Thanks to all my lovely reviewers for your encouragement. I'm having fun with this but you guys make it about a dozen times better.


Danny woke up that morningchoking on a world of red glass. Reality swam around him, distant and dark, the color of wine beating against his eyes. His breath felt ragged and desperate, as if he were trying to breath at ten thousand feet through a piece of felt. Yet, his body too felt far away, as if he were feeling the sensations of someone else, the whole thing a strange theatrical act that somehow entertained all his senses. In the back of his head something tugged at his mind. Just let go, the something said. Let go of what you are trying to hold on to. Push through, come out the other side and everything will be all right.


"Hey, Danny." Danny heard Tucker's voice come swimming towards him and realized he had blanked out yet again. "Are you okay, man?"

"I'm fine. I'm just really tired." It was a lie but Danny didn't feel like telling the truth.

"You do look pretty wasted." The darker boy shoved a book inside his back pack and slammed his locker door. "Are we waiting for Sam?"

"She said she'd meet us at the Nasty Burger. She's got to work on her art thing for a while before she can leave."

"Now, that's funny."

"What?" Danny asked as the two made their way out of the school.

"You're leaving school on time and Sam has to stay after."

"Ha ha ha." Danny said, dryly.

"Hey," Tucker laughed. "I'm just pointing out the obvious."


"Dead Earth 3 comes out on Friday, are you still going in on a copy with me?" Tucker fished out a french fry, excitement twinkling in his eyes.

"Hell yeah." Danny leaned forward, intensely interested. "The screen shots for that game were awesome."

"Whatever." The comment was punctuated by a soda being loudly set on the table. A small girl with thick eyeliner, a short black skirt, and heavy steel toed boots, plopped into the booth next to Danny. "They spent all their time working on graphics in the last game but the game play sucked."

"Hi, to you too," said Danny.

"Yeah, but Dead Earth one rocked." Tucker said barreling over his friend's comment. "And they got the same design team as the first one for three. That was the problem with the second one. The company hired different people to work on it."

Sam snorted. "I'll believe it's good when I see it. I heard that they kept most of the changes in play from two. Do you remember how impossible it was to aim in two?"

Danny shivered next to her, his breath becoming visible despite the warm greasy air of the fast food restaurant. "I gotta go. Try not to kill each other before I get back." Danny dashed off to the men's room and one flash of light later he was high above the Nasty Burger, he's eyes scanning the area for trouble.

Trouble was not hard to find. There were screams coming from the parking lot, as a group of teenagers turned on their heels and ran from the figure looming above them. The figure looked like a knight might, if he had had his armor redesigned by a twenty-second century mad scientist. The basic shape of the helmet and the armor was still there but it was very flexible and somehow allowed the figure to fly. Reddish light poured menacingly from the helmet and Danny could here it laugh as it zoomed right and left terrifying everyone in it's path.

"Hey, Mr. Dark Ages! Why don't you joust with someone who can fight back?" He yelled, flying towards the knight. Its head jerked up to meet the foe hurtling towards it as it let out a terrifying cackle. It raised up its right arm, clenching and then opening its fist. A dozen darts flew out of its hand towards Danny. The white-haired young ghost simply turned intangible and felt the darts pass through him with no resistance, as if he were made of air.

"Is that the best you can do?" He yelled, sending a series ectoplasmic blast out of his hands. The knight dodged all save the last, which sent it smashing to the ground. "Ha! Time to say goodnight!" The boy held his white gloved hands over his head, forming a powerful ball of energy. "Get it?" He laughed. "'Good knight!"

A red blast shot out of the knight's visor a moment before Danny threw his energy ball. The shot hit the boy square on the chest, sending him flying through the air before crashing into the wall near the front door of the restaurant, where Tucker and Sam had appeared to watch the battle.

"What is that thing?" Danny growled.

"Dude, you really need to read more comic books," Tucker said nervously. "That's Knightmare, from the Fledermaus Future series."

"Why the hell is there a comic book supervillian here in the real world?" Danny dodged another blast aimed for him, pulling Sam and Tucker out of the way as well.

"I'd say that's a pretty good question." Tucker managed to yell as was yanked ten feet to the left.

"Well, whatever you're doing here, you're going down!" The ghost yelled, once again flying into the air and charging at the bizarre knight. Danny pulled his arm back, ready to sock the thing straight in the face but as he went in for the punch, his fist passed harmlessly though. "What?" He said out loud.

The knight however, was fading into the background as if being drawn to whatever source had projected it. Danny watched fascinated, as its form faded to a mess of colors, which in turn slid backwards through the air, until they were swallowed by a comic book.

Holding the comic book was a ghost in the form of a young boy, Danny judged that he looked no more than ten years old. He was perched on top of a parked car, reading intently and grinning madly. Danny was confused. Why hadn't he noticed him before? He swooped down, landing directly in front of the boy.

"You better not do that again, kid." The young boy didn't answer. He merely giggled and turned the page on the comic book which, Danny noticed, was in fact a Fledermaus Future comic. "Hey, kid. I'm talking to you." Again, the ghost didn't answer. Danny gritted his teeth in frustration, at the same time keeping an eye out in case something odd and comic book related jumped out at him. "Are you paying attention to me? I said, you better not do that again or I'll suck you into my thermos and send you back to the ghost zone." The boy giggled again and looked at him.

"I'll do it if I want. I like seeing them alive."

Danny snatched the comic book from his hand and grabbed the ghost by his collar. "Listen punk..." Suddenly a strange feeling washed over him and he felt his fingers loosen. That was right. Just let the boy go.

"Go home. Someone's waiting for you." Danny set the ghost child down and handed him back his comic book. With out any hesitation the boy nodded and flew off.

"Danny?" He turned around, Sam's voice calling to him from behind. "What was that? Why did you just let him go?" Her brow was knitted and worried look was etched into her violet eyes.

Danny said nothing. He just stared at her silently, his face a blank slate, his eyes flashing red.