A/N: Hey Danny, Sam, Tucker!! I want you to meet somebody!!

Kara: You didn't bring . . .

Chibi: Yeppers!

BlueMouse: (sitting there cluelessly)

Chibi: Say hi to my 'former' master and best friend, AF! As well as her muses, CTE and SAN.

AF: Hi.

SAN: Uh . . . h-h-hello . . .

CTE: (glares)

Danny: What's up?

Tucker: (straightens beret) Hi. I'm Tucker Foley. That's T.F. For Too Fine.

Chibi, Kara, BlueMouse, AF, and SAN: (sweatdrop)

CTE: (flinches, glares at Tucker) Don't you dare hit on me, SAN or AF. (pulls out scythe)

Tucker: (Laughs nervously and backs off)

Sam: Oh I like her.

Danny: (chuckles awkwardly)

Chibi: Well . . . okay then, I'm gonna send AF and her muses off so that they can work on their other stories. But first . . . Disclaimer! Let's have AF do it this time.

AF: Do you THINK my apprentice owns Danny Phantom?

CTE: If you do, you are an imbecile.

SAN: So please don't sue Chibi or any of her muses.

CTE: Or else . . . (holds scythe threateningly)

Chapter 3: Meeting Danny Fenton

Sam, having been dropped on the floor, and left there, soaking wet, and now sporting several bruises, was not in the best of moods. Goddamnit! Why the hell did the ghost want them to leave me here?! If it was because he wanted to see me suffer, then he should have just let them have their way with me! Oh! MAYBE it's because he wanted to rescue me, but that's stupid because I'M FUCKING STUCK HERE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!! Or MAYBE he wants to do what my captors were going to do . . . but that's stupid as well . . . so WHAT THE FUCK DID HE HAVE THEM LEAVE ME HERE FOR?! She ranted inside her head as she tried to get the ropes off of her arms, wrists, and legs. They were starting to cut into her skin and she was feeling very uncomfortable.

I have the worst luck. . .

000

Danny took as many shortcuts that he knew of, but it still took him a good ten minutes to get to where the girl was. He mentally prepped himself to talk to her, one, because he hadn't talked to a girl in a LONG time, two, because he had just saved her, and three, because she might think that he was one of the 'bad guys.' He rounded the corner to go to the girl and nearly stopped dead in his tracks. She was glaring up at him, and if looks could kill, Danny would have died for the second time in his life . . .

Someone's certainly not in a good mood . . .

000



Sam heard footsteps coming from the hallway. She was able to wriggle around so that she could see anyone who came from the hallways, her death glare firmly fixed on her face. The source of the footsteps came into view not too long after. A boy, rather skinny, black hair, blue eyes, wearing a white shirt with a red oval on it was the perpetrator. He looked down at her and seemed rather surprised that she would be glaring at him. Still she glared, her hands moving slowly, trying to get the ropes off without the boy noticing. Unfortunately . . . he did . . . but his reaction was unexpected.

"H-hey, don't do that. You're gonna get rope burn." he said, and, ignoring her glare ran over to her, pulling out a knife from his pocket and started cutting through the ropes.

Sam's eyes widened as she felt the ropes fall away and she was able to move her wrists about as the boy went on to cut the ropes on her arms that restricted the full use of her arms. As soon as she was able to move them, she punched the guy in the stomach and crawled away from him, pulling her gag off and working on untying her legs. "God that was uncomfortable . . ."

000

Danny was clutching his stomach. For a girl, she hit HARD. "THAT was uncomfortable? You pack a pretty mean punch." he commented, trying hard to keep in the contents of his stomach.

The girl glared at him again and Danny regretted ever saying anything. "You would be pretty uncomfortable too if you were lying there tied up, with your hands forced to stay behind your back, dripping wet, and bruised from being dropped from a height of at least 6 feet."

Danny gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Yeah . . . that drop looked like it hurt . . ."

The girl's head spun back towards him so fast it made DANNY'S neck hurt. He was sure she had gotten whiplash from it.

Ouch . . .

000

"YOU SAW THAT?! HOW?!" Sam yelled at the boy.

The guy flinched and his hand moved from the back of his head to his neck. "Long story." he said.

"Does it LOOK like I'm going anywhere?" Sam asked, pointing to her still tied up legs. "These knots are impossible."

Then he did something that really surprised Sam. He closed his knife, and slid it across the floor over to her. "Here, use that. It should work better than trying to undo those knots."

Sam blinked, "Um . . . thanks . . ." she said and picked up the knife, opening it and cutting through the ropes. She paused and pointed the knife with him. "Don't think this gets you out of telling me how you saw that. I'm not leaving until you tell me."



000

Danny sighed. It seems he wasn't off the hook that easily. "Well . . . you know how this castle is said to be haunted by ghosts?" he asked. The girl nodded. "Well . . . that's actually me and my friend. We're the so called 'ghosts' of this castle."

The girl looked up from removing the ropes and looked and him with wide eyes. "You're a GHOST?!" she asked incredulously.

Danny shook his head and waved his arms in front of him in a definite, 'no' gesture. "No, no, no, no!" Well . . . only halfway. "Neither of us are actual ghosts. You see, my friend is a real techno geek and he wired this castle to mimic the effects of a haunting. The voice you heard was a new feature and I am actually really glad that it works. I hate it when criminals come to my castle to do their dirty deeds or to hideout. So I always make sure that I scare them away, and then . . ." Should I tell her? No. She'd never believe me and I only just met her. I don't even know her name. "In the morning, another one of my friends returns whatever they've left to its rightful place."

000

Sam stared at Danny, she was finished with the ropes and noticed how upset he got at the thought of criminals using the castle as a hideaway. He seemed to hesitate before saying that his friend returned what the criminals left behind. Did this mean that she was going to go home? Her sour expression let up as she gave a small smile. "What's your name?" she asked suddenly, cutting off his story as he was saying something about a control room and switches.

The guy looked up at her surprised. "Huh? I-it's Danny . . . Danny Fenton."

Sam's smile widened slightly. "Well Danny, you're a pretty good person for someone who haunts a castle.

000

Danny gulped slightly, blushing a bit, embarrassed at the compliment. "Well . . . just because I haunt a castle doesn't mean I don't have morals . . ." he said, looking down at the ground, his hand going back up to rub the back of his neck. Suddenly he looked back at the girl. "Hey! You got my name so now give me yours!" he said, almost indignantly.

The girl let out a small chuckle. "It's Sam. Sam Manson." Then she glared. "Call me anything other than Sam and you die." she growled.

Danny nodded urgently. "Yes mam!" he said in a scared tone of voice. He had to remember to not get on the bad side of this girl. Just then the doors to the Castle opened and both Danny and Sam looked as a dark skinned boy, African American by the looks of it, with a red beret and a yellow shirt walked in through the door carrying bags of what looked like groceries.



"Danny, man, you won't believe the trouble I had getting . . ." he trailed off as he noticed Sam. "Um . . . Danny? What the hell is a GIRL doing in the castle?"