Remember kids: Friends don't let friends edit on little sleep while they are trying to do other things at the same time and are feeling last chapter is hopefully fixed up now so go back and give that a go if you want and re-review it to see if it's I need help editing sometimes and this seemed like one of them but oh well thanks for everyone pointing out the errors and hopefully this chapter won't have as many but please tell me exactly where they are if you see any so I can go back and correct it myself at some enjoy this 'll never guess what's going to happen here.

"So now Dash knows, huh?" Tucker rubbed his head and sighed as Danny leaned back in his chair looking at a magazine.

"Yeah, he sorta figured it out and confronted me about it the other day," The raven haired teen sighed. It was Saturday and Vlad and him were going into the Ghost Zone again. This time, though, they were going with a load of weapons and a small army to back them up. It wasn't much but hopefully they'd be able to find this threat at last.

"And so you just spilled it all out, huh? Man, Sam is going to put him through the ringer when she sees him again," Danny looked at his oldest friend as he stretched back in his chair.

"It's not like he won't keep it a secret or anything, I mean he kept his own secrets for years so I'm fairly certain I can trust him."

"Whatever, man, I still say you're falling into dangerous waters here. You sure it's not just 'cause we aren't there with you anymore and you're desperate for human companionship?"

"Dude, I'm not that desperate," Danny stared at the screen flatly wishing he could smack his best friend in the head.

"I'm just kidding, man, but really I only say that 'cause I worry about you. I mean Dash seems like he's being a good guy and all but I just mainly hope that he keeps your secret."

"Thanks, Tuck, I'm sure he will and all. It's been nice having Dash around. I know we weren't friends or anything before but it's nice to have someone to hang out with again."

"And the fact he's nice and built and good looking has nothing to do with it I'm sure," The sly smirk on Tucker's face that appeared on Danny's screen made the ghostly teen now really wish he could smack his best friend.

"Sh-shut up, Tuck! It's not like that at all!" Though the blush Danny felt come to his cheeks would tell otherwise.

"Man you totally have a crush on him don't you?" Tucker laughed, "I never thought I'd see the day. Not only has my best friend figured out he digs guys but he's also got a crush on the guy that tried to make him eat his dirty underwear."

"Uhg… If ever there was a time I was glad to have ghost powers it was then," Danny sighed and tried to rebury that horrific Halloween memory deep into the dark corners of his mind.

"Tell me about it, I'm still surprised you could phase that through you since you had such trouble with your powers back then, but that's beside the point isn't it?"

"Yeah, cause there's no way Dash would ever hang out with me again if he ever found out about this stupid little crush of mine," Danny sighed and shook his head, "Ehh whatever it's getting close to 8 and I'll be heading out to battle then, tell Sam I'm sorry I missed her."

"Hey good luck, Danny, go kick some ghost butt! And, Danny?" Right as he was about to sign off Danny looked up at his friend on his computer screen, "If you really do like Dash I say go for it. I'll support you whatever you decide and I just want you to be happy, man."

"Thanks, Tuck, wish me luck," Danny winked and even though Tucker had already said it, he said it again and let Danny sign off. It was finally time to get back into the Ghost Zone. Vlad was there already along with Skulker down in the lab and as soon as the rest of their small army arrived they'd be ready to head out towards this new threat and finally take it down.

After transforming and phasing down to the lab, Danny walked over to his mom who was talking with Vlad over some weapons they had been preparing.

"Hey, mom, we about ready?" He looked around her and stared down at the wide variety of blasters, ecto-grenades, and various other weapons his parents had been building and stocking up on.

"Yes, though I still wish you'd let us go with you. I know you can handle yourself and all but you can't forget that we're experienced too." She placed her hands on her hips and gave him her patented 'mom glare' that said she was upset with him but still understood his thought process.

"I know mom, but this is going to be pretty big and I need you to be here in case things get bad. Plus," Danny looked over at a work bench and saw his father snoring softly over it, "Dad's pretty beat I think he could use the rest."

It was really true. His dad had been up working on inventions, weapons, tools, and upgrading the specter speeder for days on end. When this was all over Danny was going to have to thank his dad with a really big batch of his favorite fudge ice cream, or maybe just the fudge.

"I know, Danny, I just…" His mom walked up to him and pulled him into a tight hug which he returned in kind before she pulled back and reached up to stroke back his white hair.

"I'll be fine, mom, not the first time I've battled evil ghosts and risked my life to save the world and all that jazz. It's just another Saturday night."

She smiled and nodded as she walked back towards the weapons they had assembled for one last examination. As Danny walked followed behind her he saw a few new things that he hadn't noticed before. There was a strange container that had straps on it to carry around like a back pack and had what looked like a hose with spray nozzle coming from the top and next to it was a metal ball attached to a chain that connected to a metal rod. Danny eyed them carefully before he asked his mother for an explanation on the strange looking devices.

"When you both came back after escorting Dora back to her realm Vlad gave us a sample of the mantis ghost shell you fought thinking we could come up with a way of fighting off these strange ghost bugs. After a great deal of examination, chemical analysis, and compounding we have created the Spirit Sprayer and the Fenton Flail. The Sprayer is designed to give off a chemical that will hopefully break down the bugs. It should work a lot like the Fenton Peeler and while it won't be as powerful it has a much larger range and longer lasting effects. Just spray a mist and any ghost bugs that get in the way will be weakened. The flail will be useful for close range attacks. Much like real insects these bugs seem to have a strong outer exoskeleton that is hard to crack; the flail has energized spikes that will be able to pierce the shells and destroy them. Hopefully."

"Wow, mom, you guys have really out done yourselves this time." Danny smiled as he picked up the sprayer and put his arms through the straps to see how heavy it was.

"Well after your disaster with the Space Shredder we felt like we owed you something. We've got a lot of kinks and calculations to work out on that thing but I'm just glad that you all managed to get away, even if it was to the other side of the planet."

"It's fine, mom, you guys'll figure it out at some point. In the mean time we'll have Wulf around to help with a quick escape should we need it." Danny smirked as they heard the door bell suddenly ring upstairs, "We expecting someone?"

"No, and we don't have the time to deal with people. Daniel, go upstairs and see who it is and get rid of them. We'll be leaving as soon as the others get here."

"Ah, Vlad, charming as always," Danny rolled his eyes as he flew up the stairs to the front door. After he changed back into his human self he opened the door and blinked in surprise, "Dash? What are you doing here?"

"Sorry, I guess I should have called instead of just coming here unannounced," He awkwardly rubbed at the back of his head and seemed to avoid Danny's face, "I was sort of hoping to draw a few action scenes for my comic and was hoping you could show me some of your skills so I could sketch them out."

Danny looked at Dash and saw that he was carrying a book bag with him that was likely full of his art supplies, "Uhh… now really isn't a good time. I'm sort of about to go face down this unknown entity that is trying to destroy the Ghost Zone with a small platoon of ghosts that I'm going to lead before it can do any more damage than it already has."

Dash chuckled for a second and then looked at the serious look on the raven haired teen's face and blinked, "Oh geeze… You're serious? You're about to go off and fight something so big that you need help with it?"

"Well yeah, I just said that. Why would I lie now that you know who I really am?"

"'Cause of the way you just said it!" Dash shouted before he shook his head and ran his hand through his blond hair, "You said it like it wasn't serious and that this sort of thing happens on a daily basis for you!"

"Well it's not daily…" Danny shrugged and looked away, "But it's not like I haven't done this sort of thing before. It's really not that big a deal, just a normal part of being not normal for me."

Dash blinked in amazement and Danny stepped to the side to let him in. The blond jock dropped his bag by the sofa in their family room and then proceeded to fall back into the cushions. He rubbed at his face and then looked back up at his peer who stood before him with his arms behind him, "So you just don't protect our town from ghosts you protect that Ghost Zone place too? That's the place where the town was transported to Freshman year when all those ghosts came out and all hell broke loose?"

"Yeah, that's the place. It's a freakish world full of ghosts, ghouls, monsters, and entities the likes of which you've never seen and where physics have a whole new set of rules. I mean really not even gravity is normal there in most places."

"So… once again the guy I thought of as a loser is going to fight in a huge battle as my hero. Man, life just is never simple is it?" Dash groaned and rubbed at his face in frustration.

"Welcome to my life," Danny chuckled, "Listen Dash I know you wanted to hang out and all but I've got to get going soon."

"It's fine I just thought I could stop by. I didn't have anything else to do and Kwan's out with his family eating dinner. Maybe I'll stop by his place later and hang out with him."

Danny nodded and walked him to the door, "Sorry, but you can stop by tomorrow and I can give you the details of the fight."

"That'd be cool. Maybe around 1 and we can go get some lunch if you're up for it, or I can go get a pizza and bring it here."

"Uh, yeah sure it's a d-" Danny coughed and cleared his throat before he could embarrass himself in front of Dash, "It's a plan, sorry, little tickle in my throat." He chuckled nervously but when Dash eyed him curiously he just nodded seeming to buy the story.

Once Dash picked up his stuff and was at the door he stopped and looked back at Danny for a moment. He was about to ask if something was wrong when Dash pulled him into a tight hug. Danny stood stunned as he felt a strange warmth spread over his body and a flush come to his cheeks as he was squeezed. When he let go Dash nodded at him and Danny could almost swear that he was blushing.

"Good luck tonight, and be careful."

For a moment Danny could do nothing but stare at the blond teen in front of him before he nodded dumbly and watched him walk off. It was a weird feeling but not all together unpleasant. It made the young half ghost think for a moment about all Dash had done to him over the years and think about how much he had seemed to change for the better after their freshman year. Slowly but surely his old bully was starting to become more and more of a friend to him than he could have ever thought possible.

As he walked back downstairs he tried to push those thoughts to the side. He had a mission to accomplish and being distracted by whatever was going on with Dash and him was not going to help. Once he set foot at the bottom of the steps though he suddenly felt himself swept up into a furry embrace and had his vision grow dark as something black and fuzzy squeezed him tightly into his chest.

"Friend!"

"Yes, Wulf, 'friend', but I can't breathe," Danny grunted as the large ghost wolf-man let him go and happily licked at his face. The teen looked around and saw that several of the ghosts he had befriended over the years were in the lab getting ready and gathering the equipment that had been prepared for them.

Technus was going over all the data they had collected and was taking spare parts and weapons to form a battle suit for himself. Skulker was standing idly by against a wall ejecting each of his weapons for a short inspection before he put it away and occasionally looked over at Ember who was tuning her guitar with her eyes closed trying to get the chords to play the right note. Dora had also come back along with several of her knights ready to fight the threat that had decimated their kingdom. Johnny and Kitty had come as well and Johnny was equipping his bike with weapons and keeping his shadow far from any of the equipment.

"So I see everyone's assembled huh?" Danny looked around at the ghosts that had joined him over the years. The Box Ghost and Lunch Lady weren't coming, they had recently had their child Box Lunch and couldn't leave her just yet. It wasn't much but with him and Vlad leading the small group, Danny felt like they might stand a chance against this new buggy threat.

"Now we can gather up our equipment and head out. We have narrowed down the possible locations of these ghost bugs and it seems to be coming from the direction of Pandora's realm. We'll head in that direction and see what we can find, then spread out and regroup if necessary. No matter what though we are not coming back without more concrete evidence to what the enemy has planned at the least if not their complete defeat. Understood?" Everyone nodded at Vlad and once everyone assembled into the Specter Speeder they headed out with Danny at the controls.

While on route Vlad went over battle plans and gave out information while Danny talked about everyone going in teams. Ember, Skulker, Danny, and Vlad would be the front lines attacking their way in. Technus would hang back in case they needed to get away quickly and provide long range fire from the speeder and Johnny, Kitty, Wulf, Dora and her knights would make up the back up for the front lines protecting their rear and support. It wasn't much of an army but Danny was confident in this, especially with Ember's ability to augment a ghost's powers.

"Hey, Ember feel like a duet tonight?" Danny smirked over at her from the driver's seat to see the ghost singer fiddling with her guitar again.

"What?" Ember stared at him with wide eyed shock at hearing what she thought he was suggesting, "Are you insane, kid? The last time we tried that move you nearly blew out your throat from the power and you want to do it again!?"

Danny grimaced at the memory of when he had to help Ember fight off a strange bat like ghost monster that was trying to destroy her lair. It hadn't been an easy fight as the ghost was stronger than them both, but when Ember augmented his ghostly wail by hitting him with a blast from her guitar he was able to beat the thing. The power of the attack, however had almost been too much for his throat. He wasn't able to talk for days after that and his parents said he was lucky he didn't do any permanent damage to his vocal chords.

"Yeah, but not exactly. I've got a special move I think that can be useful here and with a power boost from you I think I can do a good bit more damage than normal."

"Hey, whatever, dipstick. Just don't come crying to me when you're bleeding ectoplasm from your mouth if it goes wrong." She huffed.

"I do hope you aren't planning something foolish Daniel," Vlad turned around to look at the younger half ghost, "You need to be careful. There's no need to take large risks as long as we watch out for any surprise attacks."

"Trust me, Vlad this is going to be a penultimate resort move. Now get ready people we're approaching the target."

As Danny flew the Speeder through Pandora's realm the passengers looked out at the territory. It looked like there had been a recent battle, but Pandora was a strong fighter with a much stronger army than most other ghosts so the damage seemed much less than Dora's. Still as they flew past, Danny could see that many of the fighters looked weary from what had likely been another bug attack.

Steeling his nerve he steered them past the realm and continued on. They suddenly spotted the bugs flying and Danny quickly pulled the speeder up to fly above them so they could see where they were flying towards. The bugs seemed to either not notice them or ignore them and after following a few of the large bugs for a bit they came across their hive. It was a giant green glowing bee hive like structure that sat in the middle of a field at the bottom of the Ghost Zone and had scores of the bugs flying in and out from various holes in it.

"That… is a BIG hive…" Danny stared wide eyed at the giant structure as he slowed their transport to a stop and let it sit in the air a large distance from it.

"I never knew something like this existed," Skulker looked at the structure and grunted, "Well we don't have to split up now, obviously, so are we going to do this?"

"We have to," Vlad started to gather some of the weapons together, "According to Headliner something bad is going to happen to the Ghost Zone and based on all that we've seen recently it stands to reason that these bugs are going to be the source of the destruction. If we can take them down now the threat will be stopped and things can get back to normal."

"Vlad's right, if nothing else these bugs have been gathering energy for something and destroying the realms of other ghosts. They have to be stopped before they cause any more damage." Danny got up and followed after Vlad to get a few weapons together.

"Everyone ready?!" Danny shouted and looked at his allies who all shouted in agreement as they started to make their way out to take down the hive.

What followed next was a maelstrom of chaos. Once Danny, Skulker, Ember, and Vlad were in position they flew at top speed to take out the bugs that were guarding the hive. After they were dealt with the other bugs noticed them and started to fly at them to start attacking. Giant hornets shot out stingers, praying mantises swiped at them with razor sharp claws, but the worst was when enormous moths came out carrying termites the size of cattle that spit acid at them. As the termites sprayed their acid the moths flapped their wings at such high speeds that the acid would break into a fine deadly mist that melted everything that it came in contact with.

"Get back!" Ember pulled out her guitar and slammed her pick down sending out a wave of energy that blew back most of the mist and kept the rest of it from getting near them. As she continued to blast the acid mist away the other three started to shoot out their own attacks to break up the deadly combination. Skulker fired various missles while the two half ghosts blasted ecto-rays at them until the moths dropped the termites or fell from the sky.

Meanwhile, Johnny flew over head on his bike and used the Specter Sprayer on the ghosts below followed by Dora and her knights. Dora flew over head in her dragon form, raining down fire upon the insects that had decimated her kingdom and her knights followed behind the flames to slash, hack, and bludgeon those that still stood. Wulf, meanwhile, went feral on the insects; biting into their claws and ripping the appendages off leaving behind stumps of bleeding green ectoplasm before tossing it aside to tear into another one. Kitty herself held onto Johnny and shot out blasts of ecto energy at anything that tried to tail the two, and for awhile it seemed like things were going their way.

That however didn't last long as Danny started to see more and more insects flying out of the hive to join the fray. Despite the growing numbers of insects though, the gathered ghosts fought with everything they had and more. Danny broke out the Fenton Flail and started to swing it around to bash several beetles along with Skulker who started to have to punch them as they were too close to safely fire missiles at. Ember and Vlad meanwhile tried to provide support from a distance but had their own problems with the smaller bugs flying at them at high speeds in small swarms.

As the battle continued the other ghosts started to become overwhelmed as well with the increase of their enemies' numbers. Despite Dora having transformed and shooting out fire that was hot enough to leave most things ash, the larger bugs seemed to shield the weaker ones from the flames while others provided long range attacks from behind their shields.

"Something's weird about all this!" Danny grunted as he slammed the flail down again and splattered open the head of what looked like a rhino beetle.

"The fact that we're losing or the fact you actually need to point that out?!" Skulker growled out and fired a small missile that tore through a mantis.

"No these things are acting WAY to coordinated. It's like someone's telling them what to do, how to move and how to act!"

"And you think that someone is the one that wants to amass power?"

"Exactly! We need to get into that hive and take down whatever leader they have in there. If we can do that I'd bet these insects won't attack us all together."

"And how do you propose to do that, Daniel?" Vlad shouted as he swooped down firing off a stream of ectoblasts to knock more of the bugs away.

"I-" A loud roar caused the three to look up just in time to see Dora start to fall and transform back to her human form. It seemed that a group of flying ants had attacked her from behind. Danny was about to fly up to catch her when the Specter Speeder came swooping down with Wulf was hanging out of the window. The ghost wolf caught her as they passed as Technus fired the guns at everything that wasn't an ally of theirs.

"That's it… this has gone on LONG ENOUGH!" Danny growled through clenched teeth, "EMBER! Ready for that duet?"

The rocker slammed a chord on her guitar which blasted a group of moths away before looking down, "Kid, you sure you want to do that?"

"We're running out of time and options, trust me."

"Alright, kid, just don't blame me if you get hurt!"

"Right, everyone fall behind me, this is something you don't want to get in the way of!" Danny flew up to stand in front of Ember and once everyone was behind him he looked back at the ghostly singer and nodded, "Hit me!"

She turned the dial on her guitar and slammed it hard sending out a blue wave of sound that hit the half ghost. The blue wave was absorbed into the teens body causing him to glow and the air around him to tense. As Danny focused for a moment he brought all the energy that he had been hit with and focused it towards his throat and looked around at all the insects that were coming at them. With a deep inhale he took in more and more air filling his lungs beyond what they had ever held to the point that he felt like they would burst from the pressure.

Finally he let out all the gathered air in a new form of his ghostly wail. While not nearly as powerful as his normal attack this one had the added benefit of combining his ice powers. Instead of the green sound waves most present were used to seeing, blue waves mixed in with tiny blue shards of ice and flew out in a wide range. As the blast of sound soared out from his mouth the insects started to slowly become coated in ice. Bit by bit they slowed down as the wail blasted across them slowly freezing them in their spots and causing those that were in the air to start to fall.

Danny kept up the attack for as long as he could and then pushed himself for even more before he finally stopped and fell to his knees. The ice and snow that formed was a sight that left those behind him speechless. Before them the entire battle scene had changed; where there was once a wasteland from the carnage of battle there was now a field of white snow blanketing the entire area. The swarms of insects stood frozen in their tracks like peaceful dynamic ice sculptures ready to spring to life at any moment. The entire area had suddenly fallen to an almost eerie silence void of sound except the panting young half ghost.

"Dang, Dipstick, just what the heck was that?" Ember looked at what Danny had done in awe as he slowly started to stand up again.

"It's a new technique I've been working on," Danny panted out trying to catch his breath, "I call it my Wailing Blizzard. I take my ice powers and combine it with my Ghostly Wail and this is the end result. Not as powerful as my normal wail but it spreads my ice powers to a larger area and add to it your amping power and this is the result. Not bad, huh?" He grinned back at the ghostly singer with a bit of cockiness to his tone.

"Impressive, whelp, I must say that this level of power makes me glad you're on our side." Skulker stood by the boy and fired a few missiles to shatter the bugs before them.

"Yes, but we still need to enter the hive and see to the main problem of whomever is behind this," Vlad strode up to stand beside Danny again, "Do you think you can continue, Daniel, or do you need to stay behind in the Speeder?"

"I'm… I'm good," Danny took a deep breath and straightened himself and slowly let it out, "Let's go, Vlad bring up the rear. Skulker you're with me. We're going to go inside and see what we can find. Ember, hang back and if you hear sounds of a fight get everyone to charge inside."

The ghosts around him agreed and the three started to fly off into the hive. Danny advanced carefully, looking around corners and down the tunnels before flying ahead with Skulker keeping an eye out at the other tunnels that snaked from the one they were in while Vlad made sure they weren't followed.

As the rounded a corner Danny suddenly pulled back and held up his arm to stop the other two. Peering around again the young ghost saw a bunch of bees building a new section of the hive. They were much smaller than the ones they had fought outside and were not paying much attention to anything around them. As they slowly passed by one of the insects caught sight of them but before an attack could be launched the bee just turned away and went about its business acting like they didn't matter.

Not wanting to start a fight if they could avoid it the three flew on passing countless other insects that continued to ignore them. Deeper and deeper they flew into the glowing green hive and still they had not encountered any resistance or been attacked by anything they had passed.

"This is weird. Why aren't they attacking us?" Danny spoke back to the others after several minutes of flying in silence.

"Perhaps they do not wish to do harm to their home unless they have to. It is odd though that they don't seem to view us as a threat anymore." Vlad spoke from the back keeping an eye on the bugs they flew past.

"Either way I think we're getting close to the middle of the hive," Skulker held up his wrist and pushed a few buttons, "My sensors are telling me we're getting close to a large room that seems to make up the center of this place."

It didn't take them long to reach the area Skulker had talked about. As they moved through one of the tunnels and saw that it was leading towards a larger area. Taking great caution they kept close to the wall until they got to the end and peered into the large chamber where insects of all types were gathered around flying, crawling, and gathering food. Plants and flowers of all shapes, sizes and colors grew along the floor and walls and the insects seemed to be cultivating them and using them for food. The trio flew out and looked around at the sights before them but saw no one else there but the bugs and a strange section of floor that was oddly void of plant life.

"Well this was unexpected." Skulker looked around confused at the lack of any hostility they were being met with.

"It seems that whoever was that was trying to amass power likely fled when Daniel unleashed his Wailing Blizzard. They also seemed to have the power to control these insects to fight for them and now that they are gone they seem to have reverted back to their normal behaviors."

While Vlad and Skulker talked, Danny looked around the area that was void of plant life and examined it with great caution. There wasn't anything behind except the soil that made up the ground but it felt slightly warm as if something had been sitting there and only just recently been removed. He looked around the edges and found scraps of casing that he couldn't identify and took some samples in hopes of getting some data on what had been there. Whatever it was that had been there was likely important and any information on it would prove useful should they come across it again.

As they made their way out of the hive, Danny kept thinking things over in his mind, trying to think what all this could have been about. The empty spot in the hive was likely at the center of all the destruction of the Ghost Zone but there was no telling what it might have been.

Once out, the ghosts piled back into the Specter Speeder and started to fly away from the battleground. Taking one last look at the ghost hive Danny shook his head of his troubled thoughts and started to fly away, unaware of the dark presence that lurked in the surrounding desolated forest around the hive.

"Soon, my queen, you shall be awakened, and we shall rule again," The ghost smiled with an evil light to his dark red eyes as he looked upon a large chrysalis, "Soon you and I shall rule the worlds again and not even that meddling ghost child and his cohorts will be able to stop us."

So that was a thing, huh? Hope everyone liked it and sorry for the wait but like I had said this chapter was SUPER long. Nothing much else to say here, but only a little bit left now. Enjoy this while it lasts because I haven't even started on the next story yet, and have very few ideas on what to write in the next one.