Wow, saying this took a while to get out would be quite an understatement... I only started writing this a couple of weeks ago and having the whole house to myself has really helped me catch up with everything (if you didn't already know, I finished editing the first few chapters this morning). So yeah, I've been a busy bee.

Okay, I really like this chapter (rare, I know). I actually find it really hard to write the whole action fighting kind of thing, my strengths being more on dialogue and thought processes, so this was quite an experiment. Hopefully it will have paid off. So, for those of you that didn't give up on me during my two month break, ENJOY CHAPTER 11!

Disclaimer: (This is the last time I am doing one of these for Diversity as I am pretty sure you've gotten the picture already) I own nothing but Adam Whitehall... Yeah, that'll make sense when you read ;)

Chapter 11:Introducing Phantom


Danny was pacing.

He hated pacing.

Pacing made a person look weak. It also looked stupid. There was no reason for anyone at any time to pace.

Yet here he was. Pacing.

But what else was he supposed to do? Aiden was dying in the next room and Danny had another two hours to wait before he 'gave himself up'.

Aiden had woken up before the two had arrived back. It had taken the halfa by surprise when the youngster started to groan and move about. The poor boy had had to make a hurried landing and a quick change from ghost to human before Aiden became completely conscious.

"Danny?" The little boy reached up to his eyes, rubbing at them with rounded fists.

"Hey, sleepy head." Danny responded whilst looking down at the boy and forcing a smile onto his face. It had only been a matter of minutes and yet Danny was sure that the glow surrounding the infected child had dimmed ever so slightly.

"What happened?"

"You... fell asleep... I told you we shouldn't have come in so far. You tired yourself out." He would really have to work on his lying skills.

"Oh... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." The boy frowned and Danny couldn't ignore the child's guilty expression.

"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault." Danny turned his head slightly to glance at the area behind him, thinking again how much he hated Walker. A sudden shooting pain in his back told Danny that he couldn't carry the kid for much longer. In that same instant, Danny had a thought. Maybe if Aiden was well enough to walk home and spend a few hours with his family, Danny could get away with keeping this whole thing secret. His original plan had been to tell Melinda and Jim everything and only hope that Jim could come up with a cure for whatever Aiden had been cursed with. It had been stupid really. The poison was obviously ghost related and no matter how good the doctor was, Danny doubted his expertise would spread this far. Now that Aiden was awake, however, depending on whether or not he could walk, Danny might just be able to get away with covering the whole thing up. He didn't need to worry the family, not when all he had to do was give himself up to Walker to save his friend's life. They needn't know anything about it."Do you think you can walk?" he asked after a second.

"Yeah. I think so." Well that was an upside at least. Danny responded by carefully lowering the boy onto his feet. The youngster was a little bit shaky to start with and Danny could tell that he was still feeling a little woozy from his sleep. Slowly the two made their way back to the house.

It was only when they knocked on the front door of Aiden's house that Danny recalled something drastically important. Aiden was glowing. He could explain woozy, he could explain bruised but glowing? Glowing was something he didn't think he could get away with. The boy's heart was in his throat as the door opened.

Danny sighed as he remembered the grin on Melinda's face, as though she were the proudest person on the earth.

The mother looked over Danny happily and nodded as though to tell him he had done well in taking Aiden out. Her face dropped however, when she looked at Aiden. Aw, crud, here it comes...

"Aiden, what have you been doing? You're covered in mud!"

"Look, Melinda, I can explain..." Danny frowned suddenly. "Wait, what?"

"You too Danny, what on earth have you boys been doing out there?" Melinda ushered the two inside, closing the door behind them before pulling off Aiden's coat for him. It was then that it hit the teen. Melinda couldn't see the glow. It made sense, he guessed. It was a ghost poison, so it's effects were only visible by a ghost.

"I fell asleep in the woods." Aiden said solemnly, glancing over to Danny. "Danny picked me up and started bringing me back before I woke up."

"Well then, I guess we owe you thanks, Danny." Melinda smiled warmly at her guest, making him feel all the more uncomfortable.

"It was nothing, really," the teen murmured, still in shock.

"Though I don't really know how you managed to fall asleep on a walk, Aiden."

That was about it. The rest of the evening had been spent watching Aiden struggle to stay awake whilst painting. It had been Melinda's idea to have an early night, lights out and everything before half past nine. In a way this was a good thing. It meant he didn't have to slowly watch the light gradually drift from Aiden. He couldn't bare that. Danny had noticed something frightening about the glow. As he had looked closer, Danny realised that the edges of the glow were constantly flickering, rising and falling, as though it was connected up to his heart beat and his breathing. It scared him.

"There's got to be something I can do!" Danny murmured to himself, maybe a little louder than he should have. He'd always been able to get himself out of problems like this before, so why couldn't he do it now? The halfa cast his eyes to the ground, deep in thought. The only thing that could really help him out was equipment. Ghost fighting equipment. It had never failed him before...

Danny grunted and threw himself down on to the bed. He didn't have any ghost fighting gear. It had all been burned down along with his house. Even if he had the time or energy to fly all the way back to Amity Park, there wouldn't be anything left to pick up. He'd made sure of it.

Gah, if he'd only thought about taking stuff with him. It would have made everything so simpler. He'd been too consumed with grief and the thought of getting rid of anything that could be used against him by those government creeps that just so loved to torment him. He'd never even considered...

Grasping his hair in his hands, the boy rolled over onto his body so that he could bury his face in the pillow.

'All you need is a Thermos and a bunch of wires.'

Danny frowned as his father's words hit him. Flash backs of him standing awkwardly beside his dad, electronics laid out before him whilst the ghost hunter rambled on and on about how the Fenton Thermos worked, stormed the boys head. All that time, watching his dad build Thermos after Thermos, making Danny try a few times before his mum would call them all to their evening meal. All the ones Danny had ever tried to make had turned out to be complete disasters. One did nothing at all; one worked for a second then fizzled out and the other? The other blew up. Plain and simple. Right in his hands.

But what if he gave it another try? He wondered if Melinda had any Thermoses. He knew that Jim had all the electrical equipment in the garage. If he could get to all of that... then maybe he had a chance. If his Dad could make it then surely he could.

That was it. He was going to make a Fenton Thermos.

Danny's head rose from the pillow he had suffocated himself with, gasping for air.

The boy's heart leapt as he realised that he might just have found a way out of his pickle. Without a second thought, the halfa hopped off his bed and made his way quietly to the door. All he had to do was make sure that Walker sent his 'scout' to cure Aiden before he trapped the idiot in the Thermos. How hard could that be? Holding his breath, Danny pulled on the door handle and let himself out of his room. He could hear the slight whimpers of sleep coming from Melinda and Jim's bedroom down the hall and the unearthly glow that drifted slightly under Aiden's door was enough to tell him that he wasn't up and about. Not that he had expected anything less.

Sure that no one was going to walk in on him, Danny swiftly changed from human to ghost and drifted down through the floor into the kitchen.

"Thermos..." he murmured under his breath as though to focus his mind. The boy moved from drawer to drawer, careful so as not to make too much noise. His glow provided enough light to see the contents of each, and it didn't take him long to locate three shiny, silver Thermoses packed away with a drawer all to themselves.

"... That was easy..." Danny frowned momentarily before shrugging and phasing through the far wall into the garage.

As he passed through the open air, he wondered to himself just who Walker was scared of... He could understand if the government ghost hunting team was posted just outside his door but... well if it was them... they'd have pounced on him already. Hanging back just wasn't their style. He knew from experience. So then who else was there? Would they help him if he asked them? Were they on his side or were they against him? All these questions that he'd probably never get the answers to... It was like torture.

Landing next to the workbench he had seen Jim use a few times, Danny laid out the three Thermoses. The halfa took his time in surveying the tools that were spread across the surface.

"I have no idea what I'm doing," the boy admitted to himself, running a hand through his hair.

"Well that one's obvious."

Danny yelped and spun around. As his eyes fell on the owner of the voice, he relaxed a little, his heart still racing from the shock.

"Are you following me?" Danny crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at a very amused looking man in a familiar black Tuxedo. It was only then that his ghost sense went off. Was he getting worse at this?

"Why of course not, Master Phantom, my meeting you here in this garage is simply coincidental. No, I'm here to speak to the Whisperer." The young man straightened his bow-tie as if majorly proud of his announcement. Danny just raised an eyebrow.

"The 'Whisperer'?" he replied sceptically.

"Yes."

"What's that?"

There was a moment of silence in which the two ghost's stared at each other before the eldest erupted in laughter.

"Oh, dear. You really are quite clueless, aren't you?" At this point the ghost had propped himself up against the wall and seemed to literally fold himself in half through his howling. Danny on the other hand was extremely irritated and had taken to glaring daggers at the dead man in front of him. After a few seconds, the boy turned back around to get on with the Thermoses.

"I'm... Sorry... Sorry. I just..." Gasping for breath, the guy was taken over by yet another wave of giggles. Danny rolled his eyes.

"Forget it," he grumbled, screwing the top off one of the containers.

"No... I'm just..."

Danny didn't get what was so funny or what he had said so wrong. He just hated being laughed at, especially by some arrogant, funny talking creep. It was bad enough when it was his friends...

Everything froze for a second as he was hit by a wave of sorrow. Clueless. He was stuck with the image of Sam and Tucker, fastened to the side of the Nasty Burger chemical tank. The look of pure terror on their faces was heart shattering, sweat dripping from them as though they'd been doused with buckets of water.

"Are you okay?" A light hand on his shoulder was enough to jolt him out of his sombre thoughts. In all honesty, no. No, he wasn't okay. He was nowhere near okay. He had no idea if he would ever be okay again but admitting he wasn't okay was like admitting defeat, and that was something he'd never do.

"Yeah, I'm fine." The halfa closed his eyes for a few seconds, clearing his head, before opening them again and picking up a random blue wire.

"You know... When I was alive, my brother worked with electronics," the man stated suggestively, removing his hand from the boy's shoulder. Narrowing his eyes, Danny twisted his head to stare at the immaculate looking ghost.

"Okay...?"

"Your parents taught you the science of ghost hunting, correct?"

He knew how to make things work against ectoplasm if that's what he meant. "... Yes..."

The ghost met his eye and a cocky smile spread across his face. "What do you say we pool our skills together? You don't know a thing about electronics, I can see that in the way that you were gazing at those wires a moment ago. If I help you build the thing, you can add a little of that anti-ghost magic of yours and there we have it. A Fetom Thermos, or whatever your lot call it."

"Fenton Thermos," Danny corrected automatically. The boy glanced down at the equipment on the table. It was true. He had no idea what any of this stuff did. When he'd been building with his Dad, everything had been set out already, circuit boards wired, connections made within the Thermos. Without all of that, he was useless. Getting help wouldn't hurt... would it? His eyes travelled back up to the ghost that had warned him away from that hole in Melinda's shop. Despite the man's arrogance and his knack for irritating him, he really did seem to want to help. Maybe he should give the guy a chance. Danny considered it for a second longer before he nodded.

"Okay, but if you try and pull anything..."

"I wouldn't dream of it." The ghost cut him off, smirking. His pale hand shot out from his side in offering to the ghost hybrid. "Adam Whitehall."

Eyeing the extended hand wearily, Danny grasped it lightly and blinked as their hands moved up and down in a handshake. "Danny Fenton, but you already knew that." Danny pulled back his hand and wiped it on his jumpsuit.

"Yes, I did." Adam smiled, ignoring Danny's actions. "So tell me how this works."


The sun touched down on the horizon, painting everything it could reach in a golden light. The meadow in which Eli found himself sung sweet harmony. The grass he was laid out on was long enough to form a sort of bed for him, tickling his bare arms. In the distance, a song bird perched on an old oak tree, releasing the loveliest of melodies.

Eli couldn't have dreamed of anything better. It was like heaven.

"Eli..." The man lazily lifted his head to see the most stunning woman he had ever laid eyes on. Her sapphire blue eyes shone brightly as she made her way towards him. There was something about her voice as well. So musical and melodic, it seemed to echo through the valley.

The woman's beautiful golden hair floated around her body like a halo. Her skin, lightly tanned, was absolutely flawless and Eli couldn't help but compare her to a goddess. The man watched in awe as the angel, in her slight pink dress, knelt down beside him, reached out her hand and gently caressed his cheek, causing him to blush furiously.

The woman opened her mouth as though to speak again and the professor leaned in to hear what she was saying when...

Crash!

As if he'd been electrocuted, Eli shot up in his bed. What was that? The man's eyes darted around the darkness of his room as though expecting to see someone stood there. A scuffle from his kitchen started his heart racing and he slowly felt under his bed for his trusty baseball bat.

"Aw, crud." Eli blinked as he heard the curse through his bedroom door. That voice sounded eerily familiar. The man's mind was clouded and he couldn't think properly but he was sure...

Raising slowly from his bed, Eli -with the bat firmly grasped in his right hand- advanced on the door.

"Okay, I get it, shut up!" There it was again. It was hushed but there was no denying it; he knew that voice. Wanting to prove it to himself, he pulled the door open to behold the intruder. Or maybe not...

Eli gasped as he looked upon a young boy, dressed in a black and white jumpsuit, holding tight to the pink polka-dot Thermos he'd been given by Delia last year for Christmas. It wasn't the pure white hair or even the neon green eyes, nor was it the fact that the kid's skin was literally glowing that had him in a state of shock.

Ghost. Eli thought to himself, unable to really formulate any other words in his head. The boy had spun around by this time and was staring with equal shock at the psychology professor. Brown eyes met green and the two just stood in silence for what must have been a whole minute.

How was this possible? How was Eli seeing a ghost? It just didn't happen. The only time Eli had ever seen a ghost was when that ghost hunter kid... Linus, had shown him one with his special camera thingy that he still couldn't remember the name of; even then all he could see was a white blur. This? This was something different all together.

The sound of whispering caught Eli's attention and he noticed that this visible ghost was talking to someone. Not wanting to talk in case this was another totally awesome dream that he was having, the man waited patiently, eyes still the size of saucepans. It didn't take long for the ghost to look back at him.

"Erm... Hello... Guy I've never met...Ow!" the ghost turned his head and glared at someone Eli couldn't see, before rubbing the side of his stomach and continuing. "Listen... I don't want you to freak out or anything but... I was wondering if I could... borrow this?" The boy awkwardly held up the Thermos in his hand.

Eli blinked and looked between the Thermos and the ghost. It took him a few seconds to break out of his trance.

"Sure." It was all he could think to say. He'd spoken to ghosts before but not ones he could actually see.

The boy sighed with relief and relaxed a little, clipping the Thermos onto his belt.

"Thanks." He smiled before doing something Eli never imagined he would see. He jumped into the air and hovered there. Melinda had certainly never said anything about ghosts flying. Completely fixated with the floating ghost, the man completely missed the short conversation between the visible ghost and the more ordinary invisible ghost. All he caught was a small goodbye before the glowing ghost kid left through his ceiling. In a second, Eli was engulfed by darkness.

It took a few more moments for Eli to make up his mind and make a mad dash back into his bedroom, switching on his light before pulling on the first clothes he could locate in his wardrobe and grabbing his car keys.

He was going on a ghost hunt.


"It works!" Danny exclaimed, shaking Eli's Thermos around as though to prove beyond doubt what he was talking about.

"I told you we only had to try it once more." Adam was stretched out on a wooden chair that Danny hadn't spotted before. The ghost wore his seemingly permanent arrogant smirk which the halfa had gotten a little more used to after the hour of working on the Thermoses with less than an inch between them. An hour and a half if you counted the trip to Eli's. Danny was actually pretty impressed that he had remembered the way, only really having seen it on google maps. Adam wasn't too impressed however when they ended up lost about three times on the way there. Then again, Adam never really seemed impressed with anything, other than himself, that is. The ghost boy looked over at his co-worker and laughed.

"Yeah, you did." Danny had to admit, he felt an awful lot better now that he was armed. He actually had a chance at beating Walker and getting out of all of this alive. He owed the man for that. "Thanks again."

"Don't mention it. It took long enough."

That was true. The three Thermoses that Melinda had unknowingly provided had ended in disaster. Danny had no idea how he was going to explain that, one of them had blown up, one of them had sliced itself in half and the other had a hammer lodged into it, hammerhead first. It was quite lucky that Eli had shown Danny his humble abode on the internet otherwise the teen would have lost hope completely. He almost had.

Danny looked down at the pink and white, scrappy looking Thermos in his hand. It looked nowhere near as impressive as the ones his parents had created, it just looked like an ordinary Thermos with a few wires sticking out and a makeshift button on the side that introduced the suction, that and it had bright ink dots all over it... The duo had tested it by Danny creating a ball of ectoplasmic energy and seeing if the Thermos had any effect. It was almost scary how forcefully the final Thermos had grabbed the ectoplasm and Danny was pretty sure that they had created a whole new level of Fenton Thermos making... even if it looked like crud.

"You know I've never actually met a ghost who couldn't fly before..." Danny admitted, examining Adam. He'd thought it was just one of those things that all ghosts could do. Apparently not. Adam chortled slightly, brushing off some invisible dust from his trousers.

"And I've never met one who could, so I believe we are even." The ghost stood and moved over to the door of the garage. "Well, this is where I leave you my dear fellow, try not to die." He winked before disappearing.

Danny sighed before turning back to the workbench. Carrying Adam to Eli's and back hadn't done him any good. Any of the energy he had actually recovered in the break between Walker and his big idea had completely deserted him. If it came to a fight with Walker, he wasn't going to hold up well. The Thermos gave him some hope though and he'd take as much of that as he could get. Thinking about it, the halfa positioned the equipment onto the back part of his belt. The longer he could keep Walker from seeing it, the better.

Glancing up at the clock on the wall, Danny made his way to the far wall of the garage. Quarter to twelve. That gave him fifteen minutes. The boy scanned the floor for the dip that Adam had so kindly pointed out to him. It turned out, that there was some undiscovered tunnel under this patch. According to the ghost, there were tunnels like this under pretty much the whole of Grandview. All Danny knew however, was that it got him out of the house without any unwanted spectators following him. Whatever Walker was afraid of couldn't possibly interfere with their showdown. Taking a deep breath, the halfa phased through the floor and made his way through the luckily ghost free tunnel.


There!

Eli's eyes locked onto the glowing figure shooting through the sky. He wasn't losing him this time.

The man jammed his keys into the ignition and pressed down hard on the gas pedal

The poor psychology professor had been waiting about half an hour in some side lane of a main road, hoping against hope to catch another glimpse of this ghost kid. He'd pulled over as soon as he'd lost sight of the boy, it made some sense to sit there for a while at this spot, so that he could pick up the trail again more easily than if he went in the wrong direction. All though it was probably very naïve, Eli's logic had paid off.

"Here we go..."

The car shot forward, following at the exact pace the ghost was flying. Despite knowing that he would probably get a speeding ticket for this, Eli kept going. There was something about this ghost that was special. For one, he could see him and for another, Eli couldn't shake the feeling that he somehow knew him... Naturally, he was desperate to uncover both of these mysteries. He was just grateful that no one else seemed to be on the road tonight. A car crash was the last thing he wanted.

Preparing himself for a long speedy ride, Eli shuffled about in his seat to find a more comfortable position. If he hadn't have looked down, perhaps the man would have noticed the ghost get hit by some sort of glowing orb. All the man did see, was the boy plummet to the ground with such speed, impact would have killed any living person. The kid was already dead so... he wouldn't be hurt by it... right? The muffled thud from this distance away told him otherwise.

Eli hastily surveyed his surroundings. He knew where this was! He was next to the forest near to Melinda's house. The ghost must have fallen right into the centre of it. The man pulled over and stumbled out of his car. The amount of concern he had for something he had met stealing from his kitchen took him by surprise, but he took it as a sign. The kid needed his help.

It didn't take long for Eli to reach the trees. If he was being honest, he hated the forest. All the creepy tree branches and the sounds of hunter animals looking for food. It scared the life out of him. Walking through those trees in the dark? It was worse than he could have imagined.

The man took a step forward, narrowing his eyes as if the action would aid his eyesight. Stupidly enough, the idea of bringing a torch had completely slipped his mind. The sound of leaves rustling beside him made him jump and he walked a little faster. If anything out here wanted to eat him, it'd have a chase on it's hands... or claws... or whatever scary animals had now.

Step by step, Eli got further into the forest. The moonlight provided enough light for him to move without falling flat on his face, which was handy, but the man would have thought that he would have spotted that eerie glow already...

The man pressed a button on his watch that made the numbers glow. 11:58. Almost midnight... he'd give it a few more minutes, then he'd turn back. The man was pretty sure there was something following him and he didn't really want to stick around long enough to find out if he was right.

All of a sudden, what looked like a glowing green fireball, slammed into the tree beside him. The man yelped before staring at it for a few seconds, aghast. What could have made that? A grunting sound up ahead told him that whatever it was, it had come from over there.

Eli was split. On one hand, he was completely terrified. Whatever was out there had blown away a very big chunk of a tree. Just thinking about what may have happened if he had been standing just that little to the right, had his heart in his throat. But on the other hand, when would he ever get the chance to go on an adventure like this again? His curiosity won over.

Eli didn't even think to grab his phone and alert Melinda. This was too awesome.

Taking a deep breath, the psychology professor inched forwards, careful not to alert anything of his presence.

It didn't take him long to locate the source of the grunting. Hiding behind a rather overgrown tree, Eli peeked around the trunk and saw the ghost kid that he had been following not five minutes ago. It took the man by surprise, just how ragged the boy looked. Melinda had told him that ghosts always take on the form that they believe themselves to look like. Something told Eli that that wasn't exactly the case here. The boy was standing bolt upright in the centre of the clearing. There was an odd green substance seeping into his suit from his chest, and if Eli didn't know any better, he'd say the ghost was bleeding. Something about the position of the wound, tugged at the professor's mind. It was almost like he had seen something similar on someone else... The ghost's white hair seemed to be flowing in all directions and his glowing eyes held a whole new level of ferocity.

Eli had to admit, he was a little scared. Not as scared, however, as he was when a chortle from the left of the clearing reached his ears and he looked over to see probably the biggest man in existence. The guy was dressed completely in black and white. White suit, black hat, he even had pure white skin... That was weird... It was probably a pretty good guess that this was who the ghost kid's anger was directed at. Eli did another sweep of the scene before him with his eyes. Did that little ghost really want to go up against that brutish looking monster?

"Hello again, Punk." The big guy took a confident step forward, an odd sort of sneer on his face. "Had a nice evening with the family?"

The man's words had an impact on the kid as a growl escaped him.

"Where's the antidote, Walker?" 'Walker' laughed before rising into the air slightly. More flying

"What, you mean this little treasure?" He pulled a little, purple, glowing vial from inside his jacket and examined it. The ghost kid's eyes narrowed and he shot forward in flight to grab the object. He didn't get very far before two more of these visible ghosts appeared behind him and pinned him to the ground. "You know... I've thought about it and I've changed my mind. This little antidote here is worth more than your life... or death... and I plan on keeping it."

"No! You can't do that!" The kid screamed, struggling with all his might against the ghosts piled on top of him.

Walker handed the vial to yet another ghost who had floated up beside him. "I think you'll find that I make rules around here and you're in a whole world of trouble, punk." The ghost rose even further in the air, so that he was almost reaching the tips of the trees. "Take him away."

Eli bit his lip as the two ghost guards... or whatever they were, yanked the beaten kid from the floor, in an arm lock and began to pull away from the scene.

He had no idea what was going on here. It was all just so surreal, what he did know however, was that he had do something. The kid wasn't the bad guy in all of this and Eli knew that if he didn't help out, he'd never forgive himself. Reaching out for the first thing he saw –which just so happened to be a rather heavy stone- he took his arm back and hurled it towards the ghosts. He was taken a little by surprise when it actually connected with one of the brute's heads and knocked it out. Again with the awesome!

It didn't seem as awesome however when the other ghost abandoned the ghost kid and headed straight for him.

You really didn't think this one through now, did you Eli?

The psychology professor backed off, staring at the advancing guard. Being so focused on the danger ahead, Eli completely missed the log behind him and it didn't take him long to fall and land on a mossy patch between a few tree roots. His landing had alerted his attacker to his whereabouts and the ghost sped up.

Desperate, Eli grabbed at the log that he had fallen over and shuffled to behind the closest tree. The ghost was now floating where Eli had been sprawled not five seconds ago, looking out for any sign of the creature that knocked his partner out. Taking advantage of the guard's momentary confusion, the psychology professor pulled himself up and balanced the log in his right hand.

His heart was racing and Eli was pretty sure that he could see his chest throbbing with his rapid pulse. It didn't take long for his peruser to come looking for him.

This could go one of two ways. He could connect with the ghost and hurt it in some way (which he wouldn't have thought possible if he hadn't been able to knock the other one out). That would be nice. Or he could completely miss and probably end up killing himself. Either way he was giving it a go.

Taking a deep breath, Eli waited until the ghost was close enough before swinging the log with enough force to fatally wound a horse. The wood hit something and bounced back, taking Eli's arm with it. The man spun a little before managing to stop himself. That couldn't be right. That was too solid to be the ghost. Ah, he couldn't bare it. Eli slammed his eyes shut, waiting for the retaliating blow.

Any second now...

Or now..

Or...

Eli opened his eyes. That couldn't be right. Turning, the man spotted the guard. The ghost had a huge graze in the centre of his chest and was slumped against the tree, unconscious. Well... that was lucky... Eli thought, taking in the scene. Then it dawned on him. This was probably the only chance he would ever get to examine a ghost! Completely forgetting about the fight going off in the clearing, Eli leaned over and prodded the face of the ghost.

Touching a ghost. That was something Melinda could never say she'd done. The professor beamed before deciding to go further. Feeling the ghost's chest, Eli realised that it was wearing some sort of vest armour. That explained the solidity of the whack.

The one truly fascinating thing that Eli found on the unconscious ghost was a baton, the kind you'd see on an everyday policeman. So this guard was actually some sort of ghostly policeman? That was new. The professor took the baton into his hands and examined it closer. There was a big green button on one of the sides.

Wonder what that does...

"Hey! You!"

A deep burning pain spread through Eli's left shoulder, causing him to cry out. Whirling around the man squinted up at the floating figure, who just so happened to be pointing a rather nasty looking gun at him. It didn't take long for the man to recognise him as the ghost that had floated next to that Walker guy. Did all these visible ghosts have to be so aggressive?

The ghost fired the gun again, this time aiming for the professor's head. Eli had only just managed to get out of the way before the odd, flaming-bullet-laser things started chasing him deeper into the woods. Heart in his throat, Eli ducked behind a rather protective looking oak tree. He knew he would only be buying himself a few seconds but it was better than nothing. Glancing down at the baton, still held tightly in his hands, the man knew what he had to do.

I really hope that ghost kid appreciates this.

Trusting his instincts, Eli jumped out from behind the tree, taking his attacker by surprise. Not giving him any time to react, Eli aimed the baton at the creepy looking ghost guy and pressed the big green button. A green, goo-like substance shot from the device and before the ghost could do anything about it, he was bound by the goo, mouth included and hurtling to the floor. Awesome!

Relaxing a little, the professor took the time to look down at his shoulder wound. It was bad, he knew that much. The skin that had once been covered by shirt had been blown away, exposing mangled and singed flesh underneath. In a few places, Eli couldn't work out what was flesh and what was shirt. If he weren't currently pumped up with adrenaline, he would most probably have been rolling about on the floor screaming. Stupid ghost.

The memory hit him like a smack in the face. Taking a deep breath, the professor advanced on the trapped ghoul in front of him. If he remembered correctly, it was this guy who had that... antidote thingy. If that ghost kid was willing to risk his life for that vial, it had to be important. The muffled protests of the guard... police guy or whatever he was, made him all the easier to find. Eli couldn't help but compare this ghost to a pirate... he guessed it was something to do with the eye patch and the bandanna on his head.

"Excuse me," the professor mumbled, searching the pirate's body for the vial. All he got in reply was a rather scary scowl.

There.

"Aaargh!"

The ghost kid!

Eli shot back to where he had last seen the two ghosts, armed with the purple vial and the baton. It had come in handy once. Who was to say that it wouldn't again? As he reached the clearing, he spotted the kid pressed against the grass with Walker's heavy boot crushing his chest. The professor recalled seeing the boy's chest seeping with that green blood stuff and was hit with a sudden jolt of sympathy.

"This is it, Danny Phantom. You're mine," Walker announced darkly. The boy squirmed under the man's foot but it was no use, Eli could see that.

… Wait... what did that ghost call him?

Eli's eyes widened in realisation as he pieced it all together. The same voice, the same wounds, the same name... and now that he looked closer... the same face.

But how was that possible?

Just as Eli began to ponder, the kid was lifted from the floor by an oversized black glove and hurled into a tree a few metres away. The man heard a grunt before a dazzling white light engulfed the ghost kid. It happened right there in front of him.

The bright green eyes melted into startling blue ones, the snow white hair blackened and the jumpsuit transformed into a loose hanging blue t-shirt and even looser black trousers. The glow vanished.

"Danny," Eli whispered, taking the youngster in. Frozen with shock, the man could only watch as his badly wounded friend pulled out a battered Thermos from behind him and aimed it at Walker.

"Recognise this?" Danny asked, threateningly. For a moment Eli thought that he was talking to him as he did in fact recognise the polka-dot Thermos that he had given up to the ghost kid about an hour ago. As he looked over to Walker however, he could tell that the Thermos meant so much more to him. For a moment, Eli could have sworn he'd seen fear seep into the ghost's eyes.

"But that's impossible..." he growled, backing away from the human Danny.

"Turns out, I can make a few rules myself. Poisoning Aiden? That's against them."

Aiden?

Before Eli knew what was happening, a pale blue light burst from the cheap Thermos. To his greater surprise, the light began to wrap itself around Walker and pull him towards the cylindrical container. The light vanished. Walker was gone.

Whatever composure Danny had managed to gather for the end of the fight, instantly faded and he fell forward burying his head in his arms. His body began to shake and it didn't take long for Eli to hear the sobs.

That was his cue.

"Danny?" Eli moved towards the weeping teen slowly so as not to startle him. Danny's head shot up, tears streaking through the dirt encasing his face.

"Eli!" The boy scrambled back a little, eyes widening with fear.

He knows I know. Eli stopped moving and just stood there. He didn't want to scare Danny any more than he already had.

"The stone..." Danny's eyes shot to the unconscious ghost at the other side of the clearing. "It was you." The teen looked back at his friend. Eli just nodded. He blamed adrenaline again for the fact that he was currently so calm. He'd just fought and beaten three abnormal ghost creature thingies and discovered that the small kid he met only a few days ago had turned out to be one of them himself; he was handling this way too well.

Maybe he was just sobered by the fact that said kid was in desperate need of his help.

Danny grasped at the tree behind him, painfully pulling himself up. It was all Eli could do to not rush over and aid his buddy.

"Why did you help me?"

Eli blinked. Of course it was a standard question and he really should have expected it. He just hadn't really thought about it before now.

"Because it looked like you needed it," he answered eventually. It was the truth. He couldn't have watched that Walker guy and his... goons take the helpless kid away to who knew where. Eli was pretty sure that Danny probably wouldn't have come out of it. He knew what the kid was really asking though. Why did he help a complete stranger who wasn't even human?

Danny stared at Eli for a period of time, obviously trying to work things out in his mind. The teen wiped at his eyes, drying them off before taking a staggering step away from the tree.

"Thanks." The teen turned and began moving further into the wall of trees.

"Danny, hang on." Eli walked a little closer to Danny as the boy stopped. "I don't really know what this is... but I'm guessing it's pretty important." The man pulled out the vial and held it up so that the kid could see it.

Instantly, something resembling hope flickered in Danny's eyes.

"You got it!" In his haste to reach the vial, the kid seemed to completely forget about his ailments and was only reminded of them when he tripped and had to cling onto Eli to stop his face from connecting with the floor. "Heh, sorry..." Danny stood back up and brushed himself off.

Eli handed Danny the vial.

"How?" The teen stared down at the vial in his hands. Eli smiled.

"Turns out, I'm a pretty good ghost fighter."

It was Danny's turn to notice something as he examined the psychology professor.

"You're hurt." He was of course referring to the gaping hole in Eli's shoulder. The teen's face creased in concern and guilt. Eli just scoffed.

"Have you seen yourself lately?"

Danny laughed hollowly as he looked down at his battered body. "I guess I look pretty horrific."

"Understatement."

Danny shuddered, reminding Eli of how cold it really was out here. Before he could offer a ride home or the hospital or anything, the blinding light was back, travelling across Danny's body, changing him from human to ghost. The man could only stare as Danny slowly rose into the air.

"Eli?" The ghost... Danny moved a tiny bit closer to the man. "Please, don't tell anyone." Eli only had to take one look at the boy's face to tell that he was being deadly serious. It held the same kind of fear that he had seen in Danny's eyes the second the teen had realised Eli had found out.

The professor nodded slightly. "I promise."

There was a pause in which ghost and man looked intently into each other's eyes, Danny, to work out whether or not he could trust Eli, and Eli, to convince Danny that he could. It was Danny who eventually broke away. Leaning down, the boy picked up the Thermos that contained the scary ghost guy. Without so much as another glance at the psychology professor, the ghost kid slowly made his way around the perimeter of the battle area, collecting any ghost in the anti-ghost Thermos thingy that he could find. Eli could tell that Danny had been doing this whole, 'fighting ghosts' thing for a while.

When the last ghost had been picked up, Danny returned to the clearing and finally looked at Eli once more.

"Thanks... for everything." He smiled slightly, before painfully making the flight back to Melinda's house.

Eli sighed. It was obvious the secret was a burden to Danny, the man could only hope that the kid might be able to talk to him about it all. Eli had seen so many kids completely mess themselves up just by holding things in. He was paid to stop that from happening, but with Danny? He could tell it wasn't going to be simple. The man watched as the ghost kid disappeared over the trees. He then turned and headed back to his car. His arm was throbbing like crazy, commanding him to take a quick visit to the hospital. What he was going to tell the medics was beyond him but one thing was for sure:

He was going to have a headache in the morning


Longest chapter I have ever written, so tell me what you think :)

Oh and yes, I think it's about time you met my muse, Adam Whitehall. Something that came to my attention the first time he came in was that people didn't really get the whole 'Master Phantom' thing. I can tell you now that it is nothing of any significance. If you go back, even just as far as to the early 20th century, in England a young boy would be referred to as Master by pretty much anyone before he was married. It's basically the male version of Miss. So... if Danny suddenly got married, instead of being called Master Phantom, by Adam, he would be called Mr Phantom.

As a rule I don't usually like OCs but I don't mind them if they don't play the main role... or even the second best role in the fiction. So basically, Adam is never going to succeed Danny in importance, nor will he outshine Melinda, Eli, Aiden or Jim. He is a sideline character who may pop up every so often when the block decides to invade. So yeah... don't go into panic stations just yet. ;)

Well, if you could be bothered to listen to my ramblings then you have earned my respect. I shall now wish you all a fond farewell. (Credit goes to Windsurf for Beta-ing within a few hours! You're my hero ;) )

Ta ta.

-Mea