It was a perfectly normal week. In retrospect, that should have tipped him off. The calm before the storm.

It wouldn't have mattered anyway.

His parents had kicked him out when he was sixteen. He told them about his powers on his fifteenth birthday and they tried to accept him, they really did, but a lifetime of fear and hatred is hard to get over.

Jazz helped him, she found out a few months after the accident. She let him move in with her in her apartment near Harvard.

One thing that really threw Danny for a loop was the assistance of the man he considered an enemy. Vlad had come to Danny soon after he moved in with Jazz. Danny could still remember the conversation.

"Daniel, I know we aren't on the best of terms, but I want you to know my offer is still standing, if a bit different. I want to help you, train you in everything ghost, make sure you and Jasmine live comfortably."

Danny sighed. "You must be happy, Vlad. What you said came true. They didn't accept me, at least not fully. Now I don't need to renounce my dad, he did that for me."

Vlad put a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "Despite everything I said, I never wanted them to prove me right. I do care about you, Daniel."

Danny let his tears fall for the first time since he left home. He let the older halfa hold him while he cried. When he had calmed down enough to speak, he looked at the man's face. "I want to take you up on that training offer, but I can't leave Jazz."

Vlad nodded and walked with Danny back to the apartment.

Vlad had offered to pay for anything they might need. He bought a mansion near the school and invited them both to live with him.

Danny convinced Jazz to go with, not that it was too hard. She wanted to live in his mansion as much as he did.

That's when the first cases started. The first few patients were down near the Mexican border, people in hospitals complaining of chills and loss of self control. The doctors couldn't explain it.

The reports slowly spread north. No one could figure it out and none of the patients were getting better.

One day Dani came home with a story that set Danny's nerves on end.

"I was in class and my friend Connor started saying he was cold. I thought he was complaining for no reason, but then he started shivering and his lips were turning blue!" She explained.

"Ms. Summers tried to get him to go to the nurse. That's when he started trying to bite her. I grabbed him in that one move you told me about, where I lock my hands around his arms and behind his head, he calmed down a bit when he saw it was me, so I brought him to the nurse. Anyone else that went near him got growled at.

Danny had joked at the time, saying he must have had a crush on her. They let the subject drop.

Danny should have paid more attention.

Jazz came home with a similar story to Dani's. A student got sick and tried to attack anyone who got too close. Using her knowledge of martial arts and self defense, Jazz, along with the teacher, was able to restrain the student and get them to the hospital.

The student had been able to bite the teacher and a few students before they managed to subdue them.

These should have been warnings to Danny, but something just wouldn't let him think about them too long.

And it's not like he could have done anything.

That day was quiet. School had been canceled for the halfa children because of all the students in the hospital with this strange virus. The schools didn't want to risk making it spread faster.

Danny walked to Jazz's school to wait for her class to end. A few people looked at him funny as they passed, confused as to why a kid was walking around Harvard.

"Hey Danny. No class today?" Jazz called when she saw her little brother.

"Yeah, everyone's freaked out about this new virus." They started walking back to the mansion. Danny listened as she talked about her classes. She was in some kind of statistics in psychology class.

They were stopped by what sounded like screaming. Danny took off running without a second thought. He heard Jazz running behind him.

They ended up in front of the hospital. Danny saw people running from the building, nurses were pushing wheelchairs and a few of those baby crib things.

The halfa ran up to the nearest person, a scared nurse holding a crying baby.

"What happened?"

He looked up at the boy. "One of the virus patients, his vitals just stopped. We thought he was dead. Then he stood up and started walking out of the room. We let him." The nurse took a shuddering breath. Danny waited patiently.

"The man walked right up to one of the doctors and he-he..." A tear spilled from his eye. "He bit into the doctor's throat. She dropped to the ground. She was dead then she wasn't and she started walking at people too. Then I pulled the fire alarm."

The man was shaking and holding the baby to his chest. Danny looked at Jazz. "Get people out. Tell them to get home to safety."

She gave him a confused glance then nodded and did what she was told. Danny ran up to the building. One of the security guards tried to stop him but he just dodged around their arms.

He smiled, glad Vlad had him train his human body along with his ghost one.

The halls were eerily quiet. Danny walked around the building, using his enhanced hearing to try to find the patient. There were no sounds. Everything was dead silent.

Danny tried not to think about the irony of that sentence.

He was halfway through the first floor when he heard a scream from upstairs. He let the familiar white rings pass over his body and took off through the ceiling up to the third floor.

Phantom looked around and saw a trail of blood on the floor. He followed it cautiously and looked into the nursery.

He almost threw up, good thing ghostly anatomy wasn't able to.

There were dead infants scattered around the room. They were all bleeding and looked broken. He was so distracted by the horrible sight that he almost didn't notice the man sitting in the corner.

Danny lit his hands green and glared at him.

The man didn't even turn around. Danny inched his way around the man and looked at what he was doing.

That lead to almost barf number two.

The man was crouching over the bloody body of a woman, but that wasn't the horrifying part. He was holding a fetus and eating it like an apple.

Danny blasted the creature (he could no longer call it a man) in the side of the head.

It fell on its side.

He put an ectoplasmic bubble around the creature and glared at it.

"What are you?" Danny watched as it stood up and looked around confused.

He was so focused on the thing that he didn't notice the woman stand up.

The woman stood behind him and Danny flinched when he felt her hand brush his arm.

He spun around and stared in horror at her. She watched him with blank eyes. He froze when she leaned forward.

Danny charged an ecto blast in his hand and prepared to shoot, but she didn't attack.

"Did you just sniff me?" Danny yelled in shock. He floated back a bit, forgetting about the bubble holding the male.

The bubble faded and the male charged at the halfa. Danny put up his arms for protection but the creature stumbled past.

Danny watched as it sniffed the female and they both started walking away.

I say walking, I mean more like limping.

Danny flew through the wall and into an empty room. He collapsed on the floor.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Jazz. She answered on the third ring.

"Danny? What's going on in there?"

"Get out of here. Go home, stay with Vlad and Danielle." Danny said, secretly glad his voice didn't sound as shaky as he felt.

"What? What about you? What's going on?" She tried again.

"I'll explain when I get home. Just go!"

There was silence for a minute, probably Jazz weighing her options. "Ok, but hurry home little brother, and be careful."

Danny sighed in relief and thanked Jazz before hanging up. He got to his feet and tried to ignore his shaky feet.

He needed to get out of there. He knew what these creatures were, he, Tucker, and Sam had watched enough movies to recognize one.

That didn't answer why they didn't attack, but Danny wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"I came in as Fenton. If I go out as Phantom, people will be suspicious." Danny let himself change back to human.

He walked carefully through the halls, trying to find the front door. The building seemed darker than before. Danny glanced out a nearby window and saw that the sun was almost down. He sighed.

Danny made it to the front door without seeing the creatures again, but the whole building was starting to smell. He didn't want to think about the reason why.

When he saw the door, Danny took off running.

"Kid!" The same security guard from earlier yelled at him.

"Get everyone away from here! It's not safe!" Danny shouted so anyone nearby would hear.

Some civilians started moving back. Someone grabbed Danny's arm.

"You're coming with me, kid." The man glared at Danny.

Danny matched his glare. "Not until all these people are out of here." He said firmly.

The man looked at him with tired, annoyed eyes. Danny didn't back down.

"You don't have a choice in the matter, kid. You ran into a quarantine unprotected. We need to test you for the virus."

Danny understood the man's motives, but that didn't mean he would do what he was told.

"I'm fine, but there are two infected patients in there that were eating infants!" Danny glared at the man, hoping his eyes looked honest.

One of the people behind the guard started laughing, thinking Danny was crazy.

The guard looked at Danny with an expression that made it seem like he wanted to do the same.

Danny was about to start yelling when a woman in the crowd screamed.

She was pointing to the glass doors behind Danny. Everyone turned to look and saw the dead woman from inside. Danny hadn't been able to get a good look at her before, but now, with some distance between them, Danny could see how truly horrifying she was.

Her stomach had been ripped open so the other creature could eat her fetus, leaving a nice door for the rest of her insides to fall out.

This time Danny nearly did barf.

The security guards quickly got to work getting people away from the building.

One man tried pulling Danny, but the halfa pushed him away and helped evacuate the civilians.

Danny helped a woman who had four children. He picked up the two middle children and let the oldest climb on his back. The woman lead the way to her house, holding her baby to her chest.

"Just stay inside and stay with your kids." Danny said, letting the children climb down when they got to her house.

"What about you?" The youngest boy asked.

Danny looked down and felt a small pang of sadness. This boy looked like Tucker, back when they were little. How long has it been since they last talked? "I have to go. You should be safe here." He smiled at the boy.

"Are you sure?" The mother asked. "You're more than welcome to stay here until this is over."

Danny smiled at her offer. "Thanks, that's extremely generous of you, but no. I need to get home and make sure my sisters are safe."

"But that was a-"

"I know what it was. I still need to go." He smiled and let himself out.

When he was safely hidden behind a brick fence, Danny changed back into Phantom and started flying.

On the flight home, he thought about calling Sam and Tucker, just to make sure they're ok.

Almost home anyway. He decided to call when he had a plan.

He flew through the wall and into the living room. He didn't stop until he saw Jazz sitting and talking with Dani.

"Danny!" Dani jumped up and ran to the older halfa. Even though Dani is technically Danny's clone, they consider each other brother and sister.

"What happened, little brother? You sounded scared." Jazz looked at him with concern.

Danny looked between them and answered with one word. "Zombies."