A/N: I know most of you are probably pretty surprised to see this update, and frankly I am too. It happened late last night that I suddenly remembered that on old computers (like the ones my grandparents have) they have USB ports in the back of the computer. Sure enough, I checked and it does. I also happened to have my laptop with me and a memory stick, so, here's the story. Life's little wonders, huh? But man this takes forever on dial up...

And in response to School's Out Ghoul's Out, I have to sadly admit that while it was a good episode, I was disappointed. I mean, ignoring the whole fix-all solution at the end that I knew was coming, they didn't show hardly any reactions to Danny's powers, and Valerie wasn't anywhere in the whole episode! At least they did a little with his parents, which was cool, but I just wished there was less focus on the jewels and more on his fellow students' reactions. And plus, now that Danny knows that his parents are accepting of him, there is no logical reason why he should keep his ghost fighting a secret from them, so I'd really like to see how the rest of the series goes after this.

Anywho, enough of my complaints. To the chapter!

Chapter Thirteen
Revenge

He landed in front of Dickens' bland house and turned human, pounding forcefully on the door. Dickens answered, his face looking downcast as he noticed with disappointment that it was Danny at his door. As Danny saw his face emerge from behind the door, he had to struggle to control the urges to blow something up near Dickens, most particularly his head.

"Yes, I was wondering when I'd be forced to see your unwanted face at my door," Dickens moaned.

"We need to talk," Danny stated sharply, not letting his eyes waver from Dickens'. He was not leaving this house until he got things straightened out, and he didn't care how long it took or how many taunts he had to endure. He was going to show this man that he was more than a ghost and that he needed to treat him fairly and if he still refused, he'd find some kind of revenge.

"I figured we might. You feel you're being treated unfairly and you want to show me the error of my ways and demand that I treat you like a the normal student, correct?"

Danny didn't falter, though he was amazed that Dickens knew his reasoning so promptly. So much for giving Dickens the benefit of the doubt that he was unknowingly being prejudiced. He knew, and he just didn't care.

"Yes, among other things."

"Well, I would invite you inside, but I don't want your tainted body touching my floors."

Danny's blood boiled and down the street a basketball hoop exploded. "Listen, you can invite me in or I can just walk right in. Either way, I'm coming in and we're having a talk."

"Fine fine. I think I have some disinfectant spray in the bathroom for when we're done," Dickens added as he walked away from the door, Danny following him into the living room where Dickens took a seat. Danny, however, preferred to stand.

"Ah, I'm glad you've elected to stand. I didn't want to have to refuse you a seat, but if you tried I would have had to."

Danny's eyes flickered green but they returned to their normal color as he composed himself. He knew before he came that he'd be forced to put up with these comments. He couldn't lose his temper. He had to remain in control.

"Why didn't you let us out of the lockers?" Danny asked, his voice even and controlled.

"Ah, so you did figure out it was me, most likely from Lancer huh? Well, the answer is simple: I applaud Mr. Baxter for shoving you into that locker and he will receive A's for the rest of my teaching career for that. If you were stuck in your locker, people wouldn't be forced to witness your abnormality. While stuck in your locker, the people were safe from you."

"And the others?"

"If they choose to still stand up for you then they must suffer the consequences. Maybe then they'll finally see the light and treat you like the freak you are."

"Alright, that's it. This stops now. I'm sick and tired of you treating me like I have some kind of disease."

"But don't you see? Being part ghost means you're infected with a disease. It taints you, marks you, singles you out. You're contaminated with ghostly attributes and that makes you unfit to be around the rest of the normal civilization."

"Just stop. That's not true and you know it."

"Or is it actually the truth? Think about it. Ghosts are evil and have always been that way and here's you, part ghost, part evil. You're tainted with evil inside you that most normal people don't have. So not only are you a freak with weird powers and abilities, but you're also evil and will remain that way so long as you're part ghost."

Danny's eyes were glowing green and all the objects in the room were on the verge of exploding. He glared at Dickens, taking deep heavy breaths, trying to control his anger, and the urge to locate Dickens' heart and cause it to explode.

"You don't understand. I'm an exception. I'm part human, and I still have a human conscience and obey human morals."

"For how long? How do you know that your ghost half won't take over?"

"It doesn't work that way."

"At least you don't think it does. He may be biding his time, waiting for you to become weak."

How did he know that? He was getting too close to the actual truth. It was almost like he knew what was threatening to happen to him in the future. But how could he possibly know? There was no way at all. He was just being paranoid. He was letting Dickens' comments get to him. He just needed to stay focused on convincing Dickens otherwise.

"Look, it's my body and my mind and I think I know what's going on with it."

"Or you could just be in denial."

"My parents believe that ghosts are inherently evil, but they see me as an exception because they know that I'm not evil!"

"No, they see you as their son, and are thus a little biased. The only reason they still accept you is because you're their son. Before, they had no problem hurting you."

"Just shut up!" Danny yelled as all the picture frames in the room cracked. Mentioning his parents was far above the level of tolerance for Danny's temper. "You don't even know what you're talking about! You're a math teacher! You don't know a thing about ghosts or their natures! You're not one to lecture me on what I am and am not! You have no experience, no knowledge, no nothing!"

The objects in the room were shaking, threatening to explode at any second while Danny fumed, his eyes like fluorescent lights. Dickens looked about at the shaking furniture, looking pleased, like it was his goal to make Danny angry. But deep into his eyes, Danny saw fear, true fear.

"Obviously my comments have more truth to them than you claim, since they're making you lose your temper so much."

Danny's clenched hand glowed green as he stared down at Dickens.

"Oh, you wouldn't shoot me Mr. Fenton. Shooting me, a defenseless human, would only prove my point. But, be my guest. Prove my point for me."

Danny's hand stopped glowing as he turned around, fighting within himself. Every ounce in his body wanted to blast Dickens. He was far from defenseless; he had his words, which were weapons enough. But still, he never attacked a human, and he didn't want to give Dickens the satisfaction of breaking his oath. If he did shoot him, he couldn't say he'd never hurt a fellow human on purpose. While he came here with the intention of revenge, he knew before he landed that using his ghost powers on him was out of the question. Then he'd be no better than the ghosts he sent back into the Ghost Zone.

"See Daniel, I knew you couldn't…" Mr. Dickens was cut off by Danny's fist contacting his face as Danny swung around and punched him, sending him cleanly over the couch.

"Shooting you with an ecto-blast may be a ghostly attribute, but punching is definitely a human one," Danny smirked, reveling in satisfaction while he waited for Dickens to rise from behind the couch.

As he pulled himself up, Danny thought he saw a glimmer of red light in his eyes. It was only for a second and at first Danny thought it had just been an illusion, his imagination trying to find a justification to satisfy Danny's urge to blast the teacher, but then everything started making sense. The unexplained hatred, the strange knowledge of ghosts, everything started falling into place.

Mr. Dickens was being overshadowed.

His infuriated teacher glared at him from behind the couch and Danny quickly made up his mind on what he wanted to do. He raised his hand and shot an ecto-blast at Dickens, straight through the chest. Dickens doubled over as the ecto-blast pushed a glowing ghost out of his body. He looked up at Danny and then at the hovering ghost behind him and crawled quickly across the floor, out of the way while Danny transformed, his eyes never leaving the red gaze of the formless ghost in front of him. He was a congregation of glowing green gas, formed in the traditional ghostly profile, his red eyes lighting up the space around them like break lights.

"So you're the one causing all the trouble," Danny announced menacingly as he clenched his fists in attack position.

"Infuriator, pleased to finally meet you in person," the ghost greeted as he bowed.

"All the comments, all the remarks, have all been of your doing."

"Oh, they're not just my doing. They're his as well," Infuriator explained, gesturing towards the cowering Dickens beside a table.

"Only because you were controlling him at the time," Danny clarified. "And I've got to say, you think quite unfavorably on your own species."

"If I do, it's because he does." Danny cocked his head slightly in confusion. "That's what I do. I control people, but not completely. I infuriate them, take their anger and make it more pronounced, make them say things they wouldn't normally say or do things they would normally tell themselves is wrong or improper. I express their true feelings in more pronounced ways."

"I don't care what you do. All I care is that you stop."

"Well kid, there's the problem, you'll have to make me stop."

"No problem."

Danny's fists glowed as he shot a series of ecto-blasts at the amorphous specter. Infuriator flew around, his gaseous body resembling a comet as he dodged the blasts. Danny charged towards him, flying at him with fists drawn but the gas just parted around his fist, causing no damage.

"It's a bigger problem than you thought, huh kid?" the ghost taunted as he shot a red blast out of his eyes. Danny quickly threw his hands up, a shield forming around his hands, deflecting the blast.

Danny let the shield down and immediately fired a round of ecto-blasts, hoping that at least one of them would hit his opponent, but he just continued to fly around them or create holes where the blasts were aiming. As he created another shield to block Infuriator's eye beam, inspiration hit and Danny knew what he had to do. He let the shield down early and dodged the remains of the eye blast. Just as the blast finished, Danny shot an ecto-blast at Infuriator's eyes, causing him to scream in pain as the blast hit them. Then he shot off another series of blasts mercilessly while Infuriator was too distracted with his pain to dodge them, causing him to scream out even more. He continued to throw blasts, taking out all his hatred, all his revenge, on the true culprit behind his misery and pain. Objects exploded around the ghost, the remains of the explosion hitting the ghost along with the ecto-blasts. Finally, Danny aimed the thermos at him and caught him in the blue light.

"Capturing me doesn't change what I said. It's still the truth," Infuriator warned as the thermos sucked him up. He capped the lid and landed, turning towards the cowering Dickens.

"It's all right; he's gone. He's not going to control you again."

"You…you helped me," Dickens remarked in disbelief as he used the table to help himself stand.

"Uh, yeah."

"But why? You're a ghost."

"Look, not all ghosts are evil. That ghost just made you think that."

"No, I actually think that. Deep down, I really do have a bias towards ghosts, and that extends even to you."

"Why?"

"My wife. One morning, I had a craving for lasagna, so I asked my wife to make her famous recipe, but we didn't have all the ingredients, but she told me it wasn't a problem. She said she'd just make a special quick trip to the grocery store and then come home," Dickens described as he sat on the couch. "Half an hour passed, an hour, and still she wasn't home and I became worried, so I ran out after her. On the way, I found a huddle of people, watching a great battle in the sky. It was you, fighting some ghost. As I tried to maneuver through the crowd, not caring at that point about ghosts, I noticed that the innermost part of the crowd was staring at the floor. As I shoved my way in, I saw my wife's body on the ground, her head resting in a pool of her own blood, a block lying nearby. They said that she was walking when a piece of brick from the above building was dislodged by a blast from the ghostly battle above and hit her on the forehead, killing her instantly. They said it wasn't your fault, that the other ghost you were fighting shot the blast, but I still harbored ill feelings towards both of you, towards all ghosts. If they didn't exist, none of this would have happened. If you had stopped him sooner or weren't even there in the first place, she wouldn't have been hit in the head with debris from the battle."

"Mr. Dickens, I'm so sorry. I never knew," Danny apologized, but he knew it was worthless. Still, he needed to say something to lift the feeling of guilt. He'd been receiving letters in the mail thanking him for unknowingly saving members of their family by stopping a ghost, but he never even considered that he'd actually unintentionally hurt some people during the fights as well.

"I know, and the logical part of me realizes that, but the rest of me doesn't care. I still hate ghosts, and that's what that other ghost played off of, that hatred."

Danny looked down at the floor, not sure how to respond, noticing awkwardly that he was still in ghost form.

"Look Daniel, you've always been a good kid and a good student, but it's going to take some time to get over the ghost half of you. You've got to understand. I know that everything you said earlier is probably true and you're right, I don't know anything about ghosts, but that still doesn't help my feelings towards them. But you saved me, freed me from the ghost, and even though I was rotten to you, you didn't give up and wanted to fix it, and for that, I think you deserve another chance."

Danny smiled slightly, finally looking up. "That's all I ask for."

"It won't be easy, and I'm not going to give you any guarantees, but I will try. So, to a hopefully new start tomorrow?" Dickens offered as he extended his hand.

Danny nodded and shook Dickens' hand. Then he walked out of the house, finally feeling relief and closure that the source of all his trauma in the classroom was taken care of. Sure things weren't going to be instantly perfect. He had a feeling that he would still be singled out, but it wouldn't be as bad as before. Dickens was going to try, and that's all he could ask for. It was just like with Valerie, it was going to take some time.

Danny flew into the basement and threw Infuriator back into the Ghost Zone. As he headed up the stairs, he was halted by Jazz sitting at the kitchen table with Tucker and Sam.

"Hey Danny, where've you been?" Jazz asked suspiciously.

"Ghost attack," Danny answered truthfully.

"Really? Because I think it's a little ironic that you left for a ghost attack without first telling us."

"I don't always tell you guys when I go out to fight a ghost."

"We also found an exploded pencil and your unfinished math homework on your desk. Did you go out to talk to Mr. Dickens?"

"What?" Curse his sister, she was way too smart.

"Danny."

"Okay okay, yes I went to talk to him, but I didn't do anything to him! We just…talked, and you're not going to believe what happened."

"He started liking you?" Tucker asked in amazement.

"Heck no. He started saying I was diseased and tainted, but that's beside the point. Dickens was being overshadowed!"

"What?" the three of them asked.

Danny sat down and explained everything Infuriator told him and then everything Dickens had told him while his three friends listened in wonder.

"Wow. The thought never even crossed my mind. I thought he was just being that nasty because he was a jerk," Sam stated once Danny finished.

"Yeah, me too," Jazz added.

"Well, at least things'll be easier now," Tucker remarked.

"I don't think so. I mean, he still really doesn't like ghosts, and I don't blame him, but I think he's at least going to try, which is all I can ask for. I mean, I can't just expect him to start liking me just because I saved his life once. He still partially blames me for his wife's death. I don't think he'll ever like me, but things at least will get better."

"Well Danny, I'm proud of you," Jazz stated as she placed her hand on Danny's. "You could've hurt him but you didn't. We were so afraid that you left to get revenge on him, or on Dash."

"That's right! I totally forgot about Dash!"

Jazz hit herself on the head. "Just, forget I said that."

"Don't worry Jazz, I won't do anything to him."

"Oh good, for a minute there I thought…"

"I already thought of the perfect revenge."

A green mist floated through the darkness of a castle, the only thing lighting its way was the red light emanating from its eyes. It turned a few corners before finally coming to a stop down a long dark hallway. The mist assembled itself into the typical form of a ghost and bowed, waiting to be addressed.

"Infuriator. You're back sooner than I expected," the icy voice greeted.

"I am Master, but that is because my task was finished sooner than planned."

"You mean you were discovered sooner than I wanted," he hissed as
Infuriator cowered, hoping to avoid his master's wrath.

"Master please, whether I was discovered sooner or not is irrelevant. The goal has been carried out successfully."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Master."

"Very well then, you are now free from my services and may do as you please. But tell no one what has transpired here,"

"Of course Master, and thank you," Infuriator thanked as he quickly left before his Master changed his mind again, glad to finally be free.

"Master, forgive me, but why did you free him? Nothing's changed," Skulker stated as he stepped forward out of the darkness and kneeled.

"Of course it has Skulker. You still refuse to see the little details, which is why you've always failed when it comes to Danny Phantom. Infuriator did exactly what we wanted; he has planted the seed of doubt."

A/N: I just want to take this opportunity to thank Tamiara and Pterodactyl for their assistance with this chapter. I was completely stuck on two parts (which was how Dickens' overshadowing would be revealed and how Dickens could still act unfavorably towards Danny because I didn't want to make it look like the only people that were mean to Danny were people being overshadowed). Tamiara helped me figure out how to solve the second hitch and both of them helped me sort out how to do the first. So I just wanted to thank them for allowing me to bounce ideas and problems off of them, even though they were cryptic in nature since I didn't want to tell them what was going on. So thanks! This chapter owes you one!