Finally! GJP has full and total control of the Quantum Keyboard he swiped from Ghost Writer! Sigh, if only…

Anyway, thanks to Ghostboy814, MoonrockBlink1772 and Tetsukon for reviewing; Pterodactyl for favoriting me and Flashx11, phantomshadowdragon and timydamonkey for adding me to their alert lists. Your support is much appreciated.

Disclaimer: Butch Hartman owns Danny Phantom and all relations; this chapter's villain is an aspiring creation of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; Flare is my own fabrication.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

-George Santayana

Jones, Rudy Jones. That was his name once, wasn't it? Yes...yes, that had been his name long ago...before his accident.

He remembered being a janitor and not being able to make his economic ends meet. He had been forced to turn to crime; he had been forced to steal...something.

Then he turned into Parasite-No, wait! There was more before that; wasn't there? Chemicals...there were chemicals; that was it! He had attempted to make off with some chemicals but they-they spilled on him. Yes, he remembered! He remembered how scared he had been and how much pain he'd been in as the violet, unstable liquids had poured over him. And he had yelled-yelled at who? There had been someone else there; someone who'd been calling the shots; someone who had...who had left him there to die when the chemicals spilled.

"You messed me up for the last time, you stupid, little parasite."

Then what happened...Memories, there were so many memories flooding into his head all at once, so many that he couldn't sort them all out. He had found that he could use, no, absorb the different energies of people and manipulate them as his own. But time, time had been his weakness; he could only keep the energies for barely a day before they returned to their owners and then he was reduced to nothing again.

"You hear that, Rudy, he's willing to sacrifice you!"

Wait-who was that? That voice! He knew that voice; so many of his mixed-up memories contained that voice, but whose was it? It belonged to someone important, someone powerful; someone who had been trouble.

He racked his brains for a name, an image, anything that could identify the man with that voice, but nothing came forward.

Suddenly another rush of recall surged forth; he had been on a ship, and-and there were others there, too. Others like him, who had turned to crime, and there was a fight. A revolt or something? Yeah, that was it! Two people had divided them all; he'd been on the losing side, apparently. The last thread of that memory was a bluish woman and... ice and then it all ended.

But if it all ended then where was he now? He couldn't be alive; he sure didn't feel alive. In fact, he hardly felt anything at all. No warmth, no breath and no pulse. His eyes shot open as the last of the three dawned on him. If he had no pulse, then...he was over, dead, defeated, but why was he in this place?

"The way I see it, you're dead either way."

He looked around him and became overwhelmed and disoriented by his surroundings. He couldn't call it a world, for it seemed to have no sky or ground, or atmosphere, for that matter. Mind you, atmosphere would probably be the closest word to describe this place. There were doors, different doors hovering all through the area and green, swirling waves snaking their paths through the black, colorless air. He looked beyond the nearby doors and saw floating vessels; islands, buildings, castles, all suspended by unknown means.

He then looked to himself, and was surprised, despite the fact that he still had partial memories of his mutated form.

"Don't you recognize me, Marty? It's your old doormat, Rudy Jones!"

For starters, he was naked right down to his feet, but his glowing, purple skin, a bonus from the chemicals shrouded any 'indecencies'. His hair was gone, too; there didn't seem to be a single follicle on his body, which created an even further 'inhuman' effect. Also across his body were thick white lines, around his wrists, thighs, stomach and a large one winding across his chest to behind his neck. He was still slightly surprised, but relieved quickly as he remembered that this was how he'd been when he was alive. But there were other things, too, things he didn't remember.

He was glowing, not the light violet glow that he gave off when he absorbed people, but a pure white glow that coated his entire being. And he felt strange, as well, like he was incomplete or not fully formed; like only a part of him was there. As he examined himself, it was then that he realized that he, like everything else around him, was floating, but he wasn't even trying to; it was like it was natural, or supernatural, in this case.

"That's how it is with a parasite; I can't keep what I take."

Rudy Jones, The Parasite: created in an accident with unsteady chemicals, able to take a victim's energies with a single touch and died, frozen to death, on a spaceship for reasons he still didn't fathom. He had had an enemy, someone he still couldn't remember, but he would find him, steal his power and exact his old score. But to do that, he'd have to find a way back to Earth, which this place, this 'zone', most certainly wasn't.

"Mom, for the last time: I'm not wearing it!"

"But Sammy-kins, you'd look so adorable in it!"

"Adorable like the 'meaningful, once-in-a-lifetime' adorable or adorable like 'the media's lewd perception of the female form' adorable?" Sam asked, looking for something in one of the mall's various clothing stores that she might actually consider wearing in public.

Her mother, Pam, sighed and draped the flowery, ankle-length sundress over her forearm, thinking that she could talk Sam into it later.

"Honestly, Sammy-kins, I don't know what your problem is with these darling, little dresses."

"How 'bout the fact that I like walking around without a bag over my head all day?" Sam stopped for a moment to look over a bracelet shaped like a tarantula, with the twisted legs meant to grip around the wrist.

"But, sweetie, you're always going on about how looks shouldn't truly matter and how people should think more of another's intelligence and spirit. Now unless you're going to admit that you're wrong..."

"I'm not wrong, Mom; too many people spend so much time perfecting the outside, that by the time they're actually happy with it they've got nothing desirable left on the inside."

"So you'll wear the dress then?" her mother inquired, holding it back up for Sam to see.

"Not a chance." Sam added the tarantula bracelet to her basket and then noticed a watch in the shape of a vampire bat with two sets of wings.

"How do you know that Danny wouldn't like it?" Pamela Manson inquired. She almost smirked when her daughter dropped the watch to the floor in surprise.

Sam quickly regained herself, and picked up the watch to see that it wasn't broken. "First off, he wouldn't like it, and second, it doesn't matter if he did, because we don't think of each other like that."

"Mm-hmm," Pam muttered, smiling and rolling her eyes, "right."

"We don't!"

"Sweetie, you can tell yourself and all your little school-friends that all you want, but don't think that you can honestly trick a mother regarding her daughter's affections; it's just not done!"

"I've found what I wanted!" Sam nearly yelled, desperate to change the subject. "Let's go."

"Huh, clueless," Pamela murmured, heading after her daughter for the checkout.

As soon as Sam reached the checkout counter, her ears caught two familiar voices that she hadn't counted on hearing.

"Johnny, please, just pay him! We don't need to cause a scene!"

Sam's head swiveled to the side and locked on to none other than Kitty and Johnny 13, the latter holding a swanky-looking necklace in his hand inside the mall's jewelry store.

"Hm, some people just can't go anywhere in public without causing a fuss," Mrs. Manson commented.

'You have no idea,' thought Sam, reaching into her backpack for her cellphone and dialing a number she had known since the third grade.

"Why pay good money?" inquired Johnny. "We'll just do this the old-fashioned way. Shadow, attack!"

To anyone who wasn't a ghost or ghost hunter, it was very shocking to see a slimy, green-eyed blob of a shadow rise from the ground and take on its own form. It grabbed the store's cashier and threw him out of the establishment and into a nearby popcorn stand. No one needed any bidding to get out of there ASAP, as the two Manson women soon found themselves the only people left, besides the unconscious cashier.

"Ghosts?" questioned Pam. "We'd better call the Fentons!" She reached into her purse for her own cellphone.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Mom!" Sam grabbed her mother's cell and jammed it into her backpack. "We'd better take cover instead!" She ducked down beside the front of the counter and her matriarch quickly followed suit; the both laid down quietly on their stomachs and observed the otherworldly duo, and their shade of a lackey.

"You can never just lay low, can you?" asked Kitty, as Johnny swiped a few more sparkly accessories.

"Laying low is your style, not mine, now let's get outta here!" Johnny grabbed his girlfriend by the wrist and ran out of the small enterprise, his Shadow trailing behind. They never even made it to the mall entrance when a green blast shot through the glass doors, struck Johnny in the chest and knocked him to the tiled floor.

Johnny rose slowly, his chest aching from the pressure and his eyes met with those of the white-haired, black-jumpsuited ghost boy, Danny Phantom.

"Think again, punk!" Danny said, and cast a glance Kitty's way that said, 'Stay out of the way.' The green-haired girl readily complied and moved back against the wall.

'He must be getting faster,' thought Sam, 'I couldn't have called him more than a minute ago.'

"Aw, dude, don't you ever take a day off?" asked Johnny, rising to his feet.

"I was, actually, but then I got a tip that you were causing a scene again." Danny looked behind Johnny to one of the clothes stores. Johnny followed his gaze and saw Sam waving gingerly from her hiding spot and grinning at him.

"Oh, so your girlfriend called you in," muttered Johnny.

"She's/I'm not my/his girlfriend!" Both Sam and Danny shouted in unison, earning a strange look from Mrs. Manson.

"Whatever, let's just get this over with," decided Johnny. "And I've got something new to show you…"

"What? You're going to start showering regularly?" shot Danny.

"No! I mean…crud! Shadow, get over here!" The semi-formless creature obeyed and took its place facing Danny in front of its master.

Johnny tensed his body, like he was bracing for something and clutched at his head as his entire body starting to glow an eerie, dark green.

"Uh, Johnny," Kitty spoke up, sounding nervous, "are you sure you should be doing this?"

"Not now, baby, I'm concentrating!" grunted Johnny, fighting to keep his eyes open and maintain focus on whatever it was he was doing.

The biker's glowing, green irises started dilating; they kept getting small and smaller as the whites of his eyes grew and flooded over the green and black of his irises and pupils. As this was happening, his ghostly glow expanded out from his form, growing larger and larger until it was at least twice the size of his body.

All of a sudden, two white beams shot out of Johnny's eyes, and stopped in midair a few feet beside his Shadow, who was watching attentively like the other four attendants. Then the green glow of Johnny's body began leaving Johnny to surround the beams still shooting from his eyes. In mere seconds, all but the faint glow Johnny usually possessed was gone and waving around the white eye beams like it was attracted to the light.

Johnny ceased the eye beams, and promptly dropped to his knees from exhaustion, but grinning up at the two lights that seemed to be mingling together. Suddenly there was a huge flash, and all had to shield their eyes, while the Shadow had to dive for cover to avoid being wiped out.

When the flash ended and Danny's eyes re-adjusted, he saw before him the fruit of Johnny's labour. Before him was a being with the same shape as the greasy ghost's Shadow but instead of darkness, consisted of pure light, switching between the dark green and clear white that Johnny had contributed, and stood, or floated, at least ten feet tall. It seemed to be growling quietly at Danny, already identifying him as his master's enemy.

Johnny's Shadow slowly resumed his post beside the light creature, cautiously as it didn't appear to trust the bright aura emanating from it, and faced Danny with a primitive look of triumph.

"Well, runt, pant, meet my new hired hand, gasp." Johnny's breath was staggered as he introduced his creation. "Now, wheeze, I have Shadow, pant, and 'Flare'. Rip him to pieces!"

Shadow and Flare roared in massive, echoed bellows as they charged at their adolescent target, now up against two opponents, one of which Danny had no idea how to fight.

"Oh, crap."

The Parasite's ghost had spent nearly two hours searching this 'Ghost Zone', and hadn't found anything that even looked like a way back to Earth, and worse, he now had the ghostly Police searching for him for not having proper registration. Was it his fault that he remembered, like, a fifth of his life?

He managed to escape the cops, nothing a little ectoplasmic energy absorption hadn't been able to handle, and he also discovered something new about his powers, something that he was sure he hadn't had in his former life. When he sucked the energies of the guards through his hands, he found that he could change his appearance. He could perfectly mimic those that he absorbed, right down to their clothes, eyes and voice, and just like when he was alive, he gained their powers, thoughts and memories, the last of the three now coming in handy for his pilgrimage through the Ghost Zone. However, he knew he would have to act fast; ghost or not, the energies he absorbed were temporary and he needed them if he wanted a way out of this place.

The Parasite began sorting through the different doors, using the guards' knowledge to make out who each one belonged to. So far he'd gone across Ember McLean's and Desiree's doors, Sydney Poindexter's out-of-date school and Skulker's island, with no real chance of a course back to Earth. That was when he found one that seemed promising.

Like many others, it was a deathly, metallic, purple door, this one having a circular eye mark carved into the middle with thin streaks streaming out from the different points around the circumference. He racked his brains, and those of the guards, to find its owner and quickly discovered it.

Nicolai Technus: A green-skinned, long, mullet-haired ghost, recently upgraded and always sporting sunglasses, that had the ability to control any matter of technology and manipulate it to his whims. But he usually used the different tidbits of electronics to fashion himself a working body, which usually didn't work out too well.

He entered the levitating door, and gazed inside, instantly surprised at how much room one of these smallish doors could house. Inside were thousands of gadgets, implements, gears and doodads strewn across dusty tables, the walls were covered with different photos of the tech-based ghost, obviously having a high opinion of himself, and the odd pictures of a white-haired teenage boy, most of those having darts pierced into them in frustration.

Although the boy caught Parasite's attention for some reason, he forced himself to concentrate on finding anything that could send him home. It was amazing how much junk this Technus had cluttered in his lair: ecto-gun, ghost shield, face-to-ratio ecto-rifle with a 40-watt range, the list went on and on, and the ex-janitor still couldn't find anything that seemed remotely useful.

"Hey, what are you doing in my lair?" a nasally voice demanded.

Parasite twisted around and came face-to-face with a very irritated Nicolai Technus. Wasting no time, the former Rudy Jones jumped him and brought his hands to the tech spirit's neck.

"Hey, what do you think you're-you're…you're…" Technus trailed off as both electric and ectoplasmic powers were siphoned out of his system and drained into Parasite's.

Technus lost consciousness in a matter of seconds and Parasite dropped him haphazardly to the floor, now having all that he needed. For the spiritual sycophant now possessed not only Nicolai's domain over technology, but almost every ounce of his knowledge and experience. And with those two qualities, he knew what he required to return to the human plain.

Sorting through the cornucopia of remotes, weapons and appliances, Parasite revealed his salvation: The Tech-Hopper, a sleek, black remote that when fired at any mechanism can open a portal to Earth through any other mechanism of the same basic construction. Parasite also discovered that it had already been set to a mall TV inside a place called Amity Park.

Parasite looked back around at the different posters of the white-haired boy that Technus seemed obsessed about, many of the posters read, 'The Ghost Boy of Amity Park.' Parasite searched the memories he had taken and quickly established the Ghost Boy's identity. A hero of a ghost-no, wait! - Half-ghost; somehow this boy was both living and dead and seemed to be causing a lot of trouble for Parasite's 'donor.'

Hero…why did that word stick in his mind?

A blur passed through Parasite's head, of a red cape and an…S? A man had worn those, hadn't he? A large man...with short, black hair and a blue uniform-wearing-wearing the S on his chest and the red cape behind him.

But no, that didn't make any sense. Still, this Ghost Boy posed an interest for him; maybe he was worth checking out, so why not go through with Technus' plan and send himself to Amity Park through a TV?

He looked around for a television that he could use and spotted a small, portable one leaning against a battered microwave. He aimed the Tech-Hopper at the mini-TV and fired, instantaneously finding himself being compressed and dragged towards the small screen until he disappeared completely; leaving only the mess of machinery and a weakened Technus behind.

Everything around Parasite flew by as he was transferred from one television to the other until he saw the dim light coming from the other screen. He wasn't about to blow up his victory of escape by being captured so he used the experience of the guards and Technus; flexed the proper muscles and turned himself invisible before he exited the mall TV.

Light, it was almost blinding, but so warm and inviting after his time in the lifeless Ghost Zone. It took several moments for his small, white eyes to adjust to the brightness and once done, he realized he didn't have far to go to find the Ghost Boy.

Parasite was on the second level just outside the electronics store and there were huge crashes and the sounds of battle down below him. Staying invisible, he floated to the edge of the floor and looked down onto the scene.

Below him were seven people, not counting a knocked-out cashier lying on an over-turned popcorn dispenser. Two were human, and if he had to guess he'd say that they were mother and daughter; a quick delve into Technus' memories informed him that the younger of the two was an ally of the Ghost Boy.

The other five were all ghosts, even he could tell that. One was a blonde, long-haired biker punk dressed in a trench-coat and looking contented but tired; another was a green-haired, red leather-wearing girl on the sidelines with an uncertain expression on her small face. Two of the others had the same basic shape but looked to be polar opposites as one was totally black and the other was a much larger, pure white entity with an odd string of green pulsing through it. These two seemed to be enjoying themselves by pounding on the last ghost, the infamous Ghost Boy.

"Shadow and Flare, huh?" said the Ghost Boy, dodging a swipe from the light monster. "Did you come up with that yourself, Johnny, or did Kitty have to go through a dictionary for you?" Danny then noted that his Ghost Sense had gone off, but dismissed it as a late warning for Johnny's two cronies.

"Hey, what's wrong with Flare? Short, sweet and to the point, just like me...minus the short part," Johnny explained, quite happy with his 'children.'

The Parasite listened to their exchanges of witty banter while he watched the fight between the three ghosts; his attention becoming more and more consumed by the green-eyed Ghost Boy. As the teenager evaded a thrashing from the Shadow, more images began flooding Parasite's mind, of another person fighting, or was it another person?

The Ghost Boy suddenly blasted back the Shadow and then delivered an uppercut to the 'Flare', initiating another torrent of images into the Parasite. He recalled fighting with someone as the Shadow and Flare fought with the Ghost Boy now; he remembered being beaten by... the red caped man with the red S, but, no, that still didn't make any sense to him.

Flare let loose with an earsplitting screech that forced everyone present to shield their ears; the power unleashed through the sound vibrations collided with the store the two women were in, and the ceiling above them began to cave in.

"Sam!" Ghost Boy cried; he rocketed forward, bowling through the Shadow that tried to block his path and landed in the store, grabbed on to the women and made all three of them intangible to escape the descending crash.

He then flew them out away from the rubble and set them down a few feet away. At that moment, time seemed to freeze for Parasite as it dawned on him.

He knew why the Ghost Boy intrigued him; he'd seen him before, fought with him, hadn't he? Yes...yes, of course he had! The red caped, S-man must be some dream or an old figment of his imagination, for it was this child that he knew.

His warped brain slowly erased the likeness of the S-man and replaced him with someone else.

The red cape and blue uniform faded and were traded for a simple black jumpsuit with grayish-white gloves, boots and waistband.

The short, black hair decompiled and reformed into a semi-messy head of snowy white hair on a much younger head.

The small, dark eyes shifted into larger, glowing green orbs, shimmering with youth and adolescent determination.

And the red S modified, becoming smaller and reshaping, until the red disappeared into clear white and the S was left as a D, specially written to have a minute P inside of it.

The Ghost Boy, Danny Phantom; it had to be a fake name, for now he knew the true character of this figure; he always would as this was the man that he had spent a lifetime hating, and would spend an after-lifetime seeking his destruction.

"Superman..."

Interesting idea, huh? Parasite being so twisted up that he thinks DP is the Man of Steel. You like? If so, or even if you don't, please tell me; I wanna know.

Those of you who watch JLU probably know that Parasite was frozen by Killer Frost before being blown up by Darkseid on Luthor's hip, so that's where the 'ice' comes from earlier in the story.

I'm so sorry that this took so long! I wanted it up like two weeks ago, but my workload coupled with my rejected ideas kinda threw me off course.

I'd like to apologize for those who voted for 'Mirror Master' in MR's poll; I tried writing a chapter for him, but it was just too difficult. But I should be able to write him in somewhere; I already have a workable idea for the Trickster.

But wow! I only planned for this chapter to be one part, not two! Geez! Hopefully, the second part won't take as long to get up! Oh, and my request still stands; if you have any DC villain that you want to see here just write it in with a review and I'll see what I can do.