A/N: Now back to the story…And it's here again!! That…that…"IDNOAC"!!! Oh, well. …Here is Chapter 29. Enjoy.

His Own Worst Enemy—Chapter 29—Heated Encounter

Meanwhile, Sam finally regains consciousness and immediately brings her hand up to her head. "Oww!" She groans. Then blinking and seeing nothing, she adds, "Am I awake or still out? Why is it so dark?...And how did I get here?"

But then she glimpses the bright red and green beams that are drowning out the faint stars above. Immediately recognizing the sound, she gasps, "Danny!" She gropes in the dark and finds her rocket booster and instantly straps it on. Blinding searching again, she frantically mumbles, "Now, where is it?" But she cannot find her weapon. She then reaches into one of her boots and remarks, "At least I didn't forget this one!" In an instant she retrieves her wrist ray gun and straps it on. She turns on the booster and soars upward—very slowly, of course—ready to help Danny.

Suddenly in the darkness she hears a voice over her Fenton phones. "Kids! It's Mrs. Fenton. We have an idea! All of the ghosts here at the moment are cured, but we're going to rig up a device to administer the antidote right at the main portals. We'll be back soon, so go help Danny!"

Before Sam can progress any further, however, a ghost charges at her from a new small portal that has just unexpectedly formed. She quickly avoids him, but he shoots an energy ray at her. The ghost successfully hits her booster, and she moves even slower. But she fires back as the ghost charges again. She cannot help Danny now.

In the meantime, Tucker, who has also heard the Fentons' announcement on his Fenton phones, takes this as his cue and he pushes a button on his PDA. The entire city lights flash on, blinding everyone, including the two Phantoms, who are in the midst of their fight. But the friends cannot immediately come to Danny's aid yet due to more fighting that needs to be done at the portal.

The younger Phantom is the first to recover from the light and shoots his ice rays at the older one, who is momentarily frozen but then immediately uses his eye rays to melt the ice enough for him to burst out.

Soaring closer, and finally near enough so they can hear each other, the Dark Phantom jeers, "I curse myself for not making sure your extermination was successful! I don't know how you were cured, but it doesn't matter, because this time, I'm not going to stop until I have your lifeless body in my hands!"

"Well, I'm not going to make that easy for you, old man!" Danny spits back, firing again through the ghost gauntlets.

But Dan Phantom produces a shield that keeps him from harm and then he immediately duplicates himself into four Phantoms.

"Oh, man!" Danny thinks and reflexively freezes two of the four, but the other two evil ghosts retaliate with four rays, striking him from two sides. The boy screams in intense pain but musters up his ghostly wail and repels those two attacking Phantoms, sending them several hundred feet away.

Then all of the sudden, the other two frozen duplicates power up their eye rays, melting themselves, and then quickly renew their attack. The teenager again yells with the painful blow of their combined strength; and panting heavily, he knows he can't hold out much longer. But the young hybrid presses on, out-maneuvering and then counterattacking them with ice spikes.

Finally destroying one, he concentrates on the remaining one, but then in the distance he sees the other two Phantoms charging back. 'Now, what, Fenton?' He demands, thinking. 'Of course he's going to try to get me in a crossfire… That's it!'

He soars past the foe he's currently fighting and heads directly toward the other two Phantoms. But at the last second, he pours on his super speed and moves in and out and between them, confusing their aim until they crossfire each other right out of existence.

"Now for the last one!" Danny thinks but then he's hit hard from behind. Momentarily stunned, he screams to himself, 'Move, Fenton, move, before he gets too close!"

The teen can hear that same echoing evil laugh of triumph approaching him, the one he heard just before he had passed out the first time he was infected with the ectoradiation poisoning. Before the youth can move, he is engulfed in the same lethal dose of the black shadow decay that almost killed him. But to his relief, the boy doesn't have any reaction at all to the poison.

"What?" The Dark Phantom cries in disbelief.

Now partially recovered, this is Danny's chance. He charges at the older ghost and pummels him with the ghost gauntlets. Increasing his speed, the youth continues with his blows, finally knocking the older ghost off balance.

But Phantom rebounds and cries, "You cannot defeat me, remember? I have the time staff!" And he grabs the younger ghost by his boot just as the boy has double-backed for another attack. Easily pulling the boy down, the older ghost yanks off one of his gauntlets and lets it fall to the ground. But Danny instantly swipes him with a blow from the other gauntlet. And just as quickly, his nemesis melts the gauntlet with his eye beams.

"Ow!" Danny yells at the burning pain in his hand, but immediately yells, "I won't let you hurt anyone else!" He immediately produces his wulf claws and takes a swipe at the Dark Phantom. He makes contact and the older ghost yells in pain and lets go of the boy. Now free, the younger Danny soars upward, turns sharply around, and doesn't hesitate to strike with his ice beams.

Instantly producing a shield, which is then frozen and shattered, Dan Phantom jeers, "Always the hero! But you cannot win! Your pathetic little effort now will hardly be remembered when I'm through with you! Instead, I will make sure that everyone will think of you as the more evil one of the two of us because you were responsible for creating me!"

"Aaarghh!" Danny screams, losing his concentration and yielding to his anger.

Dan Phantom fires point blank at the charging youth, using both his eye and hand beams, riveting the boy backward as the rays engulf and electrocute his body.

Now incapacitated, his breathing hard from the intense pain, the boy crashes roughly to the ground. Groaning, and feeling his strength rapidly failing, the teen struggles to pull himself up; just as his worst enemy swoops down and aims with his final blow.

As he charges up a powerful, and most certainly, lethal ray, the future Phantom sneers, "You certainly haven't made it easy for me, boy! But this time, you'll finally yield to me, and it's with your life! So it's not only a good riddance to you, Danny Phantom, but sweet revenge! How delicious it is to give you your last burning conscious thought: and that is of my throwing your crushed body into the Ghost Zone where it can rot with all the other worthless ghosts!"

But all of the sudden, before the older Phantom can discharge his own powerful ray at the boy, he is hit from his right by a huge blast, which repels him several hundred feet away from the younger one.

But it is not his friends, who are still in battle, who have come to the boy's rescue. His blurry vision clearing, Danny looks in disbelief as the Valerie from the future, with a time medallion swinging from her neck, soars up to the fifteen-year-old and asks, "Are you all right?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so, thanks," He replies, bewildered.

Her face etched with determination, she scans the area, and then tells the boy, "I'm just here to get the 'Big Kahuna'."

"OK, then. I don't know if I should be relieved or insulted," Danny retorts, just as Valerie frowns in confusion at his comment. But before she can reply, red beams fire all around them.

Danny and the older Valerie instinctively fire back just as Phantom again duplicates himself into four and prepares to assault them with his ghostly wail. But he doesn't get the chance, because this time all four of the duplicates are suddenly attacked all at once, for now the other teens are finally able to come to help.

Together, Danny, the older Valerie, Sam, Tucker, Jazz and the fifteen-year-old Valerie all pour their concentrated power on the duplicates. One-by-one, three of the ghosts are defeated and then the human defenders all take aim at the last--and original--one.