This marks the half way point to the end of this story. There's 23 chapters to this and I'm working on the finishing touches as fast as I can.


Thursday morning was uneventful for Danny. He had finally healed enough that he could go swimming again and after that he got home and started to work even harder on his bike. Tucker had managed to get back to him Wednesday evening and as soon as they had talked a bit he had started to get to work on making his dream bike a reality. He was eager to work on the parts for the body and to finally get a frame together. After he had a light lunch he went to the garage and started working like a mad man for barely a few minutes when he felt a chill and a familiar wisp of cold air escape his mouth.

"For crying out loud, I finally start to make some headway and get started on my frame here and a ghost shows up! Oh whoever this is better have a damn good reason for being here…" Danny walked out to the back yard as he transformed and looked around. Right when he was about to take to the air though, he felt something ensnare his foot keeping him from launching himself into the air. Looking down he saw a small vine had wrapped around his foot and was starting to move up to grab his whole leg.

"Undergrowth!" Danny growled and shot out an ice beam to freeze the plant before it could do any harm to him. Once it broke off he jumped into the air and looked around trying to find where the ghost was.

"I am not here to fight, Phantom." The tangled mass of vines that was Undergrowth came out from the ground beside an old maple tree the Fentons had in their back yard and looked around cautiously, "I only wish to talk; I am here for a much more important reason."

Danny slowly lowered himself closer to the ground but remained floating in case he had to escape, "What do you want to talk to me about, Undergrowth, and why are you so small here? You're normally bigger than this." While that was one fact, Danny could also see that the ghost was less green than normal and seemed to have various battle wounds covering his body that he had patched up with some type of leaves.

"I have been weakened a great deal by the growing threat in the Ghost Zone. My domain was recently completely decimated and I am still trying to recover from the attack."

"Your domain?" Danny stared at him with wide eyed fear, "Someone actually destroyed your entire domain?" The young half ghost knew that Undergrowth was by-far no pushover in terms of power. The fact that someone had beaten him and left him so weak meant that there was someone with either an enormous army to fight or someone extremely powerful.

"Yes, I have heard that you were actually around there recently and had seen the devastation that was wrought upon me." The plant ghost growled and slammed his clawed fist into the tree he stood beside, "Those blasted bugs destroyed my home! And if that wasn't enough, to add insult to the injury they sapped the nutrients from the ground! It will take years of work to restore it to its former beauty!"

"Ok, calm down," Danny held up his hands and looked at the being before him, "When I was there with Vlad we found an area of land that had been destroyed by something, I'm guessing your domain. We ran some tests on the soil and it's basically just dirt, no nutrients just like you said. It's pretty much useless for almost anything to grow in it as it stands now. Then we were attacked by swarms of different types of ghost insects. I'm guessing there's a connection between the two?"

"You are correct. These insects came to my home, sucked out every last bit of sustenance they could get their grubby little claws on and then fled like a swarm of locusts to find another area to decimate!"

"What else? Can you tell me why these bugs would suddenly come after you or what they're after?"

"I don't know what they are after or who sent them or even if they were exactly after me. What I can tell you though, is that they needed my land to nourish their growing army. Someone is trying to take control of the Ghost Zone and is trying to amass a great deal of power in order to rule over it. That much I am certain."

"It looks like there's going to be another war on our hands…" Danny held his chin as he started to think, "What are you going to do now?"

The ghost stared at the teen and crossed his arms, "I am willing to form an alliance with you temporarily if it means the defeat of these ghost insects."

"Well thanks but that's not what I meant exactly. I meant what are you going to do now here in the real world?"

"You do not need to fear, I have grown weak from my battle and I only need a place to rest and nourish myself."

"Right," The white haired ghost nodded, "You can stay here for awhile, just don't cause any trouble."

"Your concern for me is… questionable, ghost boy." Undergrowth tilted his head one way then another as if studying the teen before him, "Why are you so concerned for me after all the trouble I have given you and your world?"

"Because I know that what you were doing was in your own twisted way 'good'. You wanted to stop developers from tearing down a park and stop people from tearing down forests and trees. While I don't agree with how you did it I can understand it. Sam is the same way. Always wanting to do the best for the environment and everything," Danny shrugged, "Besides I know what it feels like to lose your home, I've had to experience what that must be like so I can sympathize with you on that." He frowned as he thought about the alternate timeline Clockwork had once shown him.

"I see now…" Undergrowth nodded as he relaxed a little before Danny, "I can see why so many ghosts have made you their ally over the years. You have a great deal of empathy for many of us and do not wish us harm, but at the same time do not wish us to harm your world."

"Well yeah," Danny shrugged as he landed and started to walk away, "I know not all ghosts are evil and all, and I know for a fact that there are a lot of humans that would want to catch and dissect if not outright destroy a ghost. I just want the ghosts that come here to exist peacefully; otherwise I have to beat them back into the Ghost Zone."

"I will need some time to think about this, Phantom."

Danny shrugged unsure of what to actually think about that comment as he went back to the garage to continue working on his bike. He actually got a lot done before he had to go fix dinner and eat. Earlier he had passed on the information Undergrowth had told him to Vlad and after a bit of explaining, and telling his father that he could not dissect the plant ghost in their yard, Maddie and Jack agreed to let Undergrowth stay in their back yard.

"And that's pretty much been my day," Danny sighed as he sat at his desk looking at his friends again.

"So you've made friends with the giant evil ghost plant that tried to take over the planet, used Sam as some freakish zombie gardener, and tried to use us all for fertilizer…?" Tucker nodded sagely and then opened his eyes widely, "ARE YOU NUTS MAN?!"

"Geeze, Tuck, chill. I mean it's not like he can do much anyway. He was pretty beaten up when he came here and he hasn't tried anything funny. Plus if he does try anything I am still pretty confident that I can handle him. I've gotten a lot stronger over the years you know."

"I'm just amazed at the allies you've gotten over the years… Skulker, Johnny and Kitty, Ember, VLAD, Technus, and now Undergrowth, for now at least," Sam shook her head with a rueful smile, "Just hard to imagine that these guys are on your side now after all the times they've tried to kill you and you've beat them."

"Yeah well at least with the Box Ghost on my side I don't have to listen to him constantly shouting 'BEWARE' when he comes for a visit. Or get served a slice of 'doom' by the Lunch Lady anymore, who, by the way, sends her regards and congratulations to you Tucker and hopes you're eating well at college."

Tucker groaned and shook his head, "Life got crazy when you got your ghost powers, it got crazier when we had to help save the Ghost Zone and our world on a few occasions, and now years later it is STILL getting crazier now that our once enemies are friends of ours."

"Well I welcome the change. The less enemies I have the more time I can actually spend being normal and having a life." Danny chuckled, "Speaking of, I won't be on Friday night I'm going to go see the Zombie Storm movie with Dash."

"You asked Dash out to see a movie?!" Tucker yelled into the camera again staring at his long time friend, "Wait, since when did Dash get into guys?!"

"Gah, Tucker will you settle down… Geeze you need to get on some Adderall if you're this hyper every time something happens. And no, I did not ask Dash out he asked me, and it's not even a date. Why am I having to explain this to you?!" Danny suddenly realized what his friend was talking about and had to shake his head to clear out how confusing and random it was.

"Sorry, man," Tucker smirked, "Just playin' with, ya," Danny rolled his eyes and shook his head. He had no problem with the idea of homosexuality and had entertained the idea on a few occasions but he often times regretted confiding those thoughts with his friends. Tucker was surprised at his admission, but Sam said she had had a few suspicions after they had tried dating a few times back in their freshman year but broke it off when things just didn't feel right.

"It is a bit weird, though, Danny," Sam spoke up from doing what looked like painting her toe nails, "I mean Dash has always been a big pain and I know you're getting along fine and everything but he's asking you to go to the movies now? Maybe it is a date."

"Oh come on guys… Tucker and I sometimes went to the movies alone but that didn't make it a date. It's just two friends going to the movies together, that's it. Why would you even think Dash would lean that way anyway?"

"The fact he likes all those romantic comedies, he's hyper masculine, has to make sure that he's seen as tough and in charge, and he has a lot of issues with something he's good at that apparently no one knew about." Sam stared at him dully like it was obvious, "But then again that could all just be related to something else. I guess we shouldn't be so fast to judge him like that."

"Thank you." Danny sighed feeling exhausted about all this now, "Now that Dash's sexuality is no longer an issue and we've agreed that two same sex friends can go to a movie together and it not be a date shall we talk about something else? Preferably not ghost related either as I have a feeling that will come up more as Vlad starts to come up with a plan."

For the rest of the evening the three friends talked about various subjects. Tucker told them about some of the summer classes he was taking and Sam talked about a Goth party that was going on during a full moon on the beach nearby that looked like fun. Danny talked about how much work he got done on his bike and by the time Danny had to go to bed he felt like all was right with the world. There wasn't a ghostly entity trying to amass power to take over the Ghost Zone, Dash wasn't acting weird, he didn't have to worry about ghosts attacking his town, and there wasn't a vengeful vegetable ghost growing himself in his back yard.

The next morning Danny was up bright and early as always and started to get ready for his day. He made himself some oatmeal and got his stuff together when he thought to look out into their yard. Undergrowth was still out there planted in the ground and fast asleep. He thought it might have something to do with the fact the sun wasn't reaching him yet, but when he looked at him longer he noticed that he seemed wilted and the color didn't seem to be coming back to his body.

Taking some pity on the poor guy, Danny went over to the hose they had and dragged it over to the plant ghost before he turned it on. The weather had been fairly dry lately and if Undergrowth was going to make a faster recovery then he'd likely have to be treated like a plant and given lots of water. After a minute of watering around him Undergrowth started to wake up and look around. He spotted Danny turning off the hose and stared at him in confusion.

"Were you just watering me?"

"Well yeah, you're a plant right? So you need water and it hasn't rained in awhile so I thought I'd help you out some. If you're going to get your strength back you need as much water and nutrients as you can get right? Speaking of, I think we have some fertilizer in the shed if you want me to spread it around for your roots or if you want to eat it, maybe? I dunno I've never had to take care of a plant like you before."

"The water was enough for me," He looked away looking conflicted and then nodded his head, "Thank you for your concern."

"Ehh don't mention it, just remember to not cause any trouble until the threat is over and we'll call it even," Danny smirked and tossed a banana to the plant, "Uhh… I know you probably don't eat or at least eat like I do, but I did some research last night and I read that planting banana peels in the soil around the roots of plants can help them since they have so much potassium in them. I'll be back in a few hours, though, and Vlad might be by before then to question you some more. Either way, bye."

Danny waved goodbye to the stunned ghost and left the backyard. Undergrowth just stood there for a moment watching where the young half ghost had left. It was so surprising to him that he was treating him with such kindness that he almost didn't know what to do. He looked at the fruit he had been given and started to eat it even though he didn't really have to. The kind act left a storm of thoughts circling around in the plant ghost's mind trying to make sense of what he should feel about the half ghost that had once beaten him and was now being so kind to him.


FallingNarwhals: Sorry to hear about your car accident and how bad it apparently was. My car was totaled rolling down a steep embankment but I managed to get myself out with only some bumps and bruises. Also hate to tell you this but: sorry but it's not a date. At least that's what Danny thinks haha. The build up is slow and there will be some more action sequences before the end, but don't expect much on odd numbered chapters when I have Dash's point of view. And as always thanks for the review.