A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I luf y'all and you inspired to update… really quickly… O.O This is the fastest I've updated anything in ages! It makes me happy! Now, on with the story! Enjoy!

Chapter 2

"Still alive, I see," observed Sam when her boyfriend finally arrived at his locker nearly fifteen minutes later. "So how'd it go with Lancer? Did he call your parents?"

"Nope."

"Really?" she asked in disbelief and a little shock.

"Yeah, I guess he didn't notice after all. I just got a really long lecture about exerting myself more during gym class." Danny grinned.

"Well that's a relief."

"Yeah. Where's Tucker? I thought he'd be standing here complaining about how late to lunch we're going to be."

The dark haired girl rolled her eyes.

"He already left for the cafeteria to commiserate about cruel, close-minded Goths with his precious PDA."

"Ah, that explains it."

"But see? Despite what I said –"

"Sam- Ah, nuts!" A thin stream of pale blue vapor trailed out of the halfa's mouth as he groaned.

"Well-"

"Don't even think it, Sam!"

"Hey, Fen-turd!"

"Oh, great!" he mumbled turning towards Dash who was striding purposefully down the hall looking as mad as hell. Danny turned around to face him without even thinking about what he was doing. "Listen Dash, I know you're mad but I really don't have time to deal with you right now. So, if could just stay right here I'll get back to you as soon as I'm done." With that he picked up Dash, who was too shocked to protest or fight back and placed the blonde jock in his open locker. Sam gaped at her boyfriend as he shut his locker door on a very surprised looking football player before turning very calmly back to her.

"Um, Danny, you do realize what you just did, don't you?"

"Huh?"

"You just locked Dash Baxter in your locker." He blinked several times looking almost as surprised as the football player had. The metal door rattled as Dash began to pound on it.

"Let me out of here, you loser, so I can rip your sorry guts out!!!"

"Er, so I did. Um, could you-?"

"Yes, go! I've got it covered here!"

"Thanks, Sam! You're the best!" He leaned down and grabbed his books and lunch sack then headed quickly down the hall to find an inconspicuous place to go ghost.

"Don't I know it; now hurry up so you don't miss all the rest of lunch!" she called after him as she headed in the opposite direction to find Tucker and fill him in on what was going on.

--

Over the years Danny had become more adept at the initial tracking down of ghosts and sneaking up on them. It was nice every once in a while to be able to just suck an unsuspecting ghost into a Fenton Thermos without actually having to fight it. Unfortunately today wasn't going to be one of those times. The halfa hovered a few feet above the roof of the school, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised at the scene before him looking distinctly unimpressed. Yup, he was going to end up missing at least half of his trigonometry class this time, if not all of it… again. Jeeze, he'd actually had a chance to do his homework last night, too!

Skulker, the Ghost Zone's self proclaimed greatest hunter, sat on the edge of the roof with a fishing rod in one mechanical hand. Tied to the end of the glowing blue line as bait was the ever annoying Box Ghost, who it seemed had been deemed yet again unworthy of Skulker's mantle. The hunter was patiently reeling the packaging obsessed ghost up and down into the outdoor cafeteria area though none of the Casper High students eating there seemed to have noticed yet.

"Whatcha after, Skulker? A shipping discount?"

"Ah, ghost child, I was wondering when you were going to say something." Box Ghost and fishing rod were deposited on the roof as Skulker stood up. Danny felt like moaning. Wonderful, it looked like the hunter's armor had gotten some more upgrades from Technus. Well, there went the rest of the school day. How was it that Skulker always managed to arrive ready to do battle at the most inopportune moments?

Charging an ectoblast in one hand Danny prepared himself, waiting for Skulker to make the first move. He didn't have long to wait. Skulker's normal feral grin widened as a rocket launcher popped up and clicked onto his shoulder then fired his first missile. The half ghost dodged but wasn't surprised in the least when the ghostly rocket stopped in mid air and made sharp turn before charging at him again.

Great, it's locked onto my ectoplasmic signature. I have got to find a way to stop Skulker and Technus working with together. Why did they have to go and form an alliance anyway? They used to hate each other! His train of thought was derailed as the weapon came dangerously close to hitting him, managing to graze the teen's shoulder ripping the fabric of his uniform and causing a thin stream of green and red ectoplasm and blood to start trickling down his bicep. Caught unprepared this time the momentum and angle of the hit sent Danny's body corkscrewing over the edge of the roof into the Casper High lunch area. His back crashed painfully into a thankfully empty table effectively breaking it in half (the table, not his back). The chattering of the eating students came to an abrupt halt and all eyes turned to stare at him. There were a couple of heartbeats of dead silence as the other teenagers blinked at him as if trying to get used to the idea that the locally famous Danny Phantom had just fallen out of the sky and broken one of their lunch tables in two. All hell broke loose though as Danny, still slightly dazed from his painful impact with the wooden boards and the ground, too late tried to dodge out of the path of Skulker's missile.

He bit back the scream of pain as it collided with his shoulder. It hadn't been a very large rocket, which was why the halfa still had a left arm and shoulder attached to his body to call his own, but with Skulker and Technus involved small didn't mean anything. Who knew what hideous chemicals or poisons they'd put in this one this time. At least it hadn't impacted him full in the chest. The whine of rocket jets announced Skulker's arrival on the scene. All around the two ghosts there was chaos as students either ran around in a panic or whipped out their camera phones attempting to get a picture of this latest ghost fight. Those who were attempting to be amateur photographers would try to sell their pictures later to the local newspaper and if the paper wouldn't buy it then it was almost guaranteed that – as long it had Danny Phantom in it – Paulina Sanchez would. Sometimes she paid better than the newspaper people, too.

The pandemonium continued for another fifteen minutes before Valerie joined the fray as well in her ghost huntress suit. She lasted better than normal against Skulker – Danny wasn't the only one who had improved over the last three years – and would have continued to last if, after only half an hour of fighting, one of the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter's paralyzer darts hadn't caught her directly between the shoulder blades. Unable to steer her board Val crashed into the base of a tree and though she only sustained some bad bruises and scraps the damage to her suit and board was enough that five minutes later when the paralyzation wore off she was still out of the fight. And Danny had a feeling that if he didn't end this soon he'd be out of it too and would become the latest addition to the collection of wall hangings and throw rugs in Skulker's layer. Desperate times called for desperate measures and last resorts. Now if he could just get Skulker away from all of these people so that nobody would accidentally get hurt….

--

Valerie limped out from behind the tree just in time to witness Phantom go hurtling through the fence that enclosed the lunch area with Skulker close on his heels. She, along with all of the other students, rushed to the fence to get a better view of what was going on but none of them dared to go outside the safety of the barrier. Okay, so maybe 'safety' wasn't the right word. It was chain-link for pity's sake! What good was a chain-link fence going to be against Skulker? But still, it made them all feel better to be behind something instead of standing wide out in the open.

Bodies from behind pushed against Valerie, effectively pinning her to the fence but at least she could see. The ghost boy had pulled himself to his feet once more and braced his legs as Skulker landed so that Phantom now stood between the students and the ghost hunter.

"Ready to give in and take your place on my mantle, whelp?"

"Not nearly!" Phantom appeared to take a deep breath in and before anybody knew what was happening somebody who sounded an awful lot like Sam Manson yelled,

"Everybody, COVER YOUR EARS!!!"

All that could quickly and automatically complied (it was always best, they had learned, when dealing with Phantom to follow shouted orders and not ask too many questions), but Valerie's arms were pinned to her sides almost and she wasn't able to move her hands quickly enough so the huntress was temporarily exposed to the full effect of what came next.

In all of her three years of fighting Phantom and other ghosts, Valerie had never seen or heard anything like it. She'd never realized that Phantom could have that much power, especially when the ghost boy had looked ready to collapse only a moment before. It was terrifying even to think of what he might be capable of when fully rested. The sound itself made her feel like ice water was being dripped into her very soul and she almost cried out even after years of becoming hardened to physical pain. Not only did it hurt, even from behind the ghost, the sound was visible,too. Green rings of sound emanated from Phantom's mouth and expanded outward destroying nearly everything not nailed down in its path. This was going to give her nightmares for weeks with all of the possibilities of what could have happened if Phantom had used this power during one of their fights. Valerie could easily have been killed.

"I don't want to hurt you!" she heard Phantom's voice repeat that phrase over and over again in her memories of a hundred battles. Maybe he had actually been telling the truth… but, no, she automatically squashed that idea. He had destroyed her life in the first place along with her first ghost hunting suit and she wasn't about to forget things like the time that he kidnapped the mayor! Other people may have forgiven him for his past actions but the young huntress wasn't about to do that. She was known for holding grudges for a very long time.

On the other side of the fence Skulker finally was blasted backward under the on slot of Phantom's voice and crashed into a wall, effectively mangling part of his mechanical suit. The ghost boy's voice faded and he pulled around the thermos that was strapped to his back and fired it, vacuuming up Skulker at last with ease. He stood very stiff and straight for a moment before he started to sway back and forth and collapse himself. Out of the corner of her eye Valerie saw someone dressed almost all in black vault the chain-link fence and sprint towards the falling ghost, catching him just before his head could hit the hard, black pavement. His neon green eyes cracked open to look up the girl (Sam, Valerie suddenly realized) who was gently supporting his head. He smiled faintly and gave her a thumbs up before whispering something as his eyes slipped closed once more and then his body went limp. A ring of slightly crackling, white power materialized around Phantom's waist. Valerie raised an eyebrow wondering if this was some new ghost power he had acquired. Then her face drained of all color.

No… it can't be… it's got to be some sort of trick.

The same shocked and confused silence that had descended on the students when Phantom had first appeared out of nowhere and broken a lunch table in half enveloped the on looking crowd of teenagers once more. The unconscious boy lying beaten and bloody in Sam Manson's arms wasn't the famous Danny Phantom any more. Gone was his trademark black and white jumpsuit replaced by all too familiar faded blue jeans, red sneakers, and a white and red t-shirt. His bright white hair darkened to raven black; his unnaturally pale skin took on a more life-like hue. And if his eyes had been open everyone knew that they would have been sky blue instead of neon green.

Valerie felt like she was going to throw up. Oh god….