Hello again! Just to battle some parts that might be confusing, Danny has some inner-thoughts and flashbacks, all of which are slanted. Please let me know if it turned out all right, especially the combat.

Black Fire.

(POV: Danny Phantom)

As the four of us charged into battle, I formed a plan to strike. It involved only me, so Dani would ruin the rhythm if she attacked first. It was greedy of me to try and fly solo like that, I guess. So I'll blame for Vlad being on the other side of the oak trees, and making me a little thoughtless.

I lowered my flight height until the dry grass wisped against my face. In my outfit, I was as camouflaged as a neon sign, but at least no one really expects a ghost to strike from ground level.

Notus and Tara must've decided to hold back a little, being that Tara couldn't actually walk and Notus didn't seem like the type to use his fists. I depended on it, actually.

In my head, I planed to strike Vlad into the air, where Dani would have the chance to react. Hopefully, she would fire ecto-blasts at him and keep him in the sky. Then, I was betting that Tara and Notus would form a joint wind/fire attack, which would clear both Dani and me and hit only Vlad...

Considering that I hadn't mentioned the plan to them, I should've had pretty low expectations. That fact that I had forgotten what we were there for to begin with, well, I'll leave that to exhaustion.

I held the timing in my head just right. The tree line ended as I swerved to round the tree where I was certain Vlad was.

Funny thing is, I was actually right on target.

As I careened around the tree at top speed, I could barely lift up a fist, let alone see. I hit my target, or at least something that gave way. I followed the motion up, and jammed my fist with it as momentum and speed began to work against me. By the time I completed the punch, I had flown a full thirty feet. By the time I managed to stop myself, I had gone another twenty. By reflex, I kept with my swerving motion, and dodged back into the tree line. It felt like half a second before I came full circle, and exited the tree line almost exactly where I had first left it.

Dani caught up with me, and sent out a few ecto-blasts. Good, so I hit something worth shooting at.

I heard Tara's voice shout out in a distortedly, "Notus, there he is!"

My stomach dropped as I realized that Dani had flown up. My protective instincts kicked in, and my reflexes knew exactly what to do. With speed I didn't know I had, I flew towards Dani and tackled her to the dirt. I looked up.

It was Vlad. He cradled his side with wide eyes, "Daniel?!"

I recall thinking...was he surprised that I was there, or that I was what hit him?

Before I could think any further, something manifested near Vlad. In an instant, black flames blocked out the sky like storm clouds obstructing Vlad from sight.

Pele seemed almost lost in her memories, "Decades ago, I ran a mission for the Observant Council. I was partnered with a wind-core master, and sent out purely to cause havoc, and destruction." Her eyes almost looked fearful…

So that was it.

The area around us was completely dark, but unbearably hot. I put up and ice shield, and fought to keep it up against the heat for Dani's sake. I had an immature fire-core and a dominant cold-core, so the heat was really a problem for me, too.

As the flames ceased, I reduced the power to my shield. I removed my protective arm off Dani, only to find her with a surprised look on her face.

She took in a ragged breath. Her face turned angry, "Are you crazy? First, you practically give me whiplash; then you dig my face in the ground and nearly suffocate me? What the heck is wrong with you? I had him! He was right in my sights! I landed hits!"

"Yeah, well, didn't you feel that heat?" I said, in my defense against the half-earned lashing.

Dani retracted, "I didn't feel anything! What did I just say about you nearly breaking my neck?!"

I slumped, well aware that the more I argued, the more she would describe the event as being worse and worse. Thankfully, her attention was stolen when I stumbled and dropped my shield.

We looked up as Tara's and Notus' combined attack died off. I stared at the dancing flames, and felt my stomach churn where my fire-core was. It was exhilarating to feel that kind of energy around me.

My eyes followed every movement until I noticed that something wasn't moving. Something was there. My jaw went slack, "No way…" I slurred out. My stomach grumbled from hunger. I shoved the feeling aside as my body stumbled on my false sense of security. I was in pain; I was thirsty, tired, and hungry. Really hungry. My body held back all of my needs under the threat of battle. For just one minute, I let myself believe that it was all over. That Vlad was over. It had come back to bite me.

My body had hidden all its' needs, and when my fire-core became prominent, they came back unrestrained.

It was almost unbearable. It almost made me cry out. A migraine threatened to knock me unconscious. My back was sore from being blasted into a tree the previous night. I rested my head on the ground…it was a lot to deal with.

No, was what I though. You've got friends to protect here, and even more to get back to. NO. This will NOT end you.

My mind clicked into a fighters' mentality. I punched the ground and shoved myself up. The movement sent my head in a whirl, which nearly sent me tumbling over.

Dani was by my side, "Danny, are you okay?"

I couldn't respond. My eyes were trained on the sky, where the black flames had disappeared completely. The unmoving figure floated steadily.

"Vlad!" I cried out in frustration. There was no way. I could hardly keep up a shield, and I wasn't even in the line of fire! How did he shield himself? He couldn't have done that, could he?

Vlad glared back down at me with an unimpressed look on his face. "Hello, Daniel, Danielle. How nice of you to join me."

Dani seemed to be as stumped as I was, "Are-are you KIDDING me?" Her fists lit up with green lights and dancing sparks. "Don't you dare play that card, you snake!" She charged at him and fired ecto-disks his way, charged with the speed and deadly energy of her electric-core. That probably didn't matter, since Vlad had an electric-core, too. He dodged with some difficulty; I noticed he used teleportation.

Something clicked in my mind. Teleportation must have been an aspect power of the electric-core. That seemed to explain Dani vanishing, even if it was out of control.

I shook my head. I'd share those thoughts later.

The hair on my neck stood on end, and I darted forward only to just barely dodge Vlad's charged fist. I tumbled over and planted my feet firmly on the ground, setting off an ecto-blast at Vlad. It met its' target. Vlad was knocked back, but hardly fazed.

I felt a sensation to my right side, towards the trees. The urge to dart away came over me. A blast came from the trees, followed by a massive dust cloud. Tara's voice screeched through the air in a pained cry.

"Tara!" I shouted. A split-second decision had me flying her way, but I was quickly stopped by an advance from Plasmius. He punched hard enough to stop me, but not hard enough to knock me off balance.

Vlad huffed and snarled at me. He looked worn down, and angry, "I don't think so, Daniel."

Daniel. I hate being called, Daniel. Vlad made my name out to be a proud one with a status I couldn't live up to on my own. It was defiance, too. I couldn't just be Danny. I had to be someone else…

"Think again!" I shouted back. My legs put out every effort to charge back at him. "I'll be every bit as powerful as you THOUGHT you could make me, so don't you think anything at all!"

LINE BREACK

(POV: Notus)

I carried Tara at the back of our formation to make room for reaction time. Being that I would have to put her down before I could fight anyway. Either way, Tara and I had discussed previously that staying close might be a good idea. Being that she had a fire-core, as abnormal as its' black color might suggest, and I had a companion-core. Or, what had the Phantom's called it? A wind-core?

Either way, being that this was the case, Tara had the idea of combining our traits in battle. This I found to be utterly crazy, being that neither her nor I had ever taken our efforts into duo form before. It was known to be very dangerous.

Following the current moment, I held back a little from the Phantom's as we came close to the tree line. Tara and I were long-range fighters anyway, though we were hardly skilled in stealth.

Tara gave me a look as I slowed up and put her down. "What?" I asked.

I flinched; time seemed almost frozen. Something changed in the air. We looked ahead towards where the Phantom's were flying. Only Danny was gone in a blur.

My neck tightened as my wind-core responded to the changes in the currents Danny caused. I gulped the down the lump in my throat; Danny really was made for speed. He vanished behind a tree in an instant, and soon, a loud thud and cracking sound resounded through the air.

Tara took a reflexive stance, being that she probably didn't follow any of that. I followed her gaze, "Notus, there he is!"

"Huh?" My blank expression glanced ahead, and finally came to rest on the image of an unfamiliar ghost. I felt a pang of nervousness in my stomach, and couldn't bring myself to move after that. My brother's image flashed in my mind…

A pain in my left wrist snapped me out of my trance. Tara had my wrist in a grip of steel. Before I could pull away, she wrenched my hand at an angle, towards the sky. The lump in my throat returned. Tara used her left hand to shield herself with her cape.

It felt like my wrist was broken. Energy was being consumed from my wind-core, without my consent. I glanced at Tara. She gave me a half-second look, and refocused her energy towards the sky.

A numbing sensation. Then, a fire erupted. Black flames streamed from my outstretched hand, which felt as though it would explode. A voice rang in my head that was Tara's, and yet not. The strange black-energy that supplied her black-fire-core was channeled to combine with my wind-core.

My body began to go limp. The amount of energy I expelled was unheard of for my own tactics.

My eyes were closed, or the flames had blocked the sun. Soon enough, the blackness went away to reveal that my vision had blurred. A silhouette of a dark figure stood for an instant in front of the white-clad figure seen previously. I stumbled as my wind-core refrained from fatigue. A familiar presence registered in the back of my mind.

My wind-core flared up again, resonating with the desperation I felt in my soul. I took a defensive pose towards the attack that I knew was coming.

"Br-" And then, the attack came…

Oh boy, another game of guess who! Thanks for reading! Let me know how this turned out; I'm afraid my brain isn't suited for much editing today. :P

Anyway...wow, are we already this far? Time sure flies, so thank you for spending some of it with me. :) See you Sunday!