Thanks to Pterodactyl, iluvlucy7, Rebecca the Animorph, Snickerer, Blaidd Drwg, Sasia93, and Shadow Crystal Mage.

Chapter 3: Fear

I do not own Danny Phantom.

Three days after the animal invasion, life in Amity Park was the most paranormally strange it had ever been. The only people not obsessing about something or other were the halfas, who were either immune to the effects because they were half-ghost already or because they'd already developed obsessions of some kind. They hadn't decided yet.

Cathy was driving Lancer and Dani crazy with a firm insistence that the apartment had to be absolutely spotless, but had recognized what she was doing and was trying to curb it. Jack and Maddie Fenton had taken ghost research to the extreme, so Danny was avoiding them as much as possible but hoped that whatever they were doing in the basement would lead to answers as to what was going on. Tucker Foley, Danny's technogeek best friend, was now on par with Technus when it came to technological obsession and couldn't be dragged away from his PDA for anything. Sam, of course, had become obsessed with environmentalism and individuality, and Jazz with her studies.

Casper High wasn't much better than Danny's home life. Dash had fixated on bullying Danny, and the rest of the football team was either obsessing about football or pounding on the other "losers" of the school. Paulina, mercifully, was focusing on her flawless skin, but the rest of the Official Danny Phantom Fan Club had taken their schoolgirl obsession with him to the next level and many were now technically stalking him.

The possession of inanimate objects that Lancer had dealt with in his apartment had now spread to every aspect of Amity Park life, meaning that you couldn't go anywhere without being attacked by something. For example, the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle no longer touched the ground even when Jack wasn't driving it, Tucker's PDA was writing messages to him, and Danny's gym class had spent several periods playing single-team dodgeball.

To top off the list of strange goings-on, the residents of Amity Park (again with the exception of the three halfas) were beginning to take on the physical characteristics of ghosts. Nothing was overly pronounced, but there were definite alterations.

Take Casper High, for instance.

Danny was the only normal looking student in the entire school. Sam was slowly turning violet, Tucker's dark skin had a green tinge to it, and the other students were becoming myriad shades of blue, green, pink, and purple. Dash had appeared that morning sporting fangs and a red glint in his eyes, and he wasn't the only one to exhibit other physical changes. Several students now had hooked noses, pointed ears, or glowing eyes of unusual colours. Others had claws instead of fingernails, or muscles that hadn't been there the week before. Paulina's flawless skin was accented by a light golden aura.

Everyone in town was worried and nervous about what was going on, and Lancer had been working double-time in tandem with the mayor's office and the Fentons to reassure everyone and keep them calm. Unfortunately, this left Danny (and Dani, who'd talked Lancer into letting her fight now that she was stable) to do the dirty work of controlling the paranormal activity as best they could. Luckily, they both seemed to be getting stronger, since three hours of constant fighting barely tired either of them anymore.

Danny and Lancer were also worried that, with all the changes taking place to the population, the halfas would soon be the subject of suspicion, since their appearance wasn't changing. They had discussed this at length with the rest of Team Phantom, to prepare for the event that their cover was blown. The conclusion was that, while keeping the secret was for the best, the halfas were popular with the town and Lancer's educational programs were effective enough that if they were found out, the town would accept them almost without hesitation.

It was late Wednesday afternoon now and the three halfas had taken advantage of a lull in their other duties to get a bit of power testing in at their favourite abandoned warehouse. Lancer was standing in the middle of the room, in ghost form, and Danny, Dani, Sam, and Tucker stood in a rough circle around him, each with a large crate full of junk. They were taking turns throwing the objects at Lancer, who was stopping them with his mind. He had just frozen six baseballs in midair when he called for a break and let the balls sink slowly to the ground.

"This is too easy. Either you guys throw something big, or I try lifting something. I'm barely getting a workout right now."

Danny, also in ghost mode, nodded, and gestured for Dani to follow him. They each picked up an iron girder and lobbed their burdens at Lancer, who sent them flying back against the wall with a noise that startled everyone in the room. He didn't even pause for a rest before lifting them off the ground again with a thought and sending them up to the roof. He brought one down again, slowly, making it spin end over end before letting come to rest on the floor again. Then he brought the second one down in a series of zigzags. The teens surrounding him watched with their eyes wide in awe.

"That's more like it. All right, you two, your turn." Lancer pointed to Danny and Dani, who jumped into the air in preparation.

"Ready, Dani?" Danny asked his "cousin."

"You bet!" She took a deep breath and everyone else covered their ears. Dani opened her mouth and unleashed her newest power, the Ghostly Wail, wobbling slightly out of weakness afterwards. Just as Sam and Tucker started clapping for her, a pillar at one end of the room collapsed several inches with a sickening crunch and humans and halfas alike turned towards it worriedly.

"Um, oops?" Dani bit her lip anxiously and turned red.

The pillar collapsed again and the roof began to cave in.

"Everybody out!" Lancer yelled. "Now!"

Danny caught Sam up in his arms and Lancer grabbed Tucker, and the half-ghosts began to fly them to safety. They made it halfway to the roof before the entire structure gave way and sheets of corrugated metal began crashing down on top of them. Unprepared and disoriented, all three halfas spun out of control and struck the ground, dust rising up as everything fell down around them.

As the dust cleared, the three halfas pulled themselves out of the rubble groggily and immediately began digging for the two full humans. Danny spotted a scrap of red cloth and shouted.

"Hey! I think I found Tucker!" The others rushed over and started helping him. As they were just clearing the last sheet of metal, a voice behind them caused them to drop it again.

"Awesome, dude! You found my hat!" Tucker walked through the ruins, PDA clutched tightly in his hand, and picked up his beret. He straightened up and placed it on his head to stunned silence, then started running diagnoses on his handheld computer, making faint crooning noises of concern. The other stared at him, not because of his actions, which were normal for him, but because Tucker's legs were literally going through a piece of twisted metal. Finally Danny cleared his throat and pointed it out to Tucker, who looked down.

"Sweet! I've got intangibility!" He paled. "Dude, I've got intangibility?"

"We've got to find Sam," Lancer said. "We'll worry about that later."

"I'm over here!" came a muffled yell from several yards away. "And I don't know how much longer I can hold this shield!"

Shield? Danny thought, even as he was making his way over to Sam. She can shield?

Indeed Sam could. They found her curled into a ball with one hand raised upwards projecting a dome of violet ectoplasm. When they'd cleared the area so she could drop the shield safely, she stood up and spoke in her standard disaffected tone.

"Why did it have to be purple? Black is much better."

"I, um, agree," Danny said quickly, hoping not to excite her obsession. "But I don't think we get a choice." He turned to Lancer. "This isn't good. If people are starting to get powers now... "

"Agreed. I think we need to talk to your parents. They might have some answers for us now."

"Okay." Danny nodded. "Sam, grab on. Will, take Tucker." He turned his back towards Sam, indicating he wanted to piggyback her. Lancer picked up Tucker and both halfas leapt into the air. Dani followed them, invisibly, since she'd been threatened by every other member of Team Phantom that if she blew Danny's secret she would severely regret it, and being seen with him in both forms counted.

When they landed in the Fenton's basement lab, they found Danny's parents bending over a rack of test tubes discussing something in low, serious tones. Or they would have been, if Maddie Fenton hadn't shivered and released a plume of rosy ectoplasm from her mouth when the halfas entered. She turned around to face the newcomers, twitching her husband's orange elbow to make him do the same. She gave a start when she realized how many people were actually present.

"What's wrong?" she asked, knowing that if the whole of Team Phantom had just materialized in her basement looking disturbed, something bad had to have happened. Danny rubbed his neck.

"This might take a while. How 'bout we go upstairs?" He summoned his transformation rings, as with Dani and Lancer, but they all seemed to stick at the waist. The three halfas concentrated and forced the rings apart. After a moment, they began to move smoothly again, but once the halfas returned to their human forms they were tired and sweating.

The worry everyone was exuding by that point was voiced by an anxious yet laid-back voice near the Ghost Portal.

"Man, that didn't look too good. What's goin' on?"

A neon pink hippie was hovering in front of the swirling ectoplasm, clashing with it spectacularly.

Heh, I'm evil, aren't I? Review, please!