stared into the pointed nose of an airplane parked perfectly in the middle of Hill Street.

He glanced over and saw the entire student body of Casper High gaping at him. Danny heard someone in the back exclaim, "He's alive! Well, alive-ish." Slowly, everybody started clapping and cheering. The occupants of the aircrafts poured out of the doors with only a few scrapes from the ordeal. Danny dropped his head back against the tree and closed his eyes again, trying to center himself after such an intense morning. In spite of everything, he smiled. 'Hey, at least I made it to school on time.'

At that moment, a ruined black Maybach screeched to a stop in the street behind the tree, an irate mayor literally climbing out of the back since the doors would no longer open. "What has that troublesome ghost child done this time?" he demanded. Danny jumped up into a defensive position.

"He saved us, Mr. Masters!" one of the officials shouted joyfully, causing Danny to falter.

"And us!" came a chorus of voices. Some citizens Danny recognized from the tunnel poured out of city buses trying to get them to their destinations after the averted catastrophes. Vlad grumbled to himself as he began making phone calls and seeing if everyone truly was okay, paying particular attention to the visiting officials.

"Mr. Phantom!" the reporter from the helicopter called as she dropped out of the tree.

"It's not my fault, I swear!" he burst out, eliciting a snicker from the gathered students. The visiting city officials and occupants of the helicopter gleefully congregated between Danny and the high schoolers.

"Of course not! We would just like to express our gratitude for saving our lives," the reporter answered. Everyone cheered their agreement. "I'm sure everyone would like to know: Do you have a statement regarding everything that's happened this morning?"

Cameras began to click and the murmuring hushed. The news helicopters gathered overhead, their downdrafts blowing hair and debris everywhere. A fleet of vans and live broadcasters bled into the crowd. It seemed half the population of Amity Park stood waiting eagerly for whatever Danny had to say.

He opened his mouth to reply, only to be interrupted by the charging of a nearby ecto weapon.

Danny, annoyed, held up an index finger to the fearful reporter. "Hold that thought." He swung around to face his foe.

"Will you yield to me now, ghost child?" Skulker growled. Phantom threw a disc-like ectoblast which severed Skulker's head from its body, eliciting yelps of surprise and scattered retching from the crowd. Everyone calmed down as Danny pulled Skulker's true form from its compartment and held it upside down by a leg, proving he hadn't actually decapitated a ghost in front of them.

"Apparently…no."

Danny pulled the Fenton Thermos from the strap across his torso and sucked a screaming Skulker into its containment. Capping it, he turned back to face the reporter.

"Yeah, might I recommend better reinforcement in subway tunnel construction?"

Everyone laughed, and some cheered.

BRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNG

Danny's eyes darted up to the clock at the top of the school.

7:46! He had four minutes to get to class!

"Uuuuhhhh, gotta go! Stay in school, everybody!" he shouted and blasted off into the air and out of sight. After a moment of stunned silence, Mr. Lancer emerged from the school.

"Gary Paulsen's Hatchet!" the vice principal exclaimed at the sight. "Everyone proceed to class at once such that the authorities may resolve this incident without further interruption!" The teens reluctantly turned to head inside.

Danny landed in a nearby alley and changed back to Fenton before sprinting full-speed to the school. After sliding across the hood of Vlad's limo in his haste, he darted between scattered police cars, eager reporters, and meandering paramedics. Danny then somersaulted over the tip of the wing and dashed up the steps into the school. Danny mentally begged for mercy as he skid to a stop outside the classroom door.

The late bell rang just as his hand touched the door handle of Mr. Lancer's homeroom.

Danny entered the room panting. His breathing hitched as phantom aches made themselves known with every step towards his assigned seat.

"Thank you for joining us, Mr. Fenton," Lancer said in annoyance. "Is it too much to ask you to at least endeavor to be on time for once?"

Danny sighed deeply and exchanged a pained, knowing glance with Sam before slumping in his seat.

"Apparently…yes."

END

I hope you enjoyed it! Please feel free to let me know what you thought in review or PM. I always welcome feedback, especially constructive! Besides, seeing review, favorite, message, and subscription alerts on my phone positively tickle me pink (alright, they sometimes make my eyes widen by an extra half-millimeter; but it is a half-millimeter spurred on by internal joy).

I hope you caught the Miss Congeniality reference! I love throwing in easter eggs in all my stories. (A/N added March 11, 2018: Hill Street is also a nod to horror classic House on Haunted Hill.)

And one final note: I am fully aware (and absolutely love) that Mr. Lancer shouts out only book titles as exclamations, but I couldn't find another classic novel about aviation that felt right when shouted. So, I chose Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. But just saying "Hatchet" didn't have the right rhythm when exclaimed in shock, so for this one instance, I had Lancer shout the author's name too because it flows better.