Hello again! I just can't stop writing this episode; I've gotten really into it and I'll release another one, probably tomorrow at this rate, just to wrap it up and soon I'll start another one. I hope you enjoy this; it's a little darker, but I hope you still enjoy it :D
Perhaps you'd like to listen to this music whilst reading the chapter: watch?v=-2U0Ivkn2Ds (Say Something by Christina Aguilera). Suggested to me by qjs883.
You may be interested to know that I have the entire plot for Dan Phantom's entrance into this little series planned out. It won't be next, but you should expect it soon...
After a night of terror, in which ex-hero Danny Phantom rampaged through the city, the defected ghost and the ringmaster of the Circus Gothica, Fredrich Isak Showenhower, have gathered to meet their opposition at the top of the Fentonworks building. They appear to have two hostages with them, though their identities are heavily obscured and yet to be revealed by the criminals. That's all the information we have at the moment on this serious and potentially tragic situation, stay tuned for more.
Jazz had never been more terrified in her life. Blindfolded, trussed up like a turkey, facing the windy, cold sky, leaving only her wrists to wriggle around and her ears to hear what was going on, Jazz was completely, utterly helpless. This was much, much worse than it had been before.
She forced herself to breathe calmly, but all she could think about was the dark closet, hitting the door again and again in the vain hope that somebody, anybody, would hear her and get her out. She could have been stuck there for days if Sam hadn't come; there could have been a fire and she would have been completely and utterly powerless. Like a baby.
And that thought? It terrified her beyond reason.
Danny, he was probably standing next to her. Not the real Danny, though. The real Danny was far removed from reality; if he even had a smidgen of consciousness right now, none of this would have happened. They'd broken through to him once, but it was obvious that even her brother, the strongest (and stubbornest) person she knew, stood no chance against Freakshow's staff.
Oh, Jazz just wanted her brother back. That was all she wanted in the world. To hear him laugh, or to hug him tightly. To see his infectious smile.
That, and not being tied up. But if she dwelled on that too long, she'd never recover from the events of that night.
Suddenly, Jazz felt herself being pulled upright into a kneeling position. She couldn't help it; Jazz screamed in terror, screamed as long and as hard as she could, though little of it translated through the gag. Behind her, Freakshow chuckled.
"Hello, world! You want to see the victims- I mean, talents that I have brought today?" She heard the sound of tape being removed to the right of her. "Introducing, Sam Manson, and-" The tape across her own eyes was carefully removed. "Jasmine Fenton. I take it you want these two back?"
She looked around, and gasped. Above her, the strange satellite containing the OPS centre sat on top of her house. Below her was the hard concrete, filled with a crowd of people.
A megaphone sounded from below. "You better give me my daughter back!" It was Jack's, more deadly serious than Jazz had heard in her life. Freakshow nodded thoughtfully.
"You'll see your daughters again... if you drop your weapons. All of you." He spread his arms. "How simple is that? Just lay them on the floor; my assistant will pick them up. Then, it'll be all over."
Jazz looked over at Danny. He was standing next to her, beside Freakshow, staring out into space with a pronounced frown wrinkling his forehead. She took this as a good sign; Danny was fighting it as hard as he could.
She couldn't see what the crowd below was doing, but Jazz guessed by Freakshow's smug expression that they were complying.
Freakshow clapped his hands together – one of them covered by the mysterious glove. "Goodie, goodie! This is just marvellous. I just need... ah, Lydia?"
A strange hooded ghost appeared next to Freakshow, much to the surprise of the crowd. Freakshow grinned at the new figure. "Excellent. I'm sure you're more than happy to do the honours of collecting everybody's weapons, no?"
Without a word, the strange ghost unveiled herself as a strange green lady covered head-to-toe in tattoos, with glowing red eyes. These tattoos then proceeded to animate themselves, peeling off her body and flying into the crowd. In a matter of seconds, a large pile of both traditional guns and a couple Fenton Blasters were arranged behind Freakshow. The green lady then returned to her usual, hooded position, and disappeared.
Freakshow laughed. "That was easy. Now it's time for me to hold my part of the bargain. You can see Sam and Jazz... see them perish! Slave, do the honours."
Jazz gasped. Danny slowly strained his arm, trembling all over as he lifted it. His face began to sweat, his knees began to wobble.
Freakshow frowned. "Is that - is that free will? Do it!" He raised the staff a little higher.
Danny stood for a second longer... then he collapsed onto one knee, panting, his hand limp by his side. Jazz reached out and took it, but there was no response. It was cold and lifeless.
"How is this possible?" Freakshow waved the staff in Danny's face, but he remained unresponsive. "Do what I tell you! There is no way that any ghost could possibly resist the power of my staff."
Jazz squeezed her brother's hand once more... and this time, it squeezed back. Danny muttered something.
"What was that?" Freakshow demanded, leaning in closer.
"I'm... more... than just a ghost!" Danny's fist wheeled around and connected with the side of the mind-controlling crystal ball on the end of Freakshow's staff, shattering it into a million pieces. The red energy inside it remained for a second before dissipating.
Danny collapsed, dangerously close to the edge of the building. Two rings appeared around his waist; one travelled up, revealing the logo on his t-shirt and his raven hair, and the other down, replacing his jumpsuit with jeans and red shoes.
The news helicopters circle Danny, aiming their cameras directly at him. Jazz gulps.
Freakshow growls and snaps his broken staff across one knee. "You'll pay for this! That was one of a kind!" He brushes himself off. "Nevermind. There is nothing you can really do against me anyway, for I have the Reality Gauntlet!"
Danny groans, and Freakshow takes a step closer, much to Jazz's horror. "And you, are not going to be around to see this new future. Perhaps your friends will catch you? Oh, wait," He laughs and sends Danny over the edge of the building with a nudge of his foot. "What friends?"
An unusually high pitched voice speaks up. "This friend will." Tucker, dressed in his ghost hunting gear with an unconscious Danny in his arms, floats up and lands on the building.
Freakshow rolls his eyes. "What are you, a rip off Ironman?" He takes the yellow 'gem' out of his pocket.
"That's Foleyman to you!" Tucker squeaked, offended.
"Yes, but once I unlock the full power of the reality gauntlet, I will be the master of all reality, and you will be helpless!" He stuck the gem, actually a coin, into the diamond slot, the only missing slot, on the gauntlet. It did not fit. "What the-" Freakshow noticed that the yellow object was in fact not the powerful gem, and he tossed it away.
Tucker untied Sam, and then Jazz. Sam stood up. "It's over, Freakshow! You left that weird gem back at the Nasty Burger, which means that you are no match for any of us."
Freakshow suddenly broke out into a grin. Lydia appeared beside him. "Is that so?" He pointed the gauntlet at a news helicopter, and it shot out a red ray. On hitting the helicopter, it shook out its occupants (who parachuted safely down to the ground) and dove at Tucker. Tucker was hit by the helicopter and stuck firmly to the front as it flew away.
Freakshow used the resulting commotion to be flown by Lydia to the top of the building, on top of the Fenton OPS centre. Sam tried to follow him, but there wasn't a way up from where they were.
"D'you think that they'll let us borrow their remaining helicopter?" Sam wondered, before Danny let out a loud groan and tried to sit up.
Jazz rushed over. "Danny! Are you alright?"
"I... I think so." Danny raised himself into a sitting position. He looked at his sister. "I... I did some bad stuff, didn't I?"
Jazz enveloped her brother in a hug. "Oh, you're okay... you're... you again... I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you!"
"Are... are you okay, Jazz?" Danny asked, concerned.
"No." Tears were brimming up in Jazz's eyes; she was far more emotional than she had thought she was. "I-I just missed you, a lot... and now, you're okay and-and I couldn't-"
"Jazz!" Sam called. "Do you think we could save Tucker first, and then do a reunion?" Tucker was indeed in need of some assistance; the helicopter was going haywire with him stuck on the front, going about twice the speed limit on a freeway and narrowly skimming the tops of every building it passed.
Jazz helped her brother up, who quickly transformed back into his alter ego and flew after the helicopter. Jazz craned her neck, but she could not even see Freakshow from this vantage point, much less climb up to him.
"How are we going to-"
"Outta the way!" The booming voice of Jack Fenton surprised Jazz.
"Dad? Mom?" Jazz frowned as her two parents stomped past her with furious expressions. Jack had his Fenton Gloves on, Maddie had donned her mask. "How did you get up here?"
"We climbed." Jack answered simply. "Because you mess with one Fenton, you mess with all of us!" Maddie and Jack proceeded to climb up onto the Fenton OPS Centre without any trouble, out of sight from Jazz.
Sam's eyebrows drooped. "Wow. Your parents can climb up, but I'll be sticking to the stairs from now on."
All she heard was the sound of Freakshow and Lydia getting completely and utterly pounded by her parents. In a matter of seconds, Jack and Maddie reappeared back at Jazz's side with the reality gauntlet.
Jack pressed the blue gem, pointing it at the pile of guns on the side. "Huh. I wonder what this does!"
A blue ray shoots from the gauntlet, transforming the pile into the biggest mound of fudge one could ever wish for.
"Shiverin' spooks!" Jack grinned. "I like this Reality Gauntlet! Can we keep it?"
Danny touched down in front of Jazz, Sam and his parents. He set an unconscious Tucker down on the floor and transformed back into his human form.
Danny grinned nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Uhh... hi?"
"Danny! You're alright!" Jack and Maddie crushed their son in a large hug.
"Wait, what?" Danny was confused. "You don't understand. I kept a huge secret... did some bad stuff... hurt some people. Aren't you mad? I know I would be..." Danny looked away. "I am... mad at myself."
"Danny," Maddie started. "It's not your fault. As soon as we saw that you were Danny Phantom, we knew that it wasn't you that did any of that. We're so proud of you – you're a hero!"
"We don't care if you're half ghost, half whatever," Jack continued. "You're our son, and we'll love you no matter what."
"Thanks, really." Danny rubbed the back of his head. "It... It means a lot to me."
"Oh!" Jack suddenly handed him the Reality Gauntlet. "You probably know what to do with it better than us."
Danny took the gauntlet, and a strange expression washed over his face. He looked down at the crowd. "I sure have a lot of fans now, don't I."
"We'll deal with that together." Jazz interjected, feeling very slightly suspicious at the serene expression that had covered her brother's face.
"Or," Danny went ghost, clicked the blue gem and waved it across his parent's face, causing their faces to blank.
"What did you do?" Jazz demanded as Danny then waved the gauntlet across Tucker's face.
"I made them forget that Danny Fenton is Danny Phantom." Danny pointed the gauntlet at Sam, whose expression turned from shock to immediate horror. "Put everything back to the way was, more or less."
"Danny, wait, no-!" Sam protested before her best friend wiped her mind of the connection between the ghost and the boy. Danny Phantom had tried to kill Jazz and Sam, but... something fuzzy happened and Jack and Maddie saved the day.
"Danny," Jazz hissed urgently. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Danny waved his hand across the crowd of people, and their minds were wiped clean of his secret. "I don't know. But I'm pretty sure. I'll be back in a couple of minutes to revert everything back, and then I'll destroy the glove. Okay?" He disappeared with a grin and a wave.
Jack snapped out of his blank expression. "Curse that Danny Phantom! Just you wait until I, Jack Fenton, can get my hands on you. I'll rip you apart molecule by molecule for even coming near my daughter!"
Jazz looked over at Sam, who was frowning.
"Wow, Jazz. Your parents really are awesome, how they saved us from Freakshow and Danny Phantom. How cool is that?"
Jazz sighed and rolled her eyes. Back to normality; she just hoped Danny knew what he was doing.