Disclaimer: Don't own Danny Phantom. Just the people you don't recognize.

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"The park in thirty minutes?" the raven-haired boy asked into the receiver. He paused to listen to his friend on the other line.

"Do you want everyone else to come? I mean, it makes sense...Okay, just us...Alright, I'll be there...See you there," he sighed as he hung up the phone. 'I still don't understand why not include everyone else though... But then I shouldn't be saying anything...'

"I'm heading to park!" he shouted throughout the house. Jazz peeked into the hallway from the living room.

"Do you want a ride?" she asked.

"There's no need to..." The redhead held up her hand to silence him as she shook her head. A small smile wiped on her face.

"Don't worry about it," she assured, her turquoise purse in her hand. "I'm going out anyway. Meeting with a friend of mine."

Danny simply rose an eyebrow, then joked. "You have friends?"

"Do you want the ride or not?" Her hands were on her hips.

He waved her off. "Thanks but I rather fly."

Before Jazz could say another thing, the younger teen had transformed to his alter ego and phased through the ceiling. She sighed heavily.

"Honestly..." She was cut off by the doorbell. She walked towards the door.

'Who could that be?' she wondered as she turned the nob.

-----

Flying was one of Danny's joys. The feeling of defying gravity was overwhelming and felt free. When he was in the sky, it felt at peace. He didn't feel like a freak or an outcast. No one labeled him or judged him. For those moments in flight, he truly was himself, without any secrets or burdens.

Just a teenage boy enjoying a Tuesday afternoon.

As he landed near he and his friends' favorite spot in the park, he looked warily for any fan girls trying to harass him. Memories of being tackled by numerous girls on the first day back to school after the Disasteroid still haunted him.

Luckily for him, they didn't know of this place in the park.

Danny laid back in the grass with his neon green eyes closed. He hummed some tune that had been on the radio that morning as he waited for Sam.

Nevertheless, his conscience began to take up the serene environment.

'What does Sam want to talk to me about? What's with this Kuroi Chou girl? And these 'dark spirits'? And that dream...' He opened his eyes to the azure sky as he thought back to the girl with crimson tears.

'What am I to remember?'

"Danny?"

The teen hero was brought out of his musings by his purpose of being there. He sat up to look at his friend since second grade.

"Sam..." For knowing her that long, he sensed something was wrong—from her lavender eyes to her overall body language.

"There is something I need to tell you," she started to say.

Then her breath hitched as she took a step back. His concern eyes scrutinized his friend as he stood up. He extended his hand towards her stiffened form.

"What's wrong? Sam?"

Her lavender eyes were filled with horror and fright, looking pass the glowing teenage boy. She felt that she suffocating as the stench of decaying flesh hanged in the air.

"Them..." she managed to whisper. Danny's eyes narrowed as he turned around to face the enemy.

-----

"Hana, you didn't need to come," Jazz insisted as she let the seventeen-year-old into the Fenton household. "I would have happily met you at the library."

"I know," the girl said as she released her short chestnut brown hair from her orange hat. "But I wanted to see why you were always looking for an excuse to isolate yourself from your family."

The corner of the redhead's mouth twitched in nervousness. "You don't say?"

"We're both studying the human psyche," she began as she looked at the older teen with tiger-like eyes. "So I was curious. Shoot me."

They chuckled as they began to go to Jazz's room. However, that wouldn't be so easily done.

"Jazzypants! Who do you have here?" came the booming voice of Jack Fenton. The two girls stopped in their tracks.

'Crap,' Jazz thought. 'Why does my father have the uncanny ability to show up at the wrong time?'

Hana turned around with a gentle smile. "I'm Hana Suzumiya, a Japanese-American."

"Nice to meet you Hana," the orange-suited man greeted.

The blue-eyed teen interrupted. "And Hana is grateful to have met you. Now if you excuse us Dad, we have some studying to do."

"Oh sure," Jack said. "Go right ahead. Don't let me stop you."

'But you did,' came Jazz's mental retort as she pushed her friend upstairs to her room. Quickly she shut the door.

"So that's why," the tiger-eyed girl stated in awe.

"That reminds me," Jazz began, a thoughtful finger on her chin. "How's your sister?"

The girl sat on her friend's bed, staring at her hands. "She'll be released tomorrow morning."

"Why are you so down though?" the eldest Fenton child asked. "That's great."

"I know but she's still acting strange. She won't talk to me. She'll just lay there, in her hospital bed, refusing to look directly at me."

"Why do you think that is?"

The Japanese-American sighed. "Truthfully, I don't know. It's almost as if she's hiding something from me... As if she protecting me from some hidden truth. I can sense it."

"Maybe I can talk to her again," the redhead thought aloud. "She seemed so lively when I came the day after she was admitted."

The uncertain face of the Hana transformed to that of delight. "I think she'll like that."

-----

There were about twenty of them, emerging from the shadows of the trees. Black abysses were contained in their eyes—their fate of long ago.

Subconsciously, the young hybrid stood between the Goth teenage girl the threatening entities.

"Dark spirits..." he spat with distaste as he gathered ecto-plasmic energy in his hands.

"Dark spirits are what they're called?" Sam wondered aloud.

A taunting chuckle was heard among them...

Of a young boy?

Sure enough, among the shapeless entities was a boy no other than eight years old. His dull emerald eyes stared at the two teenagers in front of him with amusement.

"You don't learn well from your experiences," the brunette boy asked, an elegant small finger curled at his chin, "do you Phantom?"

"Who are you?" Danny demanded, building the energy in his hands more so. "What do you want?"

The devious boy took a step towards the teen hero. A smirk crept across his face.

"His identity is of no importance in this meeting," the boy twirled a strand of hair on his finger. "As for what we want, I think it's rather obvious."

The possessed boy's eyes connected with lavender. "Isn't it, Samantha?"

If the Goth girl's body became anymore stiff, one may think that she had achieved rigor mortis while still alive. Sweat formed on her brow as her best friend turned towards her.

Confused, he asked, "What do they mean Sam?" A pause. "Wait, you can see them?"

The boy laughed at Danny's seemingly oblivious nature. "And the winner for being the most clueless goes to Phantom!" he stopped to take a breath. "Of course she can see us. She has theTamashii No Me, or rather Soul Eyes. Don't be too harsh on her though. She only recently learned of that."

Then the young boy's false self melted away to his true personality as a cunning look appeared on his face. "But as for the other thing... She was probably trying to protect you or didn't feel it was that important to tell you. Who knows. Never understood mortal girls."

Danny looked his friend dead in the eye, grasping her shoulders. "What do they mean Sam? What do they want?"

Mimicking the older boy's voice, the kid repeated his questions to the girl.

Her ebony bangs covered her eyes in shame. "They want... you."

"Ding, ding, ding! Correct answer," the boy shouted with false glee as he rose an arm into the air. "Now attack my fellow fiends!"

Grabbing Sam, the ghostly teen barely dodged the first attack. He fired an ice beam at the threatening entities, only to have some effect.

"Ice!" The boy chuckled. "At least you've learned something. But what good is an ice attack..."

Before either teen knew what happened, it was a possessed girl that was at Danny's ear. Without hesitation, she grabbed both of their necks with mocking eyes.

"...when all we feel is cold?"

Wisps of azure blue mist left the two struggling teens as they tried to cry out in anguish. Her dark brown eyes held a predatory gleam.

"That's why we love humans... They're so warm... Even their life energy is warm... And they're all so happy... What's the problem of us wanting to feel that warmth?"

The now possessed girl's breath stopped as she felt the urge to let go of the struggling teens. She reverted a boy once more.

"If you truly loved humans and their warmth, you wouldn't take it from them," answered a young feminine voice. "Your 'love' is envy."

All heads turned towards the source.

And to their rear was the familiar figure of...

"Kuroi Chou..." Danny whispered in wonder as Sam and him stared at the strange black-donned girl that stood several yards away.

In need of some assistance?

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Sorry it has been so long but school is really being a killer. For instance, I should be working on a literary criticism essay but I'm not. ^_^;;

Thanks for reading and please review!