TWELVE
Both Dannies sat up. They glanced at each other. A noise was going off somewhere in the room, but neither knew what it was. Danny stood up and turned on the light. He turned to Dan who was getting out of bed as well. Both boys were dressed in pajamas. "I bet it's the cell phone," Danny commented.
Dan's eyes lit up. "I bet you're right. Check your pants pockets!" He walked over to his jeans that were strewn over the back of his computer chair. Danny went to the closet where he had hung up his jumpsuit. "I wonder if we'll have TWO cell phones! Ya know, since we split ourselves in two?" Dan asked.
Danny searched his pockets. "I wouldn't know," he mumbled. Empty. "But I'm guessing that would be a 'no.'" He turned around to face Dan, arms folded.
Danny found the phone. "Ah-ha!" He flipped it open. His eyes grew wide. "It's Sam!" Danny ran over to look over Dan's shoulder. "Help VMVP! PLZ help! SM..." Dan's voice trailed off.
Danny took a step back. "Well, we've got to do SOMETHING!" Outside, it was getting light. The boys' alarm clock went off. Both Dannies glanced at it.
Dan groaned. "This is just GREAT!"
"What?" Danny started walking to his closet.
"Well, ONE of us has to go to school!"
Danny pulled his jumpsuit out of the closet. "That's probably gonna have to be you."
"What?! Why me?! I can help you! Besides, we don't HAVE to go to school..."
Danny was just zipping up the front of his jumpsuit, pajamas laying neatly folded at his feet. "Good point..."
Dan grinned. "I know."
"But it's not going to work."
Dan's grin faltered. He watched Danny sit down and pull his gloves on, one at a time. "And why not?"
Danny grabbed a boot and pulled it on his left foot. "Because I have ghost powers and you don't," he replied in an almost mocking tone. He pulled on his other boot and stood up. "Besides that, I'm ready and, uh, you aren't." Danny smiled at his split self, who was gawking at the reply, and flew through the wall.
Dan kicked his chair, then pulled back, hopping on one foot. "OW!" He sat down on his bed. Dan glanced at the folded pajamas and then at his wrinkled jeans. He sighed. Putting a hand to his forehead, Dan mumbled, "This wasn't supposed to happen at all..."
Suddenly filled with determination, Dan stood up. "And it's not GOING to happen! My best friend isn't going to get hurt! And neither is..." He paused. "...myself, just because of my selfish needs!"
"That's the Danny I know!" a voice said. Dan turned around to find Danny floating outside the now-open window.
"Um...Danny?"
Danny looked down. "Oh, right!" He disappeared for a moment, and then came back up with Tucker.
"Thanks, dude." Tucker jumped into the Dannies' room. "Well, you ready to get yourself together?" he asked Dan.
Dan nodded. "Sure."
Danny came into the room. "There's just one problem...how?"
Tucker scratched the back of his head. "Jeez, normally Sam is the negative one around here!"
Dan thought a moment. "I think I have an idea..."
Sam flipped through the TV channels aimlessly. "Vlad, there's nothing to watch!"
Vlad came into the room that held her holding chamber. "Well, that's not MY fault."
"Where's my tofu soy melt?" she demanded.
"Almost ready..." Vlad turned around and started back to the kitchen.
"Oh and, Vlad?" Sam pulled up the footstool of the recliner she was seated in. "Be sure not to put too much soy in the melt."
Vlad cringed a little. "Of course."
Sam was being held captive in Vlad's lab inside a huge (probably 30x30 ft) barred box. Inside the crate was a recliner, TV, a videogame console, games, a bed, clock, and a bookshelf. He sure knew how to make his captives at home.
Sam thought for a bit. "Hey, Vlad!" she called out again.
He ran into the room. "WHAT?! Your sandwich is right here!" Vlad slipped the sandwich between the bars.
"Thanks." Sam took the meal. "But that's not what I was wondering."
"Then WHAT is?!"
Sam stood up. "Well...what IF I told you I needed to use the restroom? As I see you haven't put one in here..."
Vlad sighed. "I suppose you could go use the facilities..." He walked to the door and unlocked it. Sam started to come out of her prison, but Vlad stopped her. "BUT, you CANNOT do ANYTHING else!"
Sam put her hands on her hips. "Okay...so are you letting me go or not?"
"I'm letting you go!"
Sam smiled. "Ok, then." She ran as fast as she could out the nearest door.
As far away as she could get, and out of breath, Sam stopped. She was still inside Vlad's mansion. Sam looked around, spying the front door. She walked up to the door, opened it, and was about to go outside when she paused. Before her, Sam could see Park Street, the main street that ran through town. "This is just too easy."
Sam put a hand out the door and immediately retracted when she felt the shocking sting of a shield.
"You didn't think it would be that simple, did you?" Sam turned around and pressed herself against the wall as Vlad advanced. "I mean, sure, it would be nice, for once, that the villain allows his captive to escape. But that's not how I work..."
"Dude, I don't know if this is going to work..." Tucker was holding the very heavy Fenton Ghostcatcher above his head, sweat beading on his forehead.
"It has to," Dan replied. He walked over to a wall, in the basement, put his arm against it, and leaned his head on his arm. He didn't say a thing.
Knowing how Dan had wanted to finish his sentence, Danny acknowledged Tucker, "It's our last hope, if we want to save Sam..."
Tucker nodded, then cringed as the weight of the Ghostcatcher seemed to suddenly get heavier. He set it down. "You know, I think I'll just wait until you guys are totally ready to use that."
Danny shrugged.
Dan came over from his spot on the wall. He took in a deep breath. "Ok, I think I'll be all right."
"I just thought of something...that might be a conflict..." Tucker put his hands in his pockets.
Danny crossed his arms and glanced at Dan, an eyebrow raised. "What?"
"Well...uh...if you were both to be the hero...who would...uh..." Tucker paused.
"Darn you, Tuck, would you just tell us?!" Dan asked . "We don't have all day you know!"
"Smooth..." Danny commented on Dan's little outburst.
Tucker almost started laughing at his thought. "Well, who would get the girl?"
"Get the girl? What do you mean by THAT?!" Dan asked nervously. He glanced at Danny. Both Dannies were red in the face.
"Who would get Sam?" Tucker repeated himself.
"Well...I...uh...he..." Both Dannies started off pointing and making gestures.
Finally, Danny said, "I think we should get what we need done, done."
"Ha! You're avoiding the issue!" Tucker pointed out.
"Hey, yeah, whaddaya know?" Dan looked at his watch and tapped it. "According to my watch, we should've been done...a while ago!"
Danny nodded. "Oh, yeah. Long time ago. Loooooooooooooooooooong time ago! We should...uh...get done with this Ghostcatcher thing!"
Tucker rolled his eyes. But then shrugged and agreed. He picked up the Ghostcatcher.
Dan and Danny stood near each other and Tucker pulled the Ghostcatcher over the top of them, careful to have the "merge" side down. There was a flash of light.
When Tucker could finally see again, after the blinding light, he gasped. In front of him were two Danny Phantoms. "Um...I don't think it worked..."
Danny and Dan (although you couldn't tell who was who) looked at each other. One said, "Well, I guess we both have powers now?"
The other one tried an ectoblast, powering it up, but then it just fizzled out. "I'm guessing that's a 'no.'"
The first Danny who spoke started freaking out. "But this HAD TO have worked! We can't just be two Danny Phantoms with no ghost powers!! It just doesn't work that way! I CAN'T work that way!" (I'm guessing this was the previous Dan Fenton.)
Danny scratched his chin, deep in thought. "Unless...there's another way...like Desiree said..."
Tucker, who was also considering this, said, "Didn't she say that if you were to change back to normal, as one Danny, you had to WANT to be the one and only Danny?"
Both boys nodded.
Tucker started to figure everything out. "So...if you two were to WANT to be one guy again, and you really and truly wanted this, all you'd have to do is say something or think something and you'd be able to fuse into one again?" He glanced at the Dannies.
Danny snapped his fingers. "Of course!" He turned to Dan who had figured it out as well. It'd be just like morphing into the phantom form or back!" Dan nodded.
"Of course!" Dan started pacing. "It's so SIMPLE and obvious, it'd have to work!"
"So all you have to do is what exactly?" Tucker asked.
"Just think about the same thing and want it, I guess," Dan commented.
"Exactly! It's all just a mind trick..." Danny glanced at Dan and Tucker who were backing up slowly. He shrugged. "What? I paid a LITTLE attention to what Jazz was saying when we were fighting Nocturn."
Tucker walked over to the Ghostcatcher. "So...do we use this or not?"
Danny shook his head. "I don't think so." He glanced at Dan. "You ready to try this?"
Dan nodded. "Sure. It's fun to be human without having to worry about super powers..."
"...but it's more fun to have them?" Danny finished for him. Dan nodded, a grin on his face.
Dan turned his full attention to one wall; Danny did the same. Tucker kept quiet.
After ten minutes of silence and concentration, an odd mist started to fill the room. Tucker stood up, alarmed, but kept his mouth shut. He glanced at where he thought the Dannies were, but the mist was so think, he could barely make out their shapes.
The lab was soon filled to the brim with this ghostly substance. Tucker thought he wouldn't be able to find his way out. But as soon as it had begun, it stopped and cleared.
In the center of it all stood one Daniel Fenton, slightly swaying. He staggered, put his hand to his head, and fell over.
"Danny!" Tucker ran over to his side. "Did it work?"
Danny groaned and phased through the floor.
Tucker panicked. "Danny?!" He groped the floor, trying to find his friend. Nothing. Suddenly feeling a draft on his head, Tucker turned around to see if there was a source causing it.
Which, of course, there was. "You know, I don't get what you see in these things..." Danny was floating just above the ground, Tucker's beret over his white hair. He tossed the hat down to his friend.
Tucker fit the hat back on his head. "Well, how do you feel?"
Danny flexed. "Pretty good." He glanced at his arm. "Pretty strong..." Both boys laughed. "Now we've just got one more thing to do..."
"I warned you, girl. And now I'm going to follow through with what I was going to do." Vlad had Sam strapped to an examination table.
Sam struggled beneath the leather straps. "So, Vlad. What are you going to do with me?" She gave a murderous glare at Vlad, but he shrugged it off.
Vlad grinned. "Oh...you'd like to know. Whatever floats my boat. I've got a vast majority of choices." He clapped twice, and the nearest cabinet opened up to reveal some of the most gruesome weapons Sam had ever seen.
She gaped at them in awe. "Oh...my...gosh..." Her eyes got wide and she gasped.
"Scared?"
Sam eyed the closest one and grinned. "You wish. I can't believe you have the DeathMaster3000!? That would be SO cool!..." Her voice faltered. "If it wasn't about to kill me." She laid her head back on the table...
