I know it's been a while, but AP English is finally getting into the swing of things. Plus volleyball games have started, and our first home football game came along. A 40-6 victory. Afterwards we took over Applebee's...literally. Like over 30 people showed up, and the guy started getting really pissed off at us. But it was nice. I saw some people I hadn't talked to in a while and watched a little drama unfold. All in all, a nice night. Anyways...chapter six. It's getting slower now as I try to keep the nice pace I had going earlier with the writing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom characters. This one story is all I have to hold onto.

Paulina: Danny, you never said whether or not you were coming to my quincenera on Friday.
Danny: That's because when you invited me, I thought you were joking.

Chapter Six

Once again at the Nasty Burger, Danny, Sam, and Tucker ate their preferred sandwiches in silence. Feeling some condiment on the side of his mouth Danny used the back of his hand to wipe it off and continue on his burger. Danny eyed the plate of fries that were placed in the middle of their table. He noticed Tucker was doing the same. Sam, already finished with her salad, was waiting for the Fries War to begin like it always did. Simultaneously both boys dropped their different burgers and lunged across the table towards the fries. Fried potatoes flew in the air as Danny and Tucker had both hands going from plate to mouth.

Sam noticed other people started staring at the boys' wild behavior. She knew eventually she would be the one to calm down their frenzies, but now was not the time. For her, now was the time to lean back and relax, staring at the others in the restaurant that were trying to make sense of the scene in front of them.

Before management could intervene with her fun she stepped out of the booth and stood over the table. She had to wait for the right moment to pull this maneuver off correctly. At the moment when both boys had fries in their mouths, she flew one hand at Tucker's shoulder with the other hand aimed at Danny's shoulder.

"Enough!" she said with a forceful tone while pushing both boys to the backs of the booth. They finished chewing the fries left in their mouth and stared at Sam. She slid back into the booth next to Danny and relaxed against the frame of the booth.

"Thank you," Sam said to the two boys. "I believe your food frenzy was about to get us kicked out." Danny and Tucker gulped their now chewed fries. With a sigh they started to rub their full bellies. A hazy look showed in their eyes as if they were about to fall asleep right there in the booth in the slightly smelly restaurant.

"Danny, you need to find out what that thing was," said Sam. "Skulker doesn't just unleash something out on the world for any normal reason. Something big is going to happen, I can feel it."

"How am I supposed to?" asked Danny. He looked behind Tucker to see Dash and Kwan walk in with their signature letter jackets on. Paulina Sanchez, the prettiest girl in school walked in behind him with her satellite that was also known as Star. The girls both had on their tube tops that gave very little to the imagination, but managed to pass by school code. The group was laughing about something, but the joke could not be heard from where Danny, Sam, and Tucker were sitting. They went up to the counter and ordered. Dash turned his head, looking for a place for the four kids to sit.

Dash, the All American boy of Casper High, spotted Danny and walked over to the smaller, black haired boy. He smiled at the things he thought of doing to Danny. Danny noticed this smile because it was only meant for him, and he got his special smile a lot.

"Uh, Tucker…?" Danny said before Dash was in earshot.

"Yeah?" replied Tucker.

"Brace yourself!" Danny told his African American friend. He tensed up his shoulders and closed his eyes, waiting for whatever Dash planned on doing to him this time.

"Hey Fentina!" yelled Dash. "I'm in a good mood from the vacation, so I've decided to go easy on you." Dash grabbed the back of Danny's head and slammed it into what was left of his ketchup on his plate. Kwan, Paulina, and Star saw this and started laughing. Dash walked off to join his friends at their table.

"See ya, losers," Dash shouted as he walked away.

Danny's eyes flashed their dangerous, ghostly green. "Ugh, Dash…" said Danny with a hint of exasperation.

Sam noticed this and wanted to calm down Danny before it got out of hand. She placed her hand on his arm. "Danny," she said. "Now is not the time. We have more important matters at hand. Remember, giant ghost groundhog unleashed by Skulker, the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter?" She put her hands on her hips and made her voice deeper, trying to sound like the mechanical voice of Skulker.

"Yeah, you're right, Sam," Danny said. He unclenched his fists and placed them on top of the table. He stared at them as if he was studying them for observation. As if through his thoughts, they would magically turn invisible, which for him, they could. The trace broke and Danny let out a long sigh. His hands found his head and grabbed for his black hair. He looked up and his baby blue eyes found Tucker's dark green eyes.

"So…" Danny continued. "Where do we start looking for information on this thing?" He had finally calmed down and was ready to deal with the situation at hand.

"Already done, dude," said Tucker happily. He turned his PDA screen towards Danny and Sam. The monster from before was on the screen. Below it was information that was most likely useful to the trio. "While Dash was bagging on you, I started looking up on that ghost. Yes, it is a ghost," Tucker confirmed.

Sam grabbed the PDA out of Tucker's hands. As she skimmed the webpage she read out loud the information she thought might be useful for future reference.

"Wow. Thanks, Tucker," said Sam.

"No problem," replied Tucker. "It's what I do. What else am I here for if not being the lovable, handsome, techno-wonder, love machine that I am?" Tucker laughed at his own joke, but no one else did.

Sam read on as if the lame joke was never said. "Basic facts which we already know, like, what it looks like…."

"Ha," said Danny. "I think I already know." He curled his fingers to look like claws and growled at Tucker. "Rawr!"

"Woah," said Tucker through laughs. "You're as scary as a ghost!"

"That's what I was going for," Danny said. Both boys were laughing now.

"Guys, focus!" Sam said. "It says here that the beast answers to the name of Aftershock. It was said by ghost hunters to be the cause of the New Madrid, Missouri earthquakes in 1812, but nothing was proven." Sam talked to herself now. "That would make sense since Missouri isn't naturally a fault line…"

"What was that you said, Sam?" asked Tucker.

"Huh?" she said, lost in her thoughts. "Oh, nothing…"

"Let me see that," said Danny. He grabbed the PDA and started scrolling from the point that Sam left off. "Is there anything here that might help us?"

"From what I read on it earlier, Aftershock buried itself under the River, where it went undetected to ghost hunting equipment of the time, and created earthquakes for two years. The largest one registered was an eight on the Richter Scale, and the scale only goes to ten," Tucker told his friends.

"What happened to it? A thing that big couldn't have just disappeared," Sam asked.

Danny was still reading Tucker's PDA when he joined in the conversation. "What happened over two hundred years without any activity?" he asked himself. A sudden thought came to him. "He didn't disappear. He was getting stronger, at least until Skulker caught him. But how did he get so weak in the first place?"

Tucker decided to answer Danny's question f

or him. "It was said that people in nearby Tennessee gathered for all night fish fries to ask for relief from the earthquakes Aftershock was causing. Probably so many people and so much fish weakened him."

"That would fit. A creature that likes to be one with the earth is not likely to be around things from the sea, such as fish," Sam added.

"It says that the deeper he dug into the ground, the more energy he stored. That's how he gained all that power," Danny read from the PDA.

"But that still doesn't explain how smaller earthquakes are still occurring there," Tucker pointed out.

Sam thought about this for a minute. She looked over and noticed Danny was still reading the PDA. "Yeah it does," she said. "All that activity probably caused a fault line where one shouldn't have been."

Danny handed the PDA back to Tucker. "Guys," he said. "We need to get back to that thing." He put down a tip for the waitress and got out of the booth. Tucker and Sam followed suit.

Deep in the earth the beast now known as Aftershock slept peacefully. The metal collar placed around his neck started beeping from the timer that had just gone off. It awoke the beast and, without opening his eyes, snarled at his disturbed sleep. A small speaker was visible on the side. A voice came from it.

"Aftershock…" the voice said sweetly. "WAKE UP! You have a mission to do. Now begin immediately!"

As soon as the voice was gone, Aftershock resumed his nap. A small shock of electricity came from the collar and awoke the beast yet again. He knew what needed to be done, but a nap was preferable over his duties. He was a few miles off his target, but that distance could be made up in a few hours. He got up from his position and slowly made his way to the far wall of the tiny cave. Four retractable claws came from the front paws and glowed a ghostly green. They reached for the earth wall and started digging towards his destination.

I'm in a better mood everyone, and reviews would just make it better. Have a nice day!