The Opening

This is my first actual story, and as I'm not exactly fluent in punctuation and grammar because I'm not technically old enough to be, please excuse a few possible mistakes in paragraphing, grammar and such. My writing style also varies quite noticeably throughout the text, as you may see. Now that the opening's out of the way, I'll give this Alternate Universe some much-needed context. This au takes place in Phantom Planet, when the ghosts surrounding Danny blast him, turning him into Danny Phantom. As you may notice, instead of being covered with ectoplasm, this time the substance seeps into his DNA. What if, instead of turning back into Danny Fenton, Danny realises he's been turned fully into a ghost. Not necessarily killed, but that is a possibility. Now, onto what you wanted to read instead of this boring introduction.

The Phantom Planet

Danny would've changed into his ghost form if he had the chance, but he didn't. He zapped that chance away a while ago, and all that remained of that opportunity was a single, silver-white streak in his black hair, and a faint glow to his now permanently blue eyes. Well, hopefully permanent. Danny was in that dreaded ghost dimension again, and surrounded by ghastly, green ghosts. He had been here time and time again before, but now he was here for a different reason. These ghosts had zapped him before too, but that was when he was in his ghost form.

Danny closed his eyes and a green ectoplasmic substance surrounded him. The ghosts were zapping him, and something was happening. His very DNA was covered in the green that seemed to seep into his veins. His molecules were being re-arranged in a different way than the portal incident, and his heart skipped a beat. Two beats. Five. Danny's heart wasn't beating. He was a ghost... again. Danny knew what he (slightly relectantly) had to do, and that was enlist their help.

The town was watching the skies for the ship's return, and that was what they got. In some way or another. The spaceship crashed into the side of the mountain, pieces flying every which way while green and grey smoke seeped out of the fried engine. Nobody was inside the wreckage. The Fentons cane together. "At least we're all together." Maddie, Jack and Jazz hugged close, until Jazz realised something. "Mom, Dad. I have to tell you something." Jazz pulled the wig off of the robot nearby who was posing as Danny. "But that means...!" A tear slipped down Maddie's face as she realised what this meant. Jazz turned her head towards the fallen jet, when a burst of green flashed through the sky.

It was the team of ghosts, lead by the ghost kid himself! They flew through the sky towards the machinery that would allow them to save both their worlds by making one intangible. "Ready, guys?" Yelled Danny. He hoped for the safety of both worlds. A chorus of "yeah" "sure!" and "why not?" sounded from the crowd behind him. The ghosts latched onto the metal machine and used their powers collectively. "How much longer do we have to do this?!" Yelled Danny to Tucker. "Not much longer." Came the reply. The world slowly gained intangibility as the meteor headed towards it. The very last mountain had barely just been made intangible when the meteor passed very harmlessly through the Earth. The planet and both worlds were saved!

Every last ghost floated upwards and through the portal, a few waving their goodbyes with a smile. Well, except for Danny, of course. He landed softly onto the ground and the crowd slowly walked towards him, grateful that their entire world had been saved. Sam, Jazz and Tucker ran towards Danny, ready to embrace him in a big hug. Everyone was safe! Maddie and Jack looked at the kid they had been trying to hunt for months, the kid who had saved them with the help of the other ghosts. "Great work, Danny." Phantom turned to see his parents smirking at him. "Or should we say, Danny." Danny lifted a hand up. "I, uh, don't know what you're talking about... citizen." Maddie knelt over. "It's okay. We know!" Danny turned to his family, his friends. Blue ringlets appeared around him and he was back. Almost.

A look of confusion spread across Danny's face. His eyes were still green, and his hair was white, though he had a streak of black in his hair he didn't see, and he was still a ghost. "Let's try that again." Maybe Danny had made a mistake. The blue ringlets appeared, but he didn't change back. "I can't change back!" Danny looked towards Jazz and his friends in alarm. Sam took a step forward. "Here, do it again." The blue circles surrounded him, and for a moment he was back, but he faded back to his ghost form. "Why is it doing that?" asked Sam to herself. Tucker and Jazz had come forward too amidst the slight panic. Jazz had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Danny, how did you get your powers back?" Danny's luminous eyes grew wide. "I was in the ghost dimension as planned, and then the ghosts zapped me, and I went all ghost, just like in the portal. But I can't go back now!" He squeezed his big sister, the one member of his family that hadn't tried to capture him in a thermos, in a tight hug. "I... I can't go back!"

The (Short) Realisation

Most people in the crowd had left for home, apart from most people in Danny's class, and Danny's family and best friends. A few whispers went around the crowd as Jazz, Tucker, Sam and Danny tried to figure out what was going on. 'What's wrong?' 'Is he, like, secretly human or something?' 'What are they trying to do?' and 'Can I have his autograph?' circulated around the students. 'And where's Danny Fenton?' Everyone turned to the person in the crowd who had asked that little question. Then, they looked, students squinting and gasping, towards Danny Phantom and most of the kids made the obvious connection. "Is he?" While everyone gasped and made the realisation, Danny was seated on the ground, close family and friends surrounding him. "What if-" Danny started, looking at the gaping people. "What if they didn't just restore my powers? Maybe they just..." He stopped. Tears dripped down the cheeks of Danny and the people he loved surrounding him as they came to that thought too. "They kill... turned you full ghost." murmured Jazz. Danny got up. "Well, I'm still going to protect everyone from the other ghosts. Even if I am one now." They all started towards the Fenton lab, Danny floating a few centimetres off the ground.

He would adjust. He had to.

The Questioning

It was still the long weekend, luckily, so the three heroes wouldn't be caught up with schoolwork while they tried to help Danny. The famous/infamous Fenton parents were working away at equipment that would catch specific ghosts, so as not to capture Danny, while Sam, Jazz, Tucker and Danny sat or stood on the floor in the basement next to the portal. They would've been at school, but since they had the Monday off as the teachers were still 'recovering', they were in the lab. Although he was a real ghost, Danny had eventually found a way to look as normal as possible, so the only physical differences were his eyes, skin and hair. "So, how do you think we should deal with... this?" Asked Danny to the group as he swept his hands over the faint glow of his slightly transparent body. Would he really get used to this? Sam started opening her mouth, only to be distracted by a ghost coming out of the portal. The simple green form grew in size, and Danny knew what to do. "I'm going ghost! Oh, yeah..." He shouted, before easily throwing it back into the portal. He closed the just-repaired portal and locked it, though that obviously wouldn't keep the ghosts away. While walking back, Danny noticed something as his hair fell into his eyes. There were hidden streaks of black underneath the mess his hair had become after the fight. He hadn't bothered to untangle it just yet, and hadn't noticed before.

"Does anyone have a mirror?" He asked, combing his transparent fingers through his hair subconsciously, before extending his palm towards Sam, who was reaching into her pocket. "Here, dude." Danny fixed his hair, and there it was. Amidst a sea of white was a current of black in the exact same place as the white streak when he was still alive. "Guys! I have a black streak in my hair!" He shouted excitedly, expecting but not getting huge recognition from his friends. "Cool." Said Tucker, bluntly. Danny rolled his eyes. "Do you not know what that means?" He questioned in disbelief. More deadpan expressions. "Guys, I still have a little bit of human left in me! I'm not completely dead!" This finally got the recognition he had hoped for. Even Jazz, who was occupied with studying some ectoplasm, turned around. "Whoa! That's awesome!" Smiled Sam. Danny wasn't finished yet. "And, that also means, if we happen to be able to make something to get my human side back, we still have evidence it was there in the first place!" Danny had subconsciously floated towards the ceiling and was now ecstatically somersaulting through the air. He might be human again!

It was time to go upstairs, and that meant it was time to face Danny's parents and their list of questions. "This is gonna be as hard as saving the world again." Remarked Danny as he teetered on the top step. When Jack and Madeline heard the sound of four (or rather, three and a bit) kids coming up the stairs, the sounds of drilling and hammering ground quickly to a halt. It... was... Question Time. Big Question Time. The four teens heard two adults scramble quietly to the kitchen and act as if they were there the whole time. Bracing themselves, the four heroes sat on the four readily pushed out chairs and waited. "So, Danny." Started Madeline, hesitantly. She had no idea what was coming. How did her son go from human to a white haired, powerful ghost? And how could he have hidden it so well? "Would you care to explain everything from the start?" Danny let out a breath and looked towards his expectant mother and astounded father. "Ok. How do I say this? A few months ago, Sam, Tucker and I went down to the lab." "Danny-boy, you know you weren't supposed to go down there while we thought the portal was active." Jack unclenched his fists. "I know, Dad, and I'm sorry. We went down there, and I put a suit on and looked inside the portal. The switch was on the inside, and I brushed my hand against the wall, and the next thing I knew, it zapped me- hard- and gave me ghost powers." Jack appeared satisfied, though Maddie was a little more asking. "That doesn't explain why you could change from black hair and blue eyes to glowing green eyes and hair whiter than your father's! (Sorry, Jack.)" Jazz looked to Danny and squeezed his hand for support.

"The portal only turned me half ghost, so I could change from Fenton to Phantom. I used my ghost powers to fight the ghosts coming from the portal, and until Master's Blasters came, I continued. Then I used the portal to change from half ghost to a tiny fraction of ghost, which is why my hair was white. And then we found out about that Ghost Asteroid thing, so we travelled to the ghost dimension. The ghosts turned on us, and most of us escaped," Danny looked to his faithful friends, "But I wasn't able to. The bad ghosts from the dimension used their ectoplasm blasts on me and I... uh..." Danny pursed his lips. He didn't really die... he was just forever, permanently a ghost. Who was a superhero. "Went full ghost. We saved the earth, with the expense of my, *ahem*, human half." The Ghost child sat back in his chair and studied the faces of his parents. The two people who had hunted him, said they'd destroy him, all while he was next to them. All he saw was care, worry, understanding. They weren't going to hunt Danny Phantom any more.

The Preparation

Danny had easily convinced his and his friends' parents that Tucker and Sam should sleep over at his house. Not because he was scared or wanted to be able to fight ghosts, but because he wanted to be ready. This was going to be just like those first months, wasn't it? Inexplicably floating, dropping everything, accidentally becoming intangible? Well, except for the fact that practically his entire class knew his previously well-guarded secret, including some notorious bullies. Danny, Sam, Tucker, and even Jazz knew that his secret would spread like wildfire at school. Danny breathed deeply. If he was too anxious, he would drop from his bed into the next storey down, which was not an ideal way to fall asleep. Danny heard a sigh from the mattress next to him. "Danny. I don't mean to be blunt, but get a grip. You survived a meteor hurdling towards the earth, three blasts messing with your literal DNA, and loads of near death moments. School is nothing." How did Sam know he was thinking about school?

"How'd you know what I was thinking?" "Dude, you were whispering that stuff practically in my ear." So he was. Danny shifted to the left of his mattress. "Sorry. I'm just... kind of weirded out, you know?" Danny closed his eyelids. He'd never noticed they were a little transparent too. "Yeah. I know." A faint rustling was heard to the left of Danny "Guys. I know this is weird for us all, but some people need sleep to live! Or be... uh... dead." "I guess we should go to sleep... goodnight, guys." Sighed Danny. He was glad he still got tired as a ghost, though much less than before, it still gave him a sense of humanity. It was the little things that had only changed a bit that comforted him. Things like sleep, food, water, even simply being seen, although most were almost unnecessary, had helped him get through the past two days of being a ghost.

School. Rumours. His Identity. His Secrets. Revealed. Danny thought quietly to himself while absentmindedly playing with a piece of buttered toast. Sam and Tucker were seated next to Danny. They had to go to class, too, but Jazz's year apparently didn't. "A meteor flew through the earth and we only get a day off school? What has this world come to?" Groaned Sam through her breakfast. Tucker swallowed a bit of burnt bacon. "I know! The school was almost obliterated and we get one sick day?" Sam and Tucker laughed, noticing Danny's untouched breakfast. "You okay, Danny? You've barely eaten your breakfast." Sam nudged Danny gently with her elbow, bringing Danny back from his thoughts.

"Oh... Breakfast. Yeah." Danny took a tentative bite and placed the toast onto his plate, standing up. Walking towards the sink, Danny turned to the table. "I'm just feeling a bit uneasy is all. My identity practically got revealed to the entire class, and anyone who didn't know will when Danny Phantom comes to class." The plate clattered softly in the sink, droplets splashing the floor a little. Danny pulled his backpack onto his shoulders and waited by the kitchen. 'Who knows what'll happen now...?' Thought Danny. For the first time, he wasn't worried about people being mean to him, thinking he was a loser. He was worried about them being scared... being invasive.

The Adjustments

Although the temperature was barely a little cold, Danny had a hood pulled over his head and sunglasses on. "You realise that makes you look more suspicious, right?" Tucker asked, not taking his eyes off of the hoodie. "Lots of people wear hoodies to school, Tuck." Retorted Danny, knowing himself the disguise wasn't working. "It isn't the hoodie. Your eyes are glowing through the sunglasses." There was a visible, bright green tint to Danny's anxious face. He took the glasses off and folded them, placing them roughly into his jean pocket. "I'm keeping the hood on." Sam came from behind, lugging her backpack in her hand. "Danny." She whispered, "You're invisible." Danny re-appeared in an instant, blushing red and pulling his hood tighter as he looked around to see if anyone noticed. Luckily, not many people took the scenic route, so nobody saw. But lots of people should've come very close to seeing. The trio came to a stop outside Casper High. The gates were much too quiet, even considering Jazz's absent classes.; Danny groaned. "Where is everyone? We're not late and class starts in half an hour." Noted Tucker, the only one with a watch to read. "That is strange." Danny remarked, suspiciously.

The school hallways seemed emptier than ever before, and it was so quiet that not only could you hear a pin drop, but it would seem as loud as a thousand pins. Sweat dripped down Danny's face, and he rolled up his sleeves. His disguise had worked so well, and he wasn't about to give it up by taking off the hoodie. As the throee best friends approached the far hallway, suddenly the sound of a pin dropping didn't seem like a possibility. It seemed like the hall was filled with excited, chanting students, but there was something odd about the way they were gathered. There were two crowds, one metre apart, forming a pathway to Danny's locker. In one swift motion, Danny turned a 180 on one heel. He gulped and stepped back around the corner, removing his hood. "I'm not going to my locker." He murmured, wiping his forehead. "Me neither. Not with that crowd." Whispered Tucker. Danny had his head turned to the side, listening. The students were shouting his name. "This is not good." Sam started, which was an obvious understatement.

The bell rang, and the students dispersed, still chanting. Danny, Sam and Tucker rushed into the classroom. While two thirds of their group were relatively calm, you could guess the third who wasn't. Danny made a tower of books, the smallest precariously balancing on its corner at the top, just to hide his face. He had always had a part of his subconscious that wanted popularity, but even that part of Danny was coming to terms with itself as his peers poured into the classroom. Sam barely had time to lean over and remind him that the books were a little much before class started. The teacher stalked in, back faced to the children. Wasting no time, he grabbed a piece of chalk and started scraping across the whiteboard, producing a terrible screech. Now, this was school.

"As it's a cold day, I'll turn the thermostat up." Said Mr Lancer in a monotonous voice, while turning the thermostat to 50 degrees Celsius. "So, today we'll be learning about lava, fire, heat, and volcanoes." Droned the teacher, still paying no attention to the hooded ghost in the centre of his vision. Having human characteristics like feeling heat was nice, but Danny was really regretting choosing an extra-warm, thermal, black hoodie as a makeshift disguise. The room was quickly heating up and Danny had the worst of it. "So, the magma fires up to temperatures way past boiling point, hotter than any human or creature can withstand comfortably. Then, white-hot ash spews from the volcano, creating a very... hot... temperature." Droned the teacher, boringly. Danny couldn't take it anymore! He had to get the hoodie off as quietly as possible, without creating a distraction. So naturally, he did the opposite.

Danny took his arms out of the sleeves of his hoodie, and then his head. As he tugged the hoodie off, his book tower clattered to the floor in seemingly slow motion, with a sound that seemed louder than any ghostly wail. The teacher turned towards Danny. Every student in the room moved their heads in the direction of the sound. "Oops." The ghost boy whispered. He put his hands behind his head and rested his elbows on the cluttered desk in a failed attempt to hide his bright white hair, his anxiousness only making his eyes grow unnaturally brighter. He bit his lip and picked up his books, one by one, from the floor. 'I've made a terrible mistake.' He thought, focusing on the chipped desk. If anyone didn't realise it was him then, they definitely would now.

Because Danny fell through his desk.

The (Mass) Realisation

What could be worse than phasing through your desk in front of the people you know? Phasing through the roof of the classroom below that desk in front of strangers, of course. Danny surveyed the classroom he phased into. This classroom was full of other freshmen, though he hadn't met them before. "Uh, sorry, just passing through." Apologised Danny through gritted teeth. And through the ceiling. And the floor of his classroom. And through his desk. If this was a 'normal' day at school, a few students would've laughed, maybe chucked some paper at him, but that would be all. Unfortunately for Danny, today was not normal. Today was his first day back as a ghost, so naturally, like most people do when they see a well-known superhero use their powers, cheers erupted and the classroom became a... well, anything but a classroom. Desks were flipped, students ran down the halls, and there were screams of "DANNY PHANTOM!" "There's that kid who saved the world!" "Sign my book!" "Sign my face!" "There is a literal ghost in the classroom." and, "EVERYONE! That Danny Phantom kid's in our class!"

Even the teachers thundered up and down staircases to meet the child with ghost powers, readying pens and paper for autographs and begging to see him in action. A very stressed Danny sunk lower in his chair, and looking to Sam and Tucker for approval, overshadowed the two of them and flew into a nearby cleaning cupboard. "Guys." He whispered in a barely audible tone. "I don't know how I'm going to cope with school now." The cleaning cupboard was ironically dark and dirty, which usually could stop anyone who wasn't a cleaner from going in. Unfortunately, the word 'usually' was in the sentence, and this was anything but the usual for the trio. They heard the stomping of students' and teachers' shoes coming down the storeys, and there wasn't a certain place to escape to without fans destroying it. As the first fleet of students raced down the hall, Danny calmly stepped through the closed door and sighed. He brushed his hands across his jeans and breathed deeply. These were only people who wanted to see him. They weren't threats.

As if the previous destruction and chaos hadn't happened, the excited people formed a line that went three storeys up before stopping, to the absolute confusion of Danny. He quietly cleared his throat. "So... Why is everyone following me?" He asked, defeated. Everyone shouted at once, though there was one key word: 'Autograph!'

Danny hurriedly signed slips of paper, books and assorted items to the surprise of his friends, who had peered out of the cupboard. Between signatures, Danny talked casually to his friends. "You're really going to sign three storeys' worth of autographs?" Asked Sam, incredulous. "I know it's dumb, but I don't get as tired as before, so I'll be fine." Danny reassured his friends. "It's just a few-" He paused. The ghosts had been reluctant to come back in the last few days, as some were recovering and others didn't want to fight someone who had helped them save their world. But that familiar sense of deep, bright, pure cold in Danny's chest rose through his body into his lungs, and his breath grew blue and foggy. "There's a ghost nearby." Danny handed the chewed, pink pen and sticky note back to the screaming fan, before grabbing hold of his friends hands and speeding intangibly out of the clogged school.

The First Full Phantom Fight

When Danny was half human, he would 'go ghost' and transform from Fenton to Phantom. But interestingly enough, although he was 99% ghost, he could transform, but all it really did was give him his trademark suit. As it wasn't exactly practical to fight ghosts in jeans and a t-shirt, Danny transformed in mid-air. "I'm going ghost." he uttered, a smirk on his face. Now, this was something he could deal with.

To Danny's utter surprise, as he floated down to the ground and scanned the area for ghosts, one familiar face happened to be smiling right down his neck. "Agh!" Danny let out a shriek of surprise and launched into a battle stance, ready to fight. "You're still trying to capture me?" Asked Danny, incredulous. "Still? What do you mean, still, ghost child?" Danny bit his lip. Any chance he had of still being able to pretend to be human in front of other ghosts had walked off and exploded into a million pieces. "I'm not exactly the 'Ghost Child' anymore." Vague, but confusing enough to make the ghostly collector pause, to see Danny launch a flying kick at the annoying collector and blast him with an icy cold ghostly wail, trapping him in a thermos. As Danny put the lid on with a soft 'click', placing it on a holster on his white belt, he realised something. "Wait, did that have ice in it?" Danny did a double take as he saw the perfect rings of ice and water on the floor where his attacker once stood. "I didn't even know you could do that...!" Remarked Sam. Danny simply replied, quietly, "Me neither." And they flew to school to sign the last few autographs.

As Danny finished signing the last item, the bell rang to signify the end of the school day; had they really been here that long? After the riot in the halls, a few people following the three friends really didn't seem like much, but Danny would much rather have his human appearance back, even if it meant he'd still be followed. As Danny, Sam and Tucker departed down different streets, the small following disappointedly dispersed. Danny was glad they weren't completely crazy and tried to follow him inside or something. Danny walked inside, closing the door behind him, and fell onto the couch from behind, backpack in hand. He groaned and fell asleep.

The Wanderer

As there weren't as many ghosts around now, Danny had taken to flying about the town at night and perching in trees and on flagpoles alike. With his human half shrunken to a single black streak in his hair, he could stay up longer and be less tired when he woke up. Plus, this gave him new knowledge on the town and easy shortcuts from place to- "Danny!" Danny fell off the street light and brushed himself off immediately. "Sam? Why are you still up?" Sam flicked her hair from her shoulders. "I could ask you the same thing." Danny flew up again, more careful not to slip off. "At least I have a good reason. I'm patrolling the town." "I'm on a midnight walk, and I know there haven't been many ghosts around lately." Danny swung from the shaky pole, covering the tip with thin, cracked ice. "Well, if I'm caught off guard, there'll barely be a town to protect." He dropped from the pole, barely landing a somersault. "Also I can't sleep..." He muttered inaudibly. "What?" "I can't sleep." He said louder.

Sam laughed. "You can't sleep? You're, like, the sleep master." Danny smirked a little, but otherwise gave no reaction. He hoisted himself up onto a shorter pole and brought a leg up into a relaxed position. "Yeah. It's just that so much has happened in the last few days. If this was a TV show, it would probably be the finale!" Danny chuckled coolly. "As if," he finished. "Well, keep doing alright, Danny. You've been handling this really well. Honestly." Sam threw him a smile and ducked around a dark, brick corner.

The Holidays

The next day, Danny and Tucker rounded the corner and made their way through the park near Sam's house. "So you really don't have to eat?" Danny glanced at Tucker's watch. "I mean, I don't think I have to. I've never seen another ghost eat, except that lunch lady." They walked up to the porch and knocked on the door. "Hi, Sam! Can we

come in?" No answer. "Hello-o? Sam?" Still nothing. Danny pulled out his phone and punched in Sam's number. It rang and a recorded message played. "You've reached the Mason residence! My parents and I are on vacation, so please just leave a message after the little beep." The tone sounded and Danny spoke into his phone. "Uh, hey, Sam. We're just checking up on you because you never told us about a holiday. See ya soon!" Danny switched the phone off and it was back in his pocket, ready for a reply. 'Sam kinda seemed a little too cheery in that message...' Thought Danny to himself. It was probably nothing.

School resumed relatively normal, though without Sam, school just didn't feel complete. It hadn't been him and Tuck for a long time, since they were about ten, in fact. Even on sick days Sam kept in contact. Danny knew he still wouldn't be welcomed into a house where his girlfriend's parents thought he was a troublemaker, so he didn't try to find that spare house key Sam hid somewhere. When she was back, she'd probably tell him about how her parents took her phone away or how she broke it on a plane. Even though he was reassured time and time again by Tucker and a group of fans who were sucking up to him, Danny still didn't feel right. It was like his ghost sense, but a little worse.

After classes and at Tucker's house, Danny sat backwards on a swivel chair while Tucker was lying on his bed. "I'm sure my parents are planning something. I bet it's a vacation or something!" said Tucker between the beeps of his video game. "What makes you think that?" Danny asked. "I keep hearing them whispering, and when I looked in the storage yesterday our suitcases were gone." Danny's hands turned intangible and he almost fell from the swinging chair. "Just make sure you call me when you get there, if you're right." Before Tucker could reply, he added, "I just think something's going on." Tucker sat up as his game crashed with a 'beep-boop'. "Sam hasn't really tried to contact us after all of our messages. It looks like she's read them." Tucker looked at his watch. 7:30. Danny saw the time too. "See you later, Danny" "Bye, Tucker!"

As Danny left the Foley house and started walking towards his house, he heard what sounded like "Free... cruise... four day... take care..." Coming from the doorway. Maybe Tucker would go on holiday. Danny waved to Tucker until he turned the corner. When Danny got to his house, he simply opened the door, shut it, and went to his room to unpack his backpack. Come to think of it, the backpack was feeling surprisingly light today. Danny sat on his bed. Almost as if it wasn't there. Danny reached behind his back, and unsurprisingly it wasn't hanging around.

When he got to Tucker's house, the door was a few inches ajar. 'Strange' Danny thought. It wasn't like Tucker's family to just leave the door open, especially near dark. 'Oh well.' He thought. Danny knocked, but let himself in. As best friends, Danny and Tucker were both allowed in the other's house whenever they wanted. Danny walked in and was about to say 'Hello!' when he noticed the terrible state of the room. Ectoplasm clung to the walls and there were signs of a small struggle. What in the world had happened in here? Danny tentatively walked in and surveyed the room. "Tucker?" Danny swung his head to the left, and saw a particular spot on the floor that was squeaky clean. A note was taped to the floor, addressed, 'Phantom'.

"Hello, Phantom.

By now, you would have realised what is going on. What a pity it was that you never came to visit your 'girlfriend's' house! What a pity; I had a surprise for you. Nevertheless, I want you at my mansion at midnight tonight. If you bring any help of any kind, you will regret it.

Sincerely,

V. Plasmius"

Danny gasped, then covered his mouth and turned invisible. If there was someone still there, they couldn't see him now that he was invisible and intangible. Danny picked up the now invisible note and tucked it into his pocket. He needed to find that evil halva Plasmius, and more importantly Tucker and Sam. Alive.

Danny made his way to the house as quick as he can. The note didn't say anything about notifying his parents or sister; just bringing them as extra muscle. Danny flew into the kitchen and taped his baking mother on the shoulder, still in his Phantom suit. She got a shiver and turned around. "GET BACK- Oh, hi sweetie!" She still had her oven mitts on and was now leaning on the kitchen bench. Jazz came from upstairs, saying "Guys, what's all the noise?" She saw Danny in his suit and asked, "Is everything alright, Danny?" Danny nodded. "I just need to tell you guys something really important later."

At 11:48 pm, the family say around the table with Danny at one end and Jazz, Maddie and Jack at the other. "So," Maddie inquired. "You're saying that Vlad is back in the mansion and has your friends? And you can't bring us to get them back?" "That's exactly what I'm saying. I also can't bring any weaponry, but I know I'll be safe." Jazz was still worried. "How do you know that? How will we know that?" "If I'm not back tomorrow night, I'm in trouble." He continued. "Especially if I'm acting weird." Jack hadn't been talking throughout the entire conversation which was unlike him. Well, he was eating a giant sub, which was very like him. Danny checked the clock, the big red letters flashing 11:56. "I need to go." He admitted, bringing his family into a group hug. "I'll see you by tomorrow night"

The Trapped Friends

Danny flew as quickly as he could to Vlad's mansion. He was in disbelief that, not only could he have flown back to Earth without anyone doing anything to him or his mansion, but that he had remained unseen while he kidnapped two children and probably their parents, too. What was really scary was that it had only been about twenty-five minutes between Danny going home and arriving at Tucker's house to retrieve his backpack. 'Aw, man.' Danny whispered to himself while invisibly flying. 'I forgot to even get my backpack. Well, I can't turn back now.' Danny eyed Vlad's villa through the pointed tops of the trimmed trees.

Danny flew in through the first storey; he couldn't check the other storeys because there was some sort of field. 'He doesn't want me to escape.' Muttered Danny, quietly. It was still too late; his friends were trapped and it was up to him to rescue them. "Danny." A voice boomed from the stairs in the centre of the room, startling Danny. "Let's get straight to the point. You want your friends, yes?" Danny didn't have time to reply before Plasmius spoke again. "Then I want something in return." Danny rolled his now glowing, electric green eyes. "And what's that?" He responded flatly, ready to fight. "Two strands of hair." Danny took a double take, confused as ever. "What?" Plasmius smiled a smile so sickly sweet and innocent it gave Danny cavities. "So, are you willing to save your friends for two simple strands of hair?" Danny gave a look and plucked out two hairs. "Are we done?" Plasmius smiled again, this time his eyebrows a little glowered. "Oh no... this won't do at all. See, I need it from both of your forms." This seemed so suspicious, yet Danny couldn't seem to figure out why. It was just on the tip of his tongue. "Sorry, but I can't do that." "Can't, or won't?" "I literally can't. You saw the-" Danny stopped. Of course he didn't know! He wasn't there when Danny became a full ghost. Danny didn't want to reveal that to Vlad; who knows how he would react. "Are we done here?" Vlad snapped, plucking one hair from Danny's head and throwing a box on the floor in one swift movement. "Ow! You could've taken these-" Danny gave a small help of pain as the box on the floor closed around him.

The box. It was familiar- he had been easily trapped in here before. This was the box crafted by Skulker that would trap him in his human form. Green electricity surrounded Danny and he floated off of the floor. Danny was freaked out as this hadn't happened before, but Vlad was visibly unfazed, barely flinching. "Must be a new model." He noted monotonously, clearly bored. More electricity surrounded Danny, but he knew it wouldn't work! There wasn't a bit of human left in him after the asteroid. Except there was. Danny's eyes grew wide as he saw blue rings surround his midriff and his hair turn black, his face stop glowing green, and his black suit change to a t-shirt and jeans. Danny, to the surprise of Vlad, smiled wide. "I'm human again! How- I-" Vlad plucked a single hair off of Danny's head and he winced. "I don't know why you're so amazed- and frankly I don't care- but I keep my promises. Your friends are waiting on the second storey. Go." With a flourish of his cape, Plasmius flew away in a puff of smoke, setting Danny back to his ghostly (and now disappointed) form.

Danny got up from his knees and flew up through the floor of the second storey and into a cell to the shock of Sam and Tucker. "Woah! Hey dude!" Greeted Tucker as he watched Danny phase through the cage and find a key. "Hi guys! You won't believe what just happened." Danny said as he unlocked the cell and let the two 'prisoners' out and flew them through the wall. He stopped. "What did he do to your parents?" Danny asked frantically. "Oh." said Sam as Danny returned to flying. "He set up a disguise and told them about a free cruise and offered to look after us." Danny snickered a little. "As you can see, they all believed him. They get back in about three days." Said Tucker. "And we can't tell them 'cause they'd probably ban us from hanging out with you..." They came to a stop in Danny's room and sat around. "What did Plasmius want anyway?" Asked Sam. Danny rubbed the back of his neck as if figuring something out. "Two strands of hair. Oh! And that's what I wanted to tell you guys. So, he wanted a hair from my ghost form and one from my human form, right?" Tucker and Sam nodded, confused. "But I thought you couldn't change back?" Mused Sam. Danny smiled. "That's the thing. I still had a bit of human left, so I was trapped in that fancy box, and I changed back!" "Danny, that's pretty awesome!" Danny suddenly stopped smiling. "Oh. I just realised why he wanted the hair." Sam got it too. "Hair has DNA in it." Tucker still didn't get it. "I think he wants to make another clone like Dani!" Danny groaned, "Again? It was weird enough the first times." And the three laughed a little. It was good to be back.

The Other Holidays

Tucker awoke to what sounded like somebody talking loudly through a pillow. He rubbed his head, saying "Who's- yawn- awake?" All Tucker saw were two blurry shapes near the window, and all he heard was the muffled talking growing louder and stopping. Tucker sighed and put on his glasses, only to see a blue face with black hair that came into two points, and a tanned face framed in white hair that was blowing in the breeze. A glow burst through the room, turning everything green. Tucker couldn't seem to compute what was happening, until finally he got it. His eyes adjusted to the scene and everything seemed to go in slow motion. Because it did. Green sparks flew and crackled as ice surrounded the walls with frost. Tucker got up as quickly as he could, but the glow faded as Danny and Vlad disappeared from sight, the two turning invisible. Sam woke up, small icicles breaking off of her face when she lifted her head from her pillow. The creepy slow-motion effect immediately stopped and the ice retracted, not leaving a single puddle of water. "T-Tucker? W-what just h-h-happened t-t-to Danny?" Sam asked, shivering although the frost was long gone. Tucker gazed at the sleeping bag next to him. A note with a shade of white that suggested at a glow billowed in a breeze that wasn't there. Tucker picked the note up and read aloud with Sam.

"Tucker and Samantha,

As you can so obviously see because you're reading this note, the tables have been turned. I have Phantom and you're left. You're not to tell anyone where Phantom, or soon to be Danny, is. He won't be purposely harmed and you'll wake up tomorrow with your friend returned.

Sincerely,

Vlad Plasmius

PS: Don't try escaping."

Being regular teenagers, of course the first thing Sam and Tucker did was try to escape. The windows were locked and iced over and the door was too, though it had never had a lock on it before. "We need a plan." Announced Sam worriedly as Tucker attempted to break some green, luminous ice on the door.

Danny had his head turned backwards the entire trip back to the mansion, and he would've been able to see Sam and Tucker if he wasn't asleep. His ghost sense had stopped going off once he saw Plasmius, but he was so tired from his ghostly energy being sapped in that terrible box that he fell right asleep. 'Too easy.' Muttered Vlad evilly. The look on his face was one that a crocodile might give you right before it leaps out of the billabong and eats you whole. It was much too dark to see, even with the ghostly luminescence of two halvas softly lighting up the tree tops. At 3:00 am, the only other light was the soft moon and the golden street-lamps, barely making the streets lighter.

Danny awoke in a large room, facing the cloaked back of Vlad Plasmius. He knew his powers had been drained, or he wouldn't be able to roam the room. He tried to teleport. He heard a sizzle and then nothing. Completely drained, for now. Danny felt his eyelids drooping and fought to stay awake as he heard the faint background noise of tinkling test tubes stop and a certain person turn around.

Meanwhile, Sam and Tucker had made a small crack in the ice that froze over the window. Tucker was using assorted sharp items to experiment with cracking the never melting ice, while Sam was looking around for any items that might have been affected by Danny's powers. She didn't know if she was looking for something invisible or glowing, hidden or obvious. "Do you really think Danny's safe?" Sam asked worriedly. She continued, "Vlad's obviously after something. Using DNA for clones? Kidnapping us and Danny?" Tucker nodded. "And that weird slow motion thing- I couldn't tell if that was Vlad or Danny doing it without my glasses on." Sam stopped searching and leaned on a desk. "I thought I was still dreaming when I saw that. You're positive?" Tucker stopped cracking the ice with an unopened dictionary. "Yeah! Maybe we're onto something." Sam cocked her head, contemplating the idea. "Unless," she reasoned, "It was Vlad. But I just have a feeling it wasn't him. Especially because of the ice." Tucker nodded in response and relaxed his shoulders.

Danny awoke at 8:30 on the dot with a pain in his arm. He squeezed it and, startled, jerked his hand back. It was so much... warmer than he was now used to. Danny opened his eyes to see he was still in the large room, only Vlad was sitting ever-so-casually with his legs crossed, on a chair, glasses on and reading a large book. He had turned from Plasmius to Masters. He hadn't noticed Danny had awoken, and was sipping a mug of tea as Danny looked on. Danny flexed his right wrist, bent his right elbow and shrugged his right shoulder. Danny flexed his left- "ow...!" he whispered. His wrists were normal, except for the green vein running down his left arm. Danny realised that he, too, was in human form. Just as Danny was about to go over and give Vlad a piece of his mind, Vlad chuckled softly. "I see you're finally awake, Danny." He said menacingly. Vlad usually referred to him as 'Phantom' or even 'kid', but never by his first name. Danny lifted his left arm and tried not to wince. "Vlad." Danny started, using his first name too... he didn't know... mess with him? "What are you up to?" Vlad shut his book with one palm while simultaneously finishing the tea with his other. He pushed his chair in with a creak. Vlad continued his chuckle, starting off softly and ending in a loud, 'cliche villain' laugh. "Wouldn't you like to know."

Danny raised an eyebrow and took a step forward. "Yes, I would. That's why I asked." Danny crossed his arms and tried not to look in pain. It was clearly a bad attempt. "You are very clearly in pain, Daniel." Danny bit his inner lip. "Stop dodging the subject, Vlad." Vlad stepped towards Danny, taking big, confident strides. "I'll get straight to the point. It's quite annoying being one of the only two known half ghosts in the world and having the other refuse to associate with your plans, Daniel." Daniel, no, Danny lowered his raised eyebrow. "What are you getting at here?" There was a tinge of worry in his voice. Had Vlad figured out his new secret already? "Well, by using the types of DNA found in your hair, I was able to invent a sort of serum that replaces an exact amount of ghost DNA with a human's." Danny was visibly disturbed by this thought. "H-how much did you put in?" Vlad smiled. "Exactly half of what was needed for a full ghost." Without waiting for Danny's reply, he continued. "Any more would be wasted. It was exactly enough to replace half of your overall DNA with a full human's. So, there is now one halva left." Vlad pointed to himself while saying this. Danny had been thinking all the way through the little speech. "So, a half ghost would become fully human?" "Correct." "Which means if you put the same amount into a full ghost...?" "They would be half human, half ghost. But you already are, so, as I've said many times, you're-" Danny was... smiling? "Would you mind turning around for a second, Masters?" He said. Vlad was a little weirded out, but complied. "Sure. The best you can do now as a human wouldn't make a dent." Vlad turned around. Suddenly, he heard a familiar sound and saw a flash of blue light. His heart skipped a beat and his eyes grew wide with shock. He stepped back in fright, forgetting that he was cornered.

Danny was in his ghost form and aiming a ball of ectoplasmic energy straight at him.

"I'm keeping it like this until my friends get here." Growled Danny. Vlad shook his head in disbelief. "Daniel, they will remain trapped for a very long time." Danny smiled. "You shouldn't underestimate people you've barely met, Vlad." Right on cue, Sam and Tucker burst in the door, each carrying an ectoplasm firing gun and a Fenton Thermos. They were expecting Danny to be cornered, trying to escape Plasmius, only it was the other way around. Vlad, in his human form, was shivering, cowering in an iced over corner with Danny pointing an Ecto-blast at him. Sam and Tucker ran up, subconsciously checking Danny's eyes and aura for evil. They found nothing. In fact, they both looked paler and brighter than usual. "Guys! I knew you'd come!" Danny beamed. "Oh, right." Danny looked at Vlad. He wasn't going to attack him, not in his human form. Danny put a little temporary force field that blacked them off from Vlad, and the four calmly walked out of the house.