Once again, thank you reviewers! I feel more motivated to update when I know that people are actually reading and enjoying the story.

To a reviewer: You're right, he could have. Let's just pretend that Danny's not very logical and that he didn't want anyone on the other side of the door to see an intangible Fenton floating through the school roof or appearing out of thin air, which would probably happen since he didn't have great control over his powers and would flicker into visibility if the person on the other side startled him. He was more comfortable floating down along a wall where he could see everyone and make sure they weren't looking at him and that they wouldn't startle him.

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Chapter 8: Transformation

Danny and Tucker were walking to Tucker's house to hang out while Danny told Tucker the whole story, gesticulating wildly and watching him out of the corner of his eye all the while.

"So that's what you were doing yesterday!" Tucker realized. Then he snickered. "A Box Ghost?"

"Yep." They walked into Tucker's home and headed down to the basement. "I couldn't believe you didn't notice him!"

"Now that you're telling me, I can't believe it either!" Tucker laughed. They dropped their backpacks by the stairs. "And the sound I heard, that was you invisibly fighting off the" – he chuckled again – "Box Ghost?"

"I didn't exactly fight him. It was more like I showed up and he flew aw-what is that?"

Tucker turned around and gawked. "I didn't know rats were green. Or that they glowed."

"A ghost-rat? What is it doing here?"

The ghost-rat snarled nastily at the two shell-shocked teens for interrupting its activities and they jumped back and screamed in complete synchronization. Danny's heart hitched, causing the rings of light to wash over him again and turn him back into a ghost. However, neither boy noticed. They were more focused on the foot-long, pointed incisors that had suddenly grown out of the rat's mouth.

"What do we do?" Tucker yelled.

"Get it out!" Danny ran over and tried to grab the rodent, but it leapt up and jumped on his face. "AAH! TUCKER!"

Tucker grabbed it by the tail and pulled it off Danny. "I got it!" The rat abruptly phased out of his grip and he gulped. "I don't got it."

Danny leaped towards the rat once more, but it turned around and bit him. "Oww!" He pulled back for a moment, nursing his hand, before standing up straight and glaring down at the creature, incensed, his green eyes burning with intensity. "Guess we'll have to do it the rough way!"

Tucker watched, astonished, as his best friend wrapped his arms around the ghost-rat, hugged it tight so that it was pinned and unable to move, and floated over to the door. He opened it and Danny floated out with the struggling, growling animal. The unfortunate rat's tail was grabbed the second time that day, but instead of being dragged, it was swung around in circles like a lasso faster and faster, its legs pinned to its sides by the velocity.

When the rat was only seen as a blur, Danny exhaled sharply and let go of the angry critter. He and Tucker watched as the rat went flying out of sight, its high-pitched protest growing fainter and fainter until it ended with a thud.

"Well that was different," Danny commented. Tucker nodded in agreement and they walked back inside, shutting the door behind them. Danny watched amusedly as Tucker quickly locked it as well.

"You do realize that that won't stop a ghost from entering, right?"

Tucker looked over at him and then raised his eyebrows. "Why'd you change?"

Danny frowned. "What?"

"Why'd you turn into a ghost again?"

Danny glanced down at himself. "I'm not sure. I didn't do it intentionally." His face paled as he thought about that. "Oh my gosh! I can't do this in the middle of school!" His form began to fade into invisibility.

"Then control it! I know you can; you did it on the roof." The faded-out Danny nodded hesitantly and in a few seconds, the ring appeared again and human Danny, still rather washed-out, was sitting on Tucker's chair. Tucker looked at him seriously. Danny was right; it would be a disaster if he did this at school.

Then let's find out why it happened. He pulled out his PDA. "Why did you do it?"

Danny considered the question. "I truly don't know. I don't even know when it happened."

"It must have been when we first saw the rat because you were already a ghost when we started trying to get rid of it."

"Did I go invisible?" Danny asked slowly.

"I don't know, dude." Tucker shrugged. "I was more concerned about the rat that had been exposed to nuclear radiation sitting on my desk. Why?"

"I think that my emotions tend to trigger my powers. Whenever I get upset or scared or something, I go intangible or invisible. Floating and, and this haven't really been showing up much, but the other two have."

"So you're saying it's kind of like instincts?" Tucker looked up 'instincts' on his search engine.

"No, it's like emotions," Danny corrected him.

Tucker scrutinized the results. "They're pretty much the same thing. Instincts usually spark emotions."

"So you're saying I 'instinctively' changed into a ghost?" Danny asked skeptically, using air quotes. "I don't seem to remember having that instinct."

"Danny, do you really think you would have had that instinct before - when you were completely human?" Tucker said as he scrolled down a list of different instincts. Defense. Fight or flight. Survival. He blinked at the last one. "Actually, I don't think the instinct was to turn into a ghost; I think it was more of survival."

"How does that make any sense?"

"Well, think about it. Like you said earlier, ghosts have more durability than humans, right? So you would automatically adopt your more durable – form? – if you were being attacked or saw something that your mind perceived as a serious threat to your survival."

Danny looked at him. "You think I changed because I had a better chance of surviving as a ghost than as a human?"

Tucker nodded.

"That actually makes some sense," Danny said as he considered it more. He then smiled widely. "And I won't have to worry about it at school!"

"Why?"

"I didn't do it when Dash came today, and he's the worst thing in the school."

"Agreed," Tucker said with feeling. "Except maybe Mr. Lancer, but his torture is more mental, like 'oh, dear God, keep my brain from dribbling into a puddle and evaporating into oblivion,' while Dash's is like 'oh, no, I don't want to meet yesterday's rotting lunch again!'

"I hear you." Tucker started fussing with his PDA again. "What are you doing?" Danny peered at it over his shoulder.

"Keeping a record of you powers. It'll be my job to keep track of your new abilities," he replied, holding up his PDA with a pleased smile.

"Okay?" Danny wasn't so sure of what to make of that.

"So far, the only thing we have is 'Transformation.'"

"Transformation?"

"Well what else would you call it? Changing? That just sounds dumb!"

"Metamorphosis!" Danny said in a spooky voice with a goofy grin, raising his arms.

Tucker rolled his eyes, but cracked a smile.

"No, but seriously, I would not call my ability to go ghost 'transformation.' I'd call it …"

"Dude, you just named it," Tucker said as he put the name in his PDA.

"I did?"

He held the PDA out for Danny to read.

"'Going ghost?'"

The new rings appeared and swept over him. His jeans and T-shirt turned into a black and white hazmat suit, his black hair turned white, and his ice blue eyes turned a neon, glowing green.

"So, ghost-Danny, does it meet with your approval?" Tucker joked with a mocking bow.

Danny grinned in response. Playing along, he crossed his arms and looked down his nose at Tucker with a snobby expression, eyes half closed. "It does indeed," he intoned. He frowned as he thought of something. "But…"

"Yes, O Great One?" Tucker deepened his bow, trying to hide the uplifting corners of his mouth.

"My name shall not be Ghost-Danny!

"Henceforth, I shall be known as Danny Phantom!"

Tucker dropped the act and looked at his friend who was standing like the Statue of Liberty. "Well that's not at all suspicious."

Danny just smiled at him and turned human as Tucker's mom announced that she was home and that they had better be doing homework.

Short, I know, but it's been a really long and hard school week, and it's not over yet. Plus, I didn't want to drag it out or tack another idea onto the end. The next idea is for the next chapter.

With luck, (and little homework), I'll update soon!