Jack pursed his lips in grumpiness and huffed. Next to him, Maddie was trying to politely answer questions, but he knew they were thinking the same thing. While it was definitely nice to get the recognition they deserved, the ghost boy was getting away. Impatient, he glanced around and idly noted a black motorcycle speeding in their direction.

Speeding…toward them…

With a wordless shout, Jack grabbed Maddie and jumped forward. Although he didn't realize it, he need not have bothered. The bike sped inches away from they had been standing, just close enough to make him think he was about to be run over.

Angel swerved to a stop a few dozen feet away to let the sheep sort themselves out. When picking one animal from the herd, it was necessary to let them calm down slightly. A good sheep dog never tried to separate the one he needed while the lot of them were milling around in confusion. The good thing about humans was that they stopped milling around sooner than sheep.

The bystanders ran for their vans; some wise guy tried to get to a phone. Jack and Maddie stood to face their attacker, side by side. Angel smiled and charged forward again, right between them. Naturally, they jumped apart. Perfect.

Danny landed in the empty food court and transformed back into a human. The gauze from his bandage was still place, which kept him from bleeding on his shirt. The pain wasn't as bad anymore, either. He looked around for Sam and Tucker and started walking back towards the entrance; maybe they had gone to watch the fight?

He had barely stepped around the corner when two voices yelled his name. "Your dad!" Sam burst out.

"Someone's trying to run him over!" Tucker finished.

Without even bothering to check if anyone was watching, Danny went back into ghost mode and raced outside. He saw his dad jump out of the way as the bike went past and circled around. As it lined up for another charge, Danny shot an energy blast at the front wheel. The bike flipped forward and the driver went flying.

Jack whirled to face him and yelled, "You! What are you still doing here?"

"Saving your butt!" Danny yelled back.

"Jack!" Maddie shouted. "Just forget him and get in the van." No one actually saw what happened, but she suddenly found her arms bound to her sides by a glowing red energy. Angel stood and aimed the weapon at Danny.

"No one…" she said in a low voice. "…scratches my Sweetheart." Danny shot skyward as she fired the plasma gun and went invisible. As though she could still see him, and perhaps she could, she continued to fire directly at him, forcing him to be on the defensive.

Jack stood in indecision. On the one hand, she was attacking the ghost boy. On the other…

Oh, who was he kidding?

While Angel was preoccupied with avenging her bike, he charged forward and knocked her to the ground. "Nobody attacks my wife!" he informed her angrily. She swung her legs around to kick Jack's out from under him, then scrambled to her feet and pointed the pistol at his head.

Danny charged forward this time and kicked the gun out of Angel's hand. She stepped back as he aimed a punch at her head, then turned and ran for the bike. The ghost boy turned slightly to see his father get to his feet. "Are you alright?"

The words "Why do you even care?" died on his lips as an engine revved. "Well, I was," he said instead. Rather than attack the biker this time, Danny grabbed his dad and made both of them intangible so that the bike went right through.

"I think we better get out of here," Danny said as he lifted Jack off the ground.

"But Maddie…!" Jack protested.

Kill Jack, try to kill Danny, don't hurt Maddie…It could only be Vlad. "I don't think 'Harley' down there is after her," he assured his dad.

Angel charged by beneath them and spun almost on a dime. With one hand on the handlebars, she lifted her plasma gun and fired. Evading with any finesse whatsoever was rendered next to impossible by Jack's presence; Danny dropped toward the ground then, in a burst of genius, dropped through it. He rolled his eyes at his dad's screams. "We're safe, now," he said loudly.

Jack broke off and slowly removed his hands from his eyes. They were in the underground parking garage directly beneath the mall. He heaved a sigh of relief then fought free. Danny was more than happy to drop him; the weight was pulling on his arm and making it start to bleed again. Jack turned to face the boy and crossed his arms. "Now, why are you helping me?" he demanded.

Danny resisted the desire to roll his eyes again. "Because you needed it."

They stared (or in Jack's case, glared) at each other for a few moments. After a bit, the ghost hunter said, "Fine! But I'm not calling you Danny. That's my son's name."

"I prefer Phantom anyway," the ghost boy said dismissively. "Now, you just stay down here, and I'll go take care of that crazy biker chick."

"Oh, no!" Jack stopped him. "That weirdo attacked my wife! If anyone's taking care of her, it's going to be me!"

Danny scoffed. "Okay. You're a human with no weapons. What could you, on your own two legs, possibly do against an armed biker and her motorcycle?"

Jack opened his mouth and was forced to close it again as no answer was forthcoming. He was spared from having to agree by a sudden growling that echoed most menacingly.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Danny exclaimed. He flew over his father's head and rushed forward to meet their adversary as she came into view on the ramp. "Who the heck are you, anyway?" he yelled while swinging his fist.

Angel shifted her weight to slide nearly flat against the ground beneath Danny. One thing she had never figured out how to do was right the bike after a move like that. Instead, she pulled herself out from under it and jumped to her feet. "They call me Angel," she sneered. "Ebony Angel."

"I thought angels were supposed nice and sweet," Danny said as they traded blows.

Angel swung, ducked under the counter, and rolled forward to reach Sweetheart. "I said 'ebony'," she reiterated. "Not 'ivory'." She had never been one for idle banter, much preferring a fear-inducing silence. For some reason, it always unnerved people to be faced by an attacker who never spoke. And yet, she found she was enjoying trading banter with the ghost boy. Maybe there was something to those witticisms superheroes were always shouting after all. Her reverie was cut short as she was tackled to ground by an orange blur.

"For Maddie!" Jack shouted, a decent battle cry, all things considered. He started punching the visor of Angel's helmet, trying to break it.

Angel's visor was bulletproof, like all the rest of her outfit. She fought thugs with guns for living; anything else would have asking to be killed. But it was thin out of necessity. If it had been as thick as normal bulletproof glass, she wouldn't have been able to raise it like she needed to do on occasion. It was designed more to stop a lucky shot than to actually protect her. Repeated blows would shatter it, and Jack had just cracked it.

Angel balled her hand into a fist and hit Jack where it really hurt. She managed to pull herself out from under him while he was otherwise occupied, and kicked him in the head.

"Leave him alone!" Danny yelled. He shot forward to slam his fist into Angel's helmet and succeeded in finishing the job his father had begun. He had just enough time to see a pair of shadowy, black eyes before the gash on his arm exploded into agony. He dropped to the ground and just barely managed to stay in ghost form. He waited for a while for the blow that was sure to come until he heard Sweetheart's engine rev.

"You'll pay for that one, Danny Phantom!" Angel yelled. "For that one and for Sweetheart!"

Danny looked after her as she fled the scene, one hand clasped to something that had been shoved into his arm. He gritted his teeth and turned to see how his dad was doing. "Seems like…ow…like I'm asking this a lot, lately," he tried to make light of the situation. "But are you okay?" Jack nodded mutely, an obvious lie, but Danny accepted it since he couldn't exactly help. Instead, he grabbed the handle of what had to be a knife and started to pull; his sight suddenly went dim, and he decided to leave it favor of not passing out and changing back in front of his father.

After several tense moments of fighting off his transformation rings, he heard the scuffling noise of Jack pulling himself to his feet. Danny didn't look around, partially because he wasn't sure his eyes were still green and partially because he didn't want to know if his dad was about to attack him.

"All right," Jack grunted; he was clearly still in some pain. "I'll hold it; you go intangible, so I can get it out."

Although he wasn't entirely certain that would work, the ghost boy nodded and did as he was told. He thought the knife had been provided by Vlad like the rest of Angel's weapon, and was surprised to see that it did not go intangible when he did. Jack tossed it to the concrete.

It was an evil looking thing. It was black like everything about Ebony Angel, except for the very edge of the blade, where it was the silver-grey of polished steel. The blade was relatively thin, but it had three sets of barbs pointed toward the hilt. Anyone trying to pull it out would do considerably more damage than it did going in, which explained why Danny couldn't get it out.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"Well," Jack drawled. "You did save my life. I guess I kind of owe you for that. Is that…blood, or ectoplasm?"

Danny's mind went blank as he tried to think of some excuse for the smattering of red that mingled with the green. "Uh…well…there's…you know, there's different colors…of ectoplasm…" It was a weak excuse, but his father seemed to buy it. They sighed in unison, though for different reasons.

"I can't go home with that fiend on the loose," Jack said, almost to himself. "I'd be putting Maddie and the kids in danger."

A rumbling sound put them both on edge, and Danny fought his way to his feet. The world went dim again, but he fought it off. They exchanged glances; neither of them were in any condition for a rematch with Angel. Fortunately, it was the Fenton RV that came careening into view this time.

"Jack!" Maddie exclaimed as she threw herself from the car. "Are you hurt?"

"Oh, gross!" Danny exclaimed as they met each other halfway to greet in the manner of spouses everywhere.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Jack responded quietly. He gestured at Danny. "The ghost kid saved me. For some reason."

The ghost kid in question grinned in what he hoped was a friendly manner as the two ghost hunters regarded him with mixed feelings. Maddie looked at her husband, then back at her son. Finally, she sighed. "Well, I suppose the least we can do is patch you up," she admitted. Jack leaned against the hood of the RV while his wife got the first aid kit out of the glove compartment.

Danny cautiously moved forward at her beckons. He felt like a stray cat that was trying to make up its mind whether or not to trust some humans. They were his parents; he shouldn't have to feel like he couldn't trust them. But they were also ghost hunters, and as far as they knew, he was just a ghost. He held still, ready to go intangible and run at a moment's notice.

Maddie couldn't help a smirk at the ghost boy's obvious fear. It was just ironic for the ghost to be scared of humans when it was normally the other way around. And it was nice to know they were feared among the ghost community. "You know," she began and had to repress a chuckle as Danny flinched. "My son got hurt in this exact spot yesterday."

"Oh, wow, that's fascinating," Danny replied a bit too quickly. His parents, justifiably misreading his response, shared an amused look. He backed quickly away and floated into the air when Maddie was finished. He did not like this feeling at all, and the little voice in his head that said to just tell them was very difficult to resist. But he couldn't tell them. Not now, and not like this. There were more pressing things to worry about. He jumped as someone called his name and turned his attention back to his parents.

Maddie was looking decidedly unhappy; Jack stood like a man with a purpose. He must have managed to convince his wife that it would not be good for him to go home. "Listen up, ghost kid," he said, an unnecessary command as he had Danny's undivided attention. "I don't trust you, and you don't trust me. But since you seem so interested in helping me, I'll accept." This last bit was said as though it caused him great pain to get the words out.

Danny started to respond, but Maddie cut him off. "And if I find that you have hurt Jack in any way, I will rip you apart molecule by molecule!"

The boy raised his hands and floated backwards slightly. "Hey, I'm not interested in hurting anyone," he objected.

After a few seconds, Maddie and Jack said farewell while Danny mimed gagging. Jack retrieved the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick out of the RV, a baseball bat being the only weapon they had even remotely suitable to fighting humans. Maddie slid into the driver's seat, gave her husband a last parting smooch before closing the door, and drove away at a considerably slower pace than she had arrived.

The two guys waited until she was out of sight before they acknowledged each other's existence again. "Okay," Danny announced. "I'll just get you somewhere safe and then go after this Ebony Angel character."

"Oh, no," Jack argued. "This is personal! She attacked Maddie, and she attacked me! You just stay where I can see you and watch my back."

He stalked off for the ramp. Behind him, a very confused ghost boy tried to figure out how that would even be possible as he followed.

A/N: Dang, that was a tough one to choreograph. I'm not too good at writing action. I think I did pretty well, though. Thanks, Kismet! I feel a little better now. Faded, a Mary Sue is basically a character the author has created to insert herself into the story. They're often way more powerful than the hero, and instantly loved by the good guys and feared by the bad guys. Also often, the hero suddenly can't function unless Mary Sue is around. He seems to suffer from a laspe in intellect and is seldom in anything remotely resembling character, the better for the author to twist his responses to her own desires. By the way, did you get my email?