I'm experimenting with a style that combines points-of-view and mixes first person thoughts and third person description. Hopefully it isn't too confusing, but let me know...

Also, if you read the 100 word drabble prologue, you might want to go back and re-read it because I lengthened it out to explain things a little more.

Chapter 1:

Change of Plans

If Dash had followed his original plans on that Tuesday morning and simply made Kwan drive him to school in his new sports car, he never would have been there to see what happened.

But he didn't ride with Kwan. Instead, he had taken his own pickup to school that day even though the vehicle was kinda dinky. Since his parents refused to buy one for him and instead were making him save up his own money for a new car and there was no possible way that he would ever find his way to behind the counter at the Nasty Burger or another similar job, that fund was finding itself rather short at the moment.

Besides that, he always needed to keep up with the latest CDs and the little things that made him the unquestioned leader of the A-list, and of course, those cost money too. And so, even as important as a sleek, impressive vehicle was, it had to be put onto the back burner for all of the immediate things that people saw every day in the halls of Casper High.

He rarely drove the vehicle he did have keys to since he had to keep up his image as Casper's star quarter-back and the ultimate blonde jock-to-be.

The absence of his own stylish car wasn't necessarily the worst thing in the world. It actually boosted his image to be seen chauffeured around by the A-list if he played it right. What did not help his image, however, was coming to school on his own in a rusty red pickup.

That was why when he drove to school this morning, he parked several streets away, out of eye shot of the high school's curving drive, and walked up the rest of the way. Everyone would think that he had ridden with someone else. No one would question him if they didn't see a physical truck to poke fun at him for.

He had sighed resignedly and picked up his jangling key ring this morning because he needed to mix up his schedule, be unpredictable. He didn't know if driving himself and taking a different route to school would, or even could, help him in his situation, but at this point, he was ready to try just about anything.

Three consecutive nights of no sleep other than the uneasy slumbers he quickly pulled himself out of left him more paranoid than he thought he could ever become. His baggy eyes now looked warily over his shoulder, always darting to the shadows expecting to see it again.

He hadn't for a while now, and not yet during the day, but he was convinced that the peace wouldn't last. And he had to make himself scarce so that he could be left alone for the day.

So even though it pained him to do so, he endured driving his beat up truck and walking past the dank alleyways of an old strip mall.

These stores had not fared well since the appearance of ghosts in Amity Park. The town did bizarre tourism, yes. Shopping, no, not so much.

At least, not those fringe stores that never really needed to be built in the first place, although the establishments that sported ghost-based clothing and knick-knacks did an incredible business, even for the locals. It seemed to be a matter of pride for them to show off the thing their town was known for, even if it was only to a million other people who already knew it.

The walk was not a very pleasant one, but he would brave passing the derelict and dark deserted buildings several times over if there was a chance it could help rid him of his nightmare.

And so it was that Dash was around to see a flash of black and white (it took him less than a second to recognize his hero) zoom out of one alleyway and into another, followed closely by a huge metallic foe (the same one who had been chasing him when he and Phantom had been shrunk together).

He could never forget that hideously grinning face, not when it was associated with the worst day of his life. He had been puny for so long. And he didn't do puny!

So it was with a little shiver— that he would have denied had anyone pointed it out to him— that he stopped his route to the school and made for the scene of the fight instead.

There was no way that he was going to give up the chance to watch his idol in action, even if he was supposed to be in Lancer's history class in about six minutes. It probably wouldn't even take that long for Danny Phantom to take care of this stinkin' ghost… and it wasn't like Dash really cared to get to class on time anyway.

He didn't even stop to consider the dangers—what could possibly go wrong if Danny Phantom was there to protect him? I mean, he had protected him even without being able to use his powers when they were both… puny. It had been so incredibly awesome!

Maybe, this time, after the ghost boy whooped the other ghost to kingdom come, he could stick around long enough to give his number one fan an autograph. Dash hadn't had the chance to ask him for one after their last adventure together…

And maybe… just maybe… he could help Phantom out again. He could deliver the last punch that would the ghost flying into the soup can and he would be taken care of. Dash had dreamed of doing that for over a year now, perfecting his perfect punch on every single nerd to cross his path for just such an occasion.

If he did help to fight this ghost, then Phantom would have to help him out with his problem. Man, this was all working just perfectly! He couldn't have planned it better himself if he had tried.

Dash walked out boldly into the side street where the fight was just reaching its conclusion.

"Whelp!" the large ghost cried as he hovered frozen in the air, unable to fire the multiple large cannons protruding from various places in his armor. "This is not the last you'll hear of meeeeeeeee-!"

Danny smirked as he held the thermos, currently emitting a growing blue stream of light that had caught the ghost mid-strike.

"Yeah, yeah, Skulker, that's what you always say," he drawled out.

In another second, the hunter had disappeared and Phantom capped the thermos tightly before zooming away.

Dash had hardly had time to register that he had missed his hero in action and that the town's savior was actually out of sight before he called out to him in a last ditch effort to get a face-to-face conversation. He hurried after the young ghost, hoping to find him before he had completely vanished, but stopped momentarily as he was blinded by a blue-white light from around the corner.

The jock gasped. Maybe Phantom had summoned a worm-hole at will to take him to his lair in the Ghost Zone until he was needed again! Or maybe, he was able to… to…

He sped up until he was nearly running, hoping that the flash hadn't made Phantom disappear entirely. He put all of his hard worked conditioning toward getting to where he thought the young ghost was, so it was an especially hard collision he had with something moving back around the corner.

Both parties grunted and fell on their backsides with little sense of decorum. Dash, used to being pummeled by at least four star footballers at a time, recovered quickly, just keeping a hand to his head to keep the world from spinning around him.

He looked up to see the person he had run into and was immediately struck by the all important fact that it was not Danny Phantom. Not even close, actually. No, the kid who had thrown himself around the corner at him was the dweeb Danny Fenton.

Danny was already up and searching around him for something. Within seconds, he had picked up the green and silver cylinder which had rolled over to a stop against the wall. And then he was over, checking the person he had bowled over in his haste to get to class.

He really should have known better than to transform like that— when had his attempts to do something quickly ever result in something good and non-secret threatening for him? He really needed to be more careful. It wouldn't hurt him to wait a few seconds before dashing out of the corner when he had transformed, or even spend a second sticking his invisible head through the wall in order to make sure the coast was clear.

He had been saying to Sam just the other day that he had been getting smarter about these things and so here what did he do but rush out and bump into a citizen of Amity so close to him that they had probably seen the fight. And if they got up and took a look around the corner to see that it was actually a dead end, they would know that he had been part of the attack and he would be screwed.

Okay, time to start some damage control. Figure out who this person was and get their attention away from any connections they may want to make with him and the ghost who had been there a moment before.

He walked over with a hand extended, ready to help up whoever it was when he realized exactly who it was. He stopped short as Dash looked from him to the thermos to the alley and back to his face again in shock.

"Dash!" Danny exclaimed, rather needlessly proclaiming the obvious.