Darkzdragon 'Onyx': I don't wannaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! *Is throwing a dragon sized hissy fit in the living room*

DarkFoxKit: Will you stop whining? I know you had fun with the Halloween party last night, but it's time to clean up. That means throwing away all these candy wrappers, putting away the decorations, and putting away all the surplus candy into storage until next year. No, you can't have another candy, you've had more than enough for a few weeks. I mean look at you, all that candy gave you a tummy ache, and a headache!

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': But I don't want to clean up! And I don't want to take down the decorations! They're fuuuuuuuuun!

DarkFoxKit: Some of these are dragon sized! I can't take them down by myself!

Andy: What's going on here?

DarkFoxKit: Onyx is throwing a dragon sized hissy fit because she had way too much candy and doesn't want to help me clean up.

Andy: Huh… I didn't know Onyx could throw such a fit, with how mature she's been in all the ANs so far.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Pouts* I didn't have too much candy. I just don't wanna clean up the decorations because they add so much of a personality to the castle.

Andy: But Halloween is over, we can't just keep all these skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, plastic spiders and spider webs, bats, and bedsheet ghosts hanging all over the place. Do you want to turn this into some kind of perma-haunted castle?

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Maaaaaaaaybe… It'd be nice to keep this place decorated.

DarkFoxKit: We are not living in a haunted castle. If we don't take these decorations down, we can't have any more holiday parties here.

Darkzdragon 'Onyx': *Grumbles and mumbles* But… I don't wanna do any work today…

DarkFoxKit: That's it! I'm getting the dragon paddle!

Andy: *Sighs slightly* This might take a while, so I'm just going to send the readers to the chapter. Hopefully everything will be cleaned up by next time.

Chapter 119: Answers and Questions

I wasn't quite sure how there was such a thing as 'bad timing' when it came to Clockwork, a ghost who could literally control time, but somehow, we managed to find ourselves getting to him at one of those bad times. I was currently hiding inside a cramped oven, and trying to look out through the dark glass to see what was going on out there. Last I saw, Danny went to hide in the refrigerator. Which made me wonder why the heck Clockwork, a ghost who doesn't need to eat, has a kitchen, and appliances like ovens and refrigerators in the first place.

When we arrived at Clockwork's tower, Clockwork quickly greeted us, and told us to hurry inside and hide. Apparently his employers were coming to 'inspect' his tower and his performance. I knew Clockwork was the ghost of time, but I never saw it as one of those jobs where his employers would be breathing down his neck. It just seemed too… human. Regardless, Clockwork made it clear he did not want his employers to see us here. So Danny and I had to hide and had to wait until Clockwork gave us the 'okay' to stop hiding.

I squinted my eyes, hoping to at least see these employers Clockwork was so stressed out about. It was rare for me to see him stressed about anything.

"Your work has been less than satisfactory lately, Clockwork." I heard an unfamiliar yet stern voice say.

"Oh? And why is that, sir?" Clockwork's voice questioned in a calm demeanor.

"There have been multiple reports of paradoxes, and time portals opening up around the Infinite Realms. You've been putting a lot of your attention on those halfa abominations lately," The stern voice answered. "It is unbecoming of an Ancient, Clockwork, especially the Ancient of Time."

I knew Danny and I had talked about Clockwork being an Ancient before, but it had only been speculation. Hearing it confirmed from someone else was another thing entirely. I still couldn't believe that Clockwork was one of these Ancients, one of these powerful spirits that were said to be revered as gods among ghosts, and once by humans a long, long time ago. Reading about Ancients made me think of those untouchable, all powerful entities. Clockwork felt more… 'human' in a sense. He's the Master of Time, but he's also caring, mischievous, fun, and a grandfatherly mentor in a way.

"I am doing my duty as an Ancient to assist the blessed," Clockwork explained. "As for the paradoxes, a number were caused by Artifacts of the Old. I rectified the situation and have placed the pieces of the Artifact of Old in multiple secure locations."

I unfortunately understood less than half of what Clockwork said. Though I suppose when I used the Reality Gauntlet to turn back time… again… I didn't help his cause.

"You speak of them as blessed, but they are abominations. They are the closest thing to the absolute blasphemy of nature, life, and death herself, and you know it!" The stern voice growled in anger.

"They would not exist if not given some form of blessing by our creator," Clockwork explained. "You have come multiple times to see the events that created these abominations and have seen time and again that they were saved by the pure energy that our creator saves solely for blessings."

"That doesn't make it right. But the fact that she decided to give her blessings to them is the only reason why they get to live for now. But remember, Clockwork, one slip, that is all the reason we and many others need, to get rid of them," The stern voice warned. "You best not get too attached to them, for your own sake."

I could see someone floating in the kitchen, but I couldn't see their full body due to being stuck in the oven. I only saw the bottom half of their body. It looked like whoever was talking to Clockwork was wearing some kind of white and gold robe, with a black cape.

"I am very well aware of all the possibilities of their premature demises," Clockwork acknowledged. "Despite this knowledge, I will still do my duty to assist them as permissible. Now, if there are no other things you need of me, I must return to my duties to ensure more paradoxes do not occur."

"See to it that you do," The stern voice hissed before they floated out of the kitchen.

I waited quietly for a minute or two, wondering what the conversation had been about. I had the distinct feeling that they were talking about me and Danny, but I wasn't sure. A part of me was worried that they were talking about the Guys in White agent becoming a hybrid, and that they somehow found out about it already. But the stern voice warned Clockwork not to get too attached, so I doubted they were talking about the hybrid agent.

But if they were talking about me and Danny… What did they mean by 'blessed'?

I remembered Vesper hinting at something, about how Danny and I could've possibly survived tha accident in the first. Could she have meant something about what Clockwork and that other ghost were talking about?

I didn't have time to linger on the subject much, because Clockwork soon floated over to the oven I was in and opened it. I came tumbling out.

"I do apologize about that," Clockwork said as he opened the fridge Danny was in to get him out. "I foresaw you coming and then suddenly a route of a surprise inspection appeared."

"It's fine, Clockwork, we probably should've picked a better time to come," Danny said, wrapping his arms around himself a bit. "I probably should've picked a better hiding spot than the inside of a refrigerator…"

"Your hiding spot was adequate, Danny," Clockwork assured. "Better the fridge than the freezer."

"Heh, we could've had a Danny Popcicle, an Ice Cream Phantom Sandwich!" I laughed.

Danny huffed. "Oh yeah? We could've had roasted Andy Phantom for dinner!"

"Shall we move on to the business you two came here for?" Clockwork spoke up, not paying much mind to our back and forth.

"Yeah, we had some… news we needed to tell you, if you don't already know," I said with a frown.

My mind was still trying to wrap around the fact that Clockwork was an Ancient. I just couldn't see him as an Ancient. Old, yes, but not an Ancient.

"Did you see what happened between us and a couple of Guys in White agents a few days ago?" Danny asked.

"I did." Clockwork nodded. "I will have to add the creation of hybrids into a future report to my employers."

"What's going to happen when word gets out about the agents turning themselves into these hybrids?" I questioned in concern. "Juliette said it was possible war could break out."

"Word of what occurred cannot get out," Clockwork firmly stated. "If it does, there will be war."

Danny and I gave uneasy looks at each other. We had a lot of questions concerning the hybrid, and our own status as halfas. Juliette explained to us the differences between us and the hybrids, but that still didn't explain why the ghosts would go to war over hybrids and not halfas, which were, quite frankly, extremely similar beings. It would be like saying people are going to war because of an alligator, when crocodiles had already existed. Sure, there were some differences between the two species, but that didn't make it any less confusing. But I get the feeling it may have something to do with what Clockwork and that other ghost were talking about earlier. The question is… do we want to know the answer?

"But why?" Danny asked for the both of us. "Why would there be a war if word got out about these hybrids? How are they any more different than us? I mean… I know we are different from the hybrid, but we're also the same in many ways. We both have the powers of ghosts, while also still being alive. While I get the hybrid's creation is more… disgusting, the intent is malicious, why would having the hybrid's existence cause a war?"

"Unlike the hybrids, the two of you cannot exist in both states at once," Clockwork answered. "The reason their existence would cause a war while yours would not is because it would create panic, fear, anger, and worry. Ghosts would be enraged that humans were essentially granting themselves a form of immortality, freely getting powers that normally ghosts had to earn or go through extreme hardships to get, and the humans would be putting the stability of the worlds into danger."

"What about us then? We have ghost powers while also still human," I pointed out.

"True, but you two worked hard to get your powers where they are now. You weren't granted your current powers from the very beginning," Clockwork answered. "You struggled long and hard just to keep your powers, the base powers that all ghosts have, from going out of control. From there you have worked hard, trained, and unlocked new abilities that you then proceeded to start training. While not realizing it, the two of you also help to maintain the balance of the worlds. The cause of your powers is also through your deaths by the portal accident, in a way, you both died, yet were brought back to life. So it's debatable whether or not you both count as being dead or alive. With the hybrids, however, there's no question about it. They are neither dead nor alive."

Clockwork waved his staff in front of us. Danny and I were suddenly standing in Clockwork's study room, where his time window was. Clockwork gestured for us to look at the time window. Danny and I looked to see what Clockwork had to show us.

We saw that Guys in White agent, the one called Agent L, the one who took in that pure ectoplasm and became a hybrid.

"As you recall, when you tried to overshadow him, you were bombarded by a very cold wave of energy, correct?" Clockwork brought up, and I shivered just from the memory of it. "That was the hybrid's element awakening. He just got his powers, and already he had mastery over it, and his core, or rather, half core's element was already awoken."

The time window showed Agent L curling in on himself before he extended out his arms to the side, his head facing the sky as he let out a cry. A shockwave of blue energy blasted out of his body, freezing some of the moisture in the air into ice.

"This Hybrid is already as strong as he can, and ever will, be," Clockwork explained. "He endured some pain, yes, but nowhere near the pain of truly dying. He did not work for his strength, he received it all with just a simple action. He does not understand the pain or the effort a ghost puts in and as such, insults all ghostkind by simply existing. That is the reason a war would break out; not just because of the being he is, which is a cruel and vile beast worse than any monster they claim to fight, but because his existence spits in the face of the entire history and culture of ghosts. And think of it this way, if there is one ghost hating soldier willing to make himself into this monstrosity in order to fight us, how many more of his fellow soldiers would be willing to do the same? Nobody knows the full size of the Guys in White, there could be thousands of soldiers who would all be able and potentially willing to become hybrids just to wage war on ghostkind."

After hearing Clockwork's explanation, it all made sense now. While Danny and I were similar to hybrids, we were more like natural ghosts that happen to also still be alive, while the hybrids themselves were monstrous powerhouses from the very start. As demonstrated with Tucker, a lot of people would often get corrupted by their own power. And it was also because of the intention and mindset. Danny and I got our powers by accident, we didn't intend to become half ghosts ourselves. While Agent L purposefully injected pure ectoplasm into his body to become a being with power to destroy other sentient beings. Not to mention Clockwork was right, there could be thousands of other agents wanting to do the same.

"Isn't there anything we could do to stop the other agents from becoming hybrids?" Danny frowned.

"Because if more can become hybrids, then even if we keep it quiet, they're bound to wage war against ghost kind once they feel confident enough to try. So they would be known either way," I added.

Clockwork sighed. "As things stand, there is not much the two of you can do at the moment. As strong as you two have become in such a relatively short amount of time, you're still younglings, and growing. Unfortunately, even with both of you combined, you wouldn't be able to take down one hybrid, let alone an army of them. They would make Vlad look too easy. This is best left in the hands of us Ancients."

Both Danny and I let out a simultaneous sigh. Neither of us liked not being able to do anything to prevent a potential war and disaster. But what Clockwork said also brought up the shock that he was an Ancient. I was still having trouble wrapping my head around it, and I could tell Danny was too.

"So… you're actually an Ancient?" Danny asked, deciding to change the subject for another intriguing question.

"Yes, I am." Clockwork nodded. "The Ancient of Time specifically. I am one of the few remaining members of the original group of Ancients. There used to be more in the first group with myself and some others that I won't mention, but… not all of them have lasted."

"I never knew you were an Ancient," I admitted, showing my surprise. "I'm surprised you even showed yourself to me when I was still fully human, and I had the intention to stop the accident from giving Danny his ghost powers."

"It was necessary," Clockwork answered. "If I hadn't shown myself to you, and shown you that trying to prevent the accident would've been a bad idea, you would've constantly put yourself in danger by looking for me in the Ghost Zone. You and Danny never would've reconciled with each other. And let's just say Danny wouldn't have a twin brother anymore."

I felt Danny's hand grabbing onto mine and squeezed it. After almost losing me to the Void, I could understand why he was afraid of losing me. Just as I was afraid of losing him after the first accident.

Clockwork grinned. "And I don't regret it. It's always nice whenever you and Danny come to visit, even if it's only for business. I've started redecorating the interior of my tower to make it more… comfortable for you two."

That would explain the kitchen… I noted. Oh gosh… this reminds me of when I saw Danny staying with Clockwork in that other dimension, the dimension where I was apparently never born.

"Oh and as for the original intention of your visit, your mother is absolutely fine," Clockwork suddenly informed. "She's simply working to try and open up her perspective as she has been witnessing some things that have put her previous beliefs into question; some articles, some news reports, and things like that."

What did she see that made… effectively her world shatter enough that she's putting her perspective into question? I frowned. "Let me guess; you're not going to tell us what happened with Mom?"

"I can tell you it was nothing that she wouldn't have eventually seen," Clockwork answered. "And that there were more paths of her realizing her narrow-minded beliefs were just that, narrow-minded, than there were paths of her remaining as she was. As a scientist, she's been shown a new perspective she was lacking before, one that could work in the betterment of ghostkind."

"Well… that's good… isn't it?" Danny questioned, sounding unsure.

"Only time will tell." Clockwork grinned.

I sighed. "Speaking of which… I noticed my visions started to go static lately… and I've been having trouble seeing into certain futures again. Am I… starting to lose the ability to see into the future?" It never crossed my mind that the ability to see into the future would be temporary.

"Wait… what?" Danny frowned. "You're losing the ability to see into the future?"

Clockwork chuckled and shook his head. "No, you aren't losing your ability to look into the future. You have simply been looking into futures in which you cannot properly perceive. This is due to the fact that there are some things that your mind refuses to believe a possibility or refuses to imagine. In those cases, you will either see static or darkness."

I tilted my head. "But I know I saw those futures with our parents getting in trouble enough to be sent to ghost court. But I can't see it now. Why?"

"Ah… in those cases, it could mean you either can't perceive something that may happen, or… something changed in the present that made the future you once saw fade out of existence," Clockwork answered. "After all, you can't see what doesn't exist."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "Wait… really?"

"Indeed. But don't relax just yet. Just because you don't see it happening anymore doesn't mean it can't still happen. As you know, time is always changing, the future is never guaranteed," Clockwork warned.

"Even so, it's a big relief knowing that it's not likely that our parents will end up in ghost court in a year from now," Danny spoke up.

"Just make sure they don't become worse than they were before," Clockwork warned. "Now, would the two of you like some cookies or a snack before you leave?"

"You make cookies?" Danny blinked. "Since when?"

"Since I got my oven." Clockwork grinned.

Danny gave a hesitant look before he gave a small smile. "Do you make macadamia nut cookies?"

I covered my face with my gloved hands, trying not to let out a loud laugh of irony. Danny is asking Clockwork, the Ancient of Time, to bake him cookies. Am I sure I didn't get knocked out and just dreaming right now?

"Yes." Clockwork nodded. "I know how to make almost all cookies perfectly, but the one cookie I still can't get down is surprisingly chocolate chip."

I almost wanted to drop to the floor and laugh my butt off now. The situation just felt too ridiculous to be real.

"Do you want anything, Andy?" Clockwork asked with some humor in his tone.

I uncovered my face, and was trying not to laugh. "I'll- heh…. I'll have-"

"Perhaps you would like some ginger cookies with rainbow sprinkles." Clockwork smiled. "Or possibly a basic donut with white frosting and sprinkles?"

Did Clockwork seriously just say 'rainbow' and 'sprinkles'? I think he's trying to make me laugh.

"... Just… surprise me," I finally said, trying to hold my breath. Wait, how did he know I like those types of desserts?

Danny and I were chewing on the cookies Clockwork made for us while we were sitting on a small, floating island in the Ghost Zone, we were sitting back to back, so we could make sure nothing snuck up on us from behind. We weren't quite ready to head home yet, and just wanted some down time. At least nobody was bothering us out here in the Ghost Zone right now.

"You know, I just realized, we got so distracted by everything that we forgot to ask Clockwork what he and his employer were talking about," Danny muttered.

I still found it odd how cold Danny was in his ghost form, yet it didn't really bother me as I leaned my back against his. "Yeah… but I wasn't really sure if it was something we really wanted to know right now anyways. I'm sure if we were supposed to know, Clockwork would've told us."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Danny acknowledged. "It just bugs me that we have to leave the whole Guys in White hybrid thing alone for now, but it's a precarious situation and I'd rather not cause a war."

"Same here. Though I'm hoping the agent won't be able to convince the other Guys in White to follow his lead too quickly. Most of them are probably on the fence about it," I replied before I took another bite out of my ginger cookie. "After all, becoming a hybrid means becoming half of what they hate most."

"That is fair," Danny replied. "I get the feeling that he's also probably getting chewed out by his superiors."

"I'm still surprised he even went through with it in the first place," I sighed. "It also leaves a lot of questions. How stable is he as a hybrid? How much power does he have? How does having a half core and half heart work? How many people can become a hybrid? And… when will he decide to try and hunt for us again?"

"Let's… try not to go down that rabbithole, bro," Danny suggested. "The more questions you ask, the less likely it is that you'll be to leave them be."

"Well… here's a different question then," I said as I looked at some of the floating lair doors floating past us. "Why are we relaxing in the Ghost Zone eating cookies?"

"Here's a question for that question; why not?" Danny asked in response. "Look around, bro, it's pretty nice and calm right now. Sure, it's nothing like our world, but there are aspects of it that make it just as beautiful as our world."

"Well… maybe… in a creepy sort of way," I replied. "Could use a little more color though, kinda getting tired of green."

Danny gave a small nod. "Agreed. Maybe we can do something about that in the future with whatever powers we may have then. Perhaps something about those blessings that were mentioned could allow us to add color. Or maybe there is other color out there, that one ghost said something about Infinite Realms."

"Isn't that what he just calls the Ghost Zone?" I raised an eyebrow. "And how would our powers affect the colors of the Ghost Zone?"

"It might be, but there might be more behind the name than just a strange nickname for the Ghost Zone," Danny responded. "As for how our powers will affect the color of the Ghost Zone… I dunno."

I rolled my eyes, though the comment was childish and wishfulness, I couldn't help but wonder the same thing. If Danny and I could somehow manipulate the Ghost Zone's color, or the environment itself… How would it look then? Similar to what it is now? Or completely different? Why am I even thinking about that?

"We should probably get back home soon. We have school tomorrow, and those projects we have to work on," I finally said after a while of comfortable silence.

"Yeah, good idea," Danny said as he got up and started to stretch out a bit.

While the Ghost Zone still creeped me out, I did have to admit that sometimes it could be peaceful, and it was a good place to go to when we just want to get away from all the stress of the living world for a while. Not that I was telling Danny that.

"Let's not tell anyone about Clockwork baking us cookies," I suggested. "It's kind of embarrassing…"

"How is it embarrassing?" Danny questioned. "We have the Ancient of Time baking for us."

"Well, what if this starts spreading rumors in the Ghost Zone and we end up getting Clockwork in trouble by his employers?" I pointed out.

Danny chuckled. "I wasn't planning on declaring to the world that Clockwork baked for us."

I rolled my eyes. "Just don't come crying to me if someone decides to tease you later."

"Same to you~" Danny grinned before he started to fly away.

I quickly flew after Danny. In some ways he's changed, but in others, he hasn't. But at least he no longer seems to care if someone made fun of him for what he likes.

Getting everything ready for the play was a lot harder than I expected. Because Mr. Lancer wasn't a drama teacher, and neither me, Valerie, nor Dash were a part of the drama club, we had to provide our own props and costumes. Thankfully, Principal Ishiyama allowed us to use the stage in the auditorium for our play, so we wouldn't have to do everything in a tiny classroom. I had to ask a lot of other students if they were interested in being one of the actors for our play, or at least an extra. Of course, many of them wouldn't take it unless they had something in return. So I didn't get a lot of volunteers.

Surprisingly, however, as I was looking for any volunteers for actors for our play, Anna came up to me.

"Hello there, Andy," Anna greeted. "I hear that you're looking for actors and actresses to help in your class project and that you're been getting turned down a lot, so I'm here to help fill one of the roles. If you'd have me as an actress that is."

"Really?" I asked in surprised. "You want to be an actress in our play?"

I was surprised because I didn't really know Anna that well. She was smart, and she helped Danny and me study more for our tests, and try to schedule our time around the ghost fights and our patrols. I appreciated her advice for all of that, but I still didn't really know her, and she was, as far as I could tell, pretty popular in school. Not only did she look pretty, even by Paulina's standards, but she was smart and had this kind of charisma about her that seemed to draw people in.

Anna gave a nod. "Yes, I would. I understand I won't get any extra credit and that it might not be the full Romeo and Juliet, but I'd definitely be willing to help you get a good score on your class project. Us As have to stick together, don't we?"

I blinked at her. Did she mean us A students stick together? Because I'm certainly not an 'A' student.

"Sorry, that sounded way less cheesy in my head," Anna sheepishly admitted. "Was trying to make a joke about how both our names start with the letter 'A' and… yeah, just forget I said that last part."

"Oh, that's what you meant," I realized. "Heh… well, I can be pretty oblivious sometimes. Um… well, you're welcome to be an actress in our play. Any help is good right now."

"If you don't have a role for me just yet, we could talk about it during lunch or whenever you are planning to meet up to rehearse the play," Anna offered.

"We'll talk about it during lunch. I have to let Valerie and Dash know about you joining in first," I answered before I wrote down Anna's name on the piece of paper I had on a clipboard.

I almost forgot that Anna's last name was 'Masters', and frowned a little as I wrote it. I was reminded that Vlad had adopted her and her little sister. But I decided to try to ignore that, and opted to just keep an eye on Anna when she joined in on the preparations for the play.

"We can talk about the possible roles for you later," I informed before feeling my phone buzz.

I pulled it out and saw a group chat from Tucker, Sam, and Danny all talking about going to the nearby mini-golf course after school. While I wanted to join them, I knew I had a lot of work to do for this school project. I ended up sending a response to them apologizing that I wouldn't be able to make it. They, knowing what I was dealing with for this project, were very understanding. I did send them another message, telling them I look forward to hanging out with them later after the school project was finished.

"Until then," I continued as I looked back at Anna. "I'll see if I can get any more volunteers, and find more props we can use for the play."

"Sounds like a plan." Anna grinned. "I look forward to working with you and your group."

"Yeah… same here," I replied politely, but was a little suspicious underneath.

I told Danny I would give Anna a chance, but not completely drop my guard around her.

Meanwhile, Danny and friends were at the nearby mini-golf course

Danny's POV

It had felt like a while since it was just the 3 of us hanging out. Tucker was usually busy with his responsibilities as the student body president, and Sam had been… hanging out with Elliot for several days. Lately it had usually just been myself and Andy. I didn't have a problem with that, mind you, it was nice to spend time with my brother, but it was also nice to be with my friends again. It felt kind of strange that it was the 3 of us without Andy. It was sort of a nostalgic feeling, but not in a good way. It reminded me of those days we pushed Andy away from our group, making him become a loner at school, because I was too afraid of Andy seeing my ghost powers suddenly activating not long after the first accident.

I knew that wasn't the case this time, because Andy was more than welcome to join us, but he was busy with the school project. But it still kind of left a bad taste in my mouth to be hanging out with Tucker and Sam without him. I had trouble focusing on the game, and was falling behind Tucker and Sam rather quickly by the time we got to the 7th hole.

"Come on, dude, I know you can do better than you have been doing the past 6 holes," Tucker supportively remarked, probably noticing I was acting a bit off.

"Yeah, I've seen you golf before, you're usually better than this," Sam agreed. "Is something wrong?"

I sighed, feeling a little embarrassed that I was off my game because of such a little thing. But I didn't want to keep it from my friends, because they were already concerned about me, I didn't want them to think I was hiding something more serious.

"It's nothing big, really, but…" I hesitated. "I… like that we're hanging out again, but without Andy here, I just… can't help but dig up old feelings, you know? The last time it was just the 3 of us, we pretty much kicked Andy out. I can't help but feel guilty."

Tucker gave a bit of a nod. "Yeah… I get what you mean, dude, but he's not being excluded, he's just too busy."

"If he was here, he'd probably tell you to not focus on the past and enjoy what's here," Sam pointed out.

Sam wasn't wrong, I could practically hear Andy saying those very words. I should enjoy hanging out with them, just because Andy wasn't here didn't mean we were suddenly back in those days of excluding him because I was too much of a coward to show Andy that I was half ghost. I also didn't know when I would next get a free day to hang out with my friends, since all 3 of us had our own responsibilities to take care of these days.

"You're right, this isn't the time to mope, this is a time to relax and have some fun." I smiled. "Thanks guys, for reminding me that Andy's fine, and we're just having fun. No secrets between us or anything."

"So are you gonna go…?" Tucker asked, making me realize that the reason this conversation had started was because it was my turn and I had yet to hit the ball.

I blushed in slight embarrassment. "Oh… yeah."

I walked up over to the ball, and had my golf club ready. I wasn't going to let the past rule over me anymore. I should focus and see if I can catch up to Tucker and Sam.

Just as I was about to swing the club, I felt a familiar burst of cold start rushing up my throat before a small cloud of blue mist came out of my mouth.

"Seriously…?" I asked aloud with a groan. "Can't I have one day off? Can't I actually enjoy an outing with my friends for once?"

"Where's the ghost this time?" Tucker frowned.

I looked around. It didn't take long for me to locate where the ghost was with all the people screaming and running away from one of the golf courses. There was a floating ghost covered in a white bedsheet, where the only thing I could see was their eyes, which were glowing red. If it weren't for the fact I could sense this thing was a ghost, and it was glowing under that bedsheet, I would've thought it was a prank someone was doing. What ghost would actually put a bedsheet over them these days? That's so lame. But still, a ghost is a ghost, no matter how ridiculous they look.

"I'll try to make this quick, guys," I said to Tucker and Sam.

"You know where we'll be if you need us." Tucker grinned.

"Are you seriously planning on continuing to play while there's a ghost around?" Sam raised a brow.

"Yep!" Tucker beamed.

"Wow… I… don't actually know what to say to that," Sam admitted.

"I mean Danny's probably got this in the bag and if he needs us, we should stay out in the open. We don't want to get in the way while he's trying to fight the ghost, and we could provide a distraction," Tucker pointed out.

"Uh huh…" Sam nodded before putting her hands on her hips. "You just want a chance to use this ghost as an excuse to scoring poorly."

"No I don't," Tucker pouted.

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "You totally do."

"Shouldn't you be taking care of the ghost?" Tucker pointed out.

"I'm going, I'm going…" I sighed. "Hopefully this won't take too long."

I ran off to hide, which wasn't hard as the golf course had plenty of places to hide in, and with so many people panicking due to the ghost, it was easy to hide somewhere without being questioned. When I dove into a tunnel meant for the golf ball, I activated my core and transformed into my ghost form. As soon as I transformed, I phased out of the tunnel and took off into the sky. My legs were replaced by my ghostly tail as I flew at the bedsheet ghost.

The bedsheet ghost, I noticed, looked like it was looking for something. It seemed to be ignoring the screaming people around it, and was turning its head around the place. I didn't know why it was here, but if it wasn't intentionally causing trouble, I should at least hear it out first.

I stopped in front of the ghost, which quickly caught its attention. "Hey… uh… do you have a name? If you're not here to cause trouble, then maybe I can help you with whatever it is you need so you can go back home."

"D-D…" The ghost started to mumble.

I blinked. "What is it? Are you trying to say your name? Can you speak?"

"Daaaa…" The ghost mumbled.

I floated closer, trying to hear the ghost better.

"DANNY PHANTOM!" The ghost shouted suddenly.

From the sudden shout, I didn't comprehend the words, just that the shout rang my ears and I fell back a few feet. The ghost then suddenly charged at me, pushing me towards one of the towers on the golf course. Quickly snapped out of my daze, I quickly pushed back against the ghost before it could shove me into the tower. The ghost hissed as it tried to keep pushing me, but I managed to hold my ground. I grabbed onto the bedsheet ghost and tossed him back.

"That wasn't very nice!" I huffed, rubbing my ears a bit.

"Danny Phantom Danny Phantom Danny Phantom Danny Phantom…" The bedsheet ghost repeated in a malicious and crazed tone.

I frowned as the bedsheet ghost kept repeating my name. "Yes, I'm Danny Phantom, and you are?"

The bedsheet ghost's eyes flashed brighter for a moment before it started charging again. Seeing this, I quickly put up an ecto barrier before it could charge into me. The ghost bounced off of my barrier, which I had to thank Andy for, since he had been teaching me how to manipulate my ghost ray better. "Crazy, got it…"

The ghost appeared to be very unstable, and seemed to be out for my head. I needed to be careful, I didn't want it destroying the golf course and risk hurting someone. I flew up higher into the sky in hopes the ghost would come after me and only me.

"You want me? Then come and get me!" I challenged, making both of my fists glow with my ghost ray ready to fire.

The bedsheet ghost seemed to just float there for a few seconds before he was suddenly right in front of me, moving at incredible speeds.

"DANNY! PHANTOM!" The bedsheet ghost yelled as its bedsheet turned from white to a glowing green.

My eyes went wide as it seemed to have suddenly fired its own ghost ray at me. I was taken by surprise, and was hit in the stomach by the ghost ray. It was pretty painful. I had been hit by ghost rays before, but this one felt a little different. Instead of it just being a searing hot pain, this one felt both hot and cold at the same time. Andy once told me that my ghost rays felt like that, but I never actually tried to hit myself with my own ghost rays before. It made me wonder if this was what it felt like to others.

I fell a few feet, but quickly regained my composure. The bedsheet ghost flew at me again, this time I was better prepared. I quickly fired a ghost ray of my own. The bedsheet ghost dodged one, but I fired a second one quickly, and this one hit. The bedsheet ghost went flying a few feet away, but it quickly flew up to my face again. It came down to melee attacks with how close we were to each other. I began punching at the ghost, while the ghost tried to headbutt or bodyslam me a few times.

It was times like these I couldn't help but miss having Andy to back me up. If he was here right now, he could've easily stunned the ghost, or caught it in a Fenton Thermos while it was distracted with me.

It seems to rely on its bedsheet for most of its attacks. I began to realize. Perhaps if I took that away from it I could render it powerless… But what if that bedsheet actually acts like a limiter and me taking the bedsheet off of it makes it stronger? Or makes it affect the whole area? Perhaps that bedsheet helps it to focus its attacks? It does seem pretty crazy, so I could definitely see it being some kind of focuser or limiter… No, gotta stop overthinking, I have to follow my gut and do what I think is best. I need to weaken it enough to where I can capture it. Though… with how unstable it is, will I be able to capture it? It seems like it's going to destabilize at any second… huh, didn't think Juliette's lesson on stable and unstable ghosts would actually pay off at any point, but here we are.

I managed to fire a point blank ghost ray at the bedsheet ghost, which stunned it long enough for me to kick it as hard as I could in the face, at least I assumed it had a face under that bedsheet since it had eyes. This caused the ghost to fling down into the ground, which made me flinch as I realized I may have hit it too hard. Thankfully, the ghost didn't hit anything important, and only hit the ground. It seemed to have lost consciousness, so I quickly flew down and landed in front of it.

"Okay, let's see what you have under that bedsheet," I said before I bent down, grabbed onto the bedsheet, and pulled it off the ghost.

To my shock, I saw a black and green glowing skeleton under the bedsheet. It looked up at me, no longer unconscious, with red eyes. I just realized there was something familiar about those red eyes, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. The red eyes sent a chill down my spine though. The skeleton looked young somehow. I had seen and fought with several skeleton ghosts before, especially when Pariah Dark invaded Amity Park, but this one looked much younger than those ancient skeletons. It also didn't have legs, I just saw its spin acting like a ghostly tail at the bottom of it.

The ghost then let out a loud wail, not unlike my Ghostly Wail, but not as strong as my own. It was still loud enough to necessitate me covering my ears.

I knew I had to get it to stop before the weak Ghostly Wail got any stronger and began to spread out to the entire golf course. I turned my feet into a ghostly tail and wrapped it around the skeleton's ribs and threw up into the air. As it flipped into the air, it looked down and glared at me.

"Chaaaange baaaaack!" It shouted before it started to come at me again.

In reflex, I fired a ghost ray at it to try to keep it away and back up into the sky. I didn't want this battle to continue on the ground. However, when I fired my ghost ray at it this time, something weird happened. It looked like the bedsheet ghost melted, which caused me to frown. I started wondering if I had inadvertently killed this skeleton ghost. But then suddenly, two more skeleton ghosts hit me from behind. I groaned a bit, looking up from the ground, seeing that the skeleton ghost had duplicated itself.

"Change back!" The skeleton ghosts demanded at the same time as they took turns attacking me.

I was about to get up from my prone position on my back, which was caused by the two ghosts using the ground to make sure I didn't run away, when one of the skeleton ghosts suddenly rushed at me and pinned me against the turf of one of the mini golf courses. I hissed at the tight grip they had on me, especially with those boney fingers. I was about to go over my options on how to handle the situation with as little collateral damage as possible, or if I should call Tucker or Sam for help, when suddenly another ghost ray shot at the skeleton ghost that had me pinned down.

"Get away from him, punks!" A young female ghost shouted.

I quickly sat up, surprised when I saw what looked like a 10 to 12 year old girl floating in front of me. She had on a somewhat familiar but unique outfit in that she was wearing silver hazmat suit boots. She also looked to be wearing some parts of the hazmat outfit that I wore, except the details were different. Her pants seemed to be two-toned where there was black near her waist and silver near the boots and the colors were split around her knees diagonally. She had a bare midriff, but she was wearing a hazmat suit-like top that had one silver glove and one black glove. Her outfit seemed to be split similar to her pants, where half of it, the half that led to the silver glove, was black. Meanwhile, the other half of her top, the one that led to the black glove, was silver. The colors of the top, like with the pants, were split diagonally. She had long silvery-white hair that seemed to be tied back in a ponytail.

"What the?" I began to ask.

The other skeleton launched at me before I could even try to talk to this girl, and I quickly punched its face, making it fall to the ground. The skeleton I punched suddenly melted into green goop on the ground, which led me to believe this was also the duplicate, and the girl shot the original one with her ghost ray. I turned to see where the skeleton ghost was, but I didn't see it anywhere. Did it take off?

"Thanks for the he-" I started to say before the girl glanced at me and quickly flew away.

"Hey, wait!" I called out.

I was about to fly up after her when I saw her shimmer and vanish. I tried reaching out with my ghost sense, but I couldn't pick up anything. When I expanded my range further and further, I only noticed a few sources of ghostly energy, namely Andy, Juliette, Scarlet, and Vlad. A part of me wondered how long Vlad planned to stay in Amity Park. I frowned. Did she teleport? It didn't look like she teleported, but she's apparently not here anymore. Who is she? Why did she look so similar to my ghost form?

Before I could try to think of theories to those questions, I heard Tucker and Sam running over to me.

"Danny! Are you alright?" Sam asked in concern as I turned to them.

"It looked like you were in trouble back there," Tucker stated.

"I'm fine. I could've handled it, I was just taken off guard a few times," I answered. "But that girl… did you see her?"

"We sorta did," Tucker answered. "She was there and gone too quickly for us to get a good look."

"She kinda looked like me, well, Danny Phantom," I gestured to myself. "But she disappeared before I could ask her anything."

"Speaking of Danny Phantom, you might want to get out of here, or find a place to change back," Sam pointed out. "Now that the chaos is over, people are bound to come back and investigate soon."

"I'll do the latter. No way I'm letting a ghost stop me from enjoying my day off at the mini golf course," I replied. "Give me a minute or two to get back to you guys."

I was relieved to see that there had been no damage to the golf courses, so when everyone calmed down, we could continue our game of golf. I could worry about that girl later.

ZAFT Convoy: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': Maddie is actually the only one who has a new behavior. Jack is pretty much still his same old self. He's just been a bit more proactive about his health, which I personally think is a good thing for him. We might keep teasing what's going on with Maddie for some time. In fact, we might not reveal it until the eventual season 3~

DP-Marvel94: DarkFoxKit: Jack's behavior isn't as worrying as Maddie's. As for Danny and Andy's disagreement, it does make sense. Both brothers have their own perspective on the Ghost Zone, and their ghost halves. Andy had faced more traumatic things in the Ghost Zone than Danny did, and Andy was stuck as a human while all this stuff was happening to Danny during the first season/My Brother's a Ghost. Danny is hoping to get Andy to be more accepting to his ghost half, as well as the Ghost Zone. Andy is definitely interested in learning more about ghosts, as we had seen in the chapter where he was reading the book on ghost lore and culture. And Andy has become more settled with his ghost half now, so he's keeping an open mind this time.

GhostHex: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': What do you think happened? I'm quite curious to know, even if you aren't going to guess what exactly is going on in her head.

Mana16: DarkFoxKit: Heh, Maddie's attitude may not be explained for a while, but there is a reason for it. As for Jack, let's just say he's taking his health and future into consideration.

Unfortunately, I missed out on the Halloween lore, mostly because I was still following the episodes at the time, and I didn't really have any ideas for Danny's ghost half. But it'll likely happen at some point in season 3, maybe 4.

You know, it would be pretty cool to see what could've been had there been a second Halloween in Danny Phantom. But considering where season 3 was going, I'm not too confident it would've been that good. Especially since apparently Vlad was going to run amok… in the town he's mayor of… and will have to clean up all that mess he's making… What was Vlad's plan there? I feel like there's a missed opportunity to really mess with Danny's ghost half, or show Danny may have some ghostly tendencies that he isn't aware of that really shows itself during the Halloween episode. I mean I liked the Fright Knight fine enough, but again, just thought it was a bit of a missed opportunity.

I think it would've been interesting if Danny shows his comfort in the Ghost Zone, which is something the show kinda implied, but never really truly showed, in season 3. We've never seen Danny's lair in the show, so the fact he could've had one in the college years really intrigues me. Then there's FiveRiver's Mortified's handling of lairs, which I won't get into this time since I'm pretty sure I've talked about it to death (heh) by this point.

Guest: Darkzdragon 'Onyx': As with most classical plays, there are some creative liberties that could be taken with them. So perhaps Andy decided that it would be better for Juliet to drink the poison instead of Romeo. Alternatively, he might've just mistaken the sleeping potion for a poison.

DarkFoxKit: They're not going completely on script anyways, they won't be showing every single part of Romeo and Juliet, and they would do some changes to make certain scenes doable, or something they might prefer doing. As Onyx said 'creative liberties'.