Chapter 3

The force of the explosion pushed Will out from behind the counter and a few stray bits of glass rained down on her. She whimpered as they scratched her face.

Where was Danny? He had been right in front of the windows! She got to her feet unsteadily and surveyed the damage. Glass covered the black and white tiles. Table three was cracked and the upholstery was torn apart. Will gasped. No, not their little café. Not Mr. Harris's table!

There was no sign of Danny. Tears of shock ran down Will's face as she picked her way over the glass to where the windows formerly were. What was that? A car bomb? She peered into the blackness of the night. No, it couldn't be, at least from what she could see. Several other buildings were damaged and belching green flames. The windows of the entire block were shot and she could hear screaming.

She still couldn't find Danny. And there was no sign of blood in the café except for her own. How was that possible? He was right in front of the windows.

Suddenly there was another bright green flash. Will instinctively ducked, but instead of the café, the hardware store across the street was hit with some kind of fireball. It blasted the brick building and the shock knocked Will to the ground. Scrambling to her feet, she tried to locate the source of the destruction.

There was nothing. It had seemed to come out of the air, but when she looked up all she could see were the stars.

"WHO ARE YOU?" screamed a voice coming from the road. Danny! Will watched him walk down the middle of the road, striding confidently amongst the debris and the rubble. "YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER!" Had he seen the attacker? Will looked up and down the road, but could see nothing. Her eyes returned to Danny. There wasn't a scratch on him. How was that possible? He should have died!

The chill in the air had intensified. Will shivered. It was April! It wasn't supposed to be this cold! She looked down. The frost crept spider-like across the glass. It almost seemed malevolent.

Then she heard the laughter. It was cold, heartless laughter that echoed around the street, mockingly. It made Will want to run and hide and never show her face to the light again. But somehow she was frozen to the spot, unable to even clamp her hands over her ears.

The laughter changed into a cruel voice that seemed to shake her very soul. "Believe me, halfa, I don't intend to hide."

And then she saw it. It wasn't human – it couldn't be. It floated thirty feet in the air. Two blazing red eyes filled with hatred like she had never seen before stared down at the young man in the middle of the street. It was enormous and dangerous and green and transparent.

It was a ghost. Will choked on a small sob. She silently sent prayers to all her loved ones. To her mother. To May. To Mr. Harris. If only she could move, maybe she could run away. But the monster – the ghost – she couldn't stop staring at it. Flames from the surrounding buildings framed its horrible visage. Petrified – the word sprang unwanted to her mind. She was petrified. Too scared to move.

Danny, however, didn't seem to be having this problem. "Why are you here?" he asked in a voice akin to thunder.

"I'm following you, of course. There's nothing else for me here in this dirty city."

"You have caused all this damage… You have hurt people… because you were following me?" His voice was ominously calm.

"Why, yes. And now I will be the one to claim your life, ghostboy. Or should I say ghostman?"

Danny looked down and shook his head. Will couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of power radiating off of him. "You know, a lot of people have said that to me in the past ten years. And you know what? It's funny." He fake-laughed. "I'm still here."

"Then let's rectify that, shall we?" A burst of green energy – the same green fireball Will had seen before, only much, much, larger – emanated from the ghost and slammed into Danny, full force. Will cried out. Danny was dead! She couldn't believe it. She had just witnessed a ghost murder someone. She –

The smoldering remains of the fireball suddenly shifted. And rising out of the ashes like a phoenix was Danny, bruised and bleeding. Why wasn't he running? Why wasn't he dead?

"That was a really bad idea, you know," he said, and a shiver ran down Will's spine at the confidence in his words. He turned around as if checking to see if anyone was watching. He didn't seem to notice Will. "Do you want to know why?"

The ghost smirked, or at least that was what Will assumed the grotesque shift of its features was. "Oh, do enlighten me."

"That was a bad idea because now. I. AM. ANGRY!"

What Will saw next was something she would not forget for the rest of her life. For as Danny finished his last sentence he seemed to change. A bright light emanated from his waist and traveled up and down his body. In its wake it caused his skin to glow with an ethereal light. A black suit and white gloves replaced his hoodie. But the most startling change was his hair. Instead of the jet-black it was a now a crisp white, like that of Will's grandmother before she died.

Then his eyes snapped open. No, Will thought. That was the most startling change. They glowed a sick, toxic green. They were as green as the ghost's eyes were red.

He was as dangerous as the ghost. No. He was more dangerous than the ghost. He wasn't human, not by any means.

Or rather, he was more than human.

He was Danny Phantom.

Will could only watch what happened next through dazed eyes. Phantom (Danny?) flew at the ghost, his hands blazing green. The ghost dodged at the last minute, but Danny didn't miss a beat. He twisted around, firing blast after blast with his hands.

The ghost avoided the blasts easily. It chuckled. "Is that the best you can do?" It then seemed to explode with green energy. Will jumped underneath the table as every car on the street burst into flames. The ball of energy engulfed Danny and for a moment it lit the street up like day.

Will cautiously peeped out from underneath the table. Danny was not a smoldering pile of ashes like she expected him to be. He was still hovering in the air, encased in some kind of green shield. Will gave a crazy smile. He was alright!

"No," Danny said, shaking his head. "That's not the best I can do." He opened his mouth and screamed. Any glass that wasn't already broken shattered. Will clamped her hands over her ears. She could have been screaming as well. She didn't know. She couldn't hear anything except that horrible noise.

Then it stopped. Will took her hands away from her ears. She looked out at the street. The ghost seemed small and defeated. It wasn't much more than a green blob resting on the street. Danny was also on the ground. He was on his knees, panting, his hair flopped over his eyes. He seemed like he was about to pass out any minute.

"It's over," he said. He reached down and picked up something. It was silver and cylindrical. "It's over."

"Are you sure?" the ghost rasped. Will didn't understand. The ghost was definitely not in a shape to put up a fight now. And yet it was – smirking? "You should give your opponents a little more credit, halfa. I'm not as dumb as you think."

At first Will thought they were shadows. The crept and slinked over buildings and out of alleys. But then she saw the green light and the red eyes. Ghosts. Dozens of them. And they were all looking at Danny.

"I brought reinforcements."

I wrote this listening to a combination of Beatles and Monkees music. RIP John, George, and Davy.