So you've made it to the second chapter...

Thanks to all of those who reviewed, favorited, and/or followed this story! I really appreciate your support and encouragement!

Not much else to say. Don't expect me to update regularly, because my schedule is kind of crazy. But I'm working on this thing all the time, so I do my best to give updates ASAP.

I don't own Danny Phantom.

Chapter 2: Going Downhill

Danny sat on his bed, picking at the burger on his lap. He wasn't hungry, but no one really listened to him. Not that he blamed them. A lot had happened, and his family was still in a state of shock. Including him.

He was still thinking. You'd think that after pacing all night, he would have gotten tired of thinking. But he just couldn't help it. He was seriously freaked out. It was like waking up and finding out the world turned upside down. Nothing made sense anymore. He groaned and rubbed his temples. Gee, don't give yourself a migraine, Fenton.

There was a knock on the door. Danny jolted at the sudden sound, then called out, "Come in," as he set down his food on the bed stand. The door immediately burst open. He could barely protect his unfinished lunch as a blur tackled him into a hug.

"T-Tucker!" Danny smiled at his best friend. Tucker laughed and fixed his glasses (which were slightly askew) as he gave him some space. Danny's eyebrows drew together in confusion and concern. "Tuck, are you crying?"

"Of course n-not! I just have something in my eye is all." He wiped his watery eyes with his shirt with a sheepish smile. "Man, you have no idea how-" Tucker stopped short as the boys heard a the sound of heavy boots striking the ground. Tucker's eyes widened and his words were laced with panic. "Oh no. Dude, you better brace yourself." Danny raised an eyebrow, but before anything could be said, he was yanked to his feet by the collar of his shirt with near inhuman power.

"You!" A voice growled in his ear. "Not a single call, email, or even a note for crying out loud! You give us nothing and just leave on your own like that! Then you come back here from who knows where like nothing's happened! What is wrong with you?

"Sam, calm down will ya!" Tucker tried to get between them, while he was yanked back and forth like chew toy. Sam abruptly let go and threw her arms around him. When she released him, she sighed and gave into a smile. "You do know you're a complete idiot, right?" she said, eyes glistening with emotion.

Danny rubbed his neck and shrugged. "Nice to see you, too." The trio of friends shared a laugh. It was a perfect moment. Danny closed his eyes for a moment, and it almost felt as if he were hanging out with them at the park, or sitting with them at school. And then he remembered why they were here in the first place, and his laughter died away.

His friends caught his abrupt change in mood. Sam scanned him over briefly. "Yeesh, I always knew you were skinny, but this is like, borderline anorexia." She said, making small talk.

"I know. My parents have been trying to fatten me up like a pig." Danny rolled his eyes. He already knew his clothes hung more loose than usual, making his already thin body even thinner. He had already been scrawny ever since he started ghost fighting. He always had to eat small meals because of ghosts that would interrupt him. Now he looked like he hardly ate at all.

Everyone waited expectantly for someone to start talking seriously. "I guess I owe you guys an apology..." Danny began.

"Yeah, and an explanation. " Tucker added with a raised eyebrow. Danny sighed.

"Look, I wish I could tell you...but I can't..." He couldn't think of a good way to say it. He barely believed it himself.

"What do you mean you can't?" Sam asked half-accusingly. "We're your friends, you can't hide something that big from us."

"I'm not hiding anything!" Danny took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. "You know I wouldn't hide anything from you guys. I just can't... remember. " He tried to explain. There was a slight pause.

"So you're saying, you can't remember anything about threemonths of your life?" Tucker questioned skeptically.

"Yeah, hard to believe, I know." He furrowed his brows in concentration. "But I really can't. I keep hitting a mental block every time I try. "

"Maybe that's why your grades are low- ow!" Tucker frowned and gripped his arm. "I was joking, Sam. "

Jazz's head peeked through the door. "Hey, you guys. " Her eyes met with her brother's for a moment, asking for permission to join him. He shrugged in response and Jazz walked in, finding herself a chair. "How're you feeling, Danny?" She asked.

"Fine. " He replied simply as he stared at his socks. Her face openly showed her concern at his empty response.

"Remember anything yet?" Her voice was significantly quieter with hints of fear.

"No." He held his face in his hands and huffed in frustration.

"Hey, why don't you tell us what you do remember until you get to the blank?" Sam suggested.

"Like I haven't tried that already," Danny replied with sarcasm.

"Well saying it out loud is different from just thinking." Jazz said, supporting Sam's side. "Maybe having us here would help fill in some blanks. " She reasoned.

"Alright, alright, no need to team up against me." Danny sighed and gave in. He licked his lips and asked, "How far do I go back?"

"Do you remember where we went to hang out on Saturday?" Tucker prompted.

"The Nasty Burger." Danny answered. "We were eating there late." He smiled at the memory. "Tucker beat his record."

"It was awesome. " Tucker put his hands on his stomach proudly. Sam recoiled and wrinkled her nose.

"If by 'awesome' you mean 'utterly disgusting' then yeah, it was pretty awesome." Sam gagged dramatically.

"C'mon guys, really?" Jazz was reaching the end of her patience. "Let him finish." She nodded at Danny, pushing him to keep going.

"We were all staying at Fenton Works for the night." Danny continued. "We were walking home and..." He began to hit the blanks. He shut his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could.

"Remember? You were-" Tucker was cut off by Sam.

"Sh! Let him try to figure it out. " She hushed.

"...My ghost sense went off." Danny finally finished. "I said I would see you at the house... I 'went ghost' and followed it..." His clutched his head. He was trying so hard. But there was nothing but an empty black hole in his memories.

"Who did you fight?" Jazz asked.

"I...I don't know. Can't remember. " He sighed and gave up trying. "Look, this isn't working. Maybe we can find out what happened without my memories." He muttered, rubbing his temples. "I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have gone away for three months on my own, at least without telling you guys first."

"Maybe someone kidnapped you or something. Then they gave you something to, like... make you forget. " Tucker thought aloud.

"Really? And they would just tuck me back into bed instead of beating me to a pulp. " Danny sarcastically said. "Fat chance."

"Well what else could've happened?" Tucker said in defense. "If you didn't leave on your own, then someone else has to have made you."

"Well even if I was kidnapped, who would've done it?" Danny paused for a moment. "Oh man... I think Vlad kidnapped me." He shuddered at the thought.

Jazz frowned and said, "I don't think so." When Danny raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. "We were getting exhausted by the fifth day you were gone. Plus, we couldn't keep covering for you. So we went ahead and told Mom and Dad that you were missing. A few weeks later, we still couldn't find you and we began to get a little... desperate. Dad called Vlad and told him about the whole thing. He started searching for you himself."

Danny couldn't deny that he was more than a little surprised. So the Fruitloop did have a heart... who would've thought. And then he remembered he was here yesterday. He must have been helping his parents out then... It was a strange concept, but maybe not impossible after all. But he wouldn't let his guard down any time soon.

Jazz saw this and added, "Besides, your ghost sense doesn't go off around him, right?"

"Well he usually sends his little workers to do the dirty work for him, anyways." Danny argued.

"We can figure this out later. Tuck and I have to head to class." Sam interrupted and she and Tucker stood up and began to exit his room.

"But it's almost noon... Were you guys are cutting class?" Danny hadn't realize that just because his parents let him and his sister skip school today, it didn't mean everyone else was off the hook.

Sam rolled her eyes. "You're the one to suddenly care about skipping classes." Danny blinked. She had a good point.

They waved good-bye, leaving the siblings alone with each other. Both of them were silently thinking deeply about the situation. Danny turned away to face the window. The cars below shined in the midday sun. "It's so sunny." He spoke quietly.

"What?" Jazz asked at the seemingly random comment. He glanced her way before looking back outside.

"It's sunny outside. It wasn't like that a few months ago." He explained. Jazz nodded in agreement, but her mind was elsewhere. He respected her thoughts and didn't say another word. It wasn't long before a shiver ran down his spine as his breath fogged visibly in front of him. Heros never get breaks, do they, he thought dryly.

He stood up and allowed himself to shift to his ghostly half. Colors showed vividly around him as his senses heightened and his breathing slowed to a near stop. Just as he was about to fly through the walls, his sister stopped him.

"And where do you think you're going?" She questioned.

"It's just a ghost, Jazz. It won't take long. " Danny waved her off.

"Three months," she softly said, "is a very long time." She closed her eyes briefly and took a shaky breath. "You just came back, Danny, how can you be leaving so soon?" He sighed and tried not to feel guilty as he floated close to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I promise I won't take long, Jazz. " With that, he flew through the ceiling and disappeared.

"Be safe," Jazz whispered worriedly.

Danny flew high above the buildings of Amity Park, scanning the area. He dove back down, trying to find the ghost that set off his ghost sense. He yelped as a blast of sound threw him into a wall. Orientating himself, he turned to the culprit and got into a fighting stance.

"So the dipstick came back home. " Ember floated above him. She smiled and quirked her head slightly. "What, no witty banter?" He growled and began to surge ecto-energy to his fists. It was around this time that he realized that he had forgotten to bring a Fenton thermos. Oh well. He would just have to go the old-fashioned way and take her back into the ghost zone by force.

The flames in her hair swelled and brightened as her fingers danced around her guitar. "Let me give you the proper welcome. " Her hand crashed down on the strings.

He was ready this time and soared out of the way. He dodged the fist shaped sound blast and quickly counterattacked with a rally of ecto-blasts. A few managed to nick her, but she swiftly created a shield of sound around her before it did any real damage. He narrowed his eyes in agitation. That stupid guitar... wait a minute... Suddenly, he got an idea.

The moment her shield disappeared, Danny came at her. Ember threw a few blasts at him which he was able to maneuver around (intangibility never worked around things that were charged with ecto-energy). He made sure she was busy dodging and cancelling out his ecto-rays and blasts. He worked himself until he was within a close range. He charged up blast in his hand, pouring out as much energy as he dared. He then contained and compacted that energy with a thick layer of ice. With a loud battle cry, he hurled it at her.

The energy whizzed through the air, too fast for Ember to dodge. It sliced through the defenses she created in an attempt to stop it, far too strong for any attack in that short distance to stop. The only thing left she could use to protect herself was-

BOOM!

The thunderous explosion forced even Danny back a few feet in the air. He shook himself clean of the debri that rained down on him. Peering through the smoke, he found Ember laying on her back on the slightly cracked streets. He swooped down and landed lightly by her. She sat up and groaned, and he noted that her hair was much shorter now. She blinked and reached for the instrument that was normally around her neck, only to find that it wasn't there. She gasped and screamed, "My baby!" Her eyes focused on him, and her eyes flamed as wildly as her hair.

"Oops..." He gave a weak chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Then he flew for his half-life.

"Oh no you don't! I'm not through with you!" She grabbed him and tossed him into the side of a building. "I'm going to tear you apart!"

It all went downhill from there. She wailed on him using everything – punching, kicking, and clawing him to fulfill her promise. Danny was pinned, unable to do anything but take the beating.

"S-stop..." He gasped softly. He tried his best to swallow and speak but the blows kept coming. He needed to get out of here.

Beatingshurthadenoughstophur tsbaddon't-

"Stop..." His voice was a little louder, but his plea was lost in the curses Ember was screeching. Curling up as tight as he could, he squeezed his eyes shut.

Hurtingbadstopfightfightstop fightingstop-

"STOP!" His eyes flew open, glowing with an unusually bright radiance and he released the building tension a ghostly wail. He had never, ever wailed directly into someone's face. It was an attack he mostly saved for last, when there was something (like an army or a powerful foe) he needed out of the way. Not something you'd normally use right in someone's face. The visible waves of sound threw her all the way across the street and straight into an aging building. Pieces of the walls went flying as she crashed right through it. Though he managed to stop wailing before collapsing the entire building on her, large pieces of it had fallen apart.

He clutched his pounding head with a soft moan. He willed the world to stop spinning in circles and got back to his feet. He stood frozen in place for a moment before racing over to the injured ghost.

He found her half buried in rubble and quickly scrambled to pull her out of it. After Ember was phased free, he checked her over. She was clearly unconscious and would remain out of it for sometime. Nothing seemed life... er, after-life threatening, yet there was still ectoplasm that was smeared in her. From where? Danny's eyes widened when he turned her face over and found the injury. It's her ears... Her ears are damaged... He prayed it wasn't anything serious, but the sight of ectoplasm steadily flowing drowned his hopes. He shakily stood up.

"I didn't mean it..." He whispered. "I didn't mean to h-hurt you..." He stared for a long minute, shocked and unsure of what to do. If she was that upset when her guitar broke, how much angrier would she be if she woke up like this? He knew he should've stayed and tried to help. But he shamefully turned away and flew as fast as he could back home.

Why was he running? He felt so guilty and fearful, but he couldn't bring himself to be brave enough to stay. Whenever he fought ghosts, he never tried to harm them. That's why he used the thermos. He didn't even know that he had it in him to injure a ghost that bad. What was he thinking? Danny Phantom was a hero, not a coward...

What's wrong with me?

Who knows, Danny?

Uh, I've never done fight scenes before. Some pointers would be cool.

Sorry if you wanted to see more Vlad in this chapter, I couldn't fit him in this chapter. But next update is going to be from his POV, so we'll see how that goes. I don't know about you, but I want to see his reaction to everything that has happened. ;P

Thank you again to all who have supported this story! Please continue to review so I know how this is going and such.

Until next time!