A/N: Hah! Back to business. Happy Halloween!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

17. Blood

They had left early, after making sure Jack was safely confined to the basement, distracted by a new invention and a plate of ghost shaped cookies. Maddie had promised to keep an eye on him, and to hide the more dangerous weapons, in case he happened to wander upstairs, or ran out of cookies – not an unlikely prospect.

It was already getting dark, the first batch of small children had already hit the streets, walking alone with a trailing parent, or in small groups, their costumes invariably similar themed: ghosts. Small ghosts wearing just a white sheet with two holes for eyes in them, all black body suits with a fluorescent skeleton on it, tiny vampires with pointy teeth, grinning at everybody who would look.

Sam smiled at the happy group, making them cringe a little and she frowned when Tucker and Danny started snickering.

"What?" she snapped, turning her attention to them, instead of scaring the children, who were happy to get away from her.

"Nothing," Danny grinned.

His grin looked positively evil on his face, accentuated with Sam's black eyeliner and a fake nose piercing. He was slightly tingling from the chains wrapped around his waist, and his all-black outfit and heavy boots just screamed 'goth'. Tucker was clad likewise, with the addition of a huge fluorescent skull on his t-shirt, making him stand out in the dark.

"You're scaring them," Tucker pointed out, "And you're not even dressed up..."

A slight beeping sound distracted them from what could have been a heated argument about scaring small children, and Tucker pulled out his PDA from one of his many pockets. Sam crossed her arms and started tapping her foot, while Danny tried to hide his amusement.

"We start at the school," Tucker said, suddenly all business, "Then we circle the park, through Maple street, sweep the mall area real quick and then head back here and still be in time for the party."

"Sounds good to me," Danny said, padding the thermos that was strapped onto his belt, somewhere between the chains.

They walked in silence, the hunt was on, they were on full alert. Mostly, their attention was focused on Danny's mouth though, because he was the most sensitive ghost detector they had. Sam was carrying the Fenton Ghost Finder, which usually only confirmed what they already knew: there was a ghost nearby.

Tucker was carrying the spare thermos and the Fenton Lipstick. He regretted having bought the shirt with the bright skull on it. It had been a spur of the moment thing, acquired at the last possible moment when Sam had ordered them to go goth for the evening, just to piss Paulina off on her Halloween party, for which they had received a grudging invitation. The thing made him stand out in the dark, and he didn't want to make himself a target for the ghosts they undoubtedly would encounter.

Ghosts took a particular interest in Halloween. It was like they were drawn out in the open by it, like the atmosphere was particularly appealing to them. Or maybe they just liked to scare little children. In any case, for the past two years Danny, Sam and Tucker had made it a habit to sweep the town, getting rid of as many obnoxious, bothersome or sometimes even dangerous ghosts as they could. This year was no different.

After a surprisingly uneventful walk they were nearing the school, when finally Danny's ghost sense went off. He grinned happily, dove into an alley and one bright flash later Danny Phantom was in the air, hovering for a moment to get his bearings, and then shooting off in the direction of the school. His friends followed in a slow jog, keeping their eyes on the sky and the buildings around them.

Flashes of green lit up the dark blue sky behind the school, and one loud 'Beware' later Danny landed in front of them, shaking the thermos a little, still grinning.

"Guess what," he said, "He actually volunteered to go in after I told him what they do with all that cardboard that is stacked behind the school."

"Huh?" Tucker said, "What do they do with it?"

"Shred it."

"They make new cardboard out if it, you dork," Sam said.

"Ah yes, but I didn't tell him that."

A muffled cry came from the thermos, and Danny shook it some more.

"Be quiet," he said.

After checking carefully no one was around the school, he let the two white rings appear around his waist, to change back into his now no less scary form of Danny Fenton. Sam smiled in approval, and Tucker smiled at her smile.

"So," he said as they moved away from the school to follow their predetermined route, "why do we have to dress all in black and you get to wear color?"

He pointed at her purple leggings and the black and green striped skirt she wore. Sam blinked her eyes for a moment when Danny took off again after some lurking ghost, and quickly scanned the area with her Ghost Finder to make sure there were no other ghosts nearby to ambush them.

"Colors have meaning, Tucker. And I didn't pick your clothes, you did. You just assumed goths only wear black."

"Oh."

A loud crash signified the start of a more vicious fight, and they rushed to the corner Danny had disappeared around. Tucker grabbed the thermos and handed it to Sam's more capable hands, while taking out the Lipstick. They were just in time to see Danny crash into the roof of an expensive looking car, leaving a rather large dent.

"Ow," he said, sounding more annoyed than hurt, although his friends saw some green ectoplasm leak from his right shoulder.

The ghost in question was hovering above him, managing to look smug through his white sheet. Sam pointed the thermos and sucked him in.

Danny peeled himself from the car, looked at it with some regret and then turned to her.

"Hey," he said, "I wasn't done with the banter."

"Then why didn't you say something," Sam said, "Other than 'Ow'."

"Couldn't think of anything. He was wearing a sheet for Christ's sake. How lame can you get?"

"Lame enough to blast you into that car," Tucker pointed out.

"True."

Danny was hovering in front of them, just about to change back again, when his ghost sense alerted him to yet another spectral presence, and with a 'let's go, follow me' he took off again. Sam and Tucker looked at each other, shrugged and trailed after their friend.

"OK," Tucker said after a moment, "So what does black stand for then?"

"Death, of course," Sam answered, her eyes again skittering from place to place, trying to determine the direction of the newest ghost attack, "And night. We're all creatures of the night you know."

With that she raised her hands above her head and tried to look ghoulish. Then she laughed and spoiled the effect.

"Wow, spooky," came a voice out of nowhere, and both Sam and Tucker jumped.

Danny shimmered into view and Sam tried to hit him with her thermos, but he had expected that and went intangible. She opted to glare at him instead.

"Don't scare us," she said and then, more worried, "You're still bleeding."

Danny twisted his head in an impossible angle, making Tucker wince, and examined his shoulder.

"Change back," Sam said, "It'll heal."

"Yes ma'am," Danny said, bringing his hand to his head in a mock salute, and instantly changing back to something that couldn't float, landing neatly on his feet.

He rolled his shoulders in an exaggerated way and popped a few kinks in his spine while he was at it, knowing Tucker hated it when he did that. Then he fell into pace with his friends again as they strolled down the deserted street and into the next.

"Alright," Tucker continued his earlier conversation with Sam as if nothing had happened, "What about purple then?"

Danny frowned in surprise. "What do you mean what about purple," he said.

Sam shrugged. "He wants to know about the symbolism of colors. Black stands for Death. Purple is for the supernatural, mysticism."

"Hey, that's cool," Danny said, "What other colors have meaning? What about green?"

Sam smiled. "Green stands for monsters, like goblins, zombies. Aliens."

Danny laughed, seemingly enjoying himself despite, or maybe because of, the ghost attacks. He leaned closer to her, bringing his face in front of hers, and let his eyes flash green.

"Monsters, huh," he said.

Sam's breath caught in her throat for a moment, and Danny seemed to realize it too, because his face suddenly changed from a goofy grin into something else. And then a small puff of condensed air left his mouth and he pulled back. Without a word he transformed again, keeping his eyes locked onto hers the whole time. Then, in a blur, he was gone.

"Oh, now that was touching," Tucker grinned, knowing that that would irk Sam.

Then he ducked when she made a move as to whack him, but not really trying. Absentmindedly, she pulled out the Ghost Finder again and consulted it's tiny display to find the direction of the ghost. Or to find Danny, whichever was closer. The wiggly lines seemed to indicate straight ahead, so they followed in that direction.

"Any more significant colors we should know about?" Tucker asked.

"Orange," Sam said, looking at the orange glow coming from a building at the end of the street. She started running.

"Orange?" Tucker puffed, trying to keep up with her, "What does that stand for?"

"Autumn," she yelled at him, "The turning leaves."

She skittered to a stop in front of the building, looking up.

"And fire."

A scream tore through the night as flames erupted out of the top floor of the three story building, followed by a bright orange blur speeding away, closely followed by Danny, whose fists were glowing green.

"Call the fire department!" Sam yelled at Tucker and left in a hurry, running in the direction the two fighting ghosts had gone.

Tucker pulled out his phone, while at the same time pressing all the bells repeatedly, alerting the inhabitants of the pending disaster. Windows started to open, people were looking out in alarm and Tucker started shouting at them to get out of the building. In the distance he could already hear the fire trucks approaching, so he quickly left the scene in search of his friends.

It wasn't hard to find them, he just had to follow the direction of the scorch marks on the buildings and the burning car wrecks. They seemed to have gone quite a distance however, so it took him a while to actually reach them, Danny seated on the sidewalk, leaning his head forward between his knees, still in ghost form, Sam standing next to him, looking worried. The thermos was standing on the ground and Tucker was about to grab it when Sam caught him.

"Don't," she said, "It's hot."

Danny looked up and now Tucker saw the burn marks on his face, hands and arms. He looked exhausted.

"Are you alright?" Tucker asked him.

"I will be," Danny answered, "In a minute. Lemme catch my breath."

For the third time that evening the two rings appeared around his waist, leaving a very weary Danny Fenton, still sitting on the sidewalk. The burn marks had disappeared, only a slight redness on his jaw gave an indication of his previous injuries. Tucker looked at the thermos again.

"What was that?" he asked, pointing at it.

"Dunno. Never seen this one before. It was just one big flame, setting everything on fire. Shoots some sort of fire bolts, I couldn't dodge them all. We'll have to add this one to our files," Danny answered.

Hi climbed to his feet, took a deep breath and said, "OK guys, let's get going. Ghosts don't catch themselves."

All was quiet for a while and they encountered several groups of children, most of them probably on their way home, their bags now full of candy. They paid no attention to the three friends, however menacing they looked, totally focused on the contents of their bags, trying to eat most of it before they reached home.

"Any more colors?" Danny asked Sam, to break the silence.

"White," Sam said immediately.

"You never wear white," Tucker said pointedly.

Sam smiled and shook her head.

"White stands for ghosts. And the full moon." She pointed at Tucker. "Mummies."

"Hey, that's unfair," he said, "How was I to know that guy was an evil..."

"Gotta go!" Danny yelled and transformed spectacularly, taking a running leap into the air. In a flash, he was gone.

Tucker groaned, knowing they had to run again to keep up. Sam was already ahead of him, chasing in the direction of what seemed to be a bright flash of green lightening coming from a dark alley. He rounded the corner and bumped straight into Sam, standing frozen on the spot.

"Red..." she said.

"What?" Tucker asked, confused that she would continue their conversation now, "Red? What does that stand for?"

She didn't say anything for a moment, making a strange hiccuping sound as she extended her hand to touch the wall. Tucker stepped around her and stared into the alley, which was only marginally lit from the street light on the road, casting dark shadows among the many trashcans and the metal stairs leading up the buildings.

"Blood," she whispered.

Tucker looked down and his breath caught in his throat. Large patches of green mixed with red – a lot of red – on the ground, strangely glistening in the lamp light, leading away from them into the alley, all the way to a black lump laying on the ground, unmoving.

I happened upon the descriptions for the colors on Wikipedia. If I got something wrong there, they're to blame :)