"Skulker?!"

Danny had never seen Skulker overshadow someone before. He had always assumed his base form was too weak to do so. Piloting a robotic suit was one thing, but taking control of a living being while fighting against their willpower at the same time was another.

It was odd how he was able to find someone who shared his suit's exact build to possess. Not only that, but a few other features like his hairstyle and goatee were similar, with more resemblances appearing the longer Danny examined him. Maybe that was why he'd never seen Skulker overshadow a human. Perhaps he was just extremely picky about looks.

"Couldn't face me yourself, so you had to hide behind a meat shield, eh?" Danny remarked as the hunter slyly stared back. Overshadowings were incredibly frustrating. There was always an innocent party between him and an enemy that he couldn't simply save or scare off. Danny also had a public reputation to uphold now, so he had to be extra careful with which humans he beat up.

Finding some of his power slowly re-emerging, he charged up a ghost ray in each hand and broke free of the tight net.

"Get out of that man's body, you coward!"

Skulker was undaunted, though. He'd picked enough fights with the child to know how certain events would play out.

"Since our previous encounter was cut short, I never got to show you my new toy." He said, and pulled out a large ray gun strapped to his back.

"Oh great," Danny thought, "He's armed this guy with all of his gear too!"

Danny attempted to stagger to his feet, but couldn't stay up for long before wobbling and collapsing to his hands and knees. Although he could use his ghost powers now, his limbs were still unreliable from the effects of the dart.

"Let me give you a demonstration before your sedative fully wears off!"

Thinking quickly, Danny crawled across the dusty floor and took refuge behind one of the shelves, peeking around the edge with raised fists surging with green energy, ready to create a shield to defend himself with. Once he could stand upright again, then that no-good hunter would pay.

A concentrated beam blasted straight through the thick metal of the shelving unit, fully melting the side opposite to Danny. Shocked, he immediately created a shield to protect himself from the intense heat.

"Scared, whelp?" Skulker laughed as the glow produced from the ghost boy's hands flinched along with him in surprise. "Now come over here and open that snarky mouth of yours so I can hollow you out for mounting!"

The direct threat of burning out his insides made Danny gulp. It was pretty clear that Skulker was still bitter about the outcome of their last fight.

The young hero was torn. He didn't want to harm the body of whomever it was Skulker was controlling, nor did he want to get blasted by that gun, and only being in defense mode wouldn't get him very far. He had to move fast and expertly time an exorcising hit before the hunter could get a good shot in.

With his legs at long last cooperating with him, he got to his feet and took to the air, flying erratically all over the old store and trying to disorient Skulker as he continued to fire at his prey. In one fell swoop, Danny's glowing fist connected directly with the man's torso, having just enough power behind it to push out the ghost intruding his body. But instead of the exorcism he was expecting to occur, Skulker's now-disarmed host was thrown back-first against one of the walls hard enough that it cracked the brickwork.

Danny gazed at his unclenched fist, perplexed at how it didn't work. What's more, he could've sworn he felt and heard the clanking of metal when he punched him. Either Skulker got super lucky and found someone not only of his build but with a metal plate in his chest as well, or Danny hadn't considered the obscure alternative.

"Wait...you're not overshadowing a person at all, are you?" Danny said aloud as he connected the dots. "You're wearing some kinda disguise over your ectoskeleton."

Skulker stood up and his eyes flashed fluorescent green in anger. His expression alone confirmed to the half-ghost that he was correct.

"Which means it's safe for me to go all-out!" Danny shouted confidently, as he swooped back over and delivered an uppercut to Skulker's jaw.

A short brawl occurred as Danny tried his best to keep the hunter away from recovering his dropped weapon, but despite his efforts, Skulker successfully got the teen in a headlock.

"What are you gonna do...now that I know you...like to play dress-up?" Danny taunted between chokes for air, "It won't...work on me again!"

"You really think this changes anything, ghost child?!" Skulker growled in response. "Your weakness for the safety of human civilians is clearer to me now more than ever." He held up his left arm and unsheathed his glowing blade.

"Hmm...perhaps I should start using more 'alive' bait in my hunts!"

Sick of the hostile threats his enemy was giving him, the young hero eyed the ghost's wrist and got an idea. Skulker controlled most of his suit's abilities using his wrist computer, so there was a chance his new disguise could be activated through that too.

Danny grabbed hold of the forearm choking him and tapped on random places on the screen and the surrounding buttons. Even though he couldn't make out the display, he hoped something would turn on or off to distract him long enough for Danny to finish the fight. He knew he pressed something important when Skulker released him and swatted the ghost boy towards the wall. The hunter grabbed his arm tightly as if to stop the signal from reaching the rest of his body, but it was too late.

In a bizarre and quite disturbing way, the realistic skin and hair of his disguise snaked away towards his wrist computer and revealed the metallic body underneath. Skulker looked down at himself in shock.

"There! Now I can see your ugly mug!" Danny smiled, hovering in the air and rubbing his aching throat.

Skulker snarled and picked his heat ray up from the floor. Once rearmed, he fired a long beam in Danny's direction, holding down the trigger for a good five seconds. The half-ghost easily dodged the blast with a duck and chuckled at his expense.

"Wow, your aim's gotten worse! You didn't even harm a hair on my head!"

"Who says I was aiming at your head?" The hunter answered with a toothy grin.

Before Danny could register what he meant by that, he suddenly heard a rumbling noise coming from above him. He looked up in fear, as a huge, thick circle of concrete slid down from what was once the ceiling and fell on top of him, the weight of it crushing another empty shelving unit.

With the time bought from his dangerous stunt, Skulker put his new weapon away and frantically started to press the commands on his wrist to reactivate his Vessel, his eyes darting between the small screen and the now intangible ghost boy climbing out from the rubble.

Dishevelled but otherwise unharmed, Danny angrily flew at Skulker and kicked him in in the stomach, sending him crashing through both the window and its shutters and landing onto the tiled floor.

A thick cloud of dust from the empty retail unit followed the two out of the broken window, yet Danny continued to fight despite his obscured vision. When it finally settled, he found that Skulker had his disguise back, looking just as human as he did before their fight.

The hunter grabbed the ghost boy by the shoulders to wrestle him off, but he still had him pinned down. This quickly changed when Danny noticed a group of nosy customers slowly beginning to surround them, catching him off-guard. The teen was used to them running away from the action when he fought ghosts, not towards it. As they got closer, he could clearly hear them gossiping about him, and it wasn't particularly positive:

"Hey! Is that Danny Phantom?"

"Why's he attacking that man?"

"What's wrong with him today?"

"Y'think he's finally snapped and turned evil like all the other ghosts?"

"Yeah, that must be it! Did you see how creepy he was acting earlier?"

Then the booing started.

The distracting jeers were making Danny lose his grip while Skulker's only strengthened. This was enough for the hunter to throw the young hero off and get to his feet. Skulker was now clutching his arm, faking a major injury, although the bruises that had somehow formed on his disguise were more than enough to convince the witnesses that he was hurt. He must have got some pointers from his pal Vlad in the hammy acting department, but it nevertheless fooled the small crowd who were asking him how he felt and whether or not he wanted them to call an ambulance or the police. Danny thought he could see a notebook and even a microphone or two.

Ordinarily, he would have followed after his enemy to stop him from getting away so easily, but he was unable to react as the judgemental faces of the mall-goers froze him to the spot. He felt terrible being seen in such a negative light.

Help arrived fast, however, as Tucker and Sam, who had at long last arrived at the mall, forced their way to the front of the crowd. They turned to face the mob and waved their hands to stop them from walking any further.

"Don't go near him! Back away, everyone!"

"You don't know if he'll attack you next if we don't leave him alone!"

After a brief whispering session amongst the public agreeing that the two had a point, they gradually started to retreat from the scene.

Sam looked back at Danny and gestured at him to get out. Nodding in response, Danny phased through the wall behind him and flew straight home without another word.

Meanwhile, out the back of the building, Skulker had managed to escape the annoyingly-concerned bystanders. Despite not claiming the exact victory he was aiming for, he was still happily indulging in the public humiliation of the ghost boy he had caused. Skulker would have loved to stay longer, but he had another appointment to keep elsewhere. He engaged his jet pack, turned invisible and soared away.