Danny silently scrutinized the situation from a distance. The people who were surrounding the blonde jock were all wearing a matching black jacket that had the word "The Fiends" and a picture of a skull on it at the back. He saw that the thugs were bringing out knives and they were closing in on Dash.

The apology can wait. Danny Phantom is needed now. I'm going gho-. "Dah!" he cried as his head received a painful hit. He fell to the ground and flitted out of consciousness for a second. He felt his blood trickling down his face. Ow… Sometimes, I just hate being so vulnerable in my human form. "Boss, there's another one over here." The goon informed, directing his sentence towards the biggest guy with red hair and sunglasses. He dragged Danny towards the group. "Is this your friend?" He tossed the injured teenager towards the jock.

"Um… Uhh… Ergh…" Dash faltered. The leader of the gang laughed out loud.

"Hah! The kid is on the edge of pissing his pants! Not so tough are you now, huh kid?" The rest of the gang laughed along with him. Dash completely panicked until a low, weakened voice spoke.

"Psst, Dash. Here's the plan." Dash' eyes enlarged yet again as he discovered that Fenton was the one whispering to him. "When I give you the signal, you make a break for it, got it?" If he wasn't in a very uptight state of mind, he would have questioned Fenton why the heck he would follow him. Dash only stared at him before giving him a slight nod.

"Heh… who would be afraid of a gang called 'The Friends'?" Danny snickered as he got up to his feet. The laughter stopped and every eye was on him.

"A-Are you trying to kill us, Fenturd?" Dash whispered to him. He was gaining a little confidence in insulting him. "What the heck are you doing!?" All Dash received was a smirk.

"It's 'The Fiends' you idiot! Do you wanna DIE?" A goon yelled at him. He was raising his fist menacingly.

"Pfft. Fiends, shmiends. The jacket by the way, is so unoriginal." Danny scoffed while he inconspicuously sidestepped. Little by little, he was edging away from Dash. "Couldn't you think of something scarier? Please, a third-grader could outmatch all of you. You look like puppies compared t- Gngrh!" Danny was cut off from his conversation when the leader punched him on the face.

"You talked too much for your own good." He fumed. He continued in punching Danny in the abdomen. Clutching his stomach, the teenager felt the wind knocked out of him. The red-haired leader took this opportunity to kick him in the face; knocking Danny down, flat on his back with a loud thud. "You're all talk and no dice."

"And you can only fight when you're with these big idiots!" Danny shouted back. He was slowly getting back up to his feet again. "I bet that I can take you on, one-on-one. Mano-e-mano." He swung his arm and closed his fist as he deliberately made a sluggish uppercut to his opponent. The boss lazily moved, dodging the attack. The members of the gang were going to step in but the leader held his hand up, signaling them to stop.

"I'll entertain you kid." He sneered and launched himself towards the freshman.

Danny believed that he needs to take hits to let all the gang give their full attention to him. He doesn't fight back because he was still in Fenton mode. Fenton mode equals "suck at fighting". He also needs to show Dash the fact that he can't really fight at all. ...Although a few dodges wouldn't hurt. Danny considered as the leader kicked his chest. Almost going off-balanced, He backed up a few steps. Ugh. It wouldn't hurt at all. He evaded his foe's next blow which barely scraped his face. If only I could punch back. He thought deadpanned. Or maybe change into Danny Phantom without all this secret identity and show them a thing or two.He cringed as he felt the stings when he received a one-two-uppercut.

The one-sided fight continued with Danny awfully losing and the boss enjoying himself with a human punching bag. After a while, the massive leader finally got over in playing with him. Using his two hands, he grabbed Danny's t-shirt and tossed him horizontally to the side of a building. Danny yelped as his body hit hard on the brick wall. His eyes were almost closed. His body was black and blue and furthermore throbbing all over. With the strongest throb somewhere in his ribs, he assumes that he broke a few rib cages.

"That will teach you not to mess with us." He advanced towards Danny and lifted him up on his t-shirt. He saw the kid's half-opened eyes scan the area. Before remarking about the strange action, the gigantic boss noticed the small odd smile on the slender adolescent's face.

Danny and the gang were already a good ten feet away from Dash. "NOW, DASH!" He agonizingly yelled on top of his lungs. The jock's body tensed and was going to run away when a thought occurred to him. What about Fentoid? To Danny's dismay, Dash stood frozen while every head turned to his direction. "- THE HECK ARE YOU DOING DASH? GET OUTTA HERE."

One of the gangsters made a move with the intention of stabbing the muscular teenager. Danny immediately saw this. Now tapping in his ghost strength, he gave a powerful round-house kick on the distracted leader's head, cracking his nose, and knocking him out. Danny softly landed on the ground as the leader dropped him. Ignoring the unbearable pain, he ran to Dash straightaway with all his might. However, he knew that he wasn't going to make it. He was too far and the knife was going to impale Dash. Still, he made a jump for it, at the same time using his flight to increase his jump's speed and distance. At a split-second, he shoved Dash out of harm's way. A resounding clang was heard throughout the alley.

Both of the teenagers tumbled and rolled because of the impact of his launch. Before the gang could recover, Danny shoved Dash. "Run… you idiot!" he wheezed. "I thought… running away is what you football players do best?"

Dash was ready to retaliate when he reminded himself that it wasn't the place and time to do it. He made a run for it.

He was a few strides away when he noticed Danny wasn't running with him. He turned around and gasped when he saw a sight.

In front of a trail of blood, an incredibly pale Danny was clutching his abdomen where a dark, red color was tainting his white shirt. Blood was slowly dripping to the floor.

:3 Cliffhanger~ Cliffhanger~

Uh... Should I up the rating?