*gives a euphoric sigh* Gem here! I've had a really pleasant week.

Both Dannys: Too bad we haven't... *both glare pointedly at Gemini*

Hehe... *gulp*... sorry, Danny... Er... If it makes you feel any better, neither has Vlad really! *giggles wanly*

Fun Danny: Well, that fruit loop deserves it, dude! But we don't!

Fred: *whispers* I suggest you change the subject.

George: Yes, that would be wise, Gem.

Er... yes! Yay! I'm updating again! X)

I'd like to thank all of you who reviewed, once again! You know how much your comments mean to me!

It's still been a while, but I've thankfully finished this chapter faster than the last one. I'm working on it, though! Ahem... so, welcome to the next chapter! *laughs insanely* Hope you all enjoy!

Disclaimer: Je ne suis pas la propriétaire de Danny Phantom!

Chapter Six
An UnexpectedParty

A light bluish colored mist had begun to swiftly accumulate at the bottom of the bleachers; it stretched across the pavement of the basketball court as the temperatures continued to steadily drop. Danny felt his heart pounding as he heard the wind howl. There seemed to be a voice that was whispering over the gust, but he couldn't tell what it was saying.

A low rumble had now started below all of the ruckus caused by the panicking spectators, players, and the wind. The earth below had begun to faintly shake, just barely enough that it could be felt.

BANG!

Several of the lights that were lined up on either side of the court spontaneously exploded, sending a shower of sparks onto it and several of the players. They ducked and covered their heads in response, crying out in shock. The wind was beginning to calm down...

Danny glanced around him for a moment, but then nudged Sam and Tucker. He nodded at them—they seemed to understand. Danny looked around again to make sure no one was watching as they leaned over to cover him; he didn't really need to, though, seeing as everyone was paying attention to what was going on around them. He phased through the bleachers and landed on his feet below them. Honestly... he grumbled inwardly. Don't these ghosts have anything better to do than terrorize Amity Park? And me? He quickly changed to ghost mode, the cold temperatures (which were surely subzero by this point) suddenly not affecting him at all. He turned invisible and poked his head back through the bleachers to survey the scene, searching for the source of all this chaos.

Danny frowned. By now people were starting to get up from the bleachers and trying to get away, and it was quite difficult to see anything besides the people closest to him and the fog. Where was the ghost? Or was it ghosts? He couldn't tell.

"Where are you?" he murmured to himself, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was happening beyond the panicking crowd of high school students and the now thick wall of icy blue fog that stretched up at least twenty feet into the air. It was now hard for Danny to distinguish the figures directly in front of him, not to mention the center of the court, which seemed to be where the most commotion was taking place.

The half ghost finally let out a sigh of frustration before flying out of the bleachers and overhead to get a bird's eye view of the situation. Once he was above the clearly defined edge of the mist, he peered into it—a vain attempt at seeing anything besides the seemingly impenetrable wall of fog. Danny bit his lip as he strained to hear anything that stood out from the shrieks of the crowd, most of whom had succeeded in exiting the court by that moment. However, there were at least twenty or so people that were still struggling to find a way out, still lost in the mist.

There came a loud coughing sound as someone was almost literally choking on the thick moisture in the air, "...Help! I can't see!"

That's... Star, isn't it? Danny recognized the blonde cheerleader's voice and dove down into the solid fog, almost regretting it immediately. He could barely even see a foot in front of him. Just blue... everywhere! "Don't worry! I'm coming!" he shouted, blinking rapidly. The halfa whipped around, at a loss of where to go. There was a small but steady stream of blue mist pouring out of his mouth, joining the ghostly fog that was already surrounding him. He could still hear plenty of other people lost on the court, calling for help as well; it was making it really hard for him to pinpoint where each of them were, though. With these visibility conditions as well, he could run right past them and not even know!

After a few more moments of listening intently, Danny could tell that most of the sounds of panicking were starting to fade away as the crowd moved farther and farther away from the basketball court. Some of the people who were lost in the fog had fortunately found their way out by this point, leaving only around ten more to go.

"Ah! There you are, Paulina!" Danny heard someone say.

Somewhere to the back right of Danny, a sound of loud scuffling had started. Danny, encouraged by this, turned around and started running towards it. As he got closer, he could hear the voices clearer... A particularly loud sound was followed by both a cry of surprise and grunt as someone fell to the asphalt.

"Dash! Man, what was that for?!" came Kwan's indignant voice, sounding slightly confused at the same time.

Danny's triumphant smile faded a little as he heard this. It deepened into a worried frown when he heard another scuffle that was followed by a blast and another cry of shock from Kwan. The white-haired ghost boy finally leapt up into the air to fly faster towards the sounds of the skirmish. Something was definitely not right over there...

"Les Misérables! What in the name of Victor Hugo is going on here?!" Mr. Lancer yelled from somewhere off in the distance, probably around the same place Dash and Kwan were.

The fog was starting to thin... just barely, but it was enough that Danny could sort of make out the shadows and outlines of three or so figures around five yards away from him. He slowed down and landed on the ground, proceeding by foot. One of the figures moved abruptly, as if in response to his presence, and Danny was blown backwards by another sudden gust of wind. This took Danny by surprise, since the wind had calmed somewhat after most of the mist had settled in—this sudden gale caught him off guard.

Danny landed on his back several yards away, the breath having been knocked out of him. His eyes widened when he saw that the mist within a ten-yard radius of him was suddenly clearing away with the wind.

Kwan was suspended almost a foot in the air by his arm, which was firmly in the grasp of the blond jock who had lifted him off of the ground. Dash's eyes glinted with malice at the sight of Danny, still lying on the pavement below, in shock. Danny blinked a few times, trying to digest the sight that was above him. What—no, why was he doing this? Then it hit him; that wasn't Dash. That couldn't have been Dash. For one... Dash had blue eyes... not green. And two, he was certain that Dash was quite strong, but not strong enough to lift a fellow jock off of the ground with only one arm! As if reading Danny's thoughts, Dash's grin widened and his green eyes literally flashed, glowing brightly for a fraction of a second.

Kwan was panting hysterically, almost on the verge of shrieking out of terror. It was quite obvious that he was desperately trying to keep calm—or, as calm as it was possible to be in this kind of predicament! After all, his best friend had just attacked him for no apparent reason—he thought that he had sufficient reason to be frightened. But, at any rate, he was failing miserably with his attempts for keeping cool. It was only a matter of moments before he completely lost it when Dash abruptly jumped off the ground, shooting up into the air almost like a geyser to hover at around forty feet overhead. It was now safe for Kwan to say that this wasn't his friend...

"AAAAAAH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING LEMME DOWN LEMME DOWN LEMME DOWN!" he screeched repeatedly, his protruding eyes glued in horror at the hard asphalt far below him.

What am I doing just sitting here?! Danny scolded himself as he pulled himself shakily to his feet, still wheezing from the blow that the unexpected gust of wind had delivered. He cringed as he heard several other commotions back in the mist behind him. A blast, a scream of surprise, and then the wrathful yell of yet another familiar voice. Well, at least Valerie just confirmed to him that there was more than one ghost at the scene...

"Let him go!" Danny yelled, starting to fly up to where the other two were. However, he was then apprehended by someone latching onto his leg with an iron grip. It was Paulina, who Danny had barely even noticed until now. She was still clad in her cheerleader outfit, but her red and white pompoms had been carelessly cast aside to the ground. Her unnaturally-colored and piercing eyes were blazing with malicious delight. "Paulina? Wha—Ah!" She pulled him down forcefully with abnormal strength as he struggled to break away from her, but she succeeded in restraining him from moving anywhere.

"Hey, Danny!" Paulina cheekily grinned.

Suddenly Dash—or rather, the ghost who was overshadowing Dash—slackened his grip on Kwan's arm for the tiniest moment, allowing the athlete to slip a few inches. Just when it seemed just about impossible for him to get any louder, Kwan let out an earsplitting wail. It was a miracle that his voice hadn't gone hoarse yet! Danny froze, his mouth gaping.

"Are you sure you want me to do that?" Dash asked, his lips being the ones that were moving, yet a different voice entirely was coming out. He mock-earnestly gave Kwan a look of concern. "I don't think Kwan here wants me to... do you Kwan?"

In response to this, Kwan clutched white-knuckled at Dash's arm with his free hand and tightened his hold like a python, up until the point that even the ghost who was occupying Dash's body gave a hiss of discomfort at the feeling. "Hoooo... I'll take that as a 'no'..." he winced before weakly chuckling and turning his attention back to the half ghost.

In the meantime, Danny had been squirming under Paulina's hold, desperately trying to get away from the high-maintenance cheerleader. He paused for a moment, thinking. If he could somehow force the ghost that was overshadowing Paulina to leave, he would be able to save Kwan... The halfa breathed in and out for a moment before closing his eyes to concentrate.

"Wait... what are you...?" Paulina trailed off as Danny suddenly phased back into her. The A-Lister blinked wide amber eyes in surprise for a moment, staggering backward slightly. "What?" she slurred, bringing up her hands to her head and closing her eyes; however, when she opened them again, instead of amber they were bright neon green. Paulina growled, her whole body shaking as a silent struggle occurred inside of her for a moment.

A girl with short brown hair was suddenly thrust out from Paulina, crashing down onto the pavement and skidding several more feet before coming to a stop, sprawled on the blacktop. Danny shortly followed, leaving an unconscious Paulina lying facedown on the ground. The half ghost glanced at the ghost girl before turning back to face Dash, after determining that she was still much too disoriented to still be a threat at the moment.

"I've told you once, and now I'll say it again! Let him go!" Danny yelled.

"Alright. If you insist." Dash shrugged before releasing his hold on Kwan's wrist. He then calmly pried Kwan's fingers off of his own arm, causing him to fall.

Danny jumped up into the air and flew up, catching Kwan before he hit the ground, effectively cutting off another scream. Quickly, he lowered back to the ground and set Kwan back on his feet again; after another rapid scan of their surroundings, he could see that the mist was really thin and easily seen through now that most of it had cleared away. All that was left of it was a slight bluish haze that was still lingering around the relatively small area.

"T-th-thank y-you!" Kwan shakily gasped before taking Danny's cue to run away—as fast as he possibly could. He cast his eyes fearfully back up to where his overshadowed friend was still floating overhead before turning back the other way, scrambling off in the direction of the school building.

Dash folded his arms across his chest, a slight crestfallen pout on his face as he watched Kwan run away. "Aw... you ruined my fun, halfa! You really are a killjoy, aren't you...?" He clicked his tongue sorrowfully as he slowly shook his head. However, the expression didn't last long when he saw Danny assume a fighting stance; the frown on the jock's face suddenly flipped upside down into a challenging smile, his eyes narrowing with excitement at the prospect of a new fight.

"Only when it comes to ghosts who cause trouble for their entertainment! Now get out of Dash!" the young hybrid yelled, hurtling up towards him.

Dash's grin widened predatorily as he hunched over, waiting for the ghost boy to deliver the first blow. Danny didn't disappoint him, either—as soon as he reached the overshadowed jock, the ghost boy tackled him, bringing both of them closer to ground level. Dash managed to free himself from Danny's grip once they were only about five feet from the surface of the court and lit his fists with a dark green hue of energy.

Danny pulled out the Fenton Thermos and held it close to him, ready to uncap it and capture the ghost. He turned around rapidly to face him only to be caught in the chest by the resulting blast. He was painfully knocked to the ground, leaving the asphalt cracked where the impact was made. He coughed as he lay dazed once again on the ground. The half ghost could vaguely discern the multiple sounds of fights and familiar voices screaming from various spots all over the area. He had to get to them before they got hurt...

Heaving himself back up to his feet, Danny growled as he noticed the state of the Thermos... which had apparently been caught by the blast and was now dented and smoking. A few feeble sparks were emitting from it. Well, there went that idea... He reluctantly hid it away and turned invisible, causing Dash's eyes to widen with slight surprise. However, his eyes never left the half ghost since he could still sense where he was. "What in the world is he doing that for?" he muttered as his eyes followed him charging back up to him once again. Maybe the boy wasn't aware that he could still tell where he was. Dash's perplexed expression left his face, replaced by the triumphant grin that he had been wearing previously.

However, it wasn't Danny's goal to give the ghost a surprise attack as much as it was to force him to get out of Dash's body. Danny braced himself before using the same move as he had on Plasmius when he had been overshadowing his father all those months ago at the college reunion—he seemingly phased straight through Dash's body, though at the same time he was shoving the unknown ghost out as well. Dash fell the rest of the short distance to the ground, landing on his back face up next to Paulina.

The large ghost cried out in shock as he fell to the ground, rolling over a couple times before he came to a stop. Danny clenched his fists before swooping down to pin him to the pavement.

"Now, who are you and what do you want?!"

The large light brown-haired ghost stayed silent for a moment as he lay regaining his composure. He narrowed his beady green eyes with hatred before tensing his muscles. "I've come to... Ah, Tarrant! There you are!" his gaze shifted to the side of Danny to peer behind him.

Danny quickly glanced behind him to see who the brawny ghost had been talking to and caught a glimpse of a thin gray and white-haired ghost before his throat was suddenly in the grasp of a tight fist. He gasped out as he was abruptly yanked off of the large ghost he had pinned. It seemed that while Danny had been distracted he had taken advantage of his slackened hold. The green and black-clad ghost tossed him overhead with ease, sending him crashing into the bleachers on the other side.

Dash, meanwhile, sat up groggily, clutching his head with one hand and his back with the other. "Oooh... my head... What... where...?" His once again blue eyes widened as they finally started to soak in his surroundings. "Ah!" he let out a yell as he saw the two ghosts in front of him.

"What's happened so far?" the larger one asked as he stood up again.

"Well, we've run into some difficulties, Marsden... some other ghost-hunting girl dressed in red's crashed the party... Lorelei's taking care of her." Tarrant spoke rapidly, almost so fast that it was hard to digest everything he was saying. He lowered himself from the air so he was eyelevel with the tall ghost. "And Flavius and Moira are trying to subdue Phantom's three human helpers."

As Danny peeled himself from the bleachers gingerly, he grinned slightly as he overheard that last particular sentence of their conversation. At least Sam and Tucker were alright and putting up a fight... but... who was the third helper they were talking about? Probably Jazz.

Marsden glanced at Danny and then to Paulina and Dash, still too petrified to move. "Alright. You know what to do—I'll see you in a bit..." Tarrant rapidly nodded in understanding before turning back toward Dash. The large green-eyed ghost slowly turned back to face Danny, chuckling mildly.

Growling, Danny stood back up and glared back at Marsden, who gave a determined smile in response. "Now that that's over with, where were we again?"

"I was about to kick your butt." Danny gave a cheeky smirk.

"Heh," Marsden's eyes narrowed at the bold statement. "You're hilarious—really. But we'll see how long you can keep that smile up." He cracked his knuckles threateningly as he leisurely began approaching the ghost boy.

Danny held out his arms wide open, as if to say "bring it on" to the tanned and strong ghost. Marsden didn't disappoint, either. This specter was about as tall as Danny's father (give or take a couple inches), but while he was still a lot thinner in comparison, he still looked rather menacing with all of his muscular attributes. One would think that he would move slower due to his large size, but the strong ghost was a lot more agile than he looked. In fact, it kind of took Danny off guard. Marsden punched Danny swiftly in the stomach, making him double over. Just as quickly, he grabbed the shorter ghost by his left wrist and swung him up over his shoulder and around before flinging him into the ground, leaving him winded from the sudden blow.

The ghost folded his arms and stepped back as he patiently watched Danny regain his breath, a soft and complacent smile gracing his lips. Danny pulled himself up to his feet for the... what was it...? Fourth time in a row? Yeah, that sounded about right. He let out a low whistle as he glanced down at the place he had landed, which had a small impression where the ghost had flung him.

"Strong, this one is..." he raised an eyebrow as he muttered to himself. "Better start being more careful..."

Danny's eyebrows creased in determination as he lit his fists with energy. He charged straight for the ghost again, shooting a large ecto-blast at him. It caught Marsden in the shoulder instead of the chest when he started moving out of the way. Danny continued by throwing a punch to his jaw, but his opponent caught his fist in his own hand. He increased pressure on the fist, causing Danny to wince before being thrown to the ground once again.

The half ghost hybrid groaned as he stood; now that makes it five times... Danny pushed away the humiliating thought.

"Whoa! You're fast!" Danny finally gasped out in almost complete exhaustion; although the halfa had absolutely no intentions of giving up any time soon. The teenager put up another weak fighting position.

Marsden shrugged contentedly, approaching at a leisurely pace. It seemed as if he was now satisfied and that his job there was almost done. "Well, I have been known to fool people into thinking otherwise, but I'm nowhere near as quick as Tarrant, I'm afraid..." He gestured to where the lanky ghost had been only a moment before with Dash and Paulina.

The teenage hybrid blinked, puzzled, before turning around to see what the other had been trying to point out. It was then that his heart practically did a back flip in horror. Tarrant was nowhere in sight.

But neither was Dash.

Sam never really liked sports in the first place. Why was she at the game, then, you ask? Well, that was actually a pretty good question. She supposed that the only reason she was there was out of mere curiosity at the idea that the teachers were playing as well. That was the only reason. End of story. Even though she liked neither Dash nor Mr. Lancer very much, the prospect of seeing an extremely hilarious game between them made her get past that fact.

Now that the game had been interrupted—to put it bluntly, she didn't really know how she should feel about it. Relieved? Well, a little. But, that was before things had taken an extreme turn for the worse.

At first Sam had just thought it would be a minor disturbance that Danny could easily take care of, because the wind and fog were the only abnormal factors in the situation. But, once it got to the point that the miasma was so thick that she couldn't see a foot in front of her face, she started to get a little worried. Then there were the small earthquakes and the exploding lights.

Yep... this was more serious than it had appeared. After Danny had left to find out what was going on, Sam and Tucker had started off by helping people find their way out of the mist in an orderly fashion. Of course, they were almost just as stumped as everyone else. By the time they heard the obvious sounds of a ghost fight that was going on somewhere near center court, they had fortunately been able to help as many people as possible. But, when they heard the unmistakable scream of a familiar jock, that was really when all heck broke loose.

"...Was that... Kwan?" Tucker asked, turning to Sam questioningly. The two of them were just outside of the basketball court, standing on the grass behind one set of bleachers. He worriedly wiped off the condensation that had accumulated on the screen of his PDA. The techno-geek didn't want all of this moisture to ruin his precious equipment...

"I..." Sam began, but her perplexed expression soon turned to one of shock as she saw something out of the corner of her eye. "Duck!"

She tackled Tucker to the ground just as a cerulean blast of energy soared through the space Tucker's head had been taking up just a second before. It continued on to smash into the blacktop several yards away.

"Ah!" Tucker was the first one to see the female ghost that had been the one to send the attack.

The blue-clad specter was floating around ten feet overhead, hovering upright with her feet parallel to the ground. She giggled and shrugged euphorically, causing her wavy white hair to ripple slightly over her shoulders. "Oh, forgive me! My aim is so terrible!"

Her blue eyes darkened considerably as she lit up her hands again with an almost navy shade of energy. Sam pulled out her wrist ray to aim it at the ghost; however, it turned out that Sam and Tucker didn't really need to worry about this new threat. Another blast took out the ghost girl from even farther up in the air.

"It's a good thing mine isn't, then!" a red blur zoomed across Sam and Tucker's line of vision, making a beeline for the surprised ghost.

The ghost girl regained her composure, scowling as this new opponent charged towards her.

"Now, I don't know what makes you think that you ghosts can just do whatever you want, but you're in for one heck of a surprise!" Valerie yelled at the top of her lungs.

As Valerie delivered another blow, Sam cringed, "Well, that settles it. I'm glad I'm not her..."

Tucker laughed in agreement. "Me neither, but then again, I think she had it coming!"

"Amen!" another entity said in agreement. Tucker frowned in confusion as both of the teenagers looked around to locate the source of the voice. "Boo!" A red-clad ghost suddenly popped up right in front of Tucker's face, causing the techno-geek to jump, startled. The ghost laughed at his reaction, doubling over from the apparent hilarity.

Immediately upon seeing the ghost, Sam just as swiftly raised her arm and blasted him with the wrist ray. The ghost stopped laughing. "Why you little...!" he growled, his red eyes blazing with fury.

"Flavius! Stop messing around! You know what we're supposed to be doing!" yet another ghost girl suddenly appeared, this time dressed in black with short dark hair. Her gray eyes were emphasized as they flared with energy.

Flavius flinched with apparent irritation, yet Sam could tell that he was also hiding a slightly intimidated manner behind his tone. "Always Moira... always pretending to be the boss just because she's the magician's favorite..."

"Uuuugh... Honestly, you are the most hot-headed ghost I've ever had the misfortune of meeting! And yes, that is including Melania Dark, and the Lunch Lady, and—" Moira began listing off of her fingers.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Flavius sarcastically retorted, letting a deep red flame engulf one of his hands.

"Shut it or I'll make sure you regret it for the next few nights..." Moira glared threateningly at the other ghost. "Now get them!"

Her words were almost drowned out as Valerie continued battling with Lorelei. A particularly loud blast hit Valerie's hover board as she turned it upward to block the attack. However, Flavius understood them perfectly.

"Okay," Tucker winced as both Flavius and Moira's attentions turned back to them. "Can we panic now?"

Sam bit her lip as she raised her wrist ray once again. She doubted that they could take both of them... And it sounded as if Danny was a little too occupied with something else at that moment. Oh dear...

But, right then, something a little unexpected happened. "Sam! Tucker!" Jazz came from out of the fog—which was just now starting to clear—and jumped up to latch on to Moira's foot. Moira's eyes widened as she lost her balance in the air; as she was dragged down to the ground, her arms flailed to the side and whacked Flavius across the face. The male ghost gave an indignant cry as he was also knocked down when Moira careened sideways into him. Jazz bit her lip awkwardly as she tried to hold on to the ghost girl's foot—she obviously didn't know that her action would really have a domino affect, but she couldn't really complain about the results.

Sam and Tucker just watched dumbstruck for the moment, but then burst out laughing as they saw the two ghosts piled on top of each other on the ground.

"Er... what do you think we should do...?" Jazz stood up and ran to her younger brother's best friends. Tucker cast a wary eye at the two ghosts that were starting to get up again. They, in the meantime, were starting their own tedious argument that went somewhat along the lines of "Watch where you swing your arms!"

"Hold them off until Danny gets here, I guess. He has the Thermos." Sam muttered. "We might not really have any of the big weapons, but I think we can manage to distract them until he shows up—or Valerie, when she gets done with that ghost."

"Yeah," Tucker reasoned, "After all, we're off to a promising start..." he eyed Flavius and Moira, who were continuing their shouting match, oblivious to the three humans and what they were planning amongst themselves.

"Jazz! Sam! Tucker!"

All of a sudden Danny came rushing over to them, worriedly looking around. He landed next to them, panting. He'd just barely gotten away from Marsden, and it was a good thing, too.

"What is it, Danny?" Sam asked.

Danny swallowed carefully, giving another glance behind him to check and see if he was still chasing him. "Dash is gone. One of the ghosts has taken him and I don't know where they went. I—"

The ringing of a cell phone interrupted his sentence. He jumped before reaching inside of his black and white jumpsuit to pull it out. His eyes widened as he checked the caller ID. "Oh no... not now!"

"Who is it?" Jazz asked.

"Mom and Dad. I can't just let it go to voicemail or they'll think something terrible has happened!" he mentally slapped himself for saying that. Oh, who was he kidding? Something terrible was happening!

He bit his lip before accepting the call. He closed his eyes nervously as he put the phone up to his ear. "Hello?" he forced himself to sound as casual as possible.

"Hey, Danny-boy! How's everything going over there?" Jack's voice boomed from the other end of the line.

Danny cringed as Valerie gave a particularly loud scream followed by an even more thunderous blast. "Hehe... hey, Dad! Everything is absolutely great over here! How are you and Mom doing over there in England? Is anything wrong? I mean, I know it must be pretty... er... late over there, right?"

"We're doing fine..." Maddie's voice slowly said from the other side. He must have been on speaker. "We've just had... a really grueling schedule today and didn't have much free time until now. Is...? Is something going on over there? It sounds really loud..."

"Oh... that?" Danny gave a weak chuckle, trying his best to think of an explanation to wave it off. "Um... it's, well... an action movie! Yeah, Sam and Tucker are over and we're watching an action movie!" He desperately grasped at the idea as soon as it came to mind.

"Well, turn it down! We can barely hear you!" Jack called.

"Er... I will in a minute! As soon as I... find the... the remote!" Danny anxiously evaded a wayward blast coming from Valerie and Lorelei's fight.

"That... sounds a little loud for just being on the television..." Maddie almost suspiciously responded to the sound.

"Um... that's because we're watching it in Vlad's screening room! Yeah! HD and surround sound; it's great! It's so realistic it's almost like we're actually there, you know? It's amazing!"

Flavius and Moira finally seemed to realize that they had gotten sidetracked. They turned towards the four teenagers, beginning to focus their wrath at them instead. Jazz yelped loudly as she dodged a red blast of ecto-energy.

The blast soared past her and knocked into Tarrant, who was too preoccupied with a ferociously struggling Dash as it was sailing his way. The ghost dropped Dash, who thankfully didn't have far to fall.

"Wow! That sound quality really is great!" Jack exclaimed excitedly. "Remind me to watch a movie in there when we get back!"

"Alright then..." Maddie finally seemed to accept the reason. "Well, hope you all have a good rest of the night!"

"Hehe... yeah, you too! Seeya!" Danny replied before hanging up as quickly as he could. And it was a good thing he did it right then, too.

"Ah!" Danny let out a scream as he was suddenly blasted to the ground. As soon as he made impact with the ground it was as if the earth softened and opened up, partially swallowing him before hardening once again. His arms, torso, and most of his legs were submerged beneath the grass and soil.

There was Marsden, watching with glee from overhead. He had the unconscious Paulina draped over his shoulder. "Come on, you four!" he shouted to the other ghosts. However, it was still quite a challenge for Lorelei to give the brawny ghost her attention. "Wrap it up already!"

"What are you doing?" Danny cried out, trying to phase out of the pile of earth he was trapped in, but to no such luck.

Lorelei nodded in frustration before forming a shield of blue energy to block one of Valerie's attacks. It bounced right off of it and directed itself right back at the red-clad ghost-hunter. It struck Valerie on the shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain. Lorelei then took hold of the opportunity of her distraction to form water around her hands and phase them inside Valerie's hover board. The water had an immediate effect, short-circuiting the wires and causing Valerie to be shocked from the malfunctioning hover board. Finally, Valerie fainted from the sheer amount of electricity flowing through her body and collapsed into Lorelei's arms.

The ghost girl that had been earlier overshadowing Paulina, Gaia, had in the meantime snuck up behind Sam and twisted the Goth girl's arms behind her back, tearing the wrist ray off of her arm and casting it to the ground disdainfully.

"Ah!" she cried out in shock as Gaia clubbed her hard against the head, causing her to black out.

Flavius at that same time took hold of Dash, and Moira of Tucker. "Hey!" Tucker yelled indignantly.

"Get your hands off me!" Jazz shouted desperately as Tarrant seized her. However, needless to say, none of them followed the command.

"No!" Danny continued his struggle against the earth that was binding him, getting more and more urgent with every passing moment.

Marsden waved hastily at the others, "Now get going! Quick!"

The others followed his order, carrying off the captives back in the direction of Vlad's house as Marsden lingered behind with Danny. "No! Let them go! Why are you doing this?!" he shouted, actually managing to make a crack in the durable earth that had hardened around him.

"Oh..." Marsden frowned a little at seeing Danny already making progress on escaping from his earthy prison. However, he regained his composure just as quickly. "You'll see soon enough, halfa... Catch me if you can, kid!"

With a chuckle, Marsden turned on his heel and flew off after the other five.

"What? No! No, you get back here!" Danny shouted furiously after him, struggling all the while. But, after several more seconds of thrashing around, Danny finally tried his best to form ecto-energy around his hands to blast through the earth. It worked after a moment or two, only cracking the soil at first, but then giving away and blasting out.

Danny's eyes blazed bright green as he growled, not wasting any more time in pursuing the fading speck in the distance that Marsden was by this point.

It took a while to catch up, but Danny finally did so right as they reached the woods behind Vlad's estate. After aiming a blast at Marsden, the strong ghost had glanced over his shoulder in an amused manner, laughing. He put on a burst of speed to tease the hybrid. By now Danny had started to get more and more tired, and the sorcerer's apprentice knew that. He lowered himself down into the trees as he continued, forcing Danny to do the same.

"Hey! Let Paulina go right now!" Danny boldly yelled.

Marsden smirked and remained silent as he suddenly took a sharp right in the trees, effectively confusing the halfa. "I will if you catch me first, Danny Phantom!" he abruptly yelled.

"This isn't a game, dude! Let her go! I mean it! Or else!"

Danny had lost sight of the ghost. He continued chasing all the same, though getting a little worried. It was dark, cold, and he had apparently lost the ghost he had been pursuing... Which way had he gone? He slowed down and came to a stop, not wanting to continue until he knew which direction he had gone off in.

"This time I mean business, dude! What do you want?! Why are you doing this?!" Danny yelled at the top of his lungs, turning around on the spot, trying to determine the direction in which the other ghost had absconded with Paulina. Just what he needed... to lose this ghost and his friends and peers! Why? Why were these ghosts doing this? Were they using his classmates as bait to lure him into an even bigger trap? If only he knew who exactly these ghosts were working for—the only clue he had was the firebird's warning. The sorcerer... I came back to warn you that he is also after you. He is planning something against you. Danny now had a good reason to believe that this... sorcerer... was the one who had sent these six to Amity Park. This must have been what he had been planning against him—for his goons to kidnap his friends and peers! Yeah... those six ghosts must have been his mercenaries or even apprentices. It sounded reasonable.

"To extend my master's greetings!" Danny heard the ghost's voice calling back to him from far off, as if to further confirm his thoughts. Unfortunately for the teenager, it sounded as if it was coming from multiple directions, so it was still hard to tell which way he should go.

There was a deep silence for several moments as the crickets continued chirping and Danny waited desperately for a response from any of the ghosts. Finally Danny lost it—he picked a direction and began flying ahead at top speed while weaving in and out through the trees. "Jazz?! Sam?! Tucker! Valerie...!" he called out the names of each of the six that had been kidnapped repeatedly, but still all he got in response was nothing.

Finally after what seemed to eternity, Danny began to run out of energy; he unwillingly slowed down and lowered to the ground, bending over to catch his breath. Oh no... he lost them. He lost them!

"Oh no..." Danny despairingly whispered to himself as he continued looking frustrated into the trees surrounding him. Congratulations, Fenton... your friends are once again in trouble because of you... a cynical voice said in his head. Danny put both of his hands up to his head and ran his gloved fingers through his white hair as he tried his best to ignore that voice. However, the halfa failed quite miserably; he let out a frightened whimper, his vision blurring. He gulped nervously, panting as he continued his panicking. "No, no no! It's my fault... all... my fault. If I'd have just…"

The half ghost suddenly forced himself to breath in and out deeply, calming himself down as best as possible. "...It's alright. Just keep it cool. You'll find them. You'll find them..." He repeated it a couple more times under his breath, as if the more he heard this message the more true it would become.

"Aw... having trouble finding me, Danny?" Marsden's voice suddenly issued from the side of Danny.

Danny whipped his head up to see Marsden floating off a short distance away, Paulina slung over his shoulder with a glowing green gag covering her mouth.

And within a millisecond of seeing the male ghost, the fear that had been pent up in Danny only a moment before was suddenly transformed into rage. The halfa's eyes blazed as he suddenly felt adrenaline boost his energy.

Marsden's grin widened as he turned back around to continue leading the boy onwards. The teenager growled as he shot a blast of green energy aimed at the ghost's head. The tan and broad shouldered specter evaded as it came close to hitting its mark. "Whoo! You ought to be more careful where you aim, kid! You might just hit Paulina here!" (Danny bit his lip worryingly in response) Marsden continued calling over his shoulder, "Don't worry, though, we've almost reached our destination! It's straight ahead!"

Danny didn't have much time to wonder what the ghost was talking about before he suddenly halted where he was. The ghost disappeared right before Danny caught up, leaving Danny slightly baffled. It appeared that the large ghost had only been flying so the halfa could follow... He frowned before speeding up as fast he could. Danny could see that there was a small break in the dense trees up ahead, where it opened up into a small clearing. He could barely see something in the center of it, but it was hard to identify exactly what it was in the dark, even with his heightened senses that came with being half ghost. Well, it appeared that he had reached the 'destination' that the ghost had been leading him to...

Danny emerged into the clearing...

Phew! Our favorite halfa is about to get in yet another sticky situation that they have to clean up. As usual. Well, let's correct that—he is in another sticky situation. As usual. Anyways, advice, opinions, comments, etc. would be wonderful, as usual! Until next time, folks!