Nightshade

The grin on Danny's face fell to a frown as he was reminded, yet again, that he was some place that he should not be. Sure, he was with good people, but everything about his situation kept screaming to get out. However, he knew in the deepest pit of his stomach that he might not go home for a long time.

"Who are these guys?" Beast Boy asked, pulling Danny out of his head.

"They're my friends back home," Danny answered shortly.

"Where did I see that screen name?" Cyborg asked aloud, the two of them seeing the name blazed under the message 'Chaos.'

"That's Sam. She helped us get into the closed beta. She's pretty cool," Danny supplied. "Can I talk to them?" Danny asked cautiously.

"Just don't tell them where you are right now. So tell us about them?" Cyborg suggested.

"Well, Sam is an ultra-recycle vegetarian. She was the one that goaded me into going into the portal when I…" Danny paused and looked down a bit, when he looked up the two flinched. "Anyway, Sam helped me out a lot with keeping the ghosts away as well as help me keep my studies up while fighting ghosts. I used to miss class a lot!" Danny finished.

"She seems cool, but what about the other dude?" Beast Boy asked.

"Well, that would Tucker. He is a techno geek. He would help with ghosts, but using other methods. He would help me with all the technical support, and would help a ton with my homework. Here's the crazy thing though, he only had access to a PDA!" Danny exclaimed.

"A PDA?" Beast Boy asked, making a face.

"It means Personal Digital Assistant, green bean," Cyborg said looking at Beast Boy. He then turned to Danny and said, "I thought they didn't sell them anymore though."

"He found one at a thrift store. Heh, just imagine what he could do with a budget…" Danny started, but was cut off by the tower's alarm system going off.

NS-Amity Park-NS

It was a long day for both Sam and Tucker. They wanted to spend the whole Saturday playing Doomed with Danny, but he wasn't home. Normally Tucker would guess that the dude was off fighting ghosts or something, however there hasn't been an attack all morning. It was a bit suspicious that they didn't find him home, or at Valerie's, or anywhere.

Sam and Tuck decided they'd start playing without him, using Skype to talk with one another. When they saw Danny hop onto the game, Tuck tried to call him at home.

"Hello, Fenton residence," Jack Fenton responded.

"Hello Mr. F, did Danny get home? I see he's online on the doomed game," Tuck said.

"Lemme check," Jack responded.

After a short silence, Jack came back to the phone and said in a bit of panic, "He's still not home. He's not with you guys?"

"No sir," Was all Tucker said.

The other end went silent.

Tuck went back to his headset and asked, "What did Danny say?"

"He said he stepped out for some air. I heard you talking with his dad, so is he home?" Sam replied.

"His dad sounded panicked, then said he wasn't home," Tuck answered, his eyebrows furrowed. Then, almost as it a lightbulb went off in his head, he said, "Keep talking with him. I'm gunna try to get his IP, that should give his location."

"Okay," Sam replied.

'So you're home then?' Sam typed.

'Yeah, just got home a bit ago, but I don't want any company right now.' Came Danny's answer a few moments later.

Sam frowned as she read. "He said he just got home a bit ago," She said into her headset.

"Why's he lying to us? Tell him I've called his home, and he wasn't there," Tuck said, typing into a prompt on his computer.

Sam shook her head and wrote, 'You sure? We just called a few minutes ago.'

'Dad's been acting weird for the last couple weeks.' Danny wrote.

"Whoa, what the hell!" Tucker said loudly.

Sam frowned at both Danny and Tucker's sudden disconnect from the Doomed chat and Skype. But just then the her phone rang.

"He logged off," Sam said picking up the phone.

"Yeah, well I think I got a location, but my computer is completely locked up. I think I got counter hacked!" Tucker said with complete disgust.

"Did you get his location?" Sam asked.

"I said 'I think!'" Tuck snapped. He was fuming at this point. He had NEVER been counter hacked with zero time to respond. He got up from his desk and moved to unplug the computer. He grabbed the wire and damn near pulled the outlet from the wall.

"Calm down!" Sam screamed into the receiver.

Tucker took a deep, shaky breath before saying, "I think I saw somewhere on the west coast. It was near San Francisco, but I can't be sure." He then kicked the side of his computer.

NS-Titans Tower-NS

The alarm went off, completely disconnecting Danny from what he was doing. He felt absolutely terrified, and covered his ears. He turned to BB and asked, "Is this normal?"

"Yeah dude, that goes off and we go into danger," Beast Boy said puffing his shoulders up.

Robin, Star, and Raven all rushed into the room, the cape and cloak flapping from their speed. Robin jumped over the couch and demanded, "What's the situation Cy?"

The alarm stopped, and an image of Amity Park appeared on the TV screen. "Some punk just tried to hack our location!" Cyborg stated.

"Any idea on the perp?" Robin asked, switching completely into detective mode. If anyone could see his eyes, they would be completely focused on this one objective. He was ready for just about anything, but he wasn't ready for a laugh from Danny.

They turned to him, and he said in between laughs, "That would be Tucker's house. I was talking with them on Doomed."

Robin's eyes narrowed. "Talking with 'them' on Doomed?" Robin asked, putting emphasis on them.

Danny's laughter fled him and said, "Sam and Tucker. Cyborg wanted to play Doomed, so I was going to let him use my beta access."

"What did you tell them?" Robin asked, almost emanating anger.

"I didn't say anything to them about you guys!" Danny said quickly.

Robin pointed at the screen and said, "ONE OF THEM HACKED US!"

Danny felt himself shrink a bit in his seat. He didn't mean for that to happen, it just sort of did. "I'm sorry Robin. There's no reason to yell at me though," Danny said in shock.

Robin gathered up his anger, then asked, "They good people?"

"I trust them with my secret," Danny stated, confirming Robins suspicions about them.

"Okay, you're gunna have no internet access for the rest of the day. If you're staying, then you can have it back. In the meantime, how about we go to the training room?" Robin suggested.

Danny felt a bit taken aback by the sudden change in deminer. One second, he's yelling at you, the next, he's all buddy with you. He couldn't help be cringe a bit at what his sister would say about that. Danny nodded to Robin, and the team went to the elevator.

The whole ride down, Danny resized Robin up. They had a lot similar with appearances, but the dude has anger problems; perhaps they were even worse than that. He shook those thoughts, and went on to new ones.

The next thing that popped into his head was 'If I stay, he'll be MY leader. I don't know if I'd want him leading me with a hot head like that.' He almost frowned at that thought, and put that into the list of reasons to leave category, but then the voice of reason came to him. 'Maybe he's just overly protective, but why would that point his anger at me?'

Before he could think of anything else, the training room opened and revealed a wide open room with thick steel walls, a weight lifting area, sparring dummies, hoops hanging from the large ceiling, and wooden targets; many of which were singed black in spots.

"Danny, we are curious about your powers. How about a demonstration?" Robin asked.

Danny nodded and said, "Okay then." As the words left his mouth, a dilemma appeared. He knew he was still in his human form, which was a problem if he didn't want them to know about it.

"What's wrong friend Danny? Do you have the 'failure to preform' problem?" Starfire asked with a lot of concern in her voice, causing Danny's cheeks to burn red. Beast Boy and Cyborg burst out in laughter, with Robin at least holding it in, but Raven didn't laugh. Truth be told, he was grateful for that.

"You guys done?" Danny asked angrily. They stopped laughing, but didn't loose the smirks.

"It's okay dude! I hear they make a pill for that!" Beast Boy said, letting loose another barrage of laughter.

But before any of the others could laugh at him, Danny's eyes turned a bright green. Two white rings formed around him, and his whole body shifted. Gone were his clothing, replaced with a black and white hazmat suit. His black hair turned a sickly white, and his skin went from healthy to pale white in a manner of moments. Not to mention the white glow around him, visible to all.

In that moment, Danny's whole body shook, then he fell to one knee. All had stopped laughing and looked on with concern, Raven moved forward with worry. She didn't expect him to bolt into the air and tackle the hoops with great accuracy. Then fly past a wooden dummy, striking it with a green blast, in a strafing position. Lastly flying down to the ground at break neck speed, only to fly through the floor. Each Titan stood dumb founded, only to jump a bit when he said, "Boo" behind them invisibly.

He dropped the invisibility, and said, "They don't make a pill for what I can do." While speaking, he turned back to his normal self, and walked over to the corner breathing a bit heavily. Cyborg walked over to the kid and offered him some water. Each Titan walked over to sing praise to Danny, and apologized to him for goading him.

The team went to do their own training, Cyborg on the weights, and Robin and Beast Boy on the sparing bags. Raven used her time to target practice with levitating and throwing things. Star had moved to Danny and decided to fight with him.

"Danny, care to fight with me? After all, our powers look quite similar," Star said, throwing a star bolt at a separate wooden target.

Danny smiled at the idea, but said, "Mine look plenty different. Sure, they're both green, but yours are almost like hot plasma. Mine are actually made from ectoplasm, and have a tiny bit of electricity to them."

"You are correct Danny, but enough of that," Star said, adopting her fighting pose.

Both let their eyes glow green, with Danny retransforming, and the two launched into the air. Each threw their blasts at the other, with little success of hitting the other. It was almost as if each took turns trying to hit each other while making hairpin turns and adjustments. What's more, he got cocky and tried to faze through one only to get hit by the full blast. These were definitely plasma, and they definitely hurt, but Danny knew she was holding back.

Danny couldn't explain why he got angry at her holding back, and had just about enough of that. He accelerated in close to Starfire. He tried for a speedy punch, but she matched his speed going backwards. Eventually all Danny's punches and kicks backed Star into a wall, and Danny kept on the offensive. He gave one final punch to where her head was, and left a fist sized dent on the steel wall.

Star dodged down and blasted Danny right in his gut. He flew backwards by the blast, and Star launched forward with her own attacks. Danny tried something new to combat her assault. He would faze parts of his body that would be hit while dodging her attacks where he could. The two fired a blast at each other, but star had managed to hit Danny's head while Danny hit her shoulder.

Danny fell towards the ground, and Star hovered over him, with her guard dropped slightly. "Are you alright Danny?" Star asked.

Danny then jumped on the opening, launching from the ground like an Olympic swimmer kicking off the edge of the pool, with a hard hit where her liver should have been. He hadn't realized that he had built up ecto energy in his hand, and when he hit her the ecto punch burned her clothing a bit.

She fell down in pain, just as Danny snapped out of it, and flew down to catch her by the back of her top.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean…" Danny started, only for Star to completely mimic his attack on her. Danny was down for the count. He was sucking in for air, which wasn't coming for him. He transformed back to normal, and couldn't revert to his ghost form.

Star leaned down to his ear and said, "We are the even."

When Danny managed to catch his breath, Raven was hanging over him. She wanted to heal his injury, but Danny declined.

"I have a supernatural healing factor. It heals most scrapes and bumps, so I'll be fine in a few. Doesn't do too well with burns though," Danny said, revealing his burn from the Skulker fight.

"I can't remove scars," Raven said monotone.

Danny sighed, as he got up and drank some water. He then watched as the team finished their training, then the whole team went up for diner. They ate some cold pizza while watching an old movie.

"Where did you learn to fight?" Star asked him.

"I'm sorry about the sucker punch," Danny answered feeling embarrassed.

"That is not what I meant Danny. In a fight, a warrior takes every opportunity they can get to beat their opponent. Where did you learn to fight?" Star asked again.

"On my own mostly. I just sort of improvise," Danny admitted.

"Well, that is okay, but you let your anger govern your actions. That makes you blind to your opponent, and it is why I beat you in our match," Starfire stated with a bit of a smile.

Danny found her to be odd. She didn't understand the context of the language she spoke, or at least pretended not to, but had an amazing amount of wisdom in her own way. Danny nodded and said, "Well, I'm going to bed. G'night!"

NS-Robin's Room-NS

After the movie, each Titan went their own way. Robin found himself at his desk thinking about what had happened in the training room. Danny was quick to temper, and it showed. Robin shuddered at the thought of the hot head on the team, and decided they'd need to train him hard to get him battle ready.

Robin pulled up Danny's file and began to type away. He added in his home town, a description on his 'hero' side, and his friends' names. 'Sam' would be harder to investigate than 'Tucker;' seeing as they have the kids address. Then he added a further description of his ecto-blasts, how they are green and almost flowing with life.

After typing away for a few moments, Robin paused. He replayed the events in his head, scene for scene of the transformation. Then it hit him. It was shock mostly from the transformation, but he was certain that Danny's eyes had flakes of red through them. They didn't look natural, even without the green eyes, but something told Robin that walking up and saying, 'I need to preform a procedure to determine what's in your eyes,' was completely out of the realm of possibility.

As Robin finished, he saved the file, but did not update the league. He didn't want to completely throw away the boys trust in Robin, but he was a realist. If they had one Terra, they could have another. This time he would be ready.

He then began to do his research on Tucker, and see what he could dig up.

NS-Fenton Works-NS

Jazz was freaked out. The whole family hadn't seen Danny in almost a full day, and mom didn't seem to care too much. Sure, she was putting on a brave face, however Jazz saw right through it. She knew something was up with her parents, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

After dinner, Jack looked up and said, "I'll look for the boy at his friends houses. He's going to be in so much trouble, I might just ground him to the house for a year!" Then he stormed out.

Maddie, on the other hand, calmly said, "I'll look for him on the streets." Then, she went out the door.

Jazz turned the whole place upside down and back together again. She found a notebook with a lock on it, which was a big red flag in her mind. Looking for a key would take more time than it's worth, but on the way up Jazz heard a small pop. She turned around to find the source, and saw the ecto-filter on the ground.

"They need to take better care of these things," Jazz said as she pressed the filter back into place.

It was around then that her dad came down stairs, and asked, "What's going on?"

"I heard something pop down here, so I thought it was Danny," Jazz lied.

"Well, what popped?" Jack asked, growing increasingly impatient.

"It was the filter on the portal," Jazz answered truthfully.

Jack leaned down and said, "If you're hiding him, you will share his punishment."

He then ruffled her hair and went back upstairs as if nothing happened.

Jazz let out a sigh and followed him up slowly, then went strait to her room. She lay on her bed and thought, 'Danny, where are you.'

NS-Back Alley, Amity Park-NS

Maddie went to the place in her dream that she had been the night before. She felt a tinge of dread at what she would find, but sighed in relief at the lack of a dead body. 'I would have heard about a dead body on the news' she rationalized. All that panic and worry gone in an instant, she went to walk away to the entrance, but heard glass break under her foot. All that guilt she thought left her came back in droves.

'It's just a piece of a beer bottle, or maybe some old milk glass,' She thought to herself, but kept her foot in place. It was like lead, fear keeping her from moving an inch. She relented and closed her eyes as she took a step back. When she opened them, the horror of what she had done washed back over her in an instant. All that pain before her eyes, all because of a broken syringe…

End of Chapter

I know that how Tucker hacked the tower's general location isn't how it's actually done, but I didn't want to get all technical with it.

Anyway, how do you guys feel about Robin? I think he'd absolutely write a feel-good report about a potential Titan, but then write in all the good, bad, and ugly afterwards.

Did you guys like the Starfire fight? The first draft was a basic outline, then I added in the meat and gristle to it. If I were to rewrite the fight, I think it would be the same matchup. Many pit Rob and Danny together, but it wouldn't work in this case. Danny just isn't experienced in fights against non-ghosts and it shows.

No spoilers, so if you ask about Danny, I won't answer. You're gunna have to wait and see.

Total Word Count: 3467