Something is cooky with my computer. Anyway-here's chapie 2.

Chapter 2-Adaption

Phantom seemed to learn from his mistakes. Maddie had been awake for a full hour before he scared her by appearing in the living room as she was coming out of the kitchen. While her hand flew up to her heart, he looked at her, looking somewhat sorry, but that smile on his face told her he was having more fun scaring her.

"I tried making noise," he said, truly looking sorry this time. "Sorry."

"You can't help it," she said, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair. "I'll just have to get use to it.

"Well, what's up for today?"

Maddie took a seat beside him on the couch before explaining.

"Well, for every reaction a life form gives, there is always an adaption to the change in environment. Like how mammals shed and grow heavier coats for the winter, or how bears hibernate when the weather changes."

"Or how I beat the snot out of trespassers whenever they come into town?" Phantom asked, slamming his fist into his open hand with a scary looking smile on his face.

"Well, yes," Maddie said hesitantly, thrown off by his attitude. "Is fighting all you think about?"

Phantom's smile disappeared as he looked down at his clenched fist. He brought his hand down and looked at his lap, his slouched position telling Maddie he was a little embarrassed he had acted the way he had.

"I don't see it as fighting," Phantom said after a moment, his voice oddly reserved and serious. "It's survival."

"This isn't the jungle Phantom," Maddie raised a brow at his explanation. "Would you mind giving me more to work with?"

"Ghosts constantly try to top each other. I want nothing to do with it—despite being a fighter; I just wish I was left alone. I don't like to fight unless I have to."

"You fight to protect your territory?"

"What gave you that idea?" Phantom gave her an odd look that said that wasn't the problem at all. "Ghosts like to come here and try to make me apart of them, to do that, they like messing with humans. I've kind of taken it upon myself to kick them out of this world and back to where they belong. I still have family and friends that are alive, and I don't want to see them hurt."

Maddie blinked, changing her theory in her mind rather quickly with this new information. He wasn't a territorial ghost as in land; he was territorial when it came to people. He was protective of his loved ones he had left alone, claiming them as 'his'. He might not see it that way, but that was what Maddie thought. It was the only way to make his obsession fit with his personality—why he was non-violent towards humans and ready to declare war against his own kind.

He was a guardian, not a menace as many people made him out to be—including her.

"Um, how are we going to do this one?" Phantom broke into her thoughts while changing the subject.

"Well, much like yesterday, we go around town looking for a ghost, only this time—I'll record the whole fight so I can better observe you," she answered, getting up to get her video cam. "Ready?"

Phantom tapped the Fenton Phone that was still in his ear from yesterday.

"This should make for an interesting day," he said, phasing through the couch and the ground, only to reappear in the window.

Maddie grabbed her keys and was out the door, right behind him.

"Well this is odd," Phantom said, lying down on the tree limb he had stretched himself out on, "normally the town if filled with ghosts by noon. It's nearly three and no one's shown up. I don't like it."

"You're paranoid," Maddie said, unpacking her lunch.

Not one ghost all day—and Phantom kept talking about how bad it was that they hadn't seen any. Maddie was relieved that they hadn't run into a ghost all day. Every day was taken up with ghosts so it was a nice respite. She thought that Phantom would be happy as well, but she guessed that he had been fighting ghosts for such a long time that he saw this abnormality as a bad sign.

At Maddie's suggestion at a break, Phantom led them over to the park and he had been up in the tree since. Maddie sat down on the bench that rested in the shade of the branches and began to eat a much-wanted lunch. Phantom filled that time grumbling out odd plots that he theorized from his enemies that could explain the absence of the ghosts. Some of them seemed ludicrous to Maddie.

"What makes you think this Plasmius could possibly take control of the Ghost Zone and then plan to come here just to kill you?" Maddie asked when she heard him grumble that odd plot.

"He won't kill me," Phantom said aloud, "he wants me to be his son."

"And you don't?"

"Of course not! The guy is a fruitloop. He's gone as far as to kidnap me to cloning me to get the perfect son. I think I'm his obsession now, and I don't like it one bit."

"Hmmmm," Maddie hummed in thought. "Very odd for a ghost to be another ghost's obsession. I never thought of that possibility."

"Well, Plasmius isn't all ghost," Phantom seemed to be speaking as if he was treading on glass. "You see, he's like me, different."

"And you're different because you aren't all ghost?" she asked, thinking how impossible that was.

Phantom didn't say anything. Maddie looked up into the tree to see the ghost boy looking down on her with a far-away look in his green eyes.

"He's the only other one like me," Phantom said quietly. "He's offered a home for me, helping me with my powers, acceptance into something that wouldn't make me feel like a freak—but it had too steep a price, so I turned him down."

"And what was the price? To turn your back on humans?" Maddie asked.

"In a way, if I ever turned my back on my morals, I would become a monster. I would lose my humanity."

Maddie stared at him, lunch forgotten. How could a ghost have humanity? Morals sure, but humanity? It was impossible! Ghosts were dead, they weren't human anymore so they couldn't possibly have any more humanity—unless. . .

"Impossible," Maddie shook her head. "There's no way that could happen."

"Huh?" Phantom asked, not catching what she said.

"Nothing, just musing."

The sudden strike of thunder right over their heads startled Maddie and knocked Phantom out of his tree. He got on his feet as Maddie watched the rapidly darkening sky, the clouds rolling towards them at high speeds. The wind was pulling at her hair and making her eyes water. After another clap of thunder, the rain was coming down in buckets, striking so heavily and hard that it actually hurt to be under the clouds.

Maddie was about to run for the RV when the rain suddenly stopped. She opened her eyes to see everything tinged an unearthly green, the rain continuing to pour outside and making muted thumping noises on the green dome.

"You alright?" Phantom asked her.

She turned her eyes down to him, watching him wring his white hair dry over his face. He sputtered when the dripping water hit his face. Maddie chuckled a little, finding it rather comical.

"Can't you just turn intangible?" she asked.

Phantom face palmed his face with a sharp slap.

"Duh," he said under his breath and promptly turned intangible to get rid of the water. "You need a dry off?"

Maddie didn't feel a hundred percent—her wet hazmat material sticking to her, making her skin feel heavier by the moment. However, the thought of having a ghost touch her was not a pleasant one. Phantom didn't wait for her approval though and grabbed her wrist. There was a quick tingling sensation, the trickle of water as it slid off her now transparent form, and then Phantom's hand was gone and she was solid once again.

"Amazing," she said, looking at her now dry hand, then she looked back up at the dome. "Did you do this?"

"Yeah, I don't like getting wet," he said, shrugging and sitting down on the bench after making it dry as well.

"Phantom, don't you realize that you just adapted to the change in the weather?" she asked him.

"All I did was put up a shield," he said as if it was no big deal.

"That's adaption Phantom. You simply put up a shield to block the rain. Most ghosts would just fly through it right?"

"Well yeah, but most ghosts don't mind getting wet or don't get cold," Phantom shivered slightly at the thought. "I hate both. Normally, I'm indifferent to the weather as well, but water is different somehow."

"Hmmmm," Maddie thought again as she sat down next to him. "That is odd. However, that's even more of a reason to do these tests. Just because you aren't as tolerant as other ghosts to our weather, it still states that you are different. The thing is though I don't know how exactly you are different. The only explanation would be that you're a hybrid or something of the like."

Phantom ducked his head and looked at the ground, shuffling his feet on the ground uneasily.

"That's it isn't?" she asked, dumbfounded. "You're a hybrid."

"Don't go blabbing it," he said moodily. "Not many people know and I would like to keep it that way."

She could imagine why. If others caught onto this idea, it could spell bad days for Phantom in the future, most of them with lab tables and dissecting tools. She was highly curious as to how this could be herself, but she didn't want to see him get taken away from his home. If a ghost was taken away from his haunt, it could spell disaster for everyone involved. Now granted it had never happened before, but all theories and signs pointed to a bad time.

"I won't say anything," she said.

Phantom looked up at her in shock and she gave him a reassuring smile. He gave a tight shy smile back before looking up into the sky to watch the rain fall.

Is it possible that this ghost could have any trace of humanity? Maddie thought as she watched the boy stare up at the sky. Well, he certainly doesn't act like a mindless drone, bound to his obsession. He thinks, he connects, and he cares—all signs of at least something of him being human. The appearance and powers would put anyone off, but his whole attitude and demeanor is too familiar, too human to be a mark against him. Something is definitely human about Phantom.

Maddie's eyes opened wide when she saw Phantom yawn and stretch his arms lazily.

"Tired?" she asked.

"I didn't get much sleep last night," he said thickly, rubbing his eyes. "I never get much sleep anymore."

"Why don't you lie down?"

"Can't, what if a ghost attacks?"

Maddie chuckled, seeing some of her husband in the boy with that statement.

"I'll wake you up if there's a ghost."

Phantom nodded and leaned back against the bench, closing his eyes and his head lolling over almost instantly in sleep. After a few moments, he slipped down and his head landed on her shoulder. She could feel his even breaths as he subconsciously made himself more comfortable against her side. Maddie stroked some of his hair out of his eyes and wondered at how he was able to breath and sleep like this. Her theories about him being human were dashed as she realized that they were right. The only explanation was that Phantom had some humanity left, and human anatomy.

She could feel his very solid form against her own. She moved her hand to his arm and felt the well muscled biceps and shoulder. Her hand traveled down to his chest where she felt yet more muscle as well as the expansion of the hazmat suit as he breathed, but what made her freeze was the constant thump-thump of his heart beat.

"A heart?" she asked herself, looking down at what she now to be a human hybrid ghost.

As impossible and insane as it sounded, there was no denying it now. Phantom was a human with ghost powers—a freak of nature. He must feel very alone in this world now, thinking he didn't fit in with ghosts or humans.

"But I don't get it," she said, frowning now. "If he is a hybrid, there should be some sort of evidence as to his death. Ghosts show off their scars that got them killed all of the time."

Curiosity taking her over, Maddie gently lifted Phantom's left arm and looked at it. She felt his skin through the hazmat material and felt something crunch under the glove. Being delicate and quiet, she pulled the glove off to investigate and gasped, horrified at what she saw. The skin was dead and shriveled, looking as if someone had tried to barbeque it and left it over the coals for way to long. She didn't think he was a burn victim because burns would be all over his body, but there was one other explanation—electrocution. Phantom had been shocked to death—or rather half dead.

She put the glove back on and put his arm back at his side. He hadn't stirred at all the whole time. Maddie was begging to think she should call this all off. She shouldn't mess with a fourteen-year-old in a delicate situation like this. He now trusted her, even though he obviously hadn't before.

But, the question that she thought of now was this hybrid really alive, or would he be considered dead when he was found out. There was no way he could keep a secret like this quiet for much longer. Someone was bound to find out the truth sooner or later like she had. She owed it to him to find out if he was alive or not—to see if he was still human all. Now she understood why Phantom seemed disappointed at the table yesterday morning when she said he had to pass all of the tests to be considered alive—he didn't want to be thought of as dead, and she didn't either.