Danny Phantom: Youth

Part 3

"Invis- " Paulina began to yell, but she was cut off suddenly as yet another green vulture appeared, flew through the bars of the cage and clapped a wing over her mouth.

"Mmmm!" wailed Paulina.

"Quiet, toots," hissed the vulture. "You'll get your chance in a minute."

Sam, being the more experienced of the two captives in this kind of situation, thought it best to stay quiet. Vlad might be planning anything, and if Danny charged in before anyone knew what was going on, the consequences could be disastrous.

"VLAD!" Danny exclaimed angrily. "Show yourself! What have you done with Paulina?"

Sam stuck out her bottom lip. Obviously she hadn't been missed.

"Nothing yet," Vlad's eerie tones filled the cave-like surroundings, and he gradually floated into view from the darkness above. He had his back to Sam and Paulina, but was facing Danny who stood on the narrow ledge overlooking the lava. "Charming little spot, isn't it? It used to belong to a dragon ghost I hoped to destroy you with, but dragons are troublesome things and I've had to imprison it for a while to calm it down."

"I'll keep an eye out for it in future," Danny said warily, wondering what on earth (or whatever the appropriate phrase) was going on here, and desperate at least to know where Paulina was.

"Hopefully that won't be necessary," Vlad intoned ominously, "after tonight."

"So what's the deal, Plasmius?" demanded Danny. "Where's Paulina? What exactly will it take for you to send her home?"

"Ah, Daniel, the curse of being fourteen," Vlad sighed insincerely. "I remember it well. You are a slave to your hormones, aren't you, little man?" He noticed, with some satisfaction, that Danny was seething with anger, his fists clenched at his sides. "This Paulina is very special to you, isn't she?"

"You know she is," Danny said through gritted teeth.

"Would you do anything for her?"

"I guess so."

"Would you die for her?"

"Enough of the small-talk, Plasmius," snapped Danny. "Let's cut the crap and get down to business. What game are we playing here?"

"Very well," Vlad said obligingly. "Let the games begin."

Two of the vultures seemed to take this as their cue to swoop down and each grab one of the cages in which Vlad was keeping his two captives. Sam supposed there must be some kind of metal ring atop the cages that she couldn't see from her current position. She guessed what was going to happen next, and sure enough the vulture dropped the cage onto one of the precariously balanced hooks over the lava pit. Glancing to her right, she saw that Paulina's cage was dropped onto the opposite hook at the exact same moment. The vultures then let go and flew into the shadows, leaving both girls hanging over the belching lava. Even in her terror, Sam wondered whether she and Paulina weighed exactly the same amount. She found this hard to believe. Vlad was as organised as any villain could be; he must have added the necessary extra weight to one of the cages.

"Paulina!" Sam heard Danny exclaim, and she looked up sharply. Hadn't he noticed her? She was about to call out and alert him to her presence, but then she realised that she could no longer see him. Blackness obscured the narrow cliff overlooking the ravine. Sam's heart seemed to stop, and her fingers gripped the bars of her cage instinctively. Tears came to her eyes as she closed them against the bubbling molten rock directly below her, which she could see clearly through the bars in the floor of the cage. What the hell was Vlad playing at?

"You sound surprised," remarked Vlad. "You knew I had her."

Danny prepared to take flight, but stopped when Vlad held up a restraining hand. Danny didn't like taking orders from his arch-nemesis, but he had the presence of mind to realise that he shouldn't do anything too quickly in a place that his enemy knew but to which he was a complete stranger.

"Not so fast, Danny boy," Vlad said calmly. "Things are not quite so simple."

He lifted his right hand in a magical gesture, and a blanket of darkness seemed to be lifted from Sam's cage. She could see Danny quite clearly now, and he was staring straight into her eyes.

"SAM!" he exclaimed, with a great deal more panic than had been behind his cry of "Paulina!" "Jesus, Vlad, what the hell is going on here?"

"Must I explain?" asked Vlad, in tones of severe boredom. "You must choose to save the life of one of these young ladies. As you see, the cages are perfectly balanced, and as long as both girls remain inside the scales will stay level. However as soon as you fly in and whisk one away, the other cage will tumble from the hook and into…" – he gestured vaguely at the angry lava below them – "that."

"Why?" Danny asked confusedly.

"I wish to see whose life you value more."

"Why?"

"Daniel, please, don't waste time – I have you at a disadvantage. You would do best to decide quickly."

"I don't see why," said Danny. "I mean, if I just leave them both hanging there while I figure out a way to kick your butt…"

"You will lose them both," Vlad concluded. "Observe."

He lifted his right hand again, and this time the rope holding the metal pole began to descend from the ceiling, lowering the two cages slowly down towards the lava pit. Sam and Paulina both screamed shrilly. Danny's eyes filled with panic, and he looked frantically from one cage to the other as though he were watching a particularly fast tennis rally.

"Jesus Christ, they're gonna die!" he exclaimed, as the horrible truth finally dawned on him.

"You take me seriously at last," Vlad said, calm as ever. "Only one of them has to die. Choose quickly now, or you'll lose them both."

"Vlad, please!" wailed Danny, his eyes still darting between the slowly descending cages. "You can't! You wouldn't! You don't have it in you!"

Vlad's eyes narrowed. "Then you little know me."

"I don't believe… ah Christ!"

Danny, realising that there was no time to carry on a conversation, frantically tried to decide what to do. All of his strongest instincts told him to take off and get rescuing, and it took tremendous willpower to keep his feet on that ledge. He just had to think of a way to save them both. He knew he wasn't fast enough to rescue one girl and then zoom down to grab the other's cage before she hit the lava. His only hope, he realised, was to master that impossible trick of splitting himself in two.

Vlad cocked an eyebrow as Danny squeezed his eyes shut, tensed every muscle in his body and began to strain noisily.

"Yes, well," said Vlad, "I've heard that stress can cause constipation."

"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Danny, when he felt constrained to open his eyes and saw how dangerously close the two cages were to the lava. They were still some distance from it, but he realised that the intense heat alone would soon be enough to kill them. Danny glanced at Paulina, who was looking at him impatiently, obviously wondering what was taking him so long. Then he looked at Sam, and saw the fear in her eyes. She wasn't looking at him. She was staring down at the lava as it rose slowly to meet her, her knuckles white from gripping the bars of her cage.

As Danny watched her, she suddenly snatched her hands away, wincing slightly with pain. The metal must have become too hot to hold. Danny hadn't the presence of mind to think of it, but Sam was quietly wondering whether the cages ought to be melting in this intense heat. The lava was still a way below her, of course; the heat would probably kill both her and Paulina before they made contact with the stuff itself.

Danny dropped to his knees. "Vlad, please!" he exclaimed. "Don't do this! I'm begging you! I'll do anything! I… SAM!"

Just yards remained between the cages and the lava, and at last instinct took over. Forgetting Vlad and the vultures, even forgetting Paulina, Danny shot towards Sam, quite probably faster than his record of a-hundred-and-twelve miles per hour. He became incorporeal and shot through the bars hands first, grabbing Sam and making her intangible as he flew out of the cage on the other side.

Danny landed on the cliff where Sam had first woken, and placed her gently on her feet, making them both corporeal as he did so. Her skin was red, and even slightly blistered in places. Sweat poured down her face like raindrops on a windowpane, and her hair was plastered to her forehead.

"Oh my God, Sam!" exclaimed Danny, hugging her to him. "Jesus Christ! Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," said Sam, panting from the shock of the sudden rescue and the dregs of her fear. "I'm ok… get off me." She pushed Danny away, and then ran to the edge of the cliff, yelling, "Paulina!"

Danny's heart froze. Paulina. He had forgotten her, right up to the moment that Sam shouted her name. He followed Sam to the edge of the cliff at a much slower pace, feeling numb. Technically, he realised, by tipping the balance of the scales, he had killed Paulina.

Sam felt sick. Of Paulina's cage there was no sign. The hooks hung side-by-side from the metal pole, just as Sam had seen them when she first woke. Feeling sick, she squinted at the cliff on the opposite side of the ravine. Then she saw Vlad, and he wasn't alone. He was standing over someone – someone Sam wouldn't necessarily have recognised under normal circumstances, but it definitely wasn't a green vulture.

"Oh my God!" she shouted across to Vlad. "I can't believe it! You saved her, didn't you! You really didn't have it in you!"

Danny, who was lurking some distance behind Sam, looked up slowly. When he saw the figure of Paulina for himself, he felt an overwhelming sense of relief, and slumped to the ground.

"I certainly do have it in me!" argued Vlad, flying across the ravine to hover in front of Sam. "But it occurred to me that I would never persuade Daniel to join me if I was responsible for the death of the object of his desire. I think it's safe to assume their relationship is now over, but I am sure he still desires her. And that has always been my primary aim, you know, Samantha: to bring Danny over to the dark side."

Sam nodded. "I know. But he's never going to join you, and I fail to see how you could think a stunt like that would improve your chances."

"Oh Samantha, you have too much misplaced faith in your beau," Vlad chuckled sinisterly. "Look at him. I have him right where I want him."

Sam turned, and saw that Danny was sitting on the floor with a blank expression on his face. He was staring at nothing, utterly catatonic.

"Danny?" she ventured uncertainly.

"You!" Vlad gestured somewhere above his head, and his three vultures descended into view. "One of you take the painted whore home, and one of you take the Goth."

"No," said Sam, holding up her hand as one of the vultures approached her. "I'm not leaving him."

"You have no choice."

"I'm staying."

"Take her away."

"Hey!" objected Sam, as a vulture grabbed her by the shoulders and flew her away from Danny. Another vulture was some yards ahead of them with Paulina. "Danny! Wake up! None of this is your fault! There wasn't anything else you could have done! Don't listen to him, Danny! Whatever he says, don't listen!"

"You do talk a lot," remarked the vulture that was carrying her, as Danny and Vlad become a dot on the horizon.

"Shut up," snapped Sam. "Just shut the hell up. If he's not back home safe and sound by morning I'll… I'll…"

"There's nothing you can do, sweetheart," the vulture interrupted. "Just let me take you home and then try to get some sleep, huh? It's a school night, isn't it?"

"Damn it." Sam's face fell. "So it is."

x x x

Danny looked up as Vlad floated down to land in front of him. Somehow, without noticing, Danny had reverted to his human form.

"So what happens now?" he asked blankly.

"You haven't the energy to battle me, I suppose."

Danny shook his head.

"Very well." Vlad stooped lower, trying to meet Danny's eye. The boy was still slumped on the floor. "Let me teach you that splitting up trick."

Danny shook his head again.

"You could have saved them both."

"It's over now," said Danny. "What would be the point?"

"Suppose it happened again."

"You're planning on doing it again?"

"Perhaps not," said Vlad. "It worked a treat, though. I shall have to remember it."

Danny's expression suddenly turned black, and he jumped to his feet. "What do you mean, it worked a treat?" he demanded angrily. "Nothing came of it. You sent them both home. What exactly was this little stunt supposed to achieve?"

"Well," said Vlad, "for one thing, I know where your heart truly lies."

Danny sighed. "Paulina's just a piece of ass. Sam's my friend."

"That's all she is?" Vlad asked casually. "Just a friend?"

Danny laughed dryly. " 'Just a friend'. What a cliché. There's no such thing as 'just a friend', Plasmius. Sam is one of the most important people in my life. I'd do anything for my friends. But you don't really understand about friends." He looked Vlad in the eye. "Do you."

Vlad's eyes narrowed. "You would be wise not to anger me, boy."

"Admit it, Vlad: you screwed up," said Danny. "Your plan was to force me to save one of those girls and then live with the insufferable guilt of letting the other one plummet to her doom. Sam and I were right, weren't we: you don't have it in you."

Vlad's expression darkened, and he grabbed Danny's wrist in tight fist, making him cry out. "You'd be surprised," he snarled.

"Come on then." Danny gritted his teeth, and spoke through the pain. "Let's fight, if that's what you want. Again."

"You can never win. There are no clever devices here, Daniel. There's nothing to help you gain an advantage. There's nothing here but rock and magma."

"Magma is rock."

"Oh shut up," bristled Vlad. "I do admit, I didn't expect you to know that. You remind me terribly of your father sometimes."

"Let go of me," said Danny. "That kinda smarts."

"As you wish," Vlad said nastily, and he threw Danny across the length of the cave. He expected the boy to morph into his ghost form, at least to minimise injury even if he wasn't quick enough to save himself. However Danny didn't transform, and his human body hit the jagged edge of a large boulder with a sickening crack.

Vlad floated over to him. "I hardly dare ask."

"I can't," panted Danny. "I don't have the energy."

Vlad seemed to consider this for a moment. Then at last he said, "Oh no. I won't be outwitted by a C student. You're testing me, aren't you? You're trying to find out exactly what I am capable of."

Danny shook his head. "No. Really. I can't."

"It's a dangerous game, Daniel," said Vlad, dragging Danny to his feet.

x x x

The vulture dropped Sam in her bed, but she jumped straight out of it as soon as the bird had flown. She knew that Vlad wouldn't expect her to be able to charge in and somehow save Danny, and he was probably right. But nevertheless, she had to try.

As it was the middle of the night, she was able to sneak downstairs unnoticed. Once out of the front door, Sam made straight for Tucker's house. She didn't feel comfortable about roaming the streets alone at night, but felt reassured when she realised that she knew most of the unsavoury looking people lurking in the shadows, and they in turn seemed to respect her as a fellow Goth and creature of the night.

Sam picked up a handful of gravel from Tucker's driveway and threw it at his window. She had to do this a total of eight times before a bleary-eyed Tucker finally popped his head out of the window and said, "Uhh…?"

"Tucker!" hissed Sam. "Get down here! Danny's in trouble!"

Tucker, wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts, trudged downstairs in the fashion of a particularly tired zombie and opened the front door. He then ushered Sam inside, and led her up to his bedroom.

"So what's been going on?" he asked, when he was a little bit more awake.

Sam proceeded to tell the whole sorry story of what Vlad had done to her, Paulina and Danny, ending on an agitated note when she reported that Danny was alone with Vlad in that dangerous place.

"And the worst part is I don't even know where it is!" she squeaked. "I was knocked out on the way there, and I was trying to visualise our map of the ghost world on the way out, but there was no way I could keep track of where we were going because one green door looks pretty much like another. Oh God, Tucker, I should have paid more attention! I mean, how are we ever gonna find the lair of one dragon ghost in the entire Ghost Zone? It can't be done! Vlad could be doing anything to - "

"Did you say dragon ghost?" interrupted Tucker.

"Er… yeah…"

"Was the dragon ghost there?"

"No," said Sam. "No, it wasn't." She tried to remember exactly what Plasmius had said. "Vlad told us he had it imprisoned somewhere."

"Where does Vlad usually keep his prisoners?"

"I always assumed his basement, where he keeps his Ghost Portal. Tucker, what good is any of this going to…?"

Tucker didn't seem to be paying attention. He was booting up his computer.

"What are you doing?" demanded Sam.

"I want to find a number for animal control in Wisconsin."

"Animal control in Wisconsin? Are you insane?"

"Don't talk so loud, you'll wake my parents. Look, I've only got one idea how we can help Danny. Isn't it worth a shot?"

"Um… sure, I guess."

"Good."

Tucker had an extraordinary talent for finding anything he wanted on the Internet in under five minutes, and quickly found the number he was looking for. He was encouraged to see that the website promised calls would be taken any time of the day or night, and he immediately punched the number into his cell phone.

"Hello," Tucker said amiably, to the woman in Wisconsin who answered his call. Then his confidence wavered slightly when he realised that he didn't know Vlad's address. "Um, do you know the mansion of Vlad…?"

"Masters," hissed Sam, seeing his look of panic.

"Masters," echoed Tucker.

Fortunately the woman did know Vlad's mansion, as it and its owner were extremely famous in her neck of the woods.

"Good," Tucker sighed with relief. "I'm a little concerned about what he's doing in there. I think he might have some kind of animal which he's keeping prisoner in his basement. When I walk past his mansion, I hear this sort of… tortured roar, as though of a wild animal being kept in a cage and starved."

He cut a look at Sam, and caught her dubious expression.

"I happen to know that Mr. Masters is out tonight," Tucker continued. "I wondered if you could maybe go and check out his mansion…? What do you mean, you can't break in? Take a cop with you!"

Sam rolled her eyes.

"But it really is urgent," Tucker went on desperately. "Masters has… I saw him taking two kids into his house before he went away! If anything happens to them…"

To Sam's astonishment, Tucker finally persuaded whoever was on the other end of the phone line to send some guys into Vlad's mansion.

"You really think they'll let the dragon out?" asked Sam.

"We gotta hope so," said Tucker. "Come on – we'd better get over to Danny's place and see if there's anything else we can do."

x x x

Danny lay limp and breathless on the rocky edge of the cliff. His face shone and glowed in the heat of the lava beneath him. He shrank back as the menacing form of Vlad Plasmius loomed into view overhead.

"Why don't you fight back?" demanded Vlad.

"I can't," Danny said weakly.

"You can! This isn't some pro-social superhero cartoon in which your powers depend upon you having confidence in yourself or some such nonsense! You can transform."

Danny shook his head. "I don't feel like it."

"Oh, come now, you're being ridiculous…"

"Vlad, you've beaten me. I practically killed Paulina tonight. You were right: I'll never be as powerful as you. I can't win. I'm not doing this anymore."

Vlad cocked an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"

"Completely. Now leave me alone."

"How will you get home?"

"Do you care?" Danny sat up tentatively, and then shuffled away from the ravine. "Look, Vlad, I really think you could use some kind of help. You're so damn violent, and you're obviously deeply disturbed. What happened here tonight… was that really all about my mother?"

Afterwards, when the shock had worn off, Danny was disappointed that the interruption came at that precise moment. He was genuinely interested in Vlad's answer to his question. But no answer came. Instead Vlad cried out in terror as a large, translucent, angry looking red dragon swooped down upon them and gathered the folds of Plasmius' cape into its claws.

"Jesus Christ!" exclaimed Danny, as his arch-nemesis was carried helplessly into the darkness above. He had to duck as a torrent of flame descended from the shadows. It wasn't aimed at him, however; evidently the dragon didn't like the alteration Vlad had made to its lair. The stream of fire severed the dangling rope and sent it, the metal bar and the two parrot cages tumbling into the lava.

Danny really had felt too tired to morph into his ghost form, but he realised that this was his best chance of escape. He summoned what little energy still lurked in the furthest corners of his body, and prepared to fly out of there.

x x x

"I don't like being out this late with no protection," Tucker lamented, as he and Sam walked the distance to the Fentons' house. "I don't like the look of all these Goths."

"The Goths are nothing to worry about," Sam assured him. "It's the Chavs you wanna watch out for."

Danny had given both of his friends a key to his house for emergencies, and Tucker had had the foresight to take his with him. He was unlocking the front door at about the same moment Vlad's local animal protection service was puzzling over the strange creature locked in Vlad's basement, but letting it out in spite of their confusion because it was obviously in distress.

"What do we do now?" demanded Sam, once she and Tucker were standing uselessly in front of the Fenton Ghost Portal. "Should we go in and look for him?"

"Is that wise?" Tucker demurred. "I mean, you don't know where Danny is, and if he escapes while we're blundering around the Ghost Zone…"

"And how exactly is he going to do that?"

"Well, the Wisconsin people should have released the ghost dragon by now."

"And what if they haven't?" squeaked Sam, torn between expressing her emotions to their full extent and not waking the three sleeping Fentons upstairs. "It's a ghost dragon, for Christ's sake! No sensible person just lets out a - "

"I'll call them and see if I can find out what's going on," Tucker said soothingly, whipping out his cell phone. He pressed the redial button and put the phone to his ear. "Hello. This is the concerned citizen who called you about the strange noises coming from the basement of Vlad Masters. I wondered if you could give me a progress report."

"Well, you were right," said the woman on the other end of the line, sounding very tentative about handing over this information. "He was keeping a very strange animal down there. We don't know what it was, but it was clearly in distress."

"Did you set it free?"

"Well, yes, but never mind that. Something puzzles me. We have caller ID here, and it says you're calling from out of area, so I don't see how you could - "

"Thanks, bye." Tucker quickly hung up, and then turned to Sam with a reassuring smile. "Well, they let the dragon go."

"They did?" Sam raised her eyebrows. "Well, we lucked out there… assuming it's gone home and started kicking the crap out of Plasmius."

"Why wouldn't it?" Tucker said reasonably. "That's what I'd do."

Sam cut a glance at the Ghost Portal. "How long are we prepared to wait?"

They waited an anxious ten minutes before Danny Phantom finally emerged from the portal. He immediately transformed, and sat down heavily on the ground.

"Oh my God, Danny!" exclaimed Sam, when she saw the state he was in. "The dragon didn't attack you, did it?"

Danny raised his eyes and looked at her from underneath strands of black hair. "How do you know about that?" he asked.

Clearly the time had come to exchange stories. Tucker explained his unlikely yet successful plan about arranging the dragon's release from Vlad's basement. Sam then asked Danny whether he was comfortable with her telling Tucker about what had transpired in the dragon's lair, and Danny gave his permission with a half-hearted wave of the hand.

"Wow, man, that's pretty heavy," remarked Tucker. By this time he and Sam had joined Danny on the floor. "Are you ok?"

"Do I look ok?" snapped Danny.

"Whoa," said Tucker, slightly taken aback. "Sorry."

"You look terrible," said Sam. "What the hell happened to you after I'd gone?"

Danny shrugged. "Vlad happened to me." His voice betrayed no emotion. "I couldn't go ghost. I don't know what it was… I just didn't want to. After what happened in there… I don't think I can do this anymore, guys."

Tucker opened his mouth to protest, but Sam silenced him with a severe look.

"Did you hear what I said back there?" she asked. "It wasn't your fault."

"I'm not good enough," Danny said simply.

"You're getting better all the time."

"I killed Paulina."

"She's not dead."

Danny shook his head. "I killed her, Sam. Vlad saved her. How twisted is that?"

Sam didn't know what to say. The trio sat in silence for a while, until at last Sam grabbed Danny's hand and said, "Thank you for saving me."

Danny managed a small smile. "You didn't really think I'd choose Paulina over you, did you?"

Sam smiled back. "I guess not."

"Hey," Tucker interrupted. "I hate to break up this little moment you two are having, but we got a problem. Well, Danny, you got a problem. How are you gonna explain the state you're in to your parents? They'll probably think you snuck out in the middle of the night and got beaten up by a bunch of Chavs or something."

"Don't worry," Sam said confidently, jumping to her feet. "I'll nip home and get some makeup. We'll cover up those bumps and bruises and have you looking so sick your parents won't make you go to school tomorrow."

"Ugh, school tomorrow," groaned Tucker.

Danny also rose to his feet, a lot more slowly than Sam had done, inhibited both by his injuries and his depleted spirits. "I'll fly you there," he said.

Sam raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure?"

"I don't want to," said Danny, "but it'll be ten times quicker."

Sam was only slightly concerned about Danny's reluctance to use his powers. She was confident that he would change his mind soon enough, and even if he did need her and Tucker's help, that could wait until the next ghost attack. She clasped her arms tightly around Danny's waist, and he draped an arm around her shoulders.

"Want a lift home, Tuck?" asked Danny, as he prepared to go ghost. The long sit-down had allowed him to recharge his energy.

"Sure, thanks." Tucker yawned ostentatiously. "I'd like to try and get some sleep tonight, if it's all the same to you."

x x x

Sam's practised use of Goth makeup made Danny look pretty sick, and besides this Maddie could tell that her son wasn't his usual energetic self. It was a Friday; Danny took the day off school, and then spent most of Saturday moping around in his room. Sam called him in the afternoon and tried to persuade him to go out with her and Tucker that evening.

"I don't think so," was Danny's reply.

"You're not going to turn into some sort of agoraphobic, are you?" asked Sam.

"No," said Danny, acutely aware of just how much he didn't want to go out. "Look, I'll tell you what: I'll meet you guys at Nasty Burger tomorrow and we can talk about my ost-gay owers-pay."

"What do you mean?"

"Well that is why you're so eager to see me, isn't it? To persuade me not to give up and stuff like that?"

"Honestly, Danny, we're your friends," and she hung up.

In spite of this little exchange, however, Sam's frosty feelings towards Danny did not last long, and the meeting at Nasty Burger went ahead.

"How are you feeling?" asked Tucker.

"Better," said Danny. "Much better. You know, I'm beginning to wonder about Vlad. Do you think that dragon… you know… did anything to him?"

Sam shrugged, and bit a large chunk out of her burger. "He pwobwy juff deffided to leave you awone affer what you fed," she garbled, spraying Danny with burger bun crumbs as she spoke.

"Maybe." Danny sounded dubious. "But I would have thought he'd at least check up on me. Oh no!" This as he started to spew thin trails of visible blue breath. "If it's anything really nasty I suppose I'm going to have to - "

"HEEEEELP!"

Danny ran to the door, and immediately saw that Paulina was being menaced by a large salivating green wolf. He then ran to the restroom, transformed into Danny Phantom and flew through the roof, thermos at the ready.

"Oh, it's you!" As soon as Paulina caught sight of him, she seemed to forget that she was being attacked by a vicious animalistic ghost. "I don't need help from the likes of you, Inviso-Bill!"

Seeing that the wolf was seemingly about to slice Paulina into three or four pieces with its large claws, Danny opened up the thermos and sucked the beast inside.

Paulina looked furious. "I could have handled it!"

Danny landed beside her. "Look, Paulina…" he began awkwardly. "About the other night…"

"The other night!" fumed Paulina. "What the hell came over you the other night? Why in Giorgio Armani's name would you choose a nobody like her over me?"

Danny cut a glance at Nasty Burger, and saw that Sam was watching him from the doorway. "Her life isn't worth any less than yours, you know," he said.

"Huh," muttered Paulina, and for a moment she looked about to argue. However she simply said, "Is it worth more?"

"Of course not," Danny said weakly.

"Why, Inviso-Bill?" She no longer seemed angry, but deeply hurt. "I thought we had something special! I thought you liked me!"

"I did! I… I mean, I do… I… I…" He gave up. "Look… I really am sorry about the other night. Are you ok?"

"Like you care," snapped Paulina. "You didn't even come to check up on me."

"I thought you wouldn't want to see me."

"You thought right, creep. Leave me alone."

Paulina turned on her heel, making a point of flicking her shampoo commercial hair, and flounced off down the street. Danny sighed, taking a few moments to watch her go, and then went to join Sam in the doorway of Nasty Burger.

"Looks like you lost your girl," Sam said dryly.

"I deserved it," said Danny. "I really messed her around, didn't I?"

Sam nodded. "Yee-up."

"I feel really guilty. I've been such a jerk."

"Yeah."

Danny scowled. "You're not helping."

"You only said it to be contradicted," retorted Sam. "And I refuse to indulge you, because you have been a jerk. But don't sweat it. Everybody's a jerk sometimes."

"I guess," said Danny.

"And at least you weren't a jerk on purpose, like some people."

"Vlad."

"Well, I was thinking of Dash, but yeah. So…"

Danny looked at her expectantly.

"Does this mean Danny Phantom's back?"

Danny sighed deeply. "I guess he'll have to be," he said, not sounding at all sure of himself, but in his heart he knew what had to be done. "I mean, I can't go around letting innocent people get killed by ghost wolves and stuff."

"No," agreed Sam, slightly concerned about the lapse in her friend's confidence and hoping it would pass. "That would be a really jerky thing to do."

"I'd better go to the restroom and get changed."

Sam smiled. "We'll be waiting."

THE END