The next day was the day Batman and the rest of the League returned from their off-world mission, it had only been two days but to Danny it felt like a lifetime.

Upon Batman's arrival at the mountain Danny refused to leave his side, sometimes going as far as holding onto the man's leg as he walked, much to the amusement to the league and team. Most of them wondered how the small child had become so attached to the Dark Knight, the one League member who was notoriously bad with children.

Danny was immensely happy to be back in the manor with Bruce and Dick, and maybe even Alfred. He preferred the large windows in the manor that always had light shining through, even at night when the stars were out. Danny had seen them after waking up after an unpleasant dream(not a nightmare). The halfa had slid out of the bed, the sheets all twisted with his writhing, a soft blue glow pulled his attention to the wall to wall window a few yards from his bed. He stared in awe and walked as if in a trance, eventually pressing his hands up against the glass, his eyes as big as the crisp full moon that shone down on him.

Millions of tiny lights were scattered across the navy blue sky, some shining brighter than others, one even leaped across the sky in a dash of light. Danny's breath fogged up the glass, he quickly whipped it away with his long sleeve so he could continue to marvel at the brilliant show of the night. It was so large, and full of wonderful colors, it reminded him of the cores he sees. Light blues and purples hued the sky in several places, one blue patch stretched across the sky in a large arch.

"Whoa..." he breathed out, his crystal blue eyes glued unblinking upwards into the starry night.

A memory tugged at his mind, remembering seeing the star-lit sky on a warm night with his adopted dad. He could almost feel his father's large body behind him as the halfa sat in his lap while the orange clothed man pointed out the different constellations and other night time wonders in the sky. He remembered being in awe, sitting atop their home's uniquely shaped roof.

He was pulled back to the present when the sun began to rise.

Brilliant rays of sunshine illuminated the sky, the light orange and warm yellow chasing away to cool purples and blues of the night. Danny noticed that the ground and everything that the rays didn't hit were encased in thick shadows, darkest just before the dawn. His vision was blurred as his breath fogged up the glass again and he swiped it away.

The sun peaked out from the horizon, as if nervous to start its debut across the sky, warm rays filtered in through the windows, casting the room in a red-orange glow. Danny felt his jaw go slack, the night was wonderful but the transformation from night to day was as stark as his own.

He blinked as he realized he could not stare at the sun, it hurt his eyes too much. He rubbed away the sun spot under his eyelids and focused on the other details of the morning. A few birds flew from tree to tree, a light wind rustled the orange leaves on the trees, a few getting blown off and tumbling gently to the ground.

He eventually sat and watched the sun continue to rise, steadily growing brighter and harder to look at. He didn't notice the door to his room opening and a black haired boy poke his head in.

"Hey Danny." He whispered, trying to get his attention without scaring the halfa. Said child twisted his body around and realized it was only his brother.

"H-hi Dick." He said softly, he still wasn't able to get that stutter out of his system.

Dick took his greeting as an invitation and pushed the door wider to let himself in. He was in a clean buttoned up coat and pressed pants, looking very civilized and a bit snobbish. His hair was slicked back uncharacteristically and contrasted his usual perky nature. Danny turned his attention back to the sky, wondering if anything had changed in the few seconds he had been distracted.

"You watching the sun rise?" Danny nodded, "ever seen one before?" The halfa tilted his head in thought.

"I-I don't th-think s-so." His tone was normal, if a bit questioning, it seemed the stutter had made itself a home in Danny's throat. Danny had taken to talking more often, prompted by Bruce and Dick, but he couldn't seem to shake off his stuttering. Dick hummed through his nose, then looked down at his little brother.

"They are pretty cool." He paused a moment before speaking again, seeming to prepare himself. "Danny, you're going to have to spend the day at the mountain again," Danny twisted around and frowned at him. He just got back, he wanted to stay here with Bruce and Dick.

"I have to go to school and Bruce has to go to work, I promise you'll be safe. Connor and M'gann are always there and I managed to convince Roy to come too." Dick said, trying to accommodate his touchy brother. Danny slouched in thought.

M'gann was nice, but she was no Dick, Connor was distant and Danny didn't mind, Roy was an interesting matter. He was ok with Roy on account of his likeness to his adoptive sister, and his overall protectiveness, but like Connor he was rather large and unfriendly looking. If he went to the mountain and something happened, who would calm him down and comfort him?

"Please Danny? It's only until school is over, then it's me and you here in the manor for the rest of the day." Dick pleaded. "You can either spend the day here alone with Alfred or you can be at the mountain with the rest of the team plus Roy. Kaldur is actually in Atlantis right now so he won't be there, and neither will Artemis and Wally because they have school too."

Danny looked down in thought. So he could either be in the large and spacious manor alone except for Alfred, who Danny hasn't really gotten to know. Or, spend the day at the mountain that had already been attacked once, with three people he knew but didn't trust as much as Dick. Danny groaned internally, he would have to choose one eventually.

"Wh-wh-what if a-a-attack happens?" Danny asked, it was a serious question, it had happened before when everyone but the Leaguers were there.

"Then Alfred would protect you here or Connor, M'gann, and Roy protect you at the mountain. Don't worry, I've seen everyone in action, it would be very difficult to defeat any of them." Dick assured, Danny frowned into his lap.

"Mountain." Danny chose.

Dick nodded with a smile, putting his hand out to help the halfa up. Danny took the hand and they walked together to the Batcave. Bruce was there in his bat suit sitting at his bat computer but with the hood down, he rose a hand in greeting as his mouth was preoccupied with a cup of coffee.

"Morning Bruce, Danny says he wants to go to the mountain with Roy." Dick informed, Bruce put his cup down and nodded.

"Alright, suit up Danny, I'll bring you to the mountain and Dick will come pick you up as Robin." The billionaire said.

Danny held his breath as he focused on transforming, his face grew purple in concentration, and probably lack of air. The white rings appeared and switched him to his ghost form, his white hair silkier and more white than grey after the shower a few days ago. Batman threw his cowl up and he walked Danny to the zeta tubes, Danny fidgeted next to him as Batman punched in the code for the mountain.

"Dont worry Phantom, its only a few hours, there's not much that could go wrong." The vigilante said to the nervous halfa, Danny took a deep breath as the Zeta Beams started up. Batman was right, he was fine.

What could go wrong?

-0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0-

A lot could go wrong apparently.

Danny first became uneasy when he heard something only the GIW called him. He was half asleep on the couch, having just finished a movie with Roy, The Lego movie. Roy had fallen asleep half way through, Danny assumed he was really tired from his hero job, the halfa cuddled closer to the sleeping archer and nearly fell asleep himself.

His half lidded toxic green eyes snapped open when something hissed.

"Ssspecimine G..." a male voice hissed. Danny's heart lept and he shot straight up, head twisting around trying to find the source.

"Zero" came the voice again in a harsh whisper. The fearful child began to shake, then tried to shake his archer friend awake.

"ONE!" Danny ducked as he felt something go over him. He continued to tug on Roy while his breathing become rigid and shallow. Roy only groaned in annoyance.

The presence seemed to have left, but Danny was still on alert, his head snapping from side to side, trying to watch all the possible entries and corners where the voice could be hiding. His heart rate accelerated when a large form walked towards the kitchen. Danny lowered himself behind the couch and turned invisible, after a second thought he grabbed Roy and turned him invisible too.

It was Connor, Danny let out a sigh of relief and was about to let his invisibility go but so,e underlying instinct told him not to. He took a closer look at the clone, his eyes, they were red. Danny held his breath as the kryptonian came closer, passing within centimeters of the hiding halfa and archer. Danny tried to keep his breath in but a cold blue mist forced its way out of his mouth, luckily Connor didn't see it. The Phantom then noticed his core, it was... small... like it was being surpressed.

If in any other situation Danny might have studied the core, wondering what was wrong with it but his attention was needed else where. Not Connor, or someone that looked like Connor walked around the kitchen, seemingly harmless. Danny watched from over the top of the couch as He rummaged through some cabinets, apparently finding what he was looking for.

Connor made his way over to the couch, had it been normal Connor he might have thought he would watch static, something he had yet to see but Wally and Robin complained of regularly. Instead the clone uncapped his prize from the kitchen and threw the contents over the couch.

Danny sneezed as the cinnamon rained down on them, their forms now outlined in a reddish brown powder. Connor threw his hands up, balled into fists, and brought them down on the couch. Danny lept off the couch in the nick of time but hesitated before running away as Roy was catapulted off his end of the couch. Roy hit the ground and woke up, he groaned and slowly got to his feet, wondering why he was on the ground in a heap, feeling like he had been thrown across a foot ball field.

He turned and saw Not Connor demolishing the couch he had been sleeping on and no Danny in sight, and for some reason he was covered in cinnamon. Was this a prank? He sneezed and a cloud of the brown spice was shaken off of him. Something tugged at his leg, he looked down to see a faint form also covered in cinnamon, Danny.

The halfa dropped his invisibility and tugged at Roy again, they had to leave! Roy opened his mouth but Danny took his hand and started running, almost dragging the archer along.

"Phantom wait, what's wrong with Connor? Why are we running away from him?" Roy asked the child as they ran into the large training room, if it came to a fight, Danny preferred an open space.

"N-not C-Connor." Danny said, he held his breath as he turned intangible, the powder dropped and he quickly returned to being tangible. They stoped in the middle of the room and Danny took that time to catch his breath while Roy looked in connors direction questioningly.

"Well yes, that would be a good reason to run away. But how is that not Connor? Yeah he's destroying the couch, he's done it before. Usually there's no one on it when he does." Roy said, reaching for his bow stashed behind his back. He still had to acknowledge that Connor may not be Connor, if Danny was scared then he had to fix it.

"R-red eyes, and s-small c-core." Danny explained, Roy rose and eyebrow.

"Core?" Danny grew his own confused look, did they not see cores? He had assumed everyone saw cores, only until recently did he realize he had never seen his adopted family's cores because that was before the GIW messed with his eyes. Now he had to explain the whole core thing, it was difficult enough because of his lack of vocabulary but in English it might as well be impossible.

"C-cores have c-color..."he paused, trying in vain to find the English words."... e-emo-emotions..." Danny gave up, if Roy wanted to know about cores he would have to wait for Robin to come so he could translate. The archer waited patently for the halfa to finish, when he quieted and looked down in thought he assumed the child was having trouble explaining it.

"V-voice, s-scary voice, s-said bad n-name." Danny informed, nudging himself closer to Roy. "I-in front of Connor."

"In front? You mean before?" The archer asked, Danny nodded, he didn't know English as well as he knew Romanian. "Did the voice say a bad word or say something not nice? Or what?"

"Bad name." Danny said simply while looking to the ground, the one name that tied him to the GIW.

"Specimime G-01"

Danny yelped and tightened his grip on Roy, the archer frowned as he searched the room for the source. Connor emerged from the kitchen, flirts still clenched and red eyes glowing. M'gann appeared as well, shifting through the mountain wall and floating near the other exit. Like Connor her eyes were solid red, Danny saw her ever changing core thrash between small and large as if fighting back whatever was pulling her down.

"The little halfa." M'gann said, but when she spoke a man's voice covered her own. Roy placed an arrow on the string, this was definitely not Connor and M'gann.

"Who are you?!" Roy shouted, raising his bow but not drawing it yet, he didn't know which target to shoot at. Both M'gann and Connor tilted their heads as if contemplating the question.

"Who am I? I'm also a halfa, a stronger halfa, certainly much more important and better than this tiny, little, shivering, cowardly boy." The young vigilanti's said together, also in the man's voice. "But you can call me Plasmius." The voice said in a rather chipper tone, this guy was nuts.

Danny's mouth poured out the cold smoke again and his head shifted between the two possessed team members who began walking towards them. Possessed! They were possessed! Possession was a ghost ability, and Danny was figuring out that the blue mints usually ocumponied a ghost. Plasmius was possessing Connor and M'gann! Now if only he knew the English word for it, he only knew the Romanian word.

Roy could probably take on the two himself, but Danny needed to get out of there. If Danny was what Plasmius wanted, it was Roy he was gunna get. A plan started forming in the archers mind, he opened his mouth to tell Danny what to do but he was interrupted by the boy spouting in Romanian.

"Posedat! Posedat! M'gann și Connor sunt posedați!" (possessed! Possessed! M'gann and Connor are possessed!) Danny shouted, hoping Roy would at least make a connection between the ghostly power and the two teens.

"Danny I don't know what your saying." Roy admitted, "when I say go I want you to fly out of here, get to the zeta tubes and get to the bat cave, or watchtower, anywhere basically. I'll deal with Plasmius." He notched and arrow and let it fly. It hit superboy and a red foam covered him.

"Now Danny!" He knocked another arrow and painted it at M'gann.

Danny ran hesitantly, then shouted over his shoulder, "posedat is a-a ghost p-power!" Another blue mist came out of his mouth and he slowed as he neared the zeta tubes, Plasmius was following him.

Danny kept moving but twisted backwards trying to find the ghost. He backed into something hard and he twirled around to meet the gaze of a tall ghost wearing white and a blood red cape. His blue face was contorted in a twisted smile, showing fangs, his black hair was up in two points like his cape collar, adding to the 'vampire' vibe. Danny backed away with eyes wide.

"Danny? Was it? That's rich, you have a name. I use to have one, but a code name is so much better. It makes me feel..." the ghost trailed off, he set his hands out to either side of him, a glowing pink substance erupted in both hands. "Powerful." He growled and threw the pink balls at Danny.

He snapped out of his stupor and dodged to the side. He needed to get around Plasmius, but how? Roy was still distracting the possessed team members, he was on his own. The older halfa threw more pink ecto-beams and Danny had to fly to dodge them all. He landed with a side roll then came up and blasted his own green beam at the ghost.

Plasmius let the beam pass harmlessly through him, it was a good shot, it would have hit his chest had he not turned intangible. The fighting stoped for a moment, Danny standing still where he had thrown the beam and Plasmius floating just above the ground with an evil smirk on his face.

"What I don't understand is why the GIW think you are so much better than me." He complained. Danny blanched at the mention of the GIW, Plasmius saw his opportunity and took it. He lunged and grabbed the boy by his neck, speeding forwards so that he smashed into the wall. The wall broke and the older halfa thrusted Danny against the fridge.

Danny tried to breath but it was impossible with the hand chokeing him, he grabbed at the hand, thinking he could pry it off but it remained stone hard. Plasmius looked at the struggling little halfa, taking in his white hair and black shirt. He chuckled.

"They think this little... badger... could be more powerful than me?!" He threw Danny to the ground, he coughed as he got his breath back. He tried to scramble away but Plasmius grabbed his leg and threw him into the wall again. Danny phased through it and ended up in a dark room, one of the bed rooms in the mountain.

His breaths came out spuraticly, his white hair clung to his sweating forehead. He needed to move, he shakenly moved away from the wall, his eyes going up towards the vents. Pain tore at his throat where the ghost had held him, his head throbbing with the amount of walls it had been smacked into.

Suddenly something, or someone, fell on him.

His head hit the floor once more and he groaned, stunned with the impact. Whatever had hit him rolled off of him and he heard the rumpling of paper.

"Hey are you ok?" Someone asked, the voice went in and out of low and high pitches. He looked up and saw the fuzzy image of a boy wearing a yellow shirt. He shook his head to clear it, he had been hit on the head one too many times.

"You're not ok? Lemme help you up." The boy said, he grabbed his arm pits and lifted him up to his feet. Danny put a hand to his head and shook it again, he got his feet under him and the boy let go. His knees nearly gave out but he put a hand on the boy's shoulder to steady himself.

He finally got his head to stop swimming and looked over the boy that had squashed him. He wore a yellow shirt and had dark skin, glasses on his nose and a red hat. He also held a rolled up pice of paper in his hand. His core was writhing with worry and hope, red hidden deep within and had a few streaks of green.

"You wouldn't happen to be a halfa would you?" The boy asked hopefully. Danny frowned as his brows furrowed, who and why?

"Wh-who's a-asking?" Danny said, wishing he could get rid of his stuttering. He shivered and the mist escaped him, he widened his green eyes as he searched the room. Plasmius was close.

"I'm Tuck-" the boy was interrupted by a blast of pink ectoplasm burning down the door. The two boys rose their hands to shield their faces, Danny had his down first, ready to dodge the weirdo.

"Daniel! It's rud- who is that?" Plasmius started but noticed the boy next to his target. Danny shrugged and surged forward, he placed a kick to the ghosts gut and swept his feet under him. In his surprise the older halfa forgot to turn intangible, resulting with him on the ground with his breath driven from him.

"Run!" Danny called back to the boy, the two of them ran out of the room but didn't get very far when the wall close to their heels was blasted away with pink beams.

Danny and Tuck, the only part of the boys name Danny got, raced down the hall with Plasmius in hot pursuit. The two boys slid to a stop when the air in front of them stretched open as if being cut. A green rip in the air cast a green haze over the hallways occupants, Plasmius charged when he saw his target stall.

He was met with a large black and green wolf, Plasmius felt the smile die on his face. The wolf like creature lunged at him, long wicked claws raked his cape as he dodged. Danny and Tuck stood shocked, who was that?!

"Wolf! The GIW thought you dead!" The older halfa said, floating just out of reach of the black ghosts claws.

"Ne tiel morta kiel vi Plasmius!"(not as dead as you Plasmius!) The wolf said in a different language. Tuck seemed to understand because he mumbled an 'oh snap!'.

"No matter, soon you will die, and so will the little badger." He lifted his hands up and threw down a pink beam of death. Wolf sprinted out of the way and Danny grabbed tuck and turned them both intangible. He ran out of the hallway, going through a few walls until they were in the kitchen again.

He dropped the intangibility and started jogging to the doorway to see how Roy was doing. He didn't get very far when his feet were grabbed from under him. He yelled and tuck tried to grab his hands but they slipped.

They went through a bunch of dirt before he hit the ground, the air driven out of him. Plasmius floated above him menacingly, a pink beam in hand ready to deliver the final blow. He wore a few claw marks, but the wolf was nowhere to be seen. They were in a cave of sorts, a water reservoir off to one side and creepy rocks hung from the ceiling, there wasn't much light here.

"Now, Daniel, you come to an end!" He threw the beam but Danny rolled to the side.

"Y-you're crazy!" Danny spat, he wanted to say more but his limited English didn't contain words of insult, except for a few he learned from the GIW but he didn't want to use them. They may have been true but he didn't want to stoop to the GIW's level of insults.

"So he speaks. I heard about your incident with Agent J, murder isn't so bad once you get use to it." Plasmius said mockingly, Danny paled.

He scrambled to his feet and let his hands glow with his green ectoplasm. Plasmius chuckled evilly, he sped forward and crashed into Danny, again grabbing his neck and holding him up against the wall, his other hand back ready with pink ectoplasm.

"I also heard about the massacar, they actually named it after me just to keep no one suspicious. It was perfect really, as no one could reveal the truth because no one survived." Plasmius hissed, enjoying the look of horror on the younger halfa's face.

Danny closed his eyes, seeing flashes of red, he wouldn't go back. He couldn't let himself freeze either, Robin had said the past was in the past, he could either learn from it and grow or let it destroy him. His eyes opened with realization.

"Yes, I did k-k-kill people, and so have y-you. B-but the difference is that I f-forgave myself, I-I learned to l-live with it, to l-learn from it. You have not, and I-it's destroying you." Danny said with utmost confidence, despite his position. His steely green eyes locking with Plasmius' red ones. "I-I am Danny Phantom, I can and will protect the ones I love. You are just an old man in need of a cat and a crazy fruit loop."

He was proud of his insult, the gross nature of Plasmius had reminded him of his first meal at the manor, nasty, soggy, fruit loops. Plasmius was at a loss for what to say, so he growled and attacked. Danny braced for impact when he was tossed to the ground, he looked up and saw wolf grappling with Plasmius. Tuck was there too, riding on wolf's back, he spied Danny on the ground and jumped off.

"Hey dude, are you ok?" He asked, Danny nodded numbly. He just needed some rest, then he would be fine. He held his head again and got to his feet.

"Tuck was it?" He asked, looking at his new friend.

"TuckER but yeah Tuck is good too." Newly dubbed Tucker said. The two stepped back as the two brawling ghosts tumbled closer. Danny pointed at the wolf ghost.

"Who is that?"

"That's Wolf, he speaks Esperanto and hates the GIW and especially Plasmius. Apparently he's part of some rebellion, I'm not fluent yet but I got a few snipits." Tucker said.

"Roy!" Danny exclaimed, he forgot about Roy! He must still be fighting possessed M'gann and Connor!

"Who now?" Tucker asked but Danny flew upwards before the halfa could answer.

Plasmius saw his target escaping, he growled and shot a beam at him before wolf clocked him over the head. But the beam was shot, hitting Danny in the chest and he fell. Tucker tried to catch him but Wolf grabbed him and put him on his back.

"Hey!" Tucker protested, Wolf slashed in the air and jumped through the portal, taking Tucker, the Infi-map, and Plasmius with him.

Danny hit the ground with such force it shook the mountain and made a crater. Dust and dirt was thrown in the air, he tried to keep his eyes open but they were so heavy. His mind was slowing down, his ears heard the rush of blood and he became hot and sweaty.

His eyes looked around in a haze, seeing a tall red figure running towards him, his eyes closed and he felt nothing.