First, let me start by saying how sorry I am. I would have had this chapter up sooner, but I've been having computer problems the last couple of weeks. But that's all fixed and now we have a new chapter. Also, I'd like to ask all of you to please check out my other story, War on Morality, as not a lot of people have, but I can promise if you like this story or my writing in general, you will like that one. Now, on to the chapter!

Chapter 17: Care to Dance?

"No," Danny said as he charged a ghost ray in his hand. Taking careful aim, he pulled his arm back before launching it at his target who dodged it at the last second.

"Why not?!" Danielle yelled in frustration, hands glowing as she too fired her energy.

"Because there is no way I'm letting that happen," he replied just before having to dodge a large vine that nearly crushed him.

"But Dad-"

"The answer is no, Danielle. End of discussion."

"Da-danny," Sam grunted as she struggled to use the vines that sprouted from her back as a shield from the blast coming at her, a bit of pain coming from the hit.

"Look, Danielle, this is neither the time nor the place to be discussing this. We're supposed to be helping your mom learn to control her powers," he said before turning back to Sam. "It might be better to block attacks if you can create a shield from the vines."

"Easier said than done," she grumbled. Closing her eyes, she tried to feel the energy and push it through her vines like she did with her other limbs. As she started to feel it, she pointed the tips toward each other, creating a small ball as the energy built up. As the vines started to pull apart slowly, the ball began to flatten out, creating a barrier. Sam smiled and began to gloat.

"Oh yeah! How you like me now!?"

Danny smiled before creating a baseball sized ball of energy.

"That's great, Sam. Now let's see if it's durable." And with another pull back, Danny threw it as hard as he could, sending it whizzing at her at incredible speed. Sam stood ready for the impact, but still felt a bit nervous. As the two made contact, Sam's barrier took the full impact of the blast, but cracked and shattered like a broken car windshield after an accident. "Well, it's somewhat durable, but we're gonna have to work on that and the time it takes to make it. In a real battle, that would have been way to slow."

"I know, but give me a break, I know it's all about focus, but doing that is hard enough when you're still new to this," she said as she landed on the ground. The instant she came into contact with it, she could feel the grass under her replenishing her strength.

"Don't worry, Mom. You'll get it," Danielle said as she landed and changed back to normal.

"Thanks, Ellie," she said as she too changed back. "But I've got a long way to go, and unless I get more battle experience, there's no way my powers are going to get anywhere near close to what they were when I took out those Ghost bugs."

"Speaking of going places-"

"No, Danielle Lilith Fenton, you cannot," Danny said as he walked over to the girls in his human form.

"But why not!? Why is this such a big deal?"

"Maybe it would be ok, Danny. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?" Sam asked.

"I am not letting Youngblood take my daughter to her school dance. I don't even think she needs a date, but if she's gotta take one, she should just pick a kid from school, not a bratty ghost kid who would do nothing but cause trouble," he said as he crossed his arms.

"Well, maybe if she kept him on a leash. Like a really short one," Sam smirked. "But if she's there, how much trouble could he cause?"

"Plenty. A ghost kid in a school gymnasium filled with kids. Not to mention the fact the adults can only see him if he lets them. And let's not forget the time the two of them snuck out and he tried to get the kids in town to revolt against their parents and join his pirate crew."

"I told you I didn't know he was gonna do that," Danielle said as her cheeks glowed pink in embarrassment.

"Regardless, it's not happening. Rule #1, Ellie. No fraternizing with the enemy."

"But he's not my enemy. Just yours. And can't you just trust me on this one?"

"I do trust you. It's him I don't trust."

"Danny, just let her go with him. If anything goes wrong, I'll take full responsibility for this one, okay?" she asked as she walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek. "Stop worrying so much."

Danny sighed as Danielle held her breath in anticipation.

"Alright. If Ember says it's ok, then fine. He can go," Danny said. In a flash, Danielle had thrown her arms around him and was repeated saying "Thank you, Daddy!" before she ran into the house through the back door. Danny turned to Sam who was grinning at him like the Cheshire cat. "You know you let her get her way too often, right? Hence why we have a ghost dog as a pet."

Said dog, whom the two teenagers had run into before and had named Cujo, suddenly popped into existence from nowhere, and took off barking as he ran after his youngest master while she explained to everyone how excited she was about the dance. Sam rolled her eyes at him before replying.

"Okay, so it wasn't exactly what we had in mind when she asked if she could keep the dog that followed her home, but you can't complain because you like him just as much as she does. Not to mention how loyal and loving he is, and he does make a great guard dog."

"Just because he's a great dog doesn't make up for the fact that I'm the one who's always cleaning up invisible dog poop," he said to which Sam laughed and made her way inside with him.

An hour later, the three halfas were flying through the Ghost Zone. Danielle was still giddy at the thought of going to her first school dance, even if she had to wear a dress. Sam was smiling and keeping up light conversation, mostly to show Danielle that she was listening. Danny, however, paid little attention to the two girls talking as he scanned over the map in an attempt to navigate the vast green universe.

"Ok. Ember's lair should be just up ahead," he said, rolling the map up an putting it away.

"That reminds me. How come we don't have lairs?" Danielle asked.

"I don't know. I asked Clockwork about it, seeing as he seems to know everything, but he just smirked at me and said 'In good time, Daniel', all cryptic like."

Danielle started to ponder this, but soon forgot at the site of the large purple door wuth a golden star on it. In the center of the star was the name "Ember McLain" and under the star there appeared a pirate mark with the name "Youngblood" under it.

"Wait, ghost have to share lairs?" Danielle asked.

"Only if they are related or if they choose to combine them," Sam said as they came to a stop in front of the door. Danielle moved to open the door, but was stopped when Sam put her arm out, blocking her path. Danielle looked up at her mother who shook her head side to side and moved them both to the side of the door. From where she floated, Danielle could seen Danny doing the same on the opposite side before knocking on the door.

"Who is it?" Came a voice that still made Danielle shiver even though she had been pardoned from Ember's fiery wrath.

"Danny Phantom. I need to talk with you, Ember."

All was quiet as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened. At the sound of the tumblers in the door shifting, the three tensed up, but when the door started opening and nothing was jumping out at them, Danielle relaxed as she released her breath.

"And here I was expecting-"

A giant stream of fire flew out from the open door, making Danielle shriek in surprise at the flamethrower style of attacked. After almost a minute, the fire died down and all was quiet once more.

"If you're still alive or unburned enough to move, then get in here," Ember's voice called.

Danny floated through the threshold first, just to be safe.

"And that, Ellie, is why you never stand directly in front of the door to the lair of your enemies or anyone you don't know in the Ghost Zone," Sam said as she followed Danny. Danielle swallowed down some of her nerves, but followed behind her parents. Once all three were inside, the door closed behind them.

As they looked around the lair, which resembled the world's fanciest tour bus, decorated in Ember's signature colors, they quickly spotted the flaming ponytail of Ember as she glared at them from the couch. Danielle could feel her nerves returning as she watch Ember tune her guitar, through whether it was for musical purposes or battle purposes, she didn't know, nor was she sure she wanted to.

"Alright, Dipstick. Speak and speak quick cause you only got about 30 seconds before I knock you into oblivion. What do you want and why are you here?"

"Good to see you too," Danny sneered back before sighing. "Alright, look. I'll level with you. Danielle needs a date to her school dance."

"And what's that got to do with me?"

"She wants to take Youngblood as her date," Sam said. Ember raised an eyebrow before a smirk came across her face as she looked at Danielle.

"Really now? So, you wanna take my little brother on a date, aye Baby-Dip?"

"It's not a date date," Danielle said, her face turning a bright red in embarrassment. "It's just a school date."

Ember laughed loudly at the easy way she had been able to get under the young Phantom's skin so easily.

"So if she wants to ask him, why are you two here?" she asked as she looked back at Danny and Sam. "By the way, love the new look, Babypop."

"Yeah, well, having a heart attack and having ghost ectoplasm stored in your body will do that to you," Sam said sarcastically. It was no big secret or surprise that Ember knew about Sam's transformation as the ghost in the Ghost Zone were known to gossip often, and of course, all of Danny's enemies would be sure to find out about her recent death.

"Seriously, how many times do I have to say that I'm sorry?" Danielle said in exasperation.

"I told you, it's not your fault. If anything, it's his," she said, pointing at Danny who rolled his eyes at the all too familiar conversation they're had the past couple weeks. "And to answer your question, we came to be sure you were ok with this and to make arrangements."

"Sure, whatever," Ember said as she resumed tuning her guitar.

"Oh my god, thank you!" Danielle said in excitement.

"Hey, where is he anyway?" Sam asked.

"Through that door," Ember said as she pointed to a door in the very back of the room. "It's a secondary portal to his lair."

Danielle nodded and flew across the small space to the door, opening it and entering her friend's lair. Danielle had been in this particular lair multiple times before she moved in with her parents, and was always amazed at how it would change based solely on whatever adventure Youngblood wanted to do at the time. Danielle smiled as she looked at the familiar pirate theme, and flew over to her friend who was currently standing on the deck of the pirate ship.

Back in Ember's lair, Danny and Sam were explaining the details about the dance to her.

"And she's really excited about it all. She even said she had fun dress shopping with my sister," Danny said.

"Well can't say I blame her. The kid never had a chance to do any of this stuff. So what colors are they supposed to wear?"

Sam was about to answer when the door to Youngblood's lair flew open and a crying black and white blur shot past them toward the door to the Ghost Zone. Sam was out the door and trailing behind her daughter in no time, worry and anxiety about her crying taking over her maternal instincts. Danny turned back to the young ghost's door to see him standing in the threshold, a shocked expression on his face.

"What happened," Danny demanded as his anger began to grow.

"Jacob, what did you do!?" Ember yelled at him as she got to her feet and her boots slammed onto the floor with a deafening thud.

"I-I-" Youngblood stammered in fright. "I just told her I didn't want to go and-"

"You're lying!" Danny yelled. "There's no way she would have flown out of here crying like that just because you said no!"

"Well…I kinda told her I didn't want to go to a stupid school dance and that I didn't want to dress up and that girls were gross and I would never go on a date with her," he said guiltily as he looked at his feet.

"Danny could feel his ectoplasm coming to a boil in his veins. This punk kid had the nerve to not only turn his daughter's invitation, but then he had the audacity to insult her too? Danny was about to let his anger out, but was stopped when a ball of fire seemed to explode near him. Turning, Danny was surprised to see Ember's body on fire and her growling at Youngblood.

"Jacob, you and I are going to have a little talk," she said as she advanced on him.

A few days later, Danielle sat in front of her Aunt's vanity as Jazz finished applying a bit of make-up to her face and Sam pulled a brush threw her hair. Though she had been excited about it all before, she now sat with a slightly sadden look on her face that Jazz and Sam had been trying to get rid of.

"Cheer up, Danielle. You get to go to your first dance ever," Jazz said.

"She's right, Ellie. Not to mention how beautiful you look," Sam said. Danielle looked up to see her reflection who was wearing an all white spaghetti strap dress that had glitter and puffed pout at the waist and came down to her ankles, making her look like a princess. She was also wearing black evening gloves that came to her elbows and matching black flats. These things, along with a light amount of make-up and with her hair hanging down instead of being in its usual ponytail, made her look like a picture perfect girl. However, the frown that seemed etched onto her face took away from it all.

"Yeah, I guess," she said.

The two older girls looked at each other with concern, but turned to the door as a knock on the door came. Opening the door, Danny stuck his head in before walking in and going over to Danielle.

"Wow. You look beautiful, Ellie," he said.

"Thanks, Dad," she said quietly as she stood up and turned to face him. The downcast look in her eyes had been easily spotted by Danny who didn't like it anymore then Sam and Jazz did.

"Hey, wipe that look off your face. You're supposed to be excited about going to your first ever dance. Besides, I've got a surprise for you."

"A surprise?" she asked with an eyebrow cocked. She looked over her shoulder at Sam and Jazz who simply shrugged. When she faced her father again, he had a huge grin on his face before walking out of the door and motioning for her to follow him, to which she did. As they descended the stairs, Danielle was silently wishing she had x-ray vision or mind reading, any power that could help her to figure out what he had planned. When they reached the bottom, Danny stepped aside, and was rewarded with a gasp.

Danielle could feel the shock running in her veins as she gazed upon the sire of Ember standing in her living room, and next to her, a fancily dressed Youngblood in a black tuxedo, dress shows, and a white tie that matched her dress. His face was clean, not a single speck of dirt anywhere on it, and his hair had been combed back and had gel to keep it in place.

Ember turned to him and nudged him with her foot. As he stepped forward, he gulped and tried to calm the butterflies in his stomach.

"Hi, Dani," he said nervously. "I just wanted to say I'm really, really sorry about before. I didn't know how important this all was to you, and I didn't mean to hurt your feeling. I-"

Before he could finish, he found himself on the ground, a bruise sure to form on his cheek where she had punched him. He looked up at her surprised, as were all the adults, as she stood there growling and panting, fist still shaking and eyes glowing a bright green in anger.

"You shut up, Jacob Jemerson! I don't know where you get off thinking some lame apology like that is gonna fix anything, but it's not! You can just go back to the Ghost Zone because I never want to see you again!" she screamed in his face.

Everyone was silent, the tension in air thick, but that was quickly broken as a loud laugh echoed throughout the room. Ember was leaning against the wall, arms crossed as she shook with laughter.

"Ok, now, I'm really glad we did this!"