Disclaimer: Let's get this straight. I am not Butch Hartman, therefore I do not own Danny Phantom or the characters. Nor am I Hornswaggler, so I do not own Winston Wolfe either. The story itself? Yes, I will lay claim to that.

Author's notes: I noticed that I've been very vague with the timing of the story. To fix that, there's going to be a timeline at the end of this chapter to help out with that.

Chapter 7
First Confrontations

It had been about two weeks since Danny had decided to visit the cemetery on his own. As he traveled the familiar paths, he constantly checked his surroundings for a sign of another's presence. Although he wasn't exactly, happy he felt that there was a need to check, it was better to play it safe. That creature had been there once after all, so who was to say that it would not appear again?

Without even realizing he had been aiming for it, he soon reached his favorite part of the grounds. A small stone terrace decorated with a couple benches sat neatly out of the way of both graves and the normal path. Since it was surrounded by trees, it was often easy to miss by visitors, assuring he would be able to think in peace for a while.

Words and images manufactured from hours of speculation kept swimming around his head. He tried to make sense of everything, but it just seemed to make his confusion worse. The puzzle of both his past and his parents' was not only vast, but complicated. It was likely it was possible to solve it; however he was pretty sure that there were several pieces that he still didn't have.

The new information about his unknown parents seemed to take precedence over any other thoughts. They had disappeared after being attacked, yet Winston had never actually said if they were still alive. Maybe his guardian withheld the information because of concern, or perhaps he didn't even know for sure. So, was it possible that they could still be out there somewhere? Wouldn't that be nice? But, he knew that it was incredibly unlikely just because of how much time had passed. Besides, he'd have absolutely no idea what he would say to them.

There was also the issue of the guy that had attacked his parents… Plasmius, or something like that. Winston seemed very hesitant to talk about him and had even danced around the subject once he had gotten a chance to ask him for details. Although he couldn't say for sure, it felt as if something big was being left out of the story, even if he had no idea what it could be. Was this Plasmius just an unorthodox researcher with some frightening ideas? Or was there more to it? Tucker had suggested that he could be some type of crazy arms dealer (though he personally didn't understand how weapons and paranormal science could mix).

Danny took a moment to both rest his mind and to attempt to figure out how to make his hand visible again. Shortly after his conversation with Winston, different parts of his body had seemingly begun to randomly disappear. The first time it happened, he had been trying to wash his face the one morning, only to realize that the wash cloth was seemingly floating in mid air. Although his hand reappeared only a few moments later, he was absolutely amazed that none of the neighbors called the police because of his regrettably very unmanly scream.

Since that initial incident, he was still no closer to understanding why it happened. It was possible that it was somehow related to the incidents where he fell through a solid object. However, he was currently unable to rationalize how that was possible. The only thing he could say was he was absolutely terrified of what it might be doing to his body, and what his friends might think if they happened to be unlucky enough to ever get to see it. That was why he had not contacted them in over a week.

He ran his hand through his hair as he sighed. No matter how much he tried to wrap his head around it, there was just too much he didn't know which prevented him from piecing everything together. Although he was definitely hesitant about contacting them, his friends, but talking to them over the phone would definitely help calm the chaotic storm in his mind, even if they couldn't contribute anything thing.

After glancing at his watch, he realized that Winston was probably going to be expecting him back home soon. As he got up off the bench, he inadvertently shuddered after a strange, almost breeze-like chill caressed his body which was almost immediately replaced by the feeling of being watched. "H-hello…?" he stammered, hoping that it was just his imagination. The last thing he needed at the moment was a repeat of what happened the last time he experienced this feeling.

"Okay… You're losing it," he told himself when nothing answered him. "There's nothing here except you and some dead people… Nothing to worry about… unless Amity Park has suddenly become Pittsburgh…"

"Zombies… How amusing. It always astounds me how the mind of a teenager can jump to such things."

Danny felt himself grow rigid as a sick sort of recognition ran through him. There was no way he could forget the sound of that voice, not after the terror he felt the last time he heard it. The chilling yet oddly sophisticated tone told him that whatever was speaking was definitely the very same creature he had encountered last time.

"W-who… what are you…?" he asked it, hoping he could possibly keep it occupied long enough for him to magically figure out a way to make an escape. The only problem was that he had this sinking suspicion it was smarter than him.

A strange and unnerving chuckle answered him. "I take it that you've heard of ghosts before, my boy?"

"So… you're telling me that you're a ghost…?" he asked slowly while he tried to figure out what was creepier: a disembodied voice talking about ghosts or it calling him 'my boy'.

"And you got it right on the first guess. I must say that I'm impressed."

His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out where it might be. Sure he was definitely scared of it, but currently the anger at it actually questioning his intelligence was currently overriding his fear. "Are you just here to annoy me?" he snapped. "If so, you're really doing a good job."

"Oh, I assure you that I have more important things to do than to wound the pride of an adolescent," it told him with a flourish before its tone became one of hunger. "I'm here to take you away from this world."

He slowly began to back up. Its voice had originally had sounded like it was coming from terrace boundary, now seemed like it was coming from right in front of him. And, it definitely felt as if something was standing only a few feet away from him, even if he couldn't see it.

"Are you afraid?" it asked him it an amused tone. "You really shouldn't be. Daniel, you don't belong in this world. You never have."

"Wh-what do you mean?" The fear was present in his voice now, and there was nothing that he could do to attempt to hide it. He backed up until he felt tree bark pressing into his skin. Whatever this thing was, it had managed to corner him.

He glanced around desperately, hoping there was something he could do. However, his attempts stopped when he realized a figure was slowly starting to materialize out of the air. He could tell it was humanoid in shape, but the features were still too burry to make out.

Once again, the voice, which seemed to be coming from the slowly emerging figure, chuckled. "Oh come now Daniel, haven't you realized that you feel more comfortable among the dead than the living?" Apparently, it took the confused look on his face as a confirmation as it continued. "I've watched you for a while now. I know that you come here because it seems to call to you. It's the only place where you can connect with the other side, whether you realize it or not."

His focus turned away from the conversation as he noticed that the figure appeared to be reaching out for him. He batted the hand away, surprised when he felt the resistance of another person. With the realization there was something physical there, he tried to further push himself away from it, but instead of finding the resistance of the tree, it felt like he was suddenly stumbling through a wall of water. The next thing he knew, he was sitting on the ground facing the opposite side of the tree.

"Good… It looks like your powers are developing quite nicely." The creature's voice now seemed to contain a dark interest as it again moved closer, undeterred by what had happened. It's form, though still hazy, was now visible enough for Danny to clearly identify it as having more of a male build. "Though, they're still tied to your emotions, which won't do you much good at the moment."

"P-powers?" he almost choked as he tried scooting away from it, ignoring the fact that he now had a chance to run. "What are you talking about?"

"So Winston really hasn't told you anything. It's such a shame." For a moment it appeared that it would say something else, but tilted its head as if it was listening to something. "Your friends have remarkable timing," it told him in a tone that clearly expressed that it was not happy about the intrusion.

He had no idea what it meant until he heard a faint voice calling his name. "Sam?" he shouted back in a surprised terror. "Don't come closer! Get out of here!"

"DANNY?" Her voice sounded closer.

The creature chucked yet again. "Oh, don't worry, I can wait a little longer before I claim you. Just be prepared." The voice seemed to fade away along with the pale outline of whatever it really was.

As soon as he felt like the creature was truly gone, he breathed deeply in relief only to jump at the sounds of Sam finally reaching him. He had just enough time to look up at her before one of his arms decided that it no longer cared for the rigidity of the ground and sank right through it before getting stuck.

…

"So… where's Tucker…?" he asked in an attempt to strike up a conversation after he and Sam rather awkwardly started back towards the entrance. It was definitely a risk for him to speak as his stomach started to turn against him, which apparently was going to happen every time something weird happened. But, knowing that he had frightened one of his only friends was enough to get him to try.

She was silent for a moment before she spoke, making sure that she did not glance at him. "He's waiting near the entrance… He said that he was too frightened to go any further than that."

"Oh…"

He bit his lip as he tried to figure out something else to say. Sam had managed to handle seeing him try to free his foot from a floor quite well, but apparently watching how it had happened was a little too much for her. He wished that there was something that he could say that would help, but what could he say when he didn't even understand what was happening?

"Um… Danny…" He glanced over at her only to realize that she had stopped a few feet behind him. She was uncharacteristically playing with the hem of her skirt before she looked up at him with blazing eyes. "What's going on? Now I'm all for the weird and freaky, but even this is starting to get too weird, even for me!"

"Sam…" Before he could really say anything, she interrupted him.

"If you want me and Tucker to continue to be your friends, you've got to start explaining things! This is the second time that I've seen some part of your body get stuck into something solid. That's not normal no matter how you look at it! What are you? What was that thing? What's going on?"

"Do you think I know?" he snapped at her, causing her to stop her rant and stare at him. "If I knew what is happening to me, don't you think I would have said something after Tucker fainted?" Getting irritated was definitely not the best idea since his stomach decided to forcefully remind him that it was already upset with him. In an attempt to keep everything under control, he sat on the ground while resting his head on his knees. This illness thing was really starting to get on his nerves.

A hesitant touch caused him to glance up. Although it was very clear that she still felt uncomfortable, Sam had decided to come over and gently run his back in a somewhat apologetic attempt to make him feel better. "I'll wait until we get out of here before I ask anything else. You need time to feel better, and Tucker'll mentally need to prepare himself. I swear he can be so cowardly sometimes."

…

As he watched his friend try to find ways to rationalize what he was told of what had occurred in the graveyard, he grimly decided he would rather deal with attempting to escape from that creature… or ghost, if that's what it really was, than dealing with Tucker's spastic response to his fears. After meeting up with him at the entrance of the graveyard, they had relocated to Tucker's house to talk things over.

"So, you're telling me that this thing told you that not only do you not belong in 'this world' but that it was going to take you away too?" Tucker asked as he adjusted his glasses. "What's to say that it's not going to come after you while we're around?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," he sighed, for what felt like the thousandth time that day. "From what I understand, it could have very easily have taken me away earlier today, but instead it decided to leave when Sam appeared. It doesn't make much sense to me either, but I guess it would rather take me when there was no one around to watch…"

"But why?" Sam's tone made it clear that she held a great deal of skepticism about the motives of the creature. "I mean… I was the only other person around earlier, and it had plenty of time to take you and run, or fly, or whatever… you know what I mean… before I even managed to get a good look at either of you. There's just something that doesn't feel right about it."

Although Danny hadn't thought about it before, she had made a very valid point. That thing could have done anything it wanted with him, yet it decided to leave him alone again. There really seemed to be no logical reason for it. Well, no logical reason that he could come up with. For some reason, it just felt like it was somehow playing a game with him.

"Wait a minute, Sam! You actually saw this thing?" Tucker demanded, completely ignoring everything else that she had said. "What did it look like?"

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow for a moment before she spoke. "Why do you want to know? I thought that you were afraid of this thing…"

"I am, but I'd like to know what my doom looks like so that I have a better chance to be prepared."

"Tucker, we're dealing with something that's calling itself a ghost, meaning that it can become invisible. How is that going to help?"

For a second, he thought that the word 'ghost' was going to cause Tucker to go into another set of hysterics, but instead he smile rather broadly. "Well, if that's the case, than I guess I don't need to worry all that much."

"Wait a minute, you've been scared of this thing for two weeks and now it's suddenly fine? What's going on?" Danny asked after he shared a very confused glance with Sam.

Tucker gave them a rather surprised look before he started to look up something on his PDA. After mere seconds, he shoved it towards them so that they could get a glance at the article he pulled up. "I'm actually surprised that you haven't heard about this Sam, especially because of how interested you are in all things dark and creepy, but if that thing really is a ghost, then it's not going to leave its haunt."

"Wait, that's right!" Sam exclaimed after handing the PDA back to Tucker. "Ghosts tend to haunt places that have some sort of significance to them, and they're never seen anywhere else. So if that thing's haunt is the cemetery, then…"

"It's going to stay there…?" Danny asked with a little bit of uncertainty.

"EXACTLY!" Tucker nodded to himself, pleased that everyone now seemed to be on the same page. "That means that I don't have to worry about it. But… just in case… what did it look like?"

He just shook his head. "I… I'm not entirely sure."

"What do you mean you're not sure?"

"Um… well, it was almost like it was slowly coming into focus the whole time it was talking to me, and I was more focused on trying to escape than anything else…."

"You had to have seen something?"

The desperation in Tucker's voice made him try to revisit the encounter to see if anything in particular decided to stick out at him. "It… was about the size of a normal man," he said slowly after a moment, "and was wearing black gloves."

"And it had a cape," Sam added.

"It had a cape?" both he and Tucker asked rather incredulously.

She nodded. "That's really the only thing that I know I saw."

"Wait, you're telling me that this thing thinks that it's some sort of demonic superhero?" Tucker practically demanded.

"How should I know what it thinks? And what makes you say that?"

After that simple question, the three of them managed to somehow get into a rather complicated debate about the various superhero universes. Although it was completely off topic, it was definitely a very welcome distraction from the earlier events of the day.

Although he kept trying to push it from his mind, there was something that nagging him about the encounter. Sure, Tucker might be convinced that the self-proclaimed-ghost would not appear anywhere else other than the cemetery, but he wasn't as sure. All of the ghost stories he had heard had taught him that ghosts were not able to hurt the living, yet he was absolutely certain that if it had wanted to, it could have easily have killed him or Sam. Assuming that it had that sort of power made him wonder if it could throw the other 'rules' out of the window too.

The only problem was that he didn't have the necessary information about it though. Hopefully, he would never get a chance to learn it, but something told him that he wouldn't be that lucky. The only thing he could do was wait and see what happened in the upcoming days.

Okay, there's a few notes for this chapter:

1) Story timeline rundown:
Ch.1 Sat
Ch.2 Sat night
Ch. 3 Sun
Ch. 4 Wed afternoon
Ch. 5 Wed afternoon
Ch. 6 Wed night
Ch. 7 Sun (two weeks after chapter 3)

The story starts in the 2nd week of September (the year is rather unnecessary to know). The reason is that this is what came to mind when I first started working on this, and that I have absolutely no idea when Danny's actual birth date (if there is an official one) really is.

2) Although there are some specifics that are certain, I'm still not entirely sure which direction I'm going to be taking the story and would love to hear any ideas that you, the readers, may have. So, if you're willing to share any, please don't hesitate to pm me.

3) My test schedule for this semester is absolutely frightening… and I am currently unsure if I'll be able to meet my one-chapter-per-month quota from Feb-April. I'll do my best, so please, don't give up on me.

4) If you don't get the Pittsburgh reference, it's okay. Pittsburgh's often called the zombie capital of the world because of how many zombie films have been made there.

5) And, last, but certainly not least, a big thank you to my beta, dragondancer123. Myself, like so many others, would be completely illiterate without her help.

And, that's it for now,
Goshi signing off