"Yes, our girls had a winning soccer season!" Principal Kelly announced to the students sitting in the auditorium. "They thought like a team. They played like a team. They respected each other as teammates." He picked up a trophy from the table, which would be granted to the person voted MVP. "And it's those teammates who unanimously voted their choice for this year's most valuable player award, Jean Grey!"

Everyone cheered as Jean had a look of excitement on her face.

"Way to go, Jean." Scott said as he saw Jean walk on stage to receive her award. Evan whistled very loudly to congratulate his friend, annoying Kitty in the process with the loud noise.

"Nice job, Jean!" Danny cheered. "Yeah!" He looked over to see Rogue crossing her arms in her seat. "Hey, is that anyway to support your teammate?"

"Perky Jean's got enough people gushing over her." Rogue said as she stared at Jean in envy before she felt a kiss on her cheek. Looking to her right, she saw her boyfriend giving her a scrutinizing look.

"Are you all right?" He asked.

"Yeah." Rogue answered as she looked away, hoping Danny would drop it, and thankfully he did. The crowd watched as Jean accepted the award and went to the podium to speak.

"Thank you, Principal Kelly." Jean said humbly. "And I want to thank all of you."

"Yeah, Jean." Rogue sulked. "Ride that popularity train for all it's worth." She then shivered, as did everyone else, as they looked around in confusion.

Kelly, seeing his breath, looked at his equally confounded students before coming up with a plausible explanation. "The heater must be on the fritz." He mused, but that wasn't the end of it. The lights started flickering.

"Guess I also need to call the electrician." Kelly said before he saw the door to the auditorium. It was wide open and was currently hitting the wall.

Not having an explanation for that, the principal merely shrugged as everyone decided to go back to the announcement.

As Rogue was wondering what was happening, she felt her boyfriend's hand on her shoulder. Turning to him, she gasped as she saw that he was slowly starting to phase through his seat. Seeing his panicked look and knowing that he wasn't doing this intentionally, she grabbed him and pulled him back up. Thankfully, no one saw this.

"What's going on?" She asked him.

Danny only looked at his body in puzzlement.

"I don't know." He answered as he got up. "I got to get out of here." He abruptly left the assembly, with Rogue following him.

The rest of the X-Men, not witnessing what had just happened, looked at the two leaving the room, wondering what their deal was.

Danny sat down on a bench in the hallway, with Rogue joining him.

"You okay, sugar?" Rogue could see that Danny looked pretty shocked at what just happened, but he schooled his features into a smile.

"I'm good." Danny assured her. "I guess my legs fell asleep, sitting there for so long."

Rogue raised an eyebrow. "You were only sitting there for five minutes. And what was with the other stuff? The temperature, the lights, and the door. Are you feeling all right?"

"Never better." Danny said confidently. "I guess I just lost control over there briefly, but it won't happen again." He saw that Rogue still didn't look convinced. "It won't." He reiterated, hoping that she would stop worrying.

"You want to head back?" Rogue asked.

Danny avoided her eyes. "Actually, I think I'll stay here if you don't mind."

Rogue gave her boyfriend a calculating look before nodding. "If you say so." She then sat down next to him.

"I just think it's unfair, is all." Evan said to Kitty as they walked out of the auditorium. "Girl, I'd cinch an MVP."

"Evan, face it." Kitty told him. "Skateboarding will never be a school sport."

Evan shook his head. "We're living behind the times, man." He walked off as Kitty heard a familiar voice.

"Kitty!"

Lance came up behind her. "Hey, wait up. I'll walk you to chemistry." He offered as the two headed to class.

As the two mutants were talking, Scott was walking the halls with Jean to congratulate her.

"That speech was just like one of your games." Scott complimented. "Had me on the edge of my seat."

"Yeah?" Jean replied. "I thought I acted a bit nervously."

The two continued talking before they met up with Danny and Rogue.

"Yo, Danny, you all right?" Scott asked, wondering why Danny left during Jean's

"Yeah, I'm fine." Danny answered.

Rogue tried to explain what happened. "He was-"

"Distracted." Danny cut her off, giving Rogue a pleading look. Silently telling her not to tell anyone about this. Rogue rolled her eyes, but she acquiesced to his request. Smiling in victory, Danny turned back to Jean. "Sorry about walking out on your speech, Jean." He apologized. "Something important came up."

"Hey, it's no problem." Jean said, not offended in the slightest. "See you two at Duncan's tonight?"

"Duncan's?" Danny and Rogue asked in unison.

"The party." Jean clarified but still got blank stares from the couple. "Oh, he didn't invite you two?"

"He didn't invite me either." Scott added.

Jean facepalmed, embarrassed at what Duncan did, before giving her friends an apologetic look. "Oh, sorry about that."

"It's okay." Scott brushed off, trying to act nonchalant about it. "I got, you know, all this homework and stuff."

"And I got better things to do with my time." Danny said.

"Come on, guys." Jean pleaded. "Be there for me. It'll be fun."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Fine. We'll be there. Now excuse me, guys." He gained a playful glint in his eye as he smiled at Rogue. "But I got to escort a beautiful lady to her next class." He scooped up Rogue in his arms bridal style, getting a yelp from his girlfriend.

"Danny!" Rogue protested as she felt her cheeks blush. "Put me down!"

"You know you love it." Danny said, with Rogue giving him a glare in response, but she didn't struggle, proving Danny's point.

"Now that's a guy who knows his way around romance." Scott said in admiration, wishing he had the guts to do that for Jean.

Jean gave a nod in agreement as she gave an envious glance to the couple. Why couldn't Duncan be like that?

"No really." Lance said to Kitty as they sat in their chemistry class, waiting for the teacher. "I like chemistry. At our other school, I was totally into it." He said, leaving out the part where he once caused an explosion in class.

"Yeah?" Kitty asked interestedly. Ever since Lance saved her from getting crushed by that statue, she was starting to come around it. Sure, he was a bit of a jerk, but he wasn't always a tool. That had to count, right? "You ever make a stink bomb?"

"Well, no." Lance replied. "But Blob makes them all the time, in his sleep." He joked as he waved his hand in a mock display of disgust. "If you get my drift."

Kitty couldn't help but giggle. Lance was a funny guy, if you got to know him.

"The time has come, the walrus said." Came the voice of their chemistry teacher. He was a man with the body of an athlete but with the eyes of a scientist and the demeanor of a gentleman. "To talk of many things and the first is an apology." He set his books down on his desk as he grabbed his lab coat. "I'm Mr. McCoy, and I'm sorry for being late. They have me serving double duty as your phys. ed. coach."

"Lucky us." Lance muttered to Kitty.

"So anyway, that experiment you're all just dying to do, I say, let's do it and get it over with, huh?" Mr. McCoy smiled. "Who's up for making a stink bomb?"

The entire class cheered as Kitty and Lance looked at each other in excitement.

It was evening at the institute, and Scott was looking at himself in the mirror for the party tonight. He wanted to look good for everyone. Or, to be exact, he wanted to look good for Jean.

Satisfied with his appearance, he headed out of the bathroom, where he almost ran into Kitty, who phased through a wall.

"Whoa, watch it!" Scott scolded as he continued down his path.

"Hey, Scott, you got a remedy for stink-bomb aroma?" Kitty asked, as all those stink bombs made in chemistry ended up making her smell horribly.

"Uh, yeah, isolation." Scott told her as he went down the stairs where Sam and Rahne were racing up, causing Scott to fall down. "Hey, no running in here!" Scott cried as his bottom hit the end of the stairs. "Or," he heard a wall smashing in the background, "you're gonna smash through a wall or something."

Outside, Bobby was showing off his skills to Jubilee by making an ice ballerina in his hands and spinning it around, amazing his fellow mutant.

Scott came out of the door before stumbling as he felt the terrain change. Looking down at his feet as he struggled, he saw the path leading to his car was covered in ice. Despite this, he managed to make his way to the car.

"Uh, Drake, try cleaning up your ice!" He yelled as he finally fell on his back, right when he was next to his car.

"Oops." Jubilee said.

"But that's not my ice, Scott." Bobby told him.

"Then whose is it?" Scott asked sarcastically as he got into his car and sped off to Duncan's place.

At Duncan's place, everyone was having fun, eating food, and hanging around as music played.

"Hut one, hut two." Duncan called out as a soccer ball was passed to him. He then threw it past Jean and Taryn and out through an open window.

"Goal!" Duncan cheered, unaware that the ball hit Scott in the head as he was getting out of his car.

"Ah!" He looked around with his hand on his glasses, ready to blast whoever he thought was trying to attack him, before looking at his car and seeing the soccer ball in his front seat. Sighing as he put two and two together, he grabbed the soccer ball as he prepared to head up to the house.

"Obviously, this is not a party I should be going to." He muttered to himself.

Back at the party, Jean was teasing Duncan.

"It's called soccer, Mr. Gridiron, not football." She joked.

"Tell that to the people of England." Danny said as he and Rogue were sitting down and watching the party. The two were drinking water, both bored out of their minds.

Danny looked at his watch. "Okay, I've only been here for three minutes, and I already want to leave." He turned to his equally bored girlfriend. "You want to bail?"

"Wouldn't be against it." Rogue said before they saw Scott enter the house.

"Yo, Dunc!" He threw the soccer ball at Duncan.

"Never mind." Danny said, as he was looking forward to seeing Scott put Duncan in his place. "This party's gotten a lot more interesting all of a sudden."

"Can we just leave, please?" Rogue said, still wanting to leave. "I'm done celebrating Jean's popularity."

Danny got up and, taking Rogue's hand, led her to the balcony, giving them some privacy.

"What's with your dislike of Jean?" He asked, as he was wondering what Rogue had against Jean.

Rogue looked at the night sky. "I don't dislike her." She confessed. "It's just..." She stopped because she didn't want to say it, but Danny already knew.

"You're jealous." He said bluntly.

Rogue glared at him. "I am not jealous of Jean." She said, but Danny gave her a "really" look, showing that he didn't believe her one bit.

"Okay fine." She put her hands in the air. "I'm jealous." She turned around and looked down at the pool below. "She's popular and well liked, and she's the star of the soccer team." She gave a look of self-depreciation at her gloved hands. "While I can't even join any team in fear of accidentally brushing my bare skin against them, and she's prettier than me." Rogue said the last part silently.

They stayed in silence for a minute before Danny took off one of her gloves and grasped her bare hand.

"Rogue, that last part is bullshit." He told her. "You're smoking hot." Rogue blushed heavily at that. "Also, I didn't know you wanted to do sports." He didn't see Rogue as the athletic type.

"I don't." Rogue said. "It's just... whenever I compare myself to Jean, I just feel inferior, you know." The southern goth couldn't help but feel a bit vulnerable opening up about this insecurity, even to her own boyfriend. "I don't hate her." She said strongly, not wanting Danny to get the wrong idea. "It's just everytime I see her..." She stopped as she thought about all the times she saw Jean walking down the hallway with confidence and poise.

Everyone loved Jean, and she was sure that she was the professor's favorite student. What did Rogue have that was so special? She was just some anti-social goth that had to close herself off from pretty much everyone so she couldn't hurt them.

"I just know that she's better than me." Rogue left it at that, not wanting to confess any more of her feelings about this matter.

Danny stood next to her as they both looked at the sky. It was beautiful, and the stars were showing in full force as well.

"I understand how you feel." Danny told her.

"You do?" Rogue asked skeptically. Who would Danny be jealous of? He was handsome and kind, and he had a bad-boy attitude that would make any girl blush up a storm. In fact, he could have any girl that he wanted. Yet he settled on plain old her.

"Before my sister died, I used to envy her sometimes." Danny revealed as he thought about Jazz. "She was smarter than me by a long shot. She was so brilliant that she got accepted to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford."

"Wow." Rogue said, impressed.

Danny chuckled. "I know." He then sighed. "You see, my family were the town weirdos. The name Fenton was a laughingstock there, but my sister was the only one not affected by our family being ostracized; that's how cool she was." He thought back to high school, where all the teachers constantly praised Jazz, saying that she had a bright future ahead of her.

'Until you let her die.' A darker part of him thought before he ignored it and went back to the topic at hand.

"Even my dad preferred her over me." Danny said bitterly, remembering the incident where Jazz and all the other students got sick from Spectra's bugs. He remembered his father blowing his nose in sadness as he heard about Jazz's condition, blubbering that she was always his favorite.

Danny couldn't lie. That actually did hurt him. But then again, he was always a disappointment to his family. He wasn't a genius by a long shot, and he always came home late missing curfew. Not to mention the countless detentions he received.

"What was her personality like?" He was brought out of his thoughts by Rogue's question. "Did she let all the success go to her head?"

"Amazingly no." Danny said as he smiled at the memory of Jazz. "She was a very down-to-earth person. She was studying psychology because she wanted to be a psychologist and help people with their problems. She even accepted me when I got my powers." He didn't know how she found out, nor did he know that she was aware until he found that boomerang with her hair bow in the Ghost Zone of the future.

"I didn't tell her about them, but she somehow discovered my abilities, and now that I look back on it, she was probably covering me for my parents." He thought back to all those times that he tried to go ghost, and Jazz would always act weird. There was one time that he went behind a tree to transform only to find Jazz there, who excused herself abruptly.

He always brushed those instances off as her just being strange, but now he knew otherwise.

"So despite me being jealous of her at times, I couldn't bring myself to hate her because she loved me and I loved her." Danny finished.

"Your sister sounds like an incredible person." Rogue told him.

He grinned in agreement. "She was. And you're incredible too, Rogue." He put his forehead against hers. "Don't let anyone else make you think otherwise."

"Well, I think the same about you. Your sister may be interesting, but you, Danny." She rubbed his cheek. "You're perfect the way you are." Rogue said, and with those words, the couple proceeded to make out on the balcony.

'You know this party ain't so bad.' Rogue thought to herself.

Unfortunately, Jean couldn't say the same as she and everyone else were watching Duncan and Scott play Ping Pong. Though anyone can tell by the furious way they were playing that it wasn't a game of fun but just two dudes trying to make each other look bad.

"You guys care for any hors d'oeuvres?" She asked, voicing her agitation with the two's ego game. "Like some macho cheese dip?"

"Yeah, sure." Duncan said stupidly, not catching the tone of Jean's voice. "With a soda."

The game continued with the ball bouncing all over the room, and both Duncan and Scott nearly ran people over to hit it. Neither were going to settle for losing to the other.

"Are they really playing Ping-Pong?" Taryn asked Jean.

"Nope." Jean answered. "Dueling." She then saw the ball coming towards her. "Ah!" She ducked her head just in time for Scott to hit it back, causing the ball to bounce off a guest's head. Duncan managed to hit it back, but not without shoving another guest to the ground.

As the ball zoomed near Jean, she used her telekinesis to stop it while grabbing it with her hand, making it look like she caught it expertly. "Game, set, and match." She placed the ball down and headed towards Duncan. "Time for a word with our sponsor." She grabbed his arm and dragged him away.

"What?" Duncan asked, not knowing why Jean was irritated with him.

"Duncan, what is going on with you two?" Jean asked him.

"Hey, I didn't invite him." Duncan said, referring to Scott.

"Yeah, and you didn't invite Danny or Rogue either." Jean pointed out, angry that he left her friends out. "What's up with that?"

Duncan grabbed Jean and brought her closer to him. "If I'm gonna get chewed out, it might as well be while we're dancing." He said in an attempt to act suave, but Jean wasn't having it.

"I'm serious, Duncan." She said. "Please don't make me choose between you and my friends."

While all this was going on, Danny and Rogue were still kissing until Danny pushed Rogue away as he grasped at his head in pain.

"Danny, are you okay?" Rogue asked in concern. What was going on with him? First that incident in the auditorium, and now this.

Danny tried to focus, but his mind was having a splitting headache and started to flicker between visibility and invisibility. "I can't..."

Rogue tried to place a hand on him, but she felt herself get yanked back and thrown over the balcony.

"Ahh!" She cried before she landed in the pool, making a splash that attracted Scott, Jean, and Duncan's attention.

"What happened?" Scott demanded.

Duncan looked down below and saw Rogue climbing out of his pool. "Hey, what the heck are you doing in my pool?"

"Checking your chlorine level." Rogue bit back angrily.

Duncan smirked at Danny. "Well, Fenton, it looks like you managed to get your freaky girlfriend wet. Congrats."

A second later, Duncan screamed as he was thrown into the pool as well.

"Danny!" Jean yelled at him.

"What?" Danny asked innocently. "He landed in the pool. He's okay." He then left and headed downstairs to apologize to Rogue. "Rogue, I'm so sorry."

She sighed and pointed to herself. "Can you at least fix this?" Danny placed a hand on her and phased the water off of her. "Thank you." She said pleasantly before glaring at him. "Now, what's wrong with you? Earlier today, your feet were phasing through the floor at the assembly, and now you threw me into the pool."

"I don't know." Danny answered honestly. His powers haven't acted up like this since the very beginning, after the accident with the portal. And that made sense because that was back when he didn't have control over them. But now he does, so why is this happening again?

"Maybe you're having trouble with your powers?" Scott guessed as he and Jean joined them.

"That can't be possible." Danny denied. "I've had them under control all this time. They can't start acting out now. There has to be something else."

"I think you should talk to the professor about it." Jean said sympathetically.

Danny shook his head. "I'm fine. Can we just go home now?"

Scott, Jean, and Rogue exchanged glances before all nodding.

"I guess." Scott said.

"Ah, I trust you had fun at the party." Xavier greeted the four when they entered the foyer.

"It was all right, other than getting thrown into the pool by Danny." Rogue said.

"What?" Xavier asked.

"Danny lost control of his powers for a brief moment and accidentally threw her into the pool." Jean explained.

Xavier looked at Danny with worry. "Lost control?"

"It was a one-time thing." Danny told him. "And it will never happen again." He headed toward the stairs. "Now I'm gonna go to bed."

"Danny, perhaps we should-" Xavier tried to suggest before Danny interrupted him.

"It's nothing, professor." Danny said, trying and failing to make it seem like everything was all right. "I just need some sleep, and everything will be all right."

"Perhaps it is fatigue." Xavier hypothesized. "Or it could be that your powers are growing." He then thought it over. "From the description of Rogue being thrown into the pool, it sounds like you have telekinesis. A power you didn't have before. Let me help you control them, Danny." He offered. "That's why I'm here."

"Professor, I can handle it." Danny said vehemently. "Really. Don't be worried. I'm used to doing this alone."

"But you're not alone this time, Danny." Xavier brought up. "You have us."

Danny paused a bit before saying, "Good night, professor."

Xavier sighed, knowing that Danny would be too stubborn to accept his help. "Good night, Danny."

The hybrid went upstairs, leaving his friends feeling worried and concerned about him.

Kitty then phased through the wall. "Be honest. How do I smell now?"

The next day were the track tryouts, and Jean, Scott, and Duncan were participating with Danny in the stands watching.

Duncan and Scott were trying to outdo one another as the blonde jock threw a javelin pretty far, only for Scott to throw his even farther. When it came to pole vaulting, Scott ended up falling onto the beam he was supposed to go over, while Duncan expertly maneuvered around his and gave a smirk at his rival.

Finally, the two were running laps with the other students. The two boys were rushing down the track when Duncan elbowed Scott, causing the boy to fall to the ground with his glasses falling off.

McCoy, seeing this, glared at Duncan as the boy passed him.

"Hit the showers, Matthews." McCoy said. "You're off the team."

Duncan widened his eyes as he stopped running. "But-"

"Go." McCoy repeated before he went over to Scott.

Danny went over to help Scott as well, but as he reached the grassy area, the headache returned as he fell to his knees. He could feel the ghostly energy in his body trying to come out, but Danny managed to force it back.

As both boys were struggling with their powers, McCoy picked up Scott's glasses. "Keep your eyes closed." He said to him before placing his glasses back on.

"Coach?" Scott asked, and for a brief moment, he thought that the coach knew he was a mutant before he turned that idea down.

"Go take five, huh?" McCoy said to Scott kindly before heading back to teach the rest of the class. "Okay, who's running the 200?"

Before Scott could contemplate further on the mystery of McCoy, he heard Danny groaning. Looking over at his friend, he saw Danny's eyes glow green.

"Oh, no!" Scott said as Danny's eyes unleashed two beams of green energy at a group of girls (Kitty being one of them) who were getting ready for the 200.

Lance, who was on the bleachers, saw the beams coming and caused the ground to shake, making the girls fall to the ground, allowing the beams to sail right over them and burn the side of the bleachers.

Kitty, seeing the burn marks, turned to Lance, who waved at her before shrugging, indicating he didn't know what just happened.

As Danny stumbled around in an attempt to control his powers, his telekinesis activated, causing three iron balls to fly into the air. Mr. McCoy heard something coming towards him, turned around, and luckily caught two of the balls.

The third came toward Scott, who ducked out of the way, but the danger wasn't over as Scott saw the ball hurdling toward the back of Duncan's head. Using his optic blast, he blasted the ball aside, where it crashed through the window of Kelly's office and landed in the middle of his desk, startling the principal.

Scott then went over to his friend. "Danny, what's wrong?"

"Scott, help me." Danny begged. "I can't stop it. I can't! I..." He then passed out in a worried Scott's arms, who shared a look of fear with Jean.

Scott's car entered the institute grounds with Rogue hopping out. She had just come back from her last class to learn that her boyfriend had passed out after almost causing a scene at the track tryouts.

"Professor!" She shouted as she ran into the foyer, with Scott following her as he carried an unconscious Danny.

They met up with Logan and Xavier, who led them to the medical room.

"Put him on the table, Scott." Xavier commanded, with Scott doing just that.

Rogue grabbed her boyfriend's hand, only to see some of the medical equipment levitate in the air. Logan pulled her out of the way of the incoming objects, which shattered when they impacted the wall.

"Please, Rogue. I'll let you know as soon as I know something." Xavier said, requesting her to leave.

"But, professor, I should-" Rogue protested, only for Logan to start pushing her out the door.

"You heard the man." Logan said as the doors closed on them as they left the room, just in time as another object hit the doors.

Xavier, now alone, rolled over to Danny and tried to connect his mind to Danny's.

'Danny, can you hear me?' He spoke telepathically. 'Danny, are you all right?'

As the hybrid twitched on the table, his eyes opened up as two ecto-blasts came out of his eyes and shot through the ceiling, tearing right through the roof of the institute. The force of the energy pushed Xavier aside and caused the door to explode.

Rogue and Logan were pushed to the ground by the blast. As the goth girl got up, she looked to see Danny float unconsciously off the table as he was surrounded by all the debris that was floating around him in a ring formation.

"Danny!" Rogue ran over to help Danny as Logan tried to stop her.

"Wait!" He cried, but Rogue didn't listen and paid for this as Danny let out another wave of energy that pushed her back.

Logan grabbed her, and the two, along with the professor, went downstairs, where it was safe, where they encountered the rest of the X-Men (except Storm, who was visiting her sister upstate).

"What is going on up there?" Nightcrawler asked only for the building to shake for a second.

"It's like someone's nuking the place." Spyke commented.

"Yeah." Shadowcat agreed. "Is Danny all right?"

"No, he's not." Xavier said as he rubbed his head. "His powers are out of control."

"What could be causing this?" Rogue asked the professor.

"That would be me."

The X-Men looked to see Vlad Masters in front of them, smiling sinisterly.

"Masters!" Rogue shouted.

"Yes." Vlad answered, not intimated at all by Rogue. "I'm responsible for Daniel's overload. Thanks to this." He pulled out a taser-looking device. "I simply entered his bedroom a couple nights ago and used it on him."

"Hand it over!" Rogue demanded.

"Of course." Vlad agreed happily. "And in exchange, I will leave with Daniel." He propositioned.

"Never!" Rogue tried to charge at him, only for Vlad to send an ecto-blast at her, making her crash into a wall.

"It seems you have no choice." Vlad smirked as he then transformed into his ghost form, making the X-Men gasp.

Unlike Danny, who looked more human in his ghost form, Vlad looked the complete opposite, with his hair, now black, formed into what appeared to be two horns on his head. He wore a white cloak with a cape. Completing the outfit were black gloves and boots. His skin was pale blue, and his eyes were red with no pupils.

Before the X-Men could even attempt to fight Plasmius, the building shook again, getting Vlad's attention.

"I'll go get him if you don't mind." Vlad said as he vanished before their eyes.

Knowing that he was going to kidnap Danny, the X-Men raced back upstairs to the medical room, where Vlad attempted to grab Danny, only to be pushed back by a wave of energy.

The younger hybrid glowed a bit before his body turned intangible and phased through the floor, sinking to the bottom of the institute, and finally through the ground.

"Danny!" They all shouted.

"We gotta get him back." Rogue said frantically.

"But how?" Shadowcat asked.

Rogue looked at her before she got an idea. "Give me your power." She demanded

"What?" Shadowcat said in confusion.

"Just give it to me!" Rogue demanded, not in the mood to explain. Shadowcat pulled off one of her gloves and touched Rogue's bare hand, causing her to stiffen a bit as she felt her energy leave her.

With Shadowcat's power at her disposal, Rogue phased through the institute and the ground as she tried to catch up with Danny.

"Rogue!" Cyclops shouted before Xavier calmed him down.

"She'll bring Danny back." Xavier said before turning over to glare at Vlad. "In the meantime, I suggest you hand over that device to us."

Vlad couldn't help but laugh at this man's audacity to threaten him. "Or else what?"

"This!" Cyclops fired his optic blast, only for Vlad to block it with a shield he summoned in his hand.

"How predictable." The hybrid mocked.

"What about this?" Nightcrawler teleported next to Vlad, grabbed the device, and teleported back to the X-Men.

This shocked Vlad momentarily before he sent an ecto-blast at his machine, destroying it.

"No!" Cyclops shouted.

"No need to worry." Vlad soothed. "I can always make another one. I'll just leave with Daniel if you don't mind."

Xavier scowled at the intruder. "I will never let you lay a hand on any of my students."

"You have no choice, Xavier." Vlad reminded him. "Daniel is mine."

Back with Rogue, she was trying to navigate through the darkness of being underground; luckily, Danny was glowing with green energy, allowing her to fly down and catch him.

"Danny!" She tried to pull him back up, but it was useless; it was as if he was being pulled to the core by some force.

"Come on, snap out of it." Rogue tried to get him to wake up. "We gotta get out of here." But Danny wouldn't respond. "Danny!"

Using every bit of strength in her body, she tried to force him back up, only for him to let out electricity from his body, electrocuting Rogue, who screamed in pain.

The scream of Rogue's pain is what finally snapped Danny awake, and seeing his girlfriend in pain, he commanded his power to obey him, and through sheer force of will, he managed to pull himself back up, where he phased back into the medical room.

Danny laid his unconscious girlfriend on the table as he went to confront Plasmius, who was fighting the X-Men.

"Impossible!" Vlad cried in disbelief at seeing him perfectly normal. "You were able to reverse the effects of the Plasmius Maximus."

"You should know the impossible is just child's play to me." He said to his archnemesis. "Now get out of my home!"

"You forget, Daniel. I am more powerful than you. You can't make me leave." Vlad mocked him before he grabbed Jean by the throat. "And I think you should be punished for your defiance."

"Jean!" Cyclops shouted, and before Danny could do anything, a beam of green light came past him and struck Plasmius, forcing him to let go of Jean as he was pushed through the walls and out of the perimeter of the entire area.

Everyone sighed in relief that Vlad was gone.

"Nice job, Danny." Scott praised, thinking it was his friend who got rid of Vlad and saved Jean.

"That wasn't me." Danny said as he looked in the direction of where the beam came from. It came from the darkened medical room.

"It was me." Out stepped Rogue from the room, and everyone widened their eyes. Her appearance had changed completely. Her regular jumpsuit had changed colors. It was now black, with a bit of green mixed in. On her belt buckle was the Danny Phantom logo. Her skin was no longer pale and looked like she got out in the sun more often. Her hair had switched colors as well. It was now white, with a streak of auburn in it. Her green eyes now glowed even brighter than before.

Danny couldn't believe his eyes. "Rogue, you're..." He didn't know what to say. She was just like him now. A human-ghost hybrid. "You have ghost powers."

Rogue looked at herself in one of the mirrors that was miraculously not damaged. She took a double take as she took in her new appearance. Gazing down at her hands, she saw them glow green with energy as she felt power flow through her entire body.

"How?" She asked in shock.

Danny tried to think of an explanation before the answer came to him. "I guess that shock I gave you back there did it." He went up to her and tenderly took her hands. "Are you all right?"

Rogue glanced at their reflections. She always wondered what it would be like to use Danny's power, and seeing them together in their ghost forms made her realize how perfect they looked like this.

"Yeah." Rogue said as she quickly started to accept her new form. "But how do I change back?"

"Just concentrate on your human form." Danny told her.

Rogue did just that, envisioning herself looking normal with her gothic style and pale skin. Soon, white rings came from her waist and went up and down her body before vanishing, leaving Rogue back in her normal form.

"It worked." Rogue said, in amazement. Experimenting a bit, she called the rings back as they turned her back into her ghost form. She admired her reflection. She did look gorgeous. "Nice." She said before smiling at her boyfriend. "What do you think?"

"You're as smoking hot as always." Danny said smoothly, making Rogue giggle as the two kissed.

The next day, Jean arrived at the Danger Room and saw that Rogue was using it. She was floating in the air as she sent ecto-blasts at the tentacles reaching out for her and phased through any buzzsaws that tried to skewer her.

Danny came up beside Jean as they watched her progress. "She's got them under control." He said. "I'll be working with her to help her out as well."

"That's good." Jean said as she watched Rogue train in awe.

The simulation then ended as Rogue came up to join them.

"Nice job, Rogue." Danny complimented. "You're getting as good as me."

The new hybrid grinned. "Maybe I'll even surpass you one day."

"Yeah, right." Danny teased before he noticed Jean and Rogue giving each other awkward looks. "Oh, would you look at the time? I better get going." Danny then left, leaving the two girls alone.

"Hey." Jean said.

"Hey." Rogue said right back as silence passed between them for a couple seconds.

Jean finally decided to be the one to break the ice. "I wanted to thank you for saving me from Vlad." She said as she rubbed her neck. "I know you don't exactly like me, but..."

"I don't dislike you, Jean." Rogue said, not wanting her to get the wrong idea. Rogue tried to speak before she finally confessed the truth. "I'm actually jealous."

"Jealous?" Jean asked.

"Yeah." Rogue said uncomfortably at admitting her secret. "And I'm sorry." She felt ashamed at being so closed off to Jean. Deep down, she knew that Jean was a good person, which made her feel even more guilty. "It's just sometimes I..."

"I understand, Rogue." Jean said, making Rogue look down.

"I'm sorry." She apologized.

"No, no. It's okay." Jean replied understandably. "If it makes you feel better, I sometimes feel jealous of you."

"What?" Rogue couldn't believe it. Perfect Jean was actually jealous of her.

"You're jealous of me?" Rogue had to ask again to make sure she wasn't dreaming. What on earth did she have that Jean would envy?

"I've always admired your attitude." Jean confessed. "The "I don't care what the world thinks" attitude." She smiled. "I wish I could be like that, but I just never could achieve it. Guess I'm too much of a goody goody, huh?" She joked. "Sometimes I feel like I always have to be perfect. But whenever I see you, you seem confident in just being yourself. I always thought that made you so cool. And you have Danny as well."

"You're jealous of Danny?" Rogue asked, getting a bit defensive.

"Not like that." Jean put her hands up to calm Rogue down. "Goodness, he's like a little brother to me. I just see the way the two of you act. I've seen him bring you flowers, make you breakfast, and even carry you." Jean said the last part enviously as she crossed her arms in frustration. "I wish Duncan were like that."

At the thought of Duncan acting romantic, Rogue couldn't help but let out a chuckle, finally allowing herself to relax in Jean's presence.

"Well, I'm sorry for being jealous." Rogue said, glad to put this petty rivalry with Jean behind her. "And I think you're pretty cool just the way you are." She held her hand out to the redhead. "Friends."

Jean accepted it. "Friends."

The two then heard the elevator doors open as Scott came in holding a bouquet of flowers.

"Oh, looks like you're getting flowers." Rogue joked. "I'll leave you two alone."

"Good luck, lover boy." Rogue whispered to Scott as she passed him and entered the elevator.

"Thank you, Scott." Jean said graciously as she smelled the roses. "They're beautiful."

"Yeah." Scott said before pulling out a piece of paper. "Unfortunately, they came with a card signed by Duncan."

Jean looked up at the crumpled card. "Damaged during delivery, I see." She said. It was strange. She finally got flowers from Duncan, and yet, for some odd reason, she was sad that they weren't from Scott.

She wondered why.