The small smile flickered and died soon after it appeared. Tucker watched his friend warily.

What was that?

The techno-geek was unable to move as Danny turned to face him, still hovering a few inches above the cracked pavement. Dirt and dust trickled down from the abused buildings and the whole town seemed to let out a sigh of relief when the ground stopped moving. The large, dark clouds still hung over Amity Park, with occasional bursts of lighting illuminating the devastation everywhere.

"The storm looks like it's leaving," Danny noted, as if nothing had happened. As if he hadn't just caused untold damage to the town he swore to protect.

Tucker jumped at Maddie's voice, forgetting that she was there.

"Don't move," she growled, again raising the ecto-gun to point at his face. "We have you now, ghost."

"Yeah," Jack reinforced. "There's nothing you can do."

Danny folded his arms and looked at them in amusement. Then, he sank into the ground and disappeared.

"Except for that!" The orange ghost hunter boomed in annoyance. Maddie sighed and wiped a tired hand across her face, letting her weapon drop to point at the ground. Tucker was about to say something when a hand grabbed his ankle. He had just enough time to yell out in surprise before Danny pulled him under.

"Oh, gross," Tucker groaned. "The sewer, dude? Seriously?"

After getting a few seconds to adjust to the smell, the techno-geek felt a light tug on his left sleeve.

"We have to move," Danny ordered. "Now, before they follow us."

Tucker slapped his hand away. "No. Not until you tell me what just happened. So, spill."

"I-I don't," the ghost stammered. "I can't..."

Tucker glared at him, causing his friend to lean back slightly.

"Fine," Danny slouched. "It's hard to explain, but... I got a new power."

"What? That's great! Why couldn't you say that before?"

"Because..." He looked up at the top of the pipe above their heads, talking to it rather than Tucker. "Because it might kill me. At least, that's what Frostbite made it seem like."

Tucker froze. "How might it kill you?"

"C'mon," Danny said, ignoring the question. "Let's get out of here."

"How might-"

"I'll tell you later, okay?" Phantom yelled. The echo in his voice was amplified in the narrow tunnels. "I don't want to explain it twice, especially when I'm not even sure if I'm right.

"Who knows?" He asked, throwing his hands up. "Maybe I got this all wrong."

"I hope so, dude," Tucker comforted. "Now, how about you get us out of here?"

Danny chuckled, his familiar mood starting to reappear. "That sounds good, Tuck."

Grabbing his friend by the shoulders, Danny lifted them both out of the sewers. The pair had to choke back laughter at the sight of Maddie and Jack, still examining the ground as if it would give them some clue as to where Tucker and the ghost boy had gone.

DPDPDPDP

Maddie and Jack scanned the entire area for evidence, for some clue as to where Tucker had been taken. They could be anywhere by now, and that thought caused Maddie great distress. If Tucker disappeared, it would be the Fenton's fault.

Should've shot the ghost boy when I had the chance, she thought bitterly. Maddie didn't know what it had been that made her finger pause on the trigger. She could blame it on the shock of her son's friend being so close to a ghost, but that wasn't it. Phantom had been lying there, defenseless and obviously hurting. Getting shot was not fun, she could imagine.

Still, her actions were wrong. A life should always take priority over an afterlife, and now Tucker was gone because of her lack of judgment. Maddie wondered how she was ever going to break that news to Danny, if they couldn't manage to find his friend.

Rapid beeping from inside the GAV alerted the ghost hunters to something ghostly.

It's probably Phantom- coming back to gloat, Maddie frowned. Jack came back and gave her a hand-held device about the same size as Tucker's PDA. It was there that the distress signal radiated from.

"Jack!" Maddie gasped. Her husband peered over her shoulder, but was unable to understand the green diagram on the small, black screen. The grid pattern was pretty standard, but the crooked cone-like shape made Maddie's job just that little bit easier. There was an ecto-storm flaring up somewhere nearby, and she was certain that the readings on her device were connected to the ghost boy.

"Quick, Jack," Maddie yelled as she jumped into the passenger seat of the GAV. "Follow my directions."

DPDPDPDP

"So where are we going?" Tucker asked.

"Sam's."

"What!"

Danny frowned. "Sam's. From your reaction earlier, you must have thought something bad happened to me, right?"

"Right," Tucker replied softly. "We thought you were dead. Well, deader."

It took the techno-geek a while to realise that the shakes he could feel coming from Danny were not from pain, fatigue or even anger. No, he was laughing.

And that just made it worse.

"How was that funny?" Tucker snapped. "We thought we would never see you again! And, of course, Sam blames herself. She thinks that if she hadn't forced you to try and sleep, none of this would have happened."

"What?" Danny said, trying to force away the hysterical laughter that he knew would be inappropriate. "But I'm not dead."

"Danny," Tucker muttered angrily. "Put me down. Now."

The ghost boy landed smoothly on the side of the road and waited for his friend to talk. He didn't have long to wait.

"We didn't know you weren't dead," Tucker yelled, his face red from anger. "From what we saw, you died. Burned up by... by... whatever that was! That's the thing- we didn't know what it was. We still don't know.

"Now," the boy had visibly calmed down, though his hands shook from the force of his anger. "Before we see Sam, you had better think about what you do to others by acting this way. It's as if you don't care."

AN:

Hey! pale-blue11 here!

I get sick of all the stories that make Tucker look weak, so I decided to make him STRONG! Sorry if that contradicts how you see him.

OK... this story's getting close to finished. Happy ninth anniversary of Danny Phantom everyone! It's April 3rd!

So, HUGE thank you to everyone who reviewed, favourited and/or followed that last chapter. I'll try, i83LI3VE:)

Hee hee! Hallo Deborah you awesome friend!

Please review, favourite and/or follow this chapter! You guys are amazing!

...And I have school :(

Have a nice week!

pale-blue11