Switching Places

Chapter Seven

"I'm so sorry, Kitty! Please take me back! Please!" Danny could not believe it. He was on his knees begging Kitty, of all people, to take him back. He came back to her after he was sure that she had calmed down enough that she wouldn't try to use that awful power of hers. After all, he couldn't have Johnny come back to his own life to find it in shambles. Or gone. Or whatever Kitty's power did. He internally sighed, wondering how Johnny was doing. Had he ruined his life by now, too?

"No! I'm over you, Johnny," Kitty said and gruffly pushed past him.

"Actually," she continued with an evil grin on her face. "I was over you the moment I met Danny."

Oh, God. Danny rolled his eyes and smacked his forehead. Kitty was trying to use him to get to Johnny! Jeeze, how ironic.

"Uhh… but you can't be in love with him, Kitty! We were made for each other, remember?" What other mush could he say to her to make her want to take him back? Kitty's angry snarl faltered. Yes! He was getting to her! He stood up and took both her hands in his.

"Don't you see, Kitty? I love you and I'll never love anyone else!" He did the only thing he could think of right then. He leaned forward and kissed her, pressing Johnny's face against hers. This was sooooo weird. He was going to have to wash his mouth a hundred times over just to feel normal again. She practically melted against him and hugged him tighter. Well, actually, maybe it wasn't all that bad. He had never been kissed by an actual girl before, fake-out make-outs excluded. He was almost a little sorry when she broke the kiss. She didn't break the hug, though.

"Maybe I can forgive you, Johnny. You did go through all that trouble to make the reservations after all. You probably ran into Danny, didn't you? I hope you didn't get hurt too bad."

"Heheh, yeah I did, Kitty. But you know, Danny is a very cool guy… when he's not kicking your butt," Danny added after a slight hesitation. He had a feeling that Johnny probably didn't like him too much, even before the wish. Didn't want to blow his cover.

"Well, anyways, Johnny, I was gonna meet some of the girls in a while, so we can meet up later," Kitty said. The girls? Oh, right, of course Kitty had friends. He could even guess who they were. Probably Spectra or even Ember, when she didn't think she was too close to Johnny.

"Uh, that's fine. I was gonna meet up with the guys later, too," Danny said, really planning to just explore the Ghost Zone. He hoped Johnny had friends.

"They guys?" Kitty asked. Great, she was gonna make this hard. Now he had to think of any guy ghosts Johnny would ever possibly be seen around with.

"Uhmmm, yeah, the guys. You know, uhhhhhhh… Skulker? Yeah, and Poindexter! And uhhh…" Kitty interrupted him, snorting.

"I thought Skulker said he was going to hunt down Danny today. But Poindexter? Little nerd kid? He should be here. Have fun, Johnny!" she said enthusiastically and disappeared. Danny didn't know if she was being sarcastic or not, but he had a feeling she probably was. He slapped himself on the forehead again.

"Poindexter? Who in the Ghost Zone would want to hang out with him?" He asked himself. "And Skulker's hunting down Johnny? Great." He hoped Johnny could handle it. In any case, there was not much Danny could do about it. He got on Johnny's bike and took off in no particular direction.

---

The rest of the day went by like a breeze. Johnny had easily avoided calls from Sam and Tucker after they had called twice (making the annoying music play) by leaving it on the roof. He was now scarfing down Mrs. Fenton's cooking like he hadn't eaten in years. Which was true, aside from the green plastic he ate for lunch. He had to admit, Danny's mom didn't cook often, but she sure did know how. He had just gained a whole new respect for the ghost hunter, at least when she wasn't carrying a gun.

"Mmm." Spaghetti used to be his favorite. "This is so good, Mrs.- uhhh, I mean, mom!" Jazz looked at him suspiciously, but Mrs. Fenton smiled.

"Why thank you, sweetie!" she said.

"Danny, I thought you hated mom's weird ecto-run pasta cooker spaghetti," Jazz whispered to him, frowning from across the table. He rolled his eyes and ignored her.

"Yes, dear, this is amazing!" Mr. Fenton practically yelled, a strand of spaghetti hanging out of his mouth. Johnny quickly finished and put his plate in the sink with a quick, "thanks for dinner, mom!" He ran upstairs. "I'm gonna be at Tucker's, studying, okay?" he yelled down.

"That's my boy," Mr. Fenton boomed. "Always does his schoolwork. Just like I used to!"

"Jack, you never did your school work," Mrs. Fenton said. Jazz rolled her eyes.

She could tell something was not right with Danny and if anyone could find out what was wrong, it was going to be her.

---

"I thought I told you to watch where you were going, punk."

Danny gulped. He had been going so fast, he hadn't noticed Walker standing in the way. He had swerved out of the way, only knocking Walker down, just in time to run into a big boulder. He had been thrown onto the ground, sprawled on his back, while Johnny's motorcycle flew by itself from the momentum of the speed Danny had been going. It crashed noisily, spare parts now scattering all over the place. Danny gulped; Johnny would be furious. So much for fixing that dent.

"Why, didn't you watch where I was going? You were standing right in the middle of the road!" he said angrily to Walker. Well, it was true. He had been just standing there and Danny hadn't seen any 'watch for pedestrian' signs anywhere.

"These are my parts, boy. I'll decide the rules here. For knocking the warden over, your punishment will be 100 years," he said in a menacing voice. Danny rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, Walker. I don't think I can make it. I got a date with Kitty tonight." Walker growled.

"So be it then, punk. Guards!" A bunch of Walker's goons just popped up out of nowhere and aimed their weapons at Danny. Danny let out a yelp, kicked the closest guard's weapon out of reach, and got the heck out of the way. He ran behind the boulder and aimed his hand at Walker, powering up for an ecto-blast. Nothing happened and the guards fired their weapons at him. He cried out when he was hit, shackles forming over his wrists. Why wasn't he able to fire his ecto-blast? Had Walker shorted out his powers? Then he remembered whose body he was in and immediately felt stupid.

"Johnny's body, duh! Shadow! Attack!" he cried, pointing at the warden. Shadow instantly appeared and flew at Walker. The guards fired at Shadow, but the blasts passed through Shadow harmlessly. Danny hoped Shadow could hold his own against Walker. But he wasn't going to wait and find out.

Danny used all the strength he could muster and pulled his arms apart. The ecto-rope around his wrists broke and dissipated and he ran as fast as he could to Johnny's now deformed bike. He lifted it up and looked it over quickly. It was dented severely out of shape and he sincerely hoped it wasn't completely broken, for his own sake.

He jumped onto it and revved it into gear before it could fall over. It worked! He turned the handle forward for max speed… which was now almost a super-speedy 40mph. He looked behind him. It would have to do. He had never seen Walker fly and Danny didn't think he had any method of transportation.

"Shadow, return!" he commanded. Shadow looked over at him from the fight and disappeared. Danny could feel Shadow return to him, which, he had to admit, was the one of the creepiest feelings ever.

He used Shadow's power to propel the motorcycle faster, delving deeper and deeper into the infinite realms of the Ghost Zone.

---

As soon as Johnny hit the top step, he changed into Danny Phantom and flew straight down to the Fenton's lab. He wanted so badly to check up on Kitty… and himself. He wanted to make sure Danny hadn't gone and done anything stupid. He flew through the portal and looked around. Where would he start looking for Danny? Well, he figured he should probably start at his home, so he kicked off the metallic rims of the portal and sped homewards.

"Finally, almost home," he said aloud to himself, enjoying the beautiful (in his opinion) scenery of the Ghost Zone. And suddenly someone grabbed his foot. He looked behind him and scowled. Ember.

"What do you think you're doing in here, dipstick? And what did you do with my boyfriend?"

"Your boyfriend?" Oh, right. Skulker. Oops. He was still in the thermos that was currently sitting in his backpack at home. He heard two people laughing a few feet away from him and looked up. Spectra… and-

"Kitty!" he cried, overjoyed at seeing her again. He grinned stupidly, completely in love. Spectra turned to Kitty and smirked.

"Wow. Looks like you've got more than one lover boy, Kitty-cat. How do you do it?" Johnny growled when she mentioned there being more than one person in love with Kitty but then he remembered that it was just him…two of him.

"What?"

"Look at him! He's head over heels for you!" Johnny pulled his leg out from Ember's grasp.

"Kitty, listen to me-!"

"Don't you talk to me, Danny! We're over! We were over a long time ago, remember? When you attacked my precious Johnny!" Johnny grinned again.

"Awh, I love you too, Kitten." Ember grabbed him again, this time by his collar.

"I thought she just made it clear to you that she didn't want to see you anymore."

"Which reminds me," Spectra cut in. "I've been wanting to see more of you." At first, Johnny was totally grossed out by the fact that Spectra was into Danny. But that turned out not to be the case at all when she suddenly transformed from her human appearance to her Ghostly Shadow- like appearance and finished speaking. "More of your teenage misery, that is." She smiled evilly, her long, sharp claws making their way to his neck. She and Ember both had a death grip on him and he couldn't see behind him, but he was pretty sure Kitty was closing in the circle. Imagine that- he, Johnny 13, was surrounded by circle of women who all disliked him! He charged his fists with ecto-blasts, but before he could do anything, a voice interrupted.

"Let him go!" it yelled. All three of them dropped Johnny, turning to see who the newcomer was. It was… himself! Well, Danny, actually.

"Johnny, I thought you said you were gonna hang out with 'the guys,'" Kitty whined. "What are you doing here?" Danny looked around anxiously.

"Uhh…you were right. I couldn't find Skulker anywhere and before I got to Poindexter, I had a run in with the warden." Poindexter? Johnny would have slapped his forehead. But all three of them bought it and gasped.

"The warden?" Kitty asked protectively. "Johnny, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, but I have some unfinished business with this guy, here," he told them, pointing to Johnny. Both Spectra and Ember looked angry.

"No way, loser! We were here first!" Ember growled.

"If you don't go away, then I'll sic Shadow on you," Danny replied.

"And I'll blast you," Johnny added, brushing himself off and stepping away from the girls. Kitty looked crushed that her boyfriend would kick her out and Spectra and Ember looked defeated. They could fight the boys, but it would be too messy and sort of unnecessary. They'd get the revenge on the little half-ghost next time they saw him.

"Your boyfriend sucks," Johnny heard Ember say to Kitty as they left. He turned around angrily to face Danny.

"You!" he yelled pointing at him. Danny glowered at him. "I give up! I'm goin' crazy, man!"

"You're going crazy?" Danny yelled back. "Your stupid girlfriend is driving me up a freaking wall! And there are no walls here!" He gestured around crazily.

"Hey kid, there are walls here if you haven't noticed, they're just invisib- oof!" He was cut short when Danny nailed him in the mouth with a hard punch. It was really weird having his body attack him. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Oh, that? That was just a little gift Walker asked me to give to you," he smirked. Johnny growled at him and lunged, finding it just as weird attacking his own body. Completely disregarding their ghost powers, the two teens engaged in a fistfight, relieving all their built up stress.

They had been punching and kicking at each other for all of five minutes when Johnny suddenly felt the urge to use the little bit of maturity he had gained from being a 18 year old.

"Stop! Stop! This is just stupid," he said, pushing Danny back. Danny looked down at the ground.

"You're right, why are we fighting each other when we should be kicking Desiree's butt?"

"Points, little man," he said sarcastically, congratulating Danny for stating the obvious. Danny sighed.

"Look, sorry, I don't know what got into me. I guess it's just that this whole thing making me crazy," he said. "Your life is just so…different than mine. I never imagined what it was like, staying in the Ghost Zone. Maybe this is why you all want out so badly." Johnny glared at him and he pressed on. "Anyway, I was thinking… some time ago, Tucker made a wish that he was half-ghost like me and Desiree overheard him. He became evil and the only way I was able to get him back to normal again was to shove him through this invention my parents made." Johnny raised an eyebrow. He couldn't even begin to imagine Tucker the Techno Geek as a ghost.

"What kind of invention?" he asked.

"It's called the Fenton Ghost Catcher. It's made with a net that separates ghost energy or something."

"How do you know it'll work?"

"I uhh, well…I don't."

---

A few hours later, Johnny was back in the Fenton lab. He and Danny had agreed to meet tomorrow at four (Danny was pretty sure Jazz had an after school psychology course at four and wouldn't be back till later.) It was too late now to do it now, because Danny's parents would miss him and Danny had insisted that Johnny go back to school one last time. Then they would meet in the lab, where they would try using the Ghost Catcher to return to their normal bodies. Johnny smiled. He couldn't wait until tomorrow.

He walked upstairs to his bed, yawning, ready for much needed sleep. He opened the door and headed straight to the bed when he heard Jazz.

"Don't. Move." she said, slowly and quietly. She was shaking slightly, her hand outstretched and holding something pointed at him. His eyes widened when he saw what she was holding: the Fenton Ghost Peeler.

okay i know i was going to update like sat but getting two more reviews than usual per chapter got me going. plus im sick. thanks for reviewing any advice helps.

and uh HP, Vlads coming, hes just on his way. in fact hes in chapter nine. i hadnt planned on him offering Johnny anything but idk it sounds like a pretty good idea... especially cause i still dont have any excuse for vlad coming to the fenton's in the first place other than he just wanted to say hi to everyone. Ill try to incorporate it. and haha hehes to DPfan and smallvillegirl for sayin something like every chapter. anyway this is kind of random but has anyone seen that daytime television show with chuck norris as like the ranger sheriff guy? i was flippin through channels and watchced an episode and i noticecd he has the accent and his characters name's walker. i was just wondering if it was a coincidence at all...