Hello, I'm back! Without much talk, here the next chapter and answers to your reviews!^^

DBack47: Hi there!^^ I'm happy you like the story so far. Sorry that my chaps aren't the longest, but I've never been good with putting a lot of things in a single chappie. But maybe it will make you happy to hear that this chapter is my longest so far? Oh well...on to your questions! Dash… I always wondered about him too when I watched the cartoon. I guess thinking up a reason why he is after Danny so much might be fun, and we will have a small inlook into the workings of his mind later on (Sounds kinda scary to me though….) Sam is definitely getting a part in this too. I might have kicked her out of the story for now, but I'm sure she'll fight her way back in^^ And about Danny's powers, yeah he got better – a lot. In this chap is a short fighting sequence, not much since I suck at writing fights, but it will be a small glimpse. Basically Danny got better with all his original powers and got a few new ones such as teleportation and so. Anyway, I hope you have fun reading this, DA

KIxen: Glad that you like it^^ Yeah, Danny isn't shy...*looks at chappie*…nope, he isn't….Thank you for the comment and much fun with the new chapter!

Biisayowaq: You speak Spanish? Cool! Yeah it must so suck to have to go over the basics in school…but anyway, thanks for the comment! I hope you'll like how things continue^^

Holospartoi258: Yeah, Danny is real cold. But he got a lot of stress, family problems and is in the middle of puberty, so I guess a certain amount of jerkiness is ok. And of course I also want him to be a bit of a jerk in this story…He still wants to protect everyone though and if someone got actually hurt he would feel miserable. Paulina is just plain difficult for me. The show portrayed her rather…simply and honestly if I were to make her as swallow as her character is in there, the whole DannyxPaulina thing would be impossible. I wanted to add some extra things, but they make it real hard to keep her in character since I still want her to be the bitchy high school diva as well. Sometimes it feels like I make her too smart, but then I remember that no one is completely dumb and that my Paulina might be perspective in some areas and a total idiot in others. I dunno myself as to how I will pull the pairing off…I mean, I have ideas of course, but I get the feeling things will get worse before they get better.^^° Thank you for reviewing! Hopefully you'll like the chap, DA

Pterodactyl: Gee, thanks for the nice review^^ Every time someone tells me they wouldn't have noticed that I'm not a native speaker if I hadn't said so, I get all giddy with happiness since I really love the language. I only got as far as I'm now because of reading so much anyway…and there people say being a nerd doesn't have its benefits! About the Typo words (and yes, I just learnt a new word!^^) I mess them up all the time, sorry. I mean, I actually know the differences, but even when proofreading my stuff my eyes just skip over them. I guess I'll have to be extra careful about them in the future^^ Thank you for your advice and I hope you'll like the new chapter!^^

A big thank you to all my reviewers!

Dracon Asahara

Perspective lifes chapter 7

Quality time

Looking in the mirror, Paulina readjusted her hair after pulling out the clips that normally kept annoying strands out of her face during practice. She gave a satisfied smile upon noticing that she looked as good as usual and that her makeup was still in place.

She stuffed her cheerleader-outfit in a duffel bag to get it washed at home and gave her image in the mirror on the inside of the locker one last glance before closing the door. She was now in her normal clothes again, a pink tank-top with white outlines of flowers on the left corner and white trousers that only went to her knees, leaving the rest of her legs exposed. Paulina rather liked that outfit, she thought it looked cute and the light colors gave a good contrast to her darker skin. That and it went well with her favorite handbag which was also white and from a famous designer.

The Hispanic was just about to leave the changing room when one of the other cheerleaders held her back. "Paulina, wait!" the girl with curly brown hair exclaimed. She wasn't fully dressed yet, running around in only a skirt and her bra, her hair still tied bag with a hair-gum. The girl was by Paulina's side in a second, leaving her place next to Star and another girl whom she had been speaking to just a moment ago.

" Star, Megan and me are planning to go to the mall and we wondered if you wanted to come along?" she asked happily. "You know this new clothes-store which is going to open next week? My cousin got a job in it and he said he might be able to get us in early."

Paulina raised one of her eyebrows. The girl – Claire, if she recalled correctly – was one of the younger students and only a freshman. She was quite good at acrobatics though, and since she didn't look half-bad Paulina, as the current captain of the cheerleading-squad, had decided to let her join, which had naturally put the girl on one of the lower places of the A-list as well.

"Your cousin got a job in it? Full- or Part-time?" Paulina surprised Claire by asking.

"Full-time. Why?"

"Just wondering. Is he planning to continue working for this shop or the chain it belongs to?" the older girl continued questioning.

"Eh…" Claire began, unsure why she was suddenly asked those questions when all she wanted was to get on good terms with one of her seniors. " I think he is planning to stay with them and try to become branch-manager or something like that, but I'm not quite sure…."

A smile formed on Paulina's face at the girl's words. 'Seems like in the end it was a good decision to accept her into the team.' If that cousin of hers was continuing his career in this shop, he was actually likely to have some success at it.

If there was one thing that everybody knew about Paulina, then it was her ability to always know the newest trend and to get her hands on clothes that weren't even available yet. It was an ability that had gotten her a lot of admiration and jealousy. People thought that she was just naturally good when it came to fashion and really - she was. That didn't however mean that she didn't have her own tricks to tell what was going to be 'in' and what was going to be 'out'.

Most girls that were on top of the fashion-scene in normal high-schools used the same trick. They looked at the pictures of stars in the internet. Not the old pictures, mind you, but the new ones that had just been updated several minutes ago at best. If one had a good eye for such things he could possibly see what trends the various teen-magazines were going to develop out of those shots. Stars were trendsetters after all and you were sure to be fashionable if you knew whom to copy.

Paulina took the whole thing only a little bit further. Ever since she was little she had seen how everything played together in the business world because of her father's work. And stars too were just part of the business world.

All she had to do was keep informed on their allegiances. What record-studio was working together with which clothe-stores? What company owned which labels and with which other companies was it working together? Which star often got presents from which designer? Whom best to talk into wearing your clothes if you wanted to reach a certain group of people?

For Paulina this method worked quite fine to predict the future happenings in the fashion-world. Sure, at the beginning it had been horribly confusing, but after some time, when she had the most important connections memorized and also gotten the hang of where to look, things had become simpler.

And it was also through this way of informing herself that she knew that the shop in which Claire's cousin was going to work in belonged to a chain which had just been bought by LEV-Corporation. Just one year ago LEV had also bought a small fast-foot shop and had soon afterwards started a whole chain out of it. Things seemed to run smoothly for them and so Paulina was quite sure that they were also going to expand their clothes-stores.

And if they were to become a big line, they would become a well known line and that meant they were sure to get the right connections to designers automatically.

So all Paulina had to do was stick to Claire a little, play her cards right and hope her cousin was not a complete idiot. After all, with a little talent it would be possible to get quite a good position for someone who started as one of the first workers in an expanding store-chain.

But speaking about Claire, the Hispanic noticed that the younger girl was looking at her rather worriedly. Obviously her questions had made her unsure. "I'd love to come!" Paulina exclaimed and could practically hear the other's relieved sigh "When are you going?"

"We were going to go there right now, since training is over and we have nothing else to do." Claire responded.

"Oh…" Paulina deflated slightly at the girl's last words. Nothing else to do.

Just having remembered that she was planning to meet up with Fenton right after school, Paulina frowned. She really wanted to tag along with the other girls, but she couldn't just ignore her English-appointment either and recalling how horribly rude Fenton had been to her earlier that day, she had the feeling he wouldn't take lightly to being left standing there to wait.

"Is it ok if I come a by little bit later? I still have some things to do…" she asked her voice giving away quite a bit of the annoyance she was starting to feel towards the boy.

"Sure." The younger one answered quickly. "Just call when you're at the mall, so that we know when to pick you up."

"I will." Paulina answered her thoughts already drifting to the questions she had written down on her pad. She would just have to hurry up a bit, that couldn't be so difficult now, could it? It was a simple question-answer game after all…

It was only twenty minutes later that Paulina could be found making her way over to the main entrance of Amity's library. She was happy to note that Fenton was already waiting for her, sitting on one of the steps, chin in hand, looking bored out of his mind.

Upon coming near him however any satisfaction over him at least having heeded her advice to being punctual disappeared quickly. She just couldn't believe it – the guy still reeked! It was weaker than before but it was still there, that horrible smell from earlier that day. Sure, she had only been half-serious when telling him to take a bath but that was only because she had expected him to figure out that much on his own.

"Hey." The boy greeted upon seeing her.

"Don't 'hey' me!" the girl snapped back at his casualness. "I think I told you to get rid of that stench! Why do you still smell like…like that?" she asked, unable to come up with a good comparison that did not involve something disgusting.

"What? You mean my perfect imitation of a trash-bin?" he asked sounding slightly amused. "I rather like it. Really useful for self-preservation, you know? After the motto 'Odour á la Tuck - keeps evil spirits away and bullies at bay!' But seeing that you are here I guess it doesn't work properly yet…."

Paulina just looked confused for a moment not getting what the other was actually trying to say with that. 'Then again, I most likely don't want to know…' she decided. Fenton was plain weird after all and if he wanted to run around stinking like he did, well she would just have to breathe through her mouth….

"Can we just get this started already?" she asked him, not in the mood to listen to his nonsense for longer.

The blue eyed boy just shrugged his shoulders and stood up, not wanting to make the whole thing harder than necessary either.

The two of them were soon seated at a small, secluded table in the back of the building, both not wanting to draw too much attention, even if for different reasons.

"So" Paulina started and pulled out the paper with her questions "I thought I would start by asking you some questions I prepared and all you have to do is answer."

Danny couldn't help feeling rather surprised at noticing that the girl had apparently prepared herself for their meeting. It seemed like she took the whole thing more serious than he had anticipated. Seeing her take out a pencil to write down his answers, Danny quickly followed suit and took out paper and pencil as well, ready to write down whatever she would ask. If she had already thought of good things to ask him, he could just ask the same things back after all, right?

"Well…" looking at her paper with a small frown Paulina had to admit she still wasn't all too proud of her questions, but she guessed it was better than nothing. "What's your favorite color?"

"Blue." Danny answered simply, copying the question on his own sheet of paper.

"Favorite food?"

"Pasta and milkshakes."

"Favorite animal?"

"Dunno, I like dogs…."

"Favorite band?"

"…Humpty Dumpty…." By now Danny had stopped writing down everything Paulina said and was giving her a doubtful look.

"Favorite - "

"Are you sure that's how you want to proceed?" he interrupted her. It felt like he was back in kindergarten, introducing himself to his fellow four year olds. When she had said that she had prepared questions, he had honestly expected a little bit….more. The boy didn't receive an answer however and was silenced by a glare from the brunette.

"Tell me about your family." She demanded.

'Well at least she changed strategy…still got to work on politeness though.'

"My family…" Danny began "I guess that would be Mom, Dad, Jazz and me. What's there to say about them? I guess pretty much everybody in Amity already knows that Mom and Dad are ghost hunters and invent new weapons. And Jazz is…well she's Jazz, you know her – super smart and nosey."

Paulina frowned at his answer, he really hadn't said anything new. Well, besides his sister being nosey, what actually surprised her quite a bit. She still remembered the older Fenton sibling. Jazz had also been part of the A-list, even thought differently than the Hispanic herself. She had been one of those pretty, smart, popular and seemingly perfect girls that would end up on a college in ivy league and forget high-school as soon as they were out the door, diploma in hand and scholarships ahead.

"What is Jazz doing now that she's done with school?" Paulina asked.

"She's in Yale, studying psychology." Danny replied offhandedly.

'Yep, ivy league…' the girl thought to herself, some things were just predictable 'Most be a real bummer for their purse, those colleges are expensive. It's surprising that they could afford it at all, the Fentons never made the impression of having too much money. Then again all that techno-stuff they have must be pretty costly….'

"Do your parents earn a lot of money with all their weapons and ghost…devices?" she asked with honest curiosity.

Danny was silent for a moment, obviously not sure how to answer that question. "Well, not really. The government kind of funds their work since it's a 'new science' and they need people to do the pioneer-work. The ghost hunting is more of a hobby to them than anything else and they rarely get paid for it, but we have enough money to afford normal stuff."

"Then where did they get the money to pay for your sister's college?"

"Scolarship." The blue eyed boy answered curtly.

He preferred not having to think about how they could afford Jazz' studies. It was true, Jazz had gotten herself a scholarship, just that it only covered about half the money and they still had to get together the other half. And since that still was quite the sum, the money that their parents had laid aside for exactly that purpose hadn't been enough. To Jack the solution had been obvious. Whom else to turn to, than his good, old, billionaire college-pal?

For Danny it was horrible to know that they were indebted to the guy and he guessed his mother felt the same. Even though he had the feeling paying for her daughter's school had gotten Vlad into his Mom's better graces….

"What about yourself?" Paulina's voice interrupted his musings "What do you do in your free-time? What are your hobbies?"

"Eh…" Danny started intelligently. "Free time?"

"Yeah, free time – you know, the time after school is over until it starts again? What are you doing in it?" Paulina asked again, sounding slightly annoyed at having to repeat herself.

"Well, hanging out with Tucker I guess…"

"And?"

"We do…stuff?" Danny answered, quite aware that he must have sounded real stupid right now. But, really, what were you supposed to answer when your live revolved around fighting ghosts, talking about ghosts, keeping your own ghost powers a secret from your parents, fighting Valerie, ghosts and skipping school to fight ghosts? And did he mention trying to stay sane with all of this? Because that really took quite a lot of his energy, too.

"You do stuff?" Paulina parroted. Great, that was just what she needed, having to pull every bit of information out of his nose. What was with him anyway? Just a moment ago he was giving her at least acceptable answers that, while not long, were at least somewhat informative and now he couldn't even give her an answer to something as simple as his hobbies. "Seriously, if you are making this hard for me on purpose, you better stop this right now!"

"I'm not making this hard for you on purpose!" Danny defended himself.

"Then just give me a straight answer! What do you do in you free-time?"

"Uh…video games?" he tried "Yeah, video games. Tuck and me play video games. All the time."

The Hispanic clenched her teeth in anger. This stupid freak was messing with her wasn't he? And because of him she had to spend her time with a freak in a library instead of with her friends in a new shop! "You didn't give me a straight answer – again!" she exclaimed, aggravated.

"What? Why? It was a perfectly straight answer!"

"It was not!"

"Was too!"

"You even formulated it as a question!" By now Paulina's voice had risen to a level unfit for a library and she looked around worriedly for the librarian hoping he hadn't hurt her small outburst and would now come and throw them out. When no one seemed wanting to berate her for the noise she turned back to the boy across from her.

"You know what?" she hissed "I'm just gonna go with your stupid 'video games', it's not like I couldn't care less about what you do in your free time after all. But I swear if you don't come up with other things right now, I'm going to seriously hurt you!"

Danny scoffed. "Hurt me? What are you going to do? Claw my eyes out with those perfectly manicured nails of yours?"

"Please, I wouldn't ruin my nails over someone like you." Paulina answered arrogantly, her teal eyes narrowed. "I was thinking of disembodiment with the help of a lot of pointy objects…."

"I've heard so much worse." The boy grinned back, thinking about a certain ghost that would love to have his pelt on the wall. "And pointy objects are totally outdated, you use the blunt ones…."

"What? But blunt o-" the girl stopped herself from finishing her question. What was she doing, taking part in that guys idiocy? "Argh, let's get back on track already, I have better things to do than being here and wasting my time by discussing with you."

"Same for me." Danny agreed and then added with a serious voice. "You know what they say: don't argue with an idiot – she will drag you down on her level and beat you by experience. So arguing with you is pretty pointless, I guess…"

"Wait, are you calling me an idiot?" the Hispanic asked, slightly shocked at being insulted so casually. Sure, even she got insulted sometimes but that was mostly by girls and more often out of jealousy than not. Being insulted by a guy however was a foreign concept to her and this one had already done it more than one time today….

"Am I?" Danny asked back, fake confusion layering his voice and a thoughtful look on his face.

"You just did!"

"Did I?" he asked, sounding clueless. Going on Paulina's nerves was actually quite fun…

"Yes!"

"Hmm…you sure?"

" Of course I am su-" Paulina halted. Damn, that guy was messing with her again and she was even playing along! "Hobbies. Let's just continue with your hobbies…" she grit out.

"You know, you're not very good at changing topics…." Danny noted. "And wouldn't it be my turn now?"

"I didn't change topic, I'm trying to get back on the original one! And what do you mean 'your turn'?"

"Well, until now, you asked all the questions." The boy explained "Kinda unfair, since we both have to do this project, don't you think?"

The Hispanic frowned. She had nearly forgotten that Fenton had to do a presentation about her too. "I'm going to answer your questions if you give me a proper response as to what your hobbies are."

"Just write…" the blue eyed boy was silent for a moment before continuing "Hanging around with Tuck and Val, cinema, homework, family….the usual, you know?"

Paulina gave him a skeptical look. 'Either his hesitation means he is lying or he is really plain boring….But really, 'homework'? Everyone would know that that is a lie, Fenton never has his homework in school…'

"So I get to ask you questions now?" Danny answered, getting his own pen ready again.

"Whatever."

"Favourite animal? Food? Color?"

Paulina blinked, weren't those her own questions? "Hey, you stole my ideas!" she accused after confirming that he had indeed just written down her own questions on his paper.

"Come on, you can't really call those ideas. Or take claims - Those questions are laughable."

"Well, if they are so laughable, why are you copying them?"

Danny just opened his mouth for a retort when he quickly shut it close again.

"What, no witty answer? Admitting you were just stealing?" Paulina asked smugly at seeing the other stiffen. When the boy across from her suddenly shot up from his seat however she couldn't help but flinch at the sudden movement.

"Hey, where are you going?" she asked at seeing him grab his bag and walk away from her.

"Toilet!" the boy called over his shoulder before disappearing between the rows of bookshelves.

Paulina just sat there for a moment, staring dumbly at the place where she had lost sight of the boy. The first question that formed in her head being; 'Why did he take his bag with him?' and then 'isn't the toilet in the other direction?'. She had to admit, she wasn't all that proud that it took her another minute to realize that Fenton had just pulled one of his infamous disappearance-acts on her and was not going to the toilet or coming back anytime soon.

Once she did realize it however, the words coming out of her mouth were not kind ones. There she was, giving up her precious time and that idiot just walked out on her! She knew she should just have gone with Star and Claire, that would have actually been worthwhile. 'Nothing holding me back from going there right now, though.' Fenton had been the first one to leave after all, so who was she to stay and wait for him when he might not even come back?

With this plan in mind Paulina packed her things and made her way out of the library and over to the next bus-stop. Luckily the mall was only a few stations away and so she would be there in no time. Deciding to use the time she had to wait for the next bus to arrive wisely, she pulled out her cell phone and speed-dialed Stars number. It took only a few rings for the other to pick up.

'Wah! Eh…hello?'

"Star, it's me Paulina. I'm coming to the mall now. Are you guys still with Claire's cousin?"

'We..ah!' came Star's voice from the other side of the line before a weird sound could be heart in the took the blond a few moments before she finished her reply. 'Yeah, we are but…the situation is –ouch!'

The Hispanic girl frowned, what was going on at mall to have her friend so distracted? "Star, you still there?"

'Yes, I am.' Came the slightly breathless sounding reply 'Ah, there he is! Finally!'

"Who is where? What are you talking about?" Paulina asked. She was really getting annoyed at not receiving a proper answer from the blond. She already had that with Fenton.

'Danny Phantom.' Star finally explained 'There is a ghost fight and Phantom just arrived, looks like the other ghost – woah that must hurt!'

Paulina clenched her teeth at the other girl's words. Danny Phantom? Danny Phantom was at the mall and she was missing it because of Fenton? Even if she didn't believe him to be her one and only true love anymore, that didn't mean that she wasn't a fan! And a big one at that! So now because of that freak she had to do this stupid English-appointment, spend her time with him in a library, get insulted, miss out on going with Claire and was now also missing Danny Phantom fight! To the teal eyed girl this was the last straw, there was one thing she was certain of now.

She hated Danny Fenton.

Danny had barely felt any guilt when abandoning Paulina in the library. Okay, none at all. But who could blame him? After all he was running off to save the town from another of its random ghost attacks and that was definitely a good thing to do. Also, the girl's mood had not been the best either, even if he knew he had partially provoked that.

At the moment he was hovering in the air high above Amity, his ghostly tail swinging under him lazily and the sun blinding him. His ghost-sense had gone off not even a minute ago and he had changed into his ghostly alter-ego as soon as he was away from prying eyes.

The boy closed his eyes and concentrated on the inner chill of his ghost sense. He still had to locate the exact place of the actual attack since the range in which he could feel ghosts had grown a lot over the last years and his ghost sense now covered all of Amity Park. In theory that meant the ghosts could be anywhere from the school, to his home, to the park… but Danny could still find them easily with a little concentration. He was even able to tell what ghost it would be in advance, since every single one got an unique signature which he had just recently learnt to feel.

A few seconds later he opened his eyes again, sure of where he had to go. It wasn't all that far just a few blocks down the street. At the mall or the cinema, Danny wasn't quite sure, but guessed he would see once he was there.

And he was right. It took no time at all for him to get there, his form just a black blur in the sky. Once he arrived at the scene he could already see the usual signs of an attack; hordes of panicking people leaving the local shopping-center in masses. 'The mall it is…'

Phantom turned intangible and invisible as he dove down towards the big building with its glass-fronts. That way he could not only phase through the walls, but was also keeping the already panicked citizens from freaking out further once they noticed him. For some reason or another his appearance always made the chaos bigger. He didn't know why some people got even more panicked upon seeing him when he was only trying to help, but he guessed it had to do with him being a ghost and them currently running from one.

Inside the building orientation was a little harder but the half-ghost just flew in the direction everyone was running away from. A part of him noticed that not everyone seemed as frightened as one would expect when being attacked by a supernatural being, since a few persons were actually walking at a normal pace, looking slightly annoyed at being run into so often and having their shopping-trip interrupted.

'Seems like you can get used to everything, huh?' Danny thought bemused, watching two teenagers actually sit down on a table in a deserted coffee shop as if waiting for the whole thing to blow over.

The white haired teen was just about to round a corner when a sudden noise nearly caused him to lose intangibility and fly into the wall face first. It sounded worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. The sound was high and metallic and screeched horribly. It was vibrating in through the halls and Danny quickly covered his ears, fighting the dizzy spell that suddenly hit him.

"Woah, fuck! What the heck was that? That sounds even worse than Jazz singing in the shower!" he exclaimed when the noise had ebbed away. People around him had also stopped running to cover their ears and a few had to lean against the walls in order to stay standing

'Maybe I should hurry up a bit.' He thought to himself, speeding up again.

Finding the origin of his still lasting vertigo was no problem once he entered the middle part of the centre. There, in front of a music store was none other than the infamous ghost-singer Ember McLain, her guitar in hand and at least a dozen of bass boxes all around her.

"Hey, Ember! You think you could tune it down a bit?" Danny called out to her "There were some complaints. Seems like people want to keep their hearing intact after all."

The female ghost looked up at him her blue hair burning brighter for a moment and a grin forming on her face. "It's you, dipstick! I knew you would come."

"Really, did you? And what gave you the idea?" Danny asked mockingly. "Maybe the fact that I appear every single time one of you guys decides to go for world domination again?"

"Yeah, that pretty much gave it away." Ember shot back, before turning to her guitar and turning a knob. "But this time I got a little surprise for you!" she yelled before hitting the chords.

Out of habit Danny had prepared himself to dodge another of those giant pink fists she always threw around. However, when instead of a ectoplasma-fist the same tone as before hit him he just barely managed to cover his ears and keep himself hovering.

This time the disorientation was a lot stronger than before due to the closer range of the attack and Danny had to use all his concentration on staying in the air and not involuntary turning human.

'Damn, that trick was definitely new.' his mind managed to come up with between all the whirling the room seemed to do. 'Yay for enchanted hearing in ghost form…'

"What, can't take a little noise?" Ember mocked him and her grin made him very tempted to shove those words right back into her mouth by showing her what he understood under a little noise. 'Let's see her deal with a ghostly wail, that would be fun to watch.'

He glared at the blue haired ghost. He had to admit the girl wasn't all that stupid. She knew that he was far stronger than her in terms of power and was thus trying to handicap him in advance. He was just trying to stop the room from spinning when he saw that the female ghost was just about to plug in the boxes to amplify her guitar's sound with it.

'Shit, if that was without amplifier right now, I don't want to know what she can do with one!'

Seeing the singer's hand reach for the cord on the floor he did the only thing he could do with his balance still being a little too off to fly around. He fixated the spot right in front of Ember and teleported, leaving green wisps of smoke where he had just been a moment ago.

"Ouch…" he mumbled when landing on his but rather ungracefully. Blinking away a few black spots he noted that teleportation plus dizziness definitely added up to even more dizziness.

"You know, Ember." He started, directing his attention towards his foe again and crossing his legs to sit more comfortably. "That's a neat new trick you got there but it won't help you much. I will still kick your ass and send you back into the ghost-zone. So why don't you make this simpler on both of us and just give up?"

"Stand up, dipstick!" the singer retorted, sounding rather pissed at seeing her enemy sit on the very cord she needed.

"So, the hard way then?" Danny sighed.

"Stand UP!" the singer shouted, getting her guitar ready to blast the half-ghost.

"Uh-oh!" Danny exclaimed and quickly sunk into the floor before another of those sound-waves could hit him. There in the relative safe silence of the mall's underground-levels he had an idea and quickly split himself in two. His clone just turned invisible, while the original Danny flew up again and phased through the concrete.

"Tell you what." He said, watching the singer plug the cord into her guitar, "Your music sucks and making it louder won't change anything."

Ember smiled darkly upon turning the regulator on her guitar to maximum. "Any last words, dipstick?" She asked, positioning herself in her usual battle-stance, ready to let loose her strongest attack yet.

"Yeah, your insults suck too."

With that Ember hit the strings with ferocity. The only sound that resonated however was the crackling of her fiery mane and a small snort from behind her. Shocked she looked up at Phantom who was still hovering in front of her, not looking the last bit surprised, before turning her head towards the origin of the sound. There, leaning against the wall casually and whirling around a cable happily was Phantom, or at least his clone.

"Hey, you unplugged the boxes!" the singer exclaimed angrily.

"Yeah and you turned your back to your enemy." came the other Phantom's voice suddenly from behind her and before she even had the time to turn back she got blasted into the next wall by an emerald beam.

Danny didn't waste any time and quickly pulled out his thermos. Uncapping it, he directed the beam of light at Ember, who was still trying to get back up from his sneak-attack. She could only send him one last glare, her green eyes glowing dangerously before getting sucked in.

"I told her I would win, but did she listen?" the boy sighed to himself.

He looked around, surveying the property damage. It could be worse – he had seen much worse. A few of the storefronts were damaged, the windows broken and the items at display thrown in disarray. The worst seemed to be the music shop from which Ember had gotten her amplifiers. Obviously she had disagreed with having a storefront altogether and now the shop was a little more inviting than the owner had originally planned.

Obviously his short fight had drawn attention and he could see people coming out of their hiding places all around him. Most of them had been in nearby stores, too scared to run for fear that they would draw the ghost-rockers attention.

Not wanting to stay around until it finally got through everyone's head that he had won and all the attention would be turned unto him, he made his way towards the ceiling. Once outside he turned tangible again and rose up until he was several yards above the vicinity.

'Should I go back to the library or straight home?' The teen wondered to himself. The fight hadn't lasted all that long and if he went right back to the library now he would have only been gone for fifteen, twenty minutes top. But he quickly disregarded that idea. This was Paulina he was thinking about, she most likely left as soon as he had been out the door. And even if not, he would have to explain his sudden disappearance to her and deal with the girl in an even fouler mood.

No, there was no point in going back, he would just wait until he saw her again in school and then tell her something about stomach-aches or similar.

Having made his decision the teen flew off towards his own house, which was visible even from great distance thanks to his parents' op-center on top of it.

It was nearing five in the evening and Danny guessed his mom would be happy to see him home early for once. Maybe he should help out with the chores for a bit. His parents were still sour with him after all and the boy could always feel the tenseness developed when he was around. So maybe helping out his mom or a bit would really be a good thing.

Ha, I'm uploading on new-years eve! But here in Europe it's still the old year, so I got the chapter up in 2010!^^

'Bout the chap…Danny's a spazz.^^ He is still clumsy and not very careful at times, but at least now he got the power necessary to fight his way out of uncomfortable situations. I'm planning to get Jazz into the next chapter somewhere and I guess Vlad might have a little appearance as well. Enough spoiler for now ^^ I hope I'll see you guys next chapter! By by and:

I wish all of you a good new year and a great Sylvester (If you also celebrate it that is)! Here we come 2011!

Greetings everyone,

Dracon Asahara