A/N: YES! My longest chapter yet! Over 1,700 words! Wh00t! It's a couple days late, but I believe it'll be worth it. There are 3 major plot points in this chapter, and quite a bit of foreshadowing. The only thing I find a bit weak is in the hospital. Please keep in mind that I don't know exactly what goes on, and that I've never had a relative or friend get hit by a car. So I have no idea what it's like. Please have mercy! Lol... Also keep in mind that I suck horribly at action scenes.

So, it's on with the chapter!


Chapter Six

"You!" Valerie exclaimed, immediately recognizing the massive, armored ghost in front of her. How could she not? After all, he had chained her to the ghost kid and hunted them both in the Ghost Zone.

"Me," Skulker mocked her, shooting a half-dozen missiles from his arm. Valerie nimbly dodged them all and retaliated with a few blasts from an ecto-gun. While doing so, she marveled at how much easier it was to fight in her new suit. It was almost as if it knew her moves even before she did!

But however powerful she was, Skulker eventually gained the upper hand. While retreat was one of her least favorite options, Valerie was too tired to continue battling. Pressing a button on her jet sled, she zoomed away at top speed, soon ditching the ghost in a dark alleyway on the other side of town.

Then, she deactivated her suit. As quickly as she could, she made her way to her apartment complex using back streets and alleys. She met no ghosts, luckily.

Then again, Valerie thought as she entered her room, I wouldn't mind kicking the Box Ghost's butt a few more times…

Thinking of the Box Ghost reminded her of the strange name that he had called Danny: halfa. What was that supposed to mean? Maybe it was some sort of codename or something… But why would a ghost have a special name for Danny, of all people?

Valerie sighed in annoyance. Why did everything elude her now? How could she not figure out what was so special about one of her good friends that ghosts knew him? And how could she not spot a guy who was half a ghost and half a human in her own school?

Suddenly, Valerie's thoughts screeched to a halt. Half a ghost and half a human… she repeated in her head. Why is that so familiar? Wait a minute… Half a ghost… Halfa… They sounded a lot alike. What if halfa was some other name for a ghost-human hybrid?

Wait… But if that's true… Valerie began, coming to a startling possible conclusion: Then that would mean that Danny's the ghost hybrid…

And then she laughed. She laughed so hard (and yet so falsely), that she fell back on her bed, clutching her sides. Danny? The ghost kid? Yeah right! she thought. And she just laughed more.

Soon enough she stopped, and began to think about it in a sane, logic way. First off, I might be wrong and halfa is not a name for a ghost hybrid. Secondly, if Danny really was the ghost kid, I think that I would've noticed a while ago.

Then she grabbed the sheet of notes she had begun to make before the Box Ghost had shown up. Valerie knew that the ghost kid was about her age and height, and had messy hair. That does sound a lot like Danny…

Suddenly, Valerie had an idea. She would make two lists: one of reasons why Danny could be the ghost kid, and one of reasons why he couldn't. Then, she could compare them and decide what was right.

Immediately, she retrieved two more sheets of paper and began to think…


"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton?"

The two mentioned people looked up at the sound of their names. Strangely, Danny recognized that voice. He looked up as well to see that a brunette nurse with blue eyes had entered the room.

Finally! Danny thought. We've been waiting for at least three hours…

"Ah! And you must be Danny," she said to him as she walked over. "I'm Nurse Mendoso, the one who called you." She extended a hand and Danny shook it, not able to make himself smile in greeting. After shaking hands with his parents, she took a seat in a nearby chair, facing the three of them with a serious face.

"How is she?" Maddie said softly, almost whispering.

"Well, I might as well fill you in on the initial damage first…" the nurse began. She took a deep breath. "In the ambulance, her right arm and leg had multiple fractures, and a few of her ribs were broken. Her right hip was shattered into almost a half dozen pieces, her skull was cracked slightly, and part of her foot has been crushed."

Danny gulped. That was a pretty long list. "Will she be alright?" he asked warily.

"She'll live, if that's what you mean. We've fixed up a few of the fractures in her leg. She'll probably be in a wheelchair for a couple weeks after she gets out of the hospital," Nurse Mendoso informed then.

The half-ghost breathed a sigh of slight relief. Jazz was going to be okay!

"And… How long will Jazz be here?" asked Jack.

"It depends on how the next couple procedures go and how fast she recovers. I'd guess between one and two weeks. Maybe longer."

"When will we be able to see her?" Maddie questioned.

"Probably tomorrow, if you want."

"Alright. Thank you," she said.

Nurse Mendoso got up and turned to leave, then faced Danny again. "By the way, Danny, your sister was conscious again for a little while right before we entered the ER. She asked me to give you this." She pulled a crumpled, bloodstained paper out of her pocket, gave it to him, and walked away.

Curiously, Danny unfurled the paper. To his surprise, his name was at the top. Well, one of them, anyway…

Danny Phantom –

Why, hello there! My name is – oh, wait, I'm not supposed to say! How are you doing? Well, it's not like I care! Guess what? I've had enough of hearing about the ghost boy saving the day, so I'm going to give you twelve hours to run to the remotest place you can think of and never come back! If you don't do so, I'll track down your greatest weakness! And then, I'll make you run away anyways! Doesn't that sound great?

There will be no mercy.

Signed,

No One In Particular

"What does it say, Danny?"

At first, the half-ghost was a bit too shocked to reply to the question. Whoever wrote that note must be some sort of psycho… he thought. Why would Jazz have this? Then, his mom's question finally registered in his brain.

"Uh… Nothing, mom. It's nothing," he lied. He couldn't let his parents know that it was a note addressed to Danny Phantom. It could give away his secret. "Just a blank piece of paper."

And for once, neither of his parents seemed suspicious of his lie. He supposed there was too much on their minds to be thinking about something so trivial as a piece of paper…

Danny reread the note, then shoved it into his pocket. Suddenly, he felt his stomach growl quietly. The half-ghost glanced at his watch. Whoa! It's already six-thirty!

His parents seemed to have noticed his actions and heard the noise from his hungry stomach. "Danny, you can go and get something to eat if you want," Maddie said.

"How about we all go?" his dad said. "This chair is killing my back." He stood up, and immediately, a loud cracking sound was heard. "Ah, that's better!"

Danny could've sworn he saw his mom's eye twitch.


Valerie set her pen to the paper and wrote at the top, "Reasons Why Danny Can Be the Ghost Kid." To her great displeasure, ideas flooded her head at once. She found herself writing reason after reason why her friend could be half-ghost, eventually ending at nine. She looked them over carefully to make sure the logic was sound.

-He is the same height and age as the ghost kid.

-He has the same hairstyle as the ghost kid.

Valerie had already established the fact that those reasons were true.

-He has the same color backpack as the ghost kid.

She had noticed this during a fight with the ghost kid before school. At that time, she hadn't known why he had carried a purple backpack. But now, she did.

-He's never around when the ghost kid is.

-He's always running off somewhere, and whenever he does, a ghost comes.

Danny always left at the most random times. And after he was gone, the ghost kid (and often, other ghosts) would show up somewhere. Danny never returned until the ghost kid left.

-He's secretive about a lot of stuff, including places he's been and things he does.

This reason was in the article. It slightly saddened Valerie that she had never realized just how many things Danny didn't tell her. Sure, she knew his bowling average, his dream job, and lots of other stuff, but he still hid some things from her. She could tell now.

-Sometimes, he carries a Fenton Thermos. He might've stolen it though.

Valerie had seen the ghost kid sucking up ghosts in a Fenton Thermos. She could recognize the ghost-catching device because during the enormous ghost invasion, her father had worked with the Fentons. So, unless the ghost kid had stolen it, then Danny had probably gotten one from his parents.

-Sam and Tucker are almost always nearby whenever the ghost kid is there.

It was possible that the ghost kid was someone else who was friends with Sam and Tucker, but not probable. Them and Danny stuck together and had almost no other friends.

-When my suit was taken over by a ghost, it went after Danny.

Well, she was pretty sure it was a ghost anyway. And the only reason a ghost would go after Danny was if he was of some importance to it.

Sighing deeply, Valerie moved on to the next list: "Reasons Why Danny Can't Be the Ghost Kid." It took her almost a full minute to come up with the first reason. This frightened Valerie.

-Danny is pretty shy, and the ghost kid isn't.

Okay, that was somewhat decent. After all, it would be pretty hard for the ghost kid to choreograph two different personalities.

-He doesn't seem like the kind of person who holds such immense power.

Wasn't that basically the same as the last one?

-There's no way he could've kept a huge secret like that from me…

After writing that, Valerie broke down and cried. It was something she hadn't done in years; she couldn't believe it. But right before her eyes, the paper became dotted with tears.

No! There's no way! It can't be true! Valerie thought desperately. Danny just can't be the ghost kid! How could he hide something like that from me? Why?

Now she was confused. She had planned to confront the ghost kid's human form and stop him once and for all. But how could she do that to Danny, her friend?

What am I going to do? she wondered. Just as she was weighing the question in her mind, her cell phone rang. She opened it and checked her caller I.D. It read "555-1221." Danny.


A/N: Muahahahahaha... I bet you all LOVED that, didn't you? Man, it was really fun writing that note! And it wasn't that hard either, seeing as I am quite crazy... MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Thanks for reading, now please review and tell me what you think!

IMPORTANT: I'll be starting school on August 30th. I'm not going into high school, but it's going to be pretty hard. I'm going into a special eighth grade class called SOS (success oriented students). I'm probably going to have a lot of work to do, and I'm going to try and stop my habit of procrastination. This class is composed of the top twenty-four students in our year, so I'll really have to be my best. Updates may come slower than they usually do, but I'll try to update about two times per month.