Chapter 2

Three weeks and two days after moving

'This just didn't make sense!' Robin thought to himself as he looked over the new information he had received. He was in his darkly lit bedroom, researching Phantom, or Danny Phantom, as he was called. Finding out information about the super hero was easy, but realising what he actually was, was another story all together. There had been reports of him saving the town that he 'haunted' again and again from all sorts of ghosts, where as there were other news stories from the same source about him robbing banks and hi-tech labs.

He had called Raven and Cyborg in for their opinions on him, but all they could come up with was some information Raven knew; that ghosts were malevolent spirits, shells of people with violent deaths, and that they all had a single drive which made them do and act certain ways. When Robin has shown her the difference in the news stories, Raven had been confused.

"Malevolent spirits are only supposed to have a single drive. We know he's a ghost as we saw ectoplasm bleeding from him instead of blood. But this Danny Phantom must have had a seriously strange death to cause such a difference in personalities" Raven commented.

"Wait, but what is ectoplasm?" Robin said, obviously confused

"All ghosts and other worldly spirits are made of it; it's an energy form which is their life force. It also acts like blood, being lost when they get wounded, but after a while it starts to regenerate, taking in ectoplasm from their natural dimension."

"Wait so you're saying there are more dimensions than the one we're in now?" Cyborg commented. Raven nodded trying not to roll her eyes at him.

"Cyborg, have you still got footage of Phantom? I want to quickly check his wound." Robin said, Cyborg looked at his friend and raised an eyebrow before hooking himself up to Robin's computer and downloading the video. It began to play back until Robin said to stop at an image of Danny's back.

"Zoom in to his wound; I think there's something up with our friend." Cyborg did as told and was shocked to see that his body was leaking both ectoplasm and a small amount of blood. He then fast forwarded the video to see that Phantoms wound had clotted and was steadily healing itself by the time he left them.

"What? Phantom has blood and ectoplasm in his veins?" Cyborg said

"It seems so. Raven, could you follow up some theories about a half ghost half person hybrid? I've got a lead to follow." Robin said as he looked at the other tab he had open. It marked a simple marker on a map and that map read 'Jump City High'

.~.~.~.~.

Danny woke in his new room with a yawn. He looked at his alarm clock and saw that it was only twenty minutes past seven. He lazily looked around his room, taking the sight of the many clothes and other pieces of junk that were randomly thrown across the floor. He picked up a new pair of jeans and a new black top before heading towards the shower. He had been forced by both his parents and his sister to change from his usual outfit of white and red tops with a pair of old jeans to a new set of day to day clothes. He had been dragged to the local mall and made to hunt down different styles of clothes with his sister, but the only thing they agreed on in the end was a simple black top and a pair of faded dark blue jeans.

After Danny had finished his shower, he got changed and made his way down stairs. The kitchen was a mess, as usual. His parents had obviously been working late last night as there was a simple note from his sister saying where the edible cereal was. His parents, although tied down with their large work load, still had time to misplace ectoplasm extract and place it in the cupboards and freezer from time to time. More than once he had been forced to save Jazz from the wrath of a food product that had been trying to eat her.

Danny's parents were ecstatic about getting paid to create ghost protection gadgets, and were constantly having late nights creating and planning about their newest experiment. Their latest invention, called the Fenton Leach, would latch onto a ghost and suck its powers dry when it attacked someone. Needless to say, Danny had to quickly reconfigure the prototype so it wouldn't attack him. At one point Danny didn't get to see them for three whole days while they were trying to create a ghost gadget that ran off a mix of ectoplasm and radiation. The house had been in lock down for one of the three days when a minor spill of something caused them to panic. Luckily it was just a tube of ectoplasm and not the liquefied radioactive isotope sitting next to it. He and Jazz had to stay in a Hotel for the night because of it.

His parents had also gotten planning permission to dig under the house and build another Lab, only this time with twice as much funding, it was more like a bunker than a basement lab. Built with stainless titanium walls with a foot of lead lining the outside, it must have cost them over a hundred thousand dollars to build, but to them it was worth it. Within the first week of it being built they had already upgraded and remade most of the weaponry they owned. After that they had gone on to the stuff that they hadn't had enough funding for while they were in Amity Park.

The Guys in White had taken a special interest in these protective gadgets and sent blue-prints and ideas to Danny's parents to build prototypes of them. Most of them were just over the top and unbuildable, like a bazooka that shot twenty different types of ecto-fire, one of which would disintegrate a ghost on contact, but occasionally his parents had been able to heavily modify the idea to actually be practical rather than a weapon of mass destruction.

Danny looked at the clock on the oven and saw that it was ten minutes till school started. Danny gathered all his books and turned into Phantom. He turned intangible and flew out of the house and over to the school. He passed over the many houses and shops of Jump City taking in the view, spotting a nice pizza place on Third Street that he would have to remember. He flew past the Titans Tower and vaguely saw Raven meditating. She opened an eye as she felt his presence and saw him flying tangible past her. He gave her a quick wave before flying off again, causing her to almost fall out of the sky where she was floating. He chuckled and flew over to the school.

Around a block before he reached the school, he landed in an alleyway and turned back into Fenton again. He walked out of the alley, not looking where he was going. The sun in his eyes, he didn't notice the person who was in front of him when he walked out into the street. He knocked into the person and caused the girl, as he noticed, to trip and fall. His reactions saving her from a nasty knock to the head, he grabbed her arms and stopped her before she hit the ground.

"Oh, crap! Sorry!" Danny began to say to the girl as he pulled her up. His eye sight not blinded by the sun, he managed to get a proper look at the girl; she was around his height, wearing a black and purple top with a red graffiti like skull on it, her hair was a brilliant shade of pink and a pair of black jeans. His subconscious immediately thought of Sam, and he was almost about to call out her name, but his mind stepped in at the last moment.

"It's ok, I didn't see you either." Said the girl. She held out her hand and Danny shook it "The name is Penny. I'm actually new in Jump."

"Mines Danny, so are you heading to Jump High then?" Danny asked as they began to walk to the school in question

"Yeah, unfortunately, I hear the school is a drag." Penny said her voice filled with disappointment.

"Well the people there are... judgemental to say the least." Said Danny, his hand finding the back of his neck.

"Doesn't matter much, I've had a history of people talking about me about my appearance." She said, not phased. "Look, I've got to register at the front office, so I'll try and catch you up later. See you." Penny said as they came to the front gates. Danny just waved and let her go, but did notice the attention her hair was getting.

.~.~.~.~.

Danny sat bored in his History class, his teacher going on about impacts of the cold war on society while his classmates went on and on about the massive rave they had over the weekend. Normally he wouldn't have listened to them, but apparently the Teen Titans had been there until one of them got lifted up by some kind of alien spaceship. The guy talking was trying to tell the story of how he managed to get Starfire's number of her, and showed them a slip of paper with a number and a lipstick kiss on it. Danny was about to interrupt, but something caught his eye. That something then knocked on the door and waited till she was allowed in.

"Come in." The teacher called. Penny opened the door and handed the teacher a note from the front office, similar to the one Danny had to give to his physics teacher not long ago. He simply nodded, handed her a small exercise book and got back to teaching. Almost all chatter began to switch to the topic of the new girl as she walked down an aisle and sat next to Danny.

She smiled at him and said "Fancy meeting you here." He just gave her a surprised look and smiled back.

"I thought you were my age?" She just laughed and jotted down something on the board before saying

"I am, well kinda. I was born just after the school year started, so I'm one of the oldest here."

"Ah. Well what brings you to Jump City anyway?" Danny asked, curious

"My dad, he works at this big ghost protection factory, I think he's the administrator, and he had to move here because they had just opened up a new branch."

"You mean Wilson Industries?" Penny nodded "No way! My parents got a job offer and moved here because of it a few weeks ago."

"That's uncanny! But do you believe in all the Ghost stuff?" She asked when she had finished writing down in her exercise book.

"Ha-ha, well my parents are big-" He was about to finish, but he felt something vibrate in his pocket. His eyes widened slightly as he realised that it was his Titans communicator. Luckily, he was spared asking to go to the bathroom by the bell, which rang and signalled the end of the first period. He gave Penny a quick good bye and ran to the nearest toilet. He quickly turned intangible and transformed. He opened up his communicator and saw Robin staring down at him.

"We need you here. Now." Was all he said before he cut off the connection. Confused Danny flew through the roof and flew over to the Titans Tower. When he arrived at the huge T in the bay, he turned tangible and knocked at the huge steel door. A sensor popped out of a hole and scanned Danny up and down before saying in a mechanical voice

"NO LIFE SOURCE DETECTED. YELLOW ALERT INITIATED. CALLING CYBORG." Then, a screen holding Cyborgs head appeared and waved at Danny.

"Danny! I didn't realise you couldn't be scanned, hold on. I'll let you in. We've got something for ya." Confused, Danny walked through the open door, and made his way up the elevator. The walls were all made of the similar steel that made up the outside of the tower. There was no elevator music and within ten seconds, the doors opened to what seemed to be a living room and dining room combined. He saw the rest of the Titans waiting for him, all with similar faces of curiosity. He glided over to them, and simply asked

"So, why did you want me?" Robin raised an eyebrow and nodded to the sofa. Danny looked over and saw that sitting on it was a plain blue box with a symbol printed on it. He looked up at Robin, a look of almost alarm on his face.

"Where did you get this?" He asked in seriousness

"That's the thing, it just appeared here. None of us have touched it; it just appeared on the sofa like that. Raven has been looking up to see if the symbol is a curse or anything, but she hasn't found anything yet."

"Then how did you know it was for me?"

"It came with a note, saying that it was meant for you." Robin showed him the note which was written in the swirly writing he knew. He had seen it when he was in the middle of an exam, and time suddenly stopped for him. He lifted the box up and shook it slightly; something rattled in it, but didn't make any more sounds. He opened the top to see a single pair of gloves, a note and a Fenton Thermos. Confused he picked up the gloves and surveyed them. They were just a simple set of fingerless gloves, purple in colour and a bit frayed at the end. 'Why would Clockwork want me to have this?' He thought to himself.

"Dude, put them on!" Beast Boy said breaking the silence, hoping for something cool to happen.

Danny complied and slipped on the gloves. Nothing happened for a moment, but suddenly the gloves grew, eerily slithering around his arms until they reached halfway before stopping. It seemed to melt and glide over his arms, the cotton becoming a hard black material. Where a small pair of gloves were sitting were now a set of pitch black set of metallic gauntlets. He felt a small pull on his back and heard Starfire gasp. Danny's eyebrows furrowed and he reached to his back and pulled from it some kind of battle Axe.

Danny's eyes widened as he looked at the beast of a weapon he now held. It was a dual curved bladed battle axe that seemed to be made from steel, but was weightless in Danny's hands. The handle was made from a simple black material that matched the gauntlets, but had a pattern of jagged icicles snaking from base to blade. He looked up at the Titans who had similar looks of surprise on their faces.

"Now that is a good present." Robin commented impressed. Danny took the gloves off and felt the weight from his back disappear. He felt his back again and saw that the Axe had gone and his gauntlets had turned into the dark purple pair of cotton gloves.

He picked up the note and read it allowed

"Phantom, I thought these would come in handy. I also got you something to practice with." The note was signed with the symbol in the front. Danny put the note in the box and picked up the thermos and let the latch go. A stream of familiar blue light escaped from it and caused the Titans to gasp.

"Wooooo! Beware, for I am the Box Ghost! I am ruler of all things cubical and covered in bubble wrap!" The Ghost called looking at the socked faces of the Titans. Danny smiled devilishly, and while the Titans were recovering from seeing their first ghost, Danny slipped on his pair of new gloves. He picked up his Axe and said

"Box Ghost, look who's here to play."

"Who dares talk to the mighty Box-" The Box Ghost started as he turned towards Danny. When he saw Danny holding the Axe, he visibly paled.

"Farewell puny humans! For I am the Box Ghost!" He said, trying to get away from Danny.

"Not so fast Boxy." Danny called as the ghost flew through the walls and out towards the bay. Danny followed in pursuit and swung at the box ghost. The ghost dodged and began to pick up random boxes and other random material from everywhere he could find which smashed the Titans windows and caused nearby offices and shops to explode with panic. He threw them at Danny hoping to knock him off course, but it was a fruitless effort as Danny quickly caught up with him and swung the Axe again. The ghost, now realising that he was quickly going to be slain, tried to dodge while intangible, but wasn't quick enough. The Axe hit him anyway, and left a deep and nasty cut along his arm.

"No one can harm the Box Ghost!"

"Shut it. Get in the thermos." Danny said as he opened the device and sucked the ghost in. He quickly flew back to the Titans Tower to a shocked team. Robin was the first to recover and asked the question on all the Titans minds

"What was that all about?" Danny looked sheepish and replied

"It's a long story..."

.~.~.~.~.

AN: I looked at my email the first day after I posted the first chapter. I almost couldn't believe the sheer amount of notifications about reviews, subscriptions and other wonderful things. Thanks for all the support and I promise to make sure I regularly update. 30 reviews and it's only the second chapter? You guys have made my month, you really have!

So it seems like Danny got a new weapon and a new friend. Now before you accuse me of writing in an OC or a Mary Sue, or whatever you want to call Penny, trust me when I say that she isn't any of these, but you'll find out more about her later.

Oh, and just to let you know, I looked through all the reviews about weapon suggestions and made my final decision about it, and it was a battle axe, and a pair of gauntlets. I give credit to my awesome reviews for all the ideas and constant reminders about choosing wisely. So as promised, here are the (virtual) cookies! *Pulls out DP and TT cookies for every reviewer/subscriber/favourite*

Oh, and just to let you know, I'll try to update once a week on a Saturday, or as soon as possible unless stated otherwise.

Till next time,

Umbra-Luna :L :P