AN: Hey, guys! Sorry this one is going up a little late. School, and friend stuff, and yeah. But I'm back! And with a new chapter! They are slowly getting longer, on average, guys. Don't worry too much. I wouldn't want to make you...

Restless

Dark circles under his eyelids, Danny yawned as he wandered the Amity Park streets. He really should stop working on those goggles at all hours of the morning. But hey, it was only two a.m. Much better than last time, when he was up till four. Still, it was entirely possible he was beyond the point of exhaustion, but who was keeping track? In fact, he ignored his ghost alarm when it went off. He looked up at the night sky, absently picking out the few constellations he could make out against the harsh light of the street lights, and smiled. If there was one thing that would just about guarantee him calming down, it was the night sky. Ever since he was little, the stars had always been his favorite things. And the best time to see them, in a somewhat lit up city like Amity Park, was in the middle of the night, when most people were asleep. That was, until someone with white hair floated above him. He glared, and barked up at the figure. "Hey! I thought I told you to scram!"

The ghost seemed to fall out of the air at the sudden voice below him, which Danny wasn't going to admit he found amusing. Once the ghost composed himself, he cleared his throat. "Oh, it's you. Well, I would, but circumstances make that impossible."

He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, right. Only reason I let you go last time was cause you weren't a problem. Now, you're out here flying around! Explain yourself!"

The ghost's eyes widened, "I wasn't doing anything wrong. I couldn't sleep, so I went for a fly! Just like humans going for a drive or a walk." He seemed to give a partial grin, as though trying to charm his way out of the situation.

Danny scowled at the shabby excuse. "Please, you couldn't sleep even if you wanted to." At the confused stare, he rolled his eyes. Great, the guy must be new, if he didn't know. "Ghosts physically can't sleep."

The ghost gave him a careful look, and were those bags? Under a ghost's eyes? "I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but it's wrong."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say Mr. Ghost Guy." That reminded Danny of something he should have asked, or demanded, upon their first meeting. "You got a name, ghost?"

The guy seemed to panic, eyes darting around, "It's, uh, Anderson! Michael Anderson!"

Danny gave a small smirk, as though detecting the lie. He might let it slide, just this once. "Alright, Michael," His eyes snapped to the alarm strapped to his belt, seeing a flash of red out of the corner of his eye from Michael's direction. He glared up at Michael, memories of the Spectra fight coming back to him. "You fight ghosts, right?"

He seemed to freeze up a bit, "Uh, well, I-"

A thermos was tossed into his hands, and he fumbled to catch it, hissing and shaking his hand, before putting it in his hood. "Good. Hang on to that. We got one comin' up on us."

A white and green cobra with red eyes crashed into the building in front of them, and hissed. Danny sprung into action, literally. He jumped on top of the nearby dumpster, and scrambled up the fire escape. He looked back to see Michael standing there stiff as a board, his eyes wide with awe as he watched Danny do all this with ease. Danny sighed exasperatedly and called out to him, "Hey, new guy! Instead of checkin' me out, how about fighting the animal ghost!"

Michael seemed to snap out of it, shaking his head and flying higher. "Oh, please! As if you had much that was worth checking out!" He threw a few ectoblasts at the cobra, which only seemed to make it angrier as it snapped at him.

"Wow. Rude. That was just rude. Also, why don't you do something more useful instead of making it more pissed?!" He unhooked his ecto pistol from his hip, taking aim and firing it at the back of the cobra's neck, causing it to shriek in anger and swing it's head towards him. "Shit," he cursed, dodging the flick of it's tail.

Glaring, Michael took the opportunity of the cobra turning its back on him, and fired more ectoblasts at the animal, aiming for near the same area Danny had. "Now, now, surely cursing is below you! Also, it seems to be weak at the base of it's head! I would suggest aiming for there when you have the chance!"

And so they alternated. When it would go for Michael, Danny shot at it, and vice versa. Amongst all this, the banter began fizzling out, until they were fighting with silent efficiency. Finally, the cobra gave a cry, and was having trouble moving from one boy to the other. Danny nodded, shouting over to Michael, "Use the thermos!"

Michael shook his head as though the boy was crazy, "What?!"

Danny sighed, throwing a rock to keep the snake's attention on him. "It's a ghost containment device! Just push the big green button!"

Michael shrugged, and took the thermos from his hood. He grimaced, yet still managed to toss the lid to the ground, Danny sighing that he'd have to pick it up later. Figuring he had nothing to lose, Michael aimed it at the cobra, who was slowly regaining its ground, and clenched his eyes shut, finger flicking the button. He lurched backwards as a stream of blue light came out, and hit the cobra. It cried out, slowly turning the same shade of blue as the light. With a roar of disappointment at it's lost meal, the cobra was sucked into the thermos, and as soon as he was sure there was nothing left of the cobra outside of the thermos, he slammed it shut.

Danny grinned, jumping down from his spot on the fire escape, tucking and rolling to soften the blow. Michael slowly floated to the ground, and handed the thermos to Danny, also picking up the cap for him.. "Not bad. For a ghost," He made sure to add on at the end as he gave a half smile for getting the cap.

"You didn't do too terribly, either. For a human," Michael said, in a sort of mocking tone.

Instead of Danny getting angry, as he had expected, his half smile turned into a full out smirk. "Touche." Receiving a small smile in return, he rubbed the back of his neck. "You're… not all that bad. And if you keep fighting ghosts like this, I may just let you stick around, Mikey."

Michael rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms as he leaned back on his leg. Just like a regular teenager, Danny thought to himself. "Oh, certainly, it would be my honor to stay here and help you fight ghosts. And it's not Mikey. It's Michael. If you're going to use my name, at least get it right."

"Yeah. whatever, Mikey." Danny looked up at the moon, Michael following his gaze. Danny frowned at the placement of it in the sky, and swore. "Shit. It's almost 2:45. I need to get home if I want some semblance of sleep." It was strange, explaining his reason for leaving to a ghost. But… he felt he could trust this ghost, for some reason. After all, he didn't have much else to lose, at this point. Just his life.

Michael nodded, gaze falling from the moon, to Danny. "Yes, I can certainly agree with that statement." He turned, throwing Danny a smirk over his shoulder. "Until next we meet, Danny."

Danny gave a single, small wave, and started on his walk home. It was only as he was climbing the gutter spout and into his room to collapse on his bed did he realize something. He had never told Michael his first name.

So, kinda weird, right? How is it that this so called Michael knows Danny? I know, I know, I need to work on subtlety. I wrote this scene like half a year ago. Gimme a break. Well, I gotta go. But I hope you guys liked! Remember, reviews make me smile! Kasena, out!