No pitter-patter this time! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, but I do own the AU plot! Yay, for me!

Chapter one: Fate's cruel hand

Maddie stirred at the sound of her crying son. With a soft sigh, she carefully moved out of her husband's hold, put on her robe, and then quietly left their room.

Upon entering the infant's dormitory, she smiled helplessly. "You know, Danny, it would be nice if you'd let me sleep through a whole night for once."

She picked him up, and his cries quickly subsided into anxious whines. "Are you hungry?" she asked, seeing him nibbling on her robe.

Feeling that it was a bit chilly, Maddie grabbed his blanket and wrapped him with it, before heading downstairs. She placed Danny in an infant rocking-chair, so she could make him his bottle, but he immediately began to cry at seeing his mom move away from him.

"I'm coming, sweetie. Just let me make your bottle," she said, pulling out the baby milk from the fridge. With the efficiency only a mother possessed, Maddie both prepared her restless son's bottle and attempted to calm him by humming and rocking his little chair.

A few minutes later she picked him up before sitting down at a chair. Danny continued to whine as she positioned him in her arms. "Shh… it's coming," she told him, while checking the milk's temperature. Satisfied, she offered the baby his bottle.

Danny instantly calmed down at receiving the warm milk. He eagerly sucked on his bottle, and cooing with content, stared up at his mother.

Maddie smiled in return. Every time she looked into his bright blue eyes, she was overcome with immense happiness. Her son was so special, so perfect.

The woman chuckled to herself, knowing that every mother probably thought that of their own child. "I love you, Danny" she whispered, kissing his hand which was wrapped around one of her fingers.

Maddie frowned at realizing his hand was really cold. She huddled him closer and covered him some more with his blanket. It was then she felt it.

A shiver ran down the young mother's spine when the temperature dropped drastically. Alarmed, Maddie removed the bottle from her son's mouth, causing him to protest loudly. "Shh…" she softly said, slowly standing up, while her eyes darted around her kitchen.

The woman pressed Danny closer to her as the temperature continued to drop, so much that she could now see her breath. "No…," she whispered fearfully, her heart now pounding in her chest.

Maddie moved warily out of the kitchen, her eyes looking in all directions. But then suddenly, the lights went off, and she found herself and the now agitated Danny in pitch darkness.

The mother stood still for a moment, not knowing what to do. But she quickly decided to inch towards the closest means of protection: the lab. She needed to reach the weapons that were there.

"It's okay, baby; please stay quiet," she whispered in Danny's ear, while she felt around for the door. With trembling hands, Maddie opened the door and carefully walked down the small set of stairs that led inside the lab.

Using mostly her memory, she went to the closest lab table. She bent down and quickly hid Danny behind it. "Stay quiet," she gently commanded, covering him up with his blanket, before quickly standing up.

But as she turned around, Maddie let out a loud gasp at finding herself staring into pupil-less, blood-red eyes. She felt her body instantly paralyze with fear, but the thought of her child right behind her quickly pulled her out of her frightened state.

Without looking, Maddie reached behind her and grabbed the first thing she felt on the table and swung it at full strength at the entity in front of her. Unfortunately… her hand went right through its head.

The entity let out a soft chuckle, and from the tone of its voice she knew it was a male. It was then the woman realized that there were three more sets of eyes glowing in the darkness, but these eyes were all luminous green.

Maddie's breath hitched when a bright emerald flame suddenly illuminated the room, finally allowing her to fully see the entities in the room.

"JACK!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

The red-eyed entity placed his hands behind his back, calmly watching the young woman as she fled towards a table that had large weapons on it.

"Skulker," he called.

The entity known as Skulker nodded, before turning his eyes to the human. His entire body looked robotic, expect for his green flaming hair and beard. He carried a number of arsenals on his shoulders, making him appear all the more menacing. With an evil grin, he vanished in a blink of an eye from where he once floated.

Maddie quickly reached out towards a gun, but before she could get it, Skulker appeared right behind her and grabbed both her arms.

The woman gasped in pain as her hands were wrenched behind her back. Right after, she was whirled around to face the other creatures again.

She struggled against her captor's hold, but her eyes were towards the red-eyed entity. He was clearly in charge.

He, however, paid her no mind and floated passed her, heading towards the ghost portal. Unlike Skulker, the leader looked more humanoid, but not by much. He looked more like a demon than anything else. His black hair curved up into two spikes, and his blue skin -only visible from his face- made him look like Death itself. But unlike that creature of darkness, this creature of darkness wore white. In fact, he was completely clothed in white, except for a long, white and red cape that fell against his shoulders, and his black gloves and boots.

Maddie's panicked eyes momentarily darted to the other two entities in the room, and noticed that the one that resembled a nine-foot, black wolf was the reason why the room was glowing green. Its large paw held a ball of bright energy that moved about like fire. She also noticed the fifteen-inch long, thick green claws that extended from its paws and cupped the light.

The other entity was just as tall as the wolf-like one, but looked like a medieval knight. Only that, it was nothing like the human version; it was more like something out of a horror movie. It appeared to have no face under its helmet and he had purple fire burning on top of its head and running down his back.

Maddie's eyes went back to the leader of these monsters in time to see his hand suddenly turn transparent and go straight through the portal's control panel.

But then suddenly, the lights turned back on.

The three green-eyed entities looked at each other before looking at their leader.

The red-eyed entity, however, made no sign of being bothered by the occurrence. But his next words made it clear he planned to do something about it.

"Fright Knight, take care of the other human," he ordered calmly.

The Knight pulled out a long, glowing green sword, causing Maddie to struggle more fiercely against Skulker's grip. "Let go of me!" she growled.

Ignoring the human, he responded, "Yes, my king," and then vanished.

"JACK!"

The sleeping man quickly sat up upon hearing his wife's scream. "Maddie?!" he called, jumping out of bed. His eyes widened the instant he noticed that the house was ice cold. "It can't be," he whispered.

Jack quickly attempted to turn on the light. But it was not working. Now having no doubt in his mind of what was endangering his family, he opened a nearby drawer and pulled out a strange-looking small gun.

The creature or creatures in his house had shut down the power and somehow deactivated the ghost detection devices. But the system could only be shut down from inside… How did they accomplish that without setting a single one off?

The man ran down the stairs as fast as he could in the dark, knowing he had heard Maddie's voice coming from below. He made his way to a metal box on a wall beside the stairs and activated the backup power.

The instant the lights came back on Jack ran towards the lab, but before he could get there Fright Knight appeared in front of him.

"Ghost!" the man exclaimed, firing a green blast from the gun in his hand. The green-eyed entity dodged the attack and flew at him with astounding speed.

"Ahh!" Jack yelled as a fist collided with his face. This reeled him back a few feet, and caused the weapon in his hand to slip out of his hold. The ghost hunter struggled to get his bearings and stand, but before he could, his attacker was upon him.

The man's eyes widened as Fright Knight lifted a large glowing sword with the intention of running him through with it.

"Daddy?" a voice called from the top of the stairs, distracting both males.

Jack, however, reacted before Fright Knight, and quickly grabbed his fallen gun and fired it at the ghost. The entity grunted as the attack slammed him into a wall.

"Jazz!" her father yelled as she ran to him with her bear clutched in her right hand. She clearly had yet to notice the monster a few feet away.

"Daddy, I heard lots of noise and my night light's not working," she whimpered, her eyes filled with fearful tears.

Jack held her tightly against him, while pointing his gun at the recovering Fright Knight. "Princess, listen to me; I need you to leave the house. Go to the neighbor's house, okay?"

"W-Where's mommy?" she asked.

"She's fine; I'll get mommy and Danny, okay? Remember how to call the cops?" he asked gently, trying to mask the fear in his voice.

"9-1-1," she mumbled.

"That's my girl," Jack said with a smile.

Suddenly, her father gasped before he pushed her away from him. Jazz screamed at seeing a large glowing monster slam the back of its sword across her dad's head. "DADDY!" she cried out.

"JAZZ!" came Maddie's own scream from the lab. Clearly, she could hear the commotion occurring.

Jack groaned as he clutched his now bleeding head. But he was given very little time to recover and soon found himself being thrown into a wall by his attacker.

"STOP HURTING MY DADDY!" Jazz shouted, running towards the large being with the intent of defending her dad.

"Jazz! No! Stay away! Get outta here!" Jack shouted, stopping her in her tracks.

Jazz knew her father wanted her to leave the house, but she still hesitated. "Daddy…" she whimpered as she watched her father get lifted by the neck, while the entity attempted to remove the weapon in his hand.

Jack struggled to get his hand on the trigger, but Fright Knight was slowly crushing his windpipe and the depletion of oxygen was making him weaker by the second. But he was determined to protect his family.

The man swung at the entity's face, and stunned his attacker enough to use the gun against him.

The blast threw the ghost away from Jack, who fell to the ground and coughed violently before looking at his daughter, "Jazz… g-go! … RUN! he finally managed to scream out.

The two-year-old was snapped out of her shocked state and took off towards the front door. But the scream also caught Fright Knight's attention. However, he wasn't looking at Jack.

"NO!" Jack cried out, finding the strength to stand up at seeing the entity moving towards Jazz. He threw himself at the ghost and tackled him to the ground. "Leave my daughter alone!"

With a growl, Fright Knight kicked him off just as Jazz opened the door. The creature frowned as he watched the little girl run out of the house. But a sudden blast to his head quickly redirected his attention back to the older human.

Jack took advantage of Fright Knight's stunned state and ran towards the lab to save his wife.

Maddie's eyes were wide open. "The king?" she whispered with dread. "Y-You're …Plasmius," she growled, her face falling into a glare.

The king smirked at her, before turning his eyes back to the panel and pulling out the cylinder with the glowing liquid inside. "Concentrated ectoplasm" he said, studying the object in his hand intently.

He moved his gaze to Maddie, before approaching her. His eyes suddenly narrowed and glowed fiercely. "Tell me, how many ghosts were destroyed to obtain this?" he hissed.

The women narrowed her eyes as well and hissed back, "Not enough."

Oddly, Plasmius expression changed into amusement at her response. Maddie let out a gasp at seeing the ghost look towards Danny. "If it were your own that could perish, I doubt that would be your response…"

"No! Please!" she pleaded as the king headed towards her child.

Plasmius placed his left hand on the table and it suddenly vanished, leaving the child in full view. "Hmm… how precious," he said, staring down at the cooing Danny.

Maddie felt a wave of strength fill her body, and faster than Skulker could react, she kicked the ghost as hard as she could. The woman cried out in pain at feeling like she had just kicked a steel door away. But she managed to get free and that's all she cared about at the moment.

She quickly grabbed a weapon from the table beside her and fired it at Skulker and then at the wolf-like ghost. Both creatures were slammed into the tables and gadgets behind them as Maddie whirled the gun towards Plasmius and cocked it.

"Get away from my son, you putrid piece of ecto-slime," she growled. "And you two, don't move or you'll be picking up your king's remains," she added, causing the other two ghosts to halt their approach.

Plasmius smiled, revealing a set of fangs. He moved his hand away from the table and it reappeared. "Ah, such talent," he teased, placing the cylinder on top of the table.

He then slowly approached the human, causing her hand to tighten on the weapon, but she didn't fire. And she wouldn't. Not when her child was directly behind him.

Suddenly Maddie heard her husband scream and then her daughter. "JAZZ!" the mother cried in alarm, turning her gaze to the lab's exit for a second.

It was all the king needed.

Plasmius instantly vanished and reappeared behind the woman. Maddie screamed as the gun was forced from her hold and thrown aside. The red-eyed ghost grasped both her hands in one of his, before using the other to firmly hold onto the back of the human's head. "Such talent indeed," he whispered in her ear. "Shame that it's wasted on such an inferior creature," he added darkly, his now exposed fangs lingering just above the nape of her neck.

Unexpectedly, a large blast sounded right outside the lab before the door swung open. "Get away from my wife, spook!" Jack demanded, his gun aimed at the king.

Plasmius' eyes narrowed at the man, while his fangs still hovered above the women's skin.

Maddie gasped when she suddenly felt like she had just been injected with liquid nitrogen, before she was thrown aside and sent crashing to the floor.

"Maddie!" Jack shouted in alarm, sure that the creature had actually bit his wife before letting her go. Without hesitation, he fired a blast at the ghost.

But the king turned intangible causing the attack to pass harmlessly through him and hit the ghost portal's control panel instead. Sparks flew out of the damaged panel and fell on a few beakers of chemicals.

"No!" Maddie shouted, before a small explosion caused the entire lab to shake and a blaring alarm to go off.

And as the alarm screamed out its warning, no one noticed the cylinder containing concentrated ectoplasm jolt with the quick rumble and roll across the table, towards the infant below it.

No one saw it shatter as it hit the metal floor right next to Danny, bathing him in the energized green substance.

No one heard the baby's anguished cries when the glowing liquid bubbled and slowly began to eat away at his clothing.

No one heard his wail become louder when the concentrated ectoplasm finally touched his skin, sending jolt after jolt of hot painful energy into the entire infant's body while it slowly seeped within him.

No one ever noticed.

What everyone did notice was the cabinet that smashed against the portal, ripping pieces of wires and circuitry as it fell over.

"Ghost Portal severely unstable. Commence emergency evacuation," a computerized voice warned.

Maddie wobbled to her feet, but immediately fell back down. Her head was spinning uncontrollably and more than just her neck had gone numb now. "J-Jack!" she called out, but her voice didn't come out above a whisper.

Seeing the ghosts were distracted by the blaring alarm, Jack ran to his wife's side. "Maddie?" he called, grabbing her face and seeing she was barely conscious. "Maddie! Look at me! What's wrong? What did that thing do to you?" he questioned fearfully.

"Jack," she whispered. "The k-kids."

"Shh, it's okay. I told Jazz to go to the neighbor's house. I'll get Danny upstairs and we'll get outta here," he assured her.

The woman attempted to lift her hand so she could point towards her son, but all she did was move her fingers a bit. "N-No… Da-"

"Maddie!" Jack yelled at seeing her eyes roll back and completely lose consciousness.

Plasmius frowned at hearing the blaring alarm and the warning message. "Skulker, what the blazes is going on?" he asked, turning towards him.

Skulker floated over to the portal and studied it. "It seems the shot activated this contraption, but it is overheating for some reason," he informed.

"If that's the case, than it's time we take our leave," Plasmius replied. Turning to the nine-foot, wolf-looking ghost, he said, "Wulf, se vi estus sekve speco…"

In that same strange dialect, Wulf responded, "Jes, mia reĝo"

The ghost then brought up one of his large clawed-paw and swung it through the air. A ripping sound could be heard as he did so, leaving behind a glowing green opening.

Skulker gave the two humans a quick glance, and noticed the woman was not moving. "Did you kill the human?" he inquired with an evil grin.

Plasmius looked over at Maddie before turning his attention back to his comrade. "No, I simply sedated her in an attempt to avoid this," he answered with some annoyance, making a general hand gesture to the chaos around them.

"Then should I kill them both?" he asked, reaching for a sword on his back.

Plasmius grabbed Skulker's hand, stopping him. "We came to destroy the portal; that is all," he answered calmly.

The robotic-looking ghost nodded, but then gasped at seeing a green blast suddenly come towards them and strike the king in the arm.

"My liege!" Fright Knight exclaimed. The ghost growled, pulling out his sword as he began to approach the one responsible.

"What did you do to my wife, ghost?!" Jack demanded, his gun still aimed at Plasmius, although Fright Knight was closing in on him.

"Danger! Ghost Portal to explode in 60 seconds!"

Plasmius glared at the man, while he held his injured shoulder that was freely oozing a green substance. "Leave him, Fright Knight. If he has any sense, he'll get his family to safety, instead of wasting time with us."

Fright Knight stared at Jack with murder in his eyes, before reluctantly putting away his sword and heading back to the king and the others.

"Hmm…" Maddie mumbled, turning Jack's attention back to her. He quickly picked up his wife and headed out of the lab as fast as he could. What they had feared was happening. But all Jack cared about was getting his family to safely, before the unstable ghost portal blew.

Reaching a safe distance outside his house, he placed his now semi-conscious wife on the ground, before rushing back inside to get his son.

"Ghost portal to explode in 20 seconds!"

Jack barged into Danny's room, going straight to his crib, only to discover he wasn't there. The man's eyes darted around the room in confusion. Where was his son?

"Ghost portal to explode in 15 seconds!"

Jack checked every room with a speed never thought possible for even the fittest of men. He checked every place that his son could possibly be in and he still could not find him. "Where is he?!" the father shouted in a panicked voice.

"10-9-8…"

"The neighbors… They must have come…,"was all he could conclude.

Jack ran out of the house, finding his wife wobbling towards it. "Maddie, where are you going?! We gotta move!" he exclaimed, picking her up and running away from the house.

"NO! Danny! He's in the lab!" she screamed while flaring in his grasp.

Her words instantly froze Jack, a horrified expression appearing on his face. But before he could even turn, the portal exploded, taking within seconds their entire house.

"DANNY!" Maddie screamed, her anguish cry louder then the roaring flames.

Before you ask, no, Plasmius is not a vampire or anything of the sort. And I know I made it seem like he bit Maddie, but he really didn't. I'm sure you can guess what he did, since he said that he sedated her, but how that works exactly I'll be explaining later. Anyways, as you can tell there will be Esperanto in this story; and that too will be explained later. I will post the translations at the end of each chapter that has Esperanto in it. I hope you liked the cliff hanger -snickers- But whatever the case don't forget to let me know by reviewing! Until next time!

Esperanto Translation:

Plasmius: "Wulf, if you would be so kind…."

Wulf: "Yes, my king"