"Phantom!" shouted Maddie, brandishing immediately a large ecto-sword.
"Mom! Wait!" interjected Jazz, but Jack joined his wife.
Phantom closed his eyes and slumped further onto the ground. Maddie hesitated.
Jack raised the barrel of his gun toward Phantom. "Finally got you now!"
And then whitish rings appeared around Phantom's waist, branching out, and, as if peeling away a fantasy- a nightmare!-, jumpsuit turned into jeans and t-shirt, white hair turned black, deathly-pale skin turned tan.
Phantom turned into her son.
Maddie's heart stopped. Is this really happening? she asked herself; is this actually, truly happening? Danny is Phantom? How is that possible?
Jack was confused. Was this a trick? An optical illusion? Has he been poisoned? Hypnotized? Was a ghost controlling him? His vision? His son can't be Phantom!
Wes was enthused. I knew it! Kitty told him this was not the time to gloat.
Jazz worried at the silence in the lab.
Madame Babzita nodded sagely to herself. Beside her, most of the small group townsfolk looked either baffled, outraged, or sad. Kwan didn't know what the big deal was; Johnny 13 knew.
A cold wind blew down the stairs, blowing up snow and setting it a frenzy in a mini blizzard on the floor, haloed in greenish light from the Portal. The display distracted Jack for a moment. Then someone gasped and Jack's eyes shot back to Danny, who had opened his eyes.
Blue eyes, like normal. But for the first time, Jack saw fear in them, true fear. Jack, not known for his emotional acuity, saw in his eyes a deep-rooted horror as the gears in Danny's head turned and ground into one another- They look sad and horrified; did they- do they KNOW? Danny's eyes seemed to say, and his face, the young face of Jack's only son, his son, looked at Jack in despair, dread- horror- as what Jack thought of him-
Fear of what Jack would do to him- what he'd said he'd do to him- know that Danny and Phantom were one and the same! And Jack's heart broke. He deflated on the spot as dismay and sorrow gripped his throat-
Danny saw the movement and reacted on instinct- He rolled- shot- scrabbled- ran backward. Away from Jack, away from Maddie, away from his parents, who had told him for over a year that they would tear atom from atom their son the ghost boy, Danny.
. * . * .
"What do you mean, you're Plasmius, the Wisconsin Ghost?" Paulina asked, shivering under Dash's letterman. "How can you be a ghost? You're human! That's not possible!"
Lips blue, Dash poked the pink energy square. Vlad's "magic carpet" was made of the same stuff his ectoblasts were. He was mesmerized that Vlad could make it, that it could fly, that he could sit on it, ride it, like in Aladdin, his favorite movie-
"I'm special," Vlad replied. Sam groaned. She knew! Realized Paulina. And said so.
"Of course I did!" Sam retorted, unthinkingly.
"How?" Valerie asked; she was the only one not riding Vlad's carpet. She sat astride her glider- The Red Huntress!
"That's not important!" Tucker intervened, his voice rising in pitch. Even Dash now looked at him, suspicion growing on his face.
"What do you know, Tucker Foley?" Paulina supplicated en force.
"What do you know?" countered Sam. Tucker regained his composure, only for it to once again be lost to the wind, literally. The wind, already freezing, began to blow harder and faster.
"I know that is a lovely interrogation, children," announced Vlad. "But the weather does not permit for more of it." Lightning crashed; thunder erupted; rain spat. But they could, at last, finally, see Amity Park, incredibly, obfuscated in pearly snow and shiny ice, capped in angry storm clouds.
And Vortex could see them. Valerie didn't know how one could glower in rage while also cackling in mad glee, but he managed; she hated him all the more for it, beside her already magnificent rancorous contempt for all things ectoplasmic (present company included). Vortex crowned himself with lightning and applauded for himself with thunder.
Valerie willed her suit's helmet onto her face (having removed it for ease of conversation/investigation). Then she sped off in hot pursuit of the weather ghost plaguing her home.
"Valerie!" called Sam, reaching out.
Vlad duplicated. "Give me the Staff," he said. Tucker fished it out of his bag. Vlad pulled the Ring of Rage from his pocket and put it on the shaft of the Crystal Ball Staff. "Stay here." He flew after Valerie- nay, the Red Huntress.
"You can't just leave us here!" Dash called out.
"Vlad, take us down to the ground," Sam ordered Vlad's duplicate.
"If you wish." And Vlad's clone waved at the "magic carpet," which followed him as he flew to the snow-pack concrete.
. * . * .
"Danny-" Maddie began.
"No! You can't hurt him!" Jazz interposed, arms stretched out protectively. "I know you hate ghosts! But Danny's so much more than a ghost! He's more than human! More than a hero! He's my brother! Your son." She was breathing hard, now.
Wes and Kitty saw Danny try to surreptitiously wipe at his eyes.
. * . * .
While Valerie shot Vortex with blasters and rockets, Vlad brandished the empowered Staff at him, who, for some reason, looked away before Vlad could command the Staff to command the ghost.
Vortex raised his hands to the sky. From the clouds, ice and smoke formed into giant crows (or ravens, Vlad didn't know). They swooped down, half at Valerie, the other at Vlad.
They cawed and clawed. Vlad swished the Staff at them, ran power through it, and- Nothing.
The Staff didn't work on the elemental corvids?
Oh, woe is him.