Author's Note: Hello! And happy Labor Day! I hope you all had a great holiday!

I managed to get y'all an update a lot quicker this time. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Danny's POV

A ginormous plume of dust and grime greeted me when I whirled around. It rose from the earth just a couple miles away, on the opposite side of the campground from where I stood.

I heard a gasp over my left shoulder and craned my neck to see Sam scrambling to her feet from where she fell. "What was that!?"

Tucker followed more slowly and straightened his glasses. His lips moved silently as he searched for words. Finally, he asked, "Was it a ghost?"

I paused. My ghost sense hadn't gone off, and I didn't feel the presence of any spectres nearby, but it's also possible that they were outside of my range.

Realizing my friends were still waiting for a response, I replied, "I'm not sensing anything, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility just yet. Let's go check it out."

I quickly grabbed Sam and Tucker by the arms, cutting off their mumbles of agreement, and turned all three of us invisible before taking to the air.

Seconds later, we touched down on a rocky, unkept hiking trail roughly half a mile away from the commotion. Nothing triggered my ghost sense, so after assessing my surroundings, I returned myself and my passengers back to the visible spectrum and changed into my human form.

"Geez, Danny. A little more warning would have been nice!" Tucker complained.

"Shhhh!" Sam and I simultaneously shushed, crouching down and pressing our index fingers to our lips.

Tucker's eyes shone with mirth, but before he could make a quip about us being 'love birds', I whispered, "We still don't know what caused that quake. We need to investigate... quietly."

Sam's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Still not sensing any ghost activity?" she asked.

"No."

Without another word, we left the trail and crept past the tree line. It was clearly a much less inhabited part of the woods. The brush was dense and grabbed at our clothes, and you had to watch your footing very closely to keep from tripping.

After several minutes of walking (or, in Tucker's case, stumbling) through the woods, we grew close to the offending area. The trees and brush started thinning out and a layer of dust hung in the air, partly obscuring our vision. Then, my enhanced hearing picked up a voice.

Between coughs and wheezes, someone called out, "Is anyone out there!? Please... help!"

It was a young woman's voice, and her words dripped with desperation. She clearly didn't believe anyone was close enough to actually hear her cries. She must be alone. Or, a more morbid part of my brain thought, 'Whoever was with her could be-'

"Guys, I hear someone! Come on!" I exclaimed.

I picked up my pace, rushing forwards into the unknown. Sam and Tucker followed close behind, trusting my lead, only to slam into me when I skidded to a sudden halt and spread my arms to catch my friends. We stood mere inches from a deep maw in the earth; a ravine which stretched to the right and left as far as we could see.

Sam gasped at the close call, and we backed up a few paces. Considering the sheer amount of dust in the air, there must have been some sort of landslide, and we couldn't help anyone if we went tumbling into the ravine ourselves.

A sharp scream prompted me to swivel my head to the right.

"There!" I shouted, pointing to a girl about 50 yards to our right, desperately clinging to a tree root roughly 10 feet below the ravine's edge.

I quickly turned to face Sam and Tucker. "I still don't sense any ghosts nearby. Run to the campground and call for help. We're in the middle of nowhere, so it'll take a while for paramedics to arrive, and I'm sure she's going to need some medical attention. I can manage here myself."

My friends hesitated a moment, not wanting to leave me alone, but they knew I was right. Tucker gave me a sharp nod before they turned and ran back into the tree line.

3rd Person POV

Danny heard the girl let out another, softer scream as he spun around.

She was starting to lose her grip on the tree root, and would soon fall to her death. In a panic, she wildly looked around. Forest green eyes met azure blue.

"HELP!" she cried again, but Danny was already sprinting towards her.

Seconds felt like hours as he rushed to the girl's aid. Her grip faltered again just when he reached the ravine's edge, and a strangled gasp flew from her lips.

"Hold on! I'm coming!" Danny called.

The young hero took a second to assess the situation. The girl appeared to be close to Danny's age, maybe slightly older, and had super curly copper hair (a little darker than Jazz's) and deep green eyes paired with a snow-white complexion and a mottling of freckles across her button nose and round, rosy cheeks. Her face was smeared with dirt, and a thin cut above her left eyebrow slowly dripped blood down her temple. She wore a simple navy t-shirt and jean shorts (which were also coated in grime), clearly displaying a collection of scrapes all over her body and a large bruise that was forming all the way up and down the outside of her left leg. She clung to a tree root protruding from the earth, probably from the tree against the ravine's edge just to Danny's right, and a small ledge jutted out from the cliffside about 4-5 feet above her head.

Without a second thought, Danny expertly slid down to the ledge, taking care not to dislodge any earth or stones. He then laid himself flat on his stomach and reached towards the girl.

"Take my hand!"

She stretched out her right arm but faltered, sliding down the cliffside a few inches. A shriek caught in her throat, sounding more like a strangled hiccup.

Danny quickly scooted forwards so his entire chest hung off the ledge, extending his body as far as possible.

"Come on! Almost there!" He called as encouragement.

The girl reached out again. Their fingers touched-

Then the root she clung to ripped from the soil. Her face froze in terror as she started to fall... but her decent stopped as soon as it began.

She looked up into her savior's eyes. Danny had flung himself forward the last few inches and grabbed her firmly around the wrist, using some of his ghostly flight to keep balanced on his perch.

He smiled and soothed, "It's alright. I've got you. Everything is going to be fine, miss...?"

"Mira," the girl breathed, crying with relief.

"Mira," Danny echoed.

He had just started hauling her up onto the ledge with him when a sickening chill crawled up his spine and his ghost sense slipped from his mouth. He turned his head just in time to catch a glimpse of glowing red eyes before the tree above them turned intangible, raining earth down upon them.

The landslide knocked the duo from the ledge, sending them into a free fall. Danny positioned himself to take the brunt of the landing as they tumbled down the cliffside; Mira's screams reverberated in his ears until they slammed into the ground.

Several of Danny's ribs cracked upon impact and the air was knocked from his lungs, but he pushed through the pain. Without even taking time to gasp for breath, he spun around to shield Mira from the rockfall.

An onslaught of earth and stones crashed around them and pounded against Danny's body. A sharp pain erupted from the base of his skull, and the world went black.

Phewee! That was quite the dramatic chapter. What do you think?

I plan to wrap up Danny and Mira's first encounter in the next chapter, use chapter 5 for some relationship fluff, and then we'll get into the real meat of this story.

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