Sam leant forward on the window sill, head resting on her clasped hands as she awed at the thunderstorm gathering in the sky above. She waited with anticipation for the lightening to strike, smiling unconsciously at the first rumble of thunder rolling near. Storms had to be her all time favourite part of the weather. She couldn't help but love watching the grey clouds poison the clear sky, listening out for the roar of noise as she counted down the seconds to the gorgeous flash of blinding light that lit up the sky like a floodlight.

Yes, she loved thunder storms. But for some reason, this one seemed rather…off. Sam couldn't really put her finger on it. The storm had seemed to start up so quickly; one minute the sky was an awkwardly irritating crystal clear shade of blue, and the next it had gone a black as her hair.

But she wasn't complaining.

She hadn't seen Danny in a while either, to be honest. She normally liked to drag him out from the safe depths of his bedroom to watch the storm form in the sky, but when she had called round earlier… he simply hadn't been at home.

Which, by all means was allowed. She wasn't his mother, he was free to go where he chose. But she could pretty much guess he had gone off to fight another ghost…but playing hero like he usually did, he didn't ask her or Tucker to come along and help.

Which for some reason, hurt. More than it should.

And she didn't really know why.

Sighing a little, Sam craned up to open her window a crack, in a strained effort to amplify the thunder roar. As predicted, the thunder came….but no lightning strike. Confused, Sam tugged her window open a little more, only to jump back in shock when a bold streak of sheer light shot down from the sky faster than the time it took her to blink. And it was way too close to be natural.

Trying to come to a conclusion, Sam grappled for her phone to call Tucker when something strange caught her eye. Pressing closer to the window, face illuminated in the light from the bolt of energy, she squinted at the tiny black line that appeared to be tumbling from the sky like a marionette with its strings cut.

"Now what…are you?"

Tucker typed haphazardly on his computer, eyes straining to watch the peculiar accumulation of clouds forming the sky and his blazing computer screen unanimously. There had to be some logical explanation for this occurrence, the answer had to be somewhere on the internet, it just had to. No way could there naturally be such a gap between thunder and lightning with the strike coming down just mere metres from his home.

Unless…..

Tucker sank back in his chair, rubbing his forehead in anguish.

Was it a ghost that was causing all these problems? It certainly seemed likely, ghosts never were smart enough to conceal their powers enough to make them look normal…not that they ever really had the need to seeing as they were dead and anything but normal…he was getting confused.

Tucker groaned, letting his eyes wander from the screen and glue themselves to the storm outside, the lightning flash so huge it lit up the entire sky with a sudden burst of flaring energy. Jerking up, he crossed over to his window and gazed at the storm curiously, wondering if Danny was seeing the same thing as him, or whether he was hiding in his bedroom like a scaredy cat. Everyone knew he freaked out when it came to thunder storms.

Well...he and Sam.

Picking up his mobile (latest model of course), Tucker called his best friend, who's number was permanently on speed dial, and waited for him to pick up.

And waited.

And waited.

After simply getting the answer machine, Tucker tried to get though again.

And again.

Until the penny dropped.

If it was a ghost causing all these freak weather problems, then who other than Danny Phantom would be up there stopping him? Mentally kicking himself for being such an idiot, Tucker dropped the phone into his pocket and was just about to leave the darkening bedroom to help his friend, when something strange moved in the corner of his eye.

Turning on his heel, Tucker's eyebrows knitted tightly together in confusion as he stared through the window to the open sky before him. Something was falling clumsily through the sky, dark in colouring and larger than any bird he'd viewed from a distance before. It was speeding through the atmosphere faster than any lightning bolt, and Tucker took a step forward cautiously.

"What is that?"

Paulina gazed in herself in the bright reflection, smiling to show off her perfect set of pearly white teeth. God, was she gorgeous or what? Not a flaw on her creamy coffee skin, eyes glinting the blinding light emitted out from the reflection in the handheld mirror.

Wait a second.

Blinding light?

Wrinkling her pretty face in confusion, Paulina glanced up at the sky above and blinked. It was full of angry black clouds and growing by the minute. She stomped her foot in fury, snapping her mirror shut and glaring at the sky. The heavens had been fantastic mere minute ago, crystal clear and a brilliant shade of turquoise. She had been on her way to Star's house, in order to get under operation a plan to have sweet revenge on Dash for daring to break up with her.

The shame of being dumped was all too much to bear for Paulina. She hadn't left the house for over a week, refusing point blank to go to school and dawdling on new strategies to humiliate Dash ust the way he had humiliated her.

But worse.

And now, just when she was at the peak of getting somewhere with her revenge, this stupid storm had to come out of nowhere and ruin all her plans!

And the rain was going to make her ebony hair frizzy, and even storm clouds didn't go went well with her complexion. Turning on her heel, Paulina had to shield her eyes as an explosion of furious lightning almost blinded her, on top of the fearsome rumbling of thunder that dared to hurt her fragile eardrums.

Rubbing at her dark eyes, she stared into the distance and felt her body go numb, letting the gem encrusted mirror clatter to the floor as she opened her mouth in pure shock, not even able to move her manicured hands with the painstakingly patterned nails to cover her tiny mouth.

There was something black falling out of the sky.

Something black and white.

Something black and white and writhing in agony.

Something black and white and writing in agony and painstakingly human.

Something black and white and writing in agony and painstakingly human…

And screaming.

Dash picked up the football and growled, knocking his helmet back into place as he stood up. There was mud all over his kit, and his hot new girlfriend was going to be meeting him at the pitch any minute. He couldn't believe they'd lost the game, they never lost the game!

Ever.

All because of his loser team; The new try-outs they'd had were rubbish, he wasn't even allowed to pick half the people. He tried to force this feeling away with a shrug, he'd people able to take all his frustration out on his human punch-bag, Fen-turd, tomorrow after class.

Grinning at the malicious thought, Dah turned around to brave his teammates, when he noticed something rather odd.

And to be honest, Dash Baxter noticing anything was quite unusual.

His teammates (or what was left of them) weren't looking at him, ready for the command to head back to the changing rooms. Hell, they were actually standing with their backs to him! Dash glared at the backs of the pint sized team that had ruined his chances of a fair game tonight. How dare they treat him with such lack of authority! He was their captain!

Dash took a step forward furiously, ready to force each and every one of them round to meet his gaze, when a deep rumble of thunder crashed around the pitch, so amplified it caused the ground to shake.

Pale eyes widening, he jumped a little, and was actually glad that none of the team were looking at him to see such a weak gesture. Bracing himself, he kept his feet firmly on the ground as he looked up at the sky, finally letting himself waver as he lifted his gaze to the sky, in canon with the members of his team.

Right above them, was a ferociously colossal sized cloud, so momentous it filled as much of the previously soft azure sky as they could keep their eyes on. It seemed to grow larger and faster the more they watched it, and Dash even felt himself go limp as the dirtied football slipped lifelessly from his broad fingers.

A sudden streak of crackling lightning to his right, mere centimetres from the football post, and a couple of the wimpier team mates screamed like girls and scrambled away into the safety of the changing rooms. The stronger teenagers stood firm, eyes glued to the sky like they were hypnotised. But if he was perfectly honest, Dash wasn't feeling so brave anymore.

Another strike of electricity to his left, and only he and his closest teammates were left, the biggest and burliest of the bunch.

"Is it the end of the world?" He heard one mumble, and Dash had to admit that thought had run through his mind too. But he didn't have time to dawdle on it, because abruptly, another ear-splitting roar of thunder ripped through the air like a knife, and he could see enormously bright flashes flickering inside the mountain of cloud like a light show.

Unexpectedly, a sudden flare of blinding light erupted from the sky, so bright the three teenagers left standing had to shield their eyes from the sheer illumination of it.

He thought he'd be standing like this forever, arms plastered to his face to save the painful glare from his eyes, when he heard Kwan bellow,

"There's something falling from the fricken sky!"

Against any mental will, Dash forced his trembling arms from his head and strained to look back up at the sky.

Just as Kwan had announced, something black was tumbling clumsily out of the sky, it's limbs flailing wildly as if it was trying to scrabble hold of something that simply wasn't there. Subconsciously, Dash stepped forward in line with his team mates and watched as the thing rocketed down from the storm itself, squinting to make out it's shape.

"What the hell is that?"

He muttered, lifting the grill up from his helmet to view the creature properly. It was racing towards them faster than anything he'd ever seen before, and as it grew closer Dash began to make out exactly what it was.

"Holy shit, it's human."

"But how the hell did a human get up there?"

Dash shrugged, and the trio of teenagers fell silent once more as the defenceless human catapulted itself to the ground, the spasms in it's body even more obvious now.

After a mere minute or so, they could hear it's scream, ringing agony into their ears and engraving the pitch forever into their memories.

Dash covered his ears, squeezing his eyes shut as he resisted to listen to it any longer. He couldn't stand it, the sound was going to send him mad.

He didn't hear the impact of the person hitting the earth, but he definitely felt it. The screaming had halted, and opening his eyes he could see that the sky had cleared to that earlier gorgeous azure blue, like none of this had ever happened.

Bracing himself, Dash let his watery eyes slide down to the ground, and he couldn't help but gape at the figure dented into the mud.

It was a teenage boy, for sure, in a black suit with what previously could have been white accents. The pearly boots and silver gloves had been singed off into smouldering black rips, and most of the outfit had been completely destroyed. The boy's normally shining light hair was smoking and a lot of it had been burnt to a crisp.

His face was black with burns, a mixture of emerald ectoplasm and crimson blood dribbling from wounds across his entire body. His eyes were closed and he almost looked at peace, yet his entire form was still crackling and spasming with electricity.

The three teenage teammates stared at the boy unmovingly, and Dash gulped.

"Holy crap. It's Danny Phantom."