I don't own DP…Why, was it not obvious?


Chapter 9: Electric Buzz.

(POV: Danny Phantom, Ghost Zone.)

As we flew though the jungle, which had turned into a dry and desolate place, Dani took the lead, Tara and I followed in the middle, and Notus brought up the rear.

"Let's stop for a second!" Dani shouted back.

"Again?" Notus responded.

I glanced back at him with a smirk and landed on a tree stump. "Relax, Notus. We can't tell if we're even going in the right direction or not."

Notus landed below the dry brown stump and walked towards Dani, "If only you two were good enough to do this while moving…that would make things so much easier."

I let Tara down. "We're doing the bet we can," Dani said with an air of annoyance. "And keep it down, my head is killing me."

Notus' jaw dropped, "Surely, you must be exaggerating."

"She is," Tara added blandly. "Get used to it, Notus, these guys are still half-human."

Notus shook his head, "Does it matter?"

Dani strutted past Notus, the dry grass and dead leaves crackled loudly under her boots against the silence in the air.

"This place is dead, even by the Ghost Zone's standards," I said.

Notus gawked at me, "What are you, seven?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as if it would help to know.

Tara took a careful step forward as she tested her heels, "He means, that this is pretty much what the whole Ghost Zone looked like for the greater part of our existence. Well, minus the amount of land, but yeah."

"We're really old," Notus said.

"Then act your age," I chirped back with a smile.

"Be quiet!" Dani said, "I need to think! I need to see, but you guys just won't shut up!"

We gulped as a group. I jumped off the tree stump, walked up to her, and put my hand on her shoulder, "How you feeling, Cous?" She gave me a glare. "Sorry, standard question. What's wrong?" She kept glaring. "Sorry, also a standard question… should I walk away right now?" She glared still. "Okay, you've got to give me some slack on that one. Come on, drop me a line here."

She turned away from my touch, "Dani, my head hurts, just be quiet."

I blinked, "Okay." I flew up and towards Tara. "Is there anything you can do with all the leaves and junk we've been carrying?" I asked quietly.

Tara leaned to look at Dani, "If you get that backpack from her, I might be able to help."

"But I'm the one who has to get the backpack from her?" I asked in a whimper.

Tara nodded and patted my head for comic effect, "Been nice knowing ya."

I groaned and turned around to face Dani. I stalked up to her as quietly as I could and gulped, "Dani? May I see your backpack?" Dani glared, but took off her backpack and handed it to me anyway. "Thanks," I said and grabbed it. As I touched it though, I got a really strong static shock. I let out a yelp

Dani's whipped around to face me, "Hey, what was that about?!"

I jumped, "Nothing!" I turned tail and ran back to Tara. I shoved the backpack at Tara, "Great, you get the backpack and I get the dog house."

Tara gave me an are-you-serious look, "Don't blame me, you're the one who shouted."

"I got zapped," I said with a strained voice.

Tara glanced up at me from the backpack, "Wait, zapped? Like static electricity? She shouldn't be conductive."

I was nearly exasperated, "Well it was her or the air."

"So you were physically touching her when you got zapped?"

"No, I only grabbed the backpack," I responded.

Tara gave me a considerate look, "So it was through the backpack?" I nodded, "Then I might not be able to help very much…"

"Hold on, is she sick?" My stomach dropped at the thought. We were in the absolute worst position to get sick.

Tara paused for a second, "Danny, did you ever feel sick before you first released one of your cores?"

I thought back, "Yeah, I got a cold I got a fever, and-wait, Dani has a core?"

Tara nodded and was about to speak, when Notus walked up to join us. "My ghost sense may be down," he said, "but even I can tell that something is seriously wrong with the girl."

"Dani," I said bitterly.

"I don't know much about electric-cores specifically, but an electric-core would still be my best guess," Tara said, before Notus and I could get in a standoff.

It worked, "How do you know it's an electric-core?" Notus asked. "They're nearly as rare as wind-cores."

I brimmed inwardly at the unintended compliment. Tara rolled her eyes, "I know, because I was the one who taught Pele everything she knew…she knows about cores. Electric-cores are located in the skull, and Dani has a horrible headache, so there you go."

Notus and I both blinked. "Really?" I asked, "Pele couldn't ever stop talking about that stuff."

Tara nodded, "All four types of cores ran in her family, the theory's around them fascinated her."

"So what are we going to do about it then?" Notus asked.

Tara frowned, "Well…I don't actually know how an electric-cre acts when it first releases itself…I'd say we set up camp and put Dani away from us until something happens..." Her face took on a strained expression.

I took a stance, "No way, I am not letting her out of my sight, not in this place. What if she gets hurt?"

"Better her then all of us," Notus said.

I turned on him, "Oh yeah? Well you can just go off on your own, see how you like it. Fine by me, let's see how the big boy does on his own, huh?"

Notus swayed in shock and didn't respond.

Tara grabbed my hand and jerked me out of my state of mine, "We haven't decided anything yet, Danny. Maybe it's nothing, but still. Notus has a point, we need to put some space between us and Dani, and even she probably wants it that way with her headache and all."

I yanked my hand from her grip, "Yeah, well, we'll see."

Tara nodded and, with a hesitant look on her face, she said, "I'll go talk to Dani and see what she wants to do." She walked off and left Notus and I standing face to face.

Notus gave me a distant look. "What?" I asked with an irritated, but less arrogant tone.

Notus looked down and traced a line in the dirt with the toe of his boot, "You sounded like my brother."

I paused, "What do you mean by that?"

"He…used to demean and taunt me a lot, not just when he was upset with me, but all the time. I was…I was just never as useful as he was." He looked to his right and wore that distant, dazed look on his face and in his eyes. "Around our childhood home, in the field of battle, whatever it was, I just kind of…followed him around and caught the issues that he didn't care to deal with."

Oh. I let my temper get to me again. "I guess I owe you an apology, then," I said awkwardly.

His head jerked up, "What?"

I swallowed, "I don't have the right to talk down to you like that, especially in anger. I'm not your brother or your father and I don't want to be, so, I'm sorry."

Notus stared at me, as if my words were foreign. It turns out they were. He tilted his head and thought about it, "You know," He said, "I can't remember the last time someone ever…apologized to me." A gentle smile grazed his face, "And I'm sorry I was so brash when we were talking about Dani. Her safety is a concern of all of ours, as a team."

Team. I had never thought of us as a team up to that point and yet, Notus had managed to make that first jump. "Yeah, we're a team," I put up my fist for a fist-bump, just to be playful, but Notus just stared at it.

He looked up at me with a quirked eyebrow, "What's that for?"

I laughed and patted his shoulder, "Clearly, you haven't been to earth in a very long time."

Notus hopped away, "I was on earth just last year, but how am I to know all of your customs?" He said with a chuckle.

I laughed, "Well then, I guess I have a lot to teach you while we're here."

Notus smiled, "Then I have mountains to teach you about the Ghost Zone, as you call it."

"Sounds like a plan to me," I said.

Notus nodded, "But first, we need to take care of Dani."

I nodded a little more seriously, "Deal."

Tara waved us over and met us halfway. She leaned in and whispered, "Dani actually wants to keep moving, and soon."

Notus and I were both surprised, "What? We can't move her like this."

"I can hear you," Dani said with a warning tone.

I turned past Tara, "Dani, you need to rest. I was always out of it for three or five days whenever I got sick like you are."

Dani gasped, "Wait, I'm sick? Tara just said something about a core? I didn't even know I had a core! Come one, I wanna get moving! Why aren't we moving? I need to more!" Dani said, and took off flying.

"Dani wait!" I took off after her. Notus charged after the both of us.

Tara stumbled and fell down behind us, "I can't fly you guys!" I heard her shout.

Her voice faded away quickly as the three of us sped away. Notus and I kept shouting out her name, but Dani wouldn't respond. She just kept flying faster and faster and at steady upward grade. "Dani! Stop!"

Notus broke away from our line formation and tried to boost himself ahead of her. He passed me up, only making me more determined to go faster. Dani still pulled ahead and at a faster rate. She pulled two hundred then three hundred yards ahead in a manner of seconds.

My eyes were narrowed into slits to combat the wind, and the roar of the air was almost unbearable as I flew. Through everything, I managed to see that Dani's aura was glowing brighter and ass a brilliant blue, instead of it's standard white. I watched the very second as her aura became unbearable to look at. I pulled up and covered my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was being blown back with the boom of thunder.

I hit the ground and tumbled several times before I finally came to a stop. I probably rested there for quite a while. Then, a figure walked up to me, "Why are there three Tara's?" I asked, "One was enough."

I felt a sharp pain in my side, "Very funny."

I looked up at the three spinning Tara's, "One of you is really, really, mean."

"Get up," The Tara's said.

"One minute, Mom!" I said and rolled over.

"Hold your horses, Tara," Someone said. "He's playing with a scattered deck."

"Oh yeah," the Tara's said, "And what makes you so sturdy? You took a pretty hard fall yourself."

"I wasn't playing with a full deck to begin with," The voice replied.

The voice, Notus, and the Tara's, were just one Tara…a wave of relief washed over me as reality did too. I managed to sit up and relax a little bit. Notus walked over and helped me up.

I swayed, but didn't fall, "What happened?" I asked.

Notus and Tara gave each other weary glances.

THe world stopped spinning in an instant, "What happened?"


I'm a nasty writer, aren't I? :) Thank you for reading! See you next Sunday!