Moi-Moi: Honestly, I haven't been writing anything for the past two weeks. I've had these past few (and the next few) chapters written for weeks now. I've been so busy and I don't see myself suddenly getting enough free time to update all my stories. :-/

For a picture of the plant described in this chapter, you can go here: www. wattpad . com 347510344 -drowning-in- power-book- 2-of-danny -phantom-trilogy (remove the eight spaces and you're golden ;D )

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How could he have miscalculated and screwed up so badly!? He was the best hunter in the entire ghost zone! There wasn't a human alive who could compare to him. So, how did he manage to screw this up so badly? Perhaps he just wasn't ready? Despite going through extra lengths to ensure that his suit would be equipped with everything he needed to face a witch, he'd still lost and barely made it out alive. All because of that other witch... What was with today's youth!? Were they all this strong? First, the ghost child and now this witch?

Speaking of the whelp, where was he? He'd normally be the first one to jump into a battle to defend his town. And yet, the ghost child hadn't even shown his face. Could those witches have gotten to him already? If they did, had they also found Plasmius?

Suddenly, Skulker's suit gave out on him with a loud explosion. He fell from the sky loudly and less than gracefully before colliding with the roof of a building. His ghost powers still weren't working and his suit was in desperate need of repair. But at this rate, he wouldn't be able to make it back to the ghost zone before those witches hunted him down. Lifting his forearm to press the screen of his touchpad, Skulker activated the ghost detector in his suit. Hopefully, the ghost child hadn't been wiped out. It beeped for a few seconds before a green dot appeared on the grid. "I must be more lucky than I thought," Skulker groaned in pain and began tapping on the screen again. He rerouted the remaining power in his suit to his jetpack and took off towards the ghost.

~:~

Danny sipped from his large soda with a small smile as he listened to Tucker complain about Sam's unique, gaming techniques. "You cheated!" Tucker accused in a loud, frustrated tone while throwing his arms up in the air. Danny raised a brow expectantly while glancing at Sam.

"I didn't cheat, Tucker. It's called having actual skills. You should try it sometime," Sam declared proudly with her arms folded over her chest.

"Oh come on! Danny, tell her that using hidden techniques is cheating!" Tucker shouted.

Danny finally released the straw from his mouth before raising his hands in a neutral gesture. "Hey, don't drag me into this one, Tuck."

Tucker groaned loudly while slumping. "Where's Kagome when you need her? She'd back me up on this like a real friend," Tucker griped.

"Well, your real friend is out shopping and getting a manicure. Feel free to join her at any time," Sam replied with a smug smirk. Tucker shot Sam a dry glare.

"Come on, guys. It's just a game," Danny reasoned with a small chuckle. He tossed his now finished soda into a trash can as he passed before slipping his hands into his pockets. "So, what do you guys want to do now?" Danny asked just before a misty gasp escaped his mouth.

Sam shot Danny an urgent look. "Looks like we've got company to keep us busy," she acknowledged before looking around. Tucker slipped his hand into his back pocket, his fingers gripping the lipstick laser he always kept on him. Danny glared up at the skies, his blue eyes seeking out movement. He had been having such a good day too! Leave it to a ghost to always ruin things for him.

Suddenly, a loud shout could be heard along with the whoosh of a jet engine. The three teens looked behind them in time to see Skulker of all people spiral out of control with a trail of black smoke behind him. Seeing that Skulker was heading towards them with no intent of slowing down, Danny quickly pushed his friends out of the way. Seconds later, Skulker crashed into the pavement roughly, parts of his suit breaking off and scattering around him. Danny warily observed the unmoving ghost where he rested in the large hole in the sidewalk.

"What happened to him?" Tucker questioned. "He looks like someone already kicked his butt."

Danny had to agree. Skulker's suit was burned, sputtering, sparking, and falling apart. With tentative movements, he approached the suit while gesturing for Sam and Tucker to stay back. Once he was close enough, he rapped on Skulker's head twice. "Skulker?" Danny questioned as he tried to discern any signs of life. When he received a low groan in response, Danny grabbed Skulker's head before turning it to dislodge it from the suit.

"Be careful, Danny," Sam urged while reaching out for him.

Once Danny had the head off, he turned it upside down to look inside. "Woah," Danny exclaimed with wide eyes. He turned back to his friends. "He doesn't look too good, guys."

Sam and Tucker quickly looked over his shoulders to get a better view of Skulker's true form. The normally tiny ghost was lying uselessly within the helmet. The lower half of his body was gone- melted into a puddle of ectoplasm that sloshed around within the helmet. Suddenly, Skulker coughed roughly before blinking up at them. "Help me, ghost child," he whispered before passing out.

"What happened to him?" Sam asked.

"What do we do?" Tucker asked Danny.

"We have to help him. He's the only one who can tell us who attacked him," Danny reasoned. Danny frowned before standing and handing the helmet to Sam.

She took it with a confused frown. "How are we going to help him?" Sam asked.

"I'm calling Kagome. Maybe she or her mom has some kind of spell that can help him. You guys take Skulker to her house. I'll bring his suit," Danny said and pulled out his phone.

"Are you sure she can help? I thought her powers hurt ghosts. Not helped them," Sam pointed out.

"Well, yeah. But it's not like we can just borrow my dad's old Ecto-Dejecto anymore. He got it working. Remember?" Danny said and started dialing Kagome's number from memory. "Besides, she's shown me her healing spells. If she can't help, maybe her mom can."

"Alright, dude. We'll see you there," Tucker said before leading Sam down the street quickly.

Holding his phone between his shoulder and his ear, Danny glanced around cautiously before lugging Skulker's suit into a nearby alley and out of sight. "Come on, Kagome. Pick up," Danny whispered as he changed into his ghost half.

"H-hello?"

"Kagome! I need your help. How fast can you get to your house?" Danny asked while lifting Skulker's suit up form the ground.

"What's wrong, Danny?"

"I need you to use one of your healing spells. You or your mom. This is serious," Danny urged and invisibly took to the air.

"I'll be right there."

~:~

Danny frowned deeply as he watched Skulker lay motionless in the plastic, food container they had rested him in. He was still melting away slowly, his ectoplasm bubbling with green wisps of green smoke rising up from it. "He's not looking so good, dude," Tucker commented with a frown. Danny sighed as he paced the floors of Kagome's bedroom.

"What kind of ghost can do this?" Sam asked as he eyes glanced at Skulker's beat down suit.

"I don't know," Danny replied and shook his head. He hadn't met a ghost who could do this much damage. Were they still in town? What if they were causing problems somewhere else?

Suddenly, the door to the bedroom was pushed open. The three teens froze up at once, their eyes going to the door. Danny was the first to step forward, but he froze at the sight before him. Kagome was supporting her mother, practically dragging her into the room. Immediately, Danny helped her carry her injured mother over to the bed. "What happened?" Danny asked frantically.

"A ghost attacked in my mom's store. I did the best that I could to help her injuries, but she's still pretty hurt," Kagome answered.

"I'm fine. Who else is injured, Danny?" Kimiko brushed off and looked up at Danny.

"He is," Sam answered and showed Kimiko the plastic container with Skulker's dissolving form.

Kimiko's brows furrowed. "A ghost?" she questioned.

Kagome frowned in confusion before noticing the pile of metal on the floor in her room. She pointed to it with wide eyes. "W-where did you get that?"

"It's Skulker's suit. He crash landed right in front of us. Whatever did this to him must have destroyed his suit, too," Danny explained.

"I did it," Kagome confessed.

"What?" Danny asked in surprise.

"He came to my mother's store, threatened her, and pinned her to wall with an electrified net. He could have killed her," Kagome explained with anger in her tone.

Danny wasn't sure how to respond to that. He stared down at Skulker's dissolving form before glancing back at the suit. Kagome had done that? He knew that her magic hurt a little, but he didn't think that she was capable of...

Kimiko sighed before slowly standing. When Kagome tried to support her, she shook her head slowly. "Kagome, bring me the trunk I keep under my bed. If we're going to help him, we'd better do something fast," Kimiko said. Kagome nodded before quickly dashing out of the room.

"What are you going to do?" Danny asked.

"His ghostly core looks unstable and deteriorating by the second. Once his physical form reverts into ectoplasm, it won't be long before his core and consciousness are gone," Kimiko said. Danny's eyes widened fearfully.

Seconds later, Kagome came wobbling into the room with a large, wooden chest in her arms. Danny was quick to take the chest from her and easily carry it over to Kimiko. With a quick wave of her hand, the latch on the trunk opened and the lid raised on its own. The teens all gathered around to examine the various jars of dried materials and liquids inside. They watched Kimiko take a mortar and pestle from the trunk as well as a glass jar with some sort of plant inside. The plants looked like white stalks with drooping, pipe-shaped flowers. They had a slight green glow to it.

"What's that, mama?" Kagome questioned.

"It's an extremely rare type of Indian Pipe, also known as the corpse plant," Kimiko answered and opened the jar.

Immediately, Kagome, Sam, and Tucker covered their noses in revulsion. "Why does it smell like that!?" Sam exclaimed and dry heaved. It smelled like a rotting animal and sewage!

Kimiko wrinkled her nose before taking out one stalk and covering the jaw once again. "Its smell is a sort of warning. It's extremely poisonous to any living creature," Kimiko explained before smirking. "But you don't think it smells bad. Do you, Danny?" Kimiko asked while ripping apart one stalk and grinding it up.

"Not really. It smells like an herb that my mom would cook with," Danny answered. The others stared at him incredulously.

"Dude, you need to get your sense of smell checked," Tucker declared in a muffled voice from within his shirt.

"There's nothing wrong with his sense of smell. The plant doesn't smell disgusting to him because he's half-ghost. I'm sure that Danny is the only one who could eat it and survive. If any of us tired to eat even a little bit, our intestines would dissolve and we'd bleed to death from the inside out," Kimiko said while adding a few drops of a clear liquid to the mortar. Everyone shot Kimiko a wide-eyed stare before exchanging wary glances. "There. This should do the trick," Kimiko said and poured the mixture directly on top of Skulker. While she packed away her supplies, the teens all crowded around the container to observe.

"Look!"

They all watched as Skulker's body slowly reformed and the puddle of ectoplasm shrunk before disappearing altogether. Soon enough, Skulker was fully reformed and blinking his red eyes slowly. "Skulker?" Danny questioned. "Are you okay?"

Skulker groaned before looking around at the faces around him. The ghost child had helped him. Looks like he was good for something other than the hunt. Skulker was about to mention this out loud, but his eyes landed on the last face that was watching him. With a shrill scream, Skulker backed up into the edge of the container before flying out wildly. While floating above everyone in the room, Skulker glared down at Kagome. "Stay away from me, witch!" Skulker shouted and threateningly waved his fist at her.

"Skulker, calm down. Kagome's mom just saved your life," Danny reasoned.

Not liking that he was so exposed, Skulker quickly flew into his lifeless suit. The suit shook and rumbled lowly before slowly rising off the ground with clumsy movements. With a hunched posture, Skulker glared at Kagome and Kimiko in distrust. "When I asked you for help, whelp, I thought you would have given it. I didn't think you would be so cruel as to hand deliver me to these witches," Skulker said with a growl.

"Look, Skulker. Kagome's mom just saved you," Danny tried again.

"After her daughter nearly vaporized me!" Skulker exclaimed and pointed an accusing finger at Kagome.

"You almost killed my mother!" Kagome argued back.

"Well, it would have been one less witch in the world," Skulker grumbled.

When Danny noticed Kagome stalking awards Skulker threateningly, he held her back by the arm. "Skulker, what's this all about? Why'd you hurt Kagome's mom?" Danny interrogated.

"I heard the rumors that there was a powerful witch living in town. I came to see if they were true. I didn't think that you would allow them to stay in your town. A part of me thought that maybe they'd already done away with you and kept your ectoplasm as proof of their successful hunt," Skulker answered.

"First off, gross. And second, Kagome and her mom aren't hunting ghosts. They're friends," Danny argued.

"That's just what they want you to believe. You can never trust a witch," Skulker affirmed. His eyes narrowed at Kagome in distrust. "They think of themselves as gods in charge of keeping peace, but they're nothing but cruel monsters. They use their magic as a means of hunting down ghosts. There's no peace keeping about it. They hunt for sport."

"Says the ghost zone's greatest hunter," Sam couldn't help but comment with a raised brow.

"Heed my words, whelp. Soon, they'll show their true colors. And when they do, no ghost will want to help you fight them," Skulker promised before turning intangible and flying away. Danny watched him go with a deep frown. Kagome and her mother weren't evil ghost hunters. What Kagome did... She only did it to save her mom.

"Mama? He wasn't serious. Was he?" Kagome asked her mother in a hesitant voice.

"Kagome, just like there are both good and bad ghosts, there are good and bad witches," Kimiko answered. Kagome frowned before looking down at her hands. A bad witch, huh? While she was staring down at the red blisters, she felt Danny take her hands in his. Looking up at him, he was offering her a small smile. Kagome returned the smile weakly.

~:~

When Skulker had returned to the Ghost Zone with tales of his deadly run in with two witches in Amity Park, the news spread like wildfire. The metaphorical headline read something like, "Witches In Amity Park! NO Ghost Is Safe." Dozens of ghosts panicked for their afterlives. What should they do? Should they flee? Were they safe in the Ghost Zone? If regular humans had gotten in, what would stop the witches? Were more coming!?

Being a ghost who saw the value in order and justice, Walker could only frown in displeasure at the chaos this news had on the inmates of his prison. He'd already had to suppress at least three riots and stop over five, prison break attempts! Just the knowledge that there was a slight possibility that witches could enter the Ghost Zone had the ghosts spooked.

But witches wouldn't dare to enter his prison. That was against the rules. And by causing all these riots and attempted break outs, they'd already broken their fair share of rules. With a deep frown on his face, Walker called for his second in command, Bullet.

"You called, sir?" Bullet spoke while adjusting his red cape.

"Yes. Is there any more news about those witches?" Walker asked as he folded his hands behind his back.

"There isn't much to report, sir. I just keep hearing more of the same. Two witches attacked the hunter and are now allying themselves with the ghost child," Bullet said with a careless shrug.

Walker turned to him quickly with a sharp expression. "What!? Allying with the ghost child? That's new news to me," Walker said in his Southern drawl. A smirk slowly slid onto his face as Walker chuckled. "Aiding and abetting a known criminal? Now that's against the rules."