Well hey it's another chapter! Just letting you know before you get into reading it, there will be one more chapter followed by the epilogue. I hope. I don't see how I can end it so quickly, but I'm thinking that if I do as much as I can and then cram the rest into the epilogue, it'll work. I've already dragged this story out for way longer than I had originally intended. I had planned for it to be about 40,000 words and a maximum of 20 chapters and well... see how that worked out? But i reckon it's good that it's longer than i thought it would be. It means that i am getting better at going on about nothing! Haha. It also means that I have improved a lot - i went from about 7 chapters in the original to... I think it'll be 28 chapters (including epilogue and prologue) in this one. That's pretty good. But then again, Not Just a Date was one of my earliest stories. But ah well. Anyway, I better post this so I can start on the next chapter. It's my goal to get it finished by tonight but I'm thinking it'll be unlikely. If I have to, I'll forget about watching armageddon today as well, since I don't have english tomorrow. But anyway. Here we go. Next chapter!

The Beginning

Chapter Twenty-Five

The Battle Continues

Tucker began to breathe again when he felt the beast remove its teeth from his body. His vision was black but he was still awake – he was still alive. He weakly moved his right arm – he couldn't move his left because the beast had bitten into his left shoulder – and ran it down his shirt. It came away sticky – he could guess that it was blood. He knew that he was right.

He groaned in pain as he tried to move himself – if he stayed in the same place, the Palindrome monster would return to eat him. He wouldn't be a sitting duck. He had to keep himself alive so that he could be taken to a hospital. Maybe the hospital could patch up his wounds. He dearly hoped that that was the case – he was too young to die. He hadn't even had a girlfriend yet.

"Hello?"

He blinked his eyes, his vision slowly returning to him. There was a shape in front of him – it was human and female. It was small, younger than he was, but in their early teens. He gasped as he realised that this was what Palindrome had disguised herself as – a human teenager – and began to wriggle about, trying to escape from his fate.

"No… don't… don't eat… me…" he whispered hoarsely, taking deep breaths. It was getting harder for him to breathe.

"It's me, it's Fiona! Wake up!" She placed her hands on his shoulders and looked into his eyes.

He sighed and blinked a few times – his vision was running away from him again. His surroundings went blurry and he felt his body give up on life itself. He was losing too much blood – Fiona had to staunch the wound. Unfortunately she didn't know that, and instead began to panic.

"Oh god, oh god, oh my god, far out no, no, no! Don't die, oh god, god, god, god! No!" she whispered, her breathing becoming faster as the panic overwhelmed her. "Damn, damn, god, I need help, oh damn god."

He heard her pressing down on something shakily only seconds before his hearing disappeared. He was floating in nothingness – he was dying.

"Someone has taken my tracking device," Maddie shrieked as she scattered various objects all throughout the lab. "My most recent version, it's gone!"

"Settle down Maddie," Jack advised his wife. "I'm sure one of the kids took it with them. We can just use mine!" He seemed fairly cheerful about using the faulty tracker that he had invented. Although Maddie could quickly reprogram it so that it worked reasonably well, it was still nowhere near as good as the one that she herself had created.

"Give it here," Maddie commanded. Jack obeyed her quickly, handing over the poorly built gadget. Maddie pulled a screwdriver from her back pocket and began to pull the piece of junk apart. She was just glad that she was so experienced at creating such devices – otherwise it would take them forever to find their children. And Maddie had what she would call a 'mother's intuition' and was feeling that her kids were in danger.

"There, done." She cried as she replaced the back.

"Wow, that was quick!" Jack commented as he snatched the small computer from his wife. "How does this thing work?"

Maddie rubbed her forehead in exasperation. "You created it, dear. Here, I'll handle the tracker, and you go and get me something of Danny's. Perhaps a piece of hair from his hairbrush."

"Got cha!"

Danny felt his knees collapse beneath his body. His best friend, Sam, dead? It couldn't be possible. There was no way that Vlad could have killed Sam. She wouldn't have died so easily. And why would her dead body be guarded by a powerful ghost? It was a lie. It had to be – Sam just couldn't be dead.

"Liar," Danny hissed between his teeth, forcing a flood of tears back to where they came from. He wouldn't believe Vlad until he had proof of Sam's death. He wouldn't believe anything that anyone told him. And more importantly, he wouldn't let his emotions get the better of him. He would triumph – he would defeat Vlad once and for all. The lies that came from Vlad's mouth only made Danny anticipate his death.

"I tell the truth," Vlad assured him in an innocent voice.

Danny was not going to be fooled so easily. Little did he know that his sister had already slipped out of the room and was heading straight for the room that Sam was residing in. Little did he know he was buying both his sister and his best friend time. The only thoughts running through his mind were: Must destroy Vlad. Vlad must die.

"We know that these lies that you tell us are absurd." Kelly growled fiercely, her hand upon Danny's shoulder.

"Oh, and you, a pathetic little human, think you can stand up to me, the world's most powerful ghost?" Vlad asked incredulously. "I think not, mortal!"

"We'll see," Kelly grinned – she was hungering for a fight. And a fight was what she would get.

Danny stood up slowly; his eyes were glowing a bright green colour. He stared at Vlad, letting only a small amount of his fury show in his expression. He didn't need to threaten Vlad – it would only be a waste of his time. There was no chance at all that Danny wouldn't win this fight. And with Kelly's help it would only be easier to defeat the older ghost. Together, they could do anything.

Vlad hadn't realised that Kelly was actually half ghost – he assumed she was just some human play toy of Danny's who was oblivious to their ghost powers. He assumed that he had the upper hand in this battle because Danny wouldn't reveal his secret identity to some measly human that he had only just met. Vlad was overconfident.

Danny and Kelly shared a glance and nodded. Together, they brought up their rings of light. Blue and red appeared simultaneously. Both split into two separate rings, one ring travelling up while the other travelled down. The rings moved in unison, changing the humans into their ghost forms. Danny Phantom and Kelly-Go-Boom had been unleashed.

Kelly-Go-Boom's appearance was unique when it came to ghosts. Her hair was long and olive green and billowed around her head as though it were made of flames. Her eyes were the brightest of reds, a shining ruby colour. Her skin was pale and smooth, seemingly made of marble. Her clothes were quite unique. She wore a vivid cherry headband that matched the hue of her eyes, as well as a strangely-styled red shirt, red skirt and long red laced up boots. The fringes of her garments were all the same colour as her hair – she was colour-coordinated. She had short, fingerless gloves upon her delicate hands and wore a necklace that had a charm on the end. The charm had a 'K' etched into it and was similar in style to the belt that she wore.

Danny Phantom didn't look like an average ghost, either. Instead he looked more like a ghost hunter – he wore a black hazmat suit that covered his entire body. He had long boots and long gloves, both the colour of the moon at night. He had a D on his chest with a little section cut out of it, making up the 'P in a D' logo that was uniquely Danny Phantom's. He had a moon-white collar and belt. His eyes were a bright ghostly lime green and his hair silver. He was the ideal image of night – the black sky filled with bright stars and a shining silver moon.

Vlad Plasmius, on the other hand, was a typical ghost. He had hair that was styled like Dracula's and bright red eyes with no whites at all to be seen. His eyes were ringed with black – though if asked he would deny the fact that he wore eyeliner – and his skin was a sickly green shade. He had a close-cut black beard and heavy set black eyebrows. He wore a cape and a shirt that showed off his muscled torso. He wore black gloves, black boots and a black belt. He even had the vampire fangs to go with it. He looked like a green version of the typical vampire.

"Another half ghost?" Vlad cried in surprise.

Danny smiled at Kelly and she beared her teeth at Vlad, sniffing the older man's wariness. Without further ado, the two younger half ghosts both shot ecto-blasts towards the older being.

Jazz was getting closer to Sam. Her tracker was going crazy – it was signalling the entrance of many different people in close proximity to Sam. But these people weren't in the same room as her – no, they were all storming the hotel from below. Jazz decided to ignore them for the time being, hoping that they weren't Vlad's reinforcements or anything.

Jazz turned a corner and smiled grimly as she found herself at a big purple door. It loomed over her fiercely, daring her to attempt to gain entrance. She stood quiet and listened to the noises from the inside. She could hear nothing but hollow breathing – she hoped that it belonged to Sam. If so, it meant that her suspicions had been right – Vlad had just been trying to bait Danny into giving up. He wanted Danny to be destroyed by his emotions so that he would be easy to defeat. Jazz just hoped that Danny wasn't blind to Vlad's evil plan.

She grasped the doorhandle and almost yelped in pain. The handle was on fire! It was made of metal. It had obviously been heated up by someone or something to prevent intruders from entering. It was not going to keep her from saving Sam. She would prevail. All that she had to do was find a way to open the door without harming herself. It was easily done.

She pulled her backpack off of her back and used one of the straps to protect her hand from the searing hot doorknob. She winced as the strap of the backpack began to grow hot and smoke, but nevertheless she continued on. She felt the door come free of the frame and pushed slightly, letting go of the knob. She had done it – she had successfully beaten the trap.

"Human!" It was a deep, echoing voice. It boomed throughout the room and terrified Jazz. She could sense his supreme essence as his incredible power radiated off of his skin. She winced as she realised what she had gotten herself into – instead of saving Sam, she would kill both herself and the Goth.

"I am hungry!" It roared grumpily.

Jazz screamed.

Vlad had noticed Jazz's disappearance but had paid it no mind. After all, it was Valerie's job to make sure that all wandering idiots were found and held captive. Vlad had told her that he'd take care of Danny by himself until Valerie was done. When she had finished her mission, she would return and help him capture the half ghost. Unfortunately, Valerie had forgotten to tell him of Kelly being a half ghost as well. No matter, I can take care of this.

Vlad duplicated his form to help him to deal with both of the 'ghost brats' at the same time. It also made it harder for them to injure him – they wouldn't know which duplicate to hit. He could attack them from all sides with these duplicates. With his superior powers and extensive knowledge he had the advantage in this fight. It was stupid of the two to fight him – they would lose. He would ensure that they lost pathetically, as well.

Danny didn't seem to be phased by these other Vlad's. Instead he relentlessly attacked with his ghost rays and his ice blasts. Kelly-Go-Boom wasn't as experienced as Danny, though, and could only attack with minor blasts. She caused about three of the duplicates to 'go boom' though, so she wasn't to be underestimated. But Vlad wasn't scared that he'd underestimated them – oh no, in fact he was sure that he had overestimated the two.

Danny cried out as he was pinned by the real Vlad. Kelly found herself in a likewise situation, except her foe was a duplicate. But neither of the half ghosts could move to fight for their lives – it seemed that Vlad was wearing some sort of anti-ghost gloves. It didn't make sense, though. If Vlad wore anti-ghost gloves in his ghost form, wouldn't they stop him from using his powers as well?

There was no use in pondering this question – it wouldn't get them away from his clutches. Unless they could discover what was going on here and then use the knowledge to their advantage. Unfortunately, they wouldn't find anything out anytime soon.

"Freeze, ghost!"

Danny was surprised to see his father barrel through the doorway and aim his gun at the Vlad that was pinning Kelly-Go-Boom to the floor.

"Get off my son, you putridly ghastly ghost!"

It was Maddie.

Yay, it's Maddie! Okay, so about a million times I wanted to put little author notes in the middle but I decided to keep them at the end :) I realised that I hadn't quite explained what Kelly looked like before so I opened up a picture of her (I drew an anime styled picture of her and Danny :) ) and then I just described her. I was writing Danny's description and trying to think of a new way to say silver, and then I thought moon and then I thought NIGHT SKY :D And Tucker. Haha, I like to kill people... But you'll get an update on that situation in the epilogue - I don't think I'll put it in the next chapter. I like comparing Vlad to a vampire. I couldn't be bothered making this chapter emotional or anything, so Danny's in denial. And... yeah :):) All the loose ends shall be tied either in the next chapter or the epilogue. I will try not to miss anything at all. But for now that's all from me! Ow my finger hurts... I cut it on my coffee machine while trying to froth up my milk... Next thing I knew, it was bleeding all over the place. And then I looked in the milk and saw it had bled in there... has happened to me twice, now.

Bye!

Love from an eager little grasshopper...