In case someone hasn't figured it out, I combined the last two chapters into one. And this story will be updated fairly frequently since I'm going to try and write a chapter every day. It's practice for my future novel, not a big project, so it'll be fairly short too. 20 chapters at most.

The first thing Danny noticed was that there were six of them. Three boys and three girls, all carrying harmless objects that wouldn't be able to bludgeon a bear cub. The second, that he couldn't get inside. He felt the entrance for glass or plastic, but the only thing he could sense was similar to a current. Like the electricity of a ghost trap, but far more mild. The entrance for the cave-like structure was wide enough to fit ten men. Inside, it was a cavernous dome of cement filled with different types of furniture. Two bunk beds and two couches, a pool table, a pile of fire wood at the center.

The faces were all of people he recognized, at one point or another he had passed them in the halls at school. The foreign one with light brown hair and freckles he recognized only from Tucker's description. A look of awe was planted on his face, his weapon clattered to the floor.

"That's him," he heard through the wall of energy, his voice sounding faint and far away. "That's the ghostboy."

He didn't feel himself push at the force field, only noticing what he was doing when it popped and crackled. For almost a week now, that boy had been taking Tucker's catches. Tucker being too much of a chicken to confront the boy had came to him for help.

"Here's an idea. How about you stand your ground, Tucker?"

Danny jumped down from the tree he was perched on and put a hand on Tucker's shoulder, noticing it was bonier than usual.

"My god Tuck, have you eaten at all this week?"

Tucker stammered and pushed Danny's hand off his shoulder, scowling.

"Yes! Berries are just as good a food as meat."

Danny raised an eyebrow, his mouth curling into a smirk.

"You? Living off berries for a week?"

The other boy crossed his arms, a defiant scowl on his face. It was just as much as a low-blow for a carnivore to admit they'd strayed from their diet as it was for a vegetarian.

"Just get the guy to stop stealing my catches, Danny. I caught a deer I was going to share between us. I heard him coming, thought maybe it was a Crude. I figured if it wasn't, he wouldn't be able to carry the thing back to town anyway."

"And did he?"

Tucker shrugged. "Maybe. Kinda. Yeah, yeah he did."

Danny laughed. "I can't keep babying you like this, Tuck."

"I'm not the one with the super-human ghost powers!"

The boy walked up to the force field, keeping a safe distance away from Danny.

"Promise you won't hurt me or my friends, and I'll tell you how to pass through."

Danny glared, showing his dislike of the whole situation. He was supposed to get in, make a show, and leave.

"I promise," he mumbled under his breath.

Elliot cupped a hand around his ear, leaning in towards Danny.

"I can't heaaar you," he said in a sing-song voice. His accent, obviously Scottish, grated Danny's nerves.

"I said I promise," he mumbled again, a little bit louder this time.

"Turn human."

Danny reeled backwards, confused by the game the other boy was trying to play. Was it a demand, a test, or did he know?

"What? What are you talking about?"

Elliot sighed the way parents sigh when their kids don't listen to them.

"You have to turn human to pass through."

"I-what are you talking about?"

"Save it," his voice was flat, as if he were bored with the whole situation. "I saw you transform in an alleyway. Somehow, you're both human and ghost."

Danny looked towards the others. Their faces were pail and unresponsive. So he did what Elliot said would let him pass through. He forced his heart to beat, the life began to circulate through his veins, and in a flash of light, he became mortal. He didn't think it was possible, but their faces looked even more pail.

Slowly, as if he didn't believe it would work, he passed a leg through the entrance. Then he took another step, and was standing inside the dome. Clammy sallow faces looked at him as if her were the antichrist.

"Danny Fen-turd?"

Dash Baxter. His stomach turned when he looked on at the people from his past. Back when everything was normal and he was just an ordinary freshmen struggling to get noticed in the midst of people far more attractive than him and far more popular, Dash Baxter had been one of them.

"Figures you'd be the ones who'd steal a man's own catch."

Elliot sputtered. "I was stealing from you? Oh, oh man-"

"You weren't stealing from me, but a close friend. Now if you don't want trouble, I suggest you learn to hunt for yourselves."

He turned to leave, figuring he'd made his point, when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait."

He turned around to amethyst eyes and hair that fell in a sharp-cut bob. Samantha Manson.

"Danny Fenton, right? This whole thing is just a big misunderstanding."

She paused and waited for him to reply, but when he just looked at her expectantly, she continued.

"This might sound kind of weird, but we were really looking for you. Elliot just happened to stumble upon your friend's catches, and after spending months living off rodent carcasses, you'd steal from anyone."

Danny took a step backwards, gruesome scenarios already popping into his head. "Looking for me, why?"

Elliot laughed awkwardly. "We thought maybe you could help us overthrow Plasmius."

Danny, obviously thinking the other boy was playing some type of joke, starting chuckling. The notion of him - who'd never stood up to even his high school bullies - battling Plasmius made him break down into a frenzy of laughter.

"You're kidding me, right?"

"No, not exactly. Not being able to walk down the street without the threat of being tortured isn't something I'd joke about."

"Sorry. I can't help you."

"Can't? Or won't?" asked Valerie.

"Can't," he reiterated. "There are ghosts far more powerful than me working for Plasmius. I may be half-dead, but I'm not suicidal."

Valerie scoffed and rolled her eyes. Despite her attempt at biting her tongue, Danny could feel her unease rolling off her in waves. "Just like a ghost. Always putting themselves first."

"I haven't seen you being especially self-less lately, Gray."

"When were you planning on telling the school you're a half-dead corpse?"

Kwan clapped a hand over Valerie's mouth before she could say any more.

"Do you really want to keep living like this? Hiding, living in the woods, having to hunt for food? Help us, and we'll do our best to help you."

Sam clasped her hands together, knowing that his next words would either make or break any hope they had of a revolution.

"I can't help you," he said. "And I don't think I want to, either. I'm sorry."

He walked past Elliot and through the entrance into the sewers, and Elliot made no move to stop him. Once he was gone, he turned towards Sam.

"I didn't know you knew him," he said.

Sam shook her head and sat down on the couch, next to Paulina who had somehow managed to fall asleep.

"I didn't. I would just see him talk to Tucker Foley sometimes. Friends by association."

"That didn't go as planned," sighed Dash.

"It's all fine and dandy," said Elliot. "I have a plan. A long-term one, but one that I think might actually work."

Sam laughed because none of Elliot's plans ever worked. On the other hand, a plan that didn't work was better than no plan at all.

"What is it this time?"

"Make the ghostboy – I mean Danny – want to help us. He wouldn't want to raise children in a totalitarian environment ruled by ghosts."

"What are you getting at?" said Valerie dryly.

"He needs to fall in love with someone."

If Sam were drinking anything, she would have surely sputtered on it.

"Are you insane? Or are you just joking?"

"Why do people keep asking me that? I never joke."

"I can't see how making him fall in love would fix anything, Elliot," said Kwan.

"Wouldn't you do anything for the person you love? Anything? It's the curse of man, Kwan buddy. We're all about self preservation, and then a pretty girl comes along, and suddenly they're the only reason we wake up in the morning."

"I...guess."

"So who's going to be the lucky gal, hm?"

He looked towards Valerie, but she crinkled her face in disgust.

"No. No way."

Elliot shrugged and turns toward Paulina. Her only response was a line of drool that dribbled down her mouth, a soft snort as she turned onto her back. Before Elliot even turned towards her, Sam was already shaking her head.

"Oh come on, Sam. This is the future of humanity we're talking about. You can't just seduce one guy for us? He knows you the best, after all."

Sam sighed.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"Positive."

Sam was completely against using people for personal reasons, even if it were for a greater good. Danny was no exception, and even though she didn't want to fall in love with him, she hoped that he didn't end up either dead or heart-broken. Later, it was planned that Sam would walk to the woods the following morning. She would be "attacked" by a wild animal, and Danny would promptly save her. Standard damsel in distress, standard hero suddenly stricken with love sickness.