Memory

A Danny Phantom Fanfic by Cori

What's a memory worth?

Chapter 11

It had been Jazz's plan. Elegantly simple – at least until it all went up in flames. Vlad was so hyper-aware of Danny's presence in the mansion that he hadn't even noticed that Danny had brought along a friend. Jazz had snuck through the building, confident that Danny could keep Vlad focused on 'negotiating', planting explosives all over the place. She'd located her father rather quickly – he'd been in a room on the lower level – and spirited him out before calling her brother to report the mission was complete.

"Swiss cheese is full of holes," she said into the phone, listening to her brother mutter an 'awesome' before settling back in her seat and switching on the portable ghost shield Danny had dropped into the backseat as they'd flown past.

"What?" Jack asked, still looking confused and broken. "Jazzy-"

The explosives littering Vlad's mansion were their father's design from several years ago. When Danny had realized what they did, he had confiscated all of them, then spent the better part of two weeks talking his father into not replacing them. Seriously – who dreamed up a use for bombs that would explode if a ghost simply walked by? Talk about the collateral damage to the town that would cause.

In this case, however, they served a good purpose. Danny excelled at tormenting Vlad to the end of his patience. Jazz knew it would only take a few well-placed words and-

The mansion exploded. Jazz and her father both ducked as pieces of house went flying past the car. Several pieces collided with the ghost shield and, being made of human material, the pieces went right through. One shattered the driver's side window, covering Jazz in tiny cubes of glass.

Jazz stared at the destruction, stunned and shaking. Danny had mentioned that the ectoplasm-infused C4 was quite a bit more powerful than normal explosives, but this…? Had Danny gotten to their mother in time?

"What happened?" Jack asked, his voice sounding lost. "What did you do?"

"Playing our own game," Jazz said, trying to push the worries from her mind and focus on what she needed to do. She had to get them back to Fentonworks and activate the main ghost shield. The little one surrounding the car wouldn't last more than a minute if Vlad came after them. She brushed the worst of the glass off her lap and out of her hair, then shakily put the keys into the ignition. It took several tries before the keys fit into the slot and the engine turned over.

"But…"

Jazz pulled away from the curb. Sirens were already sounding around town – it would only be a few minutes before the remains of Vlad's mansion were crawling with cops and firemen and other first responders. She needed to get out of there before they were stopped and questioned.

"Mads?" Jack asked, twisting around in his seat to stare behind them. "Did you say Mads was in there?"

"She's fine," Jazz said, trying to convince herself and her father. "Phantom grabbed her."

"You mean Danny," Jack said, his voice still sounding broken and empty.

Jazz glanced at him, then nodded. That was a discussion to have at another time; safety first, mental breakdown second. "Come on, Dad. We need to get home." She pulled up to a red light just as the first few police cars went roaring past, their sirens loud and their lights blindingly bright. She watched them, nearly hypnotized by the flashing lights. The sound of a car door opening and shutting jerked her out of her dazed stare. "Dad?"

Her father was gone. She twisted around to stare out the back window. Jack was carrying as much of the weaponry Maddie had stuffed into the back seat as he could carry, and he was racing back towards the mansion. Green and red was flashing in the distance; both hybrids had survived the fight.

"Crap," Jazz hissed, throwing the car into reverse and hastily parking it in an empty spot. She grabbed a few of the remaining weapons from the back seat and threw herself out of the car as well, chasing after her father. If he got to the mansion, there was no doubt in her mind that her father would be a target. "Dad! Stop!"

-.-

"Jack!"

Phantom jerked them both to the left and up, try desperately to hold onto his squirming mother while avoiding the worst of Plasmius's blasts. "Stop," he snapped, when she managed to drag her arm most of the way free of his grasp. The twenty foot fall onto the rubble of Plasmius's mansion would have hurt her for sure. "He's fine."

Maddie turned wide eyes up at him. "What?"

A flare of red energy nearly took off an ear. He yelped, changing direction. He was no where near as nimble and fast when he was carrying someone – and with Sam and Tucker gone to college and two years of no practice, he'd gotten worse at dodging while lugging a human around. "Jazz got him out before she blew the mansion. Hold still!"

"Jazz blew up the mansion?"

Dropping low to the mess of bricks and burning wood and hoping Plasmius would lose him in the smoke, Phantom chuckled darkly. "I told you. I don't negotiate with Plasmius. We decided to play a different game."

The man was suddenly right in front of them. "Boo," the man hissed. Phantom jerked to a stop, pushing his mother behind him and setting her down on a pile of bricks. Plasmius's eyes were glowing a sick, bloody red. "You've certainly gotten moredestructive as you've gotten older, haven't you, Little Badger?"

"I didn't do anything," Phantom said. He kept himself carefully between his mother and Plasmius. He would likely survive the worst Plasmius could throw at him – his mother would not be nearly as lucky. "You set them off with your little temper tantrum. If you would have let us leave, I would have told you how to deactivate them."

Plasmius's red eyes narrowed. "How dare you-"

A green plasma blast sliced past Phantom's head and slammed into Plasmius's chest. "Don't threaten my family," Maddie said.

The older hybrid shook off the blast like someone would shake off a snowball. "You don't scare me, woman," Plasmius sneered. "And you, boy, have made a serious mistake."

"You started it." Perhaps it was a bit childish, but Phantom felt the need to point that out. "You called me. You brought my mother into this. You kidnapped my father. Given half a chance, I was going for 'live and let live'. So, really-" He cut off when a huge blast of energy slammed into a hastily-raised ghost shield. The blast shoved him backwards a few steps before it dissipated around him, leaving his hands tingling painfully.

"You knew Director Carson was researching hybrids," cut in a voice behind him.

Phantom stiffened. Then he snorted out a half-laugh as the thought trickled into his brain. "Of course you did," Phantom said darkly. "The Guys in White are under your thumb. There's no way the director of the program could spend that much time researching us without you knowing."

Light flickered around Plasmius. The older hybrid was stalking back and forth, apparently looking for a weak spot to attack.

"But him showing up a week ago, while you were in China, that was a surprise." Phantom let a dark, cruel grin cross his face. "Director Carson was trying to get past you. He saw something of your plan and moved before you were ready. So you had to do a countermove. It's chess, just like you always said. Plans and counterplans."

Smoke was rising from Plasmius's eyes. The ghost was hot under the collar, but was managing to keep his feet steady on the ground and not blast randomly. Phantom knew he didn't stand a chance of beating Plasmius when the hybrid was using his human intellect. The best he'd ever get would be a stalemate – Plasmius's intelligence and years of practice equaling out Phantom's power.

But if he could goad Plasmius into thinking like a ghost… into attacking without thought… than Phantom stood a chance of winning. And if there was one thing Phantom was good at, it was pushing the buttons of a certain billionaire hybrid.

"So, really," he continued, "I think this is all your fault." He gestured towards the destroyed mansion. Sirens were howling in the distance and starting to come closer. Phantom gritted his teeth – he'd need to take this into the air, and quick. In only a few minutes, there'd be too many people to keep safe. "Especially since this was your plan," he said dismissively. "I know you, Plasmius. You have a plot going every minute of the day, and four or five on weekends. I'm just an insubordinate little child, but you know what?" He crossed his arms over his chest and laughed. "I have to say: this plan sucks."

"I know what you're doing," Plasmius said between gritted teeth. "And it won't work."

Of course Plasmius knew what he was doing. Plasmius always knew what he was doing. However… "You know what I'm not doing?" Phantom said cheekily. "I'm notnegotiating with you."

Phantom knew that Plasmius had let the ghost energy creep too far into his brain. It affected their thinking and emotions. So, even though Plasmius was well aware that Phantom was goading him into an attack –

With a flare of red, Plasmius jumped for him. Phantom normally would have dodged, used his speed as an advantage, but his mother was behind him. So he had no choice but to attack back. He met Plasmius mid way and slammed a hand into the ghost's face.

Fueled by a dark rage, Plasmius shook it off disappointingly fast. The two hybrids hadn't fought each other in eighteen months and Phantom had gotten used to fighting the weaker ghosts that invaded Amity Park now and then. Phantom was caught off-guard by the power in the older ghost. The ghost turned to him, snarled, and Phantom took to the sky, confident that his mother had been forgotten and Plasmius would follow him.

Red light blazed around him. He juked left and right, spiraling in crazy directions, not wanting to get hit this early in the confrontation. Risking a glance back over his shoulder, Phantom saw Plasmius hot on his heels.

"Perfect," Phantom muttered, jerking his body around another blast and leading Plasmius away from the ruins. Away from his mother. He wasn't sure what he was going to do once he got the older hybrid away from his family, but he knew he'd have to come up with a plan – and quick. The 'plan' he'd created with Jazz had ended with the mansion's explosion. Everything that happened from then on out had been smoothed into an, 'I'll figure it out as I go' sort of thing. He just had to get Plasmius far enough away, then -

Plasmius howled in pain.

Phantom jerked his head around in time to see more flares of emerald plasma arc through the sky. "No," Phantom whispered. Plasmius had come to a stop in the air. He couldn't let Plasmius get distracted by something on the ground – especially since that 'something' was probably one of his parents. "Hey, Fruitloop!" he called, sending several blasts in Plasmius's back.

The older hybrid caught the blasts and turned a glare on him. "Little Badger," the man said, his voice eerily calm compared to the emotion flooding his face. "This plan of yours isn't going to work."

Phantom had an instant to sense that something was wrong before a fist slammed into the back of his head. He stayed conscious just long enough to see another one of Plasmius's copies dissolve into nothingness before the world went black and he fell from the sky.

-.-

Maddie watched Plasmius take off after her son with a dull feeling of impotence. Never in her life had she felt so out of the loop, so ineffective. Maddie was a doer, active and responsible and always on top of things. She'd just stood there, stunned, as her son had taken over the conversation with Plasmius. She'd just watched as Danny tormented Plasmius into chasing him. And now she stood there, watching, as Danny took the brunt of Plasmius's rage.

How could this have been going on all this time and she not seen it? How could her son…? How could her family's oldest friend…?

Her eyes narrowed. Her fingers curled into fists around the grip of the ectoweapon she'd smuggled in under her jacket. Thumbing the trigger, the weapon whined as it charged. It was a high-pitched shriek – the weapon was nearly fully charged.

She wasn't going to be an unknowing bystander in her son's life anymore. She raised the gun, aiming for the red glow in the sky.

She understood perfectly what Danny was doing. He was drawing Plasmius away from her – like Phantom had always done. He was always sacrificing himself for others. Protecting people. Protecting his family. Her teeth clenched.

If she took her shot, she'd grab Plasmius's attention again. She'd be a target. Plasmius would be distracted from whatever he was doing and he'd come after her.

Very slowly, she lowered the weapon. The whine died down as her finger loosened. She had to trust that Danny had a plan – that he'd come in here, and done all this, for a reason. Besides, Plasmius was too far away for the shot to be anything other than a nuisance.

Green light flashed from off to her right, slashing through the sky and slamming into the hybrid ghosts fighting overhead. Maddie's eyes widened and she spun around, searching for the source of the blast. A stocky figure in orange stood just at the edge of the ruins, holding up a large ectocannon. The end of was already glowing, charging the next blast.

"Jack!" Maddie yelled, scrambling towards him. The smoking rubble made the going a bit rough. Her heart leapt in her throat as another blast left the cannon and raced towards the sky. "JACK!"

Jack glanced her way. "Mads," he called, a brief smile slipping onto his face before his eyes went back up to the sky.

Maddie followed his gaze. Danny was nowhere to be seen. Vlad was hovering over the remains of the mansion, red-tinted energy curling around him like a bubble. "Danny?" she breathed, trying to make her way to Jack's side while anxiously scanning the sky for him. What had happened to him? Where was he?

"You think you're so smart." Vlad's voice was dull and echoing. "You have no idea what you're doing. You have no idea what you're up against."

Stumbling over the last of the rubble, Maddie skidded to a stop next to Jack. Weapons were scattered around his feet, each of them on, charged, and ready to be used. Maddie planted her feet solidly on the ground and pointed her weapon towards the sky as well. It whined.

Where was Danny?

"You had twenty-five years to figure out what I was," Vlad hissed. "You had one of us living under your own roof for years, and you still didn't know." His feet lightly touched the ground, energy still dancing around him. The man stood there, shoulders back, head high. He didn't look like he was ready to fight - he seemed to be completely dismissing the fact that two of Fentonwork's strongest weapons were pointed in his direction. "You're so out of your league it's pathetic."

"Where's my son?" Maddie demanded.

"That idiotic young man is my problem, not yours," Vlad said darkly. His red eyes flared.

Something hard and cold slammed into her back. She stumbled, trying to twist around to see this new threat, even as her weapon was yanked from her grasp and her arms pulled roughly behind her back. Her body was propelled forwards a few feet before being forced to kneel, something cold pressed against the back of her head.

"That is more like it," Vlad said.

Maddie glanced to the side to see Jack in a similar position to her, an exactly duplicate of Vlad holding him in place. No doubt another Vlad-copy was holding her.

"I thought we were friends," Jack said. "Vladdy-"

"We were never friends," Vlad spat. The ghost stalked forwards. "You were an inconvenience that was just helpful enough to keep around." His red eyes turned to her. "That, and our dearest Maddie would never have left you."

Maddie jerked on her wrists, but the hands around her arms were cold and hard as ice. "What do you want?"

Vlad stared at her. "Nothing you can give," he said. His voice was almost gentle. "Years ago, I would have traded the world for you. Now, though, I have different goals in mind."

"You want Danny," she whispered. She saw Jack stiffen out of the corner of her eye.

"Forever cursed to want the one thing I can't have," Vlad said with a sharp, self-deprecating smile. "When I couldn't have you, I wanted you. Now that you would give yourself to me to save your family… I find myself wanting something different." The man laughed. "Tie them up."

The cold hands were quickly replaced with rope. Maddie glared at the Vlad-copies. "I want my son," she snapped.

Vlad's smile was cold. "When I find him, I'll let him know."

The sirens were loud, their flashing lights illuminating the remains of Vlad's mansion. Police and fire crews were seconds from swarming over the place. Maddie felt her heart race, worried about what was going to happen when the authorities stumbled onto them.

"What are you going to do to us?" Jack asked.

"Nothing, just yet. But you'll make valuable poker chips." Vlad's eyes flickered up towards the flashing lights. "We're out of time. Bring them."

Cold arms wrapped around her and she was dragged into the air. In just seconds, the police cars and people moving down below looked like little toys. Then she vanished into the clouds and saw nothing but white.