Danny was trying to make sure he understood everything correctly. He had just been knocked unconscious somehow after visiting Mr. Compton when a ghost suddenly came out of nowhere and attacked. Now that he woke up, Danny thought he was standing in the mansion of Count Xissil Van Horrick.

The giant room he was in looked very empty and lifeless. The floors were solid marble, and the walls were made of some very strong concrete. The room itself had no light coming from it, but there was enough light from outside to illuminate the inside of the room. There was nothing really spectacular about the room, since there was no furniture in it.

When looking out the window, Danny saw that there was absolutely nothing around him in the ghost zone. The building he was in was truly just something sticking out in the middle of nowhere. Completely empty and creepy rooms, in a random building a long way from anything else in the ghost zone-it was definitely Horrick's mansion.

"Sheesh, I gotta get out of here!" Danny said to himself when he was able to move around again. He bolted towards the door leading out of the room and opened it. But, to his unpleasant surprise, there were several doors along the side walls, and the corridor only led to a dead end. With over ten doors to choose from, Danny had no idea which one he should go through.

The hardest part was that Danny was positive that even if he chose the correct door that would lead him to the front of the house, there was probably going to be an entirely new set of doors, and he'd have to try his luck again to get through those ones.

For the longest time, all Danny could hear was the sound of him running through the empty hall, opening up the doors and slamming them shut. His heavy breathing also echoed off the empty walls, but he didn't have to hear his footsteps echoing due to the fact the floor he was running on was carpeted and was absorbing the sound.

Danny kept opening door after door, only to get frustrated to find he was somewhere like a broom closet or in another winding hallway.

"Come on, what does that Horrick guy need all these rooms for, anyway!" Danny yelled. "He can't settle for just a bedroom and a bathroom like I have to?"

Danny continued running down the seemingly endless hallways, looking for the way out of this monster of a house. Running through all the long, twisting hallways was just like trying to run through a maze. And right now, maze running was not something Danny had any interest in doing.

Finally, Danny found a room that led into another huge room, but in the center of one of the walls to the big room was a giant door. There was a window next to the door and Danny saw that right outside the window was a clear view of the ghost zone. That giant door was actually the way out!

Danny was happy at first, but then he saw a very disturbing sight that ruined his happy mood. Standing in that massive room with the only door to escape was Count Xissil Van Horrick, the ghost that was giving Danny a lot of trouble the past week.

But the disturbing surprises didn't end there. Once he saw Van Horrick was there, he turned to the side and saw that Aria was standing there.

"Aria!" Danny yelled. "But…"

Still, the shocks didn't end there. Danny saw a third figure in the room, and this one brought the greatest shock of them all.

"…Mr. Compton?" Danny asked, not believing what his eyes were telling him.

Yes, Danny's new neighbor, Mr. Compton, was standing there. His neutral face now had a glimpse of evil in it that Danny had never noticed before. In fact, all three of them were staring at Danny with the same evil glare. It was then Danny knew that the three of them were in on something that he wasn't supposed to know about, and clearly didn't.

"What's going on!" Danny yelled, passing all three of them furious glances. "Aria! Mr. Compton! What are you doing with this guy?"

"Oh, please," Horrick said in a cocky tone. "You honestly can't tell me you haven't caught on? Oh, and I thought you were telling me how great you were."

"I…" was the only thing Danny could say. He knew that there was obviously something going on, and he was going to find out what.

"All three of you were in on this," Danny hissed, talking to them as if they were employees of his who he was about to fire. "Why! What is it that you want with me!"

"It's very simple," Horrick said, his grim face turning into a hideous sneer. "I need to sever the link between you and me."

"Sever the link?" Danny asked, not knowing what that meant. He then quickly passed his attention towards Mr. Compton. "And what do you think you're doing!"

"Heh. You really thought you could fool me?" Mr. Compton asked. "I'm actually pretty disappointed, Danny. I thought you would have enough common sense to not go from your human half to your ghost half in broad daylight on a public street."

"You…what?" Danny asked, still confused.

"Remember the first time you met me?" Aria said. Her voice no longer seemed sweet and innocent, but more wicked and deceptive. Her sad expression now looked like she was about to see someone she hated about to go into a torture chamber. "When you transformed in plain sight?"

"Yes, I was watching," Mr. Compton said. "How fortunate for me to have been looking out the window at that exact moment!"

Danny didn't know what to say. Aria was obviously deceiving him from the start, and Mr. Compton had known for the past few days that Danny was part ghost. But Horrick's role in all of this, though, was still unknown.

"Perhaps you don't understand," Horrick said. "I have been trying to look for you for the past week or so. I insisted on asking everybody on your street and on other roads if they had any information on Danny Phantom's whereabouts. Lo and behold, I stumble across your good neighbor, Mr. Compton."

Compton just began smiling at the remark, but still kept the insane look on his face.

"I am so confused!" Danny yelled. "Why were you looking for me, anyway?"

"You know, Danny," Compton said, clasping his dry, starting-to-wrinkle hands together, "the very night I saw you turn into your ghost half when you first met Aria, this Van Horrick fellow came to my house and demanded information on where he could find you."

"And you told him!" Danny raged. "Aren't neighbors supposed to look after one another! You know, you are the exact opposite of a Mr. Rogers-type neighbor!"

"Calm down, Danny," Compton said, still keeping the sneer on his face. "I told him I knew about someone with your powers, but I refused to tell him who it was at first. But then he threatened to kill me, so I told him."

Now that Danny knew Horrick had made a death threat to Compton if he refused to give away information about Danny being the Ghost Boy, he had a bit more mercy for him. But, that feeling soon went away.

"Hold on a second!" Danny yelled, looking at Compton. "You knew this would happen, didn't you! You knew Horrick or Aria would come looking for me, so you invited me over your house to let my guard down!"

"My, aren't you smart," Aria said, sounding more and more evil with each word that came passed her lips. "That ghost that set off your ghost sense…was me. I fired a blast of energy at the back of your head to knock you out cold."

"And you knew she was going to be here?" Danny yelled, looking at Compton. "You didn't want to talk about ghost hunting or getting to know me when you invited me over your house! You wanted me over so you could get my guard down and to make sure my parents didn't interfere! You set me up!"

Danny couldn't believe it. Mr. Compton had willingly let Aria and Horrick take him hostage, even though there didn't seem to be any threats made that time. It was a terrible thought for Danny, knowing that his neighbor not only gave away his deepest, darkest secret to a ghost, but then helped them capture him to do whatever they wanted with him.

It all seemed complex to Danny, but at the same time, so obvious. Aria was looking for Danny (for some unknown reason), and found him just on the streets. At that exact same moment, Compton had been looking out his window and saw Danny morph into his ghost form the first time he met Aria. Compton later used that information to save himself when Horrick came barging into his house that same night to demand any information Compton had about who the Ghost Boy was. And then Mr. Compton invited Danny over his house to make it easier to catch him without anyone interfering while at the same time keeping his guard low.

Why Horrick wanted to capture Danny so much was still unknown, though.

Now, all three of Danny's new enemies were beginning to chuckle, and Danny was just getting more and more angry. When Aria, Compton and Horrick saw that they were making Danny angry, they only insisted on pushing his patience even further. Danny had enough of it and put both of his fists out in front of him like he was sparring. His two fists ignited into deep balls of green fire and ectoplasma.

"Oh, what might this be?" Aria asked, slightly surprised.

"Are you going to teach me a lesson?" Horrick asked in baby-talk, doing his best to make Danny as irritated as possible. "You want to fight big, bad me?"

"You know what I'm gonna do!" Danny yelled. "You all are in this together, so I'm taking all three of you on, right here and now!"

All three of Danny's new foes had surprised looks on their face. They weren't expecting Danny to actually want to battle the three of them simultaneously, especially since he was probably stronger than all of them.

Danny started by running over to Compton and giving him to quick punches in the face, and then a solid bash right between the eyes. Mr. Compton fell backwards on the ground. He looked like a rag doll and was lying completely motionless, no signs of breathing at all.

"If there's one thing I learned from all the bosses I've battled in video games, it's that you always take out the weaker ones first so there aren't any distractions," Danny said.

He turned his attention back towards Aria and Horrick. Both of them were clearly worried, especially when Danny started charging up a blast of energy in his hand and kept changing his mind about whether or not he was going to fire it at Horrick or Aria.

Danny finally stopped and fired a blast at Van Horrick. Horrick screamed in pain as the heavy blast knocked him to the ground. Danny then sprung up in the air and landed himself on top of Horrick as he lay on the ground.

Danny began punching Horrick several times in the face, leaving the ghost with no option but to lie there helplessly and take as many hits as Danny wanted to give him. Finally, Danny jumped into the air and fired a blast right at Horrick's head. Danny landed on the ground and saw Horrick now lying motionless, just like Compton.

He turned his attention away from Horrick quickly and was now staring at Aria. She had a terrified look on her face as Danny started walking towards her faster and faster, fury lighting up his green eyes.

"So, are you going to let me pummel you like those other two did, or are you actually going to put up a fight?" Danny asked aggressively as he continued to walk towards her.

Aria's terrified expression only got more obvious as Danny kept walking towards her, knowing that he wanted nothing more than to tear her limb from limb.

But without warning, Aria fired a blast of energy at Danny and hit him in the chest. Danny got knocked back, and Aria started floating into the air, ready to make a series of attacks that she hoped would drop Danny's guard.

Unfortunately for her, Danny was a step ahead. He instead charged up into the air and rammed his fist into her as hard as she could. She screaming in pain as she fell to the ground, completely defenseless.

As she collapsed onto the ground, Danny flew down and put his foot on her back, making sure she didn't move.

"I'm the angriest with you out of the three of ya," Danny said in a voice that was angry, but happy at the same time. "Why'd you have to betray me like that? I know I'm not supposed to hit a girl, but come on, what you did to me was just plain nasty!"

Sneering, Danny walked away from the barely conscious Aria and went to the middle of the room. He looked around and saw Mr. Compton still slumped like a rag doll and Horrick lying back flat on the ground, looking like he just had a giant rock smashed over his face.

It was at that moment Danny started laughing. He had done it. He won. He beat all three of them.