Prologue.
"Talk about a silent night…"
Tucker was right. Quite notably, the only sounds were the footsteps of his comrades and the near silent whistling of the mild breeze as it traveled along his own partially transparent black tail. It swayed majestically behind him as he floated slowly overhead, not even bothering to scout out ahead or fly any higher than just above eye level.
His spotless white hair flipped down over his glowing green eyes as Danny tipped his head downwards, his eyelids drooping. He could've never guessed how much a later curfew would suck now that the world knew he was half ghost. Thankfully, nothing huge had happened now that he was a 'world hero'. His life was just about as normal as it was when his alter ego was a secret, despite the 'minor' changes in his schedule. He let out an exaggerated groan. "We may as well head home. It's already 11:30 and we haven't seen anything for the third night in a row," he said, yawning. As if by request, a visible stream of breath floated from his mouth, punctuated by a small shiver. A devilish grin spread across his face.
"Finally! Bring it ON!" he exclaimed, floating into an upright position. He looked around for it eagerly. His tail formed back into his legs as he landed and turned to his friends, his grin forming into a disappointed frown. Normally they appeared within moments, but he couldn't see it anywhere.
Hearing a roar from behind him, he whipped around, floating in idle just above the ground. He shrank back and tilted his head to look up at its face. It took shape of a gigantic beetle; its eight dark purple eyes gleaming in the moonlight and its jet black pincers snapping threateningly as its six spindly legs held its fuzzy looking green body high above their heads. Danny's brow furrowed determinedly. It was huge, but he doubted that its power could match his speed.
"So you wished it, so it shall be," Sam remarked as the ghost boy soared off to handle it. She was joking on the outside, but was worried on the inside as her boyfriend zipped around behind the overgrown ghost bug. It had a large black stinger that must've been like a pin prick to the beast, but the size of a six foot spike to anybody else. "Hey fuzz-face, bug off!" he commented, blasting its rear. It growled in irritation and turned around, only to meet the ghost hunter with a glowing blue hand. With a few punches, several of its eyes were frozen. It shrieked in agony and pawed at its face for a moment with one of its hairy feet before noticing the halfa flying beneath it to get to the other side. With a downward thrust of its stinger, it struck the ghost boy, knocking him to the ground as he screamed in pain. He hit the ground hard and slid on his side, a white glove holding the back of his injured shoulder and a grimace covering his face as he stopped at Tucker and Sam's feet. While Sam hovered over Danny, Tucker ran over and aimed to suck the ghost into the Fenton Thermos. It narrowed its five unfrozen eyes and jumped what seemed like twenty five feet into the air to avoid the beam. It almost landed onto of them, forcing the two to abandon the half conscious Danny Phantom, still lying where he had been flung.
They watched in horror as the beetle hoisted their friend into the air, forcing another scream out of the half ghost as the black pincers squeezed him.
"Danny!"
At the sound of Sam's scream, Danny's eyes opened halfway, and he inhaled as deep as he could in the constricting embrace of his opponent. He released his emergency power on it at full blast; the Ghostly wail. He hardly ever used it as it absorbed a great deal of his power to the point of where he was vulnerable. It was even worse if it didn't work. The ghost was forced to release its prey as it flew back, hitting a building heavily. The brick was about to give way just before he had to stop.
As he plummeted limply towards the ground again, Tucker sucked up the weakened ghost into the Thermos, succeeding this time. "So shall it be…" Danny joked weakly to Sam as he was forced out of his human form before he blacked out.