GOOOOOOD EVENING EVERYONE!

Guess what day today is? That's right! The very first anniversary of this story series. Oh I can't believe it has already been a year since I got suddently a stupid desire to publish the first half of my two shot story... That ended up to be a way longer than I ever planed and hundred times more popular than I could even imagine.
So thank you all. Especilly those who have been part of this since the beginning. And if it would be possible to sent hugs through the internet, I would definitely sent you all the biggest and warmest hug in the world. But since it's impossible I can only give you all a ghost hug. You can't feel it, but it's there.

Thank you to my beta jaguarspot and to NAVSO311 for helping me with finding a new name to Kaldur (because 25 year old man with name Aqualad would be just stupid) and the most interesting discussion that I have had in a very long time. And don't worry, the other idea you gave me will be used better in the next chapter.

And as alway.

Enjoy!

Look deep into nature, and you then you will understand everything better

-Albert Einstein

The Disasteroid… That was the name mankind had given the asteroid that had almost destroyed their home planet. The week after astronomers had announced the upcoming crash had been one of the most terrifying in their history. Of course people had already walked through many wars, catastrophes, even alien invasions, but this time it had truly seemed that there was no hope left for them. Their weapons were useless against the asteroid and the planet's strongest heroes, who could have just pushed the space rock away from its course, had left on an off planet mission to the far away galaxy and there was no way they would be able to reach them on time. Even their last desperate act to save their lives, the ghost hybrid called Vlad Plasmius who had demanded 500 billion dollars and the tittle of Earth's ruler as payment for his work, had failed...

And they would have all died if there hadn't been one particular outcast hero from a small city called Amity Park: Danny Phantom. The ghost boy.

He and his human friend, a techno geek with too much free time, had explained the whole world their plan to use the ghosts' ability to turn the whole planet intangible so the asteroid could just travel through Earth without destroying it. The only problem had been that they wouldn't be able to do it alone. They needed everyone's help: heroes, villains, civilians… Every single country and kingdom, even Atlantis andThemyscira, had to do their part if they wanted to survive.

It was a ridiculous plan, suicidal even, not even mentioning that only a few had even believed in ghosts before Plasmius betrayal and all information they had about these creatures didn't show them in very good light. But if they had been desperate enough to give up their lands in the hands of a madman, they surely were desperate enough to trust the dead boy's word.

So in the following short four days a huge tower was built in the South Pole and lands were covered with the special made cables that would be able to direct the ghosts' energy to everywhere it was needed. It had been an expensive project, but for once no one cared about the money, and with the help of numerous metas, they managed to finish their task just in time.

And believe it or not, the Phantom's insane plan had worked. The Disasteroid went through Earth without any kind of problems and every single humanoid in Earth was finally able to breathe again. But, even though that day almost no one realised it, they hadn't only managed to save their home. Oh no, they had managed to create something even more important: the power of international teamwork. And maybe, just maybe, it was also the start for worldwide peace that humankind had dreamed of since the beginning of their race.

To Danny Phantom, though, it had been the day when he was finally accepted as a true hero. During the two following weeks after his plan had saved the world, there had been hundreds of celebrations in his honour. Almost every single leader of the countries of the world had sent their praises to him, Amity Park had even erected him a statue in front of their city hall, not even mentioning the long praising speech that Superman had given the young hero through TV from the Hall of Justice on behalf of the whole Justice League, after he had finally returned from his own space mission.

But to Danny, none of those things really mattered. To him, the greatest gift had come from his parents.

When he had finally returned home from the Pole, after a long discussion with various generals, ministers and heroes, his whole family had been waiting for him. His parents had told him how they had finally discovered his secret during the operation. Apparently his re-programmed robot look-a-like hadn't been good enough to distract them, but to be honest, it was only a miracle that it had even worked at all in the first place.

To Danny's great surprise, his parents had been neither angry nor disappointed, just a bit sad and embarrassed because they hadn't realised it sooner and their son hadn't trusted them enough to reveal his identity as a halfa. They had been proud of him, happy for him and the most important: they had accepted their son as he was: a freak, a menace, a hero... A ghost. And for the first time in a very, very long time, he was truly happy.

"Are you sure you want to do this on your own?" Danny asked his girlfriend, oh how he loved that word, as they walked hand on hand towards Sam's home. The fresh couple was just returning from their evening flight after watching the reveal of the Phantom's statue from the top of a near hill. It had also been Tucker's very first official ceremony as Amity Park's newest, and youngest, mayor. And since Danny hadn't wanted anyone or anything to steal that spotlight from his best friend, the two boys had agreed it would be the best if Danny would follow the ceremony from a distance and keep an eye out for any possible problems, even though, besides him and Sam, currently only Danny's family was aware of his double life. "I don't mind taking all their yelling."

Sam just gave a small laugh and shook her head. "Mom won't just yell at you when she finds out what we have been doing for the past three years Danny; she will brutally murder you. And probably dad too… I did told you that he has a gun, didn't I."

The halfa shuddered when the goth's words brought his last December's discussion with her mother back to his mind. He wouldn't say that he was afraid of Mrs. Manson, he had known the woman since he had been eight years old and, even through her obvious dislike towards him, the woman had never actually tried to hurt him. It was just that he had recently become a bit too aware of the fact she really was callable to kill someone if she wanted to.

"And what makes you think that they won't do anything to you?"

Sam gave Danny a pointed look. "Yeah, right. The worst thing that they can do is ground me for the rest of my life. Luckily, even if they would do that, I'm sure that a certain hero I know can always come to rescue me from my cruel fate."

"Unless your mom finds out how to grow Blood Blossoms." He half joked. After returning Infi-map to Frostbite the very first time, the trio had searched and read all possible information that they had been able to get on their hands about those flowers with anti-supernatural properties. All they had found though had been just a couple inaccurate descriptions, giving the teens hope that either the flowers had become extinct during last four centuries or they were so rare that modern civilization hadn't yet discovered them.

The girl snorted and hit playfully her boyfriend's arm. "As if you would let something like that stop you from trying."

"Hey! Those things really hurt, you know." The halfa defended himself. "If I ever see even one of those red and violet devils near your house, you will be your own, lady."

"Are you truly going to let me rot in my room till I become old and die just because you are afraid of some little plants?" Sam asked gasping dramatically, her face twisted by face hurt. "What happened to your hero complex?"

"It died with half of my humanity." The boy answered seriously. Danny and Sam had now stopped front of the goth's house, both staring at each other coldly, before Danny finally lost his cool and burst into laughter, Sam soon following his example.

"Seriously Danny. Those half death jokes of yours are stupid." Sam chuckled as she wiped a lose tear of laugh off her cheek.

"And still you keep laughing at them." The young hero pointed out smiling her widely.

"It's not your jokes I'm laughing at." She teased him back while unlocking her house's front door. "I'm laughing at you."

As Danny hissed out of pain of his wounded pride, the young couple moved inside the house and Sam started to lead him towards the living room where she knew her parents and grandma would be watching the news at this time of evening.

"Hi everyone." The girl greeted happily, which was the only thing she needed to get the full attention of her now suspicious family. Happy Sam was never a common thing inside these walls, which wasn't that surprising considering her dark nature, and was always a sight from upcoming problems.

"Hello Sam, Daniel." Jeremy spoke with a too calm voice while his wife glared suspiciously at the young man next to their daughter. "How was your evening?"

"Yes sweetie, how was it?" Pamela asked sweetly, causing hairs to stand up on Danny's neck. "We didn't see either of you in the revealing ceremony."

"Oh, we were watching it." Sam told them quickly. "We were just a bit further from the mass so we would be able to see Tucker better, you know. It was quite a big occasion to him after all."

"Yes it was…." The two adults said in unison while Ida was making her best not to laugh at their action nor at the two sweating teenager's faces. Unlike her son, she still remembered times when Jeremy had been the same age as they were now and how pale he had been after meeting his second girlfriend's parents the very first time. Oh those golden times….

Danny cleared his throat nervously before turning to look at Sam. "I think I should go now." He said awkwardly and pointed his thumb towards the door. "My curfew is soon, so….."

"Yeah…." She answered, a small blush forming on her cheeks while she started to play with the ring that Danny had given her earlier that evening. "Be safe."

"You too. And try to survive." The halfa gave her a weak smile, his eyes asking her one last time if she really was sure about the plan that they had formed earlier that week, and when she gave him only an affirmative answer, he let two bluish white rings travel across his body.

The looks on Sam's parents' faces truly were worth seeing, just like she had promised him. Her father just stared the halfa front of him, his eyes large as plates and his jaw hanging comically almost like it would hit the floor in any second. Mrs. Manson wore an almost identical expression as her husband, but unlike him, she had started to hyperventilate and slur some quiet words that didn't make any sense. But Ida's reaction, on the other hand, wasn't anything that Danny had expected. She hadn't gotten a heart attack like the ghost boy had feared, and to be honest, Tucker had been so sure about it that the boys had even made a bet about it (something that Danny really hoped that Sam would never find out). Instead the old lady was almost jumping on her chair, so excited she was, wearing a huge smile and clapping her hands like a hyper five ear old who had just been told that unicorns were real. Well at least he was now twenty bucks richer…

"Mmmm… Have a nice evening?" The halfa said and gave a timid wave to the staring adults as he gave one last glance towards his girlfriend, who gave him a small smile in return, before flying trough of the ceiling and all other floors above him to the outside world.

However, he couldn't bear himself to leave just yet. Not until he was sure that Sam would be okay on her own, and therefore he remained hovering invisibly above the trees of the Mansons' garden. He didn't have to wait even five minutes before the furious screech that rivalled any full powered banshee, and believe him his ears had experienced that before, was heard from the inside of the building.

"YOU HAVE BE DOING WHAT FOR HOW LONG!"

Danny winced in sympathy and sudden pain that the loud scream had caused to his sensitive ears. Maybe Sam had been right and it truly was better if he stayed as far as possible from her parents for next couple days or weeks…

Wait! Had that tree just tried to hit him?!

Couple weeks it was. Definitely couple weeks. Or maybe even a whole month…

Shuddering a bit, the young hero started making his way towards his own home, giving a worried look over his shoulder every now and then, just hopping that Sam would really survive her mother's rage.

Danny hadn't managed to fly that far from the neighbourhood where Sam lived when his eyes caught a humanoid shaped shadow on the ground flying next to his own. As far as he could tell, it didn't belong to anyone he knew, but from its size and shape he was able to guess that whoever it was, the person was flying not that far above him. Letting his instincts control his actions, the halfa quickly turned himself once again invisible and speeded between two buildings where he then turned to study whether the action had any effect to the owner of the shadow.

"Oh c'mon!" An annoyed feminine voice cried out. From the distance Danny was, he was able to detect their clearly peachy skin and lack of any kind of ghostly aura, making Danny to believe, despite her ability to fly, the person was a one hundred percent alive. The ghost boy also noted the quite long blonde hair and red sweat pants and black top with golden design that was most likely some kind of symbol. He couldn't be sure though, since the person was spinning a lot while trying to locate where he had disappeared to.

When the boy's natural curiosity finally won over his suspiciousness, Danny slowly floated off from his hiding place and started to fly towards the blonde. It wasn't every day when metas (personally Danny saw himself more as a hybrid and Mrs. Manson used her own skills almost never) decided to show up in his city. And as Amity Park's official protector, it was naturally part of his job to make sure that they hadn't any funny ideas on their mind.

"Stupid ghosts and their stupid tricks…" The girl cursed under her breath as Danny approached behind her back, now seeing with ease her clearly feminine figure, still unable to get a better look on her shirt's symbol because of her endless moving.

"You know, it is kind of rude to berate others behind their back." Danny pointed out, feeling a bit smugly when he saw how the meta girl jumped higher in the air, showing him that he had managed to scare her out of her skin.

"Hah! Found you!" She grinned triumphantly after she had turned around and recognized the young hybrid who was currently staring her with a not so amused expression. Danny raised an eyebrow when the girl's new pose showed him what kind of symbol she was wearing, not bothering to correct her that technically it had been him who had found her. The symbol though, was one of those few ones that he actually knew, but something didn't feel right about it.

"Listen miss….. Whoever you are. I know that I'm not that good with superheroes, but even I am aware of the fact that Wonder Woman has black hair." And after another critical look he quickly added "Though I can't say that your cosplay has succeeded any other ways either."

Danny watched with satisfaction how the blonde's cheeks turned red out of the anger she tried poorly to hide. The halfa had learnt quickly in his early months as a hero that the angry and annoyed opponents were easier to defeat. Their anger made them sloppy, causing them to make mistakes they would never do otherwise, and it was one of the reasons why he liked to insult his enemies and the possible threats like the girl front of him so much.

"I'm not cosplaying anyone." The insulted girl snapped. "The name is Wonder Girl and since you have clearly been dead too long to know; I'm the partner of Wonder Woman."

Deciding not to bother commenting how stupid the word Girl sounded in someone her age, she looked as old as Jazz for Clockwork's sake, the boy let his posture relax a little, not because the blonde's new found partnership with one of the League's so called big guns had made him trust her more than a moment ago.
No, the true reason behind his action was to act in the way she expected him to act.
After "the bat incident", as Tucker liked to call Batman's visit, the Team Phantom had decided to keep a better eye on not only Gotham's heroes and rogues but also others who lived close to Amity Park including the Hawks, the Flash and Shazam. And if Danny had learnt something during past eight months, it was that heroes, especially Leaguers, seemed to expect people to calm down at the very same moment when they arrived. They had the same kind of aura of authority as police officers and soldiers had but to Danny it felt… heavier, more demanding… As if it was them who controlled the world.
And in a way, he believed, they did.

After noticing the change in the halfa's posture Wonder Girl too let her tensed muscles relax and flashed him a small, slightly awkward smile, but since she otherwise didn't show any sign leading to continue their conservation Danny decided to open his mouth and lift the cat on the table.

"Is there some particular reason why you suddenly decided to show up in my humble city or…"

"Oh, yeah I almost forgot." The older teenager let out an embarrassed laugh and rubbed the back of her head. "Our team leader wishes to meet you. He has some news and an offer that might interest you. My job was just to fly around and try to spot you. You are not exactly an easy person to find, you know."

Danny tilted his head suspiciously. "And your leader is?"

"Riptide." The girl smirked. "Though he used to be known as Aqualad. And let me guess: you haven't heard about either of them before, have you."

The ghost boy shot her an annoyed glare. The name Aqualad actually did ring some bells in his mind but he hadn't known that the Atlantean had changed his name. Well at least some sidekicks seemed to have enough sense to get rid of their childish titles when they became too old to pass as one.

The halfa hero sighed out loud and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He better get this thing over soon or he would be late for his curfew again. "Okay… Take me to your leader."

"Har har har" Wonder Girl laughed sarcastically as she spun gracefully around in the air and started to fly towards the park. "You're a real comedian."

"Hey! My friends appreciate my humour." Danny argued and speeded after the heroine. What was this? Insult the half dead boy's humour day or something?

"Undoubtedly." The blonde snorted then pressed a small earpiece that Danny hadn't noticed earlier to inform her friends about their soon arrival.

"How many of you exactly are here?" He asked as if in passing, trying his best to get some useful information out from the older superhero without making her suspicious.

"Beside me and the boss man? Just Superboy, Kid Flash and Robin."

Danny let out an impressed whistle. "Five against little old me? Should I be flattered or offended?"

"Naah…" Wonder Girl shrugged her shoulders. "KF came because Tides wanted someone to cover the ground, you seriously should consider getting some kind of contact line, and Supey is there only to keep the Demon's brat in check. Seriously, Batman made him tag along just because this would be "a good opportunity" to learn some social skills."

"What? The kid has a bad temper or something?" He asked innocently, already creating his own theories on why the hero of Gotham had sent his protégé, none of which sounded promising at all.

"Something like that. You will surely notice it yourself any moment now." She sniggered a bit and pointed towards one of the parks highest hills where four figures were already waiting for them next to some kind of, a quite large, red vehicle.

Two of the boys, a dark haired thug with a Superman t-shirt and a scrawny brunet in a too bright coloured costume, seemed to be around his age, while the closest one to Danny was clearly in his mid-twenties and the remaining hooded kid behind them all was barely on his teens.

"Greetings Phantom." The dark skinned Atlantean spoke to him, as the two flyers landed front of them, with a calm but friendly voice that brought a vague childhood memory back to the halfa's mind. He had been one of those three boys who had talked on TV almost ten years ago when all adults had suddenly disappeared for over five hours. If he remembered correctly some sort of curse had been behind it all, but of course his parents had blamed ghosts for the whole incident when everything had finally returned back to normal. It had actually been one of his scariest memories before the accident had made his life way more frightening than he could have even imagined back then. "And thank you for being willing to come meet us."

"Riptide, wasn't it?" He checked while answering the older man's firm hand shake. "I have to say that you awoke my curiosity when Miss Wonder here mentioned something about information you had that I would like to hear."

"Yes." The man agreed and signalled for the group's youngest member to move closer. The scowling boy did as he was told then pressed some buttons on his glove causing a picture of Vlad in the classic orange prison suit and an inhibitor collar on his neck appear on the small hologram screen.

"As you can see, the members of the League managed to capture Plasmius while returning to Earth from their mission." Riptide explained to him while young halfa's brain tried to comprehend what his eyes were seeing. "He is now under the custody of the government and has been locked in Belle Reve's prison where he will be waiting his trial and most likely also serve his sentence."

Danny blinked his eyes once, then a couple times more, just out of disbelief. His head felt weirdly light too, as if it would start floating any moment now.

"Vlad is in prison?" The ghost boy asked with a shocked laugh. "But why didn't he use his contacts to get out of this, or money, or, or claimed that he was overshadowed…. And the contract... "

"You know, it's a bit hard to play innocent when you have revealed your evil master plan live on international TV." Kid Flash laughed and ran in a yellow and red blur closer to them next to Wonder Girl, who just rolled her eyes at the younger boy's action.

"And about that contract." The boy of steel continued, him too smirking a little. "It unfortunately burned to ashes in the atmosphere when he was brought back to Earth."

The ghost boy shook his head, probably the world's stupidest grin on his face. "Wow… Just wow…" The man who had bullied, no molested, him and threatened his family, especially his dad, and friends lives for years was finally behind bars and would most likely spend the rest of his life there too. He couldn't wait to get back home so he could tell Dani about this. The girl would finally be safe and free from her constant fear of her creator coming to capture her and try once again to melt her back to a pile of ectoplasm.

"It is indeed an easing feeling to see your long time enemy defeated." The Atlantean said with an understanding smile.

"You have no idea." Danny told him. "Thank you. Seriously, thank you."

"No Phantom." Riptide said seriously and pressed his hand on the halfa's shoulder. "Thank you. Without your actions none of us would be standing here tonight. We have been protecting Earth and its people from both each other and invaders by ourselves for so long that we sometimes simply forget that they are completely competent to take care of themselves on their own."

"Which brings us to the other reason why we have come to seek you." The man continued and let his hand fell back to his side while Robin shut his screen down and returned to sulk on the background.

"Oh yeah. The offer." Danny remembered, his suspiciousness returning and the sudden growing grins on Wonder Girl and Kid Flash's faces didn't help the situation at all.

The Atlantean nodded. "Yes. The skills that you showed during the asteroid chaos have impressed the League and they have decided to offer you a place in the Team."

"The team?" The halfa asked, an amused smile tugging his lips. "Can you please be a bit more specific, because if you are talking about some sort superheroes' football team then I'm sorry to tell you that I'm terrible in all kind of sports."

"Hey! That's actually a good idea!" Now excited Kid Flash grinned and looked towards his team mates who had either started to groan or roll their eyes the moment when the hyper boy had opened his mouth. "Just think how crash it would be to play a game where all kind of powers are allowed!"

"Pass." Everyone else, except Riptide and Danny, announced in chorus making the speeders face fall in a disappointed pout.

"The Team." Riptide continued returning his attention to the halfa. "Is the group of under aged heroes under Justice League's supervision that takes care of the missions that are too sensitive to the public or requires more inconspicuous actions than publicly well-known heroes are able to do."

"In other words we are doing the spy stuff." Wonder Girl added. "Not always the most glorious work, but it's like the final step before becoming a fully-fledged member of the League."

Danny frowned and lowered his gaze to his gloved hands. The opportunity that they were offering him was almost too good to be true. He would finally be able to socialize with people who had faced, maybe not exactly the same, but at least the same kind of problems that he had every single day with his powers and ghosts. And the idea being around the Earth's most powerful heroes, he wasn't going to deny that even though he wasn't exactly their biggest fan, was almost overwhelming. He could learn so much from them: how to be stronger, how to protect people better, how avoid the accidents that had made most of Amity Park see him as a criminal. In this way he could maybe even protect Sam and her family better from Batman or whoever would dare to come threaten them next time. And he would be able to do so much more good….

But at what cost?

Who would protect his home while he was on the missions that the League would give him? He was already just barely managing to keep the balance between protecting the city from ghosts, school and his social life without revealing his secret ID as Phantom. The extra responsibilities that being a member of the League's team would give him surely wouldn't ease the burden he already had. Did he even want to become like them? The whole League was too secretive and controlling to his taste and he didn't want to lie to his friends nor family anymore.

And why were they approaching him now? Why not after the Vortex attack? Or Pariah's invasion? Surely his actions had been more impressive during them? Seriously! This time he had just come up with the plan and persuaded, or black mailed, the whole Ghost Zone into helping them. Was it because of what Vlad had done? Where they now afraid of him too? Or did they just simply want to use him like Vlad had?

And why should he even help them when, before this evening, they had done nothing to help him?

"I know this is a big decision for you to make." Riptide's calm words finally snapped Danny out of his darkening thoughts and the younger hero raised his head to once again meet the older man's gaze. "If you need to think, we can return-"

"No." Danny said quickly and maybe a bit harshly too since he noticed Superboy and Robin's muscles tense and their bodies lower slightly to a better defence position.

"Pardon?" The Atlantean warrior asked with just as controlled voice as earlier, but he too had clearly noticed his team mates' reaction from the corner of his eye since he opened his palm to give them a soothing gesture.

The halfa crossed his arms. "No, I don't need time to think. And no, I don't want to join your team."

His answer surprised them, it was easy to read it from the looks they were giving him. Kid Flash didn't even try to hide his disbelief. The brown haired hero stared at his ghostly colleague with the same horror mixed consternation look that Tucker had had after he had heard about the vegetarian week that Sam had managed to organize at the beginning of their freshmen year.

"But why would you do that!?" The fastest boy alive half shouted, his hands flapping like headless chicken's wings on a caffeine rush before the girl next to him hit the back of his head making the boy yelp out of pain and speed to the safety behind Superboy's back.

"Calm down you idiot."

Danny sighed then looked at everyone on the hill. "Look. It's nothing personal." It was a half-truth but no one seemed to notice, though Robin might have realized his lack of honesty on the basis of the irreverent snort that Danny heard under the black hood. "It's just that Amity Park is my "haunt", as you probably would call it, and I don't feel very comfortable leaving it without protection for long periods of time."

An awkward silence fell on the group, no one being completely sure how they should act, making Danny suspect that situations like these weren't something that the League's kids were used to. They had, after all, grown up in the world where their mentors were almost always idolized and loved, the villains and paranoid government's agents being the exceptions, so the ghost boy's obvious show of distrust towards the League's ability to keep up the peace must have been something new to all of them.

Danny was already about to say his goodbyes and fly away when Superboy, the last person he had expected to speak, opened his mouth.

"If this is about the protection of your city, I'm sure that the members of the League will be able to help you with that." The young Kryptonian assured, his weak smile showing that he understood the white haired boy's worries better than his teammates. Or at least, Danny thought bitterly, he thought he did.

"You mean like they did during Pariah's reign?" He asked sarcastically "Or when Vortex started to mess up with the whole world's weather?" Then he turned to look towards the caped boy who was without doubt glaring daggers at him. "The only time I have ever heard about any of them coming even close Amity Park, was when your mentor decided came to molest a citizen who had done nothing wrong."

The other now confused heroes turned to look at their youngest member, showing the halfa that either the League hadn't told them what had happened last October or that the bat themed hero, as he had hoped this whole time, had worked alone.

"What father did was fully justified." Robin growled dangerously, his hands slowly curling into fists. "Isley is an escapee."

Danny narrowed his eyes. "Mrs. Manson has lived in Amity Park eight years without causing any kind of trouble." He reminded the boy while Superboy moved closer to the Boy Wonder, his eyes warning the other dark haired kid not to do anything stupid.

"Besides in here nothing ever is what it looks like." He was now talking to everyone. "Your date for the night can easily be just a ghost who is trying to make her boyfriend jealous. The therapist you meet twice a week might be eating your negative emotions without you even noticing it. And just a simple wish you make can turn the whole city into a warzone… Heck, even the mayor of this city was at least partly ghost and no one suspected anything until he changed his form in front of their very own eyes." Not even mentioning that the school's biggest looser is also their greatest hero he finished inside his mind.

"We, and the League, respect your decision." Riptide finally told him, still wearing his perfect mask of serenity, breaking the tension between Danny and his team. How he managed to hold it all the time was way beyond Danny's comprehension. "But I want you to know, if there ever is a time when you need our help, we will be more than happy to give it to you."

Danny nodded and offered his hand. "Thanks. And if you ever have ghost problems, you know who to call." He might not be willing to dance on their tune, but offering his own knowledge was the least he could do after they had taken care of Vlad. "Seriously. Call me first before visiting. The city hall's emergency line should get on work in a few days, and I'm sure the mayor will be more than willing to convey the message."

"Of course." A small smile came to the Atlantean's lips as he answered Phantom's hand shake. "I wish you all the best in the future and hopefully we will meet again."

With a grin the halfa released Riptide's hand and floated off the ground. "Same to you guys. Oh, and if you came across any ghost on your way out of the city, just fly past them as fast as you can. Most of them don't like to leave outside the city limits, so you should be safe after passing the welcome sight."

"Good to know." Wonder Girl muttered darkly and flew to sit behind Superboy, who had already climbed inside their bike-thing, giving Danny the impression that the blonde had had some troubles with ghosts while looking for him.

"Last one in Chicago has to clean the bathrooms!" Kid Flash shouted before disappearing into the night in a bright coloured blur, not giving the others time to argue.

"Isn't he aware that he is the only one with a separated ride?" Still annoyed Robin asked as he too hopped in the vehicle, his eyes following Danny's diverging form making cold shivers travel down the halfa's spine, even though he was pretty sure that the kid wouldn't be able to hurt him from this distance.

After becoming once again invisible, the ghost boy turned his back to the leaving hero team and started to fly the longest possible route back to his home, not wanting to give them any chances to figure out where he lived, even though they probably wouldn't try to follow him anymore. With things like this one it was just better to be safe than sorry. Especially when the true reason behind the team's visit was still unknown.

Their timing was too perfect, just a couple weeks after he had become one of Earth's champions, making it far enough from the Disasteroid chaos that the situation had already pretty much calmed down, but still inside the time limit when most civilians would have expected the League to give their offer. Of course, Danny being his usual idiotic self, hadn't even thought something like that would happen to him. The point was though that Danny had doubts that the League would not be so shallow that they would ask him to join their "spy team" just because public would expect it. And he could even bet if he had accepted their offer and joined in the team, the League would have made sure that the whole world would have known about it. Even though Riptide had said that the team worked mostly in secret.

Groaning out of annoyance Danny rubbed his temples. This was going nowhere. Maybe it would be better to wait till tomorrow and talk with Jazz about this whole mess in the morning. She usually saw better than him what kind of games people were playing.

"It's chess, Daniel. Of course you don't understand, but then you never really did." His mind whispered the words that Vlad had said to him over a year ago after Pariah had once again been locked in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, causing the ghostly hero literally to hit his own face when he finally realised the ideology behind the sentence.

The battle between heroes and villains was truly like one huge chess game, both sides holding numerous pieces they controlled and who followed a certain set of rules. The League was familiar with this kind of game and during the past fifteen years or so they had managed to learn how to control it.

But then there were the pieces like Danny, the grey ones, who were under no one's control but were still able to affect the course of the game. In their eyes he probably was like an unknown factor of the equation who needed to be eliminated or turned to one of their own pieces before the opposite side would try to do the same.

"Great…. Just great." The halfa cursed under his breath and turned to fly on his back so he was able to see the stars above him. With Vlad the game had been at least somewhat simpler, even though he had had no idea that he had even been playing. The two halfas had been on opposite sides of the board and the number of pieces had been way smaller than in this new game that he had been thrown into without even being asked.

Grunting he moved once again look forward and increased his speed, his realisation making him want to get home even faster than before. Right now the situation might be under control, but only Clockwork knew what was going to happen next so he needed to get prepared for everything. If only there was someone who would be able to explain the rules to him. That way he would have at least some kind of hunch about what to expect.

No, that wasn't completely true. There was one thing he knew for sure.

He hated chess.

I know that this wasn't one of my best chapters but I hope you still liked it.

But once again I need to ask something from you or at least from those who live in USA. When there is summer vacation in Illinois?

Me being one of those fans who likes to believe that one Danny Phantom season takes one year (or school year, whatever) and since I'm highly obsessed with making my stories with as correct timelines as possible, sometimes spent over a hour searching things like this from the internet. So you can only imagine how annoyed I was when only "good" fact that I was able to find was in USA summer vacation is "from early June to early September (in most northern states), the other major format lasting from late May to late August (in most southern and western states). (Excluding some districts, as some schools may end late June and begin early September.)"

This is why I decided to make Phantom Planed to happed at the end of the May or at beginning of June, which is the time when our summer vacation starts in Finland... But it still isn't the right one!

So if someone knows the answer I would be very thanful if you could aswer to this mystery, so I can use it in my next story where I have to figure out when Dani will start her school year... yay...

But once again thank you all for the past year.
Oh and happy father's day to all father figures in Norwegian, Sweden, Iceland, Estoni and, of course, Finland! I know that the real day is tomorrow but who cares.

Love

Kilppari

P.s. It's just me or are my chapters getting longer?