No update next week. I don't own DP

Danny's POV

Chapter 6: Faults and Friends.

At first, duplicating myself was really hard. Separating energy to form multiple bodies would be hard for anyone I guess, but I love using that trick. They come through for me every time and do exactly what I'd do in their place.

People might think that duplicates would give me a headache from all the information I get when I absorb them. That just isn't true, duplication is the one power I have that we can't really figure out.

If I want to have any mental connection painlessly I have to be within a few feet of them. Otherwise the only thing I can do, is shut my eyes and look through theirs. When I absorb them completely, they show and tell what I absolutely need to know, not everything they've experienced. Those are the only painless ways of commutating with my duplicates we know of so far. What my clone was doing made my brain feel like it was being stabbed with a hot-iron sword…

My clone had wandered back into APGS to see how badly the electronics were fairing. The image he shoved into my head was of the ghost shield generator in very bad shape. The thought he shoved in to my head, was 'THE ANTI-ECTO POWER CELLS ARE DAMAGED! THERE'RE GONNA BLOW!'

And then came the point the author has made you quite familiar with. I turned from the reporter and cameraman. With my face in shock, I faced the station.

"NO!"

Is the author going to cruelly leave you here again? No? All right then, wow, moving on.

My parents designed the ghost shield generator in APGS. As always with their designs, there had to be something about it that, at some point, would go boom. "Anti-ecto power cells," were that thing.

For humans, It'd be the explosion equivalent of a stick of dynamite. Shrapnel is the biggest concern for anyone nearby. But for us ghosts? Well, for us it's like an atom bomb.

I flew to save Ember and mentally regretted my hero-complex. The clone that was guarding Ember lifted her onto my back, and took off with me. The other sacrificed himself to try and stall the unstable power cells.

We flew straight up to the sky and hoped to ditch the shockwave that would easily reach twenty miles. We hit about nineteen when I felt my clone's essence come back to me.

Using the new deadly motivation and energy, my leftover clone and I kept flying up side by side. Looking over our shoulders would slow us down and the blast was no doubt traveling fast. I gritted my teeth and held back my fears.

If I turned human I wouldn't be affected much, but Ember would be dead, and I'd fall into the 'particle zone' so I would be able to fly anyway.

My clone understood my distress and pulled back to fly about ten yards behind me. I felt where he was and especially felt when he was hit and absorbed as well. Another thought-message was implanted from him as he merged with me, 'It's weak, keep flying just a little longer.'

I couldn't stop myself anymore, I looked below me to see nothing but the clouds being disrupted.

The disruption got closer and disrupted the clouds less, and less. I looked away and shut my eyes.

The blast faded into nothingness. The clouds took to normalcy again as if nothing had ever happened. I felt a little updraft and nothing else… I looked the clouds below me. I wound up much higher then anticipated. I guessed that my height was about forty or fifty miles up, more then twice what I'd though possible for the blast to reach.

I released a breath I didn't realize I was holding and looked into the sunset. It was beautiful on the horizon and just too fantastic to waste. Funny how much you love a chance in life, when you almost loose your chance to live. Well, halfa life anyway…ha ha.

I flew home, avoidedthe 'particle zone,' and calmly thought of nothing but dinner, and my cozy soft bed…

Stupidly enough I didn't remember I was still carrying Ember till I nearly dropped her off the Ops center. Whoops, well what she doesn't know can't hurt her…

I put her in a spare thermos, texted Sam and Tuck that I was okay, ate an early dinner, and went to bed extra early. My room was as messy as ever, but still the most comfortable place in the world to me. The covers felt so nice, and they warmed up nicely…I unplugged my alarm clock so I could sleep through till Sunday…

Thoughts of the fight seemed to pass me by, I was completely exhausted and careless. I made a mental note to tell Jazz about everything that'd happened. There was only one other thing I needed to make note of…something right on the tip of my tongue…

I cursed out loud. "THE REPORTERS!"

Frantically, I flew out of bed and grabbed my phone. It felt like forever before it finally turned on and warmed up. Honestly, Tucker could make his PDA jump up and down and dance the Hula if he wanted to, but somehow not even he could make my phone any faster.

I dialed Sam's cellphone in a heartbeat. One ring, two rings and-yes! She answered!

"Da-?" "SAM!" I yelped, "I need a favor. Have you heard anything about any reporters in the mall during the fight?"

"Danny calm down-"

"How can I calm down when I've let them down Sam?"

She grumbled openly into the phone, "I thought you already knew, so Tuck and I didn't bother saying anything. We just figured you were either okay with it, or needed some time alone."

"Sam!" I transformed and flew through my wall, "what wouldn't I be okay with exactly?"

"Danny, are you? Never mind, look both of them are still alive it's just that-"

I flew into her room, "Just that what?" To my surprise she just sat on her bed and closed her phone. She must've known I'd come to her in a hurry.

"Well, Shelly Makamoto's fine. Last I heard from Tuck, she only had a few injuries, but nothing that would scar." I flew over to her bed and collapsed face first into it.

"And what about the camera man?" I asked into a pillow.

"He's," she started, "worse for wear, we don't really know how he's doing right now, but he is alive."

I rolled on my back and looked at her. Sam's room was dark, (as usual) and she was still in her street cloths, minus the boots. Her dark hair was down it'd grown out quite a bit in the last year, and it bounced on her shoulders, and framed her face naturally.

I relaxed and transformed back into Danny Fenton, as if I hoped that it would hide my mistake, "I still can't believe I left them behind like that…"

Sam straightened then sighed, "Danny, why don't you tell me what happened. I've been on and off the phone with Tucker since he watched he news, but he hasn't been a lot of help. He seemed excited about something, and I couldn't figure out what." She got up and motioned for me to join her on her beanbag chairs she had across the bedroom, "besides, I've got a few questions."

We sat down, "So explain." She commanded.

So I did… I told her everything, from when I first landed on the mall roof, to dropping-I mean nearly dropping Ember off the Ops center, and to the revelation I had that regarded my royal mistake. Okay, so maybe I didn't go into deep detail about how a big chunk of the mall had been pulverized, but I was distracted, okay?

Then I answered a few questions about the power-cell explosion and clarified a few things for her. We were almost about to call it a night.

"I guess I'll see you later, unless you have anymore questions for me…?"

She paused and looked me up and down. "Just one," she said calmly, then cracked a mysterious smirk, "how long have you been sleeping shirtless, clueless?"

My jaw dropped and I looked myself over. I was so hasty to get to bed I didn't bother wearing a shirt and I hadn't noticed it the entire time. I blushed heavily as Sam laughed loudly.

"Alright," she said as she smiled, "get back home and get plenty of rest this weekend. Or else, come School on Monday, you might forget to wear pants."

"Hey!" I whined, which only made her laugh harder, and me, blush harder. "Alright, alright already, I'm gone. See you later!"

She only laughed and waved in return. "Get plenty of sleep," she said, "Tucker and I'll come over around ten in the morning to look this whole mess over."

"Eleven," I said, and became Phantom.

"Ten-Thirty or bust, Danny. Now go get some sleep, already."

"Alright, alright Mom." I made a face and flew home as Sam laughed…

Well at least it's not really a cliffhanger... Anti-Ecto Power-Cells. Well the DP universe has dumber names to offer. :) Hope you liked my little bit on duplicates, and I hope Danny and Sam didn't seen really strange...

"Stupidly enough,

I didn't remember,

I was still carrying Ember,

till I nearly dropped her,

off the Ops center."

"Whoops, well what she doesn't know can't hurt her…"

OH. MY. GOSH. I've spent hours trying to write a decent poem, and somehow, while writing fan-fiction, I DO IT SUBCONSCIOUSLY? How does that work? And it's kinda funny too. :)

Anyway. Glad to finally have Sam in for the mix…Hope you liked it! Next time I'll somehow balance squeezing two chapters into one.

Read & Review! See you next Sunday!