4. Information

There weren't very many people in the diner, which Danielle found to be extremely fortunate: less people meant fewer casualties.

The wall nearest them exploded, debris flew everywhere. People ducked out of the way then screamed and scattered off towards all the available exits.

Lancer seemed too stunned to move.

Dani grabbed his forearm and willingly made them both intangible, so that an unusually large chunk of the yellow wall flew harmlessly through them.

Dropping the intangibility, she tugged Lancer away from the potential danger and shoved him under a table farthest from the newly-made hole in the building.

A coyote slinked in through the gaping wall, a wicked grin revealed its many fangs.

Danielle lifted her fists and shifted into a defensive stance.

Hearing the animal speak shouldn't have been surprising.

Most of the animal spirits she'd encountered did not possess the ability to verbally communicate. The few that could had either raspy or hoarse voices, and—depending on the species—generally sounded either unusually high-pitched or extremely baritone.

This animal, however, spoke in a clear, human-like voice.

His words were articulate and enunciated.

Words that could only belong to an educated man.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Danny Phantom's cousin." The ghost sneered, baring its fangs. "And all along I thought you were nothing but a rumor created by Vlad's lackies."

"I consider myself lucky to have been able to catch a whiff of your scent here. The rain made it nearly undetectable, and it's practically indistinguishable to Daniel's. Kept getting the damn scents mixed up."

"You know Danny?" Danielle bit her lip, suddenly daunted.

Danny had many enemies, and she was certain she was nowhere near prepared to engage in a one-on-one battle against any one of Danny's more formidable enemies.

"Yes," the coyote grinned, "I would say I'm quite acquainted with your cousin."

He sat on his haunches and waved a paw in the air—a very human gesture, Danielle noticed.

Perhaps, she thought, this wasn't the ghost of an animal.

To confirm her theory, the ghost morphed into his human form.

Danielle felt her intimidation quickly disintegrate.

The man was short—shorter than she was. He was gray-haired and had a laughable mustache perched over his mouth. His tuxedo only served to demean his apparent villainy. He smirked up at her with a look that was supposed to be a menacing confidence.

Danielle suppressed a snicker at the squat man's form.

"Oh, enough about your cousin." The man smiled, patiently. "I'm here for you."

"Me?"

"There's a bounty on your head. Plasmius will greatly reward anyone who catches Danny Phantom's inexperienced cousin." He grinned. "I, for one, would definitely benefit from that reward. Now, you can come willingly, or I can just take you by force."

"Hmm," Danielle made a show of mulling over her options. A smirk lit up her face. "No, thanks, tubby. I think I'll stay right here."

The man bared his teeth on hearing the word 'tubby' escape her brash mouth.

The man's form shifted again.

Short arms elongated into large, powerful wings. Feet twisted into thick, gnarled claws. Black talons glinted dangerously. His nose and mouth morphed into a sneering mandible.

Beady red eyes glared at Dani.

"Shit!"

The girl ducked past the abnormally large bird, taking the fight outside.

His immense size, however, prevented him from easily slipping into the outside. The bird flapped his wings angrily as he struggled to squeeze through the hole.

Danielle snatched up her opportunity and summoned energy from her core, focusing it on her hand.

The shifter burst through the hole.

Danielle's palm faced the approaching adversary.

She charged the energy and released it through her fingertips.

The ectoenergy swirled into a brilliant green sphere that hovered inches from her palm.

It was not the ecto ray she had been expecting.

"Well," she shook off her confusion and grit her teeth. "This'll have to do."

She raised a hand over her head and swung her arm, putting as much force into her throw as she could muster.

She hit the falcon directly in the face.

The collision caused the ecto ball to explode in the raptor's eyes, momentarily blinding it.

A squawk of astonishment emanated from its throat.

Two more glowing spheres appeared at her hands, though Dani had only wanted one.

"The hell?" She reflexively pulled her hands closer together and was pleasantly surprised to see the spheres conjoin into one larger globe with, Danielle approximated, a foot in diameter.

Its large size required her to use both hands to throw it.

The sphere landed and exploded on the recovering bird's chest. This time, the impact sent him sailing several feet.

His body collapsed by the restaurant's giant hole and reverted back to his original, human-like form.

He struggled to get on all fours.

Feeling triumphant, Danielle moved forward, once again conjuring her ghost energy, focusing it on her palms.

Horror washed over her when she found no ecto energy forming in her hands.

She glared at her hands, willing her powers to work but to no avail.

A quick glance around revealed nothing that could aid her in battle, which meant that she had no other option but to flee.

Danielle dashed past the ghost and leapt into the gaping hole.

She peered around the diner.

Relief flooded her when Mr. Lancer crawled out from beneath a table.

"That was impressive, Ms. Phantom." Lancer complimented, though he didn't seem too enthralled by the experience.

"Not impressive enough. He's still somewhat conscious." She grabbed him by the forearm and tugged him away from the still recovering, swaying ghost. "We gotta go. Now."

"Shouldn't you be capturing the ghost in that container Mr. Phantom carries around?" Lancer inquired between breaths.

He struggled to keep up with her.

"I don't have one!" She shouted over her shoulder, wishing not for the first time that she would have had the sense to snag a Fenton Thermos from her last visit to the Fenton household.

Danielle slowed her pace as Lancer jogged ahead of her to climb into the car.

She paused and risked a peek at the diner.

There was no movement to indicate any signs of life—or afterlife, but she was certain the short ghost was recovering somewhere in the rubble.

She turned and slid into the car after Lancer.

The teacher's old car sputtered to life. He hit the gas and sped away from the diner.

Danielle looked over her shoulder and stared at the eatery, watching as the quaint, beat-up building slowly shrunk until it was completely out of sight.

The girl settled back into her seat and bit her lip, guilt surging through her.

Once again, she'd brought disaster and chaos to a concordant place. The owner of the restaurant would likely have to invest in repairs, and Lancer probably wouldn't be able to return to his favorite diner for quite a while.

A long moment of silence passed before Lancer spoke.

The teacher bit his lip. "You said your powers short-circuited." Lancer began cautiously.

"Yeah," Dani sighed.

"May I ask what happened?" Lancer queried, cautiously.

"Danielle shifted in her seat. She was in a car with her original's teacher, unsure of where they were going. She felt hesitant. "I guess." She murmured then cleared her voice. "Uh, the guy that was hunting me down was trying to use a different version of the Ecto-Stoppo-Power-ifier on me."

"The...the what?" Lancer's eyes briefly flickered to Danielle.

"It's this weapon that short-circuits a ghost's powers by slowly removing them. He created a prototype weapon similar to it and decided I would be the first one to test it." She bit her lip. "I don't know exactly what he had expected his experiment to do but, judging by the look on is face, the results were disappointing."

She fell silent, recalling the memories but feeling hesitant about divulging any more information.

"Look, Danielle, I don't mean to pry, but I'd really like to know a little more of what happened to you."

Danielle met Lancer's eyes for a moment. The concern and compassion that radiated off of him was almost palpable.

She grimaced. She felt he was a trustworthy man, but recent occurrences had led her to realize she wasn't a good judge of character.

Then again, he was Danny's teacher, and she'd once overheard Danny admit he was a decent guy.

"You know," Lancer began, risking a glance at her, "talking about it really does help."

She shrugged. She'd neither lose anything nor endanger anyone by telling him what happened.

"He had me caged. Like an animal. I was out for a while, so I'm not sure what exactly he did. What I do know is that when he tried out the invention on me something went wrong. The device exploded, which must've pissed him off because he'd spent days working on it. Anyways, the explosion destroyed a part of the cage I was in and knocked him out. It was enough for me to escape. He was furious. I had already made it to Amity when...my kidnapper finally caught up to me. I was flying. The clouds were thick, and it was dark and stormy. There was lightning. I couldn't see anything ahead of me and didn't know which direction I was headed. I looked over my shoulder and saw him holding these portable speaker-looking they turned on, I heard this-this..." She paused, recalling those dreadful moments. " It sounded like a wailing. The noise was...terrible. Excruciating. I can't even explain how horrible it was. It felt like my ears were bursting. Like they were exploding. And there was this...this excruciating pain in my head. Like a knife was slicing into my brain. It was the worst experience of my life. Even worse than being a lab rat." Danielle paused. "I-I guess I fell and lost consciousness." She hugged her knees to her chest. "I don't even remember hitting the ground."

She took a moment to calm her racing heart.

He was the first one to speak. "And that's when I found you," Lancer deduced.

His eyes welled with sympathy, and, for a moment, Danielle thought she'd seen tears in his eyes.

But he blinked, the expression quickly disappearing as his face contorted into an expression of disgust. "What kind of hideous monster would do something like that to you?"

Danielle pressed her lips together and interlocked her trembling feelings.

Lancer glanced at her, his expression softening into sympathy.

Danielle sighed. "I just hope this is a temporary thing." She balled her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms. "My powers are all messed up! They act up at random times, and they never work when or how I want them to. It's so frustrating!"

She felt a melancholy wash over her.

"I just want to go home," she whispered.

Lancer peered over at her but said nothing.

She was grateful for his silence.

Danielle kept to herself.

She stared at the window, losing herself in her thoughts.

She hadn't truly realized what she'd wanted until she said it.

She wanted a home to go to.

Her heart squeezed in pain.

She missed Danny.

It seemed to her that he was the only trustworthy person in her life.

He was her family. The only person she knew she could always count on. He'd made that blatantly clear.

Surely, he would have answers to her questions. Solutions to her problem.

Soon enough, she'd find her way back to him because he was the closest thing she had to a home.

:~:~:~:~:~:

Danny's foot caught on a vine.

Gravity took the opportunity to snatch his momentum and smash him against the ground.

"Danny, why can't you just admit you're lost?" Sam huffed in aggravation, crossing her arms over her chest.

Danny got up on all fours and scrambled to grab the map.

Sam snatched it up before he could.

He grit his teeth and leapt to his feet. "I'm not lost." He snatched the map from her hands, earning him a vexed scowl from the girl. "This map says he wants to meet up somewhere around here..."

Danny pulled his gaze from the incredibly well drawn map and glanced around the area.

He and Sam had been wandering around a jungle-like island called Wild, as the ghosts had dubbed it.

It was a place where strange and ferocious animals resided.

They'd only come across a few animals, and they were all strange and unlike anything Danny had ever seen before, but, at the same time, they all resembled beasts that dwelled in the human world.

They'd landed the Specter Speeder in a golden-green field inhabited by tawny-colored zebras with stripes that faded away about midway through their bodies.

Once they'd gotten deeper into the wilderness, they had barely managed to escape a pack of what almost resembled but didn't quite look like a pack of coyotes with stripes on their backs and long, thin tails.

Their confrontation with the strange, wild dogs had been particularly alarming

Danny had tried flying, but, as he had been forewarned, a ghost being in this island, along with most other areas of the Ghost Zone, was equivalent to a human in the human world.

No flight, no intangibility.

Fortunately, he still had his ecto rays and Sam had those weapons tucked in her tool belt, which served quite useful in fending off the coyote-like animals.

Danny had gotten lost some time after they had outrun the animals.

Another half hour passed with the pair traipsing around the woods and Danny struggling to recapture a sense of direction.

It hadn't taken Sam very long to figure out they were lost.

Danny huffed in frustration as he took another look at the map.

"Danny, just give me the map. I'm tired. I'm thirsty. My feet are hurting like crazy, and you don't look any better than I do. In fact, you look worse."

Danny blinked and shot her a look.

It was true. Danny was dripping with sweat from the blaring heat, and miniscule scratches were laced around his body. His body—like his torn hazmat suit—was still struggling to repair itself.

"You're right." Danny noticed, befuddled. "How come you're not all scratched up? We just came out of a huge mass of overgrown bushes that had thorns all over the freakin' place."

"I'm human." Sam smirked. "I'm the ghost in the Ghost Zone." She shrugged. "I just phased through everything."

Danny bit his lip in annoyance. "Are you kidding me? I've been walking around in ghost form this whole time, and you're just now telling me I could've avoided all those cuts and bruises by reverting back?"

Sam folded her arms and struck him with a glare. "I was going to tell you until you told me that I couldn't read the map because," she deepened her voice in mock imitation of Danny's, "'a girl would only get us lost.'" She huffed, voice returning to normal. "On top of that, you won't tell me who we're looking for or why because you're scared I'll get mad. Your pride and refusal to admit we're lost is what got us in this mess in the first place."

Danny's cheeks flushed in anger and embarrassment.

The girl snatched the map from his hands.

He hissed. "Maybe if you would've just stayed behind like I told you-"

"Oh, please." Sam dropped her gaze to the map. "Since when do I listen to a word you say?"

She spoke after a few moments of studying the detailed drawing. "We need to turn that way." Sam pointed in the opposite direction of where they were headed.

"What? How would you know?" Danny peered at the map.

"See that blue line here? That's the creek we just passed." She moved her finger across the page. "That thicker line is the river. If we trail back and follow the creek, it'll lead us to the river then back up to the place we need to meet, here near a lake. It's not far."

Danny summoned the energy from his core and let the familiar, icy rings wash over his body.

"I knew that," Danny grumbled.

Sam scoffed. He voice dripped sarcasm. "Right."

She led the way. He begrudgingly trailed after her.

It was ironic, Danny thought. Sam knew which way to go, even though she had no idea where they were headed, or why. Danny knew exactly what their destination was but had no idea how to get there.

They walked in silence, slowly making their way to their destination.

Danny felt the tension dissolve as time passed.

Sam was the first one to speak.

She slowed down and fell into step beside him. Her amethyst eyes sparkled with curiosity and interest. "So, now are you gonna tell me who we're meeting?"

Danny remained silent a few moments. He knew she'd get mad once she found out who it was they were meeting.

He had been hoping she wouldn't have had to find out anytime soon.

In fact, he'd set off to go find this person on his own, notifying only Tucker of his whereabouts.

He had been in the lab, typing the coordinates into the Specter Speeder's GPS when Sam walked in.

Of course, once she'd realized where he was going, she immediately decided to tag along.

No amount of arguments could stop Sam from accompanying him on a trip to the the Ghost Zone, just like no amount of quarrels could stop her from prying answers out of the teenage hero.

"He's someone that...I reached out and contacted not too long ago. Someone I hired to act as a sort of spy. A, um, potential ally."

"Okay." Sam flashed him a quizzical look. "Then why would I be mad if this person's a possible ally?"

"Because..." Danny's voice trailed as he struggled to find the right words. "I'm not sure if he's...how would I put it?" Danny bit his lip. "Totally trustworthy."

"You're placing our trust on someone who's unreliable?" Irritation was already beginning to bleed into her voice. "But who-"

The goth cut herself off with a barely audible gasp.

Danny tipped his head to the side, befuddled by her abrupt silence.

Her attention had been diverted to something or, rather, someone else.

And Danny immediately found the reason for her stupefaction by following her line of vision.

A young ghost had emerged from beneath the shade of a large tree.

Snowy, untamed hair and ghostly white skin was contrasted by the black and white fabric of a hazmat suit.

The ghost was a nearly identical replica of Danny's ghost form.

The only difference, Danny noticed as the other ghost approached, was the ruby red flecks that appeared in the ghost's eerie green eyes.

"What...?" Sam once again found herself at a loss for words. Her bewildered gaze traveled back to Danny

"Hey, cut it out!" Danny snapped at his duplicate. "You're not supposed to be me. You're supposed to be you." He crossed his arms over his chest.

He blinked when the ruby red flecks in the doppelganger's eyes swirled around the irises until the radioactive green color was consumed by a brilliant red.

The other Danny spoke in a voice that was clearly not Danny's. "Oh, relax, Billy. I'm just having a little fun."

"Change back, Amorpho," Danny huffed, impatiently.

The other Danny smirked and his features began to shift, like soft clay being molded into a different shape.

The transformation occurred too quickly for Danny to even process it.

Danny Phantom instantly became a deathly pale, faceless man with a black and red fedora hat that matched his black overcoat, red tie, and red glasses.

"Oh," Sam breathed, the color returning to her face. "Amorpho."

"Yes. That is who I am." He cocked his head to the side and flew up to Sam. He sandwiched one of her hands between both of his. "And who might this lovely creature be?"

"Hey!" Danny bristled as Sam's face flushed a rosy pink. He jumped in front of her, slapping Amorpho's hands away. "Hands off."

Amorpho shrugged him off, leaning towards Sam. "Are you looking for Mr. Right?" His entire body shifted.

A cute brown-haired, green-eyed twenty-year-old man stood by Sam, a dazzling, pearly white smile shot her way. "Because, sweetheart, I can be anyone you want me to be."

As if to prove his point, Amorpho morphed again—this time changing into a handsome blonde with coquettish blue eyes.

"She's not interested," Danny stepped in front of her, eyes flashing green. "Remember, we're here on business."

"Where is here anyways?" Sam queried. "We've seen a lot of weird creatures here."

"The wild. It is a place where Spirit Animals reside. If a mass of any species is wiped out suddenly, their collective consciousness survives and manifests here."

"Can we forget the where and get back to why we were here?" Danny snapped, irritated.

Amorpho peered over at an uncomfortably silent Sam. "Is Billy always this uptight?"

"My name's Danny," the teenager bit in annoyance. "Now, are you going to tell me what you've found out or not?"

"You want me to tell you everything? Right here, right now?" Amorpho's blue and red-flecked eyes flickered to Sam.

"Tell me everything." Danny confirmed.

"Alright," Amorpho's gaze focused on Danny. "Well, your friend hasn't been up to much. Mostly mayor business, obsessing over some redhead, and talking to his cat. Not really much of a life, if you ask me. However, he did disappear for a few days. Just dropped off the face of the Earth without so much as a word to anybody. When he came back, he was pretty pissed. Word has it he's placed a bounty on someone's head."

"Are you guys talking about Vlad?" Sam queried.

"After we rescued Aminah, Vlad told me he knew my weakness and that he'd use them against me."

"Yes, ma'am." Amorpho replied.

"Okay." Danny waved his hand, impatiently. "And how does this concern me?"

"Well, a lot of people are saying he's put a bounty on your head." Amorpho replied. "But Vlad's lackies are saying he's hunting someone else."

"Well?" Danny all but shouted. "Who is it?"

"Your younger cousin. Dani Phantom."

"My-" Danny felt cold dread wash over him. "My cousin?"

"Anyways," Amorpho's blonde brows knit together. He fidgeted, uncomfortably. "Um, I've been trying to get closer to Vlad, like you told me, but it's hard, Billy. That man is as smart as he is scary."

"Keep trying," Danny ordered.

"I will," Amorpho vowed. "So long as you keep your end of the bargain."

"Don't worry." Danny bit back. "I will."

Amorpho grinned broadly. "Alright, then. I'll see you around."

He spun around and grasped Sam's hand, pressing his lips against her skin.

"And I will most definitely be seeing you again. After all, such magnetic beauty will attract me back to you."

Sam jerked her hand away, taken aback.

"Goodbye, friends." Amorpho smirked.

His form shifted and a fox gleamed back at them.

He turned tail and took off.

A/N: Finally finished the chapter and got it up!

...

Although I probably should've revised it more thoroughly.

Anyway, I'll leave the reviewing to you guys.

Sorry for the long wait!