Sorry! I know I kind of promised at the end of the previous SAtR chapter that this was coming out soon, but that was roughly the end of my semester, and a lot of crazy has happened since then, But I hope you enjoy this chapter

Once again, I do not own either Bleach or Danny Phantom,

(~)

Chapter 4: Black Cats Are Unlucky for a Reason

"so," Tucker said, slurping his Nasty shake while lazily tapping at his gamepad, splitting his attention between the game and the conversation,

"you guys are cool then?"

Danny gave an echoing sigh as he sat in the chair next to his friend, equally giving a halfhearted effort at the game,

"as cool as I think we'll get yea,"

It had been a couple days since his talk with Ichigo and Rukia, and so far, their relationship could probably be summed up as 'acknowledgment'. They knew that each other had powers, but were not hostile, but that was about as close as their comradery went, which to be fair was a whole lot better than the rest of the school. Apparently the thugs he knocked down were well known in the school, or at least, were loud enough for people to know about them, and taking them down single-handedly apparently had him garner a reputation. Now most of the school avoided him, all except one or two girls who seemed to follow him around building, but for what reason he couldn't tell. The only other people that would talk to him were a couple Ichigo's friends, although for different reasons.

Keigo was his most frequent company, followed closely by Mizuiro, both (despite the latter's ability to hide it) trying to learn more about his sister, who also apparently gained a reputation for her mind, and her looks. Then there were those two girls, Orihime and Tatsuki, the former who had apparently seen his fight with the thugs, and wanted to know where he got his skills. A quick excuse of martial arts training from his mother satisfy her curiosity, for now, he did notice her keeping a close eye on his movements. The other, Orihime, seemed to welcome him with open arms, animatedly and politely talking with him whenever they met, but Danny could feel her nerves fray just a touch when he got close, same for Tatsuki. It made sense, while they might not be aware of it, Danny could sense that they had both developed a fairly high spiritual pressure, even if Orihime's seemed a few steps above her friend. As for the other two, Chad and Chizuru, Chad seemed friendly enough, but kept his distance, which given his own developing abilities made sense.

As for Chizuru, Danny only had to see her once to know he didn't want anything to do with her, if only to stop any potential contact she might have with Jazz.

And so the next few days passed without any real incident, his parents finished up the lab and he sensed Ichigo taking down a few hollows, but nothing really worth mentioning … except …

Danny buried another sigh by taking a sip of the soda next to him before he turned his attention back to the game. He was sitting in a giant recliner and playing video games with his friends in Sam's basement while her parents where away on business. Sam had gotten up to refill her drink at the snack bar to the side of the room, she was wearing a black, long sleeved t-shirt with a large purple spider in the middle, and a knee long black skirt with purple leggings. On her feet she wore her usual combat boots, an around her wrist was a black band with a bright icy crystal set atop, made by Danny as a birthday gift. She had begun growing out her hair, having it loose and down, keeping some it to cover one of her eyes which she had put on a light amount of her gothic make-up. Her ears were pierced, each holding the image of a purple rose wrapped in black vines, which served a perfect disguise for their true function.

One very important law in the ghost zone was the law of conquest, when a ghost becomes sufficiently powerful, their power manifests as what was known as an authority. For example, a ghost with the elemental power of fire would gain an authority of fire, so long as they became powerful enough. Ghosts of this level were known as elder ghosts, beings that embodied the concept that created them to such a degree to have a rule and claim over it. The interesting thing was, if someone, anyone, be it ghost, human, soul reaper, whatever, were to slay an elder ghost, that person would gain that authority. SO if someone were to kill that ghost of fire, said person would gain their authority over fire. In Danny's time as Amity's protector, he had meet many ghosts, most of whom he could just catch at send back into the zone, but on occasion, there were ghosts dangerous enough that he had no choice but to kill, and three of those just so happened to be elder ghosts. One of them was Undergrowth, after killing him and saving the town, Danny received the authority over plant life, to do with as he saw fit. So he decided to give it to Sam because, one, he had no real use for it, two, by giving Sam the power that originally controlled her, it prevented her from being manipulated twice, and thee, he knew she'd love it. The earrings acted as a channeling device, allowing her to control what would normally be a power for ghosts. He had originally planned to make a ring for her, a sort of green lantern kind of thing, but one engagement joke out of Tucker changed his mind, and got Tucker a nice lump on the head.

Sitting in the chair next to Danny was Tucker, wearing a yellow, open zip up hoodie and a "the cake is a lie" black meme shirt underneath. He wore tan cargo pants and tan leather, lace less boots. He still had his red beret and half-circle black rim glasses as the sounds of clattering plastic and electronics sounded from his pockets as he moved. Tucker had never really developed any spiritual powers, instead, he did what he did best, and became an expert on Fenton tech, making and improving his parents work as he, unlike his parents, did know about the relationship between ectoplasm and reshi.

Standing next to Danny's chair was Valarie, wearing a red collared shirt, with the top buttons undone, revealing a white shirt underneath. She wore thin jeans the reached just below her knees, with short white socks and blue jean canvas shoes. Her Hair was still the same, long and curly, with a red headband a top her head and small red, triangle earrings. Around her wrist was a black metal band with a red input screen on top, used to call her power suit whenever she needed. After fight with Pariah, Tucker took it upon himself to debug and re-program the suit for her, seeing how Vlad's work so closely resembled his parents, making the suit truly hers and hers alone, a point she made very firm when she started fighting with the team. At first, she had been worried that Vlad would attempt retribution, seeing as Axion labs was still owned by Vlad, but so far, he hadn't even acknowledged her betrayal, And Danny had no idea why. Mabey he didn't see Valerie as much of a potential asset or threat, so her departure was not that great a loss, Mabey he had planned for this and has some greater scheme in mind, who knows? But for now, as far as Valerie was concerned, Vlad let her do as she wished.

She was currently eyeing Danny, his silenced sigh apparently pickup in his body language,

"So what's the problem?"

He paused the game, turning to look at his friends as Sam came up next to Valerie,

"first on the list would probably be the cat that is so obviously not a cat that's been spying on me,"

He gave an annoyed huff, that cat had been spying on him all week, watching him for a half-hour at most one or two times a day. Despite being able to catch the scent of the cat's spiritual pressure with his wolves, Danny couldn't tell what exactly it was, which either meant that it was either too weak to catch wind of (which he seriously doubted, if it was that weak it would be nowhere near smart enough to spy on him at such regular intervolves.) or it was skilled enough to suppress its abilities. Whatever it was, it hadn't done anything yet, so best let sleeping dogs … well, cats lie … for now.

Valerie crossed her arms "you sure it's not just Amorpho screwing with you again?"

Danny shook his head "Nope, whatever this thing is, it's not a ghost, if it were, it couldn't possibly hide its scent form my wolves, besides, Dani told me she ran into Amorpho heckling some people in Argon last time she visited Dora's"

She told him this herself last time she came to the keep. His "cousin" always being the free spirit, used Danny's keep as a rest stop for a few days when she needed to take a breath on her travels before taking off to wherever she wanted. Her travels reached even further when Danny taught her how to open her own portals in and out of the zone, a trick he learned when he got his friend Wulf out of Walker's stockades.

Sam took a quick sip of her refilled drink before speaking,

"then what's number two of your weekly paranoia problems?"

He shot her a look that to others would look fairly menacing, with the inhuman eyes and naturally scowling physical features of his ghost form, but to Sam it was just an annoyed pout, which caused her to smirk.

He let up with a small defeated sigh as he brought an armored gloved hand to one side of his face,

"Number two would be the class Quincy who has clear issues with soul reapers,"

Rukia probably didn't pick up on it with her diminished powers, and Ichigo certainly didn't have the skill to detect it, but Danny could feel waves of anger poring off of Ishida. He kept his powers subdued, but Danny saw just a few times when both Rukia and Ichigo had their backs turned, Ishida would send an angry glare from the corner of his eyes.

Tucker gave a loud swallow, hiving used this pause as an excuse to stuff his face, "I get why he doesn't like soul reapers, but what about you? You're not a soul reaper, but your like, kind of like one right?"

"Technically, but even if he would have a problem, my duplicate is to low powered for him to pick up on the similarities at a distance, I probably look like a spiritually aware kid to him."

Valerie ask "so what, you think this guy's going to do something dangerous?"

Danny turned his head forward as he brought his hand to his chin, "More like something stupid, he may be the smartest kid in class, but pride can make even the most intelligent people do stupid stuff."

He brought his hand from his chin and rubbed his temple, he had hopped Ishida had either enough rationality to at least talk to Ichigo and Rukia, or at the very least enough self-control not to try anything. But Ishida's actions in the last couple of days seemed to dash those hopes, Danny could sense him going out every night and hunt down hollows, specifically the ones Ichigo and Rukia went after, each kill getting more and more ferocious. It was troubling, but Danny hadn't done anything about it because for one thing, Ishida seemed to have learned from his ancestor's mistakes and intentionally purified the hollows instead of flat out destroying them. The other reason being that while he was concerned, there really wasn't much he could do about it at the moment, it wasn't like he had the power to tell Ishida to stop being angry.

So, for now, he'd just have to do what he always did, and wait for things to blow up in their collective faces, a tactic he hated for the stress it caused him, and the sheer frequency he used it.

"START!"

His mopping was interrupted by the sound of the game being unpaused as Tucker made mad rapid button presses on his gamepad, apparently he used Danny's distraction to reach over and unpause the game.

Danny quickly grabbed his own control, trying desperately to make up for his opening,

"DUDE!"

"sorry man, but I'm playing to win, I've already lost to Sam too much tonight!"

"Me too, but you don't see me cheating!"

The girls laughed as the boys got wrapped up in their game

(~)

A loud Sigh broke the quite of the night as Danny shook his head,

"I wish I could say I'm disappointed in him, if a.) I actually knew him and b.) if I couldn't see this coming a mile away."

It had been a few hours since his ghost form returned to the keep, and it was getting fairly late in Karakura, not that the time of night bothered him, besides, he had other things to worry about. He could feel Ishida begin to hone in on Ichigo and Rukia with each stolen hunt, getting closer each time. Danny knew it would be only a matter of time before there was a confrontation, and judging by how agitated Ishida's power felt tonight, it wouldn't be long. So, he decided to follow them tonight, keeping to a safe distance and in the shadows, staying hidden while focusing his powers to enhance his senses to see and hear what was going on.

Sure enough, Ishida came and all but declared war on Ichigo, before eliminating the hollow and walking away. He soon approached Danny's location, being well out of sight and ear shot of both the reapers, walking down the street in front of a small ally where Danny hid. Ishida passed the ally, but stopped a few feet past the entrance,

"I don't know who you are, but you better show yourself, before a shot you down."

Danny stood and gave a silent scoff; a bluff, Ishida might have picked up on his trail, but he had no Idea where Danny was, because that was what Danny wanted. He leaked just enough pressure into the air for Ishida to pick up on, but not pinpoint, because he had a few things to say to the Quincy.

Danny put his hand in his pockets, schooled his features into a neutral frown, and stepped out of the shadows and into the light of a nearby streetlight. Ishida fully turned to him, his arms at his sides and keeping a defensive stance. He gave a quick glance to Danny's profile,

"you're the American transfer student, Daniel Fenton."

Ishida didn't seem too surprised, only quirking an eyebrow as Danny gave a small twitch at his full first name,

"please, it's just Danny, I'm surprised you know me."

Ishida brought his hand up to readjust his glasses, the light of the moon reflected off his glasses and hid his eyes,

"of course I do, your nationality aside, you scored an impressive 29th in our year, although that pales in comparison to your sister, who dashed all of our previous school records."

Danny's cool domineer cracked as he gave a silent groan for a split second, thinking back to Keigo's outcry of him being a nerd and being embarrassed by associating with him. That alone would be tolerable if not his and Mizuiro's wild reaction to finding his sister's top score, which prompted them to fantasize a study session with her. Of course that stopped when a cold wind flew through the hallway and Danny gave a stern glare.

As quick as the drop in his mood came, a small smirk graced his mouth,

"Thanks, but I really owe my score to Jazz, she's an excellent teacher,"

His smirk dropped as he gave a neutral frown,

"but we both know my test scores aren't where you know me from."

Ishida's hand dropped from his glasses as he returned a cold look of his own,

"very astute, you seem to have some skill, unlike our orange haired substitute. I can see why you could deal with those two hollows your first day."

He looked at Danny intensely, looking for any sign of surprise, but Danny hadn't even flinched, He figured Ishida had picked up on his fights, Danny could tell by his spiritual pressure that Ishida had some level of training.

"the question is how, I did some digging after that day, your parents do some truly fascinating work with ghosts, I assume it was their research that brought about you and your sister's awareness?"

Danny closed his eyes as he gave an amused snort,

"Something like that yea, although they never developed any awareness themselves, they wear protective gear 24/7"

Danny opened his eyes, Ishida hadn't moved an inch, still standing ready for any provocation.

"I figured as much, there isn't a picture of them without their suits. My question still stands; a greater spiritual awareness could help you deal with hollows, but it wouldn't give you your skills in sensing spiritual pressure,"

Ishida's cold look dropped into a stern glare,

"so where did you learn that?"

Ishida's glare was impressive, but had little effect on Danny, he'd seen nightmarish beasts from the ghost zone give pleasant smiles more threatening than Ishida's look, although both could hardly compare to an angry Sam or Valerie.

"I could ask you the same question, it can't be easy to find a teacher for a Quincy in this day and age."

Ishida's eyes widened for a spilt second before his face fell into another glare, albeit one far angrier.

"How do you know about Quincy's?"

Danny looked him right in the eye, his face as neutral as he could muster,

"you have your resources, I have mine."

They stayed silent for a while, Danny staying as stoic as possible while Ishida's glare lessoned in anger, but not in intensity.

"… I assume you saw everything, so … are you here to stop my fight with the soul reapers?"

"… no, Ichigo's a big boy, he can deal with his own fights. It's not my problem, nor my place to step in for him."

Ishida's eyebrow quirked as his glare gained an inquisitive quality,

"then why are you here?"

Danny's neutral expression morphed into an intense gaze, not so much hostile, but firm.

"to warn you, your fight with Ichigo might not be my problem for now, but if you do something dangerous that could harm innocent people, then it WILL be my problem."

He paused for a second to let his words sink in,

"I don't intend to interfere, but if you do something that could endanger anyone, living or dead, then I will step in."

Silence passed again before Ishida's stance loosened, he still stood ready, but only to defend against any possible attack.

"Understood, rest assured, I have no intention of harming anyone else besides the soul reapers."

Danny gave him one last glance before walking past Ishida in the direction of his house.

"Then I'll see you later."

He made it a few feet away before Ishida yelled out, not even turning around to look at him.

"wait! You still haven't answered my question, what are you?"

Danny stopped walking, not even turning around as he gave his response,

"complicated."

He began to walk again, and after a few seconds he heard Ishida's steps behind him as they both went their separate ways.

(~)

It was such a good day, the sun was shining, the kids were playing in the parks, it was the kind of afternoon that was perfect for someone to forget their troubles. And it was exactly because it was such a peaceful afternoon that Jazz was so annoyed with her paranoid little brother.

She and Danny where on their way home from school, and her brother was visibly tense, his shoulder stiff, walking in line with her, shifting his gaze around him, like he expected a threat to pop out of thin air at any moment. What was worse was his attitude, he hadn't really spoken to anyone besides her, but anyone that pasted got a fierce look from Danny, which usually made them move by as fast as possible.

Jazz gave a small pout at her brother's behavior, when their parents told her that they'd be moving to Japan, she had reasoned that the move would be good for Danny. Amity might have been their home town for years, but it was also the prime location for most of Danny's battles, the city might be far safer now, but it still held far more associative negatives for Danny than was strictly healthy. Moving did limit his interaction with Danny's friends, who were a major support for him, but with his abilities, the move wouldn't hardly harm Danny's connection to them.

But now here he was, halfway across the earth and he was still walking on eggshells; in hindsight, Jazz realized it was obvious that what Danny needed wasn't a change in environment, but mentality. For three years, Danny had grown accustomed to being on the receiving end of whatever crisis came up, be it Vlad's schemes, ghost zone politics, and vicious hollows, Danny was too use to staying on guard. It wasn't healthy, even he had known it wasn't healthy, but old habits were hard to kick, not without help, and who better than her to beat some sense in her brother.

It was when Danny gave a rather scalding glare to scare off a well-dressed man that seemed to share Vlad's taste in dress that Jazz finally put her foot down, stopping dead in her tracks and folding her arms, giving him a firm look. When Danny noticed she had stopped, he turned around to look at her and winced before giving a loud sigh,

"don't say it Jazz I know,"

She raised an eyebrow, "oh do you? Then why do you look ready to bite someone's head off?"

Danny gave a nervous chuckle before turning his head to the right, they had stopped on top of a traffic overpass, and Danny looked out onto the sprawling town.

"Look its …"

"it is because he can feel it."

Danny made a swift leap to stand Just in front of her, giving a small crouch, Jazz turned her head just enough to see a fierce stare on his face, probably to the source of that strange voice. It was smooth, sounding like a deep male pitch, but she couldn't tell where it came from, the only thing across from them was a black cat. Jazz looked at her brother's face again and followed his eyes to try and find the owner of the voice, but his gaze was firmly on the cat. Confused, she was about to ask Danny what he was doing when she got quite the shock as the cat opened its mouth and spoke as it walked towards them.

"like an animal before an earthquake, you can feel the tremors building, can't your boy?"

The cat stopped a few meters away and sat in front of them,

"you can hear them clawing at the boarder can't you? Ready to burst free and unleash terror on this town, they are waiting."

Danny tensed as his right hand clenched into a fist,

"for what?"

The Cat looked them both straight in the eye, "for a very smart, and very proud boy to do something very foolish."

Danny gave a quick gasp, his body gave a quick twitch, and Jazz make a quick peak to his face, but there was no visible blue vapor coming from his mouth, so it wasn't his ghost sense.

"he wouldn't …"

Before Danny could elaborate, a small sound of something snapping came to ear as things seemed to go eerily quiet for a few seconds. Then the silence was broken, by the unmistakable sound of a hollow's roar. Jazz tensed, shifting to stand a little more behind Danny, she was no coward, and she wasn't just going to be a burden on her brother, but hollows were relentless, it was better to be safe than over-confident. Besides, she had learned that Danny would worry regardless of wither or not she could handle the situation, so she did this more as a sign of support than anything else.

But her confidence in what support she could give weaned as more and more Hollow's roared in the distance, and she could feel goosebumps crawl up her skin as even she could feel the building swarm. Then a ripping noise, like tearing fabric sounded out and She and Danny turned to the sky as a twisting black scare started to form.

"Damn! That idiot!"

Danny gave a silent curse as he closed his eyes a gave a calming breath, probably giving a search of the area. A few seconds passed, and Jazz tried to stay patient, but the random screams of hollows frayed her nerves,

"so, how bad is it?"

Danny stayed silent for a few seconds before responding, "depends, Ichigo is out and about taking down the small fry he comes across, looks like he's heading to his sister's school, but Yuzu's already home and Karin seems to being playing with her friends."

He turned his head in where Jazz could only assume was the young kurosaki's location,

"Nothing's heading her way yet, but somethings defiantly heading for Chad, Orihime too."

Danny tensed, Jazz remembered those names, she sometimes saw them with Danny when she went to walk with him at the gate of the school. She had seen others from the classroom as well, but the two of them being the most prominent in her mind, as Chad was hard to miss and Orihime had a hair color to rival her own.

"You needn't worry about those two, an associate of mine has been keeping an eye on them ever since their awareness began to grow, and a trial like this will be more than enough for them to tap into their potential."

The talking cat, ironically enough, brought Danny back to reality as he gave a guarded turn to their furry guest.

"and why should we trust what you say?"

The cat gave a small chuckle, "I guess it would be hard to just suddenly trust a talking cat."

Jazz could see enough of the side of her brothers face to tell he had raised an eyebrow, mostly likely incredulously,

"especially one that's been stalking me be for the past couple of days."

The cat gave an amused, but polite snort "in deed, but rest assured, I have no intentions of making an enemy of you, lord phantom"

Jazz's eyes shot wide as she gave a step closer to her brother, but Danny hardly moved, keeping his face firm, trying to show no outwards signs of shock. But Jazz knew her brother, she could tell by the look in his eyes that he was internally panicking, at least at first before doing everything in his power to keep from showing it.

"hmm, you don't seem all too surprised that I know that name."

Jazz had to force herself not to narrow her eyes at the cat, it was by a tone more amused to actually be honest, and Jazz hoped she was wrong and this cat couldn't see through her brother's act.

"not really, ghosts are the worst gossipers, worst then high school girls, if you can believe it."

Danny's voice hadn't faltered at all, keeping the same tone as before, and he seemed to keep his cool if he can fall back on his usual defense mechanism, "witty" quips.

The cat gave a few chuckles, "oh I could believe that, that kind spirit who I talked to seem quite … chatty, going on and on about how he'd rule us all with his, and I quote, 'cardboard containers of doom.'"

The resound clap of two slaps and groans accompanied that comment, as both Jazz and her brother had a hand on their forehead. While the barrier kept most ghost from entering the world now, some of the craftier or lucky found ways to slip through, that is unless you're the box ghost, who instead of being either, seemed to have the power to slip between the realms. A fact that Danny and Jazz found soon after Danny put up the barrier, and the box ghost figured out he was one of the very few who could get out, which is when he started to "invade" the "helpless" city of Amity. Of course at that point, everyone had gotten use to his antics, and barring that one incident with Pandora's box, knew he wasn't a threat, so they just generally ignored him. Even the ghost hunters, from the GiW to their own parents lost interest in caching him, seeing it as a waste of time and effort. Danny would still, on occasion throw him back into the ghost zone, but he really only did that to stave off boredom. Of course now he might just try and keep him in the zone, if he was passing on important info to strange talking cats,

Danny gave a load sigh and a small whisper, "mental note, kick box ghost's ass next time I see him."

"language Danny," she reprimanded, but it was hardly heartfelt as she ended with a sigh of her own. Another hollow roar in the distance brought them back to the situation at hand, as both she and Danny turned their heads of the side of the overpass to the distance.

"so…" The cat said, drawing both Danny and her attention, "What are you going to do? Will you go out and help your friends?"

Danny was silent for a moment, still standing still in his defensive crouch as he eyed the cat. Soon enough however, he rose from his crouch and closed his eyes, tilting his head ever so slightly over his shoulder before turning back to the cat and opening his eyes.

"No, you're right, I'm not needed with Chad and Orihime, and while I'd like to give Ishida a piece of my mind right now, he and Ichigo have thing handled for now, besides…"

Danny gave another look over his shoulder, "… I think something's trying to sneak in."

"So you feel it too, it's probably trying to hide its spiritual pressure and use the others as a distraction."

Danny turned back to the cat and gave a quick nod, "yea, and this isn't some typical small fry, probably an Adjuchas."

Jazz gave a silent nervous gulp, Danny had talked about the Menos before, clockwork would send him out to take out a few of the weaker ones that would accidentally slip through to the zone. Apparently they ranked among the strongest of the hollows, and given that the normal hollows were giant, tough skinned monsters, that was a scary thought.

The cat addressed them, "yes, I figured as much, I was planning or going out and taking it out, but if you want, I could escort your sister back home while you deal with it."

Danny started to ben his knees slightly, looking like he was about to drop into his defensive stance again "and I suppose you could, seeing as you know EXACTLY where we live."

His tone was neutral but firm, the accusation plain as day, yet Jazz could see his head tilt slightly back over his shoulder again. She could see the conflict in her brother, he wanted to go and deal with that hollow, probably get answers as to what it was planning, but he didn't want to leave her alone with this cat. She bit her lip, she wasn't exactly ready to trust this cat, but there was no way she'd let herself hold her brother back, guess it was time for a leap of faith. With a sigh she moved up and put a hand on her brother's shoulder,

"Danny, just go and deal with this hollow, I'll head home and put up the ghost shield for protection k?"

Danny turned to her then back to the cat, he stayed in his tense position until finally relenting and giving her a worried glance as she dropped her hand,

"are you sure?"

Giving a quick glance at the cat herself, Jazz gave him a nod "yes, I'm sure, just try to be careful, ok?"

Danny gave her a long look before giving a loud sigh, "ok, you stay safe to."

She gave a nod as he gave one last glance at the cat, "if you hurt one hair on her head …"

The cat's chuckle interrupted him "quite the doting brother, I pity your future daughter's love interests."

'say that to Youngblood,' Jazz gave a roll of her eyes as she thought of the last time Danny caught the child ghost talking with Danielle.

"rest assured, I'll have her safe in home before you know it."

Danny gave a hard look as he stared at the cat for a second, "after this, I'd like a word with this 'associate' of yours after this is all done."

"not a problem, I'm sure he'd be delighted to talk."

Danny kept his stare for another few seconds before turning to Jazz and disappearing in a white light and the sound of static.

"well then, come along and let's get you home, I'd hate to have Pariah's Bane after my tail."

Jazz Jogged up and followed the cat, noting that its tone sounded more amused than worried about Danny's potential anger.

As they walked, Jazz spoke up "I'm sorry to ask so late, but I don't think we ever got your name."

The cat turned its head ever so slightly and, Jazz could be wrong but seemed to be giving her a smirk, "I suppose I should tell you, call me Yoruichi."

(~)

Channeling power from his other self in the ghost zone and using Gradu, Danny rushed through the forest on the outskirts of Karakura. It had been some time since Danny channeled this much power in his human form, but given that his opponent was a Menos, he couldn't afford to be discreet. Flashing from branch to branch of the tree tops, Danny made one parting glance to make a quick scan for his sister spiritual pressure, he was far from comfortable about leaving Jazz like that, but he couldn't just let this thing slip into town.

The Adjuches weren't just leagues more powerful than the normal grunts, they were far more intelligent, left alone, this guy could do some serious damage, even if this thing was working alone, which given the current invasion, Danny seriously doubted. An invasion happening so soon after Ichigo unlocks his powers and right as a Quincy makes his move against him? Not likely a coincidence, after years of dealing with Vlad's schemes and training with the master of time, Danny and thrown out hope that anything was just mere coincidence.

This whole thing made his "manipulative ass plotting things behind the scenes" sense scream.

Soon, Danny jumped from the branches and into a small clearing, a small dirt road moving past an opening in the tree line as an old wooden bench sat across an even older looking shrine along the path. Walking along the road for a second until coming to a stop just past the bench Danny stood and waited.

After a second he spoke up, "well, you going to come out, or am I goanna have to pull you out?"

A small breeze seemed to be his only response before a high-pitched, genderless and inhuman laugh came from the wind, giving no clear direction to its source.

"Hehehehehe, eager to die are we?"

Suddenly a dark hole opened in the air before Danny, as the hollow stepped forward to the unflinching boy. The creature was taller than the tree line and had a humanoid, torso, arms and legs, but were pencil thin despite having a defined musculature, and gray skin with its hole at the navel. Instead of feet, the hollows legs came to a thin sharp point that seemed not to impede its balance. It had mostly normal, albeit large hands, with the fingers ending in long pointed claws. Its neck was long and skinny, coming up a few feet to its head. Its mask curved out and down its face, creating a crest moonlike shape out of most of its face, save the top that instead of curling down, angled to a long sharp point several feet above its relatively small head.

It walked forward, claws out but poster straight with its head cocked to the side, the mask giving the creature a creep, tooth filled grin.

"greetings, snack, my names Punto, I have no idea how you were able to find me, but it doesn't matter."

the hollow brought its right hand to its mouth and licked its bladed fingers,

"I have orders to remain unknown to the soul reapers, so it looks like I'll have to dice you up and eat you, no hard feelings, hehehe."

The hollow's form blurred as it shot at incredible speeds towards Danny, as his eyes hardened and he used Gradu to dodge as the creature swung down its bladed hands to form five long gouges in the ground from where Danny was standing. Danny stood guarded a few meters away as Punto turned its head to face him, the red orbs of its eyes widening into full circles,

"you, that technique was similar to a soul reaper's flash step, but different, and that sickening smell of your energy, its smells like … your clearly no ordinary human, but what are you?"

Its red eyes narrowed into an inquisitive glare, turning fully to him and raising its hands in an obviously threating manner. Danny, however, merely smirked,

"If I had a nickel every time I heard that question, for guys like you, just call me pest control."

Punto's expression changed as eyes took on an annoyed look,

"hm, no matter, I still have my mission, and you're in the way, meaning you won't be around long enough to matter. Though now that I've gotten a better smell of your power, I think I'll pass on gobbling you up."

Danny lifted one incredulous eyebrow and deadpanned, "why thank you good sir for that mercy,"

Before his smirk returned, "but care to share more about that mission of yours, like for starters, who sent you?"

He leveled a fist to Punto, "I'd like to get the scope from the horse's mouth before I beat it out of him first."

The eyes of the hollow curved to accent the sickening grin of its mask, "why should I tell you? after all…"

Punto's image burled again and came behind Danny, its arm raised,

"YOUR GOING TO DIE ANYWAY!"

As fast as possible, the hollow swept down with his arm, intent on cutting through his opponent. But before they could touch him, Danny spun around, pulled out his blade from his chest, held the hilt in both hands with his knees bent, and braced for the blow. Blade and claw met with a loud clang of metal, as the force of the blow created a shockwave that left a fair sized crater were Danny stood, though Danny himself was not harmed.

"what!?"

The monsters red eyes shot wide again as he shouted in surprise, giving Danny a chance to push back its hand a make a slash towards its mask, unfortunately, the hollow regained its senses in time and quickly leapt back before Danny could even touch him. As Punto landed, his surprise melted into rage as a soft growl emanated from the mask's mouth.

"You! where did that blade come from?! What the hell are you?!"

Lifting his blade with both hands forward and taking a crouched stance, Danny replied with a smirk,

"Already told you, pest control."

Punto gave an angered snarl, "you're the only pest here brat! I don't know what you are, but I'm not letting you stop me from my mission!"

The hollow lunged again as Danny flashed out of the way, taking a swipe at the hollow, who in turn also moved to dodge. For several minutes they traded blows, blocking and striking at the other when they could, but neither could land a hit. They seemed evenly matched at first, but as time went on, Danny started to slow down, sweat accumulating on his brow as his breath came out into shorter rasps.

After a few minutes of the clash, Danny had managed to push his attacker back several meters. The hollows eyes regained his manic amusement as looked at Danny's condition, he was getting short of breath, and his decreasing speed had cost him a few scratches, nothing he couldn't recover with a little concentration, but it made it clear he who had the advantage here.

"Guess this is as far as I can go in human form, at least without drawing out more from my other self."

He needed to end this, from what he could feel, another Menos was poised to punch through the rip Uryu had formed, but as it stood now, he didn't have enough power like this to finish off his opponent easily.

Standing from his crouched stand, Danny gave a loud sigh,

Didn't want to use this if I could, but I don't have a lot of options outside of going ghost.

Danny lifted his sword horizontally in one hand and faced the flat of the blade forward. The hollow lifted on eyelid in curiosity, "now what are you doing?"

Danny didn't respond as he brought his other hand and placed his open palm on the forward face of the sword, close to the hilt. His voice coming out into a soft echo

"dentes tui testimonium, rex rapaces." – (bear your fangs, king of wolves)

The blade gave a flash of green light before giving a blast of smoke covered Danny's form as a new wave of spiritual pressure beared down on the hollow, surprising Punto, but not over powering him.

Soon, the smoke around Danny cleared as he came into view, however, no longer holding the same blade.

In fact, there was not actual blade to see,

In Danny's hand looked like the hilt of a thin, double bladed sword, make of black metal and covered in neat black leather strips and accented in white strips. It was roughly a foot and a half long with cut in the leather mid-way where a double sword might disconnect into two separate blades. The hilts two ends, however, had no blades, but two identical black metal wolf heads pieces coming out around 2 and a half inches out.

Punto began to give a crazed giggle,

"heheheh! And here I was starting to get a little worried! Granted I didn't expect that weird blade of yours to have a release form, but if that's the result, you were better off keeping it sealed!"

The hollow lowered into a low crouch with his hands out, poised to strike at what he thought was a defenseless opponent, but instead of panicking, Danny smirked and twisted the hilt apart into two separate hilts.

"you think so huh? Well, let's see about that."

Punto leapt forward, his speed quicker than what a normal human could see, but Danny stood still, his head tilted slightly so only his smirk was visible to the hollow. Just as Punto made a sharp horizontal slash, Danny vanished from his sight.

Wide eyed, Punto skid to a halt as he franticly looked around, losing all sight of Danny, desperately trying to figure out where his opponent had gone.

Dam! he's faster than I thought, useless or not, that was a sword release, but it doesn't matter how fast he is, he can't hurt me with those sticks of his.

"looking for me?"

Punto spun around and found Danny standing with his back facing the hollow, his arms were held outward as he griped the two hilts, which held a significant change. The mouths of both the ornate Wolf heads had opened, and from their maws burst two long, thin, streams of energy, with the right being green and the left white, the two glowing and giving a low hum of power.

"T-those blades?! HOW?! I …"

Punto's words came short as a sudden cough of blood surprised him, but Danny didn't move, showing no surprise

"I'd tell you, but I think you had the right idea back there…"

As if on cue, a burst of blood came from a thing cross mark across Punto's chest, coming down his shoulders and to the flanks of his abdomen, before his chest separated into 4 evenly cut parts. Danny lowered his blades before he turned around and watch as Punto started to evaporate, his face neutral.

"why tell a dead man?"

As the last of his opponent evaporated, Danny gave a sigh before cutting the power from his blade, reconnecting the two hilts and re-sealing his sword before he plunged it back into his chest.

He stood there for a few moments, he had already pooled a little focus into quickly healing his scratches as he was looking at where his opponent use to stand,

"I'd wager you're the 'associate' the cat mentioned?"

Danny didn't turn as he heard a fan open and an almost lifeless toned voice sounded off behind him,

"I suppose I am, guess Yoruichi didn't get around to giving you an introduction."

Danny turned around, leveling the man with an incredulous look,

"we kinda had more important things to deal with,"

Danny turned his head in the direction of Karakura, he could feel The Menos crawling its way through the rift.

"still kinda have more important things left in fact."

The man's grin grew as he fanned himself, cane in hand,

"then I'll be quick, my names Uruhara Kisuke, nice to meet you, Danny Phantom."

(~)

So we finally have the rest of the DP group in the story, I do plan on making them bigger parts in the story, just not now.

For the who authorities thing, I not going to say anything about it, just know that there's more to it than just a quick explanation as to how Sam gets plant powers. And as to Tucker not getting any powers, that doesn't mean I dee him as useless. To me, Tucker has always had his strength in his own accomplishments, that he was a self-made character that could deal with challenges his own way rather than with some strange destiny thrust upon him. For me, I've seen that the crux of Danny's struggles was always how to cope with himself as Tuckers was how he could couple with the situation.

Thx again for your support, again, I would love any feedback you could give in how I could improve the story, I hope to get the next chapter out a lot quicker, so see then.