PREVIOUSLY

"Thank you, Danny." Ghosts rarely thanked me. "Transform and take off your time medallion so I can transport you."

Two familiar rings formed around my waist, changing me back. I closed my eyes and took off the medallion. When my eyes reopened...

BEFORE CHAPTER 2 STARTS: Italics from here on down are his thoughts, things in parenthesis are just little side notes I didn't think I could fit into his POV. Now, enjoy the story!

~Danny~

When my eyes reopened, I was in a forest. There were crummy signs pounded into trees pointing to somewhere, which I thought was odd. I couldn't see a street near me. Directions. Lucky me, I suppose. I followed the signs and saw a place called the Mystery Shack. It looked like your basic tourist trap. The S was missing in Shack, so it spelled Mystery Hack. The S was away from the roof on the ground and being chewed on by a goat. Judging by the sky, it was nearing 6, which was about the time when I had left. My stomach growled at me. That's right.. I've only had a sandwich today. I don't think I even had breakfast. Mmph. After awhile, I found a gift shop portion of the shack. Maybe it has protein bars? Wouldn't hurt to go in, anyways. I need to learn this town. Much to my stomach's despair, there was no food and only overpriced items. My hunger kept screaming at me the entire time, not to mention I needed sleep. I was in bad condition. I loitered around, not really interested in the merchandise, but not really wanting to leave, either. There were two girls in a corner that snickered to each other, said a few words, and then looked over at me. I guess they saw me staring because one of them came over to talk to me. They looked about 12 or 13. A brown haired girl with big green eyes and a sweater on skipped over. She held her hand out for a handshake. How are you wearing a sweater? It's like, 96 degrees outside.

"Hi! I'm Mabel!" She looked at my shirt and gasped. "O-M-G! I love red circles. I like the color red, actually. Well, all colors. Ooh! Oh! I love the RAINBOW! The rainbow is so pretty! Except on smile dip. Bleh! Rainbows, puppies... Do you like puppies? Because I LOVE puppies!"

I blinked at the girl's rant. "Umm.. Yeah. I have a dog back at home named Cujo." I shouldn't talk about ghosts to these people.. Ugh, shut your mouth, Danny. "And thanks, I guess. I do wear this shirt a lot..."

"You know, your black hair is awful cute... I could just ruffle it for days!"

Mabel's short, black haired friend came up behind her. "Oooh, Mabel, look at his eyes. So pretty and blue. I am Candy!"

"Uhhh.. Excuse us for a second!" Mabel dragged Candy away by a few feet. I listened in with my super-hearing, although they weren't that far away. I could probably hear them with normal ears.

"Candy, I told you, this one is mine!"

"But Mabel, we have the same color of hair!"

"I warmed him up!"

"I guess we'll see which one of us he likes better."

"Grenda would be able to decide if she were here... Sleepovers just aren't as destructive without her!" The two nodded in agreement and walked back over to me.

"Hey, how would you feel if we kissed. Like, right now," Mabel grinned.

My eyes widened. I mean, she was only a year or two younger than me, but still... Sam was back home. I couldn't betray her like that. It wasn't like our fake-out make-outs had meant much, but... Well... It's complicated. We weren't dating, were we? Sam and I never officially started dating... Heh.. I wish we had though. What? Was someone talking? Oh yeah. "Uhhh.. What was your name again?"

She punched me really hard in the arm and laughed really loudly and awkwardly. "Mabel, silly! Haha! Hah!" A red-head at the checkout counter stared at us, half-smiling. Mabel poked her friend in the arm. "Tag... tag..."

"I'm Candy, your dream girl." She twirled in her hair, but it knotted mid-curl. "Heh! Heh heh." Candy quickly untangled her hair. "Love is in the air, isn't it? Breathe it in." She breathed in really deeply to demonstrate. I was holding my breath, but that was interrupted by my ghost sense. Great. I just love vacations, don't you?

"I'm sorry ladies, but I have to go to the bathroom. Badly. Where is it?" Mabel pointed me to it. "Thank you!" I sprinted into it and transformed. In this dimension, I would have to be careful. Nobody knew Danny Phantom existed. As I phased through the wall, I stayed intangible and invisible. Outside of the shack was chaos. Shoppers were running around wildly, and one kid was frantically flipping through a book. I flew up beside him to see what the book was about. He was mumbling to himself.

"zombies..gnomes..c'mon...ghosts? Where's ghosts? There it is," he said to himself. I looked up, only to see Skulker. Already? How did he find me...or even GET here?

"Ghost child, just accept your defeat!" Have to stay... invisible... have to keep from being seen.. Government agents and hunters. That didn't sound good. My hunger and exhaustion was beginning to kick in, and it was even worse than before. Phantom was eating up my energy. I couldn't stay in my form, otherwise I would risk transforming in front of everyone. I flew back into the shack's bathroom and changed back. Once I exited through the front in my human form, Skulker was already starting another fight. The guy with the book seemed to be keeping him busy, but it wouldn't last for long. Suddenly, he began chanting. "Yek si htaed morf gnivas, em gnikcatta erutaerc eht eci." A circle formed around Skulker, slowly freezing him. I didn't do that. At least, I didn't think I did... The kid who had been chanting looked around, freaked out and with a worried look on their face.

"I'll take it from here..." I said to him. He just looked confused. Quickly, I took the thermos out of my backpack and Skulker inside of it. "Done. No need to thank me."

He was silent for a moment, but then began talking. "What..who..where..What is that thing?!" The boy finally managed his words and pointed at the Fenton thermos. "There's a ghost inside there!"

"No..." I quickly thought of an excuse. You idiot! This may be a freaky town, but that doesn't mean that they are used to supernatural happenings! "Ghost? You must be mistaken. I just closed my hologram." He glared at me funny. I don't think he bought it, so I added in some fake laughter. It was a pretty sucky and unbelievable excuse. I was never good at lying. That was always Sam's job... "What's wrong, kid? Isn't a guy allowed to have a pet hologram?"

"Dipper.. Not kid. The name's Dipper Pines." Dipper tilted his pine tree hat upwards. "Why do I find it so hard to believe that you have a pet hologram? There was nothing for it to project on... I've never seen a hologram like THAT before. My spell.. It worked on it, too."

"Your what?" That's what he was doing. "Like, magic spell? What's that book?"

His facial expression was very alarmed. Dipper hugged his book very close to his chest. "A...uh.. Nothing! Just a book on space. Astronomy, space, stars, and... yep!" Didn't look like a space book... I figured it was better not to stick my noses too closely in other people's business (Unless I'm invisible. Then the snooping begins). My stomach roared like a frickin lion. I was hungry and tired. Dipper was a bit startled by it, but was definitely more surprised when the girl from earlier, Mabel, popped out from behind him. "You're HUNGRY?! I'm hungry, too. We should go eat something. Do you like diners? I love diners. What about pies?! Greasy's Diner has the BEST pies!"

I patted my jean pockets and groaned. "Can't. I'm broke." Oh, great...

"I can arrange something! You can come with Dipper and me there! Grunkle Stan can drive!" I cocked my head to the side. Grunkle? What the heck is a grunkle?

"I never agreed to come," Dipper responded.

"Too bad! Stan is driving us there so he can meet... What's your name?"

"Danny."

"Mabel, I'm pretty sure Stan's eyes need better than glasses to be able to drive us anywhere safely," Dipper said. I noticed that the two looked pretty similar. "Let's just walk."

"Danny... Such a hot name."

"Hey, are you two related?" I ignored my stomach growling at me, again.

Mabel nodded happily. "Yep! We're twins. Twin, twin, twins. On Halloween, we have matching outfits. I'm older though."

"By five minutes!" Dipper added.

"Yeah, whatever." She continued to talk on and on as we proceeded to walk to the diner. "Let's get a big, cherry pie!" After we ordered the food, my stomach was pretty full. My body was demanding sleep at this point. I was one sugar crash away from sleeping in the middle of the street. I yawned and wondered where I would stay. Hmm.. This girl seemed to like me. I guess I could use that...

"Hey," I yawned. "You guys have a place I could crash at for the night?"

Mabel viciously nodded. "Oh yes, oh yeah! Please! We can stay up all night and read books and talk and talk..." I swear her pupils tripled in size. "We can learn each other's secrets..." I sweated a little bit at the mention of secrets. Dipper had been eyeing me the entire time I had been eating. Sure, I hadn't been eating very neatly, but could you blame me? I was so hungry. They had heard my dinosaur stomach. (rawwwwwr!)

"I was actually thinking of just sleeping. Just need a place to crash at for the night."

"Oh..." She sounded disappointed. "Well, we have a couch. It's only 8, though. Dipper and I are allowed to stay up until 10. You want to watch Ducktective with us?"

Ducktective? I silently wondered. "I'll sleep anywhere at this point." There were bags beginning to form under my eyes. "Please..."

We walked back to the shack. Mabel went upstairs to go 'freshen up' and 'get a surprise.' Right when I was about to fall asleep on the couch, Dipper walked up to me. "I have some questions for you..."

"Can it wait til the morning, kid?"

"I'm not a kid! And no, it can't."

Too late. I drifted off into sleep...

A yellow, brick triangle with a single eye appeared in front of me. The area around me was black. He squinted at me. "Well, well, well. Look who we have here." He scratched his head. "Seriously, who are you? I've been watching this town forever and not once have you shown up..." I considered transforming into Phantom, but this Dorito chip didn't seem to know who I was. He didn't have a mouth, but could still express sound.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" I just wanted to get this conversation over with...

"I'm Bill Cipher." The world seemed to stop for a moment, and my heartbeat seemed to get louder. Uh oh. Didn't Clockwork say something about dream demon? And evil? "I want that thermos thing you used earlier. I don't know what it was or did, but you showed up when Pine Tree was battling that ghost. Phew. He didn't see Phantom.

"Yeah, it's a gift from my parents. Was supposed to be a soup container, but they're ghost inventors. Their inventions don't always end up quite right. Why do you want it?"

"I've got to confiscate your illegal items, Danny." Illegal? "I'm just kidding. Hey, maybe I could make it worth your while to give it to me..." The triangle's eye seemed to light up. Was he about to propose a deal?

It's a quarter after one, I'm not drunk.. and I need sleep now. Danny's exhaustion was inspired by my own. G'night.