I'm BAAAAACK! Sorry I've sort of slacked off on updates, school's been more demanding than I anticipated. So any way, here's chapter 10, in which we have a bit of teenage ness and villainous ness. And Gideon's back. Yay…

Chapter 10: Heroes and Villains

"Dude…are you DANNY PHANTOM?"

Silence. That's the only thing there was in that room after Randy's question. Silence and shocked faces, mostly belonging to team Phantom. A few off the candles even blew out in surprise.

Danny stuttered.

"Uh bsssh…me? Danny Phantom? Ha, no! Nope I'm just ….the son of two crazy ghost hunters. I know stuff, but I'm no Danny Phantom... he he huh….." he ended with a nervous frown Randy narrowed his eyes.

"You are Danny Phantom aren't you?" Danny felt himself start to sweat. He noticed Howard was looking at him in a new way, like 'Randy might be treading on dangerous ground with this accusation'. He also noticed Sam and Tucker both had frozen expression of 'unsure-what-to-do-here!' plastered on their faces. Norman just looked tired. And Agatha was watching him with curious amusement. Mabel was creeping him out the most though. She looked like she was about to exploded out of Dipper's arms.

Danny turned back to Randy, who was glaring expectantly.

"Oh, okay. You got me, Mr. Secret identity as well." He smirked at Randy's confused face. Might as well let all the cats out of the bag, he reasoned, it might make figuring things out easier. And besides, if there really is a threat of the world ending, we're going to need all the help we can get.

Danny let the two rings form around his middle and split, turning him into Danny Phantom. Randy gasped. Howard crossed his arms, trying to play off unimpressed. Mabel started clawing at Dipper's arm and head, speechless. Sam and Tucker suddenly regained their voices.

"DANNY!" they yelled simultaneously, in the same way one might expect a mother to scold her child. Danny shrugged. He cupped his gloved hands and formed a small ice shard, which he morphed into a shooting star with a wave of his hand. He sent the ice sculpture to Mabel. She caught it and beamed.

"Thank you, Danny!THANK YOU! Hey are you-" Mabel started, but Danny hastily interrupted her.

"Not Interested, Mabel, but you're a good kid." Mabel didn't stop smiling, but her eyes lost a little of their sparkle. She nodded in understanding. Dipper felt slightly offended at her, and by extension himself, being called a kid.

"I knew it!" exclaimed Randy, standing on his knees now. Danny floated up and hovered in crisscross applesauce above the candle lit circle. He met Randy's gaze.

"Hey, I'm not the only one leading a double life here. Ladies and Gentlemen, behold Norrisville's own 9th grade ninja, Randy Cunningham." Danny gestured grandly at the purple haired teen, whose jaw had dropped. The rest of the teens looked just as surprise, excluding Howard. He was pondering the best way to go about eating a half ghost whole. He was a man of his word, after all.

Randy sputtered, too lost to form coherent thoughts.

"I…how?...You….Ghost…uh…couldn't have...what?"

Sam threw up her hands, signaling for attention.

"Hold up!" she said. Sam looked at Randy. "You're the Norrisville ninja?" Randy nodded slowly, still very confused. Sam turned to Norman. "You can see the dead?" he also nodded. She turned to Danny. "Vlad kidnapped Agatha to take out the ninja which means he's probably working with the ninja's nemesis, the Sorcerer."

"And Mcfist." Threw in Howard.

"Yeah, we met Mcfist when he kidnapped me and Danny." Said Norman with a glare. Danny nodded.

"Okay, and McFist." continued Sam. "That doesn't explain why Vlad threatened to wipe your mind if you got involved, Danny. Unless he knew you'd be able to stop Agatha and didn't want you getting in the way, but that still doesn't explain what makes him think he can make those kinds of threats! Or what he gains from helping the sorcerer. Or how the Sorcerer plans to escape." Sam finished in an exasperated voice.

Danny looked lost in thought for a moment, then he spun on Norman.

"Norman! When we were in the woods, you said something about a ghost named clockwork, and how he warned you of an impending apocalypse!"

"Clockwork?"

"He's the master of time, Howard."

"Thanks tech geek."

"It's Tucker."

"ANYWAYS!" interjected Mabel. The boys noticed she had her grappling hook casually resting in her lap and she was stroking it lovingly. Sam smirked at the sight, and then became serious again in light of their situation.

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, BACK UP!" said Howard. "Who the juice is clockwork and this Vlad guy?"

Danny and Norman looked like they wanted to answer, but were at a loss for words. Tucker looked at his friends and new friends and saw that this wasn't going to work if they kept at it like this. He let out an audible sigh.

"Hold up everyone! There are too many pieces here and not everyone has all the information. Why don't we just do this AA style? Everyone go around the room and say who you are, what you do, who you enemies are, etc. and don't leave anything out. Alright?" the circle exchanged a few glances.

"Sounds good to me." Said Danny. Sam and Norman nodded in agreement.

"I'm game." Said Randy.

"Sure" said Dipper.

"Who wants to go first?" asked Howard. Danny immediately pointed at Randy.

"It's your enemy that's the current threat why don't you start?"

Randy gave Danny a look, but agreed that that was most logical. He took a deep breath.

"Hi, my name is Randy, and I became the Ninja of Norrisville 8 months ago. My Nemeses are Hannibal McFist, cyborg town mayor and stuck up billionaire, and of course, an 800 year old sorcerer that gains strength from other's vulnerability. I have a book called the ninja nomicon that warned me of an impending danger and showed me visions of other heroes, all of whom I know realize sit before me. Agatha, I'm sorry for being overshadowed and being a jerk to you. Please don't electrocute me ever again. Also, the Sorcerer rising is considered my failure as a ninja or at the very least, something very, very bad. Let's not let that happen."

"Hi, my name is Danny, and I'm half ghost. I was electrocuted in a lab accident that fused my DNA with ectoplasm. I protect my town from ghosts that come from the ghost zone to terrorize it. my ghost nemeses include ghost king pariah dark, a jerky older version of myself, and a certain billionaire town mayor slash halfa named Vlad masters, who wants me as his son and wants to marry my mom and kill my Dad. Vlad is a ruthless business man and has somehow made deals to help free the Sorcerer. Clockwork is a ghost friend of mine, and he can see all of time, so whatever he said is very important. Also, apparently I'm in danger of having my mind wiped. Thanks, VLAD."

"Uh, hey, I'm Dipper. ("AND I'm MABEL!") And we found a journal that tells of all the strange supernatural stuff that goes on in Gravity Falls. Our two main enemies are a fake child psychic named Gideon, and a Dream Demon named Bill cypher. We've battled many strange things like ghosts and zombies that were actually gnomes and candy monsters, but nothing on an apocalyptic scale. We do know that Bill is probably capable of really bad things, and he may or may not have power over the mind…"

"Hi. My name's Norman, and like Sam said before, I can see the dead. I saw Danny's other form when I first met him. Agatha is the ghost of a girl who was just like me. She was hanged for witchcraft for speaking to ghosts. She doesn't like when people mess with her. But she's really powerful, and I'm her only friend because I'm the only who could see her. I sometimes have visions and what not because of my gift, and Randy, you have a spiritual energy all around you."

"It's the ninja tengu. Or the smoke bombs"

"Anyway, I met clockwork a few days ago, and he told me about this apocalypse, and how even he couldn't see the outcome, because some of the forces were outside of his control! And he told Dipper and Mabel to watch out for Bill." Norman Finished.

"I want to speak." Agatha's whisper filled the room, and everyone heard it. Danny and Norman turned to see she had stopped staring out the window, and was looking at them intently. Danny floated over and offered her his hand. She took it hesitantly. Danny grinned and made her visible, much to everyone's surprise. Norman smiled at her encouragingly, and she smiled back.

"I want to say I'm sorry for what I did. Especially to you, Randy." Randy winced at the memory, but he smiled to let her know it was okay. "I want to go home. Danny," she said, turning to him. "Can you take me to the ghost zone?" Danny was a little surprised by her request, but he nodded in agreement.

"We'll go through the portal at FentonWorks. Sam, Tucker, hold the fort until I get back? It shouldn't be too long." Team Phantom nodded. Agatha hugged Norman, and then she and Danny flew out the window and into the night.

"Um…We were in the middle of something…like trying to figure out HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD!" yelled Howard.

"Wonks" muttered Randy.

"KEEP IT DOWN UP THERE!" bellowed Stan's voice from downstairs. The circle of teens continued talking in whispers late into the night, waiting for Danny to return. And for a sign or a clear warning of just what they were up against.

Vlad, Viceroy and McFist were getting impatient. They were waiting out in a clearing in the Dark Woods of Gravity falls for Gideon to show up. It was well past midnight and the moon was absent from the sky. The sorcerer sat fuming inside his holographic screen, angry the ninja had survived.

"You said Phantom wouldn't get involved." He snarled at Vlad. The mayor looked offended.

"I didn't expect him not to fear for his mental stability! I thought my completely legitimate threat would be enough!"

"You're telling me you didn't expect a self-proclaimed town hero to act under the influence of a hero complex?" hissed the Sorcerer. Vlad had no response to that. He had completely miscalculated just how strong Daniel's hero complex was. But that could be rewritten easily enough. He turned back to the sorcerer, struck by a sudden thought.

"If this demon can rewrite someone's mind, why don't you just have him rewrite the ninja's mind?" Mcfist, the Sorcerer, and Viceroy looked at him in surprise.

"That's not a half bad idea." Muttered Viceroy. He nudged Vlad. "You take evil genius in grad school."

"I wasn't completely diabolical back then, but I thought about it as an elective."

"Well, look at you sweet munchkins, talkin' 'bout college days. I'm twelve years old and I already swindled an entire town, amateurs!"

Gideon had arrived. His hair was unkept, his eyes were blood shot, and his suit was merely the blue spray painted remains of a prison uniform. He looked…unstable.

"Hello mortal child. Where is the demon?" Said the sorcerer.

Gideon cocked his head in the holograms direction in one swift, chilling pop.

"You The sorcerer?" Sorcerer nodded. Gideon slowly cocked his head the other way. "We have a problem. Those pines brats and their secretive uncle stole my journal, which has both the summoning incantation and the blueprints. If you want Bill, you have to get that book back."

The three men stared at the child in horror. Aside from the obvious setback of Gideon's message, now they had him to deal with. The boy looked crazy, lost in the head.

Unhinged.

Viceroy coughed.

"You want an Advil or something kid, you look-"

"I AM FINE I DON"T NEED ANYTHING EXCEPT THAT BOOK AND DIPPER AND STAN PINES BURIED IN A BOTTOMLESS PIT!"

The grown-ups shrunk back from Gideon's outburst, wishing they could fly away from him like all the nearby wild life had.

"Um, okay. How do we go about getting this book back?" asked McFist.

"Easy," said Vlad, "I sneak in as a ghost and steal the book."

"That will work. Be quick, Plasmius!" ordered the sorcerer.

Vlad grinned and sped off towards the Mystery shack. The Norrisville natives turned back to the deranged child in front of them, watching with awkward worry as he mumbled to himself and pulled at his hair.

"I don't know how the sorcerer plans to desolate the world," whispered Viceroy to Mcfist, "If he has to babysit this guy."

Suddenly Gideon's head shot up, and his gazed honed in on something in the sky. Viceroy, McFist, and the sorcerer turned to see a black clad ghost boy with white hair flying nonchalantly over the tree tops.

Gideon looked at the boy, his eye twitching.

"That's Vlad's pest of a nephew, isn't it? Phantom?"

The older men nodded, angry expression on their faces.

"It would seem so…"

"Yeah, it's him..."

The sorcerer rolled his eyes inside his hologram.

"Well don't just stand there…SOMEBODY go STOP HIM! He's the reason the first plan failed!".

Viceroy and McFist immediately leaped into action. McFist began dialing a number on his iMcphone, while Viceroy whipped out a small ecto blaster Vlad had lent him. He knelt on the forest floor and aimed the gun at the ghost boy, using the guide to lock onto him. Almost…almost…

Got it.

Viceroy fired. and watched with a smug smile as Phantom fell out of the sky.

Again, I apologize for the delay. Be sure to leave a review! Pines to feature greatly next chapter! iMcphones on sale now! (in Norrisville)!

Later!