Danny Phantom Post Planet

16 year old Danny Phantom, half human, half ghost, all hero, was just about to finish his nightly patrol. He felt pretty good about himself. He caught 3 ecto-squids, a couple gangster ghosts, and of course, the box ghost. He yawned and looked down at his watch, it read 11:30 PM. Thankfully it was summer and school wasn't supposed to start for another couple weeks so his curfew was later than normal.

Danny was about 2 blocks away from home when he felt something painful hit his back.

"Aughh! What the heck!?"

Danny turned around and quickly found what hit him. Right behind him, about 40 feet away was a heavily armored ghost with green flaming hair and matching goatee pointing a pretty big bazooka at him.

"Skulker," Danny muttered. "Haven't seen you in a while, thought you had finally given up."

Skulker grinned. "Oh, I haven't given up yet ghost child. I still don't have your pelt lying at the foot of my bed."

"Ok, 2 years later and that image is still gross." Danny said, placing his hand to his forehead. "Look, I've had a long day and I'm tired. How about we just skip to the part where you jump in the thermos and I go to bed?"

Skulket cocked his gun. "Tempting, but I prefer the part where you surrender."

Danny sighed. Guess they were doing this the hard way. He held up his hand and pointed it towards the ghost. Danny fired a quick ecto blast that had knocked the bazooka out of his hands. Skulker tried to grab another one but Danny already held up his finger like a gun. He was smiling.

"Get in the thermos?" Skulker asked weakly.

"Now you're getting it." Danny held up his thermos and the ghostly energy forced Skulker into the thermos and he closed it. He stretched and yawned before landing on his front steps and transforming from Danny Phantom back to Danny Fenton. 6 months ago he would have gone invisible and phased into the house but ever since he helped saved the world and revealed his identity to his Parents and Amity Park, he didn't have to worry about sneaking around anymore. What was even better was that his parents had accepted him being half ghost.

Danny unlocked the front door and went inside. He desperately wanted to just go up the stairs and go to bed but he knew he had to empty the thermos into the ghost portal down in the lab. He walked through the kitchen and down into the basement/lab. At first he thought it was empty and his dad just left the lights on (Wouldn't be the first time), but upon closer inspection he found his mom sitting at the computer close to the portal.

"Hey Mom."

She glanced up from her work. "Oh hi Danny! How was the patrol tonight?"

Danny held up the thermos. "Not too bad, thermos is about half full." He walked over to the portal and placed the thermos in a circular slot on the panel. He pressed a couple buttons and within seconds, the thermos was empty. The ghosts back in the ghost zone.

"I just hope the Box Ghost decides to stay in the Ghost Zone for more than 24 hours this time."

"You fought the box ghost again? Doesn't he ever give up?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Not that I've seen. Ever since I first fought him, it's always 'I am the box ghost! Beware the power of corrugated cardboard!' It does get annoying after a while."

His mother laughed. "Then why do you keep fighting him? It doesn't sound like he's a threat."

"It's pretty good for stress release."

His mother looked at a family photo by the computer that showed the entire family. His father Jack, had taken up about 75% of the photo. "I could relate to that." She said.

Danny yawned again. "I'll bet you could. I'm gonna go to bed, I'm exhausted."

"Oh before you do, Sam called the house about half an hour ago. Nothing serious, she just wanted to check in on you and you weren't answering your phone. "

"Wait Sam called?" Danny pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and sure enough, there was a missed call and voicemail from his girlfriend. "Damn it! I must have been fighting the ecto-squids when she called."

"Danny, you don't have to curse. Just call her back before you go to bed."

Danny absentmindedly ran his fingers through his hair. His mom was right. He just missed one phone call. Wasn't the end of the world. "Good night Mom."

"Night Danny."

Danny left the basement and walked up the stairs to his room. He emptied his pockets of his wallet, keys and change. Finally he checked the voicemail on his phone.

"Hey Danny, it's Sam. You're probably out on patrol. I just said good night to my Grandmom and wanted to see how you were doing out there. Nothing major. Talk to ya soon. Sam."

Danny smiled. 6 months ago, he and Sam had finally had enough of dancing around their feelings and became a couple. Danny felt that they made the transition from best friends to couple really well and it helped that they made a great team in everything they did.

He dialed her number, the only one in his phone that he actually had memorized. It rang for about 10 seconds before she answered. "Hey Danny."

"Hey Sam. Sorry I missed your call. I was fighting some ecto-squids. Phone must have been on silent."

"It's ok Danny, I figured as much. I just wanted to check in since I wasn't out there with you tonight."

"Glad to know you worry about me."

Sam laughed. "Of course I worry about you Danny, you're better and more experienced than you were two years ago but I'm your girlfriend and I think I have the right to be worried every once in a while."

Danny felt his heart melt a little bit. Sam was right. He was much better at fighting ghosts than when he had just gotten his powers but that didn't mean that he couldn't be hurt by some kind of new threat.

"Thanks for worrying about me." Danny said, "I really do appreciate it."

"No problem. I also wanted to know what you were doing tomorrow."

Danny thought about it for a minute. Tommorow was Friday. Not much going on except for the gym in the morning with Dash and patrolling the streets at night. "My afternoon's free. Want to have lunch at the Nasty Burger after I'm done at the gym?"

"Sure, meet up at 12:30?"

"Sounds good." Danny yawned again. It was after midnight at this point and the sleep threatened to take over his body.

"Woah, you sound really tired. Get to bed Danny."

"Yes Ma'am. Good night."

"Good night."

Danny turned off the phone, set the alarm and plugged it into the charger on his bedside table. Then he turned off the lights and crawled into bed. He was asleep within a few minutes.