I lack ownership over Danny Phantom. Well you can't have it all I guess.

I said yes to the date. Why did I say yes to the date? I was brave, I was bold, I walked up to the popular table and his friends held their breath. Waiting for Dash to make the first move, a snide remark or a question about Dani, waiting for him to lead them in the direction they should take.

Before Dash could open his mouth I spoke, "Yes. I trust you know my number, call me to arrange it later." And I walked off. I just hope it looked as cool in the real world as it did in my head.

I didn't want to spend the rest of the day at school but I couldn't leave Tucker and Sam to fend off rumors by themselves.

With the date almost set I could put it on the back burner and focus on Dani. I needed to figure out how to make sure Vlad never tries coming after her again, or can't come after her. Then there's Dani herself, some how I have to convince her to stay, to call Amity Park home.

Vlad could be easy, my dad had a ton of stuff for destroying and detaining ghosts. What could possibly work to keep that, that self centered, manipulative, creepy, daughter creating and torturing "ARRRG!" the locker didn't deserve the new dent it sported but it's not like I didn't come out of it scratch free either. The pain calmed me down some, but I would need to work off some steam after school. Where was the Box Ghost when you needed him?

The afternoon didn't go by as fast as the morning and I was out of there as soon as the bell rang. I didn't get very far.

"Danny!" Dani ran up the school walkway waving. She jumped and wrapped her arms around my neck. Returning the hug I did a quick twist, spinning her around.

"Dani, what are you doing here? You should be in bed resting." Her bottom lip quivered and I quickly back peddled. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but you should be resting."

Dani rolled her eyes, "I've been resting for five days now. It's great that you care, Danny, but I'm a big girl, I can take a few bruises. Besides after so long I'm dying for some action."

"Sounds great."

The patrol turned up nothing. Sam and Tucker did a real good job scaring off the spooks. Well we might not have had ghosts to test ourselves on but it didn't mean we couldn't have a little fun before supper.

We flew out of the city to a place we wouldn't be disturbed. The small meadow would be perfect for a little target practice.

"Okay, I'll show you a little trick that will come in handy when the time is right." I let the cold build up inside of me before releasing it in the form of a snowball. I threw it at an apposing tree, hitting it dead on.

Dani stared at the leftover snow, "So cool! You mean I'll learn how to do that too? Okay let me try." She stood there copying my earlier stance. Attempting to force the cold.

I waited, unlike when I had to learn the world wasn't going to end if she didn't get it right and fast. I didn't have to wait long. She stomped her foot in frustration, unable to even chill the air a bit.

"How about I teach you about the Ice Powers?" Closing my eyes I inhaled, held it for a moment then opened my eyes again as I exhaled the freezing mist. "It's our ghost sense. It comes from the cold inside of us. You have to let it build up at first then release it in bursts like the rest of our powers. After you get the hang of it, it's as easy as walking through walls and you don't have to wait as long in between attacks."

Quickly I worked, creating the snowballs and hitting the trees on the other side of the meadow. Then moving on to weapons, from the simple ice blades to a sword and of course showing how sharply they could cut by trimming the branches. I showed her the beams we could control through both our hands and our eyes. And finally the freezing mist.

"You might have a few more months before the cold builds up enough the first time, but I wanted you to know what would happen before it hits you."

Dani tried again and again until it was getting to dinner time without any luck. "Are you sure I'll be able to do it too?"

"Of course, you seam to have all my other powers, including the ghost sense. And since it comes from the ice powers you should develop them as well."

It was a quick spin around the city for pre-dinner patrol with no luck and we landed in the backyard of Fenton Works.

The back door opened and mom looked out. "Oh there you two are. Gee did you just get back from patrol, the ghost must have been pretty bad it's almost 6:30."

"Nah, Danny was just showing me some moves." She raced up the back steps and into the house towards the smell of dinner.

Mom stepped out onto the back steps, closing the door behind her. "Danny is something wrong?"

"No, well yeah. Just a bunch of stuff mom."

She joined me in the yard and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I could only shrug. Talking to my parents wasn't something I could do honestly very often. It was only this weekend when they pressed for information that I told them everything.

"Mostly I'm just worried."

"About what sweetheart?"

"About what to do to Vlad, er about Vlad. About Dani's safety." She hugged me a little closer, "Hey mom."

"Yes Danny?"

"Were you and dad mad when I told you?"

She hesitated and sighed. "Yes a little at first. Most parents are hurt when they find out their children have been lying to them. But Jazz pointed out that we never gave you much choice in the matter, after all I'd be a little scared too if the person I trusted my whole life to take care of me want to kill me or at least part of me. But we love you dear no matter what."

"So no matter what happens you'll love me right?"

"Why of course dear, you might have to give you father and me a bit of time to get use to it, but we'd love you no matter what happens. You turn evil and we're taking you down of course, but we'd still love you."

Okay then, cause that wasn't a little freaky. I'd already said this much might as well tell her the rest. "I have a date this Friday night."

"Oh sweetie is that why you're asking these questions? I don't really understand why you'd asked about if we'd love you no matter what, A GHOST!" Her arms became stiff and she moved to face me, "Oh Danny is your date with a ghost? Is that what the questions were about?"

"What? No, I have a date with a guy, not a ghost, a guy. Dash asked me and I said yes."

No parent had ever been so relived to find out their only son was going on a date with another man. "You're just gay, okay that's much better then dating a ghost."

I'm not sure there's an ism for ghost hating but my parents had it. Maybe having two half ghost in the house would keep them from freaking out about every ghost. Some were bad, some didn't care either way and some were helpful. It really wasn't fair that all the ghosts get considered evil because of a few rotten ones.

"Wait Dash, as in Baxter? Didn't we get called to school because he was beating you up?"

Her look of relief was turning to worry. So I did was no teenage would ever admit to doing, I hugged her.

"I love you too mom. Don't worry, we just kinda of, well, clicked at the hospital, and he asked me on a date. Besides if he tries anything I'll just go ghost on his butt." We stood there a moment more before my teenage need to distance myself from my parents kicked in. "It's not Dash I'm worried about anyways mom."

"I still can't believe Vlad would do something like that. Well on second maybe I can. There was always something strange about that man."

"Would it be the half ghost I want to destroy Jack Fenton and steal his wife and children vibe or the I'm willing to use my powers for evil, take over the world and destroy Jack Fenton and steal his wife and children vibe?"

"The second one sweetie. Now lets get inside and have dinner, after we'll go down to the lab and find something to help you destroy your arch enemy. I made a pie for dessert."

As we went inside I couldn't help but wonder how my mom could go from sweet mom to ghost hunter in one sentence, then go right back to sweet.

After dinner, the two of us trekked down to the lab, pie in hand. We organized most of the lab first into two groups. Working and Not Working. From there we narrowed it down, Working to Useful and No Help At All. Useful turned into Destroy and Just Maims A Little (But Hurts A Lot).

We still didn't have a plan. I couldn't even decide if I wanted to destory him or just maim him a little. It didn't feel like I had much choice, I couldn't kill him, but I couldn't leave him to let him come back. Well rummaging around through the piles my hand brushed against a glass vial. Picking it up for closer examination I realized two things, I had a plan and I had no idea if the kinks were worked out of this one yet. The kinks that had helped once before would backfire horribly this time. It would be best to run some tests first, if they went well I could have my cake and eat it too.