As promised on Monday, the new chapter of Gone Ghost, at last

Somewhat related, this hit 500 favorites in the middle of the week. So I'll take that as a sign.

Anyway, here we go, heads up, this fight might get a bit anime.


Danny POV…

Danny was currently experiencing the worst headache of his afterlife.

This was a feat unto itself because he was pretty sure all his faculties came from his core and therefore were in his torso and not his actual head. So this was just something else about his existence to be confused about.

He just added it to the list alongside ghost robots and floating doorways that lead to smaller alternate dimensions.

Regardless of the actual physical ability to get a headache he wasn't quite sure what was causing it, his recent mind control experience (ugh gross) or the fact that all of his friends, living and dead were now in one place. Mixed between being glad he was alright, mad at him for trying something stupid and angry at eachother just on princicple.

Then again the headache he had while fighting the mind control had vanished when the staff broke so maybe it was just the friends.

"Oh yes, I'm sure the "ghost hunter" wants to make sure a ghost is alright." Ember's typical sarcasm shined through.

"He's our friend too!" Tucker shot back angrily, Sam beside him with her arms crossed.

"Was your friend, past tense, he's dead now in case you didn't notice."

Sam flinched. "Yeah thanks for bringing that up."

"Enough." Jazz, thankfully being the voice of reason cut in. "Look we got Danny back, speaking of which." She, (and everyone else) turned their attention to him. "What were you thinking?"

"Uuhh…" Danny eloquently started wracking his mind for a good answer. "At which point?"

"The part when I told you to be careful going after a ghostly serial killer and then somehow ended up being mind controlled by an evil mime."

"Oh." Danny responded, choosing pointedly to ignore the guy he very much wanted to beat into a pulp for the next few days as payback. "That."

Truth be told, if it weren't for his aforementioned headache, he would probably be incredibly pissed off right now. He had his free will robbed from him, by a clown of all things. This clown then used him to commit crimes which was probably going to go over great with the town's local ghost hunters. At least he got to put the jerk in a miniature glacier.

On to the matter at hand though.

"To be fair." he started and he saw Ember and Bones roll their eyes at that start. "How was I supposed to know about the mind control staff thing?"

"Actually yeah, how did that happen?" Youngblood asked, thankfully the kid ghost had taken off his blindfold so he was facing the correct way now. "You were fighting Ripper, how'd you end up at a circus?"

"Right, well I found him and we started fighting." Danny did his best to ignore the pounding in his debatably non-existent skull as he continued. "I thought I had him at first then he grew back an arm and made me stare at a TV that had this jerk's." He jabbed a thumb towards the clownsicle. "Staff on it and I think you know the rest."

"Surprisingly straightforward." The parrot muttered.

"So TV does make you do bad things?" Youngblood asked, sometimes Danny couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"Where did you come up with that?" Tucker asked confused. Danny couldn't help himself from staring at his old friend. How long had it been? Only what? Half a year or so? It felt like longer. How the heck do you even start a conversation after all this? 'Hey sorry I nearly killed you that one time, but I couldn't remember who you were at the time. Also I can only kind of remember you now?' Yes, he was sure that would go over well.

Deciding to ignore that inevitable confrontation for now he cut in before another argument could start. "Okay, the Ripper is still out there somewhere, likely killing people and we should probably stop him before he kills anyone else."

"Ignoring the fact he's been here for months already." Bone's comment was ignored.

"We actually thought of that as soon as we came through." Ember announced, catching his attention.

"Wait really?" Danny's puzzlement was evident, "What did you do?"

"We went on a bit of a recruitment drive. There are a few ghosts out there who want to take a stab at the Ripper for their own purposes."

That… made a significant amount of sense. To be honest Danny probably should have thought of it himself. The reason he'd gone after the apparent ghost of Jack the Ripper by himself was because he didn't want his friends involved, since they were involved anyway, at least they had some help.

"Who'd you get?" he asked, hopefully they had some big names or at least powerhouses.

"Johnny and Kitty, we managed to convince them to come along." Youngblood started.

"There was also this ghost called Rebreather who claims he has beef with the nutcase." Ember continued, "Bullet has a grudge from way back when so we got him too."

"Wait, you got Bullet?" Danny cut in, "And Walker is okay with this?"

"Well we didn't ask him."

"That's fair, who else?"

"Frank, the pumpkin guy?"

"Who?" Danny thought for a moment before realization hit him. "Oh right, Halloween guy, forgot about him."

"Yeah, heads up we gotta spend next Halloween helping him steal candy or something. We do get to keep some for ourselves though." Youngblood elaborated.

"Good to know, we'll deal with it when we get there." He decided to avoid suggesting if they got there. Probably for the best right now.

"This is all good and all but do we have a plan for beating him? Also what the heck was that thing you did when you broke the control?" Sam made herself known and Danny forced himself to meet her eyes.

She looked different than what he could remember. She had been tough before but now there seemed to be a hardness in his expression he couldn't place. He didn't need to imagine too hard to figure out where it came from. He thought a general conversation with his friends was going to be hard, how does he start one with Sam? Apologize for dying in her arms that one time?

Forcing aside his personal thoughts he focused on the questions she'd asked, those were simpler. "We need to find him first, and I was planning on going the opposite route of what Walker did, which is going to be hard. Walker caught him by feeding his obsession so much he bloated, like after you fill yourself up on a big dinner and don't want to do anything. We're going to have to do the opposite and keep him from killing anyone while we fight him."

"Hasn't he already been filling up though?" Tucker pointed out. "I mean, I assume it's him that's been causing the disappearances around town? How do we starve him if he's already juiced?"

"How much do you know about how ghosts work in the real world?" Ember asked the tech geek.

"Starting to think way less than I should given what I get up to."

"We expend our power just to stay here, the more power we use the weaker we get. You can offset it by feeding your obsession but it's much better to just hop back into the Ghost Zone and wait for a while. We have to get him to waste power fighting us, without letting him kill us." Danny explained, thinking back to his previous encounter with them where he'd screwed himself up in more way than one. Using nearly all his power with barely feeding it, going against his obsession on some level and also getting a spike of his previous memories.

He had gotten a sword out if it at least, speaking of he'd need a new one soon.

Better to hold off on it, he was actually feeling a bit weaker now, he'd definitely stuck around Earth for way too long. He'd better get saving people quick.

"Anyway yeah that's the plan." He noticed both Sam and Tucker share a glance and then look at Jazz quickly who mouthed something he didn't quite catch. Something else to worry about later. Great.

"What about the other thing? How did you break the control and make all our heads hurt?"

The Phantom blinked. "I did what?"

"Yeah like, suddenly all I wanted to do was curl up and hide. It was freaky, it stopped after a second though." Youngblood confirmed.

"I… actually have no idea." Danny admitted trying to think of something that lined up with that. All he could remember was being so angry and just wanting everything to stop.

So what had he actually done?

He was coming out of this conversation with just more questions and problems. Unfortunately he'd have to put them to the side for now.

"Alright I have no idea what that was, and we still have a goal," he looked at the humans. "I don't think telling you to go home because this is too dangerous is going to work, is it?" He remained slightly optimistic.

"Nope." It was immediately dashed with a single syllable.

"In that case we better get started searching who knows wh-" A cackling filled the air capturing the attention of the group.

"Here I find the group most fair, we've found the foe at last, beware!" Frank rhymed overhead circling around them before heading back towards the city, at a much slower pace.

"Well that's taken care of, we better hurry though." Danny confirmed clapping his hands and jumping into the air. "You guys have a way to move quickly?"

"Beyond legs?" Sam's sarcasm hadn't lost its touch. "We took the hover scooters, we'll be right behind you."

"Are you sure we can trust these guys not to shoot at us?" Youngblood asked Danny, very much in earshot of the humans. "I mean Jazz is alright but the other two seem a bit trigger happy."

"I think we can all agree to focus on the bigger threat for now." Jazz decided, getting to get nods of confirmation from the other two humans. The Fenton paused, glancing at the frozen Freakshow and slightly stirring Lydia whom she whacked with her staff for good measure. "What do we do with these two?"

"There were other ghosts mind controlled against their wills, I'm sure they'll have more than a few words for our old "master"." Danny spat the word with venom.

The answer was accepted and the group followed after Frank.

They had a ghost to catch.


Downtown Amity Park…

Danny could hear the fighting before he saw it. That never boded well when it came to a battle.

Bracing himself, he slipped into invisibility and took the lead, going ahead of Frank and towards the source the violent sounds.

The street looked like a warzone, well a supernatural warzone at least.

Glowing red knives were embedded across the cracked and torn up street. Pieces of pavement looked like they were ripped from the ground and used as projectiles. Cars seemed to have served a similar purpose as several were rammed into nearby buildings, some still smoking while others cold and falling apart. Craters dotted nearly every service adding to the overall effect.

It was chaos just to look at, to say nothing of the participants still fighting.

Kitty was down, well not "down" she was just hiding behind a tipped over van looking furious. Not too surprising considering she didn't have too many advanced combat abilities other than her banishing kiss and normal ghost blasts and durability, and if the staff didn't work on the Ripper then it made sense that wouldn't either.

Johnny and Shadow were circling occasionally Shadow would lurch out to make an attack before being sliced and drawing back to Johnny, notably the shadow form was smaller than Danny last remembered seeing, that already boded poorly for how the fighting was going.

Bullet and some deep sea looking ghost (probably Rebreather) were still trying to fight the serial killer's ghost more directly. Bullet was somewhat surprising considering Danny would have pegged him around Kitty's level of fighting power but it looked like he'd brought some tools from Walker. He had some sort of metal device that shot rays that glowed brighter than normal ectoblasts and it seemed the ghost held his namesakes speed from the way he darted away from the flying knives and slashes.

Rebreather was using some barnacle covered chains that ended in hooks to make swings at the Ripper. He occasionally drew back the chain, firing a suppressing fire of glowing hook attacks from his arm. Danny watched with some intrigue as the sea ghost used his chain to hook a car and with a spin hurled it towards his opponent.

Despite what was being thrown at him the target of the aggression just kept laughing madly dodging the blasts from bullet, using floating knives to take swipes at Shadow to keep him at bay and when the car came hurling towards him he brought his hands together along with the knives and brought them down with a swipe that split the vehicle in two. The two halves collided with the street in a painful screech of metal and sparks.

Well, Danny had the element of surprise at least.

Reaching into the cold in his core he started to form a rod, preparing to remake his sword but paused, having seconds thoughts, remembering how little the sword had done before. Instead he chose a different shape, expending the rod and focusing a large block on one end. He hopped behind a nearby building as the others began to arrive. Dropping his invisibility for a moment to make sure he did the job right he nodded and leaped out, once again fading from sight.

He zipped into the fray, barely dodging the flying, spinning blades as they danced in rings around their master.

Feeling rightfully cheeky, he pulled his arms back as he moved, perching the shaft of his new weapon behind his shoulders and allowed himself to reappear.

"HEY SHAKESPEARE! REMEMBER ME?" With a swing he diverted his propulsion into his attack and the frozen hammer smashed itself into the dead man's head sending him hurling across the street and through the wall of a storefront. From the following crashes, not just the store front either.

Many of the knives around them faded from view and Danny took the few moments of breathing to check in on the group fighting.

"Kitty! You okay?" The girl ghost got out of her hiding spot behind the car.

"Fine!" She called back, sounding incredibly annoyed. "But my blasts are doing shit and that jerk." She jabbed a thumb at Bullet. "Won't share his toys that do."

"That's against the rules punkette." The tough looking ghost quoted his boss.

"Bite me!" Kitty shot back glaring.

By now the others had arrived and Danny turned his attention to them. "Jazz did you guys bring any extra weapons you can spare Kitty?"

"Uh, hang on I might have something." She dug through a duffel bag of ghost weaponry before pulling out a wrist ray and tossing it to the ghost. "Here, it may not look like much but it hits hard."

Kitty wrapped it around her wrist and practiced taking aim. "Hmm, good enough, better than nothing at least, I hate feeling completely useless."

Johnny rode his bike down, looking relieved at the momentary lapse in combat. "It's about time you got here Phantom. Where the heck have you been anyway?"

"Under the control of evil mime, tell you later. How are you holding up?" Danny checked on his kind of friend.

"I've been better." he grabbed his left shoulder and flexed his arm a bit and Danny hid his wince at the dripping ectoplasm. "I've been letting myself heal the worst of it but I've let the small ones go so I can focus on dodging and attacking more. I've still got some fight left in me though and I want off Walkers shit list as much as you so I'm not going anywhere."

"Bullet, think you can charge up a big shot to hit him as soon as he comes out of that hole? We all blast him at once we might be able to do some damage." Danny directed towards the warden's representative.

"And who put you in charge." The bigger ghost glared down.

Phantom, having no patience for the ghosts bull right now, glared as he felt his core pulse under the service. "I did."

He blinked as he realized everyone had taken a step back, some reaching for the heads again and he groaned. "Oh not again, what even is that?"

Bullet, however, looked shocked, and more than a little horrified, "Was that… that was haunting aura!"

"Haunting what?" Tucker asked looking lost and Danny couldn't blame him, it sounded vaguely familiar though.

"HOW!?" Bullet's momentary fear was gone as he grasped Danny's collar and pulled him up. "How have you manifested that! You're not even a year old! You're not a concept or idea, so how are you this powerful so fast?"

"I would tell you if I knew, but I'm guessing that more power is a good thing right now." Danny asked, prying the fingers from his shirt and dropping back to the ground.

The other ghost looked like he was about to respond but Ember cut in. "Guys cut the chit chat and get ready we have movement!"

Sure enough a wave of red knives surged out of the hole in the wall and Danny and Youngblood quickly moved to form a shield around the group. Some of the weapons shattered against the barrier while others managed to embed themselves in it.

The barrage soon began to fade and standing in the hole, his damaged head slowly knitting itself back together was the monster himself. Glaring at the group he point.

"Urchin!" Didn' I git rid'a you?" The Ripper walked forward pausing to pick up his hat from where it had fallen after Danny's attack.

"Shoulda tried harder." Danny shot back.

"I plan ta, you git." New weapons formed in his hands as he leaped forwards.

"BLAST HIM!" Danny roared and the group unloaded their payloads into the leaping ghost. For a moment the world was a mix of color, green, red, and blue light surged forward into the attacking ghost. A healthy mix of cannonballs and giant hooks added to the serving size of kickass they unleashed.

This lasted for mere seconds before new knives appeared to the sides and lurched towards the group causing them to scatter and cut off their initial assault.

Johnny and Shadow rushed in first, shadow crashing into the well dressed foe and momentarily struggling before being sliced down the middle causing both Johnny and the entity to cry out in pain. The next attack nearly took Johnny's head off but Kitty leaped forward and pulled him off the bike just in the knick of time. She then sped the two off at a distance firing some blind strikes from her wrist ray that all unfortunately missed the target. Clearly frustrated with his missed attack the Ripper seemed content to instead smash the bike with a mix of stabbing and kicking.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction Sam and Tucker moved in with some Fenton Bazookas on their shoulders and began unleashing their payloads into the distracted being. Smoking from the attack the Ripper spun and slashed out at Tucker, slicing his weapon and forcing the boy to jump back to avoid the follow up attack. Spinning the ghost then unleashed a volley of knives at Sam, much more spread out and leaving her with no apparent cover.

"Sam!" Danny's cry left his lips and he rushed in to try and get her out of it. Realizing he wouldn't be fast enough he then be fast enough he instead moved to at least shield her from most of the attack, cursing himself for not getting a shield going before moving.

He winced as some of the blades pierced his torso, very painfully. Sam gasped in horror and he just smiled weakly at her. "It looks worse than it actually is."

"You li'l-" Whatever the Ripper was going to say next was cut off as Cujo leaped on him and started trying to use him as a chew toy.

"Good boy!" Youngblood called as he aimed his peg leg. "Hold him still, I want to get him the nads!"

Letting Youngblood move to attack Danny instead glanced down at the glowing weapons still sticking out of him. The fact he took the blow to save someone somewhat lessened the power output it would take to heal, but it still hurt like hell. Otherwise though he was mostly okay.

Sam however was having a breakdown. "Oh god I just- you're gonna die again and it's my fault again."

Not used to seeing the goth girl like this Danny wasn't sure how to immediately respond as he wracked his brain. Again. My Fault again. Did she…? Oh no, no no, "NO!"

Sam flinched at the last word out loud and Danny held her head and looked her in the eyes. "Sam! You. Did. Not. Kill. Me."

"..what?"

"Not now, and not before, I don't remember everything perfectly, but whether it was my idea or yours I got into that stupid thing. If you want to blame someone, blame lady luck, or karma or Benjamin Franklin." Danny listed.

"Benjamin Franklin did not invent electricity!" Tucker pointed out as he dashed over and grabbed Sam's dropped weapon to replace his own. He looked at Sam. "He's right though, I know I told you before but I was there too, and I should have argued against it. It's not your fault Sam."

A howl cut through the short conversation. Danny looked on in horror as his dog was flung across the street into a telephone pole, where he shrunk down to puppy form and didn't move again.

"What did that dog ever do to you, you catfish!" Rebreather called tossing a glowing net at the serial killer as Ember strummed her guitar and unleashed a barrage of energy.

"Okay, proper reunion and talk about my death after we deal with the horror ghost." He yanked a glowing blade out and chucked it to the side as his ectoplasm hardened to reseal the wound. "Help me get these things out."

As they quickly moved to remove the knives the Ripper used his own to cut through the net and hurl a few at his two attackers, Bullet took the opportunity to start blasting the other ghost with his own weapon.

Frank charged in from above a flaming torpedo that crashed into the Ripper before being tossed aside into a nearby car, making a small fireball as the fuel ignited and Ember and Rebreather leaped out of the way. The fire ghost would hopefully be fine, he was fireproof after all.

"A bunch of inconsiderate paesan's is what you lot are." Their opponent bemoaned. "Just sit back and die like yer supposed ta."

"What did he just call us?" Youngblood asked, confusion evident in his voice.

...you know I'm not actually sure, I think it's a type of bird?" Mr. Bones was for once at a loss apparently.

"How about you just shut up and give up!" Jazz shouted as she attacked wearing what seemed to be a suit of armor. Huh that was pretty cool. Unfortunately the hit missed and the Ripper raised a knife.

"I don' think I will lass." The ghost lashed out with a knife but Jazz raised the arm of the suit to block the attack. Which it did, the blade sunk into the metal but not deep enough to reach the skin. The surprise was evident on the ghosts face as Jazz smirked. "Get peeled spook!"

A flash of green ecto energy that seemed stronger than anything else Danny had seen the Fenton's produce before, blasted the ghost down the road. His attention was momentarily grasped as he registered Jazz's words.

"Get peeled?" He asked incredulously.

"It's called the Fenton Peeler!" She explained.

"Oh." Danny intelligently articulated.

"Dumb name!" Ember called before strumming a giant fist down the road towards where the Ripper landed. "Use some imagination. Super Fenton!"

"Not the time!" Bullet roared and rushed down the street towards their target only to receive a trio of knives to the chest sending him to the ground.

Danny rushed forward to shield the other ghost from the follow up that likely would have ended him.

"Stop i'!" The Ripper roared. "Stop protectin' eachotha' like that!" The burning his eyes was violent and unfocused. "LE' ME KILL YA!"

"No way jerk!" Kitty returned now, likely after dropping Johnny off on a roof and fire the ray gun at his face, hitting this time and making him stumble and curse.

As he recovered his eyes seemed to refocus. "Tha's your plan innit? Stop me from killing ya so I just get too tired to keep goin'!" He cackled now. "Joke's an you! I don' need to do it up close and personal! Tha's just how I like it!" He leaped into the sky. "Jus' you watch, I'll turn this whole city into a slaughta house!" He flew upward laughing the whole way.

"Jazz!" Danny called flying up himself. "Get to your house and get your parents to turn on the shield. I'll go and keep him busy!" He looked at the other ghosts, Frank had pulled himself out of car wreckage but looked a mess, Youngblood was still floating but he was rubbing at the leg he'd been using to fire cannonballs, Rebreather and Ember still seemed okay though. And Cujo, thank Clockwork was limping up towards him.

"If anyone has the strength left, carry her, we can't let him attack the entire city." With that, Danny flew to the heavens.

He saw dozens of tiny bright red lights littering the sky as he approached the clouds, no doubt a rain of knives to rain down on the unsuspecting city. Quickly, he started sending a flurry of blasts upwards, desperate to hit as many as he could.

His opponent noticed him now though and started sending some of his attacks down prematurely to stop his ascent.

Danny wove in and out of the blade and started forming a ball of ectoplasm. It soon reached the size of a basketball, then a beach ball and he let it keep growing until he was fairly certain it was the size of a small house. Doing a somersault in the air he launched it over his head at the Ripper above him.

The ball blotted out his opponent for a moment before a thin slice of red split the green ball in two. The halves veered away from each other for a moment before exploding. The sky turned green with the strength and light of the blast and clouds were pushed aside leaving a wide open patch of blue sky above the city.

"You…" The Ripper seethed. "Yer differen' than before, wha' the bloody hell happened to ya?"

"Don't know but that staff gave me a headache!" Danny glared

"A head-?" The Ripper started, before laughing, not an insane cry this time. He sounded genuinely amused. "Don' tell me, you actually managed ta fight off the effec's?"

"Yeah?"

"You, a ghost barely a year old managed to fight off the effect that could control ghosts far older and greater than ya?" The Ripper stared. "You wanna be a hero tha' much? Do you even realize what you've been doin' feeding yer core like ya are?"

"I got me star' the same way! Butchered them like the pigs like they were and it fed me so much that my core grew with me at first!" He looked put out for a moment "Shame it pe'ered out. It was a good show."

Well that explained a few things about how Danny's power had been increasing. Still though, the way this guy talked about murder. "You're insane." He told him. "I'm not surprised but I can't believe you're this monstrous. My obsession helps define me, you're a slave to yours."

"So?" The Ripper just smiled with rotting teeth as more knives blipped into the sky above them. "So long as I get wha I want why does it matta how right my head is on?"

Danny stared up in horror trying to figure out how to make enough blasts to stop them all. Even with helping the others below he was still running out of energy. Refusing to back down though he formed dozens of ice crystals that rushed up to collide with the knives in little flurries of ectoplasm explosions.

"Don' take yer eyes off the enemy lad." The Ripper swiped down his front leaving a line of green and tearing sleeve and bottom of his coat. Danny sword and ripped his overcoat off shoved it in the Ripper faces temporarily blinding him as the ghost boy charged a blast, half cold have ectoplasmic.

The blue and green blast surged into his opponent but it was clear where the killers focus was as more and more knives kept forming. The Ripper claimed his name by tearing the coat away from his face and tossing it to the wind where it disintegrated into the ectoplasm that it was with no core to maintain its shape.

"It's been fun, but I'm endin' it here." The Ripper sneered at him rushing forward and kicking Danny down forcing him to quickly reorient himself or risk free falling to the city below.

"You wanna be a hero Danny?" Using the Phantoms real name for the first time in their meetings. "THEN DIE LIKE ONE!"

And with those damning words a rain of hundreds if not thousands of knives surged towards him and the city below, a shimmering crimson rain of death.

Danny formed a shield as best he could spreading it out as far as he could but he barely made a dent, barely a city block. It protected himself at least and he turned to watch the rest of the blade continue falling. Dropping the shield he flew down after the rest blasting them with small blasts trying to get as many as he could but knowing it would never be enough.

Just when he was about to give into despair a second green shield surged to life miles below, forming near the center of Amity Park and spreading across it. In moments the town was covered and he heard the Ripper scream in rage above him as pulled up and stopped firing, letting out a laughing cry of relief. Jazz had managed to make it back to Fentonworks and get the shield up!

The blades crashed into the giant shield and what sounded like a million gunshots sounded as miniature explosions appeared and the shield shimered and rippled at the barrage.

Soon enough though, the attack was over and the shield still stood strong. Danny sagged in relief.

It did not last long.

A knife pierced his chest area and he coughed up green.

"YoU! rUiNeD! mY! mAsTeRpIeCe!" The Ripper roared psychotically, his voice distorted and unreal. Danny pulled himself off the blade and glared at the monster hatefully.

"Death isn't a masterpiece. It's painful and cruel and not fair to anyone. Not the dead and not those you leave behind." His mind went to Sam who blamed herself for his death and his earliest memories in the Ghost Zone, confused and alone with barely a name.

The Ripper glared back just as hatefully. "I may not be able to slaughta the cattle, but I can end you urchin!"

Down the line if you asked Danny how he did it he wouldn't be able to tell you exactly. He had been exhausted and nearly out of energy, barely having enough to even partially close the wound on his chest. But he breathed into non-existent lungs and let out a freezing wave of cold.

The wind wasn't enough to freeze the Ripper but it did slow him down and let Danny float to the side and then with the last of his will stop flying and tackle the other ghost towards the shield below. Using his own weight and the momentum from the slash to propel them towards the glimmering green dome.

The collision was painful enough and Danny could feel the sparks and pulsing energy even through the Ripper as the monster screamed in agony. They slid down the side of the dome sending a cascading ripple effect as the killer screamed and the hero held on for dear afterlife. He barely had the frame of mind left to keep his limbs from hitting the dome and putting himself in just as much pain as his enemy.

Gathering a last bit of strength he started flying again and used it to speed the two of them down the dome faster. Moments later he saw the ground coming and braced for impact.

They slammed into a rocky barren area near Axion Industries and the ground exploded into a geyser of rocks and green goo.

Lying in a crater on top of his opponent Danny managed to roll over and look at the sky. It was getting later and the hole they'd made in the clouds let him see some of the stars far, far overhead.

As his vision faded he swore he could have seen a spaceship come into view.


Hours Later, Danny POV…

Danny lurched into consciousness and started hyperventilating. Not needing to breathe this wasn't a problem but he desperately began feeling around his own body making sure that yes, he still existed.

"Dipsticks up!"

Danny looked around and found himself in a small metal room. He didn't recognize the space and turned to see a visor with the Ghost Zone spread out beyond it.

"Where-" He started.

"The Specter speeder." Tucker explained from where he was leaning against the wall fiddling with his PDA, although he was putting it away as he spoke. "Your parents put it together to explore the Ghost Zone, although they still haven't actually used it themselves."

"We came and picked you up in it. Really put yourself through the ringer Phantom." Johnny told him. The ghost had bags under his eyes and he looked paler than normal. Hopefully being in the Ghost Zone would help. He was sitting at the wall with Kitty next to him, who looked in much better condition.

Danny relaxed before gasping. "The Ripper is he-?"

"Right here!" Youngblood announced cheerfully. "You really did a number on him, he barely had a face when we found him." He held up a Fenton Thermos and gave it a good shake. "Can't believe we actually beat him. And lived for that matter!" He paused. "Well you know what I mean."

Danny looked around at the group, Sam and Jazz in the front seat, Ember smiling and lightly strumming her guitar. Cujo was on the table made bed with him giving him helpful puppy licks.

"Where are the others?"

"We got Frank back into the Ghost Zone as soon as we hit Fentonworks, he needed it, and Rebreather and Bullet ditched after the shield went up." Ember explained, "So are we gonna get this dick to Walker?" She jabbed thumb at the thermos which Youngblood was still taking great delight in shaking.

"Yeah…" Danny glanced at Tucker and then towards the front where Sam looked back at him. "You guys mind giving us a second? I think we need to talk first. I'll meet up with you soon and we can go to Walker."

Ember's smile vanished but she sighed. "Fine. Remember what I told you though." The back of the speeder opened and the ghosts mostly filed out. Youngblood gave him a salute and tossed him the thermos while Kitty helped Johnny up and out. Cujo hung around but he didn't have the willpower to force the cute dog away.

"So…" he started staring at his human friends. Sam hopped over the seats and into the back and Jazz glanced at the group but gave Danny a meaningful look. They stood their silently for a moment until...

"So how's being dead?" Tucker asked finally.

"Tucker!" Sam shouted aghast at the brazen question.

"Eh, not as bad as it could be." Danny announced. "How's ghost hunting?"

"Less fulfilling than you might think." Tucker responded.

Sam stared between them. "Really?! That's it?!"

"Sam this is like seven months of pent up guy emotions being brought out. Show some respect." Tucker snarked and Danny smiled as he heard Jazz groan and bump her head on the steering wheel.

"Well excuse me for having some difficulty trying to talk to my best friend who died, then came back as a ghost who tried to kill us that one time and is now pretty chilled out."

Danny bit his tongue to keep from announcing "literally." Instead going with. "I don't know what Jazz already told you but I didn't actually remember who you guys were until I saw Sam's face. I can kind of remember my death but not much other than pain and seeing her before my vision went dark. Apart from that I have… moments? Of us growing up and being friends but not everything."

Sam sighed darkly and punched a wall causing Danny and Tucker to jump. She then laughed bitterly. "I don't know how to deal with this!" She announced as her laugh turned to a sob and she collapsed with her knees to her chin in a sitting fetal position.

"My friend is back, but he barely remembers me and he's also still dead because he's a ghost!" She stared at him. "What are we to you?"

Danny stared at her searching for the right words. "Right now? You're my enemies as far as I've seen but I know we were friends." Sam's expression was unreadable before he continued. "And I'd like it if we could be friends again."

Sam looked at him and smiled. "I think I'd like that too." She pulled herself up. "Well I'm Sam Manson, resident goth ghost hunting ultra-recyclo-vegetarian."

"Danny Phantom," he responded, taking her outstretched hand. "Resident ghost boy bounty hunting… hero."

"Do I get to reintroduce myself to or is this just a thing between you two?" Tucker asked and ducked as a shoe flew at him. "Hey!"

"Tucker!" Jazz hissed. "Don't ruin the mood!"

"I'm serious, I want to describe myself cool too!"


Walker POV…

Bullet had shown back up with quite a story to spin and Walker wasn't sure how much of it he believed.

The idiot had gone after the Ripper with some of those dumbass punks and while he hadn't reported any endings among them (which seemed impossible) it was what Phantom had apparently done that had him more concerned.

A haunting aura. The ability of a ghost to project their emotions out in a telepathic wave to enforce their will or their power on weaker beings. This power was limited to S-class ghosts and was in fact the deciding factor for the classification.

If Phantom could do that…

"WALKER!" A voice thundered across the prison compound startling the guards and not doubt stirring the prisoners. Standing up from his desk he walked down the hall to the balcony of the prison yard. He ignored the taunting of the prisoners in their cells and let his guards do their job of keeping them quiet.

He reached the balcony and looked down to quite a sight. Most of the guards in the yard were quivering on the ground. Some clutching their heads, others unmoving. Standing in the middle of the mess were a trio of ghosts.

The rock ghost Ember whatshername, that dumb pirate kid and in the center a familiar annoying face grinning up at him. He looked different, his coat was gone and he had a icy hammer perched on his shoulder instead of his sword but there was something else, a look in his eye.

He held up his left hand, in it was another one of those thermos things and he chalked that up to another violation of the rules in his "list of things these kids think they can get away with."

"Jobs done!" he declared and chucked the thermos to him which the warden caught with well practiced skill. The warden stared at it for a moment wondering if who was supposed to be in it really was and whether it was worth opening to make sure.

"So you say, is that all you got for me punk?"

"Actually I wanted to talk." Phantom seemed to thrum and suddenly Walker felt a force on his own mind. It made him want to fall to his knees and wait for the pressure to end. But he steeled himself and gripped the balcony hard enough to crack the stone.

"Let's have a talk about how the rules work around here warden!" The trio of ghostly children grinned in a way that most would find menacing. But Walker knew that for him it was just going to be a big headache.

"What gives you the right?"

"Didn't you tell me that the strongest ghosts are in charge around the Barrens?" Phantom glared up at him. Walker didn't quite remember that conversation but it sounded like him. "Well I think the rules might need a second opinion."

"We're done working for you. I think it's time the tables turn a bit, how about it walking warden?"


Done at last!

Whooo big chapter! Biggest I've written since I started updating properly again.

Also hi I'm back. Yes for real this time, I've been updating my other stories pretty consistently if you haven't noticed.

And this one was a big one on the list.

No, this is not the end of the story, just the end of part one. I'm not gonna make a second story, I'm just gonna continue this one so don't worry about missing it.

Side note I updated chapter one a few months back if any of you returning readers want to check it out.

So what to say about this chapter? Oh boy it was doozy. I've been putting it off because of how big I knew it was going to be and how much I wanted to do in it.

The Ripper is dealt with. For good. I can't quite remember what my original thought process was for introducing him but I think he's served as a good source of conflict throughout the bounty hunting arc.

Sam and Tucker now know and are on decent terms with Danny! Hurray! Whether friendship will be the same as it once was remains to be seen!

And move aside Walker, there's a new ruler in town and he's got you beat on sheer snark.

And Danny's power up and the explanation has been a long time coming. His core is still new and young and thus subject to be more easily influenced and changed by Danny's own fluctuating power levels. That's my explanation at least.

Side note I might go back and edit the earlier power scaling a bit. Just a heads up.

I'm not going to do reviews this chapter, next chapter I will though! Probably not next week but definitely within the next month or so.

Whose coming up next? Well characters I've mentioned before, Dani still has a planned role and so does Pariah Dark and we barely even saw Vlad!

Until the next chapter folks!

Thanks for reading!

~FriTik

R&R