The Most He Can Do, Part One
Shiny Rapidash
Hi guys.
Shiny Rapidash
This might be the last time I get to talk to all of you.
Shiny Rapidash
I made a heck of a racket outside my realm for a few hours so anyone who decided to make me and baby pop their business would know where I was.
Shiny Rapidash
And now I can hear them trying to break in.
Shiny Rapidash
God, this is weird. I figured I'd feel
Shiny Rapidash
I dunno, something. Anything.
Shiny Rapidash
Mostly I just feel numb.
Shiny Rapidash
Like OK, this is about to happen.
Shiny Rapidash
Whatever. If they think I'm doing anything other than beating all their faces in, they're morons.
Shiny Rapidash
But since I don't think I can outfight everyone in the Zone…
Shiny Rapidash
Thanks. All of you.
Shiny Rapidash
I never had friends when I was breathing, and now I've got a bunch of them.
Shiny Rapidash
Yeah, yeah, I admitted it, you're all my friends. Laugh it up.
Shiny Rapidash
Kitty, thanks for pushing past me being a cranky hellcat when we first met. It's more than I deserved.
Shiny Rapidash
Johnny, in spite of everything, you make Kitty happy. Keep that up, and thanks for all the times we wailed on each other for stress relief.
Shiny Rapidash
Sam, thanks for staying up with me talking lyrics that one night. Sorry we'll never get to make that song.
Shiny Rapidash
Tucker, thanks for bootlegging me stage recordings of all those musicals. Didn't manage to get through all of them, which, you know, bummer.
Shiny Rapidash
Star, I can already tell you'd be the same kind of friend Kitty is - driving me up the wall and being the best support a gal could ask for. Thanks for letting me know what it'd be like to have two best friends.
Shiny Rapidash
Jazz, I don't know how you pulled everything we'd need for a graveyard party together as quickly as you did, but thanks for that. That whole night was special.
Shiny Rapidash
And Danny…
Shiny Rapidash
You remember when we watched the second Star Wars film? Empire or whatever?
Shiny Rapidash
And I got angry with Han for just saying "I know" when Leia told him she loved him?
Shiny Rapidash
I think I get why he did that now.
Shiny Rapidash
So instead, I'll just say thank you. For everything.
Shiny Rapidash
2001 was right. You do make people better just by being around you.
Shiny Rapidash
Take care of yourself.
Several people are typing…
Ember shut the phone down and pocketed it, ignoring the rumbling vibration as replies started coming in. Reading them would just be painful.
She was crouched in the couch pit, head poking over the rim to watch the front door, the entrance to her realm. There had been several thuds, and she felt attempts to break through, although none who tried could manage it and they'd stopped a while back. Ember had grinned, in a small way, at that – the only way to break into a realm was to hit harder than the ghost it belonged to could (or possess ecto-based explosives, but that was just the Fenton's). Apparently, whoever was trying to start the party early, they were people she could take in a straight fight.
The grin fell as quick as it had come. That had been hours ago now, and she could hear plenty outside. Like she said to everyone in the group chat, she couldn't fight everyone. And there were ghosts that she couldn't beat. Not many, her pride compelled her to add, but some. They would undoubtedly be out there, waiting for everything to get organised.
She wondered what exactly they were getting organised in a vague, detached way. Public execution? Drive a stake of ectoranium into her core, something like that? Not particularly likely, though. Maybe that if she'd just been caught getting friendly with Phantom, and it'd be fewer ghosts than she could hear outside. No, she was in for more than that. There were more than enough ways to hurt a ghost without destabilizing them.
She still couldn't conjure up any particular feeling about that. That should be weird. But the only thing that brought up any kind of feeling at all, was the notion of who she was leaving behind.
Deep down she still didn't believe she deserved anything that Danny had given her. She'd been among the worst of his regular set, stealing people's minds from them, hungry for power, all for a petty, disembodied revenge that hadn't meant anything when she'd gotten it. She didn't deserve kindness, not from him of all people. But he hadn't seen it that way. Hadn't seen it when all she'd done was attack him, kidnap his friends and family, act stupid and selfish. Danny still reached out to her in spite of it all.
In retrospect, that was when she'd lost herself to him. The only thing that sent a pang of regret and sadness through her now was the idea she'd never see him again.
God, she'd give anything to just look into his eyes one more time. But she had to do this, to keep him, and all her… friends, safe.
Her lament was interrupted, not by a noise, but by an absence of it. A sudden silence from outside, only broken by a slight, almost imperceptible shuffling as someone approached.
Ember's hand tightened around the neck of her guitar as the silence stretched out, long seconds ticking by as she readied her fingers on the strings. This was it; she was sure of it. Well, get ready, idiots. Whoever came through first was getting it right in the-
Then, all at once, she felt a single immense pressure on her realm as something struck the door and burst the barrier, the door splintering and exploding under a single blow. She winced from the impact even as she leapt above the lip of the couch pit, fingers slamming down on the guitar. A pink blast of energy lashed out immediately, vaporising the already melting fragments of door ectoplasm into nothing and slamming into whoever had just entered. Dust and smoke spilled into the room, obscuring her vision.
"Get wrecked, dipstick!" She roared into the debris, only to hear heavy footfalls.
"Aidin' and abettin' a known lawbreaker…" a voice drawled as an imposing figure strode through the debris, unphased by the blast.
Oh no. Oh no, of course. Of course it'd be him.
Ember backed up out of the couch pit, climbing up the steps, the knuckles of her hands white as her grip threatened to crack the guitar.
"Impedin' a fellow spirit in the lawful execution of an outstanding bounty…"
Black clad hands swept away at a white suit, brushing dust away from the otherwise spotless overcoat before moving upwards, removing and shaking a black fedora.
"And of course, assaultin' the highest authority of law and order in this misbegotten land of the dead…" The hat was replaced and adjusted with finality, the head lifting up to allow its gaze to bore into the ghost girl and split into a sadistic grin.
"Why… that'd be against the rules," intoned Walker, warden of the Ghost Zone, his almost featureless white face alive with smug glee.
A power chord rang out as an ectoplasmic fist flew, ploughing into the intruding Walker. He grunted, slammed backwards into a wall, but to Ember's increasing panic, he simply stood up straight once again, his grimace of pain fading quickly.
"Well, now, little miss McLain," he said, adjusting his coat. "Been some time you've been on the run. And now you go and do something so foolish it makes Skulker of all people turn informant."
Ember kept retreating back slowly, matching the pace of Walker's own leisurely stalk. "Well, take it from someone who dated him – the trashcans full of dumb stories, can't believe a word of them."
She hated how little confidence her voice held, but it wasn't surprising - this was Walker. He terrified everyone. Brutal, callous, powerful in his own right, but the same could be said of a lot of other ghosts. No, it was the prison he ran obsessively with his army of guards that held the true horror for those on the wrong side of him. When you're immortal, there's no prospect worse than the one he offered – eternity in a cell, only the other prisoners for company, and even that only if you were lucky.
The only one who'd ever successfully defied him in recent memory was…
Well. Danny. Her baby pop.
"Now, Skulker is many things, and none of them good, but he ain't much of a liar," Walker countered. "But even I had to check this one, and what do you know – he wasn't lying to me. Figures one punk would find another. And now your beau's done left you out to dry."
Her resolve stiffened, pride granting her a false bravado – If Danny could do it, so could she. Somehow.
"He hasn't," she dismissed, aggression seeping into her voice and the slow retreated halted, boots planted heavily. "My mess, so I'm dealing with the consequences myself. Consequences meaning I gotta break your face in two!"
Walker laughed. "And now we can add threatenin' an officer of the law to your list of charges. Should be good for another few hundred years in solitary. Not to worry, though – you'll be spending that time getting re-educated into a more…respectable member of society. Not one who decides cavortin' with a lawless anarchist like Phantom and playin' Bonnie and Clyde is a good prospect. Honestly, how'd you think shackin' up with the ghost who's made an enemy of everyone powerful in here was going to pan out? Only difference this makes is the punishment'll be overseen by the law."
Ember shivered involuntarily but fixed her glare on the lawman, who had stopped dead a few feet away from her. It had been a while since she'd had to work up the nerve to attack. "What, and barging into my home's lawful? Thought an authoritarian dipstick like you'd know that. Get the heck outta my realm!"
"Oh, not to worry, punk…"
He reached into his coat pocket, before pulling something out between two fingers. A parchment, brown and crinkled at the edges, covered in bright, sickly green runes that pulsated from the page. The sight of it sent a spike of fear straight through the front of bravery she'd put up.
"I have a Warrant."
Before she could talk, attack or react beyond a startled gasp, Walker slapped the parchment onto the wall of her realm, and Ember screamed.
She fell to her knees and clutched at her core, the sudden emptiness, the connection being wrenched from her very essence paralysing her and leaving her curled up on the rapidly disappearing floor. Even as she gathered up her lungs to scream again, the room began to melt around her, ectoplasm liquifying around her legs as the floor turned to goo and slowly vanished, leaving behind a featureless black. Her couch pit warped and stretched until it too became liquid, features blurring and melding until it was featureless, fading green liquid. And she knew instinctively the same was happening all throughout her realm.
Or what was her realm.
"Unpleasant, isn't it?" Walker sneered as she floated in her dissolving home, coloured ectoplasm slowly fading and vanishing into nothing as she lay there curled into a ball, breathing heavily and painfully. "Feelin' the place you call home reject you for the criminal you are. I've not had the chance to see it in a while, Ms. McLain, so thank you for giving me an excuse to get a Warrant."
"You…" She managed to spit, the threat going unfinished. It felt like she'd had a limb cut off. In a way she had. Ember tried to reach out to her realm, her home, but felt nothing, a gaping maw where the connection used to be.
It hurt.
"Rare things," Walker mused, twirling the parchment in his hand, the runes now dull and lifeless. "Bullet spends a lot of time makin' sure they're made right, but they're worth it for cases like yours."
He knelt in the air, bringing his face close to Ember's. "Now you ain't got no home except the deepest, darkest cell in my prison," he hissed. "Or at least, that'll be true once everyone out there has their fun."
Walker grabbed the incapacitated Ember by the arm, hauling her to the now free-floating door, shoving her roughly through it, the pair of them greeted by the sight of…
Yeah, Ember thought blearily. That's just about everyone I expected.
A free-floating pirate ship hung above a large group of ghosts, cannons firing and the crew whooping and jeering as the diminutive captain Youngblood shouted shrilly into a megaphone about 'mutiny', 'landlubbers' and 'walking the plank'. Next to the ship, a cavalcade of lights and sounds emerged from a hovering metal head festooned with weapons, Technus' face writ large leering down on the mob.
The majority of the crowd beneath those two that floated at varying heights in the space surrounding what was her realm were Walker's jackbooted thugs, all decked out in full riot gear and manning bits of siege equipment, and… oh goody, various torture devices. But in and amongst them Ember could see everyone she expected – Skulker was front and centre, unsurprisingly, his suit its normal gunmetal grey instead of the green baby pop had destroyed, glaring at her, a spiked gun where his hand should be, crackling with energy.
Spectra and Bertrand hovered nearby, and Ember could feel the sadistic glee radiating off the woman, an opportunity to torment her "friend" too much to pass up. Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady were both together towards the back, trying to push themselves forward past the riot ghosts. A winged horse flapped languidly, its spectral master the Fright Knight sitting astride it, sword drawn and flaring with fearful energy.
And as if that was not enough, Ember heard a snort from above her head, and gazed up with some difficulty. The pain and discomfort of being cut off from her realm had faded but Walker's grasp was anything but gentle. Above the door, wings beating heavily, smoking pouring from its nostrils, was a colossal black and purple dragon, its baleful reptilian eyes glaring down at her. Aragon snarled at her eyes on him, his scales rippling and shifting as he flexed his massive claws.
Ah. There's the fear she should have been feeling before. Good timing.
The sight of Ember roused the crowd to an excited cacophony, threats roared and implements brandished as the object of their hatred and vicarious revenge on her baby pop was hauled into sight by the usually hated and feared jailer.
"Traitor!"
"Deviant!"
"BEWAAAAAAARE!"
"Settle down!" Walker bellowed at the assembled throng. "Now we are here to see to the right and proper punishment of Ember McLain, and it'll be done orderly or so help me I'll retract the temporary pardons I gave you all for this!"
That was more than enough to cow the crowd, silence falling over them almost immediately at Walker's declaration. He cleared his throat with a satisfied expression, tightening his grip on Ember's arms.
"Much better. Now… We all know why we're here. The friend of your enemy is your enemy too, that's how we've done things 'round here. And young Ms. McLain here ain't just fallen afoul of that ol' chestnut, no. She's fallen in with the worst lawbreaker the Zone's ever seen, ain't that right?"
A roar of rage erupted from the crowd, and Walker smiled at them. "So good to see us all in agreement. So before I drag Ms. McLain off to solitary confinement for a good few thousand years, I think it'll do her some good to hear the grievances of the community. So… who's going first?"
Predictably the pandemonium started up again, but Ember did her best to block it out as her mind whirred. She was fast, but not so fast that running was a real option, not against the surprisingly fast ship of Youngblood, or Aragon and his enormous wings. There wasn't a way out of this, much as she might want to rant and scream and cry about the unfairness of finally finding some goddamn happiness only to – no, stop that, think.
Or rather, don't think. Thinking is gonna get her nowhere good. Time for pure spite.
She could get out of Walker's grasp, she was pretty sure. She'd played weaker and more helpless from her realm being torn from her than she really was… helped by that actually hurting real bad, but it meant Walker wasn't holding as tight as he could. From there, Skulker was target one, obviously. She was smashing his suit apart and using the blob he really was as a stress toy, and Ember was very stressed. Unfortunately she couldn't give squeezing the little scumbag all her attention, 'cause she'd have to move on to… It was a coin flip between trashing the more obviously horrible torture devices or Spectra. Probably the misery ghost, whatever could be done to her by those guards would pale in comparison to whatever Penny cooked up.
Anything after that was just whatever extra damage she could do before she got overpowered, but there was no way in any reality she wasn't going down without the mother of all fights.
And… and that might be all she gets remembered for.
Oh God. Why couldn't they just leave her be? Let her be happy, for once in her life or afterlife?
"Well, I think that settles it," Walker said as the fierce debate Ember had ignored died, shaking her from the despair that threatened to grip her. "As Skulker's the one who discovered the crime, and suffered the most over the years-"
A braying cry of half formed protests sounded over the crowd, demanding that their problems with Phantom and now, by extension, Ember, were given due prominence, but were silenced by a barked order and a glare that promised suffering from the warden.
"That's more like it. Now then, Skulker. You found the crime, so you start the punishment."
This was it, Ember knew, as Skulker advanced on her with a cruel smirk, an electrified net popping from his forearm. Break out, smash Skulker, pulverize Penny, burn herself into their memories with how she tore them apart. In three…
Two…
On-
"SHADOW!"
Ember's head whipped around in time to see a writhing mass of black with the barest shape of a face and a fanged grin collide with Walker, enwrapping him in shadowy tendrils and knocking Ember from his grip. As the warden wrestled with the shadow, a blue ectobeam streaked out, crashing into Skulker's head and knocking the hunter backwards, tangling several of the other members of the mob in his limbs.
She ignored all of that though, and instead chose to focus on the absolutely glorious sight of her best friend and her greasy boyfriend, sitting atop rumbling the hunk of metal and speed that could be called a bike. Kitty's arm was still outstretched and smoking, blue vapour rising while Johnny beckoned Ember furiously.
"Get on, flame brain!"
She thought she could almost see a halo around the head of Johnny flipping Thirteen of all people as her hair burned a streak through the air of the Zone, a cry of pursuit and firing ectobeams following a split second later as Ember's hand slaps into Johnny's and the bike roars into life.
"When the heck did you get a sidecar?!" Ember demanded as she stood on the back of said attachment, her guitar out and ready. Ember's given Johnny a lot of grief for a lot of reasons, but she'd never deny – he was a fantastic driver. He'd steered the bike around the furious and varied retaliation to shoot away at speed.
They had the lead by virtue of surprise, but that couldn't last – Aragon or Youngblood would catch up eventually, and everyone else shortly after. In response to that, Johnny had made the suspiciously clever decision to drive/fly into a vast free-floating field of green clouds, naturally occurring gaseous ectoplasm. Anyone following them in would have to find them first, and it should split the mob apart.
"That's the first question you ask?!" Johnny incredulously bellowed, steering swiftly around a boulder.
Oh, yes, she'd forgotten about the veritable asteroid field in here. Hurray for the bizarre and inexplicably hazardous Ghost Zone.
"Well, sorry. It's either ask a bunch of inane questions, like how are you driving up and down as well as left and right with just handlebars, to take my mind off what's going on, or freak out on the pair of you, greaseball! What were you thinking getting involved in this! I ran to keep people out of the crossfire, not drag them in!"
"We ain't getting dragged anywhere," Johnny responded.
"Who says?!"
"Just ask what we all know you wanna, girlfriend," Kitty interrupted from her perch behind Johnny, one hand around his waist and the other up with a blue glow, her eyes scanning the same patch of green gas Ember was.
The ghost rocker huffed, rage born of worry draining from her as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Where is he?"
"Who?" Kitty asked with blatantly false innocence.
"No offence, but Johnny, you're an idiot."
"What's that got to do with anything?!" Johnny chimed in, outraged.
"'Cause this isn't what you'd do. If this were just you two tryna bust me out of this mess, you'd have turned around at some point and said something like 'nuts to running, I wanna fight', we'd have lost, and I'd have to deal with having gotten you two locked up with me on the shrivelled-up prune I call a conscience," Ember elaborated. Johnny grimaced in annoyance but didn't disagree. "And diving into one of the ectocloud fields is smart, so it's not your idea. You're following a plan."
"Hm. Fair point," Kitty mused, her finger to her lips in mocking thought. "Sooooo…?"
Ember sighed, raggedly. "So there's your idiot boyfriend. Where's mine?"
It was a testament to the lingering stress and terror of her near escape at the hands of some of the worst of the Zone that Ember had entirely forgotten how Kitty would react to that.
"Eeeeeeeeeee!" She squealed, her hands shooting to her face as she smiled bright and energetic. "You said it! You said the B-word!"
"By implication!"
"Still counts! Tell me everything!"
"Kitty…"
"Oh, no, wait, I know the both of you, you kissed while you were beating up Skulker, right?"
"Kitty!"
"That would be your idea of romantic, I swear the pair of you are-"
"Kitty this is serious!" Ember shouted, her snarling face making Kitty's delighted expression drop. "Where is he, so I can wring his neck for sticking more people in danger 'cause of me! Does he even know how much he's dropping on your heads for helping me out?! Friend of your enemy and all that garbage!"
"Maybe he doesn't," Johnny joined suddenly. "But we do. No way was we gonna leave you to that group of D-bags, even if the little man didn't ask us to. Screw anyone who thought I'd leave a friend behind."
"Yeah, what he said," Kitty agreed. "They don't get to do this to you just 'cause of who you fell for."
But I'm not worth it, Ember's mind supplied automatically. Ember stared blankly at the two of them and their resolute expressions. Her eyes pricked and she shook her head. Oh, no, she was not going to cry, not in front of them.
… I said no, you treacherous eyeballs.
"… Fine," Ember conceded, looking away from the pair of them to conceal her face. "If you guys wanna throw your afterlives away for me, I guess I can't stop you. Seriously, though, where's Danny? And please dear God tell me he has some kind of plan beyond 'run away forever'."
Kitty opened her mouth to respond, only for the sound of a thundering boom to ring out instead.
"That wasn't me?" The green haired girl offered quizzically as Ember's eyes widened.
"Get down!" She roared as she brought her hand up to blast the cannonball that soared at them, and a wooden prow pierced the veil of green vapour as a floating pirate ship bore down upon them, sails billowing in the non-existent breeze and a varying crew of undead scurrying about the hull, cutlasses bared.
"CAP'N!" a green skeleton cried out from the deck. "We found 'em first! You were right, it was the two fillies shoutin'!"
Kitty and Ember exchanged sheepish glances at one another as Johnny snorted.
"You two don't get to call me an idiot for a week now," he declared as the bike revved and accelerated, pouring speed on to evade the hooks being thrown in their direction as the pirates tried to snag them.
"Of course I was right!" A considerably squeakier, higher pitched voiced arose from somewhere around the wheel as Youngblood answered his crew. "The captain's always right! Now everybody get your drawing books, we're gonna catch 'em, then stick 'em up on the wall and draw them four times!"
"Captain, that's not what 'hung, drawn and quartered' means," a weary, long-suffering voice responded.
"Whatever. More sails! Catch them!"
They could distantly hear the groans as some of the crew went below deck to begin running on the treadmills that powered the ship (still. Ember never had gotten around to asking how Youngblood had salvaged that from his first ship). The rest, however, took to their task with relish, cannons singing and hooks flying as the ghost ship gained speed, trying to chase down the bike and its occupants.
Pink and blue ectobeams flew as Ember and Kitty blasted incoming projectiles from the back of the bike, stopping to steady one another occasionally as Johnny made some mad manoeuvre around the floating rocks or to get out of line of sight of the cannons. The ship was deceptively swift and mobile, however, and kept pace with the smaller vehicle. Before too long, Kitty dropped her hand onto the seat and leaned up against Johnny.
"Can't… keep… this up…" She huffed between breaths, sweat beading her brow. Ember turned a skeptical eye on her.
"It's been like two minutes, Kitty, come on! You don't have more stamina than that?!"
"I'm… a lover… not a fighter…" She panted, glaring up at her best friend.
"Coulda fooled me…" Johnny muttered under his breath as he swung the bike around a boulder, forcing the ship to swerve around it widely in pursuit. "If we don't lose 'em soon they're gonna drag everyone right here! And that's if they don't get us themselves! Where's Phantom?!"
Ember ran through options in her mind, foremost among them being just splitting off from the two of them. They'd led Youngblood on a good chase, but Johnny was right, they'd get caught eventually. Really, Ember didn't have much hope of not getting caught as it was, but… better to be selfish and free for a few moments longer, was her logic. Nevertheless, if they saw her leave Johnny and Kitty, then they'd chase her instead of the two of them. Hopefully once they caught her, they'd forget about-
"Hey! Captain Kid!"
Ember froze in disbelief, unable to stop the smile that writhed its way onto her face. She'd been so sure she'd never hear that voice again, and now it sounded like sweet, sweet music to her ears.
"Prepare to repel boarders!"
"Avast mateys! Starboard… No, wait, port… Whatever, THAT WAY!" Cried Youngblood as a black and white shape streaked out of the clouds ahead of them before crashing onto the deck, wood splintering as it did so. Cannon fire stopped entirely as the crew turned to face this new threat, only to be bowled aside with almost casual ease by the jumpsuited figure that had landed among them. Green ectobeams flew with abandon, ship crew hurled overboard with every flash and sweeping punch until the assailant reached the wheel and shoved the child ghost from it. Youngblood crashed against the railing as the intruder stood in his place, hands gripping the vast wooden wheel.
As they watched he wrenched the wheel to the side, sending the ship careening to port, and directly into the path of a huge, jagged rock. A great creaking groan echoed through the clouds as the prow of the ship cracked and broke off, and the teeth of the asteroid bit into the front of the ship, grinding it to a halt as the sails fell still. What crew remained began panicking and jumping over the side as the ship started to… sink. Somehow. For some reason.
Ember had given up attempting to understand how anything of Youngbloods worked long ago.
And she really didn't care about it when the person responsible for sinking the throwback to the golden age of piracy rocketed from the wreckage and flew alongside the now stationary bike with a wriggling Youngblood under his arm.
"Hey rockstar. Miss me?"
Ember stared into Danny's softly glowing eyes, the most tender shade of green she'd ever seen, her eyes roving over his warm smile in order to etch it into her memory. He was actually here. She got to see him at least one more time! Her core hammered in her chest with a roiling torrent of emotion, and she was for a moment completely speechless.
"… With every shot so far, baby pop." She eventually responded, the snark lacking any kind of force as her mouth slowly formed into a disbelieving smile. Danny's own smile just got wider, and his free hand reached out to hold hers and the rest of the world just... fell away as they looked at one another. For the first time in this whole wretched situation, she thought things might just turn out OK.
"Danny and Ember, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!"
And like that, one of the few truly magical moments in Ember's life was ruined. She turned her gaze to scowl at the diminutive pirate in Danny's grip, staring up at her and making mocking kissy faces.
"Shuddup, you little dipstick, or I'll smack you through your own ship!"
"Actually, before we get to child abuse," Danny interrupted, dropping Ember's hand with reluctance, and turning a glare onto… Johnny and Kitty? What? "Why are you two here?"
"'Cause you told us-," Johnny began, confused before he doubled over and wheezed as Kitty rammed her elbow into his ribs.
"'Cause Ember is our friend, Phantom," she replied instead, and Ember groaned internally as she cottoned on to what they were doing. Suddenly the presence of Youngblood made sense – a witness to Johnny and Kitty not being affiliated with Danny during all this. Neither Kitty nor Danny sounded convincing in the least, however. "We had to get her out of there."
"Well, in that case, truce until she's safe?" Danny offered woodenly. Good grief, was it really only with her that he could act well? That's… Well, OK, that's actually really, really gratifying, but also really, really annoying.
"Fine then, truce." Kitty held out her hand and shook Danny's own outstretched one stiffly. Ember held back on rolling her eyes before Danny turned his attention back to the little bundle of mischief and shook him.
"And as for you, you little twerp, what are you even doing here? Actually, scratch that, do you even understand what was going on back there?"
"Yeah!" Youngblood replied indignantly. "I'm a kid, not stupid. Ember got Phantom cooties all over her, and we were gonna punish her for that!"
It was deeply irritating to Ember that that wasn't strictly speaking wrong.
"And she was going to be punished… How?" Danny asked, eyebrow raised at the child ghost.
"Well, I don't know what anyone else was gonna do, but I was gonna make her walk the plank a few times, pelt her with some fruit and launch her from the cannons!"
Youngblood's smug answer was met with silence all around, and Ember didn't bother restraining the grumbling that crept from her mouth. Had she seriously been afraid of Youngblood too? She would never mention that little fact to anyone. Even the Box Ghost had worse in store for her. Probably.
"… Y'know, I pride myself on my sarcasm, so I'm really not used to it failing me like this," Danny deadpanned. "Let me guess, after that, games over, everyone goes home?"
"Yeah, duh. What else would've happened?"
Ember sighed. Youngblood was, in spite of the powers and occasionally fearsome attitude, a child, and didn't know any better. Not really. She'd known that from the time they'd worked together. He sometimes didn't truly get the consequences of things, like he didn't understand some things stayed broken when he hit them, or that not everyone was playing the same game as him. It hadn't seemed like a real problem to her at the time, but now? It was kind of… worrying. But surely even he could have looked at just Spectra and her almost physical sadistic glee and realised this was more serious than that? At Walker's mere presence and all the varied torture devices he brought with him?
Evidently not.
"Well, playtimes over now, brat," Danny said, cocking his arm back before flinging Youngblood back at the wreck of his ship. "Pack up your toys and scram!"
There was a thud as Youngblood smacked heavily into the wood of the mast. He clung to it instinctively as the ship continued its inexplicable downward descent, and Danny gestured to Johnny to follow. The bike thundered to life once more, keeping pace with the flying Phantom as he lead them… somewhere. Ember couldn't really tell where.
"Reckon that'll do?" He asked casually, a much more genuine, friendly tone in his voice as he addressed the three on the bike.
"Oh, yeah," Kitty chirped with, in Ember's perspective, entirely unwarranted confidence. "We totally sold it."
"And I reckon it's lucky you picked the actual child to pull that with, baby pop, otherwise you'd have gotten heckled for your acting," Ember snarked, leaning forward and resting on her arms in the sidecar as she looked at him sardonically. Kitty leaned over and slapped her lightly on the back with an offended noise. "Why can none of you lie?"
"Not a skill I really wanted to develop," Danny muttered. He brightened, a little grin on his face as he looked at her. "Come on, you can't tell me you want me to be able to lie to you."
"… touché, dipstick," Ember conceded with a smirk, before turning to the other two occupants of the bike. "It's not gonna be enough to get you two off the hook, though, not entirely. You know that, right?"
"So we don't get invited to the Christmas truce party tomorrow," Johnny replied with a snort. "Or maybe the next couple. Who cares? Pretty much the only ones we hung with there were you and Phantom anyway, and-"
"They went that way! Phantom's here, he called a truce with them!"
Youngbloods shout was followed swiftly by a roar of anger from many throats simultaneously. Danny's head whipped around, and his playful expression melted into one of hard determination. The pursuing ghosts still couldn't be seen through the fog, but that was close. "Alright, they've caught up. Took them long enough. Johnny, same place we talked about. Let's go!"
"You got it, little man!" Johnny shouted, a daredevil grin on his face as he revved the throttle hard and the bike and Phantom shot forward, dodging and weaving through the clouds.
"Danny, I…" Ember began, hesitantly, leaning out a little as Danny slowly but surely fell behind the faster bike. "You know this doesn't stop, right? Me getting chased like this, I mean. Unless you've got a miracle, maybe you… you should just leave me beh-"
"I don't know about a miracle, Em," he interrupted. "But I've got a pretty good plan. And as for leaving you behind? Like you said before you started thrashing Skulker – I care about you. I'm not leaving you to die."
"… No fair using my own words against me," Ember quoted, weakly smiling. God, he'd said that when she was badgering him about Dan. That felt like an eternity ago now.
"Trust me, rockstar; we're getting you out of this," Danny responded, before grinning and shouting as the bike finally pulled out of earshot. "Besides, I just have to see your face when you see your Christmas present!"
"My what?!" She shouted back, to no response as Johnny guided his bike and passengers through the cloud field and Danny vanished briefly behind mist.
So all the floating rocks in the ectoclouds had come from somewhere. Ember hadn't realised. Usually it was a fifty-fifty shot of things in the Ghost Zone having a logical source for their existence or just popping out of nowhere according to the weird whims of the place. It was moments like this she realised why some older ghosts spoke of the Ghost Zone (or Infinite Realms, but Ember hated how pretentious that sounded) as if it were alive.
The little group of escapee's had reached where Danny had been directing them to, a canyon with a dead end in the middle of nowhere, fairly wide for what it was, but otherwise cramped. Two colossal walls of black rock rose up on either side of the group, the crystalised ectoplasm embedded in the walls glittering a bright green. The vast expanse that was the rest of the Zone wasn't visible, confined to a jagged green line between the obsidian walls.
What was the plan here, Ember had wondered? Box them all together for a Ghostly Wail? That'd get rid of the majority of them for sure, at least in the short term. It wouldn't stop everyone, though – Walker was scarily resilient, and Aragon would probably still be able to come out swinging. Plus it didn't fix the overall problem of them using her supposed transgression as an excuse to band together and keep coming after her to hurt Danny. He seemed to think whatever he had would fix that, at least what little hints Ember could drag out of him since entering the canyon.
Current circumstances were not exactly filling her with confidence. Sure, the mob that had now caught up with them - the army of prison guards with their warden at the head of them, the remnants of Youngblood's crew, the dragon that could no longer spread its wings to the fullest, and all the other ghosts that made messing with the human world their hobby – were confused and frustrated. Honestly, that almost made it worth it by itself. About the only entertainment value Ember had ever gotten out of Walker was watching his expression curdle and twist as the assembled throng of ghosts tried and failed to make a dent in the miniature ghost shield her, Danny, Johnny, and Kitty were hiding behind.
But this wasn't exactly a winning position, from what little she could understand of the device powering it. The sense of assurance she got from Danny, however, didn't abate – it was still a wonder to her that she trusted him like she did. Ember was just sure he'd get her out of this, in some way.
"What's the meaning of this, ghost boy?" Walker growled, his hand rapping on the field.
"Aragon's breath has actually gotten worse, so I'm hiding from it," Danny snarked, smoke flying from the nose of the dragon as he snorted in anger. "What do you think the meaning is, Walker? It's a ghost shield, and I don't like you. Figure it out."
"You know what I mean, boy! What's your game, Phantom? Wait in there until we all go away?" The warden mocked, drawing a few chuckles from the assembled band.
"Hey, computer?" Danny asked, not taking his eyes off Walker. "How long until the battery runs down?"
"The shield has approximately ten minutes of battery life left, sweetie", the small device replied with the voice of his mom, to Ember's mild discomfort. That was kinda creepy. Better than Jack, but still.
"Nope, guess we're not waiting you out!" Danny said.
"Oh dear. This actually is the best you can do, isn't it?" Spectra simpered mockingly. "Not really surprising. I saw your grades, after all. How does it feel to be the only idiot among geniuses?"
The pack of pursuers laughed darkly at the misery ghosts jab, and Ember's hair flickered with anger. How dare Penny insult her man, wrongly, she might add. If she wasn't already a main target, she absolutely was now. Walker, however, wasn't laughing along. He was frowning down at Danny, who was smiling up at him faintly. Smiling Danny never boded well for anybody.
"Yeah, normally I'd talk and joke around and what have you, but today I'm just not in the mood," Danny stated calmly as the mirth died down, his eyes roving over the army in front of them. "I'm giving you all one chance. Turn around and go, right now, and I won't hold trying to torture and imprison my girlfriend against you too much."
Walker stood impassive amongst the derision and jeering that arose, none louder than the draconic crowing of Aragon. The warden glared at the ghost boy, his expression calculating. Ember could almost hear him trying to work out what baby pop had planned.
"Girlfriend?!" Spectra cackled, Bertrand tittering along sycophantically. "Oh, Ember, you must have truly gotten desperate if this is what you settle for. Some creepy little freak!"
"Foolish ghost child!" Technus screeched from within the metallic recreation of his own head. "Why would we leave when we have both you AND the traitor in our grasp?!"
"If you come out now, I'll give you a cookie!" The Lunch Lady chirped, before her face turned dark and vengeful. "Either way you'll be DROWNED IN A TIDE OF MEAT!"
"BEWAAAAAAAARE!" Was the only contribution of the Box Ghost to proceedings.
"I told you, whelp," Skulker sneered. "Not even you can hold back a tide of us once we have cause to unite."
"You did. Well, if those are your final answers," Danny said, with a casual shrug, before turning his head to face the last speaker. "Hey, Skulker. You know much about the history of hunting?"
"… What?"
"You heard me. History of hunting."
"I am well versed in every aspect of my art!" Skulker sputtered indignantly. "Which both you and that harlot will discover as soon as that shield runs out!"
"Yeah, yeah," Danny dismissed, waving him off. "Then you'll conquer the animal kingdom, become king of the jungle, strut around in a vest made from a gorilla's chest, unlimited rich pudding, et cetera, et cetera. Question before all that, though – How did cavemen hunt mammoths?"
"Ha! An easy one, whelp! They'd… They'd…"
Skulker's face dropped, the smug expression vanishing to be replaced with shock before his head darted skywards. His head twisted this way and that frantically as he scanned the sheer stone walls. Ember watched Danny's slight smile become a full on, almost evil smirk as fear rippled across Skulker's entire body. Oh, he definitely needed to smile like that more often, in Ember's opinion. She'd insist on it when they made it out.
And oh, that smile definitely made the flicker of hope that they would make it flare brighter in Ember's chest.
"Oh, no…" Skulker murmured.
"They'd what?" Walker asked, turning on the hunter. "Skulker! Answer me, you blasted poacher!"
"They'd lure them into pit traps and attack them from above," Skulker whispered.
Ember would treasure the look of dawning, horrified comprehension on the corrupt lawman's face for quite some time.
"All of you!" Walker barked suddenly, over the still vaguely mirthful murmurings of the mob. "Back out of here, RIGHT NOW!"
"Way too late for that, Walker," came Danny's cheery reply, before turning his head upwards and shouting. "Isn't that right, Frostbite?!"
Everyone's eyes snapped upwards as one, in time to see the green sky of the Ghost Zone replaced with white fur and glinting metal as huge, armoured figures appeared around the rim of the canyon, weapons ready and hands glowing an icy blue. From the middle of them, an even larger example emerged, his cape fluttering in the wind, and raised his left fist to the sky, the translucent ice glittering around a skeletal hand.
"WARRIORS OF THE FAR FROZEN!" Bellowed the yeti. "TO THE SIDE OF THE GREAT ONE!"
The wall of fur and muscle howled a battle cry, and a split second later, pandemonium ensued.
A/N: 7000 words in two weeks. I want to see if I can keep this up, but if I can? I'm back, baby.
Anyway, yeah, I had to split a chapter again. Sorry, I got too into this as ever. I really need to stop even saying how many chapters a think will take.
Next one is where things get a lot more personal between the escapee's and the regular enemies. In this they were more a mob, next up we get individual fights and all the nastiness that might entail. Because obviously I'm not done with this at all.
Welcome to the reviews, we got fun and games!
DannyPhantom619: Solid list! Some will be here, some will not, we shall have to see.
RonaldM40196867: Johnny: I'm goin' as fast as I can, jeez!
Devilsummoner666: Solid guesses! I'll get to all of them sooner or later, but as you can see, one is here already. Thanks, I think I've got it mostly managed now. My god it was a bad couple of months.
Invader Johnny: Oh yeah, he had a real bad time, but who care about him anyway?
Sith Lord Kisara: Oh I can assure you, he will be thrown under the bus in the next chapter.
Thanks! It's one of the first things I thought of, honestly, the image was just too good to pass up. And please do, they're awesome!
Yeah, it's taken these ghostly idiots too long to get to this point but ah well, had to build it up over a period of time for it to feel real.
Like I say, I think I'm out of it now, so hopefully that'll be that. At least as far as writers block goes, anyway.
Dragomemoirs: An interesting notion! I don't think it's one Danny would go for, but then what he doesn't know won't hurt him, as far as Clockwork is concerned.
Jazz0man: Ember really, really wants to do some self-sacrifice, but thankfully Danny isn't letting her. Hope you enjoy!
Upstart Psycho: Not a bad comparison, honestly. There was no way I was going to let either of them out of this without new powers based around one another – I do so love to do that where it's applicable. Oh yeah, we're not even a quarter of the way through everything I want to do with this story, god help my tiny writing paws.
devilzxknight86: Oh yeah, Star is not a fan of Valerie right this second. She likes her rockstar friend, darn it.
Cyan Quartz: I think there's still space in my current prop cupboard, I don't wanna buy another one…
Thanks, though! Hope you enjoy this one too!
WeaverHales: Nobody see's the hair based power ups coming. Nobody!
DannyEmberPhan: Sweet! Hope it still meets with your approval!
Sport21: He'll get his, don't you worry about that. Thanks! Emberised Danny was one of the first things I came up with when brainstorming this fic, so glad it worked for ya.
Kitsune6: Thanks! Dialogue is my favourite thing to write about this, honestly, but it's all good.
Thehappy: Thank you very much! As you can see, the new doom is slowly but surely being averted, thankfully.
RavenKing: Yeah, one of my vows to myself is I wouldn't write that blasted cliché more than was absolutely necessary. Jealousy IS a part of her character, so it can't be ignored, really, but it doesn't have to be overblown.
Sword-of-Dusk: I love getting reviews like yours, from new readers who just discover the fic out of nowhere. Glad I'm doing everything justice for you! Trust me, these two are my favourite couple as well, I was always going to try my hardest to get across what makes them work. Hope you continue to enjoy!
memmek10k: Yeah, what occurs will definitely be a subject of conversation and experimentation to a degree to work everything out.
Kurokawa Kazunari: You don't need to worry, I'm not planning on going anywhere any time soon, so long as I'm still keeping the quality up this'll keep going. Glad you're enjoying it!
Thanks all of you for reading, and do drop a review, my brain could still do with the ol' good vibes!
Next time on Fire And Ice
The Most He Can Do, Part 2