Eeey another chapter! I got 2 more followers and favorites on this story last chapter omg. And I'm glad because they are slowly rising. But I like reviews the most *_*

I would like to get suggestions on what to do regarding the story u v u. I have thought about most of the parts but still audience participation will help a lot!

On a side note, things are going to heat up soon.

Have fun reading!

A Grasp at a Distant Memory

Chapter 9: Danger! Danger!

"Why do I have to go to jail for the third time!" Phantom grumbled as he rolled down on Sam's bedroom's floor, upset that he has been losing at the Monopoly match. "I just have 2 properties and I want more, damn it."

"Sorry, Phantom. You're not lucky enough to win this game after all." Sam smirked as she grabbed the dice. "Oh, look, I rolled doubles!" Sam exclaimed happily. "OH MY GOD I GOT PARK PLACE, I GOT THE DARK BLUE TERRITORY!" she did a small march to celebrate her victory.

"OH NO", Tucker and Phantom simultaneously said. "THAT'S UNFAIR."

Phantom has gotten closer to the human duo, hanging out with them most of the time now that Ember is gone. Jazz is busy most of the time so she rarely comes, but Phantom is somewhat attached to her (in a friendly way, of course). It has been a week since he lost Ember, but he gained more friends and Phantom has been more thankful for that.

The young ghost wasn't aware of the future misfortunes that might befall on him…

®® - Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman - ®®

"You see? Why didn't you believe me before?" Box Ghost said to a crowd of ghosts chattering.

"You're right… Ember hasn't been here in a week already, does that mean you aren't lying?" a ghost asked, scratching his head.

"Of course I'm not! When the hell did I lie?" the ghost man had an outburst, throwing a few boxes at the ghost who replied to him.

"Every time, other than this?" the assaulted ghost replied, dodging Box Ghost's attacks.

"That doesn't matter! This means that we can fulfill our wishes at the human world!"

The ghosts cheered loudly.

"I can stay young forever!"

"I can make friends?"

"I can hang that Ghost Boy's pelt on my living room for thrashing about on my domain!"

Everyone glared at the hunter ghost, Skulker, who said the last sentence.

"Hehe. I'm just kidding."

The Box Ghost then went forward.

"Then I have a plan."

-DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP—

Jack was tinkering with something at his laboratory, making another one of his anti-ghost inventions again. Wearing a welding mask, he links the pieces together.

"Just a few more and I'll be able to finish this Fenton Peeler in no time at all", the burly man beamed, as he continued on making the new device. However, he stopped short when the Ghost Alarm System he installed in the house recently alarmed, the man throwing his mask away to see a lot of ghosts going out of the portal.

"W-Wha..." Jack stared for a few seconds, before his ghost hunter instincts kicked in and he took out his Fenton bazooka.

"Stand back, Ghosts", he threatened with a menacing look. "I'm a step to understanding what your race really is, but if you're gonna ruin it, I'll make sure you'll be sorry. Step back inside your realm or I'll blast you molecule by molecule"

However, the ghosts just sneered at him, and shot him with their ecto-powered beams.

"Stand back, human, or do you want to end up in the Ghost Zone as well?" one female ghost tried to intimidate him.

"C-Calm down, Spectra", a male ghost chimed in. "If you do that, the Observants are probably gonna disintegrate you at this very moment."

"Tch", the undead woman just sneered at him.

'Disintegrate?' Jack thought to himself. He remembered Phantom's statement regarding disintegration of ghosts. 'Are these ghosts really that afraid of disappearing forever?'

His thoughts cut short when one of them shot a goo at him, which quickly turned into an ectoplasm-based rope. Jack was suddenly bound by both his hands and feet, unable to do anything.

"Let me go!" Jack demanded, but the ghosts just laughed at him.

"That should teach you on who is the more powerful, weak human", the woman earlier said as she flew off with the other ghosts, wondering on how they will achieve something in the Human World.

-DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP-

"Ha! I think I'm winning!" Phantom said as his Monopoly money bag piece landed on the dark blue territory. "Take that!"

"Take that, my ass", Sam rolled her eyes. "It's the 10th time we played this game and this is just the only time you're winning?"

"Yeah", Tucker chuckled. "Don't get so mighty, you just happened to be lucky at rare times."

"Aww, come on." The ghost pouted. "Can't you let me have a little victory party?"

Sam and Tucker laughed.

"Hey, what's so funny!?"

The light mood suddenly disappeared when Phantom looked through the window and spotted a group of ghosts going east.

"Oh no."

"What's wrong?" Sam said with a hint of concern, wondering what upset Phantom so quickly. "Hey, we're sorry ok?"

"It's not that, Sam." He reassured the girl. "I- I saw a group of ghosts and they're headed somewhere. And there's rarely ghosts in this world. This is going to be bad."

-DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP-

"The ghostkind is really aiming to go to Heaven!" one of the Observants exclaimed. "This is giving us a bad image on the Human World! They're going to think of dissecting us more!"

"T-This is your kid's fault, Clockwork!" Another one shouted. "If he didn't even think of proving that possible, there's no way we're getting into this mess!"

"What a terrible accusation." Clockwork sounded irritated to the fact that his employers blamed Phantom. "It's not like the boy has persuaded these foolish ghosts into going to the Human world, they decided it themselves."

"Are you defying us, Clockwork?" his employers suddenly asked, irk present in their voice. "We are the one in charge here."

"Well, yes, you are the one in charge of it, that's why these ghosts just suddenly disappear to venture into somewhere dangerous, when you're supposed to observe, observe them." Clockwork chuckled, which caused more tension.

"Tch, let's go. We all know where the kid got his arrogance anyway", the Observants left Clockwork, who just watched them go.

"I hope you prove them wrong, little Phantom."

-DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP-

Phantom flew after the swarm of ghosts, and stopped them in their tracks, going in front of them and trying to talk them into sense.

"Stop! You aren't supposed to be here!" Phantom tried to tell the ghosts.

"Hey! What are you doing here, Phantom? Aren't you supposed to be at home, crying to your daddy about the booboo you received?" Box Ghost teased.

"Oh, come on. You're the one who does that, except you don't have a daddy." He smirked at the offending ghost, earning snarls from him.

"Move aside, kid!" one of the lady ghosts ordered. "We know Clockwork's going to skin us if we do something to you, but he really can't if we already got to Heaven." She smirked.

"W-What? I didn't tell anyone about that!"

"I heard about it! I told them!" Box Ghost raised his hand, and Phantom facepalmed.

"I should've known."

"I SAID MOVE ASIDE!" the ghost aimed a beam at Phantom, as he yelped and quickly evaded the attack.

"Wait! You don't understand!" Phantom tried talking to them, but another one charged an energy ball at him, the boy narrowly escaping the second attack.

"We clearly understand!" another one quipped. "You've been trying to keep us in the dark even if you knew! Who knows, the reason you're going here too often is because you wanted to go to Heaven too!"

"What?" Phantom could only express disbelief. "I can't believe you… You're not thinking clearly!"

"Well, good news, we've abandoned the skill called rational thinking in our corpses."

"But…" the ghost boy interrupted, only to have another shot after him. This time, it cut through him narrowly, ectoplasm forming from his shoulders, but quickly healing as well.

"Just let us do what we want!"

"Phantom, catch!" he had no time to react as a metallic thing was thrown to him, instinct telling him to catch it.

"W-What's this?" he shook the Thermos-like device, unsure of how it works.

"NO TIME TO EXPLAIN!" Tucker shouted from below. "JUST AIM IT AT THEM!"

"Ok." Phantom said as he aimed it at his fellow ghosts, and a bluish light seems to suck them up.

"HOLY SHIT, TUCKER, WHAT DID IT DO TO THEM?" he shouted, looking down at Tucker.

"SILLY, THAT JUST CONTAINS THEM, AND WE'LL SEND THEM BACK TO THE GHOST ZONE LATER!"

"AREN'T THESE GONNA KILL THEM?"

"NO, ARE YOU KIDDING ME, YOU'RE ALL DEAD ALREADY."

"Oh", he then aimed it at the remaining ghosts.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST! AND YOU WILL SEE, I'LL GO TO HEAVEN SOON!" he said as he got sucked up.

"Yeah, yeah, tell that to the Observants as soon as you get home."

Phantom was unaware that a shadow-like ghost escaped, along with her pet.

-DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP—

"Dad!" Jazz called as she entered Fenton Works. "Are you home? Dad?"

Jazz wondered if he's home. Realizing he's probably at the basement as he always is, and decided to go to the couch and lie down.

However, uneasiness gripped her when minutes passed and there wasn't a single sound from her dad. It's either he's bumbling about his latest inventions and inventions-to-be, or welding and building sounds, but this time, it's just pure silence.

"Maybe I should check downstairs", Jazz got up and went to the basement, shrieking when she saw her father tied down.

"DAD!" she exclaimed, trying to pull the binds out of him, but to no avail. "God, why won't these binds… go… away…" she tried as hard as she could, but the binds doesn't even move an inch. "What happened, Dad?"

"There was a swarm of ghosts who bound me a few hours ago and left to god-knows-where. I don't know what their purpose is, but they better not hurt anyone." Jack tried to stand up, only to fall once again.

"Dad! We still don't know how to put off these binds… Do you mean only ghosts can untie this as well?"

"Probably. But I don't know if a ghost will even appear to help me when it's…"

"MR. FENTON!" Phantom, Sam and Tucker's voice echoed from upstairs.

"Well, that answers my question."

The three rushed downstairs.

"Mr. Fenton, we need to- Oh god, what did they do to you?" Phantom asked him.

"Bound me up for trying to stop them. I don't know how to untie this though, Jazz couldn't do it as well."

"Let me help", Phantom offered. "Stay still, Mr. Fenton."

Phantom shot an ectoplasm laser and melting some parts of the binds. After a few wriggling, Jack was out free, exercising his already numb limbs.

"Phantom, have you noticed the swarm of ghosts that went around earlier?"

"It's taken care of, Mr. Fenton. Sam and Tucker actually gave me this Thermos you made and it helped me a lot."

"Oh, that's good. Now we just need to release them on the Ghost Zone."

"I'm sorry but I can't allow you to go there this time. These ghosts are furious already and I don't want them to hurt any of you. I'll try to talk to them, and please close the portal for around 48 hours, Mr. Fenton. I don't want them escaping as soon as I got em back and I think 2 days is enough to convince them."

"I will. Thank you very much, Phantom." Jack smiled at him.

"No, thank you, Mr. Fenton. I got to go now. I'll borrow this device for a while, so, see ya after 2 days, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, Mr. Fenton." He waved goodbye and disappeared through the portal, Jack clicking the close button.

-DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP—

"Shit, I forgot to ask them how to eject them." Phantom cursed through his breath, lightly flicking the red button on the device. "I hope this isn't a self-destruct button."

He reluctantly clicked the red button and gave out a sigh of relief when he noticed he clicked the right one. However, it quickly dissipated when he noticed the angry looks the ghosts are giving him.

"Why are we back in the Ghost Zone! What the hell did you do, Phantom!?" the ghosts shouted at him.

"Why are you preventing us from doing what we like? It seems only you and Ember wants to go to Heaven for real!"

"W-Wait, calm down!" Phantom explained. "I just wanna help Ember, ok? And it worked, and I don't even have a clue that it does work! And I don't even remember my purpose so I don't even have a reason to go to Heaven!" he shouted.

"We don't care! Let us through!" the ghosts shouted and hurried over the portal, only to see it blocked. "What?"

"I asked the humans to close the portal for now, so would you just calm down and let me explain?"

"We don't need your explanations! We need your-"

"Halt." Clockwork appeared with Walker, the Ghost Zone warden and made the ghosts stop rambling. "Walker will interrogate the lot of you for committing some offenses against the Human World."

"What?"

"What?"

"WHAT?"

"And Phantom, you're going to answer some of my questions", Clockwork said as he grabbed Phantom's arm and walked away with him.

-DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP—

"Little Phantom. I'm proud of you being a hero to the Ghost Zone and giving them hope, but I'm a bit disappointed about how everyone reacted to it."

"I… I know Clockwork." Phantom sighed. "I tried to explain but they just… attacked me… and tried to attack Mr. Fenton too. If I didn't spot them, they could've hurt another innocent human…"

"I know, Phantom. I know. And I want to tell you, my child that not all odds are going to be in your favor. Sometimes even those ghosts you wanna help are gonna turn against you, and humans are even more dangerous. I'm not against you venturing on the other side, but always take real caution. I know you're gonna take a more dangerous route in your afterlife, and it might even help you discover your forgotten purpose…"

"My… forgotten purpose?"

"Yes, Little Phantom. I know you're bound to know soon. That's why I'm telling you all this. If you screw up, the whole Ghost Zone's downfall is on your shoulders as well. Beware, my child."

"I will. And I am willing to take risks, father."

A/N: Just a question: Have you ever wondered what Phantom's unfinished goal is? ;)

Nah, I still won't reveal it. I just wanna tease people www.

And hurray for Clockwork's fatherly side. I mentioned that Clockwork's staff has been stolen, but that doesn't mean he can't view what is to happen. He can, but he lacks the ability to change it for the better, that's why he's telling all of those things to Phantom.

Anyone has a clue on who escaped the Thermos sucking experience? :D

Well that's all for this chapter, please wait for the next, I will upload it before Sunday+8gmt since I still have to prepare something for Mother's Day.

Please review! See ya! ;P

~AyaPie