Danny Phantom:

Crisis: Backlash

Author's Notes: Hey there, back again with chapter 2 of the re-write. Not really much to say, so I won't waste much time before getting into the story. From here on out, things from the original story may be spotted here and there, but most of the details are going to be very different, so keep reading on. You'll be surprised if you leave it up to "I read that last time." Anyways, I'd love to hear some feedback, so any reviews are welcome. I won't keep you any longer, so here you have Chapter Two of Backlash.

Chapter Two:

The Difference Is In The Incisors

Danny, for one, wasn't sure if it was very good luck or very bad luck what had just happened. Not that Dash had just dropped dead in the middle of class. That didn't qualify as luck at all. It was bad, no question about it. What Danny was wondering about was far from Dash's expiration itself, but more along the lines of the fact that two weeks into the term, all of the students had just been sent home. What Danny found to be funny was not the fact that all students had been sent home, but the ghosts were not even a suspect in the murder yet. They believed the culprit to be something much smaller.

So the students would not be allowed to return to the school until after a medical evaluation was completed for every student that Dash had ever come into contact with and a 40-day quarantine of the school building itself. Not returning to school didn't really bother him. It was more the medical exam that would. He knew he'd probably be able to pass his examination easily, but what concerned him is that if the doctor noticed that his body temperature was lower when ghosts were about, someone was going to start asking questions. He only hoped they'd stay away for awhile.

After Dash had dropped dead in class, the entire student body had been sent to the gym, where they awaited instructions. Most of them had no idea what had happened at first, but the news spread like wildfire, so it only took roughly fifteen minutes for the panic that Danny knew to be inevitable to start. Suddenly students were crying or shouting, some of them terrified, some of them angry, and all of them shocked. Danny expected no less of the regular students. He was, however, surprised to find that Jace was just as fear-inspired as the rest of the students. The two had been crammed together by the immense throng of teenagers that pushed their way into the gym aside their classmates.

"You alright?" Danny asked awkwardly, seeing how pale the other looked. Jace only nodded, unable to find his voice.

The loudspeakers in the gym crackled to life. "ALL STUDENTS ARE TO REMAIN CALM," the voice of the principal commanded. An eerie hush settled over the crowd. "Students are to proceed through a medical evaluation and then sent home if the evaluation is good. No classes will be held until after a forty-day quarantine period. Parents are being called right now. Please remain calm through this ordeal, and move towards the doors in an orderly fashion. Make single-file lines at the examination stations, and once complete, move quickly to keep the lines going. Thank you, that is all."

Slowly, like a herd of cattle, the students began moving towards the doors. Danny queued up in front of Sam and Tucker, who looked around to make sure they weren't being listened in on and whispered, "Danny, did you see your breath?"

Danny didn't respond, simply nodding in reply and fixing his eyes nervously on the man wearing the latex gloves. Sam heard him gulp. She and Tucker whispered to one another, trying to brainstorm a way for Danny's temperature to rise again before he reached the front of the line. They moved slowly but steadily, each student taking his or her turn being poked and prodded by "medical professionals" while the students behind them wondering if Dash's horrible disease had been contagious. Paulina had been sobbing hysterically when she'd heard the news, having had his tongue quite near her own only an hour before his death.

Fortunately for her, she'd come off as clean, and had promptly pulled herself together. She did have appearances to keep, after all.

Danny wasn't sure his diagnosis would be quite as clean.

"How do you usually get rid of it?" Tucker hissed, eying the examiner warily.

"It just happens over time, or if I get rid of all the cold at once. I really don't have that luxury right now," he added, glancing around and chewing his lip.

Time was running short. "Do something!" Tucker hissed at Sam as he stepped forward. She bounced on her heals for a moment. "Hey doc, how's it going?" he asked, rather loudly, attempting to stall for time.

Without thinking, Sam grabbed Danny by the shoulders, jerked him to face her, and stepped forward, pressing herself into him. Shock was the only thing on Danny's mind as he felt her lips connect with his. It lasted for what felt like eternity, and for a moment, he almost prayed that it wouldn't end. It wasn't exactly something he'd want to broadcast to his friends, or peers for that matter.

"Hey, no kissing in the line!" the medical examiner snapped, and rolled his eyes as Danny stumbled into the station. "Jeez kid, wait 'til you get home," he said, and crammed a fresh thermometer into Danny's mouth. "Good lord, a little hot aren't we?" he asked redundantly. He glanced at the teenager, then back to the line where Sam stood, bright red and trying to explain herself to the group of girls who'd started giggling behind her. "I get it, I get it, just try to keep it PG until you get to your room and make sure you wrap it up tight." He dropped a small brown paper bag into Danny's lap and scooted him out of the station.

"What's that?" Tucker asked, pointing. Danny said nothing, only growled and crammed it into his pocket.

"Can we go before this gets any more awkward?" he muttered as Sam arrived to join them.

"Now remember, Jazz is in charge. You guys know the rules. No loud parties, no citations, and no using the Ops center," Maddie said as she dragged an over-laden suitcase down the stairs. Danny stood at the bottom, arms folded and listening as his mother spoke. "Oh, and please don't destroy the lab."

"Oh, and here's these," Jack said as he walked past, dropping a small box into Danny's hands.

"Dad!" Danny sputtered, fumbling with the box.

"I don't want grand kids until after you graduate."

Danny groaned and slapped a palm to his forehead. Maddie pulled he and Jazz into a tight hug and then stood in the doorway, gazing towards them and running through her mental check list to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.

"Well, we'll be back in about three days if this lead doesn't work out," she said. "We'll be back before Jazz leaves for Harvard."

And then they shut the door behind them with a click and Danny listened as the rumbling of the RV vanished down the street. What a time for his parents to vanish, in the same week as the school mayhem and the rumors spreading about ghost involvement. Then again, that may have been the whole reason they'd gone. Danny wasn't sure. He glanced up at Jazz, who was wearing an mischievously innocent smile as she watched him.

"What?" he asked at last, seeing that she wasn't going to respond unless prompted. "And before you ask, no we're not ghost hunting tonight. I have no desire to be sucked into the thermos," he said quickly before she'd had a chance to speak.

"That's not what I was getting at," she muttered and rolled her eyes. "I invited over a few people to just... hang out."

"Okay?"

"I need you to fix the stereo."

Danny stared at her. "You want me to fix the stereo so you and your friends can listen to your girl bands?" he asked incredulously. His comment was met with another eye-roll.

"No, smart ass. I invited your friends too. Tucker, Sam, and Val are on their way over. Tanya and Gary will be here soon, too."

"So... you're throwing a party."

"No, it's a small get-together. Now let's get working," she said brightly and scooted him into the living room.

"Hey, we early?" came Tucker's voice from the door. Danny laughed at the confused expression he wore, and was silenced quickly by a look from his sister. He set to work, laying on the ground beneath the stereo and toying with the wires. Sam sat beside him, and Jazz and Tucker vanished into the kitchen. When food was involved, Tucker always made sure he was wherever the food was.

The awkward tension between Danny and Sam did not go unnoticed by either one, as they remained silent in their hopes that the other might speak first. Danny might have spoken first but he really didn't know what he should say. He was certainly confused, that much was given. The past two weeks had been filled with nothing but mixed signals from Sam. He stared at the wires in his hand but stayed silent. Danny guessed that the tension between them had gone back farther than just their fight a few weeks previous. After all, it was hard to avoid the awkwardness that accompanied the time after you had attempted to kiss one of your best friends. The past summer had been an odd one.

Someone banged loudly on the door and pushed it open. "Hey guys!" Valerie called into the room, walking in with Jace in tow.

"Hey Val," Danny said from his position under the stereo. Sam gave her an acknowledging nod. "Jazz and Tuck are in the kitchen, we'll be done in a minute," he said while stripping the anti-ecto wiring from the stereo and jerking out what looked like a bottle of grape juice. It crackled to life.

Tanya and Gary arrived quite shortly after Valerie did, and soon they were joined but Jazz and Tucker, who bore large amounts of snack food carried between the two of them. They laughed, talked, played through music and had all sorts of enjoyment that lasted probably several hours. Danny wasn't sure, since he was so busy being lost in his own thoughts that he was hardly paying attention to the others in the living room. He lay on the couch, one leg hanging off and the other bent and drawn towards him, as he stared at the ceiling.

Food supplies ran low between the eight teenagers (except Jace, who hadn't eaten anything but had been sucking down the red soda he'd brought with him), so the crowd migrated towards the kitchen and more snack food. Danny and Sam remained behind, for whatever reason. Danny sighed heavily. Again the silence ensued, and Danny thought that he might go mad because of it.

"We can't keep this up, Danny," Sam said at last. He jumped slightly, her sudden voice snapping him back to reality. She sat beside him on the couch, sitting at an angle and facing him.

"Keep what up?" he asked innocently from his position on the couch.

"We can't keep dodging each other and pretending like our fight never happened."

"Sure we can. It wasn't a big deal," he said slowly, almost uncertain of his words.

"It was, and you know it. I guess... I dunno, something seems off this ti-" she started, but was abruptly interrupted. Danny had moved to sit up properly, but had misjudged the distance between himself and Sam. He hadn't expected her to be sitting so close.

Their lips touched, and neither spoke for a long time, nor moved, nor hardly even breathed. At length, Danny pressed in again, pulling her close and embracing her. She reached up a single hand to place on his shoulder, leaning into him deeper as his tongue explored her mouth. He was getting dizzy, things were becoming foggy and he was losing grip on rationality... there was only one thing on his mind now. He placed a hand on her lower back and pulled her down onto the couch with him. She didn't resist. He was starting to run out of air...

BANG! BANG! BANG! Someone was pounding on the door. Sam leaped over the back of the couch and dashed into the bathroom, probably to fix her makeup, Danny surmised, while he, in his surprise, rolled off the couch and landed hard on the floor. "Ow..." he muttered to himself, wincing slightly as he landed. "I got it!" he called into the kitchen and got up to answer the door.

"Erm... hi Katana," he said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. Her eyes were less black this time, but she still didn't look right. "Here for the party?"

"No..." she said, her voice strangled. "I need... I need to speak with my brother."

"Um... sure thing. Hey Jace!" Danny called into the house. The other Liems twin appeared, chuckling. When his eyes fell on his sister, the smile vanished and a grim expression settled on his face. He nodded to Danny.

"We'll just be a moment," he said. "Nice lipstick, by the way," he chuckled slightly and stepped out the door. Danny rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand quickly.

"What was that about?" Sam's voice came from over his shoulder. He shrugged.

"Dunno, looks pretty fishy to me." She nodded, and Danny took the prerogative to turn himself invisible and slip silently through the door.

The tension between the twins was more intense than what Danny and Sam had experienced earlier, and it was nothing good. Jace looked nervous, Katana looked angry, and Danny was very confused.

"You're fraternizing with a girl," Katana stated. It was a simple fact, almost like she just wanted it to be expressed aloud.

"Well I'm no' a puff," he said indignantly.

"You're fraternizing with a human girl," she said. He rolled his eyes.

"Listen, Kat, we've talked about this already. We're not barred from it, and s'long as we keep our appetite in check, there's no problem."

"Are you going to turn her?"

"Erm... no... not unless she asks me to, and even then I don't think I'd want to."

She stared at him. "So you're a blood traitor."

"What?" he said, confusing and exasperation mingling in his voice. "What the hell does that mean?"

"You're a blood traitor and you're going to pay for it," she snarled. "I have a new master, Jace, and this insolence will not go unpunished."

He stared at her, dumbstruck. "Who are you and where's my sister?" he asked incredulously. "Look, I don't have time for this. Snap out of it, I'll be home in a few hours."

She didn't respond at first. Then, slowly, with eyes gleaming in an insidious manner, she whispered, "You're gonna regret this." And then she was gone.

"Sorry about that," Jace said when he finally re-entered the house. Danny was sitting beside Sam on the couch, flipping through a CD case filled with music and movies, apparently trying to decide what to watch. "Is Val still in the kitchen?"

"Last I checked," Sam replied, pointing out a gory movie that Danny had no interest in watching. He shook his head. The English boy walked into the kitchen.

"So what else happened?" Sam whispered when Jace was out of earshot.

"That was it. It was really weird, too," he said, shaking his head. Jace had returned, looking somewhat confused again.

"Can't seem to find her," he said, glancing up the stairs. Danny opened his mouth to respond, but someone screamed. He blinked, almost certain the scream hadn't come from his mouth but suddenly unsure because of the timing. Sam blinked, and looked up at Jace. The sound had come from upstairs. The three of them, followed closely by the kitchen crowd, bolted up the stairs, an eerie feeling settling in the pit of Danny's stomach.

Something bad was happening.

Danny threw open his door first, while Jazz made her way to her own room. Neither found anything unusual. Sam headed straight for the master bedroom, while Tucker jerked open closet doors. Jace yanked open the bathroom door.

"BEWARE!" was his greeting. He blinked in surprise and slammed the door.

"Do not ignore me!" came the voice from the half-visible man floating through the door. Danny growled threateningly.

"GUYS!" Sam screamed from Jack and Maddie's room. "Guys hurry!" she said. Danny and Jace dashed down the hall, while Tucker and Jazz took care of the floating pest problem.

"Oh no..." Danny breathed as he entered. "What happened?"

"No idea, I found her like this," Sam replied quietly. Jace moved aside Valerie's dark brown locks and swore under his breath. Two holes the size of a pea were punctured into her neck. But she still had a pulse, her breathing was even, and she was beginning to stir. Danny let out a sigh of relief.

"Nnggh..." she groaned. "What happened?"

Jace offered a smile. "You alright?"

"I think so..." she replied. "I don't feel so well."

Jace looked up at Danny. "I'll take her home, then. Sorry about this, guys."

"Think she's gonna be okay?" Sam asked, pulling her shirt up over her head. Danny stood on the other side of the room, facing the opposite wall. Tucker sat on the bed, facing Danny. "She didn't look so well."

"The holes in her neck weren't exactly healthy," Tucker said sardonically.

"I dunno, I hope so," Danny said quietly. "It's just... after what happened with Jace and his crazy sister, I don't think it happened by coincidence."

"Well, what else happened?"

"Nothing really. She called him a blood traitor, said he was gonna pay and left."

"Revenge?" Tucker supplied. Sam pulled another larger shirt over her head and drew up a pair of black cotton pants.

"Could be," she said, pulling the rest of her hair into a ponytail and sitting beside Tucker. Danny took the opportunity to change as well, and the other two turned to face the other wall. "Revenge for what though?"

"Well, Katana said he was fraternizing with a human girl," Danny said and pulled his shirt over his head. "Could be that they're not human."

"Then what are they?" Tucker asked, removing his glasses and beret and rubbing his eyes.

"I'm guessing vampire," Sam said. Tucker raised an eyebrow.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked incredulously.

"It's not that much of a stretch, Tuck," Danny said, jerking up a pair of blue cotton sleeping pants and a plain t-shirt. He sat beside them on the bed and Tucker stood, now taking his turn.

"How do you figure?" he asked as he fumbled around, half-blind, his his backpack.

"Well," Sam started. "They're not human, and Jace doesn't eat," she said. Danny stared at her. "Don't ask," she said, rolling her eyes.

Tucker pulled on his own sleeping attire and joined them, and the three continued their whispered discussion.

"I dunno, anything is possible at this point. Maybe we should ask Jace?" Danny suggested. Tucker shrugged, and Sam nodded.

"Well, at worst he won't answer, and we can find this out for ourselves. But either way, I think we need to move fast, or Val might meet the same fate as Dash."