Finally! Another update. I know you guys are probably getting impatient with me in taking so long to finish each chapter. This one was so hard to finish. I kept going through it, thinking it would just be the final read-through, but always finding more to add in or edit with descriptions and the way certain parts played out. Then I finally decided that it would probably never be finished if I kept doing that, so here it is. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 28: A New Plan

Jack smiled, putting an arm around his wife who leaned her head against his bosom with tears of joy swelling into her eyes. Both parents were looking down proudly at their two youngest children in seeing them embracing each other and looking happier than they had ever seen them in weeks. Their adopted youngest daughter could finally see again. And oh how happy it clearly was making her feel, judging simply by the way she was laughing and smiling up at everyone; the way her now crystal-clear blue eyes were making direct eye contact and twinkling in the light they were able to receive once again.

Tucker sat himself on the coffee table that was in front of the couch for a second to breath out a sigh of relief that the cure had worked. Then, he too started laughing along with the two ghost-powered teens. He then moved down to the floor next to them to bring them both into playful headlocks that was his version of a congratulatory group hug.

Jazz, on the other hand, was standing in slight disbelief that the cure to lift Danielle's blindness had actually worked. But she was just as happy as everyone else that it worked, nonetheless. She still felt appalled by her little cousin tricking all of them into thinking that she was still blind for a minute, though. Aside from Sam, as it seemed. Which reminded the college girl at that moment: "Sam, how did you know she was faking it?" Jazz asked the Goth, putting her hands on her hips with a look that said, by the way, I know you were in on it.

"She winked at me." Sam simply stated with a shrug and a smile. She was obviously amused by the fact that she had been the only one informed ahead of time of the little prank the youngest Phantom managed to pull on everyone else. To this, Jazz couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed by. Still, as implausible as the college girl may have believed it to be at first, Danielle had indeed regained her sight. Therefore, also the piece of herself that she seemed to have been missing for just as long.

As both the Phantoms wrestled against the headlocks Tucker had them both in, they managed to escape him by turning intangible. That was before Danny suddenly jumped at Danielle, bringing her into a headlock of his own and wildly ruffled her long, dark hair.

"Hey!" Danielle protested when this happened.

"Don't do that again, Dani. You scared me!" Danny scolded, but in a still bantering tone as he was, in his own mind, getting back at his cousin for the stunt she had just pulled on him.

Tucker folded his arms with an amused smirk. "Do what?" He asked as he watched the two cousins wrestling with each other now. "Make you feel miserable that you thought you totally blew it, or the tackling you to the floor afterwards?"

"Both." Danny said before he finally let go of Danielle.

After she smoothed her hair down, giving her older cousin an aggravated look for messing it up in the first place, Danny just pulled her into another relieved hug that surprised her. But she got over it quickly and returned it, happily.

As if this was their cue, the rest of the family gathered around the two cousins, joining in for a full group-hug this time. Sam and Tucker stood on the sidelines with glee, seeing the whole family all together again. All else was forgotten, even Danielle's little prank, as they all held her close.

The love of all her peers felt so warm and safe to the young ghost girl. As if it was all just pouring into her through the embrace. And she felt every bit of it. Seeing all their faces smiling down at her, welcoming her back to the light, increased her inner joy even more exponentially.

"I really missed all of you." Danielle's voice was slightly muffled by the many bodies surrounding her, but they still heard her well enough.

"We missed you too, little princess." Mr. Fenton responded softly.

"Welcome back, Sis." Jazz put in.

It was perhaps a full minute before the Fenton's finally broke from around their newly cured and youngest family member.

"So." Sam began, looking down at Danielle, now that the crowd had parted enough for her to see her. "How's it feel to lose one of your senses and then suddenly achieving the impossible in getting it back?"

Danielle responded by jumping to her feet with a broad grin and Going Ghost. She then cheered in delight, much the same way Danny remembered her doing after she was stabilized, as she now jumped into a back flip, turning intangible and diving right through the floor.

"I'll take that she's excited." Danny vocally assumed with a smile before Going Ghost and sinking through the floor himself to follow her.

All the others that didn't have ghost powers hurried into the kitchen, toward the door to the basement. When they got to the bottom of the stairs, down to the lab, they saw that Danielle had already activated the target practice obstacle course and was really going at it.

"Now that's the Danielle we know and remember." Mrs. Fenton commented, watching Danielle hitting every single target that popped out of the walls.

Before long, Danny had joined his altered clone in zooming around the room and the two young superheroes were waging a contest with the target practice, like they used to always do. It was a long-awaited sight for all who observed this friendly competition with pride.

After all the targets were hit, and an automated voice announced Game Over, Danny drifted down to the floor, landing in front of the rest of his family. He watched with them as Danielle just continued to fly around the room as nothing but a white and yellow blur with the use of her plasma rocket, barely swerving out of obstacles a millisecond before colliding with them. How glad she was of the fact that she could fully see them coming and could now fight to her fullest potential again. Everyone couldn't help but cheer along with her as she was having more fun than she had for weeks. Even for being in her least favorite room in the house.

After she felt satisfied with the series of aerial acrobatics she successfully performed, Danielle finally landed beside Danny, igniting her hands in golden yellow flames from her elemental energy, like she did when she first went blind, only this time clearly able to watch the flames flicker and grow in her palms in awe. In seeing the happy expression on her face, Maddie forgot to scold her for using her Phantom Phlare in the house.

"Man. I never thought I'd miss seeing my own hands this much." Danielle said as she clenched her fists around the blazes to extinguish them.

"Yeah. But it looks like, you've got a bit of refining to do with your aim, Danielle." Said Tucker. He was examining a scoreboard by the controls for the obstacle course. "Danny beat you by a mile this time."

Sam went and looked over Tucker's shoulder to see the electronic display herself. This scoreboard was programmed to sense and recognize what type of energy beams had hit how many targets and how accurately, automatically calculating the totals that were now displayed by the end of the match.

"Tucker, it's only by four points." Sam commented, cocking an eyebrow at her friend's apparent exaggeration.

"But they usually always tied if the score wasn't a difference in just one."

Tucker was correct in this regard. Even Sam had to admit. Before Danielle had lost her sight, the two cousins were always doing contests to make their practicing more fun. Even in tiebreaker rounds, the final scores were always very close with Danny being the winner most of those times.

"You know, it would probably be worse if Danielle didn't have those training sessions while she was still blind." Jazz pointed out, folding her arms and indicating to her brother how proud she was that she had come up with the design of that specific obstacle course.

"Then let's get to work, Danny." Danielle said to her cousin excitedly as she hurried over to a wall of the lab where some equipment was hung. She retrieved a padded vest from it that had a style similar to those one would use for a game of laser tag. The vest had circular receptors placed in the centers of the front and back each. These receptors kept score the same way the targets of the obstacle courses did and were also ghost-shield generators. The shields deactivated when they absorbed too much opposing energy, making the wearer's opponent the winner of the training session.

Until Danielle had started living with the Fenton's, Danny had never had anyone to really practice with: Just the obstacle courses to test the progress of the improvement of his abilities. When the clone joined the Phantom ghost-fighting team, the two started off just firing low-energy beams at each other that they could easily withstand, being half ghost. That was before Danny's mother figured out what they were doing and nearly lost her head over safety issues, saying that they already got hit and hurt too many times in real battles for her liking. So, after a lot of convincing that one-on-one combat practice was indeed necessary to improve their fighting skills, Maddie and her husband designed these training vests for them to practice with in a much more secure environment.

"Up for some combat practice?" Danielle asked teasingly as she tossed Danny one of the other practice vests.

After he caught the vest, Danny, responding with a smile, "Are you?"

Danielle felt another challenge coming from her cousin's voice and after giving him a knowing look, she took off to hover in the air in middle of the room and wait for him.

Jazz leaned towards her brother as he was strapping on the vest, saying quietly to him with a smirk, "She's got that look."

Then, Tucker just had to add in, "Why do I get the feeling she's about to kick your butt?"

Danny just ignored Tucker, lifting off the floor to get in position. With the pressing of a few more buttons on the controls run by the parents, transparent walls of energy activated around the perimeter of the practice area. These energy fields were built to block any shots that went awry, preventing damage to the lab, its equipment, and of course kept observers of these contests from getting hit by accident. Another safety feature Maddie had thought of.

Sam was the one who started the timer and the game began. Both cousins successfully dodged the first blows they each exchanged before Danielle was the one whose shields got hit first. All who were watching behind the safety wall cringed in seeing her getting thrown back, even though not really getting hurt because of the small shield generated by her own vest.

"You were saying?" Sam said to Tucker after Danielle had been hit a few more times. The Goth was referring to how the techno-geek had been so confident that Danielle was going to be the one to win this round.

As the match continued with the passing of a decent length of time, however, Danielle started getting back into her usual swing and was able to hit Danny's shields for the first time. Her progress seemed to really expand after that. Even when Danny started executing more impressive moves, it became a lot harder for him to hit his cousin's shields anymore. It was as if she had learned to more quickly recognize the sound and feel of something out of the ordinary and was able to almost instantaneously respond to it. It seemed that somehow, even though her accuracy needed a bit of work since going blind, her reflexes had stayed as sharp as ever, if not had gotten better.

"Dah!" Danny cried out after Danielle released a completely unexpected blast that nailed his shield right where his chest would be. As his circulatory receptors on his practice vest started beeping, indicating the deactivation of his shields and the winning of his opponent, he started careening down to some cushions that always came out of the floor when the obstacle courses were active: Yet another safety feature idea his mother had installed herself.

"Yes, as a matter of fact." Tucker said smugly to Sam and her doubts about Danielle being able to win. Then after the safety wall was deactivated, he walked up to the huge air mattress that Danny had safely landed on.

The ghost boy sat up, rubbing his head, before Tucker gave him a hand to help him off the big balloon of a padding. Danielle landed, soon after, looking a bit concerned. "You okay, Danny? I think I overdid it on that last blow."

"I'm okay." Danny reassured her as he took off his practice vest and powered down.

Mr. Fenton checked the scoreboard and smiled in seeing the results. "Congratulations Danielle. I'd say your accuracy is at its peak again. You just beat Danny by a full point."

"Yes!" Danielle cheered in delight. She may have been the fastest one to the targets, being smaller and especially having her plasma rocket, but Danny had always had the better aim, and experience. This time, she finally beat him.

After Danny had hung up his training vest, he folded his arms with a very familiar grin that made Sam and Jazz sigh wearily in instantly recognizing the look that told them to get ready for fireworks over a certain, irritating subject.

"See? You could probably take on my future self by yourself." Danny said to his younger cousin. "Why do I need to be around anymore?"

Danielle's excited expression turned to an irritated one as she slumped her shoulders forward and growled at her older cousin for starting on that whole Who's-the-best-Phantom argument again. She even started to wonder for a second if Danny actually let her win just so he could lead it up to that. Why did he always have to ruin every victory celebration with that pointless debate?

"Speaking of your future," Jazz redirected the subject before Danielle could remark. The tone in Jazz's voice was all that was really needed to make everyone forget the argument that was just about to steam up between her two younger siblings and get them to perk up and turn their heads towards her. The twenty-year-old was staring at a nearby security monitor that was installed in the wall that could also be used as a television. "I think you guys better see this."

Everyone gathered behind the eldest of the Fenton children (save fore Danielle who went to put her practice vest away and turn human), seeing that she had turned the television to the news channel that currently showed camera views of destroyed sites around town that were up in green fire and smoke.

"…While the evil ghost hasn't been seen for the span of at least forty-eight hours, it's clear that his most recent attacks are the most devastating. The specter seems to have gotten much more powerful this week alone, and there has still been no sign of Danny Phantom." The voice of the reporter, Lance Thunder said before the screen switched to a view of him at his studio desk with a photo image of Dark Phantom displayed next to him. "If witnesses, or the malevolent specter himself, are to be believed, it could be that he has made sure that our beloved hero truly is no more and that this powerful and dangerous spirit has officially taken his so-called 'rightful place in history'. Back to you, Shelly."

Danny and Danielle looked at each other gravely. They both knew that Dark Phantom must have been out all this time, creating more destruction in their absence. Surprisingly, it wasn't until after they had escaped Walker's jail, had rested at the Far Frozen, and had gotten Danielle her sight back that it actually fully hit them.

A Hispanic female reporter named Shelly Makamoto with short black hair took over in the news update. "While the dark ghost's whereabouts are currently unknown and his attacks have ceased for the time being, the question of who our rescuers of this crisis will be still remains. Will Amity Park survive if this seemingly all-powerful specter returns? Are our usual saviors Danny Phantom and his fellow ghost-fighting partner ever to return to pull us out of this troubled time? More information on this story as we receive it. We'll be right back."

The broadcast ended with a short video of Dark Phantom firing a blast of green light that blew a semi truck into flames. After admiring his own destructive handiwork of the vehicle in ruins and all the people on the street scattering with panicking cries, he laughed maliciously before creating his own ghost portal that he vanished through.

Danielle, having joined the others at the television just in time to see the video, was the first to speak after the commercial break came on. "Ech. I miss being blind already." She commented in disgust after seeing the fanged, green-skinned specter that was just on the screen.

Sam changed the subject to a more serious note, turning to the two teens with the ghost powers. "I sure hope you guys have a plan for bringing him down the next time he comes back, or the whole town is toast."

"How? He runs for it every time I flinch for the Fenton Thermos." Danny argued defensively.

There was a thoughtful pause before Tucker voiced in, "Maybe you don't have to use the Thermos on him." When Danny stared at him in complete befuddlement, Tucker suggested, "What if we used the Ghost Catcher to split the Danny and Vlad halves apart again? Then…"

"Then we'd have two ghosts to deal with instead of just one." Sam interrupted bluntly, folding her arms.

"But they wouldn't be as strong." Tucker pointed out. "Remember what happened with Danny when we used it on him? His powers got divided between the two it created."

Feeling the need to remind the young mayor who the inventor of the expunging technology was, Jack Fenton interpolated. "Tucker, the Ghost Catcher is built to expunge all things ghostly from anything human related. From what Danny's already told us of this future version of himself, he's all ghost now. It probably wouldn't even work on him."

"And let's not forget." Sam butted in again. "There were two Danny Phantoms each having a share of the ghost powers when we used it on Danny because we accidentally used the separate side twice in a row."

"And if I might interject," Danielle came in rather strongly, holding up a hand for attention and making everyone stare. "Even if it did work, the fact that Vlad's ghost half is fused with that guy in the first place is already creepy enough. Having the real Vlad back without the social status of his human half to hold him back from doing his worst this time does not strike my interest in any way whatsoever."

No one could disagree that Danielle's view on this was very strong by the emphasis in her voice. That alone was saying something. Even before going blind, Danielle usually hardly said anything during strategy-forming conversations unless someone asked her directly. This was mostly because she always felt to be the less-experienced one who should just let the experts make the decisions, while she just helped to carry them out. Being blind may have downgraded her self-esteem for a while, but now that she had her sight back again, her confidence had grown and come back stronger than ever. Just like she herself always did.

"That's a…good…point." Tucker said, feeling a bit foolish in not thinking of it before and having been beaten to it by the girl that was three years younger than he was.

As if that wasn't enough, Sam decided to add in her own comments. "Not to mention we'd also have another, this time all ghost, emotionally distraught, if not vengeful, Danny Phantom flying around for us to deal with. I'm sure we'd be able to come up with a great cover story for the press to deal with that the way we were able to for Danielle. If the Amity Park Tribune didn't have a title about Plasmius returning with a vengeance, I can certainly see it on the front page: Danny Phantom Has a Long-Lost Brother." Sam used a motion of her hand to emphasize the imaginary title before returning to her sarcastic tone,"Heck. Let's go with evil twin."

"And some people already thought that I was the evil twin." Danielle added, saying it more to herself than anything. Sam still heard though and suddenly started to avoid eye contact, scratching the back of her head guiltily.

This exchange was ignored by the time Danny concluded this part of the conversation with, "I know I was never any good at math Tucker, but I'm pretty sure the Ghost Catcher idea is out." He said, looking at his techno geek friend with a smirk.

Tucker slouched forward, knowing he was beaten. "Fine. But then how are we supposed to beat your evil self when he now has a power that can blow stuff up with just a point of his finger?" Tucker indicated the television screen, which was now on the news again and replaying the video of Dark Phantom destroying the truck with ease. "I mean, just look at that!"

Danny looked over to where Tucker was indicating, catching the part of the video where his evil self was releasing the destructive blast. The teen continued to stare at it in thought, as if he was hoping it would give him some form of inspiration on how to solve this problem. That's when he realized that the beam Dark Phantom used didn't seem to look quite right. He having used the exact same kind of energy enough to practically memorize what it was supposed to look like, Danny saw how the beam looked less crisp and precise. Even the way the ghost had released it was wilder. Like fire. And as if it was just a random burst of overwhelming power that was just trying to work its way out.

As Danny was contemplating this, Danielle's voice came questioningly, "Hey. Is it just me, or does his hair seem a little…off?"

Tucker gave the girl a look and rolled his eyes. "You're one to talk about hair, Danielle." He said, indicating the way Danielle's bangs were always hanging over half her face. This earned him a glare from the girl before he redirected the attention to the television. "Besides. His hair's a big fireball. What's there to groom?"

Now Danielle rolled her eyes with a groan. "That's not what I'm talking about." She responded in irritation before stepping up and taking the remote from Jazz. Then, she used it to rewind the automatic recording system to the video of Dark Phantom's shooting spree. Then she paused it on the close-up shot of him. "I know I've only seen him once, but did he always have green blazes in his hair?"

Everyone squinted at what Danielle was indicating before they saw what she meant.

"Huh. I wonder when those got there." Mrs. Fenton commented as she scratched her head. She may have only seen the ghost on television, having been confined in the underground Fenton works the whole time, but she also noticed this difference her niece was pointing out. But it was barely noticeable, even if one was looking for it. She was astonished that Danielle had spotted it so soon.

"The Crown of Fire." Danny finally said.

"What?" Everyone asked in unison, not quite understanding what Danny was getting at.

"Here. Look." Danny took the remote from Danielle, rewound the recording a bit and allowed it to play the whole video. "The only way he could have released a blow as out of control as that is if he was using The Crown of Fire." Danny explained, not taking his eyes off the television monitor as he walked up to it with a determined look. "All these latest attacks he's done while Danielle and I were in Walker's jail are probably just test-runs for finding a way to contain its energy."

Mrs. Fenton cocked an eyebrow and looked over at the television screen. The remote then transferred to her own hands as she took it from Danny and rewound the recording again to pause it in the same spot Danielle had. "But I don't see him wearing it in the video." She said after observing the still image of the evil version of her son.

"I bet he fused the crown inside himself. As a tactic to channel its power more controllably." Danny went on philosophically, rubbing his chin. "He was able to do that to me with the time medallion." Suddenly, Danny caught himself in his own words and something sparked in his mind. "Wait a minute."

Everyone instantly recognized the inspired look the ghost boy always got when he had figured out something important.

"What's up, son?" Jack was the first to ask.

Danny spun to face his parents wide-eyed in realization. "The only way he could even be in this time period is if he was able to get a hold of one of Clockwork's time medallions!"

Tucker and Sam had seen and used the time medallions before so they knew what they looked like, but they glanced over at the paused image on the screen with confused expressions, the same way Mrs. Fenton had.

"But I don't see him wearing one of those either." Tucker pointed out, shrugging.

"Weren't you listening, Tucker?" Jazz said, scornfully. "Danny's theory is that his evil self took possession of one of the time medallions you and Sam had left behind after returning from the future. Then he fused it inside himself the same way he did Danny to make sure he stayed in this time period long enough to finish what he came to do here."

Danny nodded vigorously, indicating that his college-enrolled sister had indeed nailed it right on the head. "And the way he's rooted himself to this timeline is also how we can get rid of him!" Everyone stared at the Ghost hero as he paced passed the others, looking at his hands. "I've been going about this all the wrong way. All this time I've been trying to just get him back into the Fenton Thermos and return him to Clockwork." He turned to face the others again as he continued. "But if we can just take away the time medallion, he'd be zapped away from here in an instant. And once he got back to his own time, finding that he still exists, since our separate timelines don't affect each other anymore, he wouldn't even have a reason to try to come back to badger me to turn evil again."

After Danny finished, this hit everyone at once and they showed their agreement with nods of realization.

Jazz thought for a moment before she became the first to speak again. "Danny, you said the future Vlad helped you to get the time medallion out of you so you could get back to the present. How exactly did he do that?"

"He had these specialized ghost gauntlets that he originally made to separate my ghost and human halves." Danny used his hands to explain a bit better as he answered. "He used those same ones to remove the medallion." He felt it was unnecessary to add in the detail that the future Vlad's actual intention with the clawed gauntlets was to destroy him instead of help him before he was able to turn things around.

"Great." Tucker chimed in, starting to get excited that they may have finally found a good solution. "Then all we have to do is pop over to Vlad's old place, get the gauntlets and gut out the medallion in your older self to send him packing."

"But Danny, wait." Sam said, sounding as if she had just caught something they had forgotten about. "Wouldn't Vlad have made those only after you went to him after the rest of us died in that other timeline?"

This caught everyone off guard for a moment before Danny thought of a good way to answer, even if still slowly at first. "Well…Vlad was always stealing dad's ideas and adding his own stuff onto them. There's a chance he may have at least tampered into the idea before he deserted in the time of the asteroid."

Jazz decided to side with Sam in remembering something else. "But The Guys in White searched his mansion after he left. They said themselves in that last fight with them at City Hall that they got those ghost gauntlets from there. The ones they used against you? Before Danielle came back with the fire power?" Danny looked to the side in remembering this himself, but Jazz went on. "And since they were so focused on thinking about 'curing' you of your ghost half with something like a Blood Blossom injection, I think if they had found something like that among Vlad's possessions, they probably would have used them on you during that battle."

"The Guys in White were more stuck up about their abilities than Vlad was." Danny countered. Folding his arms. "Even if they did get better at fighting and catching ghosts with better equipment and practice, the actual hunting part of their job was never their strongest point.

I mean, they thought that former exchange student Gregor and/or Eliot kid was Danny Phantom just because he had white hair."

Sam made a gag gesture at Tucker, who visibly cringed at the mention of the tall and handsome phony they both had actually taken to be a cool friend before he was unmasked as the player he was.

Danny went on. "And after we moved underground, The Guys in White could never track us, even when we were literally right under their noses. And if I know Vlad: and I'm still annoyed to say that I did in the first place," he rolled his eyes on this last part, "he probably still has some secret compartments or hidden rooms in his house they probably never found. I know they couldn't find anything ghost-related even when they tore apart his castle is Wisconsin."

Tucker started snorting with barely contained laughter in remembering this before Sam nudged him hard to get him to stop. Danielle cocked an eyebrow in seeing this exchange before redirecting her attention to the current conversation, supposing she would just ask about this later and find out why Tucker found it so amusing.

Jazz put on a skeptical look that matched her brothers, and countered back on what he had just said. "Then how would they have gotten The Crown of Fire before Prince Aragon got a hold of it? I'm sure Vlad would have kept that in a safe place as well."

Danny simply shrugged off his sister's remark and argued back, "Unless he was planning to wear it as soon he was declared ruler of the earth in saving it from the asteroid. Even if just as a symbol of his total world supremacy status he thought he was about to get if he never learned to control its power."

"That does sound like Vlad." Danielle commented with a weary sigh.

After a moment of silence, and after the parents had been just standing by for most of this conversation, Mrs. Fenton stepped in. "Danny, I know you said that the Observants had him under watch the last time you went to see him, but do you think perhaps Clockwork could tell us if going to look for the gauntlets would be worthwhile?"

Sam intervened, answering for Danny. "Even if the Observants have come to see reason, would he?" She then turned to the ghost boy directly. "From what you've told us after our first meeting with Clockwork, he never gave any straight answers with how to solve problems with the future."

This was true and Danny shrugged his agreement, but then he said, "There were several times he never had to in order for us to know what to do to make a difference. And there's only one way of finding out with this case." After everyone was unanimous in the agreement that a try was worth more than doing nothing, Danny turned to address everyone at once. "I guess the best place to start would be researching all the locations Vlad may have likely installed a secret vault."

Jazz beamed at the thought of research. Especially when it was something she knew might be useful in the future. Reading and increasing her knowledge was one of her favorite pastimes. She and Sam (who was also into reading about interesting subjects) both looked at each other, nodding. Jack and Maddie also gave each other knowing grins, knowing that they could also help with this, as they had known Vlad since college, even if not about the alternative persona and motives until later.

Danny then turned to his friend, Tucker. "Tuck, do you think you can compile all the most likely places to find those gauntlets into a database?"

"Way ahead of you, D." Tucker said with a broad grin, looking proud to finally be able to take part in helping the ghost fighting team again in the way he loved best. Just like old times.

"Don't forget City Hall." Danny concluded, grinning after seeing the proud look on the techno-geek's face in being given this assignment. "Once we get back, we'll go and investigate those sites."

"Once we get back?" Danielle caught and repeated what her cousin had just said.

Danny smiled at her as he transformed to his Phantom form. "You wanna come with me to see the Master of Time? See if he can really give us any words of wisdom on this issue?"

Danielle blinked in disbelief. So did everyone else. "Wait. You're asking me to come along?"

Danny's eyes shifted around sarcastically and his smile broadened. "Unless, in the unlikely event I was talking to myself, do you see anyone else I could be talking to that goes by the name of Dani?"

It was Danielle's turn to grin as she looked back at the others who were doing the same in realizing that Danny was openly asking for her to accompany him outside the house instead of strongly recommending she stay hidden like he had been telling everyone for nearly a month.

"If you insist." Danielle said, transforming to her own ghostly form. Then, she followed Danny to the Specter Speeder, which was parked just by the currently sealed door of the portal. While everyone else split to start taking their own assigned phases of the plan into action.

Danny usually preferred his own maneuvering capabilities as a lone, flying ghost over the use of a bulky and very noticeable exploration craft, but with Walker and his army probably still out looking for him and Danielle, they both would have to move more slowly and cautiously anyway to get anywhere in the Ghost Zone. At least with the Specter Speeder, even as ghosts, the hybrid cousins could be invisible with the cloaking mechanism and not have to worry about being seen, so they could move faster.

"Be careful you two." Danny's mother called to her youngest children as Danielle stepped through the hatch of the Specter Speeder and Danny opened the Fenton Ghost Portal.

"We don't want to have to send the Boo-merang after you again."

Danny rolled his eyes with a sigh as he got into the Specter Speeder and took the wheel as Danielle giggled, being seated in the copilot seat beside him.

That was before Jack walked up to the hatch that was still open, calling into the cog-pit, saying, "And just to make sure you remember to not take too long this time, kids, the Boo-merang probably won't be fixed by then either. No matter how long it takes. Danny." He added the last part in a scolding and yet still mischievous tone, specifically to his son.

Danny slumped in his seat in irritation. "I get it. I get it." He said impatiently, remembering clearly the last time the Boo-merang nearly caved in his skull.

After closing the hatch of the Specter Speeder and his father had stepped back to give the craft some space, Danny pushed forward on the controls and he and his cousin reentered the Ghost Zone for the second time in just a few hours. This time with a solid plan and set goal in mind.

Okay. So a new plan has been set in motion that involves the help of the whole gang this time. I hope you've enjoyed this latest installment. I'm now out of school and have already started the rough draft of the next chapter, so it shouldn't take nearly as long to post chapter 29.

Thank you to all on the web who have continued to read this story and give your opinions and support in your reviews. It's greatly appreciated, uplifting and the most motivating for me to finish this story. Hope you'll continue to be patient and enthusiastic to know more as I work to update again.