Hello! I want to thank all of you who took the time to read this and all the reviewers for their thoughts, of course! I'm sorry; I would've updated sooner, but I've been a little busy lately and didn't have the chance to start writing this chapter until quite a while after I posted the prologue. But, I hope that I made this worth your wait! And even though this is a fairly slow chapter for the most part (besides a little action near the end), it's a little necessary before we dive headfirst into all that... fun-ness... that awaits you within the next chapter or two... *grins mysteriously*

Oh, and just a heads up before we begin—now we've fast-forwarded a little bit and the story picks up right after Infinite Realms. So not too much has happened between these events! Happy reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom

Chapter One
A New Day

"I don't believe this..." Danny groaned, closing his eyes and lying back on his elbows as he let his head fall back to soak in the rays of the sun.

It was a rather lovely day—the temperature was nice and warm while a gentle breeze and only partly cloudy skies prevented it from becoming too hot. However, the weather was the last thing on Danny Fenton's mind.

"You've got that right," Tucker said, taking a huge bite out of his piece of pizza. He leaned outward slightly as his gaze followed two girls that were passing by, adjusting his glasses and flashing his debonair smile. However he frowned as they veered away from him, not even so much as a glance from them. "I've still not got a date for the dance! What's wrong—do I have something in my teeth?" he picked at his teeth with a fingernail, looking distraught.

Danny continued without acknowledging Tucker, "I don't believe this," he repeated, "Another test for midterm? And I have only a day to study for it."

Sam rolled her eyes and turned a page of the biology textbook so quickly that it almost ripped, "Come on, Danny. It's not Lancer's fault you waited until the last minute to study."

"It's not my fault either though! You know I was busy dealing with Pla-..." he trailed off as another student passed by on their way to sit on the bleachers. "things..." he said cryptically, earning a strange stare from the person going by at his sudden hushed and secretive tone. He glowered down at the grass by him, yanking up a handful and beginning to slowly shred the blades to bits and pieces to quietly vent his violent mood.

"Yeah, I know that," Sam said, not currently looking at him but rather skimming through her textbook looking for important information that was most likely going to be on the test. She understood perfectly well. Just barely the day previously they'd been busy chasing Danny's billionaire elder rival all over the Ghost Zone, trying to regain possession of the Infi-Map. She still had the bitter taste in her mouth from almost being burned at the stake because of witchcraft. Witchcraft... honestly, if what she had felt towards Vlad Masters before was dislike, now she hated him! "And that's why we're using this time to study, not gripe about how unfair it is that you have such a jerk of an archenemy. Now come on, Danny—concentrate..."

Danny forced himself to take a bite of an apple as Sam began asking him questions out of the book. He really was tired; how long had it been since he had had a decent night's rest again? Probably not in a while. Ever since he'd defeated Melania Dark and things had gone back to normal Plasmius was acting even more aggressive than normal. He was still seething over the destruction of a certain mind-controlling crystal and had it out for him. And something told Danny that the whole Infi-Map thing probably didn't help the situation. Take having to deal with school and Vlad during the day plus having to take care of Amity Park's ghost problem at night and that added up to one hectic schedule that had no room for rest. Danny was starting to nod off even more than usual during class. And, as a result his grades that he thought were starting to slowly pull up were dropping even more. So, what he had to resort to lately was using his lunchtime as study-time; there were so many things he'd rather be doing during his only free time! Like sleeping! He just wished that he could have a break... so he could rest... Rest... that sounded good...

"Danny?" Sam asked after a long pause. However, once she turned to her half-ghost friend, she noticed that he had his eyes closed and mouth open, totally unconscious. The Goth girl growled and jabbed him in the leg with the sharpened end of her pencil. "Danny!"

Danny waved her off, "No Mom... I don't wanna get up yet, it's Saturday..."

Tucker snorted, clapping a hand over his mouth as Sam turned sharply towards him, "He's totally out of it isn't he?"

"Danny!" she shouted again, snapping her fingers by his ear and this time succeeding in waking him up.

"Huh?" Danny blearily opened his eyes.

"What is cellular respiration?" Sam repeated the question slowly, folding her arms.

"Oh... er..." Danny rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, sitting up straight.

Tucker stuffed the rest of the pizza into his mouth and swallowed it before guzzling down the rest of his carton of milk. "Bleh..." he groaned loudly, wiping off his mouth with his sleeve. "Danny, you still owe me. Big time!"

As Sam frowned at the sudden change of subject, she rolled her eyes, "Oh, you're not still going on about that, are you?"

"Of course I am!" Tucker angrily replied. "I still haven't gotten the taste of those terrible vegetables out of my mouth!" he made a disgusted face, shuddering at the memory of all of those bloodblossoms he had to consume.

"Ah, you don't regret saving my life, now do you, Tuck?" Danny inquired, wryly peering sideways at him.

"Well, no," Tucker frowned, shifting his gaze towards another group of girls, trying desperately to at least catch their attention. "But still—my stomach is still recovering from the trauma!"

Sam raised an eyebrow, closing the textbook with a snap, "Surely those bloodblossoms couldn't have been that bad—"

"Easy for you to say, Sam! Maybe the reason I don't have a date for the dance next week is because of the horrible breath they gave me!" he sniffed his breath awkwardly while yet another girl avoided eye contact with him.

The techno-geek gave a loud frustrated growl, shifting his position so he sat on his heels, "Why won't anyone say yes?!" he shouted, startling all of the nearby students. Several peered over at the group of three with concern, wondering what was going on.

"Honestly, Tucker. It's not that important." Sam muttered, frowning at her friend's desperate manner.

"Oh, this is an exact repeat of last year! What gives?" Tucker moaned.

"Sam's right, Tucker. You shouldn't dwell on it. If no girls want to go with you to the dance, that's their problem, not yours." Danny resolutely said.

Sam leaned back, using an arm to prop her up, "Yeah, exactly! Just know that they're missing out."

Tucker sighed heavily, "Well, if you say so..."

"Don't worry, Foley!"

All three of them jumped at the sound of an unexpected voice above them. They whipped around to see Dash Baxter holding a pile of flyers and the rest of the A-Lister's standing nearby. What was weird was that Dash seemed to have a sincere consoling expression, if that were possible. Danny, Sam, and Tucker stared up at him, nonplussed.

"After all," he said smugly, his expression quickly reverting back to its usual sarcastic grin, "you could always just take your PDA!" He and the rest of his group guffawed at the joke.

Tucker clenched his teeth and turned his face away towards his two friends, trying his best to ignore this new nuisance. Danny, however, was a little more upfront with the jock. "Hey Dash? Why don't you take your inflated head somewhere else? It's blocking the sun." He gestured at the shadow that Dash was casting over the three of them.

"Oh, haha, very funny," Dash sneered, his eyes flashing brightly. "Do you want a black eye for picture day, runt?"

Danny casually stood up, rolling his eyes, "Did you come over here for a reason? Because I'd like to get it over with so I can get back to studying."

Sam let out a derisive laugh as if to say, "Study! Haha, that's a good one!" and Danny sent her a sharp glance.

"Oh, I don't have time for you losers! Kwan, you talk to them about it!" Dash shoved the pile of flyers into Kwan's chest before stalking off in the direction of the bleachers. Kwan, who hadn't quite gotten a firm hold on the papers before Dash let go, fumbled with them awkwardly as a couple of them fell down to the ground. He was certainly a little at a loss at his friend's suddenly storming off when before it looked like he had been about to punch Danny in the face. However, Danny, Sam, and Tucker definitely had no complaint with talking to Kwan instead of Dash. He had always been the nicer of the two anyways.

"Well that's funny," Danny stared after Dash's retreating form, smiling slightly, "He's getting better with controlling his fists?" He questioned Kwan, who rubbed the back of his neck in a confused way before straightening out the pile of papers he now held. Kwan looked around in surprise, finding that the rest of the A-List had followed after Dash. Now it was just him, Danny, Sam, and Tucker.

"I know... he's been acting kinda weird lately. It might be because Paulina dumped him last week though—" Kwan suddenly jumped and straightened up as though he'd just sat on a pin cushion, "Oh! Don't tell him I told you that..." the jock's face flushed slowly with embarrassment and guilt. Danny nodded with a passive expression, though on the inside he was smirking darkly.

"Ah, but I probably wouldn't read too much into it if I were you, Danny. He's probably just waiting until after school so he won't get in trouble..." Kwan said matter-of-factly.

Danny's smile died as he said, "Yeah, you're probably right." He inwardly groaned. Great; just what he needed at the moment! A little after lunch he had PE, and Ms. Tetslaff also had another sort of physical fitness test planned for them which would surely leave Danny feeling sore... Then, he'd have to deal with ghost patrol for the day, and then Dash was most likely going to beat him to a pulp again? Great... he couldn't wait!

Sam snatched a couple of the papers off of the ground before they could be blown away by the breeze. She turned one of the flyers over to read it; Danny and Tucker peered over her shoulder curiously.

"Er... right, well..." Kwan regained his composure, readjusting his letterman jacket while beginning to explain, "Both the boys' and girls' basketball teams are doing a fundraiser to help with the costs of repairing the gymnasium and some of the equipment because of the... you know..." Danny, Sam, and Tucker nodded in understanding; Melania had left quite a mark on the gym while trapping the Guys in White inside. The light fixtures were completely obliterated, the doors were dented and the locks were melted, the once polished wooden floors were scuffed and chewed up by ectoblasts... Kwan chuckled wanly before continuing, "Well, anyways, we're holding basketball games with the students' teams against the teachers on the courts out here. It's two dollars per person to watch and everyone's invited to come, so—"

"Okay, I'm not that much of a sports fan... but did you say it's the students versus the teachers?" Sam asked, a little more interestedly than she had meant it to be. She still wasn't really a big fan of Kwan's.

"Well, hehe, yeah! It's gonna be great!" Kwan chuckled, kicking at a tuft of grass as he heard Star yelling at him to hurry up from where the rest of the A-List had gone off to. "Yeah, well, hope to see you there!" He was already walking on his way over in the direction Dash had taken.

Once he had left, Tucker spoke, "Hmm. The boys' game is tomorrow night and the girls' is the day after. Are you going to go?" Tucker had taken the flyer from Sam and was reading the information.

"I don't know," Danny said uncertainly. "I mean, as fun as seeing Mr. Lancer playing basketball (and probably losing at it too) sounds, I'll probably be busy. You know, ghost hunting, studying, sleeping, whatever..." he paused as he heard the bell signaling the end of lunch before starting to head back indoors for class. The hallways were crowded with students on their way to class, so the going was slow at first for them.

"Probably not for me either then; I'm not that into sports anyway." Sam said, grunting as she accidentally walked into the person in front of her when they stopped suddenly. "...I hate it when people do that..." she mumbled as the three of them moved around the person. The crowd started to thin out further up the hall so they could move more freely.

As they reached Danny's locker they stopped; Sam turned around and leaned against the locker next to his as he opened it. She smiled deviously suddenly, causing Danny to look worriedly at her, "What?"

"So? You ready for PE after next period?"

Tucker groaned indignantly, "Ah, man! Sam, why'd you have to mention that?!" Sam laughed softly as Danny let a loud moan, slamming shut his locker after taking out his math textbook.

"Alright... I'm so tired... I think I'm about to pass out in midair..." Danny grumbled to himself, putting his white-gloved hands up to his head to massage his temples exhaustedly. It was later that day after school and he'd transformed in an alley to fly the rest of the way home. He was in no fit state to run away from Dash at that particular moment. The sooner he got home, the better, because the sooner he got home, the sooner he'd get to crash.

Even though it was a Friday and therefore the day was shorter than usual, Ms. Tetslaff had somehow found a way to still make the test as hard as possible. Danny was still sweating profusely in his human form. He was really thankful for having his cool ghost half to escape the heat.

"I'd better get a good grade for doing that... That obstacle course was even more brutal than last year's..."

However in actuality he had found it hard not just because he hadn't been preparing for it, but also because his old shoulder wound was bothering him all throughout the course. It was for the most part healed since it had been a couple weeks since he had gotten it and all that showed of it was a scar; this didn't really bother him, though. In fact, Danny had thought that it was all the way functional before. The muscles in his shoulder were just giving him a mild discomforted feeling with all of the activity. It was lucky though that it hadn't become injured again. Ha... lucky that I didn't get tetanus when that ghost ran me through! Danny snorted slightly, rotating the shoulder slowly to see how it was doing at the moment. It was feeling back to normal again, but he figured that he'd better take it easy on it just to be safe.

"Yeah, I just hope that not too many ghosts will show up in the next few weeks..." Danny thought aloud, looking down at the buildings and streets below him and then raising up his gaze to monitor the air as well.

He was almost home... "And then I'll get to sleep in until noon tomorrow..." Danny closed his eyes in relief, savoring the idea of the bed that was waiting for him once he got home...

BANG!

"Ah!" Danny cried out as he was suddenly blasted sideways off course into the apartment building to the right of him. Right then his ghost sense went off, Danny growling as it did so, "Oh; now you tell me." Disgruntled, he shook his snowy white hair out of his eyes and straightened himself up, glaring up at his attacker.

"Skulker!" he growled.

The hunter, who was retracting the large gun with which he had attacked Danny back into his battle suit, gave him the usual predatory smile. "Why hello, whelp! It's been a while, no?" Skulker raised an eyebrow, drawing out another one of his painful-looking weapons—this time it was a long three-pronged javelin; the sharp ends gave off an electrical spark that danced threateningly between the prongs while Skulker's feral grin stretched even more across his metallic face. Great... so he was after his pelt once again. When would it ever end?!

"Not long enough!" Danny replied, not wasting one more second in attacking his opponent; he flew directly at Skulker before he could react and delivered a well-aimed punch to his face.

Well, this was a little ill-timed—Danny coincidentally didn't have the Fenton Thermos on him at the moment.

Skulker grunted and staggered a little in the air, though not being knocked back too far by the blow. His grin had faltered somewhat, though it returned as he launched a net at the ghost boy. Danny flew upwards to evade it and gave a solid kick to the side of his head, which made him somersault in the air once as a gonglike sound loudly echoed around the neighborhood.

Danny shot several quick green blasts of energy at him, but Skulker turned intangible for the first couple and then flew upwards to evade the rest.

The hunter jabbed at Danny with the javelin, which the boy evaded at the last moment. However, it still managed to clip Danny's side. Danny let out a sharp exhale with a hiss, ignoring the scratch that was slowly oozing ectoplasm. Skulker's solid green eyes seemed to flash with pleasure at the start of this new fight. However, the expression was wiped off of the ghost's face at the hybrid's next question.

"Say, Skulker? Don't you have a gorilla to be studying?" Danny folded his arms loosely in front of him, tilting his head to the side with a complacent grin. He knew he'd struck a nerve with that one!

The ghost clenched his teeth as he angrily replied, "You'd better laugh it up while you still can, ghost child! We'll see just who's laughing once your pelt is hung on my wall!"

Skulker lunged at the boy, who had made the mistake of closing his eyes while chuckling to himself. He tackled Danny and pinned him to the side of the same building with which the hybrid had been knocked into just barely. Some of the residents had heard the commotion coming from right outside the building and were crowding over to the windows, peering outside curiously. Both of the ghosts were oblivious to the audience, which almost immediately backed away from their windows after realizing what was going on.

Skulker drew out a glowing green blade and swiped at Danny's neck. Danny reflexively turned intangible so the attack missed. The knife gouged out a huge chunk of the wall behind the young hybrid, getting slightly caught in the bricks. As the hunter withdrew the knife for another tactic the teen shoved him away using both of his feet. Danny immediately flew towards Skulker while he was still regaining his composure.

However, with one of his large metal hands the hunter grasped the teen's head directly around his face, hoisting him up to eyelevel while pulling out a small familiar looking device with two glowing green prongs out of the arm of his battle suit and aimed it at Danny's chest. Danny's eyes snapped open at this unexpected turn of events and let out a cry of surprise, which came out muffled since Skulker's hand now covered his mouth. Both of his hands latched onto Skulker's arm instinctively; he could barely see through the hunter's fingers and what was worse was that the more he struggled, the more Skulker added pressure to his head, almost to the point that Danny felt like his head was about to be crushed.

Danny shouted out again, this time questioningly, but Skulker neither understood nor cared what the hybrid was trying to ask him; with the device in his free hand he started to approach Danny, who started struggling once again, repeatedly lashing out with his legs and trying to kick Skulker away. But, his efforts were fruitless, seeing as Skulker's arm was long enough to keep Danny's attacks from reaching him. The white-haired teenager seemed to suddenly remember that he also had arms as well as legs and let go of Skulker's arm, charging up an ectoblast and releasing it into his opponent's chest.

Skulker abruptly let go of Danny's face as he was blasted backwards several feet. The halfa gasped in relief at his release, panting heavily as he wiped off a bead of sweat. "Wha... what are you doing wi... with that?" he pointed faintly at the Plasmius Maximus still sticking out of the hunter's arm, although he had a hunch. It was then confirmed as Skulker smiled.

"Oh, this?" he gestured at the weapon with his other hand. "Just another upgrade for my battle armor that my employer helped with. Such a wonderful device, is it not, whelp?"

Oh, yeah... marvelous... Danny thought sarcastically, though only glaring weakly in response at Skulker. First, Vlad steals the Infi-Map, then he almost gets Sam killed, and then he decides to help make Skulker's suit even more dangerous... for Danny, at least! He was getting more and more ticked off at Plasmius with each passing hour!

Danny's thoughts started racing as Skulker appeared to be getting ready to attack again. He needed to get away! He was absolutely exhausted already and probably couldn't keep up this fight much longer. And he didn't have Tucker to hack into Skulker's systems this time, either!

He was wondering what he was going to do, but it turned out that he didn't have to anything at all. The hunter thrust the Plasmius Maximus into Danny's chest, causing that same electrocuting sensation he knew well. Danny cried out in pain as he was forced back into his human form; Skulker tackled him again to the pavement twenty feet below. The green-eyed hunter laughed, "Now let's see you defend yourself, child!"

He took his knife back out again, getting ready to strike; Danny closed his eyes, bracing himself for the blow—but it never came. Instead, a loud explosion sounded from nearby and suddenly Skulker's weight was blasted off of him. Danny opened his eyes, looking up incredulously for whoever had saved him.

"YOU!" Danny cringed instinctively at the sound of the absolutely seething voice, but then relaxed once he remembered that he wasn't in danger as long as he was in this form.

A familiar red-clad girl had arrived on the scene. "Val-?! I mean... help! A ghost!" Danny yelled.

He pointed over at Skulker, who was currently peeling himself away from the wall he had been blasted into.

Valerie Gray swooped down upon the ghost, "You must either be really brave or really dumb to come back here! You're going down!" It seemed that she still remembered the incident where Skulker had tried to make game out of her because she definitely recognized this particular ghost!

Danny stood up shakily as he watched the scene unfold before him, starting to back away from the fight. It was one of those times where he was glad to see that Valerie was in the ghost-hunting mood.

"Thank you Valerie!" Danny whispered thankfully as he began jogging down an alley to get back on the correct path towards home—which should've been just through this alleyway and then across the street...

He cringed as he heard a particularly loud blast from back in the street; boy... on second thought he was convinced that Skulker had done him a kindness by short-circuiting his powers... Valerie really looked like she wasn't in the mood to be messed around with.

Not that he could blame her. She'd been away for a couple weeks and what had she come back to? The whole town was in ruins from a powerful ghost attack and she was determined to make up for her absence. Valerie was absolutely furious that it had happened. In her mind she was the only thing keeping the ghosts from taking control of the city and Melania Dark had only proved it more to her. Danny rolled his eyes; and now Valerie was even more hostile. Yes, Danny was glad that he hadn't been in ghost mode while she had shown up; if this was what she was doing to Skulker, he didn't want to know what she would do to Phantom... But, what was done was done, and things definitely were back in the swing of things.

"And I hope it can manage to stay that way for at least a couple weeks..." Danny whispered calmly, sighing with relief as he walked in the door to Fenton Works.

However, what he saw didn't exactly comply with his wishes...

Er... right. Cliffhanger! *grins* Sorry about that. But, I promise I'll update as soon as possible...

Muses: *roll eyes*