Dannywoke up and lay there for a few minutes in the dark. He vaguely wondered what time it was and glanced at his clock. 3:24 glowed in bright red digital letter back at him. He groaned and turned over stuffing his head under his pillow. Then a chill went through his body and he sat up shivering.
"Hello ghost child," Skulker's ghostly face appeared in his window.
Danny almost, but not quite cried out. He cast a nervous glance around his room and transformed into Danny Phantom letting the ghost embrace of his powers flood his body. He flew out of his house and glared at Skulker. "What are you doing here?" he hissed.
"Seeing if you're okay," Skulker narrowed his eyes. "We found out you were attacked today."
Danny crossed his arms. "Okay, you're about 12 hours to late for that. Look, I'm tired and I really want to sleep so can we pick this up in the morning?"
Skulker shook his head. "Sorry ghost ch…" he paused. "Daniel, but we need to talk. And plan, and the only time we can do that safely is at night. Unless you want to become a target for your parents."
Danny winced then sighed in defeat. "All right, but let's make it quick, I want at least a few more hours of sleep."
For a brief moment Danny fancied that a look of sympathy crossed Skulker's bleak eyes but it must have been in his imagination because the ghost hunter quickly turned around and flew off without a word.
Danny followed and soon they came to a small dense grove of trees that provided good shelter from the prying eyes of the outside world, both physical and electronic. They phased through the thick branches and Danny found himself in a similar situation to the one in the ghost zone, only fewer ghosts.
"Okay, we need to do something about Plasmius. He made the first move and now it's time to strike back," Skulker said.
The crowd of ghosts gave an excited roar but Danny shook his head. "Wait, Plasmius said he's going to take a break for awhile. I think using the jewel weakens his somehow."
"So, then we attack when he's the most vulnerable," Ember yelled.
Danny shook his head again. "No! Listen to me, we need to use this time and come up with a plan. Not 'attack' but an honest to god battle plan that will bring Plasmius down. He told me that when he would attack again I'd be the first to know."
"So, you wish to plan out an attack?" Skulker asked.
"I just said that," Danny said irritably. Then he sighed, "Look, talking to me at 3 in the morning when I had a fairly bad day isn't the best idea. Can we continue this tomorrow please?"
Skulker sighed, he wanted to see action. He wanted revenge. Most importantly, he wanted his home back. But if anything, he saw the truth in Danny's words. He was right; they weren't going to win this war without a plan. A battle yes, but as soon as they beat him, someone else like Walker would show up. The plan wasn't to defeat the ghosts; it was to defeat the jewel.
"Well?" Danny asked the now silent crowd.
Skulker nodded, "As much as I hate to day this," he hissed. "Daniel is right, we need a plan. We need to get the jewel."
"I'm not touching it," Danny said quickly.
Skulker glanced at him and wondered what spurred his outburst but decided to over look it. "Okay, we can meet up here tomorrow at…"
Danny cut him off, "3:30."
"Fine, 3:30, we can plan and decide what we'll do then," Skulker said.
Danny gave a sigh of relief and disappeared. He flew quickly back to his room and settled into his bed. With two more hours until his alarm clock rang he decided it was worth it to sleep.
Danny woke up grudgingly to his one note symphony. He almost slammed his hand down on it but thought the better of it. That would have ended up to be his third broken alarm clock that month. Sometimes if he wasn't fully awake his hand would go intangible and he would end up swiping through the cords inside the clock destroying it. He turned it off gently and got out of bed.
"Danny?" Jazz asked as he came downstairs for breakfast.
"Yes, Jazz?" he asked dully.
"What are you doing up so early?" she asked.
Danny raised an eyebrow.
"It's Saturday Danny," she said gently.
Danny slapped himself in the forehead. "You've got to be kidding me," he groaned.
Jazz smiled wearily, "Hard night?"
"Kinda, ugh. I'm going back to bed," he muttered and stormed upstairs. A tiny part of his brain told him he should probably go to see the ghosts but the portion of his brain that was screaming, 'you need sleep' won the battle.
Danny sat down heavily on his bed and let himself fall back first into the pillows. Without even pulling the covers over his body he fell fast asleep.
About ten minutes later Jazz came into the room and saw Danny sprawled over his bed. She smiled and arranged him under his comforter. After making sure he was tucked in she walked to the door and turned off the light. Before she could do anything else there was an explosion in the basement and Jazz rolled her eyes. She quickly shut the door before the noise could wake Danny up and went downstairs to once again lecture her parents about how it was psychologically damaging to live in a house where something exploded every third day.
Danny woke up for the first time in awhile very warm and comfortable. He really didn't feel like opening his eyes but he gave the clock a sleepy glance.
"3:25…" he read sleepily.
Then it hit him like a ton of bricks.
"3:25!" he yelled.
"Danny?" Jazz knocked on his door.
"Uhhh, Jazz, I need to umm… go out. I'll see you later," he said quickly and left his room through the window.
"What?" Jazz opened the door and saw that Danny wasn't there. She sighed and rolled her eyes, brothers.
Danny flew through the sky as fast as he could while concentrating to remain invisible. He arrived at the designated meeting place and landed in front of Skulker before anyone could say a word. "Ha, I'm on time," he said happily.
"Good for you," Skulker said sarcastically.
Danny felt a small blush twinge his cheeks. "Uhh, right."
"Anyway," Skulker said giving Danny a strong hint that he should be quiet and sit still. "We know Plasmius uses some of his own energy when he uses the Jewel. We know Daniel," he glanced at Danny. "Looses energy as well. So, using the Trinsed Jewel does not come without a price and does require stamina above all else. Any suggestions?"
"We could fight him one on one until he ran out of energy," Kitty said.
Skulker shook his head, "Too risky. What if he sees though the plan, Plasmius is a smart man."
"Could we get the Jewel away from him somehow?" Technus asked loudly.
"Again, risky, but also it has its advantages," Skulker said.
"We could pretend to make a truce with him then take the jewel when he least expects it," Ember said.
Skulker smiled horribly. "Yes, that's a great idea," he said.
"I know," Ember smirked.
"We could pretend we wanted to be on his side and then one of us could get a hold of the jewel then the rest of us could take down Plasmius," Desiree said.
"Good luck," Danny said softly.
"Why do you say that?" Skulker asked.
"You've worked for the guy," Danny said. "Who does he trust? If everyone came up to him and said they wanted to help him, he'd get suspicious. I would get suspicious," Danny added as an afterthought.
Skulker nodded hesitantly. "He's right," he said finally.
"Maybe if we could make him trust us," Spectra said with a grin.
Danny didn't like her grin. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"Well, if there was a way we could prove to him that we wanted to be partners then he would have to accept right?" she asked.
"Did you have anything in mind?" Skulker asked.
Spectra gave a very cat like grin and glanced at Danny. "Yes," she said slowly.
Danny narrowed his eyes and they glowed a bright green. "Leave me out of this," he hissed.
"Now now," Spectra said in a tone of voice usually reserved for those talking to a three year old. "It was just a thought; I mean we all know Vlad has been after you since he discovered what you were."
Danny crossed his arms; his eyes were still glowing dangerously. "I am not turning myself to Vlad. First of all, that would kind of be giving him what he wants right?"
Spectra smirked, "That is kind of the point."
Kitty and Ember exchanged nervous glances.
"And, if it doesn't work?" Danny asked heatedly. "What if he keeps the Jewel?"
"Then we'll think of something else," she said. "Do you have a better plan?" she asked.
Danny opened his mouth but no sounds came out. He looked to the side and his eyes faded, "No," he said finally.
"Well, there you go then," she said.
Skulker stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Well, it is an idea but we should come up with more. What we need is a no risk…" he was interrupted by a cell phone.
Danny took it out of the seemingly invisible pockets of his jumpsuit. "Heh, I learned to never really leave this at home," he said. He pressed the talk button and said, "Hello?" tentatively.
"Where are you!" his mom's voice came shrilly through the phone causing Danny to wince and hold the phone away from his ear at arms length. "You knew we were going to your Aunt Mabel's birthday party today!" A few laughs could be heard in the crowd.
"Oh man, mom I totally forgot. I'm sorry, listen I'll be home in two minutes okay?" Danny said quickly.
"And if you're a minute over, young man, I swear…" Danny hung up the phone.
"I got to go," he said quickly.
"Really? I couldn't tell," Ember said sarcastically. Her comment earned her some more laughs.
Danny rolled his eyes, "I'm going. I'll be back later, come up with a better plan," he said and flew off.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
New chapter \o/
Hope you liked it. Now, I go study some more :3