Danny stood by his locker waiting, final bell rang about five minutes ago, in the before times, he'd have Sam and Tucker walking up to join him, but in the previous weeks he had taken to just leaving when school let out. Today was different though, he had people that he had to wait on, almost felt like everything was normal.

Then reality hit him. "Nerd," Dash shouted as he walked up with his jock buddies who were busy shoving each other.

"Dash," Danny grumbled, he didn't want to spend much time around the quarterback, so he was hoping that Star would be the first one to show up so he could try to convince her to ditch Dash.

Dash looked at the locker next to Danny with an excited gleam. "I think we got time," Dash smirked as he grabbed the collar of Danny's shirt and used his free hand to wrench open the locker.

"Daaaaash," a demure voice carried through the near empty halls. The blonde girl skipped up to the boys, her long hair swishing behind her. "Come on, we don't have time for you to be picking on Danny," Star whined as she pulled Danny out of Dash's grasp. Still unused to physical contact with girls, he blushed at her gentle touch.

Danny cleared his throat and turned away from everyone. "Come on, let's get this over with," Danny muttered as he walked down the hall towards the exit.


The walk home from school felt longer than usual, but that could have to do with his present company. Dash was trodding along in front of him as he had his arm around the blonde girl's shoulder, regaling her with a tale of his athletic prowess.

Star was carrying her books close to her chest and was trying not to roll her eyes at Dash, the football player hit on anything with two legs and breasts. "Wasn't he dating Paulina," she thought as nodded along with something Dash was saying. "Kwan's family pulled him out of school and sent him across the country to live while they tried to negotiate closing their restaurant without getting screwed over by the bank." The blonde girl sighed as she thought about another failed romance.

Danny sighed as he watched as the pair in front of him, with that sigh came a familiar feeling, a wisp of blue air flew from his mouth. "Oh no," Danny groaned. "Today had been going, alright," he thought as he stopped and looked around, including up. When he heard the sound of the air moving behind him, he instinctively rolled forward as a ghostly blade passed where his gut was. He sprung up on his hands and vaulted over Dash and Star.

"Whelp," Skulker shouted, infuriated that his ambush failed. "I will have your pelt," the hunter snarled.

Danny, stood up and glared at Skulker. "Really, it's been so nice not having you around, Skulkie," Danny taunted.

Dash and Star were frozen in fear and confusion. In front of them floated one of the most dangerous ghosts this town regularly is attacked by and Daniel Fenton was making fun of him. Dash slowly backed away, fully intent on running. "Fenton," he hissed. "Why are you pissing him off."

"Yes Halfa, why banter when we can fight," Skulker shouted as he unleashed a barrage of rockets from his shoulder. The missiles flew past Star who ducked and shrieked in fright as the wind kicked up, blowing her long hair wildly.

Danny, weaved in between the pattern and lunged forward, landing a fist on Skulker's robotic chin, knocking him away. Danny panted, not from exhaustion, but from the blood pumping through his body working itself up. "So, you take a vacation, is that why you didn't come see me for so long," Danny joked as Skulker flipped into a standing position. The hunter launching a net from one of his wrists while also throwing a razor-sharp disc under it, closing off his prey's exits.

Danny smirked as he watched the two-pronged attack heading towards him. Kicking off the ground he pulled his arms towards his chest and spun, rotating his body inbetween the high and low attack. He stretched out his hands quickly to push off Skulker's incoming knee as the hunter followed up on the attack, anticipating the ghost child avoiding it.

Still the force sent Danny rolling along the ground, the teen using the momentum to spring up to his feet. "I almost felt like you didn't like me anymore," Danny joked. "Did you find another halfa to harass," Danny feigned hurt. "I thought we had something special."

Skulker laughed. "Oh ghost child no prey is as special as you," Skulker said as he pulled out a spear and rushed Danny.

Dash had hidden behind a tree and watched, what he considered the nerdiest nerd to ever leave the nerd kingdom, not only fighting a ghost hunter, but holding his own. He watched as the kid who could barely climb a rope in gym, fearlessly, step onto a spear pushing down the end, so the tip buried into the concrete.

Star was engrossed in the battle raging in front of her. Danny just jumped from a spear and landed his knee into a ghost face. "Yeah, get him Danny," she cheered on her classmate. The teen looked at her with wide eyes.

"Why are you still here," Danny shouted suddenly. He noticed that Dash ran off, where he went was irrelevant, just that 'not here' was the best place to be. But Star, that crazy girl, stayed behind to watch and she wasn't even hiding behind something. The teenage girl was on the sidewalk, completely in the open.

"I can tell you why," Skulker cackled, as he rose up next to her and harshly grabbed her hair, making the girl scream in pain. "She will be a hostage," he said his threat accentuated with a tug on her hair, causing tears to form in her eyes.

"Danny, help," Star whimpered.

With a sigh Danny lowered his guard. "Fine, what do you want?" he asked.

Skulker's mouth turned into a disgusting grin. "Well I get nothing from skinning you in your present form," he said, letting the implication hang.

Danny saw a look of pure terror in the teenage girl's eyes, the raven-haired boy slowly walked over to Skulker. "I get it," Danny grumbled as he stopped in front of the ghost.

"Well," Skulker said. "I don't have all day, whelp," he growled and pulled on Star's hair.

With a yelp, Star looked through her teary eyes, the boy that was just moments ago fighting with vigor, suddenly looked so defeated, all because she got caught and was being used against him. "Danny, what," she started to say, but her captor shook her.

"Silence human, this fight is between your betters," Skulker growled. "Now," he gleefully said.

Letting out his breathe, Danny understood that his secret would be out, to one other person, for all of a minute before Skulker took his head. Twin rings of white light formed around his center and ran opposite each other, enveloping him.

Dash watched in amazement as Danny stopped fighting all because Star got caught. "Nerd was winning," Dash whispered, regretting not pulling Star along with him. "Clearly he learned to fight ghosts from his parents," he thought. "What is Fenturd doing," he questioned. When he say the lights form, he gasped.

Star watched as her classmate transformed into the infamous town hero. "Danny Phantom," she gasped, but with a shriek she was tossed aside like a used rag. She looked up at Danny and saw a look of sadness on his face.

Skulker cackled as he punched his fist forward ready to release his wrist claws into the halfa chest, guaranteeing the kill. "At long last, my greatest prey," he shouted but a rock landed on the side of his head, causing the sure attack to go wide and miss.

"Leave him alone," Star screamed as she picked up another chunk of cement.

Skulker snarled and whirled on her raising his arm to fire a dart into her face, a harsh green glow from the corner of his eye reminded him that he made a mistake taking his eye off his original target. "Oh crud," he said before the blast knocked his robotic head off his shoulders.

Danny lowered his hand and grabbed Skulkers head and pulled the actual ghost out from inside. "You almost had me," Danny told the squirming ghost. "But if you ever threaten someone like that again," he looked into the ghost's eyes as his flashed with restrained fury. "I won't put you in the ghost zone, I will rip you apart molecule by molecule," Danny threatened.

Skulker nodded quickly, not in any position to argue, he dangled between the halfa's fingers as he fished through his backpack and groaned as the accursed thermos was pulled from the bag. "I will mount your head above my mantle one day, ghost child," he vowed as he was sucked into the cylindrical container.

Danny shoved the thermos back into his backpack with more force than he meant to, his frustration at having to expose himself to someone he wasn't sure he could trust making his mind run through idea after increasingly bad idea. He released the rings again and returned to his normal form and slowly turned around to see Star and. "Of course," Danny sighed. Dash had come from behind a tree and cautiously moved over to Star.

"So," Danny said and left that hang in the air for a moment.


Author's Notes: The reveal this soon.

Dreams Come True 996: Guess we'll find out.

SofiPhan29: I do like to go for a sense of realism, and people leaving town makes sense to me when it's constantly under siege by ghosts.

sebas12: That's something I do try for as well. That my writing is deep and meaningful but still easy to grasp and understand.