I updated! (poses dramatically before devolving into laughter) I know, I know, it's been over a year.

This isn't my more favorite story of all time, but I do want to get it done. I love the ending to this story. Chapters five, six, and seven are tons of fun to read! Chapters three through seven are all done and edited. Plan is to update every day or two and put the finishing touches on chapter eight (the final chapter) tonight maybe and for sure before I have to upload it.

This story is just a mess of plots. Have fun with it and don't take it too seriously! I plotted this out and wrote most of it over a year ago.

Powerless
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria

Chapter Three: The Five of Swords

I ditched Sam and Tucker. Again.

Pushing open the front door of our house, I slipped invisibly into its quiet recesses. Beyond the buzzing of that annoying neon sign, the place seemed dead. "Mom? Dad?" I hesitated for a few seconds, waiting for a response.

Nothing.

On the positive side, no ghost alarms were going off and no guns were sprouting from walls to shoot at me for entering my own house. With this being the Fenton household and me being a ghost with powers that were being all goofy… it had been a distinct possibility. "Thank you for small miracles." I let my invisibility fade.

I walked into the kitchen, snatching a note off the fridge. "Danny," I read with a small smile, "gone to fight ghosts. Leftovers in the fridge if you're hungry. Jazz has her cell if you need something and make sure to turn on the ghost shield when you get home! We'll be back around six with supper. Love you – Mom and Dad."

My grin grew with the knowledge that I was home alone. I now had time to myself to figure out what was going on. Racing up the stairs and dropping my backpack unceremoniously on my bed, I headed for the bathroom. I locked the door behind me and glared at my reflection.

White hair.

Ten minutes later, I sank down onto the edge of the bathtub with a groan. My head hurt from trying to concentrate on turning my hair back to black and I was ready to admit that my hair might just be white forever. Using my own mind and focus to keep my hair looking 'human' was going to be a lost cause. There was no way I could keep up that level of concentration and hope to act anything like normal.

I rubbed my face, massaging my temples a little bit to get rid of the beginnings of a lasting headache. The main problem with walking around with white hair is that it would bring up a million questions. That, and I looked a lot like my ghostly alter-ego. White hair was just not going to work. "What am I going to do?"

Finally, I pushed myself to my feet and drifted back down the stairs. My parents wouldn't be home for another two hours and I needed some kind of solution. My growling stomach led me to the kitchen. "I can't think straight on an empty stomach." One peanut butter and jam sandwich later, I was perched on the kitchen counter, banging my heels into the cupboards.

"Any thoughts yet?" I asked the air. After a second of silence, broken only by the sound of my heels against the cabinet doors, I answered myself. "Nope."

I ran my tongue over my teeth and stared up at the ceiling, half-wishing that the answer could just be written up there. "White hair," I whispered, "and the options are… I guess I could just live with it and deal with the consequences if they come up." I made a face. Not a good option – the consequences would come up and they would be disastrous.

"Or I could just wear a hat for the rest of my life." I slipped off the counter and wandered upstairs, yanking open my closet and digging through the mess for the box I threw my hats into. "It's not a wonderful solution," I muttered darkly as I grabbed the only one that would cover all of my hair, "but it'll work for right now."

The phone rang and I straightened, hat in hand. "Danny!" Sam's voice screamed at me the second I picked it up. "You ditched us… again! Give us one reason to…"

"My hair is white," I interrupted, "and I think Lancer knows."

There was silence for a second. "Knows what?"

"About me… that I'm Phantom." I knew I was home alone, but I still glanced over my shoulder to make sure that nobody was around to hear my words.

"Just because your hair is white? There are other kids in school with white hair."

"People whose hair changes from black to white in the middle of a conversation?" Silence met my question. Leaning against the wall, I waited patiently for her to say something.

"Stay. We'll be over in a few minutes." I could hear Sam cover the phone with her hand and say something to Tucker. "We'll figure this out."

Setting the phone down without saying goodbye, I dropped onto the couch to wait.

By four thirty that evening, I had black hair again. Sam sat back with a grin, studying her handiwork with a tilted head. I blushed and toweled off my wet hair, trying hard not to think about the fact that I'd had to take my shirt off.

"I am a genius," she chuckled, stripping off the plastic gloves that had come with the hair dye kit she'd purchased on her way over. "Of course, you've lost all your natural highlights, it's only temporary dye, and your hair looks…" she hesitated, "kind of gray rather than black. But it was the best dye we could find at the discount store."

"It's better than white," I muttered before standing up to study my reflection in the mirror. For a split-second, I could have sworn that green eyes had been staring back at me, but no. My eyes were blue. "Thanks, Sam."

"Just ignore me," Tucker said distantly as he tapped on his PDA, "I'm not here, I didn't help at all, and I have a new game to beat. No need to thank me."

Sam and I glanced over at him and then grinned at each other. I opened my mouth to spit out some kind of comeback but a chill settled onto my skin. I sighed, my breath pluming in the air.

"We won't be here when you get back," Sam simply shrugged, "call us if you need us."

Tucker glanced up and grinned at me as I yanked my shirt back over my head and transformed into ghost mode. I checked my reflection in the mirror, thankful that my hair had changed back to white despite the hair dye. "I'll give you guys a call tonight, okay?"

"Right," Sam drawled as I drifted off the floor, "you'll call us like you promised not to ditch us at school."

"I will," I stressed one last time before I flew through the ceiling and my friends vanished from view. Slipping through the air, searching for the ghost that had triggered my ghost sense, I made a mental note to be sure to call them tonight.

The flying toaster was my first clue as to the identity of my 'guest'. "Technus," I groaned.

The toaster was quickly joined by various other small appliances that were floating out of the houses in the neighborhood. I dodged a vicious-looking curling iron and a blender before the weird conglomeration of possessed appliances took off down the street. I followed.

Hovering over his growing pile of technology about three blocks from my house, Technus was laughing and shouting. His powers were quickly taking the stolen appliances and forming them into a small army of robots. "Run, humans! For I am Technus, Master of All Things Technological, and I will rule your city with my army of appliance horrors!"

I drifted to a stop, watching the ranting, self-obsessed ghost and waiting for the various citizens of Amity Park to follow Technus's un-asked-for advice and vanish from the scene. I finally picked out a funky looking tiny robot that I was pretty sure contained the curling iron that had tried to brain me earlier. I sent a single ectoblast in its direction, scattering the forming robot back into pieces.

If nothing else, it got Technus to stop ranting and look at me. "Hey, Master of Annoying, mind if I disagree with your grand scheme?"

"Ghost-child! You will not foil my plans today! I, Technus, will destroy you with my upgraded appliance army!" The white-haired ghost raised his arms and the tiny hair-curler robot started to reform.

I shook my head sadly. "Why is it that all the annoying ghosts speak in exclamation points?" I wondered, shooting the tiny robot and sending the pieces back across the road. I did one last check of the area to make sure that the human populous had vanished. "It's seriously not a good day to bug me. Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Actually…" Technus hesitated. I kept one of my eyes on the appliances that could become deceptively small robots and the other on the lookout for any encroaching ghost hunters. Technus, for the moment, wasn't worth watching. "I was supposed to give you a message."

Both eyes shot to meet his blank, screen-like eyes. "What…?" If this was some kind of trap – which I doubted – it would have been a good one. He had me completely focused on him for a few seconds.

"I was told to warn you-"

I snorted. "About your latest, greatest plan to take over the world?" Folding my arms, I went back to keeping a lookout for Valerie, my parents, tiny technological robots… birds… flying pigs… basically anything more dangerous than the techo-maniac floating in front of me.

"No, you… little… whipper-snapper." Technus fumed for a moment. "I'm trying to help!"

"Fine, fine," I muttered, not really paying attention to him. I was positive the ghost was going to go into a long-winded monologue about the great and powerful Technus. I already had plans set to simply suck him into my Thermos the next time he gave himself an appositive title. "What?"

"Do you remember the young man with the train? The one that could control ghosts with his crystal ball?" Technus waved his hand and a small computer floated up to hover next to him, Freakshow's face appearing in the static on the screen.

"Freakshow," I said darkly. "What about him, he's in jail."

"Not him," the screen changed to show the staff Freakshow had carried around during the Circus Gothica, "his crystal ball."

"Yeah?" I raised an eyebrow, wondering when this rather pointless conversation would devolve into ranting about taking over the world. It was weird to be rationally chatting with a ghost like Technus. And the general lack of self-promoting exclamation points was enough out of character for him to have me on my toes. The inane thought that this might not really even be Technus flitted through my head.

"I picked up the pieces of the crystal ball after it shattered. I used them in an invention to give me ultimate control over all the other ghosts!" Technus chortled for a moment, his eyes glinting in the light as he remembered his take over the world plans. "But then that other halfa stole it."

"You made something to control ghosts and you let Vlad steal it."

Technus nodded. "He's using it to control that gray girl. The card ghost."

I froze, my eyes widening. "The girl with the Tarot cards? The one from my drawings?" Now he had my attention.

"I do not know of these drawings," he said, "but now that the ghost with the loud 'rock' music will get off my back, I – Technus, Master of all things Mechanical and Be…" His voice trailed off into a scream as I sucked him unceremoniously into my Thermos.

"And there was the annoying, self-promoting, appositive title." Screwing the lid carefully onto the top of the Thermos, I hovered in the air. Technus had left a mess of small appliances on the road that, no doubt, I'd be blamed for in some fashion. "'Ghost with the loud rock music'," I whispered, "Ember…"

"Why would she…" I just shook my head, letting the latest confusing wrinkle to this mess of a situation settle into my head. Leaving the junk in the streets for now, I headed home. Sam and Tucker would be able to help me figure this out.

I phased back through the wall into my bedroom and flipped back to human before I landed. Dropping lightly on the balls of my feet, I glanced over at the clock and noted that it was barely five. My parents wouldn't be home for another hour. "Excellent! Just enough time to drop the annoyance back into the Ghost Zone."

Reaching for the door knob, I caught a glimpse of my reflection and stopped dead. The Thermos fell out of my fingers and clunked on the floor. Storming over to the mirror, I glared at my reflection as a few choice words slipped out of my mouth.

My hair was white.

Again.

The gray ghost swirled into existence, sitting on the floor of Vlad Plasmius's lab. "You rang?" she intoned, no expression crossing her face.

"I have a job for you." Vlad picked up the Plasmius Bender and pointed it at the girl, double checking to make sure it was set to its highest setting before pressing the button. The girl's red eyes unfocused and glowed with a bright red light. "I want you to go to Amity Park and test my young apprentice. Make sure he looses, but do not cause him any lasting harm."

The gray ghost bowed her head. "Yes, master. Whatever you say."

"And if that orange jump-suited idiot gets in the way and dies, I won't care."

She looked up at him, her red eyes glowing as she accepted his command. "Yes, master."

Vlad waved a hand at her. "Go, and return when you are finished."

Gray mist swirled up around the girl and the gray ghost was gone. Vlad relaxed slightly, closing his eyes.

"You shouldn't be messing around with one of the ancients, Plasmius." Skulker rumbled from a shadow, only now floating into view. "That is one of the most powerful ghosts to ever have existed."

Vlad snapped back at him. "I know!" He seethed for a few seconds. "I know what I'm doing, Skulker. Just get ready to do your part of the plan. Do you have your story ready? It's time to scare young Daniel."

"Scare?" Skulker mumbled as he followed Vlad deeper into the halfa's lair. "I'll just tell him the truth. If that doesn't scare him, nothing will."

I scowled darkly as I grabbed the hat off my bed and tugged it onto my head, tucking a few stray white hairs into the beret-style hat. The thing was ugly beyond any doubt – blue with black checks – but it would cover up all of my hair. My parents would be home soon and there was no way they were going to find out I had white hair. "Thank you, Tucker," I breathed, adding a reminder to send Tucker a Thanks for the Christmas Present card underneath the note to call Sam tonight before I went to sleep. The card would only be about four years late.

Examining myself in the mirror, I figured I looked as normal as could be expected for a kid with abnormal ghost powers, white hair, and an ugly monstrosity on my head. I picked up the dropped Thermos full of Technus and hid it under my bed. I sank onto my comforter with a sigh, burying my face in my hands. "What am I going to do?"

There was really only one thing that I knew for sure: this was all Vlad's fault. I now knew that the strange, powerful ghost was being controlled and sent after me. While I didn't know for sure why the fruit-loop was doing this, I could be pretty sure it had to with either getting my mom, getting me, or taking over the world. Or, knowing Vlad, a demented combination of all three.

I crossed my legs and bit my lip, trying to think through everything that had been happening to me lately. I've never been stupid and these powers have really helped me with my 'figure things out' abilities. "That gray ghost is Vlad's little minion," I whispered. "But how about this new power? And the white hair thing?" I shook my head. "I haven't gotten blasted, zapped, or hit with any of my parents inventions and I haven't even bumped into Vlad or any of his flunkies lately…"

I trailed off, my eyes glittering at the thought. I had bumped into Vlad's newest flunky and there was that strange gas that had all but forced itself down my throat. "Whatever that was, it has something to do with this." I sighed and flopped onto my back, turning the situation of a new power, white hair, and the powerful ghost over in my head. "What next, I wonder?"

Rolling onto my stomach, I reached for my cell phone to call Sam like I promised when that annoyingly familiar chill of an approaching ghost raced down my spine. I groaned and left my phone sitting on my desk, flipping silently into ghost mode. "This day keeps getting better and better."

I waited another few moments before reaching through the bed to grab the Technus-filled Thermos. I let my body rise off the soft bed and float out through the ceiling to locate the ghost. I saw her waiting for me in the air over my neighbor's house, legs crossed and eyes closed meditatively, gray mist billowing around her and cascading over the old brick building. The gray ghost girl; Vlad's latest servant.

Her eyes flickered open, glinting red in the afternoon light, studying me. "The Fool," she said as a ghost of a smile drifted across her face, her gaze fixed on the top of my head.

With a scowl, I reached up and noted that I still had that ugly hat on my head. "Why are you here?" I snapped as I ripped the offending hat off my head and dropped it onto the rooftop.

Slowly she straightened her legs and stretched before reaching into a pocket. She pulled out another Tarot card and held it up. The sun shone against the back of the card, setting the scene ablaze; five young men battling each other with long, glowing sticks. "Five of Wands," she commented, tucking the card back into one of her numerous pockets, "Disagreements, set backs, irritations, competition."

"Enough with the cards already," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

For a split second, another smile crossed her lips and the red in her eyes drained away. I blinked at her, floating backwards a few feet in surprise as she stared at me with her calm, gray eyes. "The Fool," she repeated with a simple shake of her head. "Unlimited potential."

"What?" I was totally confused. What was this girl talking about? Reaching behind me, I fingered the end of the Fenton Thermos that was hanging across my back. I wondered if the Thermos would be strong enough to hold her… if I'd be able to catch her by surprise and even get her into the thing since Technus was already in there. Surprise seemed like the only way I'd be able to beat her; a long, drug-out fight wouldn't end with me winning anything.

I blinked when her eyes suddenly flipped back to a gleaming red, her small smile transforming into something slightly evil. She raised one of her hands, long coat sleeves dangling beyond her fingers, and a wave of gray mist flowed up and around her. Backing up a little more, I watched as she shook her arm to free her clenched fingers from the confining sleeve. Then, with an unreadable expression on her face, she opened her fist.

The mist attacked. It flooded around her like a tidal wave of power, slamming into me and throwing me backwards through the air. I gasped in pain when my back connected hard with the wall of the Ops Center – the Thermos still between me and the wall. Blinking tears of pain out of my eyes, I whispered a quiet thanks to the fact that ghosts are lacking in spinal cords and pushed myself back away from the wall. Twisting around, I pulled a handful of energized ectoplasm out of the air and threw it in her direction.

She didn't even bother to move. My attack went straight through her. The next two blasts did similar nothing.

I collected a fourth blast of ectoenergy but held it, glowing, in my hands as I studied her and waited for inspiration to strike. How was I going to beat her if I couldn't hit her?

The ghost's hand was still raised, her fingers outspread. She was staring at me with a bizarre look on her face and confusion in her gray eyes. Tipping her head to the side, she slowly lowered her hand and waited, eyes narrowing in thought.

After an interminable moment of silence as we hung in the air over separate roofs, she attacked again. Her hand flew towards me, palm outstretched, and a section of the gray mist snaked around her and lashed out towards me like a snake strike. I dodged the first attack, my own ectoblast disintegrating as I moved, but it was no use. The mist swirled around me and coiled like an impossibly huge boa constrictor. I was trapped… and it was starting to constrict and squeeze.

"Let go," I whispered as the agony of being squeezed started to eat into my mind. I struggled helplessly, unable to move more than my head back and forth. By this point, my whole body from my neck down was totally wrapped in the winding gray mist. "Let go of me!" The crushing, all-over pressure hurt like nothing I'd ever felt before. "Let GO!" I yelled, feeling my eyes burn.

Deep inside of me, the energy inherent inside of every ghost reacted. Cool, green mist-like sparkles of unconscious power raced over my screaming form as it desperately tried to keep me 'alive'. That's when I felt it… ever so slightly. Where ever the green energy touched, the gray mist of the girl's power retreated.

It was my only chance.

I focused, ignoring the shrieking agony of my body as the gray mist continued to contract around me. I coiled the greenish energy around my mind. When I figured I couldn't stand the agonizing pressure for a moment longer, I released it, slashing outwards.

The gray mist vanished. I collapsed to the roof in pain, barely able to keep myself conscious. Agony flared through ever molecule of my body as I struggled to remain on my hand and knees. I knew all too well that the gray ghost was still there, hovering, watching. And that I was totally powerless to stop whatever she wanted to do to me.

I thought so.

My head jerked up in surprise, causing my neck to scream at pain caused by the sudden movement.

Do it again, child.

I stared at the gray ghost that was floating so serenely over my neighbor's house. "Was that you?" I rasped. "That voice in my head…"

Her hand moved even as I was speaking, another flood of gray power leaving her and moving like an unstoppable tidal wave towards me. I couldn't do anything but wait for it to hit, eyes closing and curling into a ball as best as I could. Dashing into me like a brick wall, it tossed me through the air and over the edge of the building. I rolled, slamming into the ground just outside my mom's kitchen.

"Ouch," I mouthed, unable to move, my whole body aching. I was totally and completely outclassed. Three attacks, none of them even straining the Tarot ghost… and if I was going to be completely honest that third attack had been slightly unnecessary. I had been down and out after the second one.

Cool mist caressed my cheek and I forced myself to open my eyes. The girl was crouched over me, her soulless gray eyes studying me carefully.

"Why?" I managed to get out, trying (and failing) to push myself up into a sitting position. I knew that if she decided to finish me off, there wasn't a single thing I could do about it. I was just waiting for her to make a move.

She smiled slightly, a cool finger coming out to brush against my forehead. Energy flooded through me and I gasped, pain being wiped away by her touch. My arms still shaking – but no longer hurting – I sat up. She pulled another card out of her pocket, placed it gently in my lap, and dropped the black and blue checked hat onto the ground next to me.

Then she vanished, her strange gray mist dissipating in the warm evening sunlight.

I picked up the card and sighed. On the Tarot card, a man was stealing some glowing swords from behind the backs of some relaxing soldiers. "Okay," I muttered and pushed myself to my feet. "I'm still confused."

Flipping the card over in the vague hope that she'd written something on the back, I glanced over my shoulder. It was a creepy thought to know that a ghost that strong could attack me anywhere and anytime she wanted.

And… then… heal me and make it like the whole thing never happened? I shook my head, not having a clue what to think about the whole situation.

"DANNY!" my father bellowed from inside the house, "Supper!"

Grabbing the hat and putting it back onto my head, I floated back up to my room to lose Technus and the Thermos. "Confused is a good word."

I hesitated at the bottom of the stairs, my eyes closed and trying to get my nerves under control. My hand nervously touched my hat to check that my white hair was hidden carefully underneath it. "I can do this… I can do this…" My parents were generally clueless; they weren't going to figure anything out because of a hat.

"Danny!" my dad bellowed for the third time. "Mads won't let us eat until you get here!"

I sighed and opened my eyes. Slipping through the living room and sliding into my chair at the table, I tried my best to act casual. Nothing was wrong. There was nothing different about me today. Despite my mental mantra, I still felt myself relax when neither of my parents reached for a weapon.

"Sweetie?" Mom asked, handing me the bowl of salad, "why are you wearing a hat at the kitchen table?" She studied me for a second, biting her lip in thought.

"Um…" My stomach bunched up and I licked my lips before grabbing the bowl from her hands and nervously dishing myself some salad. I hate salad. "I'm trying something new?"

Jazz snorted, eyeing the overly large portion of salad I'd dropped onto my plate and taking the salad fro me. "A lack of fashion sense?" My foot flicked out and kicked her under the table.

"Oh," Mom said, still watching me as she sat down and poured some dressing onto her salad. Setting a smile onto my face, I tried to ignore the bead of sweat trickling down my back. Even after all this time, I was really bad at lying to my parents. Finally dragging my eyes away from my mom, I glanced over at Jazz, grabbed a piece of lettuce with my fingers, and popped it into my mouth.

"Danny," Jazz hissed, her eyes wide with shock.

"What?" I asked, chewing on the lettuce. I could feel the hat still perched securely on my head. She pointed to her eyes. I squinted, but I couldn't see anything wrong with them. "What's wrong with your eyes?"

"Danny?" Mom interrupted. I looked over at her. "Why are your eyes green?"

To be continued…

And that's chapter three. To those of you with REALLY good memories, it's not a completely new chapter. It's some of the old chapter three, rewritten.

Thanks to all of you that have reviewed thus far and to everyone that's planning on continuing with this. It'll be a mess of every single plot I could think of to throw at Danny and I enjoy the ending to the story. I hope to get up chapter four tomorrow night. If you review quickly enough, I'll reply with a preview of chapter four, which is called 'Knight of Swords'.

Thanks for sticking with me!

-Cori