Hello. And here's when the plot begins twisting…..hee hee hee. Thanks to my lovely reviewers for making this story great. After this chapter, there are four more left, and then, I know the whole sequel thing can get out of hand, but there's a Ghost Gal 2 and 3.

To my reviewers:

Mcrystal, ChibiSess, GreyRavenNorth, lucyrocks73, soccergurl1990, BunnyGirl

Hilly: You'll see who the stranger is in this chapter.

The Fuzy Llama: Your review was hilarious. I started laughing and annoyed the crap out of my sister. Kudos!

Cakreut12: You'll see here soon!

So, enough talk and on with chapter six!

Chapter Six
Succumb

Jazz gasped. No way. This was not Danny. The person she had seen changing in the alley behind Elmer's Pharmacy had not looked like this. Whoever the person was in front of her, was obviously insane.

"Oh, ha, ha. Danny Phantom. Right. All you wannabees are so stupid," she said, carefully. She wasn't sure how he'd react.

He smiled. "Believe what you want. I changed my image. Danny Phantom was kind of "naïve," whatever that means, I still don't know, and weak. For some odd reason, I've been changed and I like it."

Jazz refused to believe him. This guy was insane.

Maybe he was insane. The boy in front of him seemed to fad in and out like an old TV set. Every fade she saw a small silver flash.

"So who are you then?" she asked.

"I changed my name. It's Dark Phantom now," he said.

Jazz laughed as if bored. "You really are obsessed aren't you? Maybe you should get your own life."

"You're crushed on me aren't you?" he asked, joking.

"No, that's gross. I-I don't' even—"she stammered. He really didn't know who she was, otherwise he definitely wouldn't have said that.

"You're pretty new, aren't you?" he asked. He kept fading and Jazz wondered what the heck was happening to him.

"Am I that obvious?" she asked.

"Most ghosts now how to block that power," he explained.

"Oh, okay. So you said Danny Phantom doesn't exist anymore. What does that mean exactly?" she said.

"It means I changed my name," he replied.

"You're not Danny Phantom!" she yelled.

He laughed evily. "Wanna bet?" He took his hands together and fired a blast of powerful energy.

Jazz didn't dodge quick enough again and she flew through the air. She caught herself, and flew back to where they had met.

Why that annoying, insolent, wannabee ghost, she thought angrily.

He remained there, smiling. She made the first move, striking out with her fist. He blocked it with his arms and grabbed her other hand. With unnatural strength he threw her as hard as she could.

Jazz grabbed his leg before she flew too far away and surprised, he didn't pull away. They flew backwards, smashing into a rock. She landed on top of him, him being the one shoved against the hard stone.

Something flashed behind her. She pulled away and turned around.

Jazz's heart seemed to stop. The boy behind her faded and emitted a black and red circle that traveled throughout him. Instead of the red eyes, black hair, long cape, the boy had silver-white hair and green eyes.

"No, no, no," she muttered, her hand against her mouth. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. This was not her brother. This had to be some sort of person….

He groaned, his eyes closed. His hand moved up to his forehead, above his eyebrows.

Jazz couldn't take it anymore. Whoever this was, she couldn't let him see her. She backed away and jumped off the small rock.

Flying absentmindedly, she felt a tear run down her cheek. She couldn't believe it, she wouldn't believe it.

But a small thought in the back of her mind told her to. It had looked like Danny. It was Danny.

So lost in thought, Jazz wasn't paying attention. She smacked into something. Another stream of blue came from her mouth and she shivered with the sudden cold. She turned around to apologize.

And Atheme stared back at her.

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Danny groaned. He didn't want to open his eyes. His head ached for some reason and his body was sore as if he'd fallen down the stairs.

A weird wail sounded around him and he suddenly noticed the extreme cold.

His eyes snapped open. He jumped, sitting up fast.

He was lying on a rock inside the eerie Ghost Zone. How in the hell had he gotten here? Cold chills shot through him and he rubbed his arms, trying to get warm.

No memories came to him. The last thing he remembered was he had been talking to Jazz.

So how had he ended up here?

"I brought us here."

Danny looked around for the voice, but there wasn't a single ghost in sight.

"Who's I?" he whispered, still looking around.

"I think you know exactly who "I" am."

"Oh, really? Enlighten me," he snapped.

This was some idiotic ghost's idea of fun. He had to admit, he was kind of creeped out. Especially since it could be anywhere, clearly invisible.

"Are you sure you want to know?"

"Didn't I ask?" He was tired of the stupid ghost's games.

"Fine."

There was a flash of light and a light haze appeared before him. Inside the haze were two, red, glowing eyes and black hair.

"I'm you Danny Phantom."

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"Watch where you're going," Atheme snapped, brushing herself off.

I know that voice, something in Jazz's mind said. She looked at the ghost and her eyes caught on to a sack of arrows strapped behind her back.

Wasn't Danny hit by an arrow?

Something triggered in Jazz's head and with all of her strength, she grabbed onto Atheme's shoulders and threw her as hard as possible to the nearest rock.

"Atheme right?" she asked, zooming over hurriedly. She pressed two hands to her shoulders, hoping that her assumption was right. Otherwise, she would probably get her—

"What the hell is your problem?" the girl asked, trying to struggle free.

"Are you Atheme, or not?" she asked.

"It depends on who's asking."

"Say it's the one who wants some information. Ghost Gal, to be precise," Jazz said, raising her eyebrows.

"Fine. I'm Atheme. Now what do you want?"

"Did you cast some spell over Danny Phantom?" she asked.

"Oh, you're a bright one."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing. I didn't do anything except shoot the weapon."

"Why did you do it? What did he ever do to you?" Jazz yelled, using every ounce of strength she had not to jump on Atheme.

"He was a threat to all of us. And trust me, I'm just one of the ghosts who are taking action. I was just the first," Athem spat back, grinning.

A fire blazed inside Jazz and she gripped the girl ghost's arms harder.

"And so you had to kill him?" Jazz asked.

"Who said I was trying to kill him?" Atheme said. "Your brother will heal fine. Big deal."

Jazz became angrier.

"Ow," Atheme cried, trying to break away from Jazz's grip.

"It is a big deal."

Reaching behind her, she almost forgot that she had brought the Fenton Thermos with her. She opened the lid, hoping it would work, and pressed the button. And Atheme caught off guard, screamed as she swirled inside and sucked into the container.

Jazz smiled into the darkness. "Nobody messes with my little brother."

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Danny backed away. "What?" he asked.

"You heard me."

He stared into the spirit's red eyes.

"Who are you?"

"I told you. I'm the one who's going to make us great."

"Us? Great? And how are you going to do that?"

"We'll be powerful. We can get back at that girl."

"You'll have to go through me first. You didn't have to hurt her," she said.

"Fine. Maybe I will."

The haze jumped behind him and Danny swirled around and punched out so that it wouldn't do anything. But his hand went straight through his middle.

"Nice try. But you haven't mastered this trick yet."

The spirit disappeared, and Danny felt the strangest thing happen to his body. The spirit evaded his thoughts and soon he felt as if he were falling into a deep hole, and there he was trapped at the bottom, unable to get out. He tried to fight, but it was no use.

A voice in his head taunted him, and he couldn't get it out.

"Let's go see what havoc we can make," he felt it say.

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Jazz stepped out of the Ghost Zone and into the familiarity of her parents' lab. She had been lucky she had managed to remember how to get back.

Looking around in case there was anybody there, Jazz closed her eyes and felt the change in her body as she returned to normal mode.

That's when she heard a gasp from over in the corner. She felt her eyes grow wide, matching those of the two that were coming out from inside the Specter Speeder.

"Jazz?" Sam asked, incredulously.

"Hey, Tucker, hey Sam," Jazz said innocently. Please tell me they didn't see a thing….

"How—how did you-" Sam stammered. For once, Tucker remained silent, staring down at her oddly.

"You saw me?"

"We were looking for Danny. He was acting strange, and we were going to go see if he was in the Ghost Zone. Jazz…are you okay?"

"No, I think you're right. I think there is something wrong with Danny," she agreed.

"Yeah, we kind of guessed that. But I meant….how did you do that?"

Jazz sighed, feeling close to breaking point. "Remember how I saw Danny transforming behind the alley, and then you guys saw me?"

They nodded, Sam remembering the excuse she had made, "Of course not. Ghosts aren't real. Jazz, you sound like your father."

"Well, later when Danny saved me, I figured out what he was. I know he's a ghost. And I'm not going to tell anyone," she assured them.

"But that still doesn't explain how you just—how you just-" Tucker tried to point out, not sure how to describe it. He'd only seen Danny do that before.

"Danny was attacked by a ghost, Atheme. She's the one who shot him down the other night," she explained. "I talked to my dad and discovered that he had become ghost by the accident in the lab."

"But, still, how are you like this?" Sam asked.

"I'm like Danny now. I turned off the power and then stepped into the portal, the same thing that happened to Danny."

Sam gasped. "Jazz, you could have killed yourself."

"I know that. But I had to help Danny. And now he needs our help. I'm not sure what's wrong with him."

"So you're a halfa too?" Tucker asked.

"Is that what you call it?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah. Jazz, I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into. Danny's had practice at this," Sam said.

"I just want to help Danny. I'll do anything. I'm just tired of him being hurt all of the time. I thought if there was another halfa around to help, he wouldn't be."

"Jazz! We're home!" called a voice.

"Oh my gosh, what time is it?" she asked, wondering why her parents were home already.

"It's almost seven," Tucker asked, checking his watch.

"I've been in there for two hours?" she asked, disbelieving.

"Jazz? Danny?" her mother called from upstairs.

"Come on, we'll have to talk later," Jazz said, rushing to the stairs. Sam and Tucker followed her and entered the kitchen.

"How was your meeting?" Jazz asked, innocently, walking over to the table. Her mother and father turned around, staring at her oddly.

Sam and Tucker stood uncomfortably in the corner. She hoped they weren't afraid of her. But she didn't know what to tell them other than the truth.

"Why were you in the lab?" her mother asked.

"I was showing Sam and Tucker around the Specter Speeder," she said. "They seem to like it."

Sam decided to ignore Jazz's lie, and Tucker smiled. What? The Specter Speeder was pretty awesome.

"Oh," her dad said.

"So how'd it go?"

"It must have been cancelled. We came up to the city, looking for it, and we couldn't find it. When we asked for directions, the people we asked weren't sure what we were talking about. So it really wasn't fun, other than your mother nearly running over a tree."

"If that stupid truck would have put the straps on the trees better, it would have never happened," her mother said irritably.

"Oh, sorry. I must have gotten a bad website," Jazz lied.

Her father raised an eyebrow and again, she didn't like the way he was looking at her.

"Where's Danny?"

"Right here," said a voice. She turned her head to see her black haired brother coming down the stairs and stepping into the kitchen doorway.

"Danny?" she asked, confused. How had he gotten up there?

"What?"

Jazz felt a sudden tickle in her throat and Danny suddenly coughed. Both siblings turned away as the bright blue streams of light came out.

"Are you alright?" Maddie asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Danny and Jazz said in unison. Jazz shivered. She had figured it out at last. The little streak must alert her when a ghost was around.

"I swallowed too quick," Danny said.

"How are you feeling son?" Jack asked.

"Fine. Hey, Sam, hey Tucker. When did you get here?" he asked, spotting his friends.

Jazz stared at them while her brother's attention was turned towards his friends. She pressed a finger to her lips, her blue-green eyes pleading. Sam sighed, and nodded.

Danny turned around, and gave her a devilish look, smiling. And Jazz had to admit, she felt sudden cold chills travel up her spine.

"I've got homework to do," she said. "Call me when dinner's ready." She left the room, trying to act normally. When she closed the door to her room, she heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and then pass her door, going into the room next to her; Danny's.

Closing her eyes in concentration, she focused on turning herself into her ghost half. There was a flash of light and she opened her eyes to see herself in her vanity mirror.

"This is so cool," she muttered to herself. She giggled, and then turned red. But she had to admit, she was loving this. Her silver gloved hands, her blue outfit, her pretty blue eyes.

But she had to find out what was happening to her brother.

She concentrated all of her strength and she felt a tingle as her body became intangible. Jazz jumped up and soared over into the next room, floating by Danny's computer desk.

"Are you feeling okay Danny?" Sam asked, sitting in front of her in Danny's swivel desk chair.

Danny's reply was cut off when his ghost sense went off.

"That's the second time that's happened. Maybe we should go investigate," he said, shivering slightly. He looked around and his eyes spotted a clock.

Something in him still cared….

"Hey, you guys go to the concert," he said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. "You've got tickets."

"We don't want to go without you," Sam protested.

"But you want to go. I'll be fine. Just tell me how it goes, but you'd better hurry, it'll start in an hour," he said.

"Danny—"

"Don't worry about it, you go. It's cool. You shouldn't have to lose a once in a lifetime opportunity because I was being careless," he said.

"Thanks Danny," Tucker said sincerely.

"You'd better go," he said again.

Tucker stood up and waited by the doorway, waving to him, gratefulness obvious on his face. Sam smiled and he was surprised when she wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

"Thanks Danny. And you weren't being careless. No one could have seen that coming," she whispered.

"Perhaps," he said.

She let go and walked out of the door and joined Tucker, waving to him before he disappeared.

"See, that wasn't so hard."

Jazz almost gasped. She'd never heard her brother say something in such a low pitch before. And since when did he start talking to himself.

"Now let's go to the Ghost Zone, to find the girl."

In horror, she realized Danny was talking about her. But it was almost like he wasn't trying to say anything.

Something was wrong.

"No, I don't want to hurt her," his normal voice said.

"She hurt you. What is the difference?"

"I won't let you."

Jazz was thoroughly confused and terrified at the same time. Her brother surely wasn't insane…..

"It doesn't matter, you don't have a choice. I do."

With that, Danny moaned and then was enveloped by a flash of light. She felt a tear run down her cheek as she gained sight of a black haired, red eyed, long caped ghost.

The ghost became a thin outline and then plunged into the floor, which Jazz knew was the lab.

Someone or something was making him do things he didn't want to.

An anger burned inside Jazz. Jumping down, she followed him into the lab. The ghost opened the Fenton Portal and then leapt into the Ghost Zone.

He was going to pay….and she was going to save him.

She waited a second and then shot into the eerie zone before the doors closed on her.

"I thought you'd be back here."

She turned around to face what was once her brother. Another anger rushed through her and she threw out her hand preparing to punch him.

He stopped her punch and tried it himself, smiling all the while. She ducked and kicked out, and he pushed away just in time.

He joined his hands together and a ball of red light appeared inside them. Summoning all of her power, Jazz went intangible just as he shot it towards her.

She kicked out again, and this time she hit him. He reeled backwards and then layed out, kicking out at her feet. She jumped up in the air and grabbed onto his shoulders.

He got free by getting a pretty good punch to her stomach and she held out her hand, ready to punch again.

But something else happened instead.

A blast of blue fire shot from her hand and hit the boy in the stomach. He cried out and then stared at her.

She gasped, staring down at her hands. Was it true she had the power already?

Her amazement distracted her and the next thing she knew she had been struck by his ectoblasts and was soaring through the air.

She back flipped in the air and managed to stop in the air. Looking around, preparing to fight again, she was shocked when she saw no one was there.

What a coward. Why didn't the damn posesser show true courage and fight?

She was in slight pain.

"What a show," said a voice behind her.

She turned around and her ghost sense went off. A ghost floated a little higher above her, and she flew up to his level.

"I'm new at this, don't scoff."

"I've never seen you before," he said.

"I told you I'm new."

"What's your name?" he asked, staring at her curiously.

"Ghost Gal."

"I meant your real name."

"That's none of your business."

"Fine. I just wanted to offer help, but if you don't want it."

"Wait—what help?"

"I saw you're fighting. Not bad, but it could use some work. And that power of yours is rare."

"So what do you want?"

"I want the same thing you do. To get back at the boy you were fighting."

"You know him?"

"No. Not really. But he's been a strange hell to all of us."

"So I've heard."

"I can help you control your power."

"Why would you want to help me?" she asked. A ghost, actually wanted to help her? Weren't ghosts supposed to be creepy and evil? She shut that one down, considering it only made her half creepy and evil.

"I told you, we're both hunting the boy."

"Who are you?" she asked, staring up at the ghost. He was older than her, and had a weird intimidating composure.

"I'd prefer to be called Vlad Plasmius."

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Ha, ha! God, I love writing this. It went kind of fast, I know, so sorry if anyone was confused about that. But if you have any questions, feel free to email me or post it on a review.

Please R&R!

Lateraina Wolf