This chapter is shorter but hopefully still good.

Enjoy! =3

2: Ghostly Introductions

To extend the game, Danny left the players to ponder for two days before he continued his plans. During that span of letting them think, he was making himself busy with ghost fighting. One of the few times he was able to talk to his friends he never mentioned the little game he was playing because he knew they would tell him it was a bad idea. Please, it was the best idea he has had all summer! Thankfully, today was fairly vacant of ghost activity, giving Danny the perfect time to continue his plot. It was early in the morning and the Fentons just got done with breakfast. Jazz left to go to the library unaware of the game that was occurring right under her nose. Once there was no sign of his sister, Danny turned to his parents.

"Alright, I think I have given you enough time to think over the clues I have given you so far." Danny began as he looked at his mother and father who instantly perked up at another clue. It was easy to tell they hadn't figured it out yet due to the frustrated looks he had seen for the past two days. "However, to get and understand you're clue you have to follow everything I say and listen to what I do say."

"Ok, I'm in!" Maddie agreed instantly ready to get her next clue. She had spent the past two days trying to come up with some theory about her son's secret but so far nothing. Talking with Jack didn't really help for he was never one for thinking games.

"Is this about ghosts?" Jack asked clearly not interested unless it had to deal with a ghost.

"Before I answer that so you agree to my terms or not?" Danny pressed. He watched as Jack paused for a moment but agreed. Satisfied by this, he began to lay out a few rules before continuing. "First rule is no weapons of any kind. Not even ghost weapons." His parents looked at him in shock but he was expecting this. They were about to protest but Danny simply raised his eyebrow, challenging them to go against what he said. Knowing this was the only way to get to the bottom of their son's troubles, they did what he asked. Satisfied when all the weapons were gone, he led them into the living room.

"No matter what I say you will listen with no interruptions." Danny demanded before rubbing the back of his neck as he began. "A while back I met this ghost dog. When he was alive, he was a guard dog at Axion Lab. He came back into the human world looking for his squeaky toy but as a result caused some minor trouble in his search. However, he is not a bad dog! He's actually a good ghost." Danny quickly added the last but continued speaking when he saw his mother ready to argue his last comment. "I know you may not believe there are good ghosts but I do for I have met a few. The ghost dog, I named Cujo, is one of them. While I was helping him find his squeaky toy, he grew very attached to me. Like my own personal guard dog, in fact. With this being said, I can call him to me by whistling. I have done this a few times to play with him to keep him satisfied so there was no need to come into the human world and find me to play. Anyway, I want you to meet Cujo but in order to do this you have to stay calm. If you overreact, he might think you are going to attack me or something and jump to my rescue. Understand?" Danny finished and waited as his parents agreed. "There will be no scientific experiments, dissections or ripping him apart 'molecule-by-molecule'. If you want to do something scientific I recommend observing."

"Alright sweetie, but just know I don't like you being around a ghost, friendly or not." Maddie warned her husband agreeing right behind her.

"I know that and I'm not asking you to be." Danny informed her matter-of-factly before adding. "You might want to cover your ears."

His parents did as they were told as Danny put two of his fingers in his mouth and let out a loud, high-pitched whistle. It was silent for a few minutes and Maddie began to lose faith the dog would come. That was quickly remedied when she heard a bark of excitement sound in the kitchen. The little green dog tackled Danny down and licked his face but his parents saw it as an attack. They quickly activated the weapons in their hazmat suits, aiming them at the puppy. Sensing the threat Cujo transformed into a huge dog and was ready to attack Maddie and Jack but a voice made all of them freeze.

"Stop!" Danny yelled as he got in between the two, facing Cujo. "Cujo, sit!" Danny commanded and as much to his parents' surprise, the huge dog obeyed, though he seemed reluctant. Danny then turned his head to look at his parents. "I told you stay calm and no weapons. Now, put your weapons away and sit back down." He said firmly. His parents started to open their mouth to protest but knew they had no choice but to comply. Once Danny was sure they were not going to overreact again, he addressed his parents one more time before addressing Cujo. "Cujo's way of greeting me is normally to tackle me and lick my face. Sorry, I forgot to mention that. Cujo be cute!" Danny cooed at the dog.

The dog happily obeyed now that the threat was gone though he was still wary of the two adults. He flew into Danny's arms, which were outstretched. Danny rubbed the dog behind the ears before addressing his parents once more. "Cujo these are my parents. Mom, Dad, this is Cujo. He acts like a normal dog so you don't need to treat him differently."

Danny proceeded to walk over to where his parents sat on the couch so they could pet Cujo. At first, the ghost dog pressed himself closer to Danny's chest, not wanting to meet the couple. However, Maddie stuck out her hand to let the dog sniff it. A few seconds later, Jack followed suit. Curiosity finally got to the puppy and he sniffed their hands. Apparently satisfied with what he smelt, he nudged Maddie and Jacks hand to bet him. Seeing this gesture, Danny sat down between his two parents and watched as they pet the small dog.

"Fascinating." Maddie muttered as she interacted with the dog.

"Can he do any tricks?" Jack asked curiously.

"Of course!" Danny exclaimed genuinely happy his parents have accepted Cujo. He stood up and obtained the little dog's attention.

"Lay down." Danny watched as the little dog obeyed happily. "Beg." He moved on and smiled when the dog complied throwing a cute begging face in with the trick. "Shake," holding out his hand to the pup, they shook hands and then gave each other a high five for the next trick. "Be big!" Danny smiled when the dog grew in size but still had a joyful expression on his face. "Good boy! Come here!" Danny laughed when the dog instantly became small again and jumped in his master's arms barking gleefully.

Danny's parents watched on with a smile lightly touching their face. They had to admit, it was quite a sight. However, it bothered Maddie that he son was so at ease with the ghost, harmless or not. Jack seemed to completely forget the dog was a ghost and proceeded to play with it as Danny's gaze looked down at Maddie. The same calculating look was etched onto his features like before. This was a very big hint but she wasn't sure it meant that he was associated with ghosts. Her gut told her he was. Maybe she could ask her question and actually get an answer.

"Danny," Maddie began hesitantly then paused for a moment, just enough to build up her courage. "Are you associated with other ghosts as well?" Maddie finished her question waiting to see if Danny would respond.

He was quiet for a moment. His face was indecisive as he decided whether to answer or not. "Not all ghosts are evil, Mom. Most just want to be left alone." Danny began to answer looking at her with a serious expression. "The only ones that you see are evil because they want to cause trouble so they leave the ghost zone. There is one ghost who is good that you see and hunt, but you continue to be blind to this fact. I guess my whole point for letting you meet Cujo was an attempt to get you to open up your mind. Try talking to a good ghost instead of hunting it. I guarantee you that you will learn more in that talk than simply shooting at the ghost." Danny had avoided her question but this raised more questions for Maddie.

"You mean to say you want me to talk to Phantom?" Maddie concluded in disbelief. He could not be asking her of such a thing. This had to be some joke. She waited to hear Danny exclaim he was only joking but no such comment came. He looked at her with serious eyes as he took in the emotions that crossed her face. Sighing in defeat, she looked at Danny with a smug expression, "and how do I find the most elusive ghost in all of AmityPark?"

Danny's face broke out into a very mischievous grin. "I thought you would never ask." He called Cujo to him and began to leave the house. "I'm going to go play with Cujo. Be on top of the Op Center at midnight. No weapons allowed." With that being said the front door shut quietly behind him leaving a shocked Maddie and oblivious Jack behind.

"Does this mean our son is somehow associated with Phantom?" She voiced her thoughts aloud trying to process everything that happened. She knew one thing for sure. In order to get to the bottom of this, much to her dread, she had to continue to do everything Danny said. Maddie always thought she was open-minded but her son had just said the complete opposite. Maybe he was right. She looked over at Jack who now had a serious expression on his face, making him look more mature than he was.

"What are we going to do if Danny is associated with ghost, Mads?" Jack asked, then cleared up his question. "I mean all ghosts are evil and should be hunted but yet Danny just denied that fact." Jack sat on the couch, pouting slightly.

Maddie leaned over and touched his arm reassuringly. "There is only one thing we can do to figure this out. We have to play along with this game with an open-mind. Disregard everything we believed and know about ghosts up until now. We have to look through Danny's point of view. It's the only way to discover the complete truth." When Maddie finished she knew she believed everything she just said much to her displeasure. She hated being wrong but she would gladly admit it if it meant figuring out why her baby boy had become so distance from her over the few years.

Jack nodded solemnly. If Maddie believed this was the only way to figure out their son then Jack would follow along too. "Let's do it Mads." He agreed. He was slightly disappointed that by the look of things Danny was not ghost hunting. If only he realized the truth.

Valerie had been flying around all day as the Red Huntress, observing the kids she still had on her list to see if they acted… ghostly. Most of them just hung out with their friends and did nothing but talk with friends. It was boring to watch but it had to be done. She had marked off five boys off her list due to them being in the same place as Phantom and running away from the ghost he was fighting with tears in their eyes. However, this didn't surprise her. She was shocked to see the ghost dog that ruined her life with him as well. The dog fought along side Phantom. All hard feelings Valerie had toward the dog was gone along with the rage she once had toward Phantom. She still doubted him when he claimed the dog wasn't his for they seemed awfully friendly with one another. She glanced down at her list four more names to go. Once Skulker was gone, she flew next to the ghost boy. "I thought you said the dog wasn't yours." She questioned him slyly.

Much to her disappointment, he shrugged and replied, "In order to keep him from causing trouble I have to play with him every now and again. Besides, he kind of grows on you. Don't you Cujo? Don't you?" Phantom began to coo over the dog as if flew into his arms, now small. He scratched the dog behind the ears before glancing up at Valerie. "You want to help me play with Cujo?"

Valerie was about to protest but then closed her mouth and nodded. Through she hated ghosts it would be interesting to see how much of a dog this ghost acted like. Phantom smiled his cocky smile and led Valerie to an open field with nobody around. The ghost teen had brought a ball with him; he landed on the ground and dropped his arm back to throw the ball. Using his ghostly strength, he chucked the ball clear across the field. Cujo barked happily as he bolted after the ball, forgetting he could fly. Danny laughed at the little dog. Valerie couldn't help but smile also. They took turns throwing the ball for the little dog, talking all the while.

"Do you have any connection to Vlad?" Valerie asked unexpectedly. For some reason it was really bothering her.

Phantom glanced over at her as he threw the ball once more before warning her. "If we go on the subject of Vlad it will count as a clue."

"I'm fine with that." Valerie quickly assured him. "So will you answer my question?"

"The only thing we have in common is that we are the only two halfas in the world. Well, three now, I guess." Danny quickly corrected himself as Valerie just raised an eyebrow at his slip up but said nothing on the matter. It wasn't as if he would address it anyway. "It's not like we are related or anything. Though I guess, Dani and I are kind of. Anyway, that's beside the point, why would you ask about the Fruitloop?" Phantom quickly ended his little rant, clearly not realizing how worked up he was getting over just talking about Vlad. His eyes blazed brighter than normal in anger and he chucked the ball harder than indented making Cujo having to fly after it.

"He definitely is a Fruitloop." Valerie laughed as Vlad's nickname. "How are you and Dani 'kind of' related either you are or you aren't. There is no in between."

I thought you wanted to talk about Vlad?" Danny asked uncomfortable with the Dani subject at the moment. "I'll talk to you about Dani another day."

Valerie sighed she knew it was no use trying to push him. He would just buck even harder. "You mentioned you could use your ghost powers in human form. Does that mean when you get mad your eyes turn green?" Valerie asked. If this were true, it would give her a good way to figure out if it was any of the four people on her list.

"What are you going to do, anger everybody still on your suspect list? It's not as if every time I get angry my eyes flash green. That's only when I get severely pissed." Phantom laughed brushing off her question though he made a mental note of keeping a cool head around Valerie until she figures it out.

Valerie deflated slightly at that but Phantom interrupted her pouting with a question of his own. "Who is left on your list, anyway?" he was really curious to see if he was still on there. If not then he would have to give her something to suspect him.

She pulled out her list and read out the names, "Tucker, Danny, Lester, and Nathan."

Danny couldn't help but laugh. "Nathan! You still have him on the list! Oh that is hilarious!" He was clutching his side as he laughed uncontrollably. It was pretty obvious to him that there was no way Nathan could be him.

Valerie raised her eyebrow at him. She knew he was right but she wouldn't rule out anything until she had evidence that he wasn't Nathan. "Oh, why not Nathan?"

"Are you stupid? Do I ask you to go to the prom with me three years before the event actually takes place?" Phantom point out with a chuckle as he composed himself.

"Thanks for admitting you're not him." Valerie smiled devilishly as she pulled out a pen and marked him off the list. "Now I have three people. It's a shame two of my friends are still on their but I can't rule anything out."

Phantom smacked himself in the face at this. He completely didn't realize he just gave Valerie a major hint. "What to go-," He abruptly cut off before he said his last name. That would have been a big give away. He sighed, irritated at himself. "Seems I gave you enough hints for today. Have fun in your investigation." Phantom floated into the air with Cujo and flew off.

Valerie smiled. The boy was sure beginning to squirm. Oh, this would be fun. Danny, on the other hand, was silently cursing at himself for all the slip- ups he just made in that talk with Valerie. She had only three suspects left! Three! He frowned for a second, Tucker was away on vacation with his family. Valerie knew he couldn't duplicate very well, he could only do one duplicate, so that would automatically knock Tucker off leaving only him and Lester. This was not good. She would find out too soon. He had to sway her off his tail to get the game to last longer. The true question is how…

End of Chapter 2. I hope you guys liked it. I won't know unless you review now will I? hint hint

Ghostfudge160