A/N: I was gonna have this chapter longer...but I just didn't get the time. Oh well. That's what you get when you update every weekend. Still getting back in the groove of things here in Canada Land. Still a bit busy, though, so I'm sorry for not responding to reviews. I think this week will be more calm so I'm gonna try to answer the reviews I get. Thanks and enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Danny Phantom.

Chapter 10 Friendly Battles

Spitting excess toothpaste into the sink and trying not to think about the chance of nightmares that night, I heard a knock on my room's door. It was peculiar for Vlad to knock. Usually he was the ultimate invader of privacy.

"What do you want?" I called back before rinsing and spitting again. I sighed and rolled my eyes when no one answered right away. I didn't have time for Vlad's pettiness. This was dumb.

"Idiot," I grumbled, walking over to the door and opening it.

Nobody was there. For the first time, I took into consideration that someone other than Vlad had knocked on my door. It could have been Aleksey or one of the guests who had lost his or her way. Frowning, I glanced up and down the hallway for anyone who fell under those two categories. The dim hall was completely empty. Odd.

I was about to shut the door and forget about the mysterious knock when the closet down the hall suddenly opened a crack with a small, soft creak. I froze, my head snapping in the direction of the sound. Okay. Now that was creepy. My head tried to come up with reasons for random opening closet doors. Was I in another nightmare and just didn't know it yet? What else could have made the closet door open unless someone or something was hiding in there?

Trying to be brave, I ventured out into the dark hallway to investigate the closet. I wanted a logical explanation for it opening like that. There had to be one. Besides, if something supernatural was in there my ghost sense would have gone off.

Or that's at least what I kept trying to tell myself.

Ready to have this mystery solved so I could peacefully get to sleep, I grabbed the doorknob to the closet and yanked the door all the way open. Before I could do any investigating, a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed me by the wrist. It was so quick, I had no time to scream or dodge until I was pulled fully into the closet and the door was closed behind me.

"Hey! Lemme go!" I shouted, trying to yank myself free.

The closet was pitch-black and cramped. I kept slamming into shelves as I struggled with my attacker. He was much stronger than me, though, and he knew how to block or dodge each of my kicks and punches. Panic clawed at my stomach. I could feel it. I was quickly losing this sightless battle. I had to get out of there!

"No! Quiet!" my attacker hushed me as he wrapped a hand around my mouth. "That lightbulb just had to stop working!" he hissed.

That was the last straw for me. My fear electrified all my senses and pumped the reserve of adrenaline through my systems. Desperately, I jammed my elbow into what I thought was his chest. Instead, I nailed a rib and heard the guy give a hiss of pain as his grip on me loosened. I took this beautiful opportunity to squirm free and head for where I thought the door was.

"No! No, Danny! Stop!" my attacker whispered as he came back for me.

I didn't even make it two steps before the man had his hand wrapped around my forearm, yanking me to a sudden stop. Hopelessly, I lunged for the door with my free hand stretched out. It was no use. My fingertips didn't even brush the surface of the door before my attacker jerked me backwards and off balance. The far wall of the closet caught my fall. The hard impact forced a grimace out of me.

My attacker's hands fell onto my shoulders and he shoved me back into the wall, pinning me there. I tried to push him off me, but I just wasn't strong enough without my ghost powers. Chest heaving in fear, I realized I was seriously caught. I felt like a trapped animal.

"W-what do you want with me?" I managed to stamper out. I might as well face the darkness head on. There was nothing else I could do at this point.

"Shh! Danny! It's me!" my attacker said in an urgent whisper. "Toushiro!"

There was a pause between us. The only sound in that closet was my gasps for breath as my brain tried to register the information just given to it. As if on cue, the closet light flickered to life with a feeble buzz. The new lighting revealed the green eyed Japanese man pinning me against the wall. He looked down at me expectantly, his lips pressed into a tight frown. Slowly, he took his hands away from my shoulders.

"Toushiro?" I said with an faint, unbelieving smile.

"That's right, kid," he said with a nod. "You do remember me...right?"

"Remember you? Ha! Of course I d-."

Toushiro cut me off by putting his hand over my mouth again. He sighed, shaking his head in amused frustration. "What part of hiding from Vlad and his pet ghost don't you understand, kid?" he asked me. "I go through all this trouble to lure you outside your room so we won't get caught, and you try to ruin it with your big mouth and elbowing me in the ribs. Thanks."

Rolling my eyes, I shoved away his hand over my mouth. "I'm not the one who had the brilliant idea to scare the crap out of me by yanking me into a dark closet in the middle of the night," I shot back in a hoarse whisper.

Toushiro stood back and folded his arms across his chest. He was trying to look upset, but I could see the smile in his eyes. "What are you doing here?" he finally asked, his voice sounding critical. Although it looked like he missed me and was glad to see me, I got the feeling that he didn't want me here at all.

An explosive sigh burst out of me as I leaned back against the wall. "According to Vlad, I'm on vacation," I said bitterly.

"Vacation?" Toushiro said, raising an eyebrow. "I doubt that's what's he's here for."

"Why are you here?" I asked. "I don't know about you, but Ecuador is a little long way from home, especially if home is Japan. How come I get the feeling you didn't come here for the excellent horseback riding?"

"So Masters hasn't told you a single reason behind coming here?" Toushiro said. I shook my head. "Oh, boy," he sighed, rolling his shoulders in preparation for a long discussion. "We're here for a supernatural fugitive, Danny. I don't know why Vlad wants this guy, but I know why my team is here. This man attacked a few of Mr. Izumi's shipments of 'supplies'. Well, you could say that it made Izumi angry. So he put a bounty on the guy's head and ordered me to hunt after him. You don't screw Izumi over, Danny, without paying the price.

"Anyway, a week ago, my team and I got a tip off that this guy was heading for Ecuador. He's seeking some indian tribe out here. I don't know why exactly, but that's all the information we needed to hop on a plane and book some rooms at this ranch. I expected others to be here hunting him for the bounty, but I'm surprised about Vlad Masters. He doesn't need the money, and he hasn't told you a thing about this man. That doesn't sound like him."

"A supernatural fugitive?" I said with interest. "What do you mean by that?"

"He has supernatural abilities like you and Ran, and he goes around using his powers to destroy things. We don't know what his reason for it all is yet. Maybe he's just a psycho path," Toushiro explained. "We're not exactly sure how he got the powers or how he uses some of them, but we do know what they can do. He has this uncanny ability to vanish in the blink of an eye. That's how he got away from us the last time. And that's just one power of many."

"You think he could be a ghost?" I asked, thinking back to my encounter with the forest spirit that afternoon. I was putting the two together. Maybe this guy was what the forest spirit was so upset about.

"No," Toushiro answered. His brows were furrowed together in thought. It was obvious he was really into this search. He meant business. "This guy is human. But I think that he might be like you, Danny; half ghost and half human. It's possible, right?"

This made me stop and think. Another halfa like me and Vlad? Could it be true? Well, there was Danielle, but she was made by Vlad. Had another accident turned someone half ghost? Could this be a lab experiment from some other ghost fanatic scientist? Heck, it could be another one of Vlad's experiments! The possibilities were endless.

"Yeah, it's possible," I told Toushiro. I glanced up at him, my face bearing all my emotions as I asked him, "Do you really think that is why Vlad is here?"

"Why else would he be here, Danny?"

"Well...this is his uncle's ranch."

"So? He was friends with Katsumi, but that didn't stop him from using you and putting you in harm's way to destroy that golem," he pointed out bluntly. "Why are you defending him?"

"I'm not!" I shot back angrily. Wincing at the harsh sound in my own voice, I had to tell myself to calm down and think things through. Toushiro understood. He watched me closely with a frown as I sighed and explained. "Look, I'm sorry. This is just all new information to me. If you knew the situation I'm in, you'd understand, okay?"

"All I know is that you've been kidnapped again," Toushiro told me, sounding flabbergasted. "That's not a good thing, Danny! I don't care who Vlad Masters is, he needs to be arrested."

"Like I don't know that?" I said, my frustration showing itself in my strident tone. "He's the mayor of my town back home! You know that! Don't you think I've tried to catch him in the act? And trust me, if I could get out of here now without hurting anyone, I wouldn't be standing here talking to you. I'd be back in the States minding my own business."

"I'm sorry," Toushiro sighed suddenly.

My aggression vanished as soon as I heard the apology. I even forgot what I was going to say because I was expecting some kind of long, drawn-out argument. With sick realization, I saw that I was doing it again. Just like the last time when I was dragged to Japan, I was turning into a jerk because of Vlad.

Guilt wrapped itself around my heart. Here Toushiro was trying to help me, and all I was doing was snapping at him like some bratty teenager. Good going, Danny. Real nice.

"You're right, Danny," Toushiro said calmly. "I don't know your situation. I'm sorry for questioning your intentions. You're a good kid and I know that, but this situation is serious. It's just as significant and deadly as the golem you defeated last year. You need to understand that."

"Okay," I said with a somber nod. "I-I'm sorry for freaking out on you."

"You're fine, kid," he said with a grin. I smiled. I missed Toushiro.

"So what can I do to help get this guy?" I asked. "What does he even look like?"

"That's the thing," Toushiro said with an aggravated sigh, folding his arms across his chest. "We have no clue what he looks like. We don't have any pictures and we've had to rely on eye witness accounts. Some say he's tall and buff. Others say he's short and scrappy. His hair and eye color always changes with each report. The only thing that stays the same is a tattoo. It's two intertwined triangles on the left side of his face."

"Well, that should be easy to spot," I said. "Why would he ever get a tattoo on his face? That's just stupid."

"We think it has to do with his powers," Toushiro explained. "That symbol means something in an ancient culture. It was some small, cult-like civilization. My team doesn't have much information on it, it was so obscure. But we figured out it protects us from some of his powers, especially his power to give those around him vivid nightmares."

"Nightmares?" I said in surprise. "I've been getting a ton of those!"

"Then we're in the right place," Toushiro said gravely. He rubbed his chin in thought, his mind miles away from where we stood in the closet.

"So these nightmares are not just me? They could be from this guy?" I asked earnestly. This was awesome! I wasn't going crazy! This was the best news I had heard since Sam's and Tucker's text message in the airport.

Toushiro looked down at me as my question pulled him out of his pondering. He smiled at my excitement while shoving a hand down the collar of his shirt. He pulled out a necklace with a metal charm of the intertwined triangles symbol dangling from it.

As he looped the necklace off his head, he told me, "This symbol has been protecting us from those nightmares you've been having. Here, you can have this one. I have plenty of others just in case I lost this one. Unfortunately, it won't keep you safe from Vlad's ghost friend or the guy we're after."

"That's okay. It'll be good to finally get a good night's rest," I said, trying to downplay my elation as Toushiro handed me his necklace.

I held it in front of my face to get a good look at it, running my finger across the warm metal. I'd be able to sleep and think straight with this puppy around my neck at night. To know those nightmares weren't from my own stress was such a relief. And the news of this supernatural guy explained so many things! For once, I felt like I had an upper hand in this battle of wits between Vlad and I. He was gonna think I was still in the dark about everything, but in reality I probably knew just as much or more than him now.

It felt good to be back in the race.

"What are you thinking?" Toushiro asked me. "What do you plan to do now? Do you have your ghost powers?"

Throwing the necklace around my neck, I answered, "No. Vlad upgraded the watch. I have no clue how to get my powers back until he activates them. But that doesn't matter now. I think there's a way to make him trust me enough so that he shares information with me. Whatever he tells me, I can pass off to you to help you catch this guy."

Toushiro raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You sure?" he asked. "It's a great idea, Danny, but how can you be sure Vlad won't figure out what you're doing?"

"Trust me," I assured him with a grin. "I got this."

"Good," Toushiro said, matching my grin with his own. "Then welcome to the team, kid."

A/N: I'm so happy to bring back Toushiro! He's just awesome. And finally I got to explain the nightmares and bring in an actual plot point! Yay for plot! Although I do enjoy Danny's and Vlad's usual arguments, sometimes I just like to get on with plot and have some action. Still, one of the main things about Powerless and this fic which makes them good are those arguments, so I really shouldn't complain.

But I'm glad you readers are okay with my slower pacing so far. Soon, though, things are gonna pick up and action/suspense is gonna slam its way into this fic. I just have to built up to it. So thanks for hanging with me! I'll see you guys next weekend!

And if you're Canadian, have a happy Victoria's Day!