… for loss of a better title…

Now, this story was suggested (a challenge) by t-rex989. I said that I would "post it within the nest week or two." That was February 13th. I may be a leetle late…

Actually, I was kidnapped. I have been held hostage in a basement since February 13th. The whole time, I have thought about this author, and how I said I would post it, but didn't. I kept telling myself I will be set free so I can write this challenge.

When I was rescued, my kidnapper got away, and we are still searching. Writer's block can come back at any moment to take me again…

"Exactly 1 year ago. Our world was in peril."

Tucker Foley, the mayor of Amity Park, speaks into a microphone with a big smile on his face. His outfit is casual, but business savvy. His hair has grown out a bit, now a few centimeters longer.

"We all could have been lost; the planet destroyed. But one boy, one half-human, half-ghost boy, sacrificed himself to make an attempt to save the world."

"Attempt..?" Danny was standing inside the building, just behind his best friend/mayor. His girlfriend, Sam, just smiled at him, and squeezed his hand tighter.

"In the end, he made a truce with the residents of the ghost zone to team up and saved the whole planet. After the events, he revealed a secret he never believed he would share with anyone but his few close friends and family. Ghost boy and the world's savior, Danny Phantom, was one in the same with not-so-ordinary teenage boy, Danny Fenton."

"Not-so-ordinary? I thought I played it pretty cool…" Danny half-whispered to Sam as the two of them walked out and onto the stage. They waved to the crowd and smiled at all their cheering. Several cameras flashed and several tried to move closer to the hero and his girlfriend.

Danny walked up to the microphone, Sam still at his side. Danny released Sam's hand and gave Tucker a hug. Tucker smiled and walked back to sit down backstage.

Danny shyly walked up to the microphone. As he waited for the crowd to quiet down, he fidgeted with his collar. His black polo shirt matched that of his jumpsuit, complete with his DP symbol. His pants were his ordinary blue jeans, but with his white boots. He was in human form. His hair shined even without his ghostly glow, due to the flashes of the cameras. His blue eyes scanned the crowd, flicking back and forth nervously.

The people he knew from before he was special, people he had met after his secret had been found out, and even people he had never seen before were all gathered to congratulate him. He knew that this day would be pretty important for a while. It's not every day the world is saved, and the one who saved it was revealed to have a double life. But he had never assumed it would grow to be this big.

He knew the cameras were airing live all around to world for people who couldn't be here to watch. The pictures taken were definitely going to be on FaceBook, on his website, in newspapers, and on any other Tumblr-like site.

The crowd faded out till all was quiet all over. He cleared his throat. 'Breathe', he told himself.

"Um… I don't really have a speech planned…" The crowd laughed, and he felt his nervousness tone down enough so that his thoughts could register in his brain.

"So, I'm going to wing it." Danny turned around to see Tucker and Sam sitting together behind him. He smiled at them and they gave him a thumbs up. His head swiveled to the front where he saw his family standing in the front row. His mother was leaning on his father, both ecstatic with proudness.

All over the large crowd he saw faces of people he knew before the world knew his secret. Dash, Paulina, Valerie, Kwan, Mr. Lancer…

He still remembered the first time he approached all of them after they learned his secret. Some chance meetings were like treading on deadly waters, but others made him laugh, even today.

He took a deep breath and started to speak. "I-"

He heard a noise from above his head and immediately he was pounced on by armed bodyguards. His head was pressed down by a large hand while several bodies were piled on top of him.

"How many times…" Danny tried to speak from his face in the ground. "Do I need to tell you that I don't need protection?"

Before he could a response, he phased through the floor, leaving the guards to stand up and look at the hole in the sky. The green swirling portal grew bigger till a dragon flew through carrying several ghosts. Pandora was the first off.

She smiled at the crowd, but they all noticed how undecided the humans looked. They were all debating whether to run, attack, or hear them out.

"Pandora?" Danny's voice came from an invisible spot in the middle of the crowd. The crowd all turned towards him as he became visible, now in his ghost form. The crowd parted making Danny stand in a big circle that had a pathway leading to the ghosts.

Pandora smiled and waved to Danny. Danny smiled back, and she motioned with her hand towards the portal. Danny thought that she was summoning him at first, but then saw a robot head with green hair poke through. He flew forward, and so did a bunch of other ghosts. He saw Walker, the Lunch Lady, Johnny 13 and his shadow, Kitty, and even ghosts that he didn't know.

"What are you all doing here..?" His question sounded a bit harsher than he had intended it to be, but Skulker flew down and grabbed Danny's collar like he had that day a year ago. The grip wasn't tight, and he knew that the ghost wasn't threatening him.

"We're all just here for the party. Don't think you can forget us, because we helped you save the world," Skulker smiled a somewhat evil smile and dropped Danny to the ground. When Danny looked up, he saw a sort of hopefulness wave over the crowd of ghosts.

Danny looked behind him, still on the ground, to Tucker. The major stood up out of his chair trying to be nonchalant about it. His face clearly showed a touch a fear, but he tried to hide it. He returned to the microphone and got the crowd's attention.

"Since this is our world, I think that we are going to have to vote whether ghosts can stay here. But just remember, they saved our world."

The crowd was silent before a few mutters broke out and they are started to nod. Tucker smiled and started to vote.

"Who votes for kicking the ghosts back to the Ghost Zone..?" Tucker looked all around, and saw a few hands, but most went down once they saw that they wouldn't win majority vote.

Tucker smiled. "And who votes that we let them stay?" The crowd cheered and clapped and screamed. Tucker looked over to Danny, who was standing completely in between the ghosts and the humans.

"Danny..?" Tucker asked when he saw the strange look on his face. The crowd quieted down and seemed to realize the same thing. Danny's face was somewhere in between a torn look and disapproval.

He stared at Tucker before glancing around at the crowd. He turned his head to look at all the ghosts. He recognized all the ghosts he had fought as Danny Phantom, but he still knew he couldn't leave them behind.

"I may have been born human and have more friends as a human, but I am still half ghost. If I'm allowed here, then so should they."