Did anyone get the number on that bus? Scratch that- the freight train that hit me? Danny's head swam as he started coming too. He felt ghostly tail shift back into legs as he slowly descended from where he'd been floating to the ground. Gasping for air, something he didn't need to do, but a habit he found himself doing nonetheless, Danny wobbled on his feet as he felt his feet contact with the earth and he let the weight of gravity set in. He put a hand out to brace himself as his gut wrenched and flipped in his stomach, still reeling from whatever had just happened to him. His hand finding only air, however, he stumbled forwards and fell onto his hands and knees in the dirt below. The thin material of his jumpsuit doing little to stop the rocks digging into his palms and the flesh of his knee.

Wait. Dirt? I was in the lab... wasn't I? Jumpsuit? Why am I in Phantom form?" Danny fought to piece his memory together as he attempted to figure out where he is and what had happened to him.

The lab. Fright Knight. Pariah. The Portal… THE PORTAL! Danny's eyes flew open as the missing pieces clicked into place. The last thing he could remember, he'd been fighting Pariah Dark- once again awakened by Fright Knight- in his parent's lab as he fought to keep Pariah from bringing his skeleton armies through his parent's portal to once again attempt to conquer Earth. Pariah had thrown an ectoblast and he'd dodged, just in time to see the blast connect with the portal, still on.

You really think the ghosts he constantly fought would have given up on world domination by now or have gotten more original by now or at the very least tried something new, but alas, many of the ghosts he fought are idiots. Speaking of ghosts, Danny felt a tingle in his chest. His ghost sense had gone off. Sorta. Normally the sensation rose up through his chest and out his throat as a frosty breath, but this time it just...lingered. Weird, but hey, when isn't his life a bit weird.

Danny whipped his head up to look for the spirit who'd set it. It wasn't hard to find. The massive ghost was just standing there, staring at him with its un-lidded eyes, exposed brain, sharp teeth, one mangled hand, and purple skin.

"Wow, You're ugly." The beast didn't react to his harsh but arguably truthful words. Not wanting to be on the ground in case of a fight, Danny scrambled to his feet, catching sight of a green-haired kid looking up at him with wide eyes as he did. The kid was a bit short, probably a middle-schooler or a super-short high schooler. The rest of the kid was a bit strange though.

Green hair? And what the hell is he wearing? Wait. Shit. Much more importantly than that, he's way too close to that ghost. Danny could already feel his core twisting in his chest. His obsession screamed at him to protect the kid in front of him. The monster ghost just stood there, watching…

"Nomu! What the fuck are you waiting for you lumbering oaf?" The monster turned its head to the voice that had interrupted their standoff, Danny following where it was looking to see a blue-haired man covered in...

Hands? What the hell?

"Just kill the damn NPC already!" the man finished yelling at the ghost, whose head whipped back around inhumanly quick to face Danny and the boy on the ground. Then it moved. The ghost, apparently named Nomu, shot forward at a blinding speed, arm reared back to hit the kid who was still staring wide-eyed at him. Danny was quicker, however, throwing his arms up to summon a glowing ecto-shield between the two; a physical manifestation of Danny's steadfastness.

The shield shimmered into existence easily, too easily. Most ghosts will never be able to summon an ecto-shield. Even with an obsession based on a need to protect, ecto-shields were a highly difficult technique for a power ghost-like Danny to master, let alone use. Danny could normally summon a small wall, the largest he'd ever managed being a ten-foot-tall wall on the mortal plane. Instantly, however, a giant, near twenty-foot-in-diameter dome appeared over the boy on the ground.

"Woah" Danny breathed out as he continued holding his arms out towards the summoned dome. As he breathed back in, he felt it. He could taste it.

Power. The air itself held the bitter-sweet taste of ectoplasm. Diluted and nowhere near as concentrated as it was in the ghost zone, but there nonetheless. Before he could think further about the issue of ectoplasm being present on what looked a lot like earth, he was reminded of the other issue at hand.

Right, the kid on the ground with the scary buff ghost trying to kill him.

The beast's fist slammed into the translucent green dome separating it from the boy on the ground, and boy did it hit like a truck. While Danny may have been feeling more juiced up than ever, it appeared that so did everything around him in this world. The power of its strike causing the shield to bend and a crack splinter out from where it hit. For a second, it looked like Danny's Will might be overcome by the monstrous power of the purple ghost thing, but it held for now.

"Kid! Get out of here! I can't hold this much longer" Danny yelled to the boy on the ground as the Nomu tested the absolute limits of his concentration as it learned more and more into his shield, attempting to reach for the boy who had STILL NOT MOVED. The Nomu brought its fist down once more into Danny's ecto-shield. This time cracks spiderwebbed from where its fist had connected, Danny's concentration beginning to fail.

"MOVE DAMMIT," Danny yelled once more, not taking his focus off the purple-skinned ghost on the other side of his shield. This time the kid listened, scrambling to his feet and squeaking as he finally turned and saw the Nomu looming over him. The green-haired kid moved quickly to put some distance between himself and the monstrous ghost. He'd focus on the kid later, the ghost in front of him getting closer and closer to breaking through his ecto-shield.

Feeling it give way, Danny dropped his ecto-shield suddenly, throwing the monster off-balance as it had been applying all of its pressure to it. Using the moment the creature stumbled forward off-balance, throwing a sloppy punch as it did so. Danny rolled forward under its wildly slung arm and charged up his fist with ecto-energy, releasing a blast into the creature's back as it moved by, throwing it, even more, off-balance as it fought to stay upright.

"Watch out!" A voice called out to him, and on instinct, Danny dropped his earthly existence and went intangible, seeing a hand pass through him from behind as he did so. "Don't let him touch you, his quirk is a five-point disintegration quirk! He'll kill you if he touches you!" The source of the voice, the green-haired boy, yelled out to him. Despite having no clue what a five-point disintegration quirk was, the general message was received. Watch out for the dude's hands.

Danny watched, still intangible, as the hand that had passed through him from behind landed on the ground. Danny watched in fascinated horror as the ground below his feet crumbled into dust, the effect spreading rapidly until the fingers were lifted off the ground.

"WOAH!" Danny, forgetting in his panic to not be touched by the hand man that he was intangible, jumped back a few feet to create distance between himself and the terrifying man.

"Hang on there -Touch, let's not get handsy already. You barely know me." Danny dropped his intangibility and threw a blob of super sticky ectoplasm at the man's feet- an easy way to trap a villain for a while that wouldn't be lethal to a human opponent.

"What the hell are you, some kind of mini-boss," the blue-haired man asked while reaching down to disintegrate the goop holding his feet in place. His fingers came down to touch it, and instead of the green material disintegrating like it was supposed too, instead, the reaching hand found itself stuck to the green goop.

"Oh yeah, I wouldn't touch that if I were you. A real pain in the ass to get out of clothes too. You're probably going to have to throw out those track pants of yours."

"It doesn't matter. NOMU! KILL HIM!" the man twisted to look up and shout at the beast, though his bent position seemed rather awkward. "Kurogiri!... KUROGIRI!" the man began yelling, though Danny couldn't see who he was talking to.

His questions were answered when a wall of purple miasma appeared next to the bent-over man and coalesced into a wispy-humanoid form. The misty-man used a portal to separate the individual legs from each other, but when the hand man picked up his now-freed leg, it still came with its own glob of gloop, which upon contract with the ground, stuck just as firm as the original.

The hand man began letting loose a stream of curses and shouts-both at Danny himself and Kurogiri, but Danny wasn't listening, instead, his mind was elsewhere, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Mini-boss? Why is this man talking in gaming terms? Also… HOW THE HELL DID HE DISINTEGRATE THE GROUND? DID THAT OTHER GUY JUST TELEPORT? Danny questioned in his mind. He'd just watched a human disintegrate the ground with nothing but touch and another just appear out of thin air. That's uhh… not supposed to be possible? Then again… there's not supposed to be ectoplasm in the air either. Where the-

"DODGE!" Once again, the green-haired boy saved his afterlife as saw the giant fist of the Nomu where his chest would have been had he not hit the deck He really needed to start paying attention more and asking questions less. Once again, Danny felt a chill travel through his body as he turned intangible. He'd deal with hand-man and the teleporter soon, but the bigger threat was the ghost that was strong enough to put craters in the earth with single punches. Quickly concocting a battle plan in his head, Danny went on the offensive.

Danny turned and flew towards Nomu, attempting to bait the creature into punching him while also putting some space between himself and the scary man with unearthly powers. Seeing the boy approach, the Nomu reared back and threw its fist forward, intending to pulverize the boy. Danny, seeing the fist coming towards him as he expected, pulled up his intangibility, letting the first pass harmlessly through him. Dropping his intangibility once the fist was safely on the other side of him, Danny threw an ecto-powered punch into the creature's jaw, whipping its head back. The purple ghost going limp as falling to the ground.

What Danny's plan was not accounting for was the sickening snap that came from the ghost's neck as his fist connected. Ghosts were not supposed to have bones to snap. A few thoughts raced through his head, namely, IS THIS THING ALIVE? I guess that's why it wasn't flying. Wait did I kill it? Or uhh… was this thing alive?

Danny was shaken out of his stupor as he felt something grab his leg. Looking down, Danny saw the giant purple fist of the Nomu wrapped around his left leg.

"Ah fuck... Well, at least I didn't kill you" was all Danny was able to say before the monster whipped its fist and Danny with it, up into the air and back into the ground. Unfortunately, going intangible took focus, something that Danny wasn't able to muster enough of as he was dragged into the air, let alone as he was slammed back into the ground below. If he had bones in this form, Danny was sure he'd have broken a few with that last hit.

Feeling the Nomu begging to drag him again, Danny launched a desperate ectoblast into the creature's eyes, which did….nothing. Nothing. Danny did however get to watch as the flesh- Flesh? Okay, not a ghost then- of the creature knitted itself together, and the eyes of the creature reformed where his ectoblast had burned them.

"Gross" Danny said, as he finally was able to muster up the will to slip into intangibility and escape the creature's grasp. Flying back a few feet to put some space between him and the creature, Danny began to think.

Ok, time for a new plan. Hitting it's not going to work. I don't want to wail if I don't have to, I'm not exactly sure of where I am, and being forced to transform back doesn't sound ideal right now.

"The ice! The ice you were inside of halted his regeneration! Try and get the Nomu to hit it or something! Or uhh…. Here!" The green-haired boy shouted as he tossed a chunk of the shattered ice that littered the ground to Danny-who caught it on instinct alone. Once again Danny mentally reminded himself to thank the kid for saving his bacon.

Just like with Undergrowth, it seems regeneration powers tend to be hampered by ghost ice. Fading back into tangibility, Danny mentally reached deep into himself and released his reins on his Ice core, allowing his ice-y powers to begin seeping out as his eyes turned blue and a cold shudder moved through him. As a ghost with an Ice-core, the only time he ever felt cold was in the presence of ghost-ice, by his own or another's creation. Right now, he was freezing.

"Thanks but, I don't think I'll be needing this" Danny said, letting the piece of ecto-ice from earlier fall out of his grip as he let the cold sensation flow down to gather in his fist, before letting the gathering pool of energy in a beam towards the creature. The nice thing about beasts with regeneration powers; they tend not to have learned how to dodge.

Danny's ice ray connected with the purple monstrosities' foot- the ghost ice quickly spreading up the creature's thigh and down onto the dirt. Unable to move, the monster raised its fist and struck the ice, and despite Danny being able to literally feel the impact in the air, the ice held, seemingly unharmed. Ghost-Ice was as strong and sturdy as its creators: the Far-Frozen.

"There, that should chill you out a bit" Danny quipped at the beast. To Dannys horror, however, upon realizing it couldn't break the ice, the beast had grabbed its leg just above the Ice and started pulling. The sound of shattering bones and ripping flesh filled the air, and before he knew it, the creature had torn its body free from the trapped leg.

"Yeeesshh." Danny grimaced-horrified at what the creature had just done. Thankfully, its leg hadn't started regenerating yet, and the beast toppled over and fell to the ground. Turning to the kid-WHO STILL HADN'T RUN AWAY- he spoke.

"Look kid, that thing's in no shape to chase after you right now, but that missing limb isn't going to keep it down for long," Even now, Danny could see the blood pouring from the creature's leg beginning to slow, and the stub at the end of its thigh slowly elongating. In his head, Danny decided to do something drastic, but first, the kid.

"I'll keep holding him off. This is the best head start you're going to get. You need to get out of here, NOW." Danny spoke to the kid.

"But I can help! I'm a hero in training-" The green-haired kid puffed up and started to defend why he should stay, but Danny wasn't having it, especially if he's "in training", whatever that means. A human getting caught up in a fight between ghosts never had a good time. Danny's core was screaming at him to protect this kid, and that involved getting this kid as FAR as humanely possible from whatever the purple thing trying to kill him is. Frustrated the kid was trying to throw his life away, Danny snapped.

"Look kid, I don't care what you are, or if you have some fancy powers or whatever. I'm trying to protect you here." The young boy shrank down a bit at the harshness in Danny's tone and voice.

"I'm going to give you a thirty-second head-start to get out of here and after that, I'm going to turn this whole area into a crater. If you like being able to hear, I suggest covering your ears."

"But-" he began to protest.

"30." Danny cut the kid off. The green-haired boy deflated a bit and, but seemingly getting the message, lowered his head and ran towards the tree-line.

"29." Danny kept counting loudly enough to make sure the kid could still hear him. As he kept counting, Danny began to rise up in the air, slowly gathering power for what he was about to do. Breathing in and out, the recently familiar sensation of power filled his body.

Whatever was in the air here certainly helped in the energy gathering, and suddenly, Danny found himself worrying about what he was about to do being boosted would mean for the poor creature below him, but hopefully, those regenerative powers would keep the poor thing from becoming a fine red mist.

"20" He exclaimed. The misty man stood up from where he had been trying to free the man covered in hands.

"Sir, I think it's time we leave. I don't wish to be part of this crater the boy speaks of." The mist man spoke to his still stuck boss.

"Are you kidding? All-Might's not even here yet and you want to leave? How are we supposed to kill him if we leave before he gets here? Are you stupid?" The blue-haired man retorted.

"15"

"No Sir, I'm just merely suggesting that you may have 'encountered a higher level enemy than you were ready for" as you would put it." Kurogiri calmly spoke back, gesturing at the now floating Danny, the glow around whom was beginning to pick up from its normal "you'd barely notice it" level to a much higher "lighting up the air around him" level.

"UUHHHGGGN" The hand man huffed, still stuck in the ecto-goop on his feet. "You're useless. But…" he paused. I guess you're right. When the enemy's eyes begin to glow it always means they're about to fuck shit up doesn't it… Fine. Take me back to base you useless fu-" Before he could finish his sentence, the purple warp user had pulled him through a warp to who-knows-where.

"5. Looks like it's just you and me Buddy" Danny joked down at the Nomu, whose leg had fully regenerated by now but found itself staring at the floating form of the boy who had now ascended out of its reach.

"4." A loud bang echoed through the dome, something being broken down. Danny would worry about it after he made sure tall, dark, and ugly was down for the count though.

"3" Danny checked once more to make sure the kid had kept running. Thankfully, it seemed he had taken the advice to get the hell out of here to heart finally.

"2." Another boom, the sound of metal tearing apart. A cloud of dust arose in the corner of Danny's vision. The creature screamed at him.

"1. Time's up bud," Danny spoke to the angry monster below him, then took a deep breath in.

"I AM HERE!" a shout filled the arena.

Danny used his Ghostly Wail.