If Danny had been full human, he would probably be hyperventilating. This was one of the worst case scenarios he could be in; stuck as Phantom, with his mother, without his powers, and with no way to switch back. He could barely make out a voice, it sounded angry with a hint of fear, realizing he should probably pay some attention, he quickly pulled himself out of his stupor and immediately wished he hadn't.

"—going to ask one more time Phantom, WHERE is my son?!" his eyes focused on the glowing barrel of the ectogun. Great, now what Fenton? He could run, but where to? His mom could easily catch him and he couldn't give her the slip, not without being able to go invisible.

He looked at the ground in front of him "I'm sorry" his voice barely above a whisper. "I wish I knew where he was, but I don't. I'm so sorry".

"You're lying" Maddie inched even closer, he could feel the heat radiating off the barrel as it closed in on his chest. He looked up in just enough time to see her finger wrap tightly around the trigger, his reflexes thankfully kicking in as he barely dodged the ectoblast. With the game of cat and mouse officially beginning, he jumped around, blast after blast nearly hitting him and having nothing to protect himself with as he kept dodging and stepping backwards, until suddenly there was nothing to step back onto.

Fear bubbled up within him as he quickly regained his balance on the delicate edge of the drop-off. A glance from his peripherals let him see that it wasn't a large cliff, thankfully, but it was still a good 10-15 foot drop down to the river below. He looked at his mom, fear and pleading evident on his face "p-please mo-Maddie, don't do this. Please I—"

He was cut off mid-sentence, Maddie had fired a blast that Danny had been too distracted to completely be able to avoid, the energy slamming into his side as he desperately tried to dodge the onslaught. The force knocked him back, just enough for the young half-ghost to lose footing again and plummet to the cold water below. Maddie quickly retreated back into the trees and headed to the campsite all while hoping to find her son. Maybe Danny ran off when the attack started and made it back to camp! She continued to march on through the thick brush that surrounded their campsite, however her hopes were quickly dashed as she glanced around the small clearing of their camp. Her son, as she had feared, was nowhere to be seen. Tears pricked in her eyes as she activated the small ghost shield over hers and Danny's tents, just in case of any further attacks or in case her lost son returned to seek shelter. She gathered several supplies and weapons and headed out to search once more for her boy.

Meanwhile, Danny agonizingly pulled himself onto the small rocky beach that lined the water, coughing up some of the murky liquid from his lungs. His body protested his every move, a strangled gasp escaping his lips as he put weight on his left arm. "Definitely broken" he muttered aloud as he did a mental check of his injuries.

A broken arm, ectoblast burn to his right side of his abdomen, a heavily bruised ankle and a long gash on the same leg from where he hit a rather sharp rock along the bottom of the creek. His day was going from bad to worse real fast, of course, his luck was never the best, but this was borderline insane. He lay there contemplating his next move—should he even move? Nothing felt wrong internally but that didn't mean he couldn't have some sort of injury that could be slowly killing him. He managed to painfully chuckle "Well, finish killing me anyways".

It was getting cold, the sun had already sunk below the horizon. "Great, I'll either freeze to death, bleed internally if that fall did any serious damage, or get eaten by some wild animal because I'm too defenseless to do anything!" He rested his head against the soft sand, maybe he could just rest his eyes for just a moment…

"Danny? Danny, where are you sweetie?!"

"I-" I can't call out to her, I'm just a putrid ghost to her… he sighed and threw his good arm over his eyes. "Come on, change back…please…" his voice cracking as tears threated to form and spill from his neon green orbs. "You are supposed to be a hero, yet you can't even save yourself. How pathetic."

It was dark now, forcing Maddie to flip on the power of the small flashlight. She had been searching for an hour now with no signs of her youngest child.

"I wish there was some way to track him" she mused aloud. Wait a second! "That's it! The 'boo'merang, along with most of their other devices, would always key into Danny for some strange reason! She reached into the backpack and pulled out the V shaped electronic, the green bulb coming to life and steadily flashing. "Find Danny…please" she willed it, partially doubting it would actually work as she tossed it from her grasp. It flew in the direction she threw it in for a split second before making a 90 degree turn and heading another direction. She followed the device hope sparking in her chest. However, that same spark quickly fizzled out as she approached a gulch, the 'boo'merang hovering over the crevasse before quickly dropping down towards the water below.

"No…NO!" several worst case scenarios popped into her head. With his clumsiness he could have fallen, or had been dropped into the water from one of those ghosts…and from that height? He could be hurt! Or worse! No! She mentally scolded, he was fine, and there was no way she could think that—

"OW!" A male voice cried out as her heart leaped out of her chest; that was her son's voice! He was alive!

"Danny! Are you okay sweetie?!" See peered over the edge, her flashlight sweeping across until it reached a figure. Joy exploded in her heart but it was quickly replaced. It wasn't her son. It was that no good Phantom punk. Her eyes narrowed, of course the one time the device would pick up a ghost it would be when she needed it to track her son. Distraught, she shook her head and began to head back to camp.

"Please, don't leave me here…" She barely caught it, the voice sounded so pitiful and sad, but what caught her off guard the most was the amount of emotion in the voice. She couldn't believe it. Phantom was still trying to trick her and win her sympathy! Maddie had to hand it to the young ghost, he was a decent actor, but she was a scientist and an expert in the paranormal, she wasn't going to fall for his trap that easily. Without a second glance she continued on through the dense foliage.

I swear the first thing I'm doing when I get out of here is destroying every last one of those damn devices he thought bitterly to himself, still rubbing the side of his head. His mom had left him several minutes ago and now the teen was left to his own thoughts, all of which were instantly forgotten at the first howl of a coyote.

"Maybe I should try to get somewhere safer..." He slowly—and painfully—made his was to his feet and limped down the riverbank a bit until he came to an accessible embankment. With one foot in front of the other and catching himself with his good arm when he stumbled, Danny slowly made his way up the steep hill.

Maddie had crawled into her tent and was in the process of pulling the cover back on her sleeping bag when she heard a loud rustling in the underbrush outside the safety of her tent and ghost shield. She brushed it off as some wild animal passing through until she heard the very human sounding gasps of air as the footsteps edged towards her. Had Danny made it back?! She jolted out from the front of the tent, grabbing her flashlight in the process. She pointed it in the direction of the noises and much to her surprise and excitement, saw her son standing in the clearing—for a split second. The ghost hunter then spotted the infamous DP logo on a torn black and white spandex suit, white hair, and toxic neon green eyes. It was Phantom…again.

"Go away spook"

He didn't even acknowledge her, just simply collapsed where he was standing, emitting only a slight whimper of pain before curling up into a ball near the fire pit. Whatever, I don't have time to deal with him right now. I need to rest up so I can get help searching for Danny when the sun comes up. She zipped up the entryway of her tent, besides, he can't get me. I'm completely safe from any attack inside the ghost shield.

AH! So I am so sorry about not updating last week like I wanted to, school and work have sucked any free time (as well as what little soul I had left) away from me. I was supposed to have more at the end of the chapter, but realized it would work better if I included it with the beginning of chapter 4 so I cut it out and will have the next installment up hopefully soon. I've also decided that this story will have around 8 chapters and I have a rough outline as to what will go into each, chapter 4 will possibly be a bit smaller than chapters 2 and 3, but it all depends on how my muse is feeling at that time.

As always leave me a review telling me what you think so far!