Description: When everything goes too far, what happens to Danny Fenton? Please don't flame, it's just adepressing idea that popped into my head all of a sudden today.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.

Ghost Tracker

Buzz, buzz, buzz. BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ! Cried the alarm clock. Danny moaned and swung at his bedside table to hit the snooze button. BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ! It continued buzzing at him like an angry bee.

Darn Jazz! She'd moved it to his dresser again, so he'd actually have to get out of bed to turn it off. It was one of her theories; if you have to get up to turn off the alarm in the morning, you're more likely to go ahead and get up. Unfortunately for Danny, this one was true. By the time he'd slid out of bed and went to his dresser to turn it off, his body was up and ready to go, even though his mind wasn't.

Danny sighed and pulled a random pair of jeans and a T-shirt out of his messy dresser drawers. Even though she knew full well that he had been out, fighting ghosts, until two in the morning, Jazz still felt like it was important that he got up a six o'clock.

After getting dressed, Danny dragged a brush through his hair, without really looking at it, and tromped downstairs for breakfast. His sister was sitting at the table, looking wide awake and eager for a new day. He glared at her for a moment and then plopped down at the table and reached for the cereal box. He poured some cereal and then looked around for the milk, still feeling groggy. He poured milk without paying attention and would've spilled it without his mother's warning.

"Danny!" she scolded. "Watch what you're doing, you almost spilled the milk!" The toast on the counter behind her popped, and two blackened pieces of toast popped out of it, along with a copious amount of smoke.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep!" Went the smoke detector. Maddie grabbed a dishtowel and started fanning it. Beep, beep, beep, beep, be-- It stopped and Maddie dropped her arms to her side and turned to face the teens. Well, teen, because Danny had vanished.

Danny was in the living room, jamming books into his backpack. Thankfully, it was quieter in here and there were no loud noises to jar him as the alarm and smoke detector had. He had a good reason for being jumpy, though. His parents were, once again, working on the ghost tracker and every time they came near him, it went haywire. Danny knew, sooner or later, his mom would realize the machine was in perfect working order, which would lead to awkward questions. With that depressing thought in mind, Danny continued to stuff books into his bag until it was at breaking point. Stupid sophomores had WAY more homework than freshmen had.

Ding dong! The doorbell rang and Danny jumped. He pulled open the door and for his two best friends, goth Sam Manson and techno geek Tucker Foley.

"Ready to go, Danny?" asked Sam. He started to reply, but was cut short by an excited shout from his mother, who was still in the kitchen, along with the hated Ping, ping, ping! of the ghost tracker.

"Jack! There's a ghost reading in the living room!" she exclaimed.

"Yep, definitely ready to go!" The three sophomores made a mad dash for the door. It had just closed behind them when they heard Jack's disappointed voice.

"Aww, there's no ghost!"

The teens exchanged glances and started walking down the sidewalk in silence. They took their time because school didn't start for another thirty minutes. Maybe today, for once, they would be on time.

Duh duh dum, duh duh dum, duh duh dum dum dum!" Sang Tucker's PDA, breaking the peace. Danny shot him a look.

"Sorry." Tucker apologized, pulling it out of his pocket and stopping the ring. "I don't know why it did that." The screen went blank and then a face appeared on it.

"I am Technus, lord of technology!" cried the ghost. "You shall taste defeat!" He went intangible and shot out through the screen. Sam and Tucker blocked Danny from view of anyone who might happen to pass by, and he went ghost. Black hair changed to white and blue eyes to shocking green and he shot up into the air. Danny sighed, just one more thing to make his day harder.

"Hey, Technus!" he shouted. "I thought you didn't shout your motives to the sky anymore!" The ghost looked momentarily confused and then shot at him with electric sparks. Danny dodged them easily and socked Technus in the face. He doubled over as if in pain, and then suddenly lunged at Danny, who was off his guard.

The next blast did hit him and he fell backwards into a tree, but recovered quickly. Without his technology, this ghost was a pretty weak one. Danny threw a green glowing energy ball at Technus that hit him square in the chest. He crashed to the ground and Danny hurriedly flew lower and sucked him into the thermos. He transformed back to a human and dropped to the ground, landing neatly on his feet. Sam looked at her watch.

"Uh, oh!"' she said. 'We'd better hurry, class starts in two minutes!" They all three broke into a sprint, hoping to make it to school in time. They reached the door and yanked it open.

Brinnngg! No such luck. They slipped inside quietly, hoping to get to class without anyone, particularly Lancer, noticing their tardiness. They didn't meet a soul in the entrance hall, so they hurried to their lockers, all of which were next to each other, to get their books, or put books in. Dash crept up behind them and held an air horn inches from Danny's ear.

Bwahhhn! The noise was so loud, and so close that Danny nearly jumped out of his skin. Dash laughed cruelly.

"You're late to class, losers!" he announced loudly.

"Why do you care?" Danny mumbled, not wanting to get into a fight with the football star this early in the morning.

"I care," Dash returned. "Because Lancer made me the hall monitor this morning."

"And why would you want to be?" Tucker asked laughingly. "Only nerds like being hall monitor!"

"You would know." Sneered Dash. "But no, actually it's because I get out of the first ten minutes of every class to torment people who are late. And since Fentonia is always late…"

Danny pushed past Dash a started towards his class. Dash grabbed him by his shirt and pushed him back against the lockers with a bang, his feet dangling almost a full foot off the floor.

"Hey! You need a tardy slip!" he growled menacingly. Danny's eyes flickered green and Sam and Tucker exchanged a worried look. A change came over Dash's face and he looked unexplainably furious. He lifted Danny higher off the floor.

"Let…go…of…me." Danny said, trying to keep his voice level. Dash's forehead creased and he swung and hit Danny hard in the nose. He slammed the smaller boy against the lockers again and yelled as if possessed by some demon creature.

Tucker grabbed Dash's arm and jerked him backwards, only to be hit in the eye and fall to the floor.

"Dash! Stop!" Sam yelled. She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away, but he swung around and slapped her in a blind rage and she staggered. When he turned back to his prey, he found he was clutching nothingness. He turned back around and saw Danny Phantom floating in front of him.

"Don't touch her!" the ghost boy practically roared. He punched the other boy as hard as he could and Dash fell back, cupping his hand under a bloody nose.

"You'll pay for that!" He grabbed Danny, who, taken by surprise, didn't go intangible. Soon, it was Danny Fenton and Dash trading blows again; Danny was too low on energy to stay in ghost form. The crashing and banging mixed with Sam's screams of "Stop! Stop!" brought the teachers out of their classrooms, followed by students who formed a circle around the two fighting boys.

Eventually, the teachers managed to separate Dash and Danny, and only then did Dash realize what had happened.

"Ghost!" he yelped, jumping to his feet and running off down the hall, screaming, followed by Mr. Lancer.

Ten minutes later, Danny was in the office with his parents, Sam and Tucker and a very angry principal who was giving him a very angry speech. Dash had refused to stay in the same room with him and was in the nurse's office, taking some medicine to calm his nerves.

"That was the worst fight in the history of this school!" yelled the principal. "Now, not only is there locker vandalism and a fight on our hands, but we have our star quarterback convinced that you can turn into a ghost!" Danny winced at the last part and gave his friends a helpless look. Tucker was sporting a black eyeSam had Ziploc bag of ice held up to her cheek. Justthe sight of itgave Danny another surge of anger.

"Wait, whoa!"' Maddie stopped the principal mid-rant. "What's this about turning into a ghost?" At that moment, something in her pocket vibrated, giving off the alarm Danny had been fearing all morning. Ping, ping, ping! Oh, yes, perfect timing! Maddie pulled out the ghost detector and inspected it. She looked up at Danny like he was a freak.

"I thought," she said slowly. "That this has been malfunctioning all along. It hasn't, has it?" Danny shook his head. He transformed into a ghost and everyone but Sam and Tucker gasped. They were all staring at him like he was an experiment gone terribly wrong.

He couldn't live like this, with them all thinking he was a freak of nature. He flew up out of his seat and the principal, even his parents backed away. He floated over to Sam and Tucker, who looked like they knew what was going to happen.

"I have to go." He whispered. He kissed Sam's forehead and touched Tucker's shoulder momentarily before going intangible and flying through the ceiling.

They never saw him again.

A/N: Yeah, I know that's not really in the character of Maddie, but I was felling really depressed and so I had to get it out. Just don't flame at me please.