A/N - Alright, alright! holds up hands in a vain attempt to fight off emails Good lord I was expecting maybe ten people to respond to this tops, how many do I get 37 in a day and a half! Alright I don't even have to wait tell I start writing the chapter, its gonna be Bring Me To Life for the good guys and it's Crawling for Draconum. It was so overwhelmingly unanimous it scared me. I don't know whether to be flattered or frighten that so many people responded but either way thanks a lot guys.

Chapter 9: Meet the Shadow

-- Over Amity Park --

"Alright now I am getting annoyed!" Danny snarled, "If this so called Overlord of Shadow is so powerful why doesn't he stop hiding?"

Ember didn't say anything. For some reason that just made him madder, not at her, but at this unseen foe. He snarled again.

"Technus? Have you guys found anything yet?"

"Yes we have actually!" An roaring sound and Johnny yelling could be heard over the com set. "It's some kind of shadow monster! We can barely even hurt this thing!"

Suddenly everything went quite.

"Technus?"

"It... it disappeared. I think we might have killed it."

"What do you mean you think..."

He was cut off by Johnny screaming "RUN!"

"Oh shit!" Technus shouted.

"Technus what the hell is going on?"

"It had friends!"

"Shit!" Danny said he turned to Ember, "Come on!"

"Right!"

They took off at blinding speed. "Slulker get here now!"

"Already on my way whelp!" The hunter snarled.

"There!" Ember shouted.

Danny looked down to were she was pointing and saw Technus and Johnny running down the street as fast as they could. He swerved towards them. Technus looked up and saw them. He waved frantically then pointed down the street. Danny saw them then. Hundreds of them. He couldn't even describe them they changed shape as he looked at them, one second they were dog like the next like some kind of bird.

'They're shadows!' Danny realized stunned. Living shadows that moved and fought on their own. This had to mean Draconum was nearby.

"Johnny! Technus! We have to fight them!" He shouted as he landed next to the two other ghosts.

"You crazy?!" Johnny snapped back. "I mean there must be thousands of them!"

"We have to try!"

"Its our only chance at finding their master." Technus said nodding.

Skulker came flying out of the sky, his jet back roaring. "Well, seems we have a small problem here."

"You call this small?" Ember snarled as she watched the on rushing shadows.

"Ready?" Danny asked and all the ghost began to ready a massive attack. All of Skulkers weapons activated, Ember cranked her guitar up to max, Technus had assembled some kind of strange cannon, and Johnny and Danny were both readying their most powerful attacks.

"NOW!" Danny roared letting it carry into a Ghostly Wail. The other ghost all launched their attacks. Rockets and energy blasts ripped into the dark army. The effects were impressive. A large swath had been carved right down the middle of the on rushing shadows, the ones in the center appeared to have been vaporized completely while the ones closer to the blast where dissipating. Only a handful of the shadow monsters remained.

Danny started to smirk triumphantly when he noticed something was wrong. Out of the nearby dark alleyways and side streets came more of the monsters.

"This is bad!" Johnny shouted.

"No shit sherlock!" Ember shouted back as she launched a powerful sound blast at a group of shadows obliterating them.

"It seem our foes are endless!" Skulker roared unleashing another swarm of missiles.

Danny was just about to shout out a retreat when suddenly the monsters turned and ran.

"After them!"

The five ghosts took off at top speed after the retreating creatures. Then they noticed something, the shadow monsters appeared to slow down and let them catch up then sprinted back ahead.

"Oh I did so not like that!" Johnny shouted to Danny.

"I will not let them escape!" Skulker roared and blazed into the lead the others increasing their pace to keep up.

"They are leading us some were!" Technus said over the com link.

"Yea but were?"

That question was answered as the shadow fiends suddenly ran straight up a well towards a tall winged figure. They five ghosts stopped and stared as the shadows were absorbed by the creature standing on the building.

"Draconum." Skulker whispered.

The figure spread massive wings and launched sky ward. Then in a graceful spin turn to face them. All at once it dived straight towards them, unleashing a hellish roar that shook the nearby buildings. Before anyone could even think of running the monster had flown over them barely a foot away from the tops of their heads and landed behind them a yard or so away.

Danny wiped around and came face to face with a horrifying sight. Draconum did look like a dragon. He was covered from head to toe in jet black scales that looked harder then steel. He stood around nine feet tall on legs that resembled the back legs of a dog or cat or any fast land predator. A long tail lashed the ground behind him shattering the concrete road like it was thin ice. His head was dragon-like in appearance and had two eyes that burned an infernal green. His massive crocodile like maw was filled with gleaming fangs and the back of his mouth glowed the same color as his eyes. His huge wings were folded behind him. Overall Danny was so horrified that he could barely even breath much less move.

"So," Danny said trying to sound cocky and failing, "your Draconum huh?"

Draconum's blazing eyes locked on his and Danny was for sure he felt his heart stop. A fanged smile spread across the monster's reptilian face.

"I have been looking for you, Danny Phantom..."