Author Notes :

Been a busy week for me. Finally a proper intern position, and plunging into Photoshop, 3ds Max and ZBrush really does take your time. And I wanted to write more but... yeaah...

*sean you need to stick to one thing and not going in random directions... your writing is becoming a horrible train wreck*
*psh, I wanna make a 3D comic and made myself some digital boy and girl friends with their awesome equipments so buzz off*

With no further ado, and I will spare you from my rant of totally unrelated stuff to writing and let's jump into the next chapter. (because I write so well ...not)

*I even struggle with spellings because of difference between UK and US english and I'm not native to either... And apparently I'm learning German too so my spelling is whaaaaat?*

Reminder. Danny and the Kats have totally different language system. I don't care how ghosts can understands any language, this Kat world is totally isolated from the entire ghost zone because Bast said so, and the usual ghost tounge just don't click here, yet.

(Danny speech) & Kats speech & I do not own Danny Phantom nor Swat Kats

-(Dies ist ein Zeilenumbruch)-

Chapter 6 : Enstablishing communication

The first thing he realized when he woke up was the smell. That odd pungent smell that reminded him of his dad under the Ghost Assault Vehicle trying to install the next generation Fenton thread strips.

But there aren't any smell of ectoplasm, and that made him frown. Slowly getting up, his eyes caught sight of an old lamp that seemed to have been through an incenerator and back.

His finger flicked the switch, snuffing the offending light away.

"(Still works.)" He murmured, finding his throat scratchy and burned at every syllable he spoke. 'Better not strain that until it heals.' He frowned when he realized that he didn't remember anything about getting a flu or a sore throat.

But then again, he don't remember sleeping in an unknown room filled with the smell of burning engines and... eggs?

Someone must have been cooking. He thought, and caught sight of the pitiful looking door with a hole in the place of the knob. The only thing hiding the content of the room from the outside was a dirty ragged cloth stained with what he presume was oil.

The more he stared at it the more he felt like he should incenerate it before some accident happens by the hands of someone like Jack Fenton, aka, dad.

The sounds of footsteps startled him, and the door swung in.

He couldn't tear his eyes away from the person standing by the doorway.

-(Will ich Esse du)-

Jake grumbled as the last egg cracked against the counter. Throwing the carton right into the bin by the kitchen. Chance had ran away the instant they finished their mourning routine, aka, cleaning after the dump Burke and Murray had gracefully gave to them by dumping an entire truck full of the city latest junk right in front of their workshop, to find Callie in the city.

"He better do the groceries to or the only thing we'll eat will be Chinese take-outs."

The lights flickered for a moment, and Jake tensed before realizing it was just the annoying lamp Chance insisted on keeping. And the tom hid the location of the switch so Jake couldn't come in and turn the room into a void of darkness. "How did he find the switch on that thing? I almost wanted to cut the wire off."

The smell of smoke reminded him that breakfast is almost charcoal. "Oh shit! The ommelete!"

...

– Later

...

The kid just stared at him. Mouth and eyes wide with shock.

Jake checked himself, did he accidentally burned himself and didn't notice it?

No. He's still the same Jake Clawson, he's still his furry self and brown. Still got his eyes, ears and tail.

So why was the kid edging away from him like he had seen a ghost?

"Hi..." Jake started, his hand making a half-attempt of a wave. The boy were glued to the wall by his back, his wide sapphire blue eyes still staring at the approaching kat. "Uh... so... I'll just... put this here."

Jake slowly pulled a small counter table by the bed, placing the tray of breakfast on it. "So...Breakfast!" He announced, but quickly quieted himself when the boy flinched.

Feeling awkward, Jake slowly backed towards the door. The boy's eyes following him, unblinking.

"I'll... see you later." Jake sputtered, closing the door as quickly as possible.

"Damn, I underestimated him." He released his breath he didn't know was holding. Flattening himself by the wall. "It feel like he was going to eat me or something." And he almost ripped him apart last night too.

Jake shook his head at the terrifying thought, that behaviour of a wild animal is not a normal thing inside a kid. And it pains him to think that the boy might be an experimental weapon of some sort. With that set of skill, even while uncoordinated and half-concious, is still dangerous.

I hope we don't end up killing him. Jake thought solemly as he decended the stairs.

-(WEISO?!)-

A cat. A talking cat. An antromorphic, bipedal, brown, talking cat just walked in and gave him something!

He poked the yellowish substance, expexting the pile to explode in his face. But it just gave a soft squish, and cracks at the blackened edges.

It was just a normal omelette disaster.

He poked again.

Huh. No ectoplasm in it either.

Anyway!

The brown talking cat!

"(Okay, before I go full blown panic mode one lets state the obvious.)" He muttered, trying not to freak out. He turned himself towards the wall, placing his forehead onto it as he counted to ten. A technique he adopted from Jazz when their parents decided on an outrageous idea and Jazz was on the verge of attempting murder.

"(One, I'm sleeping on a bed which probably owned by someone like that cat. And these pictures stapled to the wall are probably the real thing. Two, the fact that the guy... he's a guy right? Wasn't alarmed when he see me...)" As he were pulling his fingers, he realized that his nails were longer than usual. In fact, it was taking an almost clawed shape while still maintaining his human fingers.

And there where he saw movement in the morning shadow of him on the wall.

"(Wha...?)" He could see a vague shape of himself on that wall, but something was twitching on top of his head and there was this long... thing moving by his back.

With dread Danny slowly turned, and he was greeted with the sight of a furry ebony tail that was fused to the end of his spine!

"(I'm a cat?!)" He shouted in shock, gripping the appendenge in his hand. He had known how it felt having extra heads, or arms in his attempts of trying duplication, but they didn't felt like this. The duplicates always feel, hazy. He knows it's there, but at the same time, it wasn't there. This, this is like holding one of your own arms or legs.

And it goddamn hurt! Danny released the tail when the pain overwhelmed him. It felt like he was poking a fresh wound, in his whole tail. And by grabbing it just made the pain came in ten-fold. A brief squint of his eyes confirmed that the skin around that appendages are a little inflamed, and it took his entire consience to not scratch at itchiness that came right after the pain.

"(Of course, he wasn't alarmed because I wasn't entirely human. Thanks to these.)" He lightly touched his ears, winching when the pain flared.

Munch. Munch.

"(Great. Now I'm hearing sounds. Maybe I should just eat the food he gave me.)" He picked up the spork by the counter, "(It's not like he would poison me just like Vlad woul...)"

(SQUISH)

Danny slowly glanced towards his plate, wondering what was that horrible squelch was.

A small yellow blob stared at him with beady eyes, already munching half of the omelette. It screeched pitifully at him, probably demanding to be released from the wrath of his mighty spork.

Danny just stared at the blob. Not knowing what to do. "What the heck are you?" Danny muttered. It looked like a typical ghost blob, but he didn't feel his ghost sense. Well, probably he was coughing once and a while and it he probably didn't realized his sense went off. But the thing on his spork...

Realizing that the halfa wasn't going to do anything the blob hunched.

And another set of mouth opened from it's back, filled with jagged teeth. The mouth suddenly jumped from it's body and went towards the halfa. Startled, Danny quickly threw the spork towards the wall before the blob fully detached it's parts and bit him.

-(Danny ist eine Halb Geist)-

Jake mentally kicked himself for not paying attention, how could he left an unknown kid all by himself? And how could he miss that explosion that made a giant hole by Chance wall?!

He carefully cradled the groaning boy up from the mess, noting that he looked more exhausted than he was yesterday. The kid looked confused as he stard at his hands. Are they smoking...? Jake was't sure, but they are trembling and pale.

"What attacked ya kid?" Jake asked, slowly walking towards the destroyed wall. Most of the mess were outside, so the explosion must have happened from the inside. The boy just kept silent, and Jake repeated. "Hey kid, do you know what attacked ya?"

The boy turned towards him, but his face still held the same expression. "(I don't know what happened)..." He looked towards the hole in the wall, his face filled with guilt. "(I'm sorry.)"

Jake blinked. Was he apologising?

"...(What's wrong with me?)..." He spoke again in that odd tounge, not paying attention to any of the questions. And Jake realised.

"Crud. I'm gonna need a dictionary."

The boy just gave him a "(Huh?)"

"Nothing." Jake sighed, what will he tell Chance of this? The tom will have a flip when he came back. "Looks like you will be resting downstairs from now until someone fixes this wall." The boy burrowed himself further into his jacket, trying to hide his face from Jake's accusing eyes.

"Danny." He murmured. Jake wondered what the boy was saying for a while. "(My name) ...Danny."

Oh. So his name's Danny. Jake laughed at the pouting face, quieting when Danny gave a half-hearted growl.

"Jake."