There was some confusion about one of the scenes between Maddie and Raven last chapter, and I added in a few lines to try to make it seem clearer. My intent with that Raven was still hurt in the hospital, and Maddie knew it, so she was there to help Raven into her things if need be, and also make sure that she didn't have an aneurism or slip or anything while she was in there. She ALSO knew that Raven was a private person; introverted and shy, and she was trying to get her to open up a bit more.

And Raven's been going through a lot lately. Like I said, she's got a lot of unresolved issues and sometimes those just smash you down when you least expect it and you start crying.

Anyway, I'm glad so many people liked the last chapter, and I'm glad everyone's been so supportive now that I'm writing again.

Unlike chapter 6, which was partially beta'd before I started writing again, this one is entirely unbeta'd. Dude just doesn't want to read my stuff after I wait two years to send him anything, I guess. : |

But yeah. New chapter.

So, Chapter 7- Loose Ends

True to his prior boasting, the titan's cybernetic augmentation to his reflexes and naturally high intellect were more than a match for the teens. Now the boys were all playing a two-on-one game while Sam sat on Danny's bed in a stereotypical meditation pose.

"You really think you can learn magic?" Danny asked offhandedly.

"It's entirely possible." Was Sam's curt reply.

"Well, that's cool…" Truly it was a conversation for the ages. Still, Danny was trying to keep her involved while Cyborg kicked their asses. But since that wasn't working, he changed tactics. "So Cy, what's the rest of your team like?"

The big teen chuckled. "You're not throwin' me off my game that easy, Fenton. But a'ight… Robin's the leader. He's got all the hero experience from training under Batman for years… lots of martial arts, no superpowers at all. None of us really know much else about him, but he's a good leader. Bit of a stickler though. Beast Boy's who I usually play games with, and he's a shape-shifter. Can turn into any animal he wants to be. Really fun guy, but he's the youngest and most hot-headed. Starfire's the other girl besides Raven, and she's an alien." He paused for all the ooh's and ahhs and kept talking before they could actually get into asking any questions yet. "She can fly, has super-strength, she can take a hit better than I can, and I'm made of metal, so that's saying something… actually that describes a lot of alien superheroes, now that I think about it… anyway, glowing eye beams and throws energy bolts. She's pretty scary in a fight."

"Aliens!? Holy shit…" Danny fumbled over his words a bit before something occurred to him. "We still have no idea why we don't know about all this, do we? Amity's pretty far out of the way, but it's not that far into the middle of nowhere…"

Cyborg hummed to himself in thought. "That's one of the things we'll be checking out when we get back to Jump. It's almost like a two-way media blackout, but that doesn't seem quite right."

Tucker groaned in frustration. "How are you still thinking and talking and kicking our asses!?"

"Hah! I told you I was good!" The mechanized teen cheered.

Just then, they heard Jazz from downstairs calling up to them. "Danny! We'd like to talk with you."

After a moment when the room stilled and their gameplay stalled, the boy in question muttered. "Well, this doesn't seem like it could be anything good…"

"You never know?" Cyborg tried to help, his optimism unconvincing.

Danny gave him a flat stare. "My older sister just said she wants to have a talk with me." Cyborg then conceded that it was probably bad, and the half-ghost sighed.

The youngest Fenton led the procession from his room downstairs, where his parents and sister were waiting, and Raven had even set her new book aside for the moment.

Altogether, it was a somewhat ominous sight.

"Is this… some sort of intervention?" Danny asked hesitantly.

Jazz smiled weakly. "Just come sit down, Danny."

He froze. "You know, I was joking about the intervention thing…"

She sighed. "I know, Danny. Just please, I'd feel better if you were sitting."

He considered his options, and nodded, before sitting down opposite the rest of his family. Those who had followed him from upstairs spread through the room.

"Danny…" His sister started, glancing about the room. "Would you like to go with the Titans when they return to Jump City?"

Raven's eyes widened at that, and she nearly gaped. The rest of the room was also strewn with shocked expressions.

She continued speaking while everyone was stunned. "I realize that we'd need to ask the Titans if they'd let you stay, and I'd want to go with to keep an eye on you, but…" Her parents looked a bit shameful, knowing what was coming next. "… we think it'd be best for everyone to get some space and let emotions cool off a bit before we try to continue on with life as usual…"

Eventually, Danny overcame his shock, but still only managed to barely stammer out "But… why…?"

Surprisingly, the next person to speak was Raven. "I think you should do it." She met Danny's surprised eyes. "You should come with us." She turned to Cyborg. "He's Titan material. Even if we didn't bring him with us, we'd likely make him an honorary member of the team anyway. It's happened often enough already."

The older teen nodded. "That's true. …I'll give Robin a call and ask him about it. I'm all for it, though."

"I'm coming too!"

Everyone else was rather shocked by the outburst, but there Sam stood, angry and proud and unrelenting. "If Danny's leaving Amity, then I'm going with him."

Tucker was quick to jump on the bandwagon. "Count me in!"

"This isn't some road trip…" Jazz started, growing irate. "We're talking about moving away for months or longer. I'm going to be staying until I leave for college. College! Possibly out of state!" She huffed and took a deep breath to calm down. "I'm not even sure if they'd let you stay, but if they did you'd need permission from your parents."

"Actually, It might be nice to have Sam along." Raven started in her usual monotone, which didn't help surprising the group any less. "It'd be nice to have someone to discuss research and check facts with, and several groups in the past have run into serious trouble just assuming their specialists guess right about something and ending up wrong, instead of having someone to question and check their facts."

The girl in question was actually somewhat surprised that Raven would have such a high opinion of her already- most of what they'd discussed in their down time had been how much of what Sam's collection of books said was inaccurate or ill-supported by research. Half of Sam's work had always been figuring out what wasn't wrong in her sources… maybe that's what the other girl was talking about? She still felt a bit embarrassed in the way she was singled out, though. Still, she couldn't help the pride she felt in the compliments.

Cyborg spoke up next. "Well, I'm not sure I'd have that much work for him, but Tuck could probably help with a lot of my projects. My specialties are hardware and design, and I'm good with software… but I have to admit, Tucker's actually better with programming and hacking than I am." He patted the younger teen's shoulder.

"YES! Totally going!" Tucker shouted gleefully.

Jazz sighed, palming her face before muttering. "Go ask your parents."

Tucker, arms still stretched skyward in glee, pranced out of the house to go tell his parents he was moving in with superheroes for a few months. Sam's departure was much more sedate, glancing back at Raven and Danny before she left. Getting an encouraging nod from the titan, but seeing Danny still caught in his own thoughts at recent developments, she hung her head before steeling herself and setting off.

It was another long and somewhat tense moment of silence before Danny stood up, tense with determination. "Cyborg, do you think we could take a ride across town? I have some loose ends to tie up before we head to Jump."

The older Titan was taken aback for a moment, before he nodded. "Sure. Whatever you need."

Raven started to stand as well to accompany them, but Danny held out his hand. "No, this could get a little messy, that's why I don't want to go alone. You're still recovering, and I'd feel a lot better if someone stayed to keep my family out of trouble." He noticed then that he'd said it right in front of said family. "…No offense, but like a third of my hero time as Phantom was just keeping you guys from getting in over your heads."

Jack and Maddie frowned, but didn't comment. Jazz looked a little sheepish, and resolved to explain a few of the worse 'Fenton/Phantom fiascos' she knew about.

Raven was as expressionless as always, but she couldn't deny that what he'd said hurt a little… though she couldn't deny the fact that she was still injured. Her demonic constitution made her more durable and let her heal faster than a normal human girl, but major injuries remain major injuries.

She could only nod.

"Okay then," Danny said, starting out towards the front door. "Let's get going."

(*)

Tucker's parents barely got a word in edge-wise while he ranted about moving in with superheroes and working tech for them and generally just how awesome his life was at the moment, with all the opportunities that were opening up for little old him. It didn't take much convincing when they learned he was going with Danny and Sam, and Danny's sister Jazz (whom they'd trusted to babysit little Tuck since he'd become friends with Danny). The fact that he could show them references of what he might be helping Cyborg with, and that a lot of it was stuff co-designed with STAR Labs and other major corporations bent on picking Victor Stone's genius brain while he wasn't busy being the superhero Cyborg… well, a parent can't argue too much with their son getting an in to possibly working with, or becoming one of the great designers of their time. That kind of career could set their little Tucker for life.

With promises to call at least weekly, and keep in touch on social networks, and stay safe… he piled all his tech and experiments and works in progress into his parent's travel luggage and set off back for the Fenton residence.

The Foley family was worried, true. But they could hardly be more proud of their boy.

(*)

Danny knocked on the unassuming door in the unassuming apartment building, in the very unassuming part of town. Cyborg really had no idea why they were even here until the young woman answered the door. Much like the Titan, her skin was dark. Similarities ended there however. Cyborg's dark brown, almost black human eye met her oddly turquoise-green orbs for a moment as the shock of finding a silver-and-glowing-blue teenager standing near her door came and passed. Her hair was raven black and wavy as it cascaded down her shoulders and back, somewhat unkempt. Her yellow blouse and orange skirt conformed to her curves, and she was fairly developed and womanly for a girl he assumed was Danny's age.

Her eyes had by then fixed upon her classmate, who was still standing right in front of her. "Danny? What're you doing here, and who is this?" She didn't mention that she's almost reflexively pulled an ecto-blaster on Cyborg before she noticed it was just his circuitry that was glowing, not his whole body.

Danny steeled himself for the confrontation that was sure to come, but… it had to happen, he thought as he let out a deep breath. "This is Cyborg, he's a superhero. I have a favor to ask you, if you don't mind. Can I come in?"

She blinked at that, but shrugged and nodded. She led them in to the living room area of their small apartment, and gestured at the sofa. They saw her father in the connected kitchenette/dining room area, sitting at the table and sipping coffee. His eyes tracked the boys, especially Cyborg, as they entered. Other than that, they didn't see any reaction from him.

By the time they'd seated themselves, Valerie had returned from her room holding an orange bandanna and combing her hair, before tying it all up using the cloth as a hairband. "So what brings you over here? What kind of favor were you talking about?"

Danny glanced at her dad, and sighed a bit. "I suppose it's best your dad's here, I kinda' wanted to apologize to him too…" The man quirked an eyebrow at that. "…not my fault, but still…"

Val folded her arms under her bust and settled herself into 'agitated teenage girl' stance. "Danny? What's this about?"

He took a deeper breath and let it out. "Don't freak out, okay? I know you're a ghost hunter."

She gasped and her father looked like he'd choked on his coffee without drinking any. They both started speaking at the same time before he hushed them.

"I said not to freak out, didn't I!?" They quieted down at that, but both looked mildly hostile. "This is hard for me to say, but you're about the only person I can go to for help with this, even if you do Kinda' hate me."

This shocked her out of her budding anger and she started to mutter refutes to his statement before he held up a hand. "It's true, Val. It'd be better if I showed you. Get this out of the way quick."

He stood, watching their confused eyes follow him as he took a rough straight-legged horse stance. "Going ghost!"

The white ring surrounding his waist before splitting into two and moving over his body, one ring flowing up and the other down, startled everyone in the room, including Cyborg to a lesser extent who hadn't seen him actually transform before. By the time his transformation was complete and he was standing there in his snowy-haired, black hazmat-suited, glowing-green glory… Val had already leveled a fairly large gun at his face.

"PHANTOM!" She roared, nearly pulling the trigger before Cyborg caught her wrist and moved her line of fire from his friend's face to over his shoulder. Luckily for everyone, she halted her grip on the trigger and the weapon never discharged. There was a tense moment before she wrenched her arm out of the metal hand and put the gun away.

Cyborg was the only one who caught her father surreptitiously placing his service piece from his security job back in one of the kitchen drawers. He didn't comment on it.

"Yes Val, I'm Phantom." Danny said, trying to be calm. "But I'm also the same Danny you go to school with. There was an accident in my parents' lab, and I got ghost powers. I've been trying to keep the town safe since then, but all everyone ever noticed was that ghosts were causing a mess, and that I happened to be a ghost. No one ever listened when I tried to tell them I was a good ghost."

Val seemed reluctant to believe a single word he was saying, but she was outnumbered two to one (she never honestly believed her father counted for much in a fight, refusing to remember that she'd never actually seen him fight before) and she kept her mouth shut.

"But I'm leaving town soon, and I know you're a ghost hunter, and a pretty good one at that." Her lips twitched as she tried not to show her pride in that statement. He was still the enemy as far as she was concerned. "So I'd very much like it if you could help my parents keep Amity Park safe from the ghosts while I'm gone."

"Your parents?" She spat. "Ghosts don't have parents!"

Danny groaned. "Did you not listen to a word I said? I'm Danny Fenton, and my parents, the Fentons, are just going to get themselves killed if they try to handle all the ghosts on their own!"

She snarled at him. "That doesn't make any sense! What did you do with Danny!?"

Cyborg, who had just been watching the byplay before then, his head tilting back and forth to follow who was talking, stepped forward at that. "Hey, you know how supers have secret identities? Like in comics and cartoons and things?" She looked at him skeptically, but nodded. "Well, Danny Phantom is like his superhero name, and Danny Fenton is his secret identity. He's a superhero ghost-boy." His words looked like they were almost sinking in and making sense to the rage-blinded girl. "Just think about it for a minute."

It actually took several minutes, during which she glanced about looking at nothing in particular, and even started pacing at one point, but then she stood in front of Danny and Cyborg again, the tenseness in her body lessened and her shoulders slumped somewhat. "Okay, say I do believe you, what about all the bad stuff you did do? Like ruining Dad's job with your damn ghost-mutt!" It was rather clear she was working herself into a rage again.

So Danny put his hands up in a placative gesture, and in a fit of brilliant insight, shifted back into his 'human' form, hoping that talking to Danny Fenton would piss her off less. "Cujo isn't my dog, he just likes me for some reason. Dogs like him are why parents say you can't keep everything that follows you home." He really hoped that analogy would help. "I don't usually catch him because he just wants to have fun, and doesn't actually intend to be malicious… he's just a puppy that has tantrums sometimes."

Val's head was cocked to the side, trying desperately to process what her friend had just said. "He's… just a stupid puppy? You don't make that much damage by accident…"

Cyborg shrugged and tried his hand at helping again. "Kids throwing tantrums usually do mean to cause damage when they're in a fit. To get your attention so you'll give them what they want." He paused for a bit. "They just don't understand that it's wrong to break things and hurt people and make a fuss to get their parents, or in a puppy's case, their owner, to give them what they want."

Danny looked at him oddly. "You sure you're not my sister?"

Cyborg barked out a laugh. "Nah, but I'm the oldest in the Titans, and no matter how much Raven and Robin might want to convince you otherwise, it's usually me playing den mother and breaking up fights." He took a moment to think and then chuckled sheepishly, "…well, as long as I'm not in the fight, anyway." He added, rubbing the back of his neck. When he was part of the arguments, the others would usually just let them shout it out, unless they annoyed Raven.

Val took the opportunity while they were talking to each other to shake her confusion out of her head. "Well that doesn't explain the other things, what about the mayor and the invasion of all those ghosts then? Or the time with that ghost king guy- you can't expect me to believe you could actually beat the king of all ghosts, do you?"

To say the boy was exasperated at that would be an understatement, but he took in a breath and overcame his urge to reply sarcastically. "The thing with the mayor was a trap to frame me, and make everyone hate me after I was starting to convince people I was actually not that bad. The mayor was overshadowed by another ghost- you know what that means, right?" She quirked an eyebrow and nodded. "Anyway, that was Walker. He runs the prison in the Ghost World, and figured since he couldn't catch me to lock me up, he'd convince everyone here I was a villain and have the humans lock me up instead, or something… that was a while ago and ghost villain plots are always stupid and convoluted."

Val pursed her lips and furrowed her brow before speaking, deadpan- "I'm actually a little surprised you know what 'convoluted' means."

He groaned, and Cyborg bit back a chuckle. "Don't interrupt! Anyway, I didn't beat Pariah Dark on my own, I had help, and most of all I used a power suit my parents built to even the odds a bit."

The girl nodded and bit out a sigh. "Okay, I think I believe you, mostly…" She glanced over to where her father was standing, arms crossed and foot tapping on the ground. He already knew where this was going, it seemed. "…but some people really don't like me being a ghost hunter. Especially since it's 'dangerous'," she made a point to air-quote the word, "and takes time away from my studies and part-time jobs."

Danny blinked owlishly at her, thinking for a second. "I think I could help with that."

Everyone paused and looked at him. "Really?" Val asked, disbelieving.

"Well yeah." He answered. "Just intern under my parents or something as a 'junior ghost hunter' and research assistant… test out the equipment for them, help them catch the ghosts… I know they make enough off their patents and contracts to pay you for it."

That stunned everyone into silence for a moment. Hell, Val's mouth was hanging open a little.

"And as far as school goes, I could ask Mr. Lancer to cover for you a bit… He kinda' knows about all the ghost hunting superhero fighting… stuff… now." Danny winced. "He might cut you some slack as the new town hero if I ask him… and he doesn't throw me out of his office screaming about how I nearly killed him yesterday… You know, maybe that would be a bad idea. I haven't even seen him since then."

"No no no… that's good, I'll even go with you if it'll help." Val started, cutting off Danny's pessimistic descent into convincing himself that was the last thing he ever wanted to try doing. "…Daddy?" She asked, looking over at her father.

The man turned stern eyes on his daughter for a moment before he sighed and slumped in resignation. "Okay, Valerie. It'll be a lot safer if you hunt ghosts with professionals like the Fentons…" Danny managed to bite back the scoff at his parents being called professional hunters. Ghost-gear inventors? Yes. Ghost hunters? Not so much. "…and if they'll pay you for it, then I can't argue about you keeping the job you have now. And if you can convince your teachers to be lenient and you study hard to not fall behind, then… I suppose you can still be a ghost hunter."

"Yess!" The girl cheered, jumping in her glee before hugging the boy who had minutes before been her most hated enemy.

"But…" Her father added sharply, "…only if you convince them to give you all three- the chaperoning while you're ghost-hunting, the money for the job, and the leeway so it won't put you behind in school."

This drained their mood somewhat, but she was still excited. Danny was glad that she would help, at least. …not so glad about needing to talk to Lancer, though… Speaking of Lancer…

"Hey Cy? You think we could stop by the school to talk to my teacher? I'd… rather get this over with." Danny groaned.

(*)

Sam gathered up as many suitcases and trunks as she could find, stashing her books and computer and significantly sentimental items in them, along with a couple pairs of clothing. Clothes could always be replaced fairly easily, and she had every intention of doing so when she got to Jump. Going over her room another couple times to make sure she wasn't leaving anything behind, she wrote out a short note to her parents and pinned it under a paperweight on her desk. She'd miss her grandmother, and she was sure the old bat would understand or even encourage her grandbaby's wanderlust, but her parents never would.

She lashed her things together on one of the small trolleys the butler used to transport heavier items from one end of their massive home to the other, and set off for the bank. Her parents may act like it, but they weren't stupid. She'd withdraw as much of her allowance as she could in cash money so that she wouldn't be hindered when her parents cut her bank cards. She'd buy new clothes and anything else the Titans didn't provide when she got to Jump.

Nothing was going to keep her from helping Danny, even if he did break her heart kissing Raven.

(*)

The school was rather empty, and in hindsight he had no reason to think that Lancer would be here after his harrowing experience the previous night… but there he was, dutifully grading CAT tests taken the day before. His sleeves were rolled up, and his arms showed several small bandages covering minor cuts he'd gained during the ruckus, but he seemed fine overall.

Danny really couldn't help but respect the guy a little more after that. Even when he should've been home resting, the man was doing his damn job. Props to the prof., he supposed.

Knocking on the door, he led the way into the man's classroom- which served as his office after hours- after hearing the clearance to enter. The teacher's eyes widened upon seeing Danny, not to mention Cyborg and Valerie following behind.

"H-hey, Mr. Lancer…" Danny started, not sure how to formulate the question he wanted to ask, or even how to get to the subject…

He really needn't have worried.

"Mr. Fenton… I'm glad to see you're okay, after last night. I'm also sorry that I've been so hard on you over the school-year." The man also seemed to be having trouble piecing his words together. "…I'm entirely unsure what the protocols are for super-powered students, but… you did have reason for your tardiness and slipping grades. It doesn't excuse these facts, mind… but it does give an explanation."

He paused for a moment, before he stood, and began pacing. "I've been thinking, really I was hoping that finishing my work with these tests would help me think, or keep my mind off of it, but… it hasn't helped as much as I would have liked it to."

He huffed, drawing in a deep breath before steeling himself more into the Lancer that Danny knew so well. The man made his way towards them, standing in his 'stern teacher' way. "I am disappointed in you, Mr. Fenton, but most of all, I'm disappointed in myself for not seeing what was actually going on. I'd like you to talk to me from now on, and see if we can do anything to help manage your life more productively. It takes students and teachers to learn, after all. Communication is necessary, both ways."

Danny cut in at that. "Actually, Mr. Lancer… I'm going to be leaving with the other heroes that came to town to help." The man seemed shocked, but made no move to stop him from continuing. "Maybe I could learn a thing or two from actual superheroes, huh?" he chuckled at his poor attempt to lighten the moment, but then continued. "Valerie here is also a Ghost Hunter, and I'm hoping you might find a way to cut her some slack so she can take over the whole 'saving the town' thing when I'm gone…?" The question ended pleadingly, all large eyes and puppy dog tears.

Lancer looked between Danny and Valerie, studying them before glancing over at Cyborg near the door, really just a bystander in the situation. Then his eyes softened and he let out the breath he was holding. "I will see what I can do, Mr. Fenton." He said, nodding to the boy. "Ms. Gray, if you could meet me sometime Monday to discuss this, we'll go over what we can do to help you manage your… extra-curricular activities."

She readily agreed, and the trio left to drop her off, before heading home to Fenton Works.

All in all, the day went much better than expected.

Not sure if it made any kind of sense, since I'm not a martial artist or anything. I was basing what I said about Danny's stance on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the 'Horse Stance' that's prevalent in earthbending styles. Knees bent and held apart for stability (this is the part Danny didn't do, denoted by the 'straight-legged' part that I said) with arms at both sides, bent at the elbow and extended at angles away from the body with fists closed, held palm-up. It's similar to how I sometimes remember him standing when he changed to Phantom in the cartoon, but I could be remembering wrong.

But yeah. I'm already 500 words into the next chapter, which means it's 1/8th of my minimum posting length already. Bad news is that I'm getting bogged down by the new term now, so writing will be slow, but it'll actually happen.

Like I said before, this chapter wasn't looked over by anyone but me. Feel free to let me know if you see any little spelling or grammar errors or whatnot. I'll see if the Beta'll get to work on these after he gets back from California.