Maddie stuffed as much of her fist as would fit into her mouth to stifle her errant sobs as the image of Jazz being ripped open by that maniac in a trench coat faded. Suddenly, she had a new respect for her son's conviction. He had refused to describe all the things he had seen in that nightmare, but if they were half as bad as that…

It really was a wonder the boy was still sane.

A breathy giggle finally brought her back to reality. She looked in every direction, but couldn't find the source. It stopped for a moment, then resumed as very quick and shallow breathing, as though the owner of the voice was excited beyond all measure. "Pretty…lady…" it breathed. "I'll see inside you soon enough. Hee hee…I know you're looking forward to it." The insane laughter faded away.

Maddie recalled Danny's description of Haight as she continued through the sewers. It didn't fit the character she had just heard. Haight had been insane and sadistic, but from Danny's words, he didn't seem like the type to giggle. And Horace had been friendly and helpful, so it couldn't be him, either. She climbed through a mass of rubble while she tried to remember who else Danny had mentioned. She thought there was one more…

A clattering noise distracted her, and a creature she thought must be a slayer came into view climbing along the ceiling. She fired at it several times, and it finally dropped limply to the ground. While she waited to see if it planned on moving again, an identical creature made out of silver metal jumped out of the darkness to land knife-points first on top of its twin. The first slayer didn't even twitch as the metal blades passed through it.

Maddie placed the reason for that insanity very quickly. "I know what you are," she told the creature. "You're not real."

Oh, I'm very real, signora, Silver said good-naturedly. She rose up on two legs to stride forward until she had Maddie backed against the rubble. See? You know to fear me, don't you? My muchacho told you all about me, didn't he?

"He's not your boy," the angry mother responded in a low and menacing tone. "And real or not, I know you're not really there." To prove her point, she walked forward…

…and straight into the very painful point of a dagger.

Real or not, signora, I am dangerous. I have convinced far stronger than you that they have just been stabbed to death. Even your Danny, who knew my tricks, felt the sting of a marksman's bullets. Do not think that simply because I cannot hurt you, it follows that I cannot kill you.

Silver vanished, and Maddie felt her throat. She could still feel the prick of the knife, and it took several minutes before she managed to convince her mind that she wasn't really bleeding. Once she did, however, the pain and the blood on her fingers disappeared.

She had no idea how long she had been in these sewers, but her olfactory sense seemed to have temporarily shut down in rebellion at the smell. The area was relatively dry; likely this was the old city that Baltimore had been built on top of. She couldn't remember if Baltimore had, in fact, been built on its predecessor's ruins, but that's what it looked like.

She had been aware of a low growling noise for some time, but had dismissed it as her imagination. Frantic barking forced her to reconsider her judgment and turn just in time to start running. A ledge up ahead provided her with a modicum of respite and the opportunity to really see her pursuers.

They might have been rottweilers at one time, but no longer. Their skin was stretched taut against a skeleton that was more human than canine. Their tails were little more than animated vertebrae, and their faces were disturbingly human. Each creature had a long knife tied to the side of its face, although it might actually have been growing there.

"I hope you don't believe you're safe up there," drawled a deep voice. The southerner was dressed in a long coat with a series of pointed teeth that lined the collar, pointed towards his face. He raised an old fashioned rifle and lined the barrel up with Maddie. "Just because my hounds can't reach you, doesn't mean I can't."

She gasped and threw herself from the ledge just in time to avoid being shot in the head. The hounds jumped on her, biting and scratching, but she managed to fight her way free and start running again. Behind her, gunshots ricocheted off the concrete walls. She tried to twist around to fire at her pursuers, but nearly lost her balance. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, she simply kept running. There was faint moonlight ahead; if she could reach it…

Then what?

Danny walked up to the creature that he had just defeated. It had taken longer to beat than a marksman, but it had been no more difficult. It almost looked like a spider, except that the tips of all its legs ended in automatic rifles. They sprouted from the back of a bullet-riddled human corpse that held two sub-machine guns in its hands. The boy decided that with the possible exception of Carnate Island's festers, this creature was the worst one yet.

A thud behind him caused him to whirl quickly, but it was only a silver metal marksman. Silver reached up to pull the blindfold off of her eyes so that she looked like Baltimore's marksman instead of Carnate's. They're called triggermen, she informed him, gesturing at the creature behind him. Aren't they great? I'm bringing them back to Carnate with me when I go.

A few different responses flitted through the boy's head, and he settled on simply ignoring her and leaving. A few dozen feet above the ground, he could see that the street had caved in ahead. He could hear more frantic barking, but didn't pay much attention.

I'm not the one running this game, you know? Silver whispered. I'm just playing. The reason I mention this is that…well, maybe you should hurry before… Her "voice" trailed off and the image of his mother being ravaged by those human-faced hounds flitted across his mind.

She had shown him so many images that he wasn't inclined to believe this one. He maintained his pace, refusing to give her the benefit of seeing him frantically try to rescue an illusion. As the barking got louder, however, he started to get really worried. He thought he could hear a human voice mixed in with it.

Actually, hadn't the boy who cried wolf been serious in the end?

Something obviously human and dressed in blue burst out of the hole in the street and made it about three feet before the hounds caught her. Danny was already at his top speed. He reached out and blasted a few of the dog-things, then dove right into the middle of them, fists and feet flailing.

Their master strode out of the collapsed road and whistled shrilly. The few remaining hounds were suddenly joined by almost a dozen more. "Make it easy on yourself and give in. No one can escape my hounds."

Danny beat off one last hound, then grabbed his mother and shot into the sky. A few bullets whizzed by, so he made them both intangible until he could land safely on the roof of some bar. He drifted backwards a few inches. "Are you okay?"

A hand closed around the front of his suit suddenly, and pulled him down to eyelevel with a weary yet angry Maddie Fenton. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Uh…I…um…uh," the ghost boy stammered. "I…followed you…?"

That was problem with Maddie Fenton; she was competent. Jack would simply have accepted the lie at face value, but not Maddie. She narrowed her eyes behind her red goggles. "Why?"

"Uh…I was…bored?" Danny grinned nervously, praying she wouldn't press the issue. Now, that the crisis was averted, he was again worried about his secret identity. He knew his mother occasionally suspected something, although her firm belief that humans couldn't have ghost powers kept her from ever actually making the connection. It also helped that she seen Fenton and Phantom standing side by side a time or two.

Maddie grudgingly released her son on the grounds that she couldn't stand any longer. Her legs were weak from the extended run, and the sudden cessation of adrenaline had left her somewhat shaky. She sat down on the flat, concrete roof, wondering why a ghost would seem so worried about her welfare.

"I don't suppose you've seen my Danny?" she asked in a somewhat quieter tone. Silver had mentioned her husband and daughter, but had said nothing about her son. She wasn't sure whether she should be worried or relieved by that.

Danny hesitated before shaking his head. He considered telling her that he was still in the hotel room, but that would have led to awkward questions about what he was doing there in the first place. It didn't make the look of unveiled concern any easier to bear.

Aw, now isn't this just a Kodak moment?

"Silver!" Danny yelled, focusing his gaze on the lady in chains that had appeared behind his mother. He helped Maddie get to her feet, mildly amazed when she didn't try to push him away.

"What do you want with us?" Maddie demanded. She made certain her legs would support before she shook off the helping hand.

I want to play. I'm so very lonely.

"To play?" Maddie repeated incredulously. "You think this is a game?"

"Yeah, she does," Danny answered. "Just ignore her." Of course, that was much easier said than done, he thought.

You don't have what it takes to ignore me, niño.

The image of Jack and Jazz surrounded by slayers flashed across his mind; his mother apparently saw it, too, judging by her fearful gasp. "You leave my family alone, signora," Maddie commanded, adding a mocking twist to the title. She seemed very dangerous in that moment; even Silver opened her eyes a little wider in surprise. Then she smiled.

I see where my muchacho gets it from, she laughed as she vanished.

"He's not your boy!" Maddie called after her.

Danny smiled happily. It felt so good to have someone defending him against that fiend. The last time they met, she had him convinced that he was the worst creature on the face of the planet. He drifted over to the edge of the roof to make sure the slave hunter was gone.

"Why would you help me?" Maddie asked, seemingly curious more than disbelieving.

Danny shrugged his shoulders and hovered hunched over slightly. "Maybe I'm not that bad. Come on." He held out his hand. "We should probably keep going."

After a moment, Maddie let him lower her to the ground. She wasn't entirely certain she trusted the ghost boy, but he had helped them before, when Jack was being hunted down by an assassin. Was it possible that not all ghosts were evil?

Danny floated alongside his mother, concerned. She had been trying to cover a limp, but it was becoming more pronounced. Any and all attempts to convince her to go somewhere safe had been met with stoic silence, and the one time he dared to directly ask if she was all right, she had practically bitten his head off.

Maddie was worried. They had been followed traces of white for what seemed like hours, although it probably hadn't been. She hadn't actually meant to snap, but she was tired and hurting, and his frequent displays of concern had started to grate on her nerves. She was beginning to envy him his ghostly tirelessness. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I just…"

"I know," Danny responded. The worry was plain on her face, and he agreed wholeheartedly.

Maddie stopped and looked at him for the first time in quite a while. "I don't suppose you can faze us through one of those buildings? I need to sit down for a while."

The boy grinned and led her into a store that was still mostly intact. He wholeheartedly agreed to that sentiment as well; he was getting a little tired himself. As luck would have it, they had found their way into a furniture store. Maddie sank gratefully into a recliner while Danny hovered limply a few feet away, both of them trying to relax and stay alert at the same time.

A few creatures wandered by outside. A triggerman started a fight with a pack of slayers, but they succeeded in getting the better of it and wandered off. Danny was half asleep when something thudded against the window, but it was only a dead mainliner. The gorger responsible stomped up to the window and leaned down to devour the body. With a noise of disgust, the boy turned his attention to his mother, who was completely asleep.

He very much doubted she would appreciate not being awakened, but she needed the rest. A nearby bed provided a blanket, which he draped over her. "Night, mom," he whispered with a smile.