Drowning In Power (Book 2 of Danny Phantom Trilogy)

Where's Danny!?

His head was pounding. He could literally feel his slow pulse reverberating in his skull. Or was that just the massive headache he was sporting? It felt like his brain was floating in his skull and throbbing at the same time. Danny groaned lowly as his head lolled to the side. A wave of nausea suddenly hit him and caused him to dry heave.

"Oh. You're finally awake. Good. I was getting worried that I wouldn't be able to speak to you before we started."

With dull, lidded eyes, Danny slowly turned his head to face who had spoken. His eyes narrowed as he tried to place the face. "You're... Kagome's grandmother," Danny said with a frown.

Nakoda smiled brightly. "Very good. Now, can you tell me how many fingers am I holding up?" Nakoda said and lifted her hand.

"Uh... Four?" Danny replied with a groan before squeezing his eyes shut.

Nakoda frowned. "It was two, but close enough I suppose..."

"I thought you left town. What are you doing here? And where am I?" Danny asked with his head lowered and his eyes closed. It was much easier to focus this way.

Nakoda looked up at the boy pinned to the wooden walls of the abandoned warehouse they were in. He was still out of his mind. She didn't even need to exert much focus to keep him pinned to the wall by her magic. Then again, he was just a boy. He probably wasn't very powerful to begin with. "In a warehouse downtown," she answered. "And I did leave. But the guilt made me return. I couldn't just turn my back on my granddaughter like that. Kimiko may not care about her well-being, but I love my granddaughter."

"What are you talking about? Why am I in a warehouse? Why can't I move? And what is that smell?" Danny asked and tried to bury his nose in his shoulder. He wasn't very successful, however.

"I brought you here last night. You've actually been unconscious for almost twenty-four hours. You're still weak from the spell that I used to incapacitate you. That was my error. It's been a while since I've had to use it on a ghost and I may have left you under its effects for too long," Nakoda replied with a slight shrug. "As for the smell, you threw up on yourself once during the night."

Danny cracked an eye open to see that the front of his shirt was, in fact, the totally gross color of baby food and... ectoplasm? He'd been unconscious for almost a day? His parents were probably freaking out. Sam and Tucker must be worried. Were they looking for him? Sighing loudly, Danny spoke up again, "What do you want with me?"

"I want a few things from you," Nakoda replied while folding her arms over her chest. Since his head was lowered, Danny wasn't able to see the sudden shift from a pleasant, smiling face to one of disgusted fury. "First, I want an explanation. I've encountered many ghosts in my lifetime, but I've never come across one like you. The more time I spend with you, the more questions I have. You aren't being possessed by the Phantom boy. What sort of connection do you have with him? He inhabits your body like a parasite- feeding off of you and poisoning you with his ghostly energy and ectoplasm."

"The only person poisoning me is you," Danny hissed with a fierce glare.

Nakoda sighed and shook her head. Youth. "While I am sure that you are a nice boy, Danny I cannot allow you to continue living. In order to destroy Phantom, you have to die as well. You two are so tightly bonded to each other it's almost like you're the same person! Really, I'm doing you a favor. Not only you but Kagome as well. She really shouldn't be associating with a ghost anyway," Nakoda commented before moving away from Danny.