DISCLAIMER: I own neither Teen Titans nor Danny Phantom. I don't own James Bond either.

Chapter 20: Your Worst Nightmare

Clop. Clop. Clop.

"Ah-choo!" A tissue later and Sam pulled up the neck covering of her black turtleneck sweater to ward off the chilly wind. Her boots continued to make a clopping sound as she walked down the empty street. An occasional car whooshed down the road but she was alone for the most part.

It was nearing winter in Amity Park and was currently a Saturday. Over a week had passed since they had gone to Clockwork for answers and Danny was still nowhere in sight. For that matter, neither had any ghosts made an appearance. The citizens of Amity Park had remarked on the unusual lull in activity but simply went about their business as usual, not thinking too much of it.

But today was slightly different as they were all converged in the town hall for a meeting with the mayor – or Tucker in this case – to discuss some new laws. This was the reason for the empty street and why Sam was walking down by herself when Tucker would normally be tagging along.

Twisting the ring Danny had given her around on her finger, Sam closed her eyes briefly before opening them. She had no desire to be in the middle of so many people who could never understand how she felt. The only people who had the slightest idea of how she felt were Danny's family and Tucker. They were the only ones who missed Danny as much as she did.

The rest of the world hadn't even noticed that their savior hadn't made an appearance in over a week. Only Casper High had noted Danny's conspicuous absence but had stopped asking questions when given the excuse that Danny had caught some kind of ghostly illness and couldn't be around other people.

Seeing a lone newspaper blown across the gray pavement by the cold wind, Sam couldn't help but feel even more forlorn. Although normally a rather emotionally stable person, Sam had been down in the doldrums more and more frequently this past week without the slightest clue of where Danny was. The vague word of a ghost who could control time was not much of a consolation.

The weather was certainly doing a rather marvelous job of fitting her mood.

Stifling another sneeze as her hair tickled her nose, Sam rubbed it in irritation and continued to make her way to the park. It was one place where she could be granted some serenity as nature always made her feel at home.

This thought was only reinforced as she passed a dank alley and heard a soft howling that sent shivers down the back of her spine.

Passing it off as a trick of the wind, Sam rubbed her hands over her arms and bent down to pick up a stray soda can, cursing the lazy body who didn't have the decency to find a trash can. Another howl sounded from behind her and she froze, heart thudding in her ears.

'It's just the wind, isn't it?' Mouth dry, Sam shot a wary glance behind her. There hadn't been any ghosts since Danny had gone but that didn't mean there weren't still some around. Granted, she'd never felt this freaked out when it came to ghosts but after two years she knew she still hadn't seen everything there was to see.

When she didn't see anything besides the empty street, Sam mentally shrugged off the noise and tossed the can into the nearest recycle bin. Pursing her lips, she looked up at the cloudy sky and wished the sun would make an appearance. It would at least help her warm up and lighten the chill from the wind.

She'd just taken another step when another noise broke her hearing threshold. Freezing in place once again and tensing her muscles, Sam strained her ears. It was only a moment before she knew she hadn't imagined the soft eerie laughter.

"Who's there?" she demanded loudly, swiftly turning around. The street looked completely empty but she knew that didn't say much.

There was no answer but she hadn't expected anything. Even the laughter had stopped and the wind had died down, leaving a chilly silence in its wake. There was a rustling sound and Sam whirled to simply see the newspaper from before flutter across the pavement.

Exhaling slowly, she chastised herself for being so on edge. "Get a grip, Sam. Nothing's happened so far and why should that change simply because you're walking alone?"

Hearing herself speak did nothing to alleviate the sense of unease that rested on her shoulders. Still worried, Sam turned to continue on her way when a sudden shriek hit her eardrums.

The unearthly noise barely gave her any time to react as a black figure darted across the street directly towards her. It was inside the pavement.

Whatever it was swooped under Sam's feet and knocked her flat on her back, jarring her teeth and bruising her elbows. Twisting to her knees and jumping to her feet, Sam bounced on her toes, eyes primed for the nearest sight of danger.

'What the heck was that?'

Her question was no closer to being answered as the shadow attacked her again. This time Sam jumped up in the air, drawing her knees up. The shadow swept under her suspended figure but she was shocked to see it suddenly jump out at her, revealing a shapeless mash of sharp teeth.

In the air as she was, Sam couldn't do much more other than snap her legs down and squash the ghost into the street. Then, as she was completely without any weapon, she fled down the street to make her way to Fenton Works.

'Always carry a ghost fighting weapon around, stupid! Haven't you learned anything from the last two years?'

A loud growling noise alerted Sam to the fact that her mysterious pursuer was hell bent on having something for lunch that involved a black turtleneck sweater and black jeans. Chancing a glance back over her shoulder, Sam immediately wished she hadn't as her one attacker was now joined by two others.

She had no weapons on her person, all of Amity Park was crammed inside the town hall, and she was alone on the street being chased by a trio of bloodthirsty things she'd never seen before. In fact, she was 99.9 percent sure that these things weren't even ghosts.

In short, if Sam Manson didn't come up with some sort of miraculous plan in the next five seconds, she was screwed.

Air burning on the way down her throat and cheeks flushed with the exertion of running, Sam grabbed onto a light post and made a sharp right turn. She pressed flat against the side of the building, hoping the things would miss her and give her an extra few seconds. When they didn't immediately make an appearance, Sam knew something had happened.

They'd been right on her toes.

Cautiously peeking around the corner, Sam was instantly greeted by the sight of three gaping mouths of sharp teeth.

This time an undignified yelp escaped her mouth and she made a one-eighty turn on her heels to sprint down the street. She'd barely taken two steps before something slammed into her back and sent her sprawling with a mouthful of asphalt.

'Oh God… Am I going to die right here in the middle of the street without even a stupid weapon?'

Screwing her eyes shut against what she figured was the end, Sam was half-hopeful and half-terrified when it didn't immediately come. Instead, what she heard was a very familiar sound of ghost rays firing and a whooshing sound of someone flying through the air.

Leaping to the first logical conclusion, Sam twisted her body around. "Danny!"

"Yeah?" a distinctly feminine voice answered, its owner brushing her long white bangs out of her eyes. "You okay, Sam?"

Sam found herself disappointedly staring into the green eyes of Danielle Phantom, or Dani. Quashing the hope that had risen in her, Sam made herself nod and smile at the young half-ghost. "Yeah, thanks. What are you doing here, Dani?"

"Just thought I'd visit," Dani said, shrugging and adjusting the foothold she had on the three things she'd slammed into the street. "I didn't expect to see you being chased down the street by these things, though." Frowning, Dani considered her silent prisoners. "You know what they are?"

"They're not ghosts?"

"No. My ghost sense didn't go off."

"So I suppose a weapon wouldn't have done any good then," Sam mused, folding her arms across her chest.

"I dunno. My ghost rays took care of them pretty handily."

Unfortunately, the two girls found that Dani had spoken too soon as her three prisoners sank into the pavement and began swirling around them in a threatening manner.

"Oh dear," Dani squeaked, her eyes widening in alarm.

"Get us out of here!" Sam demanded, hastily side-stepping as one of them made a swipe at her feet.

Dani didn't say a word, simply grabbing the Goth under the arms and taking to the skies. Shrieks from behind and below them alerted them to the fact that the things had escaped the pavement to pursue them in the air as well. "You have a thermos on you or something?"

"If I did I would've taken care of them myself!" Sam looked back to see them dogging them determinedly. "Can you fly any faster?"

"Hold onto your skin," Dani muttered, suddenly pouring on the speed and making Sam's eyes water.

Without warning, she suddenly deposited Sam on a rooftop and made a sharp turn to fire ghost rays at their pursuers. The attacks hit the monsters dead on but Dani didn't stop there as she continued with a barrage of ecto-beams that seared the black bodies of the monsters and punched holes through their forms.

"Try making a really bright light!" Sam shouted.

Dani squinted up at the sky, found she wouldn't have any help from that section, and began working on creating a super bright ecto-ray that would hopefully scare these not-ghosts off.

"All right, uglies!" Dani focused all the power she could into the growing ball of green light in her palm. "Let's see how much you like this!"

Before the monsters could scatter around the two girls, Dani pointed her hand directly in front and let the energy go. It exploded outward in a blinding flash of green light, causing Sam to flinch backward and cover her eyes. It had a worse effect on the monsters, since they all gave off loud shrieks of agony.

By the time the light dissipated from Dani's little "flash bomb", the girls couldn't see a single trace of the monsters.

"Yes!" Dani pumped her fist triumphantly. "That took care of that!"

In the meantime, Sam had pressed a hand to her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart. That had been far too close for comfort. It was also the last time she would ever go anywhere without a weapon. Never mind that she was friends with a half-ghost (or two); she needed to be able to defend herself properly if rabid ghosts – monsters like that showed up again.

Dani landed on the building next to Sam. "You all right?" she asked worriedly.

"I'll be fine," Sam said, dropping her hand to fold her arms over her chest. "It's just…" She couldn't hold off a shudder. "Oh God…"

"They were creepy," Dani agreed, glancing around the area for a moment. "Thanks for the tip."

Sam shrugged. "They looked like Johnny's shadow, even if they weren't ghosts. They were fried by your ghost rays. Wasn't too much of a leap to think that their weakness was light." She inhaled slowly. "So, what brings you to Amity Park? I thought you were exploring the world?"

Dani beamed. "He told you that, didn't he? Oh, it was absolutely amazing! I must have explored most of Europe over the last few months. I decided to come back 'cause Danny said I can stay here whenever I want." Her brow furrowed. "Where is he anyway? I would have thought he'd notice something like that!"

And that was all it took to send Sam down into the dumps again.

Meanwhile, deep in the Ghost Zone, so deep that the green surroundings of the Zone weren't simply a light green anymore but rather a dark foreboding one, numerous dark shadows were converging. They were shapeless for the most part, except for certain points where one could catch glimpses of what could pass for a face: two empty holes for eyes and a gaping maw of sharp teeth. Then it disappeared, leaving only the impression of a writhing, crawling mass of something.

These shadows converged around a floating rock ledge. A few daring ones came close to a pair of white boots before darting away as a silver metal staff slammed down on the rock, the sound echoing through the empty expanse.

"Hnh…" a high-pitched and manic voice hummed. "Didn't it work?"

One shadow seemed to give a negative flick before it dashed away.

"Not to worry… It was a long shot." The ghost crouched down, clutching the silver staff in his gloved hands as he looked out at the seething mass of dark shadows that surrounded the ledge. A giggle escaped the misshapen mouth, the right half of which was rather shadowy. "Will have time to redeem yourselves…in time…"

The ghost dunked the top half of the staff into the mass of shadows. Its presence resulted in the shadows giving the ledge an even wider berth. The ghost giggled gleefully, straightening in a smooth motion and stepping to the edge of the ledge. The staff remained inside the mass of shadows.

"Remember what is at stake," he said in a low voice. The tone was utterly different from before. "Remember who you owe your existences to. I do not"—the ghost was snarling now—"accept failure. Get Danny Phantom's friends and family to me…alive."

Elsewhere in the Ghost Zone, Clockwork was being harangued by the Observants. Or rather…he would be harangued by the Observants. At the moment, he was simply watching his portal into time.

The view screen flickered past a scene of four teenagers in a blue bedroom, one of them being a female half-ghost. It then rested on the image of another half-ghost being thrown onto a wrestling mat by a masked black-haired teen. Following this, it spanned out to hold the picture of a silver staff. The top end was a claw and in the middle floated a smoky black orb. A white gloved hand snatched out and the image disappeared into green swirls.

Just as this happened, the Observants flew into the room, their white cloaks swirling around them dramatically. Any humor was lost, though, as their single eyes were wide with panic.

"Clockwork! The staff has been stolen!" they shouted simultaneously.

Clockwork shifted into a man, turning around slowly. His own staff was held tightly. "I am aware."

"Why did you not tell us?" one Observant demanded.

"I presumed you knew," Clockwork said mildly.

"How long has it been gone?"

"I heard of it," Clockwork said, "a short while ago."

"What is being done?" the second Observant demanded. "Do you know what it does? Our world is in peril! Why did you not think to alert us—"

"The situation is being taken care of," Clockwork interrupted, a mild tinge of annoyance coating his tone. "If you were not aware of the staff being taken, this is through no fault of my own. Are you not supposed to watch the door?"

"The door!" the first Observant blustered. "It does no good to observe the door when the theft occurs elsewhere!"

"The door observes everything everywhere regardless of location," Clockwork said, a definite icy tone in his voice now. "It shows everything of importance, unless it has been asked to observe something specific. What was the door asked to observe that it failed to show you the staff?"

The Observants seemed to flush a darker green in embarrassment. Their single eyes locked momentarily before their gaze flickered back to Clockwork.

"I see," Clockwork said quietly.

"Do you, Clockwork?" the second Observant asked.

"I see everything…unlike certain entities." Clockwork shifted into an old man, his face set into a mask of disapproval. "As I have said time before, and as you have insisted on repeating, young Danny Phantom remains under my guardianship. The path he is on has been planned. It is not a result of mistimed circumstance."

"Mistimed circumstance? Did you plan for the staff being stolen? Knowing what it does?"

"I see everything," Clockwork repeated, not precisely answering their question. "Perhaps you should ask the actual wielder of the object your questions?"

"The wielder"—the first Observant's tone was dismissive—"is not present."

"Really? How…odd…" Clockwork morphed into a child as he said this. "Perhaps…he is doing what he should be?"

"Playing around in the dimensions?" the second Observant sneered.

"Keepers will have their fun. It is what keeps the job from getting tiresome." Clockwork screwed the knob on his staff; as he did so, the scene on the viewing screen behind him kept shifting dizzily from one timeline to the next. In one particular scene, the two Observants in front of him were wearing togas and fluffy, pink, and feathery boas.

The first Observant didn't even grant the scene the dignity of his attention. "As the Time Keeper, Clockwork, what are you doing to prevent the timelines from disintegrating?"

"Didn't I say?" Clockwork twisted the knob one final time, and the scene landed on Danny Fenton helping a red-haired alien girl cook.

"Danny Phantom? After he already made a mistake?"

"He is only human," Clockwork said, observing his charge try to help the girl from burning water. "Do humans not make mistakes?"

"He is a half-ghost child," the second Observant snapped.

"Who defeated Pariah Dark, defeated his own worst enemy, and saved our world from annihilating," Clockwork reminded the Observants. "If he is not a hero, I would – to use a human expression – eat my hat."

"You don't have a hat," the first Observant corrected mutinously. "And you haven't said: how is Danny Phantom supposed to protect the timelines?"

Shifting into a man, Clockwork answered, "The thief is someone intimately familiar with him. As you are no doubt aware, ghosts that are intimately familiar with Danny Phantom tend to cross paths with him."

"And they fight," the second Observant continued. "Yet the property damage…who is to say the staff will not be destroyed?"

The scene behind Clockwork landed on an antique store with dolls on display in the windows. "There is a being on the job."

"You are not telling us everything, Clockwork," the first Observant accused. "We are your employers—"

"My employers, not my Keepers," Clockwork corrected. "What concerns my job concerns you. Outside my job…I am guaranteed a modicum of privacy, am I not?" He raised an eyebrow as if to dare them to deny his claim.

The Observants appeared taken aback, glancing at one another.

When it appeared that no response would be coming on their end, Clockwork prompted, "If you are done, perhaps you should be doing what you should have been doing all along?"

"This is not over, Clockwork," they threatened simultaneously. They then imperiously turned around and floated out of the room.

Shifting his form to that of an old man, Clockwork turned to look into a dark room just off the side, his red eyes fixating on something that only he could see. "Oh, I know…" he murmured. "It's just beginning."

"Any chance you'll tell me what's going on?" Dani asked, letting Sam down in her room. She landed on the floor and transformed back into her human form, which possessed black hair and blue eyes just like the boy she had been cloned after. The difference was that she preferred to wear a hat and had a ponytail.

"In a moment," Sam muttered, whipping out her cell phone. She sent off a text. "I'd rather wait until Tucker gets here. I've enough of a headache already."

Sitting down on Sam's purple bedspread, Dani blinked, perplexed. "Why?"

"Because of everything that's been happening around here," Sam said, sighing. She collapsed on the bed next to Dani, flinging an arm over her face. "Make yourself at home. We'll be waiting until Tucker finishes at the town hall."

Dani looked around at the very fancy bedroom. "Wow. You're loaded!"

"Don't remind me," Sam groaned, snatching a pillow and pressing it against her face.

Dani cocked her head to the side. "Is that…is it a bad thing? To be loaded, I mean?"

"The money's not really an issue." Sam's voice was muffled. "It's my parents."

"Problem?"

"Let me put it this way: if it was the fifties, they'd fit right in."

That didn't help. If anything, it made Dani even more confused. "What do the fifties have anything to do with your parents?"

It took Sam a moment to remember that this was a clone of her boyfriend who'd probably never gone to school. She lifted the pillow off her face. "You know how this is the twenty-first century, yeah? I'm talking about the nineteen-fifties, when women wore dresses and men wore suits and there was a lot of hairspray involved."

Dani considered that. "Oh." She made a face. "I can see how that's not a good thing."

Sam snorted. "How about awful!" Her phone chimed a text alert and she checked it. "Tucker should be here in a little bit."

"Okay." Dani was silent for a moment. Then she glanced over at Sam. "Got any food?"

Fifteen minutes later found Tucker joining Sam and Dani in making eating peanut butter sandwiches in Sam's opulent bedroom. He was still wearing a suit and a top hat, though he took the latter off and hung it up on Sam's bedpost.

"Sam, I think your new butler hates me," Tucker complained, snatching a sandwich off the plate between the two girls. "Hey, Dani."

"He hates everyone," Sam said dismissively.

"Hi, Tucker!" Dani said cheerfully through a mouthful.

"No talking while eating," Sam said, nudging Dani's ankle with her boot. "Tucker, do you want to do the honors or should I?"

"About what?"

"Where's Danny?" Dani asked.

Tucker stared at Dani for a solid moment. "Oh. Oh." He turned to Sam. "You haven't told her?"

"I was attacked. By monsters with really sharp teeth. And before you ask, no, they weren't ghosts." Sam rubbed her eyes. "I didn't want the headache of explaining a really sticky situation to Danny's 'cousin'."

Tucker was still hung up on the "monsters with really sharp teeth" comment. "Monsters with really sharp teeth? Where—"

"Never mind that!" Dani interrupted. "Where's Danny?"

"Danny…has been gone for a while," Tucker said slowly. "We're not quite sure where he is, but we've gotten news that he's all right." He shook his head. "Look, I know you're worried about him. We all are. But I'm a bit more concerned about this 'monsters with really sharp teeth' thing. We can't deal with Danny but if we have monsters right here in the middle of Amity Park, I'd like to know."

Dani gave Tucker a disgusted face but acquiesced. "They didn't set my ghost sense off, even though they were shadows. They could fly but that's about all the resemblance they had with ghosts. I fried them with a really bright ghost ray."

"They were after me," Sam added. "Or maybe they weren't since I was the only one there but they were chasing me. I would've been a goner if Dani hadn't shown up."

Tucker considered that for a moment, chewing his sandwich as he did. "All right. We'll have to tell the Fentons. With Danny out of the town and Valerie still healing, we're going to need the town's resident ghost hunters on the job if this is going to be a problem. They're going to need to meet you, too," Tucker told Dani.

"I'm not telling them that Vlad Plasmius cloned their son," Sam said.

"They don't know about me?" Dani sounded confused. "I thought they knew about Danny now."

Tucker and Sam shared a glance. Tucker's clearly said, "Oh no. This is all on you now."

Sam pursed her lips and turned to the young half-ghost. "Danny…has issues. He tells us just about everything but he still hasn't told his parents most of what happened since he became a half-ghost. That includes you and most of what Plasmius did. It's not that he's ashamed of you. It's just that it's an awkward conversation to have with your parents. If you'd shown up earlier while he was still here, he wouldn't have had a problem with introducing you."

"The problem we have now," Tucker said, "is that Danny isn't here. And that means the Fentons are going to be kind of…"

"Suspicious," Sam finished. "Even Jazz doesn't know."

Tucker snorted. "Are you kidding me, Sam? Danny hates her psychoanalyzing him on a regular basis anyway. Why would he give her even more fodder?"

"I'm just saying. Even his own sister doesn't know about you," Sam told Dani. "So it's not—"

"It's not me, it's him?" Dani rolled her eyes. "I have to say, I get it. It'd be awkward telling people I'm his clone."

"Cousin," Sam corrected. "He always talks about you as his cousin."

"'Course, that wouldn't fly with the Fentons." Tucker glanced down at his watch and popped the last bit of his sandwich in his mouth. "All right, Sam. We'd better go and tell them."

"You mean you're going to tell them," Sam said.

Dani simply swiped the two remaining sandwiches off the platter.

When Sam and Tucker (no longer in a suit now) entered Fenton Works, Dani remained behind them, not wanting to shock her cousin's parents.

Maddie and Jack were downstairs in the lab. Jazz was in the kitchen and she saw the trio first.

"Sam, Tucker!" She cocked her head in surprise when she saw the girl behind them. "Who's this?"

"One of the things we have to talk about," Sam said. "Are your parents in the lab?"

"They're working on some sort of goggles," Jazz confirmed. "I think it's to imitate ghost sight." She went to the staircase that led to the lab. "Mom! Dad! Sam and Tucker need to talk to you!" Glancing back at the three, she added, "I'm guessing our guest will be more comfortable while not surrounded by weapons designed to hurt ghosts."

"Is something wrong, Jazz?" Jack thundered up the stairs. "Is it a ghost?"

Maddie was only a second behind him. "None of our alarms went off, Jack! It can't be a ghost!"

"I thought your alarms detected half-ghosts?" Sam asked, confused.

Maddie and Jack shrugged.

"Danny spends a lot of time in the lab and it's a bit tiresome having to turn the alarms off because he always sets them off," Maddie explained. "We just calibrated them to his ecto-signature, so they recognize him as 'friendly'. They'll detect any other half-ghost that decides to show up."

"Well, that's convenient," Tucker said, glancing back at Dani. "Because you're wrong. There is a ghost here."

Jack brightened. "Where?"

Dani gave a small cough, stepping to the side next to Sam. "Hi. I'm Dani."

Maddie started. "Danny?"

Dani shook her head. "No, sorry. It's…um… Dani with an 'i'. I'm Danny's cousin."

"His cousin?" Maddie and Jack chorused simultaneously. For her part, Jazz simply looked very, very confused.

"To be entirely accurate, Dani isn't really Danny's cousin," Tucker inserted smoothly. "She's…erm…" He made a face. "To be blunt, she was made by Plasmius using Danny's DNA."

"What he's trying to say is that I'm his clone," Dani said bluntly.

"Oh!" Jazz was staring at Dani. "So that's why you're a girl? Because two Xs were more stable than an X and a Y chromosome?"

Dani shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I wasn't very stable at the start either. Danny stabilized me some time ago."

Maddie and Jack looked at Sam and Tucker, who shook their heads.

"He was by himself for that," Sam explained. "He didn't go into a lot of detail either."

"He and Valerie came to a bit of truce at that time, he said," Tucker said. "Something about Dani appealing to Valerie's womanly nature."

Sam rounded on Tucker. "He never told me that!"

Tucker seemed to realize he had just committed a grave faux pas. "Oops." He put up his hands defensively. "Don't blame me, Sam! I'm just the messenger!"

"I think she thought I was just a girl," Dani said defensively.

"You are," Sam and Tucker said simultaneously.

"I'm half-ghost!"

"Like Danny?" Maddie asked.

Dani gazed at her uncertainly, nodding. "Yeah. We were all half-ghosts, or somewhat close. You don't…mind, do you?"

The adults smiled at her.

"You're one of Danny's friends," Maddie said. "In fact, you're his cousin. Of course we don't mind, sweetie."

"I've always wanted a second daughter!" Jack proclaimed, beaming broadly.

"You have?" Jazz asked.

"I wasn't really planning on staying, though," Dani said hurriedly. "It was more of a stop, since Danny said I could. But…well…there were some…not-ghost things."

"Back up." Jazz looked hard at Dani. "You're here because Danny said you could stay here. But you're not planning on staying. But something happened?"

"There were some black shadow-like monsters," Sam said. "I was out walking to the park when they started chasing me. Dani managed to get them."

"Ghosts?" Maddie asked, one restraining hand on her exuberant husband.

"No." Dani shook her head. "I have a ghost sense, and it didn't go off at all."

"I didn't have a thermos with me, so we didn't catch any of them," Sam lamented, running a hand through her hair. "But damn if those weren't the weirdest things I've ever seen. They were right in the sidewalk until Dani took me flying."

"And you guys have never seen something like that?" Jazz inquired.

"If we did, it would've been in the files we showed you," Sam said. "It's something new."

"But why now?" Jazz sounded frustrated. "Danny isn't here. So why would these things show up now?"

"Maybe that's why," Tucker suggested. "Danny isn't here so what better time to do so?"

"But they're not ghosts!" Sam cried. "Ghosts have a bone to pick with Danny Phantom, not random things!"

"Ghost or not, they're an issue, aren't they?" Maddie interrupted the quarrel. "How often have you seen them?"

"Just today, Mrs. Fenton," Sam said, sighing heavily. "But that's enough, isn't it?"

"We'll give you kids some weapons," Jack decided, running critical eyes over the three teens' bodies. He turned to Dani. "You probably don't need them."

"I'm half-ghost," Dani said matter-of-factly. "If I can't do something, weapons probably can't either."

"I'd like the Fenton Wrist-Rays," Sam requested. "They're easy to cart around."

"They have a limited charge," Maddie mused. "Something a bit bigger would be a better idea."

"Can I have both?"

"Come down into the lab!" Jack grinned happily. "You can see what we have and pick something out." He winked at Dani. "You'll really enjoy what we've got down there!"

Dani looked alarmed. "I'm a ghost!"

"But your ecto-signature is similar to Danny's, isn't it?" Maddie said kindly. "It's why none of our alarms went off when you entered the house. They register you as him."

"Joy," Dani muttered, not sounding particularly happy about this fact.

Sam shot Dani a critical look, but kept silent. She thought she knew what Dani was upset about. As a clone, Dani would have things in common with Danny. But she wasn't just a clone. She was her own person. Yet facts like her having the same ecto-signature as Danny and even wearing clothes similar to Danny detracted from this fact; heck, even her ghost half looked similar to Danny's! As a girl who lived to be her own unique individual, Sam could completely understand where Dani was coming from.

When this mess sorted itself out, she was going to take Dani out and get something that the girl could call her own.

In the meantime, though, she was headed downstairs to get protection. She didn't know how well that protection would work considering that these things weren't ghosts, but since Dani's ecto-beams had wreaked damage, she figured that regular ghost weapons would also do the trick.

'Oh, Danny…' Sam sighed mentally. 'If you were here…'

It didn't matter that she and Tucker had been fighting ghosts with Danny for the last two years. They still didn't hold a candle to the knowledge Danny possessed on fighting ghosts, as he was actually half a ghost himself. Furthermore, Sam suspected that Danny didn't release all the details when it came to telling them what he got up to by himself. Case in point – his trip to stabilize Dani.

"Is that the Fenton Lipstick?" Tucker snatched it up. "I call it!"

Refraining from rolling her eyes, Sam picked up the Fenton Wrist-Ray and attached it to her wrist, rolling up the sleeve of her sweater as she did.

"Take these as well." Maddie tossed the two ecto-guns and holsters. "The holsters clip onto your pants."

"At least I'm not in a suit anymore," Tucker joked, clipping the holster on. He holstered the ecto-gun in it, checking how quickly he could draw it. "Man, I feel like James Bond!"

"You just need the watch and the fancy car," Sam said, checking that the gun was in working condition.

"I already have a fancy car, Sam."

"It's a limo. James Bond has cars that can race."

"Do you want a Fenton Thermos?" Jack asked Dani, proudly holding it out to her. "We've also got a belt that was specially designed for Danny. It holds this thermos and a bunch of our other babies." He procured a silver belt from seemingly thin air. "It's magnetic, see?" He demonstrated this property by attaching the thermos to it. "Nothing will fall off unless you specifically grab it."

"You're really giving this to me?" Dani asked, slightly stunned. "But—"

"No buts, sweetie," Maddie said, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You're family. Jack and I are going to grill Danny on the details eventually, but consider yourself part of our family now."

Dani smiled broadly, taking the belt. "Then thanks!" She transformed into Dani Phantom without a second's thought and clipped the belt on. It was slightly loose.

"That can be fixed," Jack assured her before anything could be said. He some sort of scanner and applied it to the belt. A hum was heard before the belt just seemed to shrink.

Dani blinked, amazed. "Wow, talk about high tech!"

Jack grinned unashamedly. "That's just the start. There's our portal, a connection right to the Ghost Zone!" He nodded to the Fenton Ghost Portal that was built into the wall. It was currently bolted shut due to the fact that Danny wasn't present.

Floating over to it, Dani inspected it. "It doesn't look very different from Plasmius's," she commented. "Does it work the same way?"

"There's a genetic lock on it," Maddie explained. "Only a Fenton can open it."

"And us," Sam added. "We're always hunting with Danny so we're also keyed into it."

"If anyone ever manages to sneak into here, we don't want them poking around that," Jazz said, clipping on a Wrist-Ray as well as taking an ecto-gun.

"Is there any good in keeping it locked like this, though?" Dani asked. "I mean, there are a bunch of natural portals around. Ghosts won't stop coming here just because an easy access point is closed. I can't tell you how many ghosts I've come across while touring Europe. The Tower of London is crawling with them!"

Jack brightened. "We need to go to London, Maddie!"

"That's nice, Jack," Maddie said soothingly, handing Tucker a second Fenton Lipstick. "But we're not going anywhere until Danny is back."

Dani shared an amused glance with Sam, Tucker, and Jazz before turning fully around to face the rest of the lab.

Sam saw her glance around the lab, taking it in. The Goth made her own inventory of the space, noting that it was much neater than it used to be. But then, it would have to be considering that the Fentons were aware that their son was half-ghost. Before it didn't matter, but now a careless mistake could be very dangerous for Danny.

Never mind that he'd been dodging danger for two years. It was just safer.

Her eyes drifted past the staircase to look at Jack pushing an ugly pair of goggles on Jazz before she quickly snapped her attention back to the stairs. Had she seen something?

Narrowing her eyes, Sam unconsciously lifted her wrist to an ideal firing position. Her eyes didn't waver from the stairs and she caught it: a shadowy movement.

Tucker noticed her preoccupation. "Sam?"

"There's…something there," Sam murmured. "Some sort of…thing."

This time Sam could definitely see something shift in the shadows. "There!" She caught the adults' attention as well. "Did you see it?"

"It could just be a bad bulb," Tucker said uncertainly.

"After what happened earlier? No way."

Maddie and Jack lifted up some bulky ecto-guns, fingers on the trigger.

Dani flew over to the stairs, firing up a ghost ray as she did. "I…don't see anything," she said uncertainly. "But then…"

There was a loud inhumane shriek, cutting Dani off before she could say anything else. Something leapt out of the floor, pouncing on the ghost girl and throwing her to the floor. The ghost ray in her hand fired off harmlessly to the side, impacting the ceiling.

"Dani!" Sam tried to get a good lock on the creature but couldn't for fear of hitting Dani.

"Hell, there are more!" Tucker began firing on the floor, where writhing black shadows were darting about.

"On the counters!" Maddie jumped on the counter, trying to hit one of them but failing and simply hitting the floor.

Dani let out a loud scream before the thing covering her seemed to grow and just cover her entire form. In another instant it sank into the floor and disappeared, taking Dani with it.

"Oh my God!" Jazz gasped, shocked. "Oh my God! What the hell was that? Dani, Dani!"

"Hell, no!" Sam snarled, taking out her ecto-gun and shooting like mad. None of her shots had any effect.

In fact, none of them could seem to hit any of the shadows. Eventually, Sam felt something clutch at her ankle. She tried to shake it off but failed.

It was only a moment before a writhing black mass of something swarmed over her, making Sam's skin crawl. It was slimy and cold and utterly disgusting. Yet Sam didn't spend more than a minute in it before she found herself lying flat and supine on a gravelly floor, gasping for air she didn't even know she'd been denied.

"Sam? Sam? Are you all right?"

Sam turned her head sideways to see Dani looking worriedly at her out of electric green eyes. "Fine," she managed to rasp. She cleared her throat. "You?"

Dani shrugged. "Yeah. But we're in a dome of sorts. I don't know what. Whatever brought us here left right after. You…just popped out of the floor in a black mass."

Sam pushed herself to her knees, noting that she still had her weapons and that she was apparently in a transparent dome that was flickering green. It was approximately about fifteen feet in diameter. Outside of the dome seemed to be the inside of an extraordinarily large building with a rounded ceiling and pillars around them; the whole area had a very Lord of the Rings vibe to it. "Oh God…" She shuddered in disgust. "That was…awful."

There was no time to further elaborate on that as four more black shapes pushed out of the floor, peeling back to reveal the forms of Maddie, Jack, Tucker, and Jazz. They promptly burst into gasps, having been similarly deprived of oxygen.

"What – the hell"—Tucker coughed—"was that?"

A high-pitched and manic voice spoke. "My clever pets. Did you like?" It gave off an insane giggle.

"Who's there?" Sam demanded. She got to her feet.

"Behind you," the voice sang.

Sam and Dani whirled around, being the only two on their feet. The others simply twisted around to see who had spoken. They were struck dumb by the sight.

It was Dani who managed to speak first. "What…who…"

"What the hell are you?" Jazz blurted out.

The ghost giggled again before breaking into frantic laughter. He had white hair and was wearing what resembled a black and white jumpsuit. His eyes were an odd mixture of colors; the right had an iris that was green fading into red, while the left was entirely red. What was strange about the ghost was that the entire right half of his head seemed rather shadowy, as if the head was having trouble holding itself together. It faded in and out of view.

What was most startling was the jagged emblem on the chest. It wasn't entirely whole and seemed to have been partly ripped off, but it could clearly be seen that it had been the famous emblem of Danny Phantom.

The ghost finally stopped laughing to grin mirthlessly. "Who am I?" His voice changed to become harsh. "I'm your worst nightmare."

BTW, you should check out ChristinCC's stories. She's written a ton of really cool poems!

Thanks to lokoforsonic9559, Copa-Phantom, Mysterious Prophetess, alienvspredator5, bug349, Kung-fu Blaziken, Mak8907, Leo112, Anonymous Shadow, Ndasuunye, starr1095, Midnayuki, kirara the great, ShadowAngelBeta, Jay1331, WCSII, HalfafanD, ChristinCC, Selias, Kaitou Kid San, Thenior's Wifey, akitty, ChopSuzi, cocoa85715, warrioprincess951, and MaybirdGreen for reviewing the last chapter!