Sorry for the delay. Life has been hectic, but knowing that several people are having fun with this story is enough motivation to find the time to write! This chapter's pretty long, so hopefully the added length will make up for the time you had to wait for it. Also, trying something a little different for a change: the first portion (the part in italics) is a flashback (I made that quite clear even for people who won't read this author's note, hehe). Enjoy~


Danny Fenton hated thunderstorms. After all, at five years of age, there wasn't much else to fear in the world and since Amity Park rarely had them, he had yet to grow accustomed to them. The threat of electrified bolts coming near or striking his home and the roar of thunder that sounded a lot like his nightmares about the monsters that lived in his closet were a deadly combination that often kept him awake during nights of poor weather.

This storm was particularly gruesome, as it had been going on for several hours and seemed to increase in intensity as the night wore on. Rolls of thunder grew closer and closer, until it sounded like the beast in the sky was directly above Fenton Works.

Danny was cocooned in a pile of blankets, but despite their warmth, he was still shivering tremendously. It didn't help that the power had since gone out, leaving him completely alone in the dark, without even the mild protection of his rocket ship nightlight. His parents were asleep—he could hear his dad snoring all the way down the hall—and other than the raging thunder, all was silent.

After another frightening roar, Danny yelped and jumped several feet in the air. He landed painfully on the hard floor on the left side of his bed. With tears blurring his eyes, he tore his way out of his blanket entrapment and blindly made a dash out of his room. He ran into a wall and tripped over a toy in the process, but with the help of another vivid flash of lightning, he made it out.

Now he was in the darkened hallway. A small whine escaped him as he recalled his dad's stories about how ghosts would sometimes visit them during the darkest, gloomiest nights. Danny had never seen a ghost before, but the last place he'd want to meet one would be in a pitch-black hallway without the comfort of a single blanket.

Letting out a cry of despair as another explosion of thunder rattled the house, Danny ran as fast as his little legs would carry him over to his sister's room. Thankfully, she hadn't locked her door tonight. His eyes had since grown accustomed to the darkness, allowing him to easily sneak over to her bed. Jazz was sound asleep—she had always been a deep sleeper—so Danny crawled under the covers at the foot of her bed and snuggled up against his sister's warm pajamas.

"Danny?" she muttered, turning over to face her little brother, who had just poked his head through the front end of the blanket and was staring at her expectantly.

"Can I stay here?" he begged her with tear-filled eyes.

"Scared of the storm?" she asked gently.

Shuddering as the wind howled outside, Danny nodded vigorously.

"Okay, but just for tonight," Jazz sat up and leaned against the headboard as Danny moved closer to her and rested his head in her lap. She stroked his hair to get him to calm down, and within a few minutes, he had fallen into a peaceful slumber.

oOoOoOo

Danny jolted awake from another recurring nightmare, one where his sister's Specter Deflector had electrocuted him once more. How long had it been since the last time that happened?

He looked around the room, seeing sunshine pouring through the window, and his dad, fast asleep, in a nearby chair.

"Dad?"

Jack immediately awoke at the sound of his son's voice, but instead of the usual, silly banter, he looked serious and withdrawn.

"Morning, Danny," he said glumly.

This troubled Danny at once. His dad had always seemed incapable of any emotion besides excitement and irritation; was that sadness on his face?

"Dad? What's wrong?"

"Your sister disappeared yesterday," Jack said, choking back a sob but reaching for his handkerchief anyway. "And she's not at Vladdie's this time either. Your mom's out looking for her now."

Danny's heart sank. It wasn't like Jazz to just run off like that. She had done it once, but only after Danny had barked at her and sent her over the edge by humiliating her in front of the entire school. He was pretty sure he hadn't done anything to upset her this time, which only left one option in Danny's mind: she had been kidnapped by a ghost.

"I have to go find her!"

Danny tried getting out of bed, but his dad stopped him.

"Not so fast, Danny. You jumped out of a moving car yesterday! You need some rest."

"I did?"

It had all been so fuzzy, but within a few seconds, his memory came back to him and he did, in fact, remember jumping out of the Fenton RV just as his powers had returned. He was grateful for his good timing, as hitting the asphalt without intangibility to protect him could have been ridiculously painful. In light of the other injuries he regularly put up with due to ghost fighting, however, jumping out of a car moving at a moderate speed was hardly the worst of what he'd done.

"But Jazz-"

"Your mother's looking for her."

"No such luck," came a weary voice from the door.

Jack and Danny looked up to see Maddie, looking completely worn out, standing in the doorway.

"I scoured the entire city, she's nowhere to be found!"

Danny felt a sudden chill come over him. He wasn't sure if it was a change in weather or if the direness of the situation had finally hit him. Apparently that would have to wait, because his ghost sense then went off.

"Well I'm sure we'll find her soon. But for now, can you guys let me sleep some more? I'm still exhausted from my…accident yesterday."

Danny moved to get out of bed to urge his parents out the door, but there was no need, as Jack left at once and after a quick hug and embarrassing kiss on the forehead, Maddie exited as well.

Danny looked out the window. Dark clouds had replaced the sun, and his window was encased in ice. If this was who he suspected it was, this was going to be a painful fight.

oOoOoOo

Besides the faintly glowing clock that read 9:34am, Jazz could barely see anything in this room. The sun should have been up by now, but even the world beyond the thin curtains was dark.

She had taken a half hour bus ride to this place after hiking through the long, winding park the previous day, and her debit card only allowed her to rent out a cheap motel room for the night. With the banks closed today and not a single ATM in sight, she would have to wait a full extra day before transferring funds from her savings to her checking account. Even then, she wouldn't have much to live on for a while.

Planning this out had not been done properly—the first time in her life she hadn't done something absolutely perfectly—but protecting Danny was worth the struggles for now. The thought of her brother being thrown in harm's way directly because of her bothered Jazz to no end.

With little to do in this crummy motel, she quickly checked out and walked around town. It was still dark and cloudy out, but no hints of rain otherwise. Few people paid any attention to her as she moseyed along down the strange streets, without a clue or care as to where she was headed.

Only when she passed a television store did she stop. There was a live news report coming from Amity Park on one of the smaller screens; the big screen TV's were naturally dedicated to oh-so-important things such as Sunday football and pathetic 'reality' shows. The usual blonde reporter was standing outside in an onslaught of rain, telling the viewers how Amity Park was in the midst of a terrible storm. Jazz almost continued walking until she heard the strains of, "…can Danny Phantom save us now?"

Jazz instantly skidded to a halt and ran back to the screen. It was difficult to hear over the roar of football fans on the TV next to this one, but she continued watching as a shot of Danny fighting a familiar-looking ghost came onscreen. It was in the shape of a green twister and had evil red eyes that glowed menacingly after each assault on the ghost boy.

"Danny!" Jazz yelped as she watched her little brother get struck by a vicious bolt of lightning from the weather ghost.

A man behind her snickered. "Oh please, Danny Phantom? Why do they even bother reporting about him anymore? We got tired of that has-been ages ago."

Jazz whirled around to face the man. He was at least a foot taller than her and was covered in tattoos with disturbing images right up to his burly beard and mustache combination. He didn't look like one who would take lightly to confrontations, especially from a young teenaged girl, but Jazz didn't care.

"He is one of the greatest heroes of our time," Jazz spat, glaring up at the man without a trace of fear in her eyes. "Danny has done more for this world than you will ever know or appreciate, so if I were you, I would keep the insults to yourself!"

Surprisingly, the man backed off. Instead of replying, he awkwardly averted his gaze over to the football screen to check the score before strolling away.

The feeling of pride for standing up in her brother's defense quickly departed when Jazz returned her gaze to the small screen. Danny was taking hits and punches every few seconds, without seeming to gain any leverage on the ghost.

"Danny get out of there," Jazz pleaded softly.

Meanwhile, twenty or thirty miles away, Danny was locked in a fierce battle against none other than Vortex. He had been out here, fighting the ghost for quite some time, waiting for Tucker and Sam to hurry up with the thermos. With the raging winds and relentless downpour, however, it was difficult for anyone to get anywhere in this weather without the help of ghost powers.

Somewhere down on Earth, he could see the faintest outline of the Fenton RV; oh good, his parents had shown up, probably thinking Danny Fenton was safely asleep in his room. Too bad they were opting not to help out.

At long last, Danny noticed Tucker and Sam cowering under an umbrella in a nearby alleyway, with the thermos in hand. Taking a brief break from getting pummelled into the ground by Vortex, he raced over to his friends to retrieve the thermos.

His parents momentarily joined the fight, which distracted Vortex enough for Danny to easily sneak up behind him and suck him into the Fenton thermos. The foul weather immediately dissipated, and Danny floated back down to the ground, too exhausted to remain in the air. He barely had enough strength left to retain his ghost form, given the sheer number of shocks and hits he had absorbed today.

As soon as he touched back down on Earth, however, his parents had him surrounded. His mom and dad looked much angrier than usual as they held fast to their bazookas and other assortment of lethal Fenton weaponry.

"Where's our daughter, Phantom?" Maddie hissed, readying the trigger of her gun for firing.

Danny, physically tired and emotionally drained from Jazz's disappearance, needed a lot of patience to deal with them right now. But the moment his dad moved in too closely, and the gun brushed up against Danny's face ever so slightly, he lost it.

For the first time in his life, Danny shoved his dad away from him. Not lightly, either. Jack Fenton was not a small man, but with Danny's ghost strength, combined with the rage that was slowly starting to seep through the cracks of his sanity, Jack was knocked onto his back. Maddie herself was quite shocked by such an act of aggression from the normally-passive ghost boy, and even she took a step back when the boy's fierce green eyes turned to her.

"One," Danny said in the most controlled voice he could manage. Even then, he didn't sound quite like himself. "Your daughter and me? We're not together. Instead of jumping to insane conclusions after you just so happen to see us what you'd call 'hugging,' perhaps you should take some time to learn to be proactive instead of reactive.

"Two," he continued, barely able to keep his anger from seething through his lips as he spoke, "I am going to find your daughter. Not because I'm in love with her—I'm not, just in case you have any lingering doubts—but because I want to know she is safe.

"And three," Danny closed his eyes, unable to withstand the hurt and confused looks coming from his parents. "When I find her and bring her home unharmed, you are going to remove any and all anti-ecto devices currently strapped to her. Jazz is a smart and honest girl; you should really listen to her sometimes."

With that, Danny soared into the sky, as far away as he could get from his parents. He didn't know where to start looking for Jazz, but he promised himself he wouldn't stop until he found her.


I shall update as soon as possible, but I'm behind in a few of my other stories, so those *might* take precedence in the meantime. Let me know how I'm doing, as reviews are always great tools for me to improve not only my writing but plotting and characterization :)