"You. Did. WHAT?!" Jazz almost yelled at him and Danny winced.

"Come on, Jazz, I keep telling you, the Ghost Zone isn't so bad."

"You locked yourself outside of our dimension, Danny!"

"It isn't the first time."

Jazz, who stood in front of him, folded her arms, unimpressed. He could tell she was restraining herself. "And for what reason, again?"

"Um... books on the Ghost Zone, its history and laws," Danny said, holding them in front of him like a peace offering. He'd come directly to her room after Clockwork had dropped him off.

His sister quirked an eyebrow, trying not to look eager to begin reading and failing rather spectacularly. After a moment, she shook her head, forcing her expression to return to upset.

"Danny, you can't just impulsively do things like that!"

"Well, it was one of the few times I'd be able to meet Technus on fairly neutral turf, but Dad would have freaked out if the portal had been open and his son was missing."

Jazz put a hand to the bridge of her nose as she took several deep breaths. "There are so many things wrong with that statement that I don't know where to start."

"Jazz, it's the Ghost Zone. It's honestly as much a home to me as Amity Park is," he pointed out.

His sister just stared at him, looking sad. "I don't like hearing you talk about how you aren't human. That isn't true."

Danny shook his head. "It is, Jazz. I'm not entirely human anymore, and that's okay. You were the one who helped me reach that conclusion. I'm part ghost now, and that means I'll be different than I was before. I'll have different instincts and different norms. I need to embrace my ghost side just as much as my human side. Ignoring any side of your psyche can be dangerous... and trust me, I can't afford to slip and let something happen."

Her expression looked pained now. "But... you're my brother."

The half-ghost just raised an eyebrow sympathetically, but pointedly. This was a very large, unexpected change in her life too. He couldn't expect her to just accept it all at the drop of a hat. It had taken her a while in his previous life too, and as much as he wanted his far more mature, older sister back, he couldn't just reach into the future and drag her back here with him. He knew he'd have to be just as patient with the Jazz of today as she'd initially been with him.

"Does me being a ghost change that?" he asked.

The red-head sighed and sat next to him on her bed. "No."

"It's just not something you've prepared to deal with," Danny said, knowingly.

Jazz shot him a watery smile. "How is someone supposed to deal with their little brother dying and then coming back as a sort of super hero who isn't entirely human anymore?"

Danny smiled softly. "As best you can. And if anyone can, it's you."

Jazz snorted, half amused, half something Danny couldn't quite read.

"I don't know if I'll ever be comfortable with you just heading off into the Ghost Zone."

"Fair enough, but that is why I sent you a text."

She sighed. "Thank you for that, Danny. I do appreciate it. Just... be careful, okay? You're not the only one who wants to protect the people they care about."

He didn't know if she knew how much that meant to him.

"Thanks, Jazz."

"Always, little brother," she said, putting her arm around his shoulder. His true fourteen-year-old self would have freaked out and gotten out of the uncomfortable situation. Fortunately, he had 30 years worth of memories behind him at this point, and so he firmly told his fourteen-year-old brain to shut up as he leaned against his sister contentedly.

xXx

Danny raced down the halls of his school, dodging the blasts coming at him from the ectopi... again. He didn't remember fighting them again so soon, but apparently something he'd done had caused them to come back to, quite literally, haunt him. He couldn't change into a ghost, right now (too many people watching), so he ran down the hall towards the nearest bathroom.

Actually, what he needed most at this point, was a distraction. He could go into a bathroom, but there was no guarantee it would be empty right now... during lunch... on a Wednesday.

Why hadn't things stuck to the original plan?

He also didn't want to pull out his thermos as doing so would just emphasize the similarities between him and Danny Phantom. So he was stuck, running. Fortunately, the ghosts weren't smart enough to phase through corners and he'd gotten a decent lead. He just had one more junction to maneuver and there would be a restroom.

Right then, he turned the corner and ran almost directly into a trio of girls: Star, Paulina and...

"Valerie!" he said with a big grin, already digging into his pockets and pulling out a prototype his parents had given him a couple of days before. It was merely some finger-less gloves treated with some anti-ecto substance (part of their hope to help him 'escape the ghostly influence obviously on him'). He tossed those at her and she caught them reflexively.

"Punch the next thing that comes around the corner with those! Thanks!" he yelled to her as he ran past.

"Wait... Fenton, what?" he heard her ask. Then a shriek of three voices as he dodged into the bathroom (which was, thankfully, empty after all). He quickly switched forms and flew back into the hall where two of the more popular girls stood, staring at their friend who had her fist, still holding the anti-ecto gloves, held straight out. In front of them, the two ectopi had drifted away, looking dazed. Well, it seemed she had punched them out after all. Sweet.

"Sick," he said through a grin as he flew past them, thermos in hand. He quickly dragged the two ectopi into it and slid the cap on, smiling. The three girls stared at him, open mouthed, and they weren't the only ones.

Of course, that's when Valerie spoke up. "Who are you and what the heck was that?!"

It was kind of strange to hear her use such clean language.

He rubbed the back of his head a bit. "Oh, um, hi. I'm... well, you can call me Phantom. I'm... a ghost?"

Paulina took a step back, Star squeaked and Valerie just blinked at him in shock. The only one that seemed even remotely normal to him was Star. It was also a little strange to see the three of them together, now that he thought about it.

"I'm a friendly ghost, though! I promise! I'm... um... here to protect the school." Yeah, that sounded convincing.

Valerie, Star and Paulina all exchanged glances. Then Valerie spoke up again. "Ghosts don't exist."

At that, Danny couldn't help but smile. "Then you never saw me. Tell the ghost-hunter's boy that I appreciate the distraction." He pointed to Valerie's hand, still extended and still gripping the anti-ecto glove tightly. "Looks like you'd make a decent ghost-hunter yourself. Later."

With that, he went invisible. The girls gasped, and this time, Star fainted. Danny felt a little bad for that, but didn't really know what to do about it as he flew away.

"Alright, guys," he said to the thermos as he became visible above the school, "that's an hour. Next time it will be two, and the time after that three... capiche?"

Unsurprisingly, he didn't get a response.

xXx

Vlad Masters (aka Vlad Plasmius) didn't often get unannounced visitors... mainly because it had

gotten around after he'd built his own ghost portal that unannounced guests tended to disappear. So when he heard the alarm that someone had, for all intents and purposes, knocked on his portal door, he was understandably both annoyed and curious, especially seeing as he'd found it difficult to set up a permanent camera on the other side of the portal, so he couldn't see who it was.

Unwilling to take any chances, he paused in his work, shifted to his ghost form and sank through the floor, floating down several stories and ending up in his secret basement lab. Putting on his disapproving scowl, he opened the portal.

On the other side floated a boy. How... anti-climactic.

"What do you want?" he asked, allowing his annoyance to show.

"Oh, you are here! Great!" the boy smiled a huge grin of pure sunshine. Vlad could already practically smell the naivety coming off of the boy. "I'm actually here for a couple of reasons. First, the Box Ghost is looking for a specific box... but he can't remember exactly what was in that box. So, have you happened to come across any unusual boxes?"

Vlad couldn't help it if his expression could have dried up the great lakes. "No."

"Darn it," the boy said. "Eh, I knew it was a long shot. Would you mind keeping an eye out for something unusual but not necessarily ghostly?"

"What else do you want?" Vlad asked, trying to plod the boy along.

"Well, my name's Danny Phantom," the boy said as he held out his hand for Vlad to shake.

That honestly took the older ghost back a bit. "Wait, from Amity Park? The new one who is using his powers for good?"

"Yup, that's me."

"How quaint." He meant it just as derisively as it sounded, and thus was a little surprised when the boy chuckled.

"I thought you might say that," he said. Then his grin returned with just enough of a sharp edge to throw Vlad off. "I was wondering if you'd be up for a game of chess." The boy brought out his other hand from behind his back. On it balanced a round container holding chess pieces and a folded-up board. It was obviously extremely cheap. And yet...

"Why should I want to play you?" the older ghost asked.

"Mainly because appearances are deceiving. I was told you're good... and I want to see exactly how good. Let's just say I don't believe the rumors."

This conversation was getting more and more interesting...

"What rumors?"

"That you have it all," Phantom said nonchalantly. "The brains, the power, the will to use them... that no one can beat you... you know, the usual."

"And you don't believe them?" Vlad asked, unable to hide his amusement.

The boy snorted. "No one's lucky enough to get brawn and the brains to completely use them."

Now that was intriguing. Was the boy baiting him, or did he really believe that? Vlad guessed the former, but that was so at odds with his previous sunny disposition that he simply had to take the bait.

"I suppose I have time for one game."

The sunshine smile was back. "Excellent!"

xXx

The boy was good... but not good enough.

"Checkmate" Vlad said with a smile as he moved his queen into position.

"Yeah," the boy sighed, ruffling his white hair before knocking over his king. "I didn't really see a way out of that one."

"That was an amusing game," the blue-skinned ghost replied, sitting back in his chair smugly.

"Eh, for you perhaps," Phantom muttered.

"Oh, don't be so hard on yourself," Vlad encouraged, not bothering to hide his condescension "You're a pretty young ghost. You'll have time to work on it."

The boy snorted again. "You're definitely as arrogant as they say."

Normally, that would have incensed the half-ghost, but his mood had improved immensely since he'd started the chess game. The boy was even an amusing conversationalist. "It comes with the territory of being the best."

"And yet you don't have everything you want."

Vlad froze, staring at the boy who was studying him right back. "You work tirelessly for something that you know you cannot buy... I wonder what it is."

And there went Vlad's good mood for the day. "What a rude question. Hasn't anyone told you not to ask ghosts about their obsession?"

"I wasn't asking," the boy said with a dismissive wave of his hand, sounding almost as condescending as Vlad had just a few seconds ago. "I was merely speculating."

"That still tends to be a social faux pas among ghosts."

"I see," Phantom said thoughtfully, cocking his head to one side. "I'm curious: how do ghosts ever fulfill their obsession if they never address it?"

Vlad frowned and stood. "I think that's enough for one day."

"Alright!" Phantom smiled and began to gather the pieces. "If you see that box, I'd appreciate you letting me know."

"It could literally be any box," the older ghost pointed out, one eyebrow raised in question.

The white-haired ghost shrugged. "You're not wrong. But I'd appreciate it anyway. Oh, and one more thing," he stood and his grin widened. "I'm sure you've heard I'm living... er... existing? After-living? Hmm... Oh, taking up residence in Amity Park. I'm claiming it as my haunt. Anyone and anything within the city and the surrounding areas is now under my protection, K? I was told to spread it around and let people know so they don't think they can come barging in. But you wouldn't do that, I'm sure.

"Anyway, bye, Plasmius! Thanks for the game." And with that, the boy flew back through the portal.

Vlad stared after him for several seconds. Amity Park... that oaf Jack and Madaline... And now Vlad couldn't approach either one of them without potentially going against the Ghost Council. Not that he didn't think it would be extremely hard to take them, but still...

Had the boy known somehow? Had he sought Vlad out?

The half-ghost thought back to the game they'd just played and frowned. No, the boy's strategies showed experience and intelligence, but not the underhanded cunning that would be needed for something like that.

Unless... the boy had been holding back and throwing Vlad off with that blinding smile of his...

He shook his head. Nah. One could only take conspiracy theories so far before they became ridiculous.

"Very well, boy," he said aloud. "Warning acknowledged. Now let's see if you can back it up."

xXx

"And that's a wrap!"

The studio burst into a relative cacophony of sound as they finished shooting the news for that day. Tiffany Snow, shot her co-anchor a smile as they gathered up their papers.

"Great job," she said.

"Not as great as you," he countered, as he always did. At first, that had made her a little uncomfortable. Now, she just brushed it off with an eye roll and a fond shake of her head before turning to go back to her office.

She smiled and nodded to people as she passed them. She didn't even know most of their names, but she was the happy-go-lucky news anchor, and she had to play the part.

Couldn't most actresses, when they turned off the camera, at least take the mask off?

She waited until the door to her private room was closed before she slumped against it, massaging her cheeks. Then she reached down and took her pumps off. At least it was the end of the day. She just had a couple more things to do before she could head home and turn on Lost.

"Um... did I come at a bad time?" A voice asked.

She jumped and shrieked. There hadn't been anyone in there before! She' would have seen them! Just what...

She whipped around and her mind went blank, because there, before her, floated a boy with white hair and green eyes, dressed in a black suit of some kind. She just sat there for several seconds, mouth opening and closing like a fish. What could she say to this utterly impossible image?

"Um... hi? I'm Danny Phantom." He held out his hand. She didn't react. He slowly retracted his hand and it went to his other arm, rubbing it self-consciously. "I'm a ghost?"

That's what pushed it over the edge. She finally let out a tired sigh and put a hand to the bridge of her nose.

"Nice one, Carlos. You got me good. Great job with the effects, they look almost real. Ha, ha. You can turn it off now."

The boy didn't disappear. "Um... I'm not an illusion." He said it slowly, as if trying to make sure a skittish animal wouldn't bolt. He reached down and picked up a couple of things off of her desk. Her foundation bottle and some pens.

"Okay, I'm impressed," she said. Because this had to be an illusion of some kind.

He sighed and then brought the bottle over to her and held it out for her to take. She raised an eyebrow and didn't move to accept it. He sighed again and dropped it on the rug. It bounced a little, thankfully didn't break, and just kind of sat there.

"Wires?" she asked, hoping she sounded a lot firmer than she felt. She'd always hated haunted houses. "Or Magnets?"

Looking frustrated, the boy shot forward and grabbed her hand before she could move away. It felt cold. And the material was smooth...

She felt the color drain from her face as the boy spoke again. "I'm real. I'm not a hologram or special effect. I'm also not here to hurt you. I... didn't really know who else to go to. I thought about going to Lance Thunder –"

"The weatherman?" she cut in, noting in a sort of panic-induced shock that she was getting more hysterical by the moment.

"Yeah. He's also a stand-by on-the-spot anchorman, isn't he?"

"In-field reporter," she corrected numbly.

He nodded. "Exactly." She still wasn't sure what that had to do with anything. "Thing is, I think people will listen to you more."

She let out a small half-squeak, half-chuckle that really said more about the state of her mind than it did abut the actual situation at hand.

"You see," the boy continued, finally dropping her hand, "recent circumstances have led this area of the world to be far more accessible to ghosts. Normally we reside in the Ghost Zone, more or less a dimension connected to and directly reliant upon this one. However, the barrier between here and the Ghost Zone had gotten particularly thin, recently, and ghosts are likely to start showing up far more often."

Could anyone blame her if she whimpered a little. She'd tried to keep her fear of the supernatural hidden. It wasn't like she wanted that knowledge out there for everyone to attack at their leisure. That didn't mean she could just ignore it when it jumped into her face like this.

"I want you to report on it, if you can."

She let out an actual laugh (still slightly hysterical) at that.

"You want me to report that there will be ghosts in Amity Park? Do you want me to lose my job as well as my mind?"

He frowned. "You haven't lost your mind."

She snorted at that, somehow unable to hide her hysterics.

"Look, ghosts will be showing up on a more frequent basis, but I'm going to do my best to stop them. When this comes out, could you please try and see it that way at least?"

"I'm not the only one who makes decisions on how things are presented." She didn't even try and put up the front of non-bias that they were supposed to try and stick to.

He sighed again. He did that a lot. Which kind of freaked her out. Ghosts weren't supposed to breathe, let alone sigh!

"Can you at least point me to a decent publicist?"

It took her a minute for her to process that. When she finally did, she walked over to the desk, almost as if on auto-pilot, and opened the top drawer. There were several business cards in there, neatly organized. She found the area on publicists, grabbed a couple of them, then turned around and held them out.

The kid took them. Tiffany tried not to faint.

"Thanks," he finally said, looking through the cards. "How much can I expect to spend on this?"

She shrugged (at least she thought she did). "Depends on what you want done. Could be anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand a month."

He winced and then sighed. "Right," he said. "Well, thanks. Um..." he looked her up and down uncomfortably. "Will you be alright? You... don't look so good."

"I'll be fine," she assured him, ignoring how her voice came out far squeakier than normal.

He shot her one last dubious look, then floated towards the ceiling. "Well, thanks," he repeated before he flew through the wall.

Right about then, her legs gave out on her and she fell to her knees. It took her a minute to realize that the makeup bottle was on the rug just a couple of feet in front of her. Shakily, she reached out and grabbed the familiar, cool and very real bottle.

She didn't know how long she sat there before a knock came to her door. It took her several seconds to respond. When she did, the person on the other side, an aid, peeked their head in, saw her kneeling on her carpet and frowned.

"Are you alright?"

No. No, she wasn't.

But she couldn't let them know that.

"I just dropped something," she said, forcing herself to stand and ignoring how unsteady she felt.

"Oh," they responded skeptically. "Well Mr. Turner wants to know if you've finished with the notes for the late-night broadcast."

"Right," Tiffany said. "I was just finishing them. I'll have them ready to go in a couple of minutes."

The aid nodded, bid farewell and left. Tiffany took a deep breath and turned to her desk. Ghosts or not, she had a job to finish, after all.

She'd think on the implications of everything later. If she had her way, much later.

xXx

Danny couldn't help but be frustrated with just how difficult it seemed to be to get someone on his side. If anyone actually believed ghosts existed, they automatically thought they were evil and wouldn't give him a chance. The whole situation was biased – racist even – from the get go. No one should just decide someone is or isn't evil because of how they were born/made. Ugh.

He walked down the school hallways alone, moody and angry. Thankfully, few other students were around to bother him.

Of course, that's when he looked up and saw Sam coming towards him with the box filled with mechanical frogs and blinked. Oh, right... he remembered those. Tucker was approaching too and Danny had to let out a sigh. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. While Sam explained her ideas of treating frogs humanely to Tucker, Danny felt his ghost sense go off.

"I am the Box Ghost!"

Oh, the irony. Talk about staying the same. Danny turned to the ghost and crossed his arms.

"BG," he said firmly, "I thought we'd discussed this."

"No one else is near!"

Danny sighed. He had a point there at least. Still. "I just gave you an update."

"I wish to help!"

"Well," Danny countered, "have you been looking in the Ghost Zone again?"

"I have!"

"Nothing?"

"Nooooo!"

Danny sighed. "I've been asking around too. I asked Ghostwriter and Plasmius. I wanted to ask Walker, but figured now isn't a good time, so there's that possibility, and—"

"Wait," the Box Ghost said in a thankfully normal (if incredulous) voice. "You actually asked Vlad Plasmius about my box? That's insane!"

The half-ghost shrugged. "I got in and out without being harmed, delivered every message I needed him to hear and we actually had an amusing discussion over a game of chess. I don't see what the big deal is."

Box Ghost just stared at him. Then he leaned back suspiciously. "Who are you really? Because no new ghost could do that."

The white-haired boy rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. It's just a matter of using my head. Get him interested, then give him exactly what he's expecting with a little spice to keep that interest."

"That... sounds dangerous."

Danny conceded with a shrug and nod of his head. "Yeah, but it's also my life and choice. Anyway, there's your update. Now, how do you think you'll be able to help us go through records?"

"Do you not need more people to go through all of these records of death?!"

And they were back to the eye-roll-inducing voice. Joy. "We'll think about it. But until we can get something worked out, for your safety and everyone else's, I need you to go back to the Ghost Zone. I hope that will be able to change soon, but it's a work in progress."

The Box Ghost stared at him again like he'd grown another head. He checked. Nope, just one. Okay then. After a couple of seconds, the ghost raised his hands and shouted, "Very well! Beware!" And vanished.

Sighing, he turned to see Tucker and Sam staring at him much like the Box Ghost had. He checked again. No extra head. Or limbs. Which was good, he hadn't been trying to duplicate.

"What?" he asked.

His friends exchanged looks. Then Sam put her box down and folded her arms, mimicking the stance Tucker had taken.

"Ghostwriter? Plasmius?" Tucker asked, his voice hard. "Who are they?"

Sam glared. "What exactly is going on?"

Danny sighed.

xXx

Unbeta'd. Haven't heard from my beta in a while. SO, with that in mind, looks like I'll be looking for a new one. Anyone want to volunteer?

Yup, I brought Vlad in early. :)