Didja miss me? I think I actually got this one out on time…

I'm getting close to the point where I'm at in handwriting, so updates may slow down soon. Grr…

Congratulations to PotterPhan21 for being the only one to figure out why I named Mr. Recnal that. Extra points for creative phrasing! "…Like the Mirror of Erised…" You know, I'm a HP fan, and I didn't realize that. Heh…duh.

This chapter should be fairly tense. Have fun!

Maddie Fenton was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of tea. She was alone. Danny was at Sam's house for an all-weekend sleepover, and Jack had left a while ago to take Jazz to her psychology camp. She wasn't expecting him back until the end of the weekend, either. She was startled out of her seat when blaring sirens alerted her to an ectoplasmic presence. She jumped to her feet and rushed to the front door. She grabbed an ecto-weapon from a safe next to the door and kicked it open, leveling her sight on the ghost, only to let it fall in surprise.

A scared and forlorn Danny Phantom stood on the sidewalk cradling a little girl in his arms.

Maddie gawked at Phantom for a full minute before he stepped forward, a pleading look in his eyes. "Can you help her?" he asked.

Maddie put her gun down and approached him. He gulped but didn't shy away. "She was attacked by a ghost," he said.

Maddie looked at him, alarmed, and said, "Bring her in; I'll see what I can do."

Phantom nodded, relieved, and followed her in. Maddie led him to the living room where he set Ashley on the couch. Maddie knelt next to her and checked her vitals. Seeing that her heart rate was stable, she turned to Phantom. "I think you'd better tell me what happened."

Phantom ran a hand through his hair and began:

After he flew away, Phantom slowed down to a gentle glide. He perched upon a building and stared at the city, solemn.

Suddenly, his ghost sense went off in a puff of blue vapor and a dangerously sugary voice said, "Well, aren't you depressed! Anything I can help with?"

Phantom glared at his surroundings and replied, "Not likely. Nothing I'd want you to deal with, anyway." He paused for a moment then added, "I take it you finally figured out how ugly you are?"

The voice grew an edge to it and spoke three words: "Bertrand, sic 'em!"

A green panther leapt out from behind Phantom and tackled him with a snarl. Phantom shoved it off and floated above it, palms alight with green flames. He threw several blasts, but the panther evaded them all.

Without warning, the panther transformed into a hawk, which raked its talons against Phantom's upraised arms. Phantom hissed air through clenched teeth and flip-kicked, driving the bird into the ground courtesy of his boot.

The bird sprang up and transformed into a green ninja, who threw a blade-edged boomerang at Phantom. Phantom ducked, letting the boomerang sail over his head, and shouted, "You've gotten worse!"

The ninja simply cocked his head as the boomerang came around and sliced Phantom's arm.

"OW!" Phantom sighed in disgust. "Of all the clichés to fall for…"

The ninja grinned and released a bola, which wrapped around Phantom's arms and chest. It glowed green, and Phantom suddenly plummeted to the ground.

As Phantom struggled to his knees, Spectra descended to land in front of him. She tilted his chin so he was forced to look her in the eye and marveled in the determination in his eyes.

"What, no put-downs today?"

"I won't need to if you no longer exist, now will I?" she commented casually as she prepared to strike him down.

Phantom dove to the side just as her clawed hands raked the ground where he had been. He grunted and strained against the ropes, causing them to break. With a roguish grin, he readied an ecto-blast.

At the last second, a green lion bounded from behind a building and tackled Phantom. The ecto-blast disintegrated as Phantom was pressed to a wall.

Phantom kicked the lion off of him and said, "You know what? I'm not interested in you now. Come back in, oh, never, okay?"

Phantom unslung the thermos from his back and uncapped it. He aimed it at the lion and pressed a button on the side, releasing a blue-white vortex upon the lion. The vortex grabbed the lion and dragged the yowling cat into its depths.

He turned to Spectra and shook the thermos tauntingly.

Spectra gasped, "Bertrand!" before turning tail and fleeing through the ground.

Phantom snorted and grumbled, "Honestly, how long does she expect to be able to run? I'll catch her anyways…" he lifted off and began a systematic search, Ashley's dilemma pushed to the back of his mind.

Several minutes later, Phantom's ghost sense went off, and he grinned when he recognized Spectra's voice. He followed the sound until he found her. He morphed his grin into a determined scowl and stepped forward.

"I thought I told you to go back to the Ghost Zone, Spectra!" he shouted. When he advanced, he noticed a young girl lying on the ground. Ashley! "What did you do to her?!" he screeched.

Spectra ran, and he hurried to Ashley's side. After checking her over, he scooped her up and lifted off.

At first, Phantom flew toward her apartment but remembered her father. He imagined her father's reaction to the situation.

He turned toward FentonWorks.

Maddie stared at Phantom in disbelief, surprised by his actions. She spoke, "I suppose I can understand why you wouldn't want to go to her house, but why did you come here? For all you know, I might have shot you on sight, even if you were carrying Ashley."

Phantom shrugged and said, "I know that you shoot at me because it's your job, and you're great people, really. You just haven't gotten past the whole 'I'm a ghost!' thing. Besides, you're a ghost expert. If anyone knows how to help Ashley, it's you."

Maddie nodded and continued working on Ashley. Phantom hovered over her nervously as he awaited the verdict.

Finally, Maddie said, "Phantom, I realize you're worried, but you're distracting me! Please, just wait downstairs or…something."

Phantom nodded, and with a last, worried glance tat Ashley, he flew through the floor into the basement/lab.

Maddie sighed. "I don't know if I can trust him…I wish Jack was here…he could help me figure it out." In her mind, she imagined she was talking with Jack.

"Do you think we can trust his story?"

Jack smiled and said, "Well, he seems to like Ashley, but he's a ghost, and all ghosts are evil! …Right? He's probably just got a ghostly obsession on Ashley."

In her mind, Maddie sighed and shook her head. "I don't know anymore. I just don't know."

Interesting stats: At this point, the story (without ANs) is 8097 words long, and 22 pages long (with 'skip-a-line's in between paragraphs.

For the record, that's the longest piece of writing I've EVER written, and I'm still going!

Thanks to:

ghostanimal, StarPhantom, Yami-chan and Unrealistic, HiddenAuthor, PotterPhan21, DP fan, Icepaw, The Blood Countess Erzsebet, lil' munkies, and PPGBelle4. You guys are amazing!

Sasia