Now that we're at the end, if you could suggest a second character and genre tag, I would really appreciate it. I've never been good at picking them. :P

Defenseless

Jazz

Jazz sat with her parents as they sat hiding in a side street, armed to the teeth, but out of the action. She was biting her fingernails, one of those pesky habits that kept on cropping up when she was especially nervous. Danny would come through, of course he would. He always did.

But she was worried all the same; she couldn't help it. She accidentally yipped when she was startled by Danny's pained yell coming out of the blue, but quickly covered her mouth. She hoped he was okay.

She began to realize that he might not be when she didn't hear his voice carry across the blocks with a witty remark as he came back to face his foe. She didn't hear the hits of ectoblasts that had missed their target. There were no sounds of fighting. When she tried to edge out of the alley to look out across the city in case the fight was silent but visible, her mother pushed her back with an authoritative hand and would not listen to anything she had to say for the next minute or so.

By then, Jazz was sure that something was different. She still couldn't hear any evidence of a fight. She had to see what was going on for herself.

Edging a nose out around her mother's shoulder, she saw the sickly mist begin to rise then condense into a human-looking body above the business offices of downtown Amity Park. It made no noise at it turned its head. It was looking for something, shooting away in one direction, then another, trying to find whatever it was it was looking for.

She realized, then, that it was looking for Danny. He had disappeared after that last attack and scream over a minute ago. She hoped it wouldn't find him… not until he was ready for it again.

Then, a movement caught her eye on the other side of the street. It was her brother.

He regained visibility and tangibility as he flew backwards through the last building behind her and hit the pavement with a groan he was desperately trying to silence.

She couldn't help it—"Danny!"

Oops. She had forgotten that her parents were there… "I mean... Danny Phantom!" That would have to do.

She ran over to her brother, now collapsed against the concrete of the road. She gingerly cradled him despite her parent's frantic protests. They began to die down when they got their first real look at him; they had never seen the young ghost so beat up before. What on earth was he fighting against?

He was breathing hard and his body dripped with green ectoplasm from countless cuts and scrapes. He collapsed as soon as Jazz let him go, unable to get up as he tried to support himself on his arms and knees.

She caught him again and lowered him slowly to the ground where he curled up, coughing harshly. He looked like he had been to hell and back, but his condition was the last thing on his mind.

"How are Sam and Tucker?"

She didn't answer right away because she didn't know for sure. Sam hadn't picked up when she called and they had yet to meet up. But she needed to say something. A white lie for now.

"They're fine." He sighed in relief. "How are you?"

He looked at her with the beginnings of fear in big green eyes that were glassy with tears.

"I'm actually not doing real well…"

Jazz's hand touched something wet and she looked down to see the ectoplasm began to turn red and pool beneath him. He couldn't stop it. He couldn't hold on any longer.

She gasped. No, this couldn't be happening. He needed to rally. They needed Danny to get back up and fight. She needed him to be okay.

She became more frantic when she saw the ghost floating in the air just a few blocks away. It had seen them and was moving toward them. Her older-sister side suddenly came out full-force. She needed to protect him from whatever this thing was.

He saw it coming, but couldn't get up. He had lost too much blood, been thrown too many times. A tear trickled out of the corner of her eye when he realized that there was nothing more he could physically do to protect anyone.

Jazz looked down at him wishing that she could help, either transferring her energy, or blasting the crazy ghost that dared to beat up her little brother. But she couldn't. The only thing she had ever been able to do was to come up with silly names for ghosts that the group already knew and trap Danny in the thermos.

She could do nothing to stop the dark ghost from slowly hovering closer toward them.

She couldn't keep Danny's dimmed green eyes from fluttering closed, no matter how many times she shook his shoulders. She couldn't stop the rings of light that transformed him back into black-haired Fenton, the son of the two hunters sitting right beside her.

She ignored their gasps of disbelief.

Her tears were falling freely onto his face. He didn't have the strength to wipe them away.

She hugged him closer, whispering small useless comforts in his ear, trying to assure him that everything would be alright, that she would protect him. Her words were quickly swallowed up by her sobs, which only intensified as he spoke, in barely a whisper, with his last breath,

"I'm so sorry, Jazz..."

.

Umm... the end? Heh. Sorry for the wait.

Please let me know how this writing experiment turned out and how you liked it. I don't think there will be any more; I've hinted enough at what happens, I think. You can imagine everything that happened after this if you really need a prolonged tragic ending. :P

THANK YOU everyone who read through to the end. It's my first attempt at any sort of chaptered story and it meant a lot to me that you stuck with it as I tried to work things out. It's been a bit rough, but every review has helped me figure out where I'm going. :)