Silent Departure

Chapter Two – It Comes From Within ((Danny Phantom's POV))

Daniel sighs as he glances at the Fenton Catcher, his grip on my hands getting tighter, as it always does at this time. "This isn't what I meant when I said I like having you inside of me." he pouts. I smile apologetically, run a hand through his hair, hold the back of his head, and kiss him softly. I then walk around behind him, hold him close, lift us up, and fly through side one of the Ghost Catcher, merging us together.

"Danny, come on!" Jazz's fist raps on our door. "Lancer will flip if you're late for school again. Danny!"

Patiently as possible, he walks over and opens the door. "Can't a guy get dressed in peace?" he passes her calmly and heads downstairs. She follows. "Lancer would have a field day if I showed up naked, wouldn't he?"

"Don't you mean in your pajamas?" she asks cautiously. He grins.

"Hi, sweetie!" Maddie greets, her voice as high-pitched as ever. "Oh, going to bed early did you good! You look much more rested than you have lately."

"Yeah," his grin holds, "I slept great."

I can't help but laugh inside. I'd love to see how they'd react if he told them the real reason he was feeling so upbeat.

Silence, you. he playfully warns. We both know he can't follow up on any threat he makes, but he also knows how cute I think it is when he tries to take dominance.

The doorbell rings and Jack runs off to get it. Maddie watches him critically.

"It's just going to be your little friends," she says absently, but we all know that she's talking to Daniel.

"Son! Your friends are here," Jack calls. Maddie giggles, grabs Daniel's shoulders, kisses his forehead, and hands him a paper bag.

"Have fun at school, sweetie," she says, then does the same to Jazz. Daniel rolls his eyes, then grins again and runs over to his friends.

"Hi, Tucker! Hi, Sam! You're later than usual. That's okay because I just finished getting ready anyway so you guys would have had to wait and I would have had to rush and that wouldn't be fun for any of us, would it? I don't think it would. So how are you today? Did you guys sleep in, too? It's a really nice day out. Did you guys take the long way to my house to enjoy the day? Did…"

"Danny!" they interject. At this point, I'm laughing so hard that I almost don't notice our Ghost Sense go off. He notices it, however, as he opens his mouth to reply to his friends. While by this time he's able to control 'the day after walk', he still cannot comfortably pose for our transformation, and so instead throws his arms in the air and announces our battle cry. As well, instead of transforming as one like we used to, we merely switch who has control of our shared body. This way, he doesn't feel any pain from battle, and I can be the superhero I used to take so much pride in saying I was.

"Tucker! Sam! Go on to school," I demand, a hint of my superhero voice taking over. I try to sound more like their friend Danny when adding, "I'll be there shortly."

Understanding, they don't try to defy me. Not really in the mood to fight, and seeing no real threat (just a few randomly escaped ghosts, none of my regular enemies), I take out the Fenton Thermos and fly up to capture them. Capping the thermos, I sigh, and look around once more.

That seemed WAY too easy, Daniel sounds just as cautious as I feel, even though his carefree, 'fun Danny' voice blankets his normal one. Maybe we should, like, fly to school instead of turning back.

I'll fly to Tucker and Sam! I reply dramatically while doing so. If anything happens, I'm just a battle cry away.

Whatever you say, dude. he nonchalantly responds. I land behind a tree and we switch back. For some reason, whenever he's in control, we can maintain normal behavioral patterns, but whenever we 'go ghost', I adopt my superhero persona, and he becomes careless. I used to tell myself it's because he's in control more, but when I really thought about it I realized that the two of us share a pretty balanced amount of control. Not nearly 50/50, perhaps 55/45, or 60/40 at the very least, the latter two both in his favour. Nonetheless, it has yet to cause us any real problems. He runs over to Tucker and Sam who are waiting for him at the school's front entrance. Together, the three of them go inside, go as a group to their each of their respective lockers, and then finally go to homeroom. First bell rings just as they're taking their seats, but something's wrong.

"Where's Lancer?" Daniel asks. No one in the class offers a response more than a shrug, or a glance that says 'why do you care?'

Once again, our ghost sense goes off.

"Damn it!" Daniel curses softly. "We can't 'go ghost' in here!"

"Maybe once the ghost shows up, everyone will..." Sam blinks.

"Did you just say 'we'?" she and Tucker ask together.

"You're right, Sam," Daniel avoids the question, growling softly as our ghost sense goes off again. He whispers, "Where are you hiding?"

"Hey!" Dash pushes Daniel forward, causing him to klunk heads with Sam and Tucker, as the three had been leaning in to keep their conversation private. "What're you losers whisperin' about?"

"None of your business, Dash," Daniel grits his teeth. Whatever happiness he had earlier this morning is quickly slipping away, and that upsets me greatly. Before he or the jock can say more, our ghost sense goes off a third time and a small explosion coupled with a cloud of grey smoke appears behind the teacher's desk. The whole class, save Daniel, Sam, and Tucker, gawk at the smoke as if it were the apocalypse. Daniel takes the opportunity to pull back, crouch under the spare desk in the back of the room, and allow me control. We stay safetly under the desk until we can be sure that the ghost is who we think she is, and she is.

That was a little repetitive.

No time for distractions. Before Ember can make her introduction, I fly out from under the desk and slam her into the chalkboard. Having been controlled during their last encounter, the class, thankfully, does not remember who Ember is.

"We need to get out of here and find Mr. Lancer!" Sam announces, trying to get our classmates to leave. Everyone just sort of looks at her, and she glares as Ember shoots me with ghost energy from her hands, sending me flying across the room. Sam grabs Tucker's wrist and drags him out, saying, "Fine. Stay here in the middle of the ghosts fighting. Don't come crying to me when they beat the shit out of you instead of each other."

That, coupled with Ember flying towards me and not expecting to be deflected back across the room by the shield I generated at the last minute, was enough inspiration to send the other teens screaming from the room.