I should have called this chapter something with soup in it, because like a poor man's soup I am just making this last for as long as possible

A shout and the sounds of something crunching were heard in a deserted part of the Ghost Zone. Danny kicked another hollowed out mantis shell and blasted several of the other empty husks. Another lead had gone down the drain and while Vlad said they were making progress in finding this new threat it was still nowhere near where Danny wanted to be.

When they had taken Dora home he felt his heart break at seeing her lay witness to the destruction of her kingdom. The castle was in pieces, the land was barren and lifeless, and her people had gone into hiding. While Danny helped her look for her people, Vlad went in search of her necklace.

Eventually Dora was reunited with her people who had fled to a cave structure far from her castle. Many of her guards had been injured but were being tended to and all the rest of her people were safe from harm. While their homes might have been destroyed Dora was happy that everyone had managed to escape and were, relatively, alright.

After making sure that they'd be safe and Vlad returned her necklace, the two half ghosts flew off to follow the signals of the tracers they had planted. The pair managed to track them towards the bottom of the Ghost Zone when they came across the empty shells of the mantis bugs. The insects had apparently shed their skin and seeing their only lead hit a dead end caused Danny to lose it and attack the empty husks in a rage.

"ENOUGH, DANIEL! You are only wasting your energy by destroying these husks." Vlad shouted at him after letting the boy vent out his frustrations for over 10 minutes.

"I KNOW that, Vlad, but it makes me feel better! These ghosts have us outnumbered, out powered, and are destroying realms one at a time. We're the only ones who are even trying to find them and trying to help and so far everything is just getting worse and Headliner's paper keeps saying the same thing!" He growled in frustration and blasted one final carcass to pieces before he started to calm down.

"We will find out where our enemy lies in wait, Daniel. For now, though, let us return. We have more information than we did previously and we have a general idea of where these creatures were going. We will start to gather our allies and soon be ready to charge into the fight."

That had been on Monday, and now it was Thursday. As Danny soldered more pieces of his bike together he tried to keep his mind from getting too stressed out about the upcoming battle. His parents and Vlad were stocking up on weapons and Danny had gone to the Ghost Zone last night to gather some allies together. There weren't many ghosts that were willing and able to fight but with guys like Skulker, Ember, Dora, Wulf, and a few others he hoped it would be enough.

As he sat at his work bench he tried hard to not think about how he could use more help. Even if Sam and Tucker were around he wouldn't want them to be fighting this battle with him. It was dangerous enough for him, but to ask humans along, even his friends who had been helping him fight ghosts for years, felt like too much.

Saturday was going to be the day, they would go into the Ghost Zone, find this threat at long last, and fight them back by whatever means necessary. According to Headliner their time was running out and if they allowed this threat to grow out of control then it was only a matter of time before it came to the human world and caused more trouble than they could handle here. It was enough to make Danny's skin crawl in fear and he had to put his equipment down before he ruined something. He looked up at the clock and sighed when he realized he had been working for three hours now and it was getting time to get some lunch and water Undergrowth.

Undergrowth was getting stronger and bigger with each passing day. He said that the light from the sun was actually helping balance out the nutrients he wasn't getting from the soil of the Ghost Zone. With such intense and powerful light he was healing faster than he would have in the zone. He said that he wouldn't be back to the all powerful being he was before for a long time still, but at least he would be able to fight with the others if it came down to it.

As he turned on the water that he had hooked up to pour water over the plant ghost, Danny's phone started to ring. When he looked at it he saw that it was Dash and Danny had to give a small smile. He hadn't heard from the guy yesterday since Kwan was back in town and for a little bit Danny had been concerned that Dash would push him to the side once his old friend was back in the scene. Either way he needed a break and so he answered the call.

"Hey, Dash, what's up?"

"Uh, not much really," There was a nervous tone to the Dash's voice and Danny wondered if everything was alright with him, "Listen, can we meet up and talk? I've got something that's bugging me and I need to ask you a few things."

"Uh… ok…" Danny had no idea what Dash could need to ask him, but the guy sounded stressed and worried about something. They agreed to meet at the park and after he finished watering Undergrowth he started to walk there.

It didn't take long for Danny to spot the blond teen sitting on a bench. He was just sitting there hunched over with his on his knees and looking out over the park just watching as people went about their lives. When Danny walked up to him he sat down and eyed the guy curiously. After several moments of nothing being said Danny finally decided it was time to break the awkward silence.

"What did you need to ask me about, Dash?"

Dash looked over at the dark headed teen for a moment before he turned and pulled out a notebook and showed him a page that was covered in Phantom head sketches. For a moment Danny looked at them and gulped feeling really awkward about seeing what was essentially his face all over a page. He took a slight breath though and nodded at the pictures like he was examining them with a critical eye.

"Drawings of Phantom? They look really good, but I don't get why you wanted to drag me all the way out to the park just to show me these," he pushed the sketchbook back and Dash just took it staring at him until a blush came to his cheeks and he had to look away from the blond. He wasn't sure exactly what was going on with Dash but he felt like something more was going on than he felt comfortable with. Before Danny could say anything else though, Dash had his fingers on his throat like he was checking for his pulse.

"Dash! What the hell, man?" Danny tried to jump away but Dash put his other hand on his shoulder and kept feeling his throat. After a moment he then moved his hands down to his chest and while Danny tried to keep his face from growing red he could do nothing about the pounding of his heart inside his chest.

"Uhh… Dash… You're really starting to freak me out here…" Dash pulled back and stared at the teen before him.

"So you're alive," Danny stared at him for a moment and looked at Dash like he had maybe gotten hit on the head, "So maybe Phantom is not really a ghost but he's still connected to you somehow."

"W-what? What are you talking about Dash?"

"You're connected to Phantom somehow! What happened? Was it an experiment your parents did? Did you have a twin brother that died when you were babies and your parents brought him back somehow? Are their crazy ghost obsessions the product of trying to get him back? Just what is it?"

"Dash, I have no idea what you're talking about. There's no connection between Phantom and me; he's a ghost and I'm a human. My parents might hunt ghosts but they don't try and create them or anything and I never had a brother." Danny looked around, hoping that they weren't causing a scene and was glad to see that they were mostly alone. He also hoped that whatever Dash was getting at he could easily deflect to keep his secret safe.

"Don't screw with me, Fenton!" Dash held his book back out and showed the page to Danny again, "These aren't pictures of Phantom, they're pictures of you that I drew from pictures in our yearbook!"

'Damnit!' Danny mentally cringed. Dash had caught him in a slip up and now he had no way of explaining that. Of course Phantom and Fenton looked alike they were both the same person but no one else had ever figured that out over the years and now here was Dash Baxter, who never appeared that bright, with the answer to the greatest mystery in town. Danny just stared at the larger teen who was glowering back at him.

"Well…?" Dash stared at him and swallowed like he was nervous about the answer. Danny thought about it for a moment trying to think up a story that he could pass this off on, but in the end he figured it was best just to tell him and make him swear to keep it a secret. Dash was a huge fan of Phantom anyway so it wasn't like it would be hard for him to do. He wouldn't want his hero to get hurt after all.

"Fine…" Danny brushed back his hair from his face and let it slowly come back down before he rubbed at his neck, "You sure you want the truth though? You might not like the answers."

"I think I already know more than enough that I don't like the answers to. I just need you to confirm it before it drives me nuts."

Danny looked around and stood up, "Not here, let's just go back to my place and I'll explain everything."

He got up and started to walk back towards his place with Dash right behind him. He didn't know exactly what was going on in the guy's head but he knew he had figured out enough that he wouldn't get by with a simple lie. The only way was to either create an elaborate story or actually come out and tell Dash one of his darkest secrets and hope that he could trust him.

You know I could actually draw this out for several chapters more if I thought about it, but you'll see how Danny deals with this in the next chapter.

Also Guest reviewer: aww... poor baby... I'm sorry but summer has to end eventually...

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But Fall starts after it, doesn't it?