Author's Note: For some strange reason, I've always associated Danny Fenton (and thusly also his alter-ego, Danny Phantom) with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' songs, Minor Thing and The Zephyr Song. I don't know why. It's gotten to the point where they've become his theme tunes (i.e. the tunes I listen to the most when writing Danny scenes). Conversely these are the tunes that I've somehow got associated with the other characters:
Evil Danny's Themes: Judgement of Truth from Mega Man X: Command Mission and Sigma Speaks from Mega Man X8.
Sam's Themes: Empty and Everything I Said by the Cranberries.
Tucker's Theme: Spider Magic and Massimo of Steel from Mega Man X: Command Mission.
O'Donnell's Themes: Bairu's Theme (Weil's Theme) from Mega Man Zero 3 and Wily's Lab from Mega Man Battle Network 3.
P.S. If you haven't noticed all the chapter titles are actually the names of songs from either the Cranberries album, No Need to Argue, or the Red Hot Chilli Peppers album, By the Way, with the exception of Chapter Seven and this Chapter, which bear the names of songs from the Mega Man X: Command Mission Sound Track respectively.
P.P.S. has to be the only site I know that downgrades its recognition of HTML tags and characters so that it recognises even less. I've had to get rid of all curly quotation marks and curly apostrophes, all because the system insisted on altering them into unicode. It boggles the mind.
P.P.P.S. You know what else boggles the mind? How come none of you told me I got Sam's last name wrong?I was sitting at home one night, watching an episode I've seen before, only to hear Lancer suddenly call her Manson instead of Mason. And none of you pointed it out to me and I feel like a fool. I know you guys like my fanfic, but please, if you see any errors, please tell me about them.
Chapter Ten: Executive Battle
"We are the Blue Bow Army and we have taken full control of the City of Amity Park," announced the voice over the radio and the television sets. "As of now a curfew has been set on the entire city. Anyone venturing outside of their homes will be shot. We will also be conducting a search of all premises within the city limits and ten miles out from the city boundary. There is no call for alarm. Co-operate and you will not be harmed. Do not attempt to call the police. We have cut all communications in the city. Do not go to the police. All police stations are now under the control of the Blue Bow Army."
Tucker listened to the entire Blue Bow Army broadcast. He didn't like the sound of things.
"This is nuts!" he exclaimed, as he checked his PDA. "They're jamming the signals. I can't even phone home." He was sure the Blue Bow Army had been completely thorough in their ruthless attack against communications technology. "This is going to be a big problem."
Valerie scoffed at Tucker's comment, as she pulled her mask over her head.
"Says you," she said, as she put the finishing touches to her ghost hunting gear. "The Blue Bow Army's using ghosts to do their dirty work and so far, no ghost's outwitted me."
"Except for Danny," pointed out Tucker.
"Yeah, shut up now," said Valerie irritably.
Tucker still couldn't believe that Valerie had brought all her ghost gear with her and had stashed it underneath his bed. If he didn't know better, he thought she somewhat cared for him.
"Oh cool!" he exclaimed, as she brought out a sleek piece of technology he recognised from the first time she attacked Danny. "You fixed your hover board!" He had been dying to ride that thing, ever since he saw it.
Underneath that helmet of hers, Valerie smiled.
"Well, how else did you think we'd get around?" was her reply, as she flicked a switch and then let it hover in the air. She hopped on. "Now, you coming or what?" she asked.
"Yeah, baby!" cried Tucker, before he was thrown a spare helmet. "Prepared for all sorts of things, aren't we?" he commented.
"Just shut up and put it on already," sighed Valerie. She gasped and then had to open fire, blasting a ghost to pieces. "Come on!" she cried. "They've found us!"
It was too late. Four of O'Donnell's A-Ghosts had appeared. They looked just like regular ghosts, except that they had no eyes, no nose, no mouth and no ears. All they had was a face on which was painted Chinese characters, the same that were used on the Talismans that Blind Gerald and Dr. Fordyce used.
"Master Phantom133; Life Ghost133; Forever!" droned the ghosts simultaneously in a robotic-sounding voice. The four ghosts then rushed straight at Valerie.
"Yeah, well tell them they can shove it!" retorted Valerie, before she fired with her rifle and blew them apart with one well-aimed plasma shot. "Hold on tight!" she called out to Tucker, before she kicked her board into action and flew it straight out the open window. She steered it out over the streets and tried her best to ignore the swarms of Blue Bow A-Ghosts that floated through the streets. "Whoa!" she cried, as she swerved the board out of the way of an ectoplasmic blast that would have hit them if they had carried on in a straight line.
Valerie looked down.
"Persistent, aren't they?" she commented, before she aimed her anti-ghost rifle down at the A-Ghosts below and opened fire. She managed to blast a few to smithereens, but the others dodged out of the way skilfully, before flying straight up at her.
"If you think they're persistent, you should get a look at the ones behind us," cried Tucker, as he looked behind him. He was sure they were the very same ghosts Valerie had coated the hospital room walls with earlier on.
"Time to lose them," said Valerie, before she tilted the board forward and put them into a dive.
"Are you crazy?" screamed Tucker, as they veered down towards the ground. He was all for action, but this was ridiculous.
"Crazy like a fox," retorted Valerie, as they veered downwards. "Are they following us?"
"What do you think?" cried Tucker in reply.
"Good," said Valerie abruptly. She then concentrated on flying the hover board down towards the ground. Valerie knew that she needed split second timing if she was to pull off this little stunt, as she delved into a little compartment on her utility belt. "I learnt this from one of the Blue Bow Soldiers," she told Tucker proudly, before she brought out a handful of something and threw it in front of them. She then slammed her foot on the board, causing its front to tilt upwards. She steered it upwards and the board curved away from the ground and they climbed back into the air.
A few of the A-Ghosts couldn't stop in time. They crashed straight into the glutinous rice grains that Valerie had thrown on to the floor. These ones stuck to it and cried out inhumanly, as they tried to pry free. Unable to do so, they suffered the pain of it until they crackled like a hologram with a failing power source and then dissipated into thin air.
"We've still got two bogeys on our tail!" cried out Tucker.
"Bogeys?" exclaimed Valerie. "Since when were you an Air Force pilot?" She turned round as best as she could and fired a shot at the ghosts. "Darn!" she cursed, as she missed them. "More are joining them," she announced. "We've gotta get backup."
"Danny's parents!" cried Tucker.
"That ghost-kid's got parents?" exclaimed Valerie.
Tucker suddenly realised his mistake and was wondering how he could fix the problem.
"No, not him," he said, as if Valerie was nuts to even suggest Danny was a ghost. "Danny133; you know, Danny Fenton. The one whose parents are ghost hunters. They could help us beat the Blue Bow Army." He didn't even think, however, about the consequences of getting Danny's parents to join in the fight against the Blue Bow Army and against their own son.
"Okay, so where do they live?" asked Valerie.
"It's about the only apartment block with an observatory on the top," was Tucker's reply. "That one over there. The one with the big neon sign."
"This h-had better b-be important," growled Danny, as he floated into the Command Centre.
"Sir, we have some resistance in Sector X2," announced the soldier at one of the terminals. "Ten A-Ghosts have been destroyed and even more are being felled as we speak."
Danny frowned. He couldn't understand it. Who would fight against the might of the Blue Bow Army? It didn't make sense. Even the Amity Park Police Department had folded to their might. Who was stupid enough to take them on?
"H-Have you got a lock on the insurgents?" asked Danny, as he floated up to the soldier.
"Um, yes sir," was the nervous reply from the soldier. "They seem to be heading in a north-westerly direction." He gulped nervously. "They're that red dot over there."
"Yes, I s-s-see," stuttered Danny with a nod of his head. "Where c-c-could they be g-g-going?" he wondered out loud, as he looked at the great big map at the other end of the room. "I'd understand if they were l-leaving the city or storming our h-headquarters, but133;" He trailed off, as he remembered what was in that part of Amity Park. "Th-They're heading towards F-F-Fenton W-W-Works," he said angrily. "W-W-With Fenton Technology, they can d-d-defeat us."
He didn't like the thought of that and what he hated even more was the thought of what they could do against him with all that Fenton Technology. Danny was starting to become very afraid, as he floated there in the Command Centre, watching the red blip continue in a beeline towards the point in Amity Park that he knew belonged to his family.
"J-J-Jazz," he muttered under his breath quietly in a manner that made it impossible for the soldier to hear him. "Dad and M-Mom. They're a-a-all there." He grimaced at the thought of what technologies Jack and Maddie Fenton could have possibly created, technologies that could possibly threaten him.
"Excuse me, sir?" asked the soldier, who had realised that Danny had said something but couldn't quite hear what he had said. He received no reply. "Master Phantom, sir? What are your orders, sir?"
"Have all n-n-nearby units c-c-converge on F-F-F-Fenton Works," ordered Danny sternly. "Order them to d-destroy everything. B-B-Burn the place to the ground and make sure that n-n-no one escapes alive."
"Long live Master Phantom and Life Ghost133; The New World is nearly ready to begin. Resistance is pointless."
"I'm not going to let some faceless ghosts push me and my wife around!" shouted Jack Fenton, as he aimed his Fenton Ghost Peeler straight at the advancing ghosts. "Take this, ghost fiends!" He pulled the trigger and let rip with a beam of powerful energy that flew through the air and struck the A-Ghosts in the chest and blasted them backwards. He watched as the ghosts were peeled to shreds to reveal what looked like circuitry underneath, which in itself then disintegrated. "Ha! There's nothing like seeing your inventions in action!"
He spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Jack Fenton whirled round and opened fire, blasting a couple more A-Ghosts with the Ghost Peeler before they could even get near her wife.
"No one gets the better of a Fenton!" he cried out.
"Honey, look out!" cried Maddie, before she fired a ghost-catching net through the air, bagging herself a couple of A-Ghosts.
"Thanks, Maddie," said Jack with a wink.
Jazz quickly sneaked down into the basement, whilst her parents were occupied with the ghosts that were flooding the place. It was not that she didn't want to fight alongside her parents in protecting their home, but it was something else. She had a sneaking suspicion that they were heading towards their parents' lab and if they were all upstairs protecting the house, then who was downstairs protecting the lab and preventing them from recruiting more ghastly apparitions from the Ghost Zone?
Armed with a Fenton Ghost Peeler, Jazz quickly descended the stairs and rushed into the laboratory, just as the Blue Bow Army's A-Ghosts floated through the floor, ceiling and walls.
"I knew it," she muttered under her breath, as she pressed a button on the Ghost Peeler and let it turn into an armour suit that covered her entire body. "Hey! No faces! Over here!" she shouted, before she aimed the Peeler at the incoming ghosts.
The moment they turned their heads to face her, Jazz quickly opened fire. The first ghost she caught screamed inhumanly, as it flailed wildly. Its outer layers peeled off to reveal a bunch of wires and circuitry that fell from the air and crashed into the ground with a heavy thud. The next ghost did the same. Jazz turned the Ghost Peeler on one A-Ghost after another, not caring for why there was so much circuitry inside of them.
A sudden groaning noise as of metal being moved made Jazz turn round. She gasped and dived out of the way, narrowly avoiding being crushed underneath the weight of a metallic cabinet.
"You're gonna pay for that!" cried Jazz, before turning the Ghost Peeler on the A-Ghosts that threw the cabinet and shredding them apart with a well-aimed energy ray.
Ten more A-Ghosts suddenly rose up out of the floor, their arms held limply against their sides and their heads sloped forwards as if they had all their energy drained out of them. All ten of them raised their arms and clapped their hands together as if in prayer. Each one of them suddenly started to shudder, before they slowly drew their hands apart to reveal the sphere of ectoplasmic energy they were charging up. As their hands drew further apart, the spheres of ectoplasmic energy grew larger and larger, until each one started to glow as brightly as a million suns.
"Oh no you don't!" protested Jazz, as she aimed the Ghost Peeler straight at the A-Ghosts. "It's time for you to make a banana and split."
Another ghost suddenly rose out of the floor in front of Jazz. It lashed out and its hand reached into the circuitry that made up the armour, before it pulled its hand out and yanked a couple of wires straight out from the suit. There was a spark, before the suit shuddered and retracted back into its gun-shaped casing.
Jazz suddenly felt as if someone had taken the spark of rage right out of her. It was as if the ghost had not only ripped out the wires from the Ghost Peeler, but also her courage and her backbone and all the rage she had felt against these ghosts, leaving her with nothing but a tangible fear of death that lingered on her taste buds like some horrible medicine.
"I hope you guys knew I was kidding," said Jazz sheepishly. "Really. I didn't mean any of it. No harm done, right?"
Ten spheres of ectoplasmic energy suddenly hurtled straight at Jazz.
She screamed.
There was an explosion as the spheres smashed into a solid object and dust filled the air.
Jazz opened her eyes to find herself floating off the floor.
"Danny?" she exclaimed, as she turned round to face her saviour. "You're not133; Tucker? What are you doing here?"
"Saving your behind," was Tucker's reply. "What does it look like?"
"Who's that with you?"
Valerie smiled underneath her helmet.
"Just the cavalry," was her reply, as she aimed her anti-ghost rifle down at the ten A-Ghosts. "Say cheese!" She pulled the trigger and let rip with a shot that struck the middlemost of the A-Ghosts and blasted it apart, destroying the others around it in the explosion.
"We've got to protect this place," said Jazz desperately, as she got on the board. "Those ghosts may be trying to open the Portal over there." She frowned. "Say, how did you get in?"
"Through the front door," was Tucker's reply. "Duh!"
"How were my parents doing?" asked Jazz.
"Parents? How should we know?" was Valerie's reply, as she picked off a few more A-Ghosts with her rifle.
"But they were at the front door!" protested Jazz.
Without warning, ten more A-Ghosts suddenly descended down from the ceiling, glaring sightlessly at them. Five of them had blaster guns in place of their right hands and floated in front of them, whilst the other five had wickedly sharp blades instead and floated behind them. Ten more rose up floated through the walls, five of them floating in to the right of Jazz and company, and the other five floating in from the left. Of those ten, five had shields in place of their left hands and maces in place of their right hands. The other five had huge right hands that were clenched into impossibly large fists.
"We're surrounded!" exclaimed Jazz, as she looked around her.
"Well, I'm not going down without a fight," protested Valerie sternly. "No ghost is going to get the better of me."
Jazz didn't know why, but she felt as if she had to tell Valerie that these weren't ghosts. After all, what ghosts had circuitry inside of them?
"I dunno, these don't seem like ghosts to me," she said, as she looked around her. The way the ghosts didn't seem to move freaked her out. Why weren't they moving?
"They sure look like ghosts," retorted Tucker, as he looked around him. "What else could they be?"
"What ghosts have circuitry inside of them?" retorted Jazz.
Tucker was about to say that Jazz had a good point there, before he noticed that on the chest of each of the ghosts was the symbol of the Blue Bow Army. He knew they had something to do with Blue Bow, but he had never noticed those huge symbols before, possibly because the ghosts themselves were blue, as was the symbol itself.
"Blue Bow Ghosts, that's what," said Tucker, upon remembering where they came from. "The Blue Bow Army's been doing lots of freaky things over at Roslyn. I bet they made these ghosts."
And Tucker had a strange feeling that they had somehow used Danny as a template. After all, what was the point of keeping a half-ghost locked up in the hospital and kept unconscious? They were obviously studying Danny and perhaps these strange faceless ghosts were the product of those studies. He wondered. What else would the Blue Bow Army be able to do now that Danny was their Leader?
"Carve it onto the world," droned the A-Ghosts. "The name of our ruler133; Phantom! Phantom! Phantom!"
The five A-Ghosts in front of them aimed their guns at the three humans. The barrels of their weapons began to glow with an eerie green energy, as they charged up for a powerful shot. The five behind raised their swords, which crackled with ectoplasmic energy. The five to the right raised their shields. The five to the left raised their huge fists.
As the five A-Ghosts with cannons for arms opened fire, the other ten ghosts rushed towards them.
"Take this, you faceless freaks!"
There was a great whirring sound as that of a vacuum cleaner before five of the ghosts were suddenly dragged back. These were the ones with huge fists for arms and though they attempted to fight back against the force that drew them in, they were unable to do so. The A-Ghosts lost the battle and were suddenly sucked backwards into the vacuum cleaner that Jack Fenton held in his hands.
"That'll teach you to harass my family and wreck my lab," he said with a great big smile on his face.
"That's right," commented Maddie, before used her own Fenton Weasel and aimed it at the ghosts with cannons for arms. She flicked the switch and sucked them up.
This was the chance that Valerie had been waiting for. With the A-Ghosts distracted, she took aim and fired at the A-Ghosts with swords for arms. She hit the middle one in the formation of five. Her shot struck the circuitry inside, causing an electrical surge that made the middle A-Ghost explode with such force that it took out the other four A-Ghosts around it, sending ectoplasm flying through the air.
Valerie then whirled round and fired at the remaining A-Ghosts, her shot bouncing off their shields. She cursed angrily, before one of the A-Ghosts rushed forwards and struck the hover board with its right fist, sending it flying. She fell off it, as did Jazz and Tucker. All three of them fell to the ground in a crumpled heap.
"You get away from my daughter!" cried Maddie, before she rushed in with a Ghost Grabber and struck at the A-Ghost with a hefty punch that knocked it backwards. She glared at the faceless ghosts angrily. "If any of you dare touch my daughter, if you had eyes, you wouldn't be able to see with them for weeks!"
Being the mindless automatons they were, these threats fell on deaf ears. The A-Ghosts were not concerned with pain. They were not concerned about their own survival. Each one was only concerned with following the Orders of their Great Leader, Master Danny Phantom. They existed to serve the Blue Bow Army and the Ideals of Master Phantom.
All five of them rushed straight at Maddie at once.
Maddie lashed out with the Ghost Grabber, making a fist that knocked the head straight off the first A-Ghost's shoulders. With the large metallic gloves, she grabbed the now headless ghost and tossed it against the others, bowling them over.
"All right! Who else wants some?" she cried.
"I d-do! I-I do!"
A hand reached up from the floor and grabbed Maddie by the leg. Instantly, her entire body began to glow with a sickly green aura before a change appeared on her face. What once was an expression of pure rage, compounded with fierce determination, became a depressed look of pure sorrow and misery. It was as if someone had flicked the switch and altered her mood completely, reminding her of the insignificance of her actions and of all the wrongs that she had been guilty of in the past and of all the things that were beyond her control.
"Maddie!" cried Jack Fenton, before he rushed towards his wife. "Hang on!"
A-Ghosts descended down and suddenly grabbed Jack Fenton by the arms, one on either side of him, just as the aura around Maddie turned into a black glow which leapt from her body and on to Jack Fenton's. It enveloped him and the expression on his face altered in the same way Maddie's had done. Though he had been standing proudly before, he shoulders soon slumped and his entire body sagged before he collapsed on to the floor with a heavy and depressed sigh.
A feminine laugh echoed all around them.
"F-Foolish humans," laughed the apparently bodiless voice, "r-resistance is futile. Soon, the G-Greatest Thing will awaken and w-with it will come a new chapter in our glorious h-history!" The voice laughed again. "Yes, and with the c-combination of M-M-Master Phantom and the Life Ghost, the New World will be born and it will all start here in this c-country, here in Amity
Park!"
Something suddenly appeared next to Jack Fenton, or rather, somebody. Though it was not completely visible, invisible in other words, it still had a slight eerie glow to it that made it possible for them to see what it was. It became one person with red hair, dressed in a red suit with a pin on the lapel shaped like the Blue Bow Insignia and of the same colour.
"I recognise her!" exclaimed Jazz. "Isn't that133; Dr. Spectra?"
The red-haired woman ghost smiled.
"I see y-you recognise me, J-J-Jasmine F-Fenton," she said, pronouncing Jazz's full name spitefully. "That's g-good, because I133; I haven't forgotten you. Oh yes, I still r-r-remember133; remember how you peeled me like a banana! If it weren't for D-Doctor133; Dr. O'Donnell bringing me b-back, I would have remained in the Ghost Zone forever."
Valerie shook her head.
"I don't believe it," she exclaimed. "Dr. Spectra was a ghost?"
"Yeah," replied Tucker with a slow nod of his head. He remembered her well. "She used her powers to make everyone in school miserable."
"That's a-all in the
past now," replied Spectra with a smile on her face. "You mustn't d-d-dwell133; dwell on the past. That's b-bad psychological behaviour." She chuckled. "You're all f-focusing133; f-f-focusing too much on the past," she continued. "You've got t-to133; to let go of the old, to embrace the new133; the b-brand New Era133; Era ruled by the Blue B-Bow Army133; by M-M-Master133; M-Master Phantom!" She giggled, as she rose her arms into the air and suddenly burst into shadowy flames that engulfed her body, making her seem like one huge shadow.
Her nails sharpened into claws. Her hair became a fiery mass of black shadows. Her face became black and featureless, save for her smile filled with vicious, sharp, white teeth, and her left eye that glowed an eerie green. It was the only eye that remained on her face, as the other one seemed to have had disappeared underneath the black shadows that covered her human form.
Spectra laughed, as she rose up into the air, her legs becoming like a spectral trail.
"D-Don't you worry, I'll help you133; you get over the past," she told them. "I'll make sure you l-let go of the
past and your lives!" She laughed even more loudly, as she raised her arms and summoned more A-Ghosts that rose up out of the floor like steam rising from a boiling cauldron. "We w-will not allow you to l-l-live. For133; F-For the Grand Ideals of133; M-M-Master Phantom, for the N-New W-W-World133; that he shall b-build on the Ashes of the Old, both y-you and this lab133; this lab will cease to exist!"
"Wasn't Da133;?" began Tucker, only to trail off. "Wasn't Phantom the one that sealed you in the Ghost Zone in the first place?"
"Long live M-M-Master Phantom133; Life Ghost!" cried out Spectra, before the A-Ghosts rushed towards Valerie and Tucker and Jazz.
Valerie picked off the A-Ghosts with her rifle, before she then took aim to shoot Spectra.
"Take this!" she cried, before pulling the trigger and firing a beam of energy straight at the shadowy ghost. "What?" she exclaimed, as she saw the beam bounce straight off Spectra as if it hadn't done anything.
Spectra laughed.
"Is that133; all y-you've got?" she taunted Valerie. "Stupid h-human. Here, have a t-taste of my new133; new improved
power." She raised the finger of her right index finger, which soon crackled with electricity, before pointing it straight at Valerie and letting rip with a bolt of electricity that leapt through the air.
It never hit, as Valerie leapt out of the way and rolled across the ground, to end up in a squatted position away from Jazz and Tucker. She leapt out of the way again, narrowly avoiding Spectra's sharp spectral claws that would have shredded through her like a cat's claws through curtains. Valerie grabbed a few small anti-ghost explosives and flung them at Spectra, only for them to bounce harmlessly off the ghost and land on the metallic floor. They exploded, releasing a concentrated liquid made from glutinous rice.
She couldn't understand. What was going wrong? Why was this ghost so powerful compared to others she had fought? Did it have something to do with the shadowy aura that seemed to cover Spectra completely? Perhaps that was somehow protecting the ghost and preventing her attacks from even harming her?
Suddenly, the A-Ghosts that Spectra had summoned suddenly caught up with Valerie. Each one was armed with cannons for arms and they opened fire on Valerie, firing plasma bolts at the ghost hunter. None of them hit her, as she dodged their plasma shots. She leapt and ducked underneath each one, running towards them and sliding underneath shots and leaping over shots.
Valerie ran past Spectra and the plasma shots hit the shadowy ghost, only to bounce off harmlessly.
With one sudden movement of her arm, Spectra swept out and grabbed Valerie by the shoulder, her claws digging in to Valerie's flesh. She then effortlessly threw Valerie through the air, before thrusting her other hand out and firing a sphere of shadowy energy from the palm of that hand. It flew through the air and she watched with a pleased smile on her face, as the sphere of shadowy energy struck Valerie in the chest, searing into the suit as if it was acid.
Jazz didn't remember ever having seen Spectra fight before, but she remembered the last time someone had struggled against the psychologist ghost. It was Danny that had last fought against Spectra and she remembered seeing him struggle against her powers but to no avail. Jazz could still remember how it had been the Ghost Peeler that had rendered Spectra vulnerable and allowed Danny to suck her up into the Fenton Thermos. But her Ghost Peeler had been destroyed, rendered inactive by one of the ghosts.
"She's not going to be able to beat her," said Jazz with a heavy sigh and a shake of her head. "We need to hit her with the Fenton Ghost Peeler first."
"What makes you say that?" asked Tucker curiously.
"Never mind," protested Jazz, as she lifted her damaged Ghost Peeler. "Just help me find one of these." She turned round and suddenly noticed that more of the ghosts had infiltrated her parents' lab. "After we deal with these freaks first," she added. "Any suggestions?"
A devious smile spread across Tucker's lips, as he watched the A-Ghosts advance towards him.
"Yeah," he replied with a nod of his head. "It's time to get old skool on their hineys." He delved into his pocket and brought out a handful of glutinous rice they had borrowed from a Chinese grocery on their way to the Fenton home. "Eat this!" he cried, before throwing the grains through the air.
"What's up with that?" asked Jazz and then she received a short explanation from Tucker, which, coming from Tucker, was still pretty long. "Huh. Who knew?" was all that Jazz could say in reply to Tucker's explanation. "Well, what are you waiting for? Give me some of that rice and let's get a move on!"
Spectra raised her arms upwards, both of her hands glowing with a light lavender energy. They sparkled and glowed, before globules of electricity, spheres of electricity, flew from her raised hands and skimmed across the floor towards Valerie. She screamed angrily, as she watched Valerie dodge each one. With a cry of pure rage, she rushed Valerie in an attempt to tackle her much like an American Football player would attempt to do. She missed as Valerie dodged her with the skill and grace of a bull fighter.
"Wretched h-h-human!" cried Spectra angrily, as she whirled round. "You c-cannot stop the c-c-coming of the New W-World! We shall c-c-carve out the name of our r-ruler on this w-world!"
"Oh yeah? Just try it," retorted Valerie, before she threw a few special shuriken through the air.
They stuck against Spectra's outer exterior but didn't seem to harm her in any way. It was almost as if the shadows that enveloped her were like some kind of thick and tough armour, yet the way those throwing stars were being absorbed, that didn't seem to be the case.
"You133; can't hurt m-me," she laughed. "You and your133; silly little t-toys. You're just a c-confused133; little girl trying to f-find133; find meaning in your life. Well, get this133; this! You have none! You spent so much time as a spoilt little rich b-brat, you never d-developed a purpose133; purpose in life. Your only purpose was to b-be133; the d-daughter of a rich man, and that's been taken away f-from133; from you. You have n-n-no f-f-f-f-future."
"Shut up!" shouted Valerie angrily, before opening fire on Spectra.
"Oh, but it's true," continued Spectra, as she dodged Valerie's shots. She then lowered down on to the floor and disappeared through it, sinking through the floor as if it was made out of quicksand. "You'll never133; r-return to the l-life133; life you once knew," said Spectra and her voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. "You and133; and your family will stay
poor133; forever." She rose out of the floor from behind Valerie and quickly grabbed the ghost hunter by the shoulders. "It's not the g-ghosts' fault133; fault that you're poor. It's your133; your father's fault. It's your fault. Your e-entire family's a133; f-failure. Your133; Your father was a failure at his j-job. You're a failure133; failure at being a ghost hunter. All of this is your fault and your family's133; family's f-fault and taking your anger out on innocent ghosts w-won't133; won't do you any good!"
A smile spread across her dark lips, as her grip on Valerie's shoulders tightened vice-like.
"Let's f-face133; face it, you're a spoilt, selfish little brat who t-t-takes133; takes it out on other people when you d-don't133; don't get your way," accused Spectra. "You blame everyone b-but the133; the person that deserves all the blame133; yourself."
Valerie felt Spectra's hold on her shoulders. She could feel the coldness of Spectra's hands and recognised the great knife of guilt that stabbed her in the heart and twisted its blade of remorse painfully. It was the same feeling that she had felt when she had first visited Dr. Spectra in Casper High and she recognised it, but now she knew it for what it was. Now Valerie knew what exactly Spectra was doing and that all that guilt wasn't all hers. Spectra was making things worse and Valerie knew that she had to fight it.
No, it didn't matter how much Spectra's words made sense. It didn't matter how true they were. All that mattered was that she had to fight this ghost that had made her even more miserable at Casper High. She had to. She had to resist Dr. Spectra's powers and break free from the chains of guilt that held her to the past, something which a real psychologist should have done.
"Hey!"
Spectra turned to face the person that called her.
"W-What?" she cried, as she pushed Valerie in front of her. "You133; cannot h-harm me with th-that! It's b-b-broken133; broken, you silly l-little133; little f-fool."
Tucker smiled, as he wore the Fenton Ghost Peeler.
"Oh, yeah?" he retorted. "Well, think again."
"Behind you!" called out Jazz, before she fired the fully functioning Ghost Peeler at Spectra.
There was a hideous scream from Spectra, as the rays engulfed her. The shadowy exoskeleton peeled off and then layer after layer peeled off, until all that was left was the old fragile ghost inside. She let go of Valerie, before staggering backwards away from Jazz and from the ghost hunter that she had held captive mere seconds ago.
Spectra blurred like the image on a television that was slowly losing reception thanks to bad weather. Something rose up out of her, a single eye in a sphere of blackness that blinked and then glared at the three kids coldly. It tilted down to look at Spectra and then tilted back upwards to look at the three humans, before it rose upwards and disappeared through the ceiling, and in doing so, the remaining A-Ghosts shuddered violently and then disintegrated.
"What?" exclaimed Spectra, as she clutched at her head. "Where am I? What133; What am I doing here?" She looked around her, as if she couldn't figure out for the life of her what had happened. "Him! I remember! Where is that half-ghost brat and that O'Donnell guy? I'll make them pay, I'll133;" she wondered out loud, before she made a choking noise as if a bone had stuck in her throat. "What? What's133; happening133; to me?" She shuddered and then opened her mouth into a soundless scream, as her body crackled like a television picture that was slowly losing its reception to heavy storms.
Tucker watched as Spectra's body turned into smoke that dissipated into the air.
"Wow133; that Ghost Peeler133; vaporised her," he muttered under his breath.
"That's strange," murmured Jazz, as she looked at the Ghost Peeler. "It didn't do that the last time." Then again, a gigantic eye never rose up out of Spectra either.
"I wonder what she meant by the coming of the New World?" wondered Tucker out loud.
"I'm more concerned about that eye thing," was Valerie's reply to Tucker's question. "It133; Was it just me or did it seem as if that thing was controlling her?"
Jazz thought about it.
"Yeah, I got that impression too," she said.
"Perhaps the Blue Bow's using that eye thing to control Danny too," murmured Tucker.
The place looked different.
"Looks like I'm not in Kansas anymore," muttered Sam under her breath, as she looked around her. "Where am I?"
The dark grey skies above loomed menacingly above her, threatening the world below with the prospect of rain or the absence of bright sunshine. The clouds seemed to stretch outwards forever, like the waters of the ocean in front of her, with its rolling waves that crashed up against the beach. It was a terrible eternity that stretched out before Sam and the winds that buffeted her body felt like gale force winds and they crashed against her much like the sea would have crashed against cliff faces.
Solemn lamp posts stood at intervals along the road that ran past the beach like guardians against the darkness. Though it was day and many were switched off, a few were inexplicably shining a dull red. Each one was painted a deep dark green, like the metallic railings that had been placed there to prevent pedestrians from falling off the sidewalk, down the perilous distance towards the beach below.
Sam turned round and saw the old Victorian-style buildings that stood on the other side of the road with their vast windows and wooden window shutters. It seemed as if they were staring at her accusingly, as she stood there by the railings by the seaside.
"Amity Park doesn't have a beach," she murmured to herself. "Where am I?"
The last thing that she could remember was133; What was the last thing she could remember?
It was hard to think with the crash of the sea waves and the buffeting of the winds, that smelt so much like the sea. She didn't know why either. Why couldn't she remember what had happened to her, before she arrived here at this beach? What was the reason for her missing memories? Did she even remember her own name and from where she came from?
Think! Sam knew that she had to think. She reminded herself of her own name, saying it and pronouncing very syllable clearly, letting the sounds roll across her tongue and savouring their form and flavour. Samantha Manson, if she could remember her own name, if she could remember where she was born and when, perhaps that would be the trigger, the key that would help her release the rest of her memories. She knew that it would not be that simple and that there was far more she had to do to recover her own memories.
Sam shivered. It was getting very cold out there. What she needed was some warmth. She turned round and looked around her, but all she could see were the Victorian-era houses that stared down at her with vacant window eyes like living beings. There had to be a place where she could go, a warm place, like some kind of café or even, and she shuddered at this thought, a Burger Queen. Anywhere warm would be a welcome change from the cold winds that felt like cold, steel knives against her raw skin.
"You okay?" asked a voice that made Sam leap in fright and whirl round. "I'm sorry," apologised the black-haired man. "I didn't mean to startle you like that."
"N-N-No, it's okay," Sam stuttered.
The black-haired guy looked to be in his Twenties and he wore his hair long, tied back into a ponytail. It didn't stop a few strands dangling into his eyes, which he brushed back every now and then.
"You look lost," he said quietly.
"Well, could you tell me where I am?" asked Sam curiously and waveringly, almost as if she was afraid to be in his presence.
There was something strange about the black-haired man's eyes, those pale, sky blue eyes that reminded her so much of someone she once knew. Now whom did he remind her of and for what reason? She couldn't tell. All she could do was just stare into those eyes, those eyes that seemed to be eternally deep like the rolling sea behind her. She felt as if she was falling into those eyes, those soulful eyes that expressed something like a pain of being used and being forgotten. What was it about those eyes?
"Roslyn Beach," was the man's reply. "You're freezing. Didn't you bring a coat or something?"
Sam shook her head, not just in reply to the man's questions. There was something else about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. It was something about his voice that seemed so familiar to her. Yet why would she know this twenty-year old? She was fifteen after all, one year older than133; Than whom, exactly? Who was she older than?
"Here, you need this more than me," said the man, as he took his hooded coat off. He slipped it on to Sam, draping it around her shoulders.
"Danny! There you are!"
A girl with hair dyed light blue ran up to them. There was a sparkle in her eyes and a great big smile, as she ran up the sidewalk towards him. She rushed the black-haired twenty-year old and embraced him in the biggest hug that Sam had ever seen.
"I'm so glad I found you," she said, as she kissed him on the cheek. "Why'd you run off like that?"
"I'm sorry, Erica," apologised the black-haired twenty-year old. "I just had to get away from them. You understand, don't you?" He sighed. "Those fan girls are so rabid. It's like they're piranhas in the water or something."
"That's the price of fame, I guess," said Erica, as she smiled up at Danny. She lowered her gaze momentarily and then saw that Danny had no coat anymore. "Oh, who's your fan?" she asked, the smile disappearing from her lips.
"I dunno," was Danny's reply, as he turned round to face Sam.
Never in her entire life had Sam ever felt like this before. It was as if someone had taken the courage straight out of her, as if someone had taken her backbone and left her a gelatinous mass of pure fear and nerves. She somehow found herself forgetting her name, despite having reminded herself of it only a few minutes before. Why was this? What was going on that made her feel like this?
"Another speechless fan," sighed Erica. "Just give her your autograph and let's get going."
"Oh, okay," said Danny in a tone of voice that almost sounded reluctant. "You got a pen, kid?" he asked Sam.
Sam didn't know what to say. She didn't want this man's autograph, whomever he was. All she wanted was her memories back and, of course, to know why he seemed so familiar to her. Why did he seem so familiar to her?
"Here," said Erica, as she plucked a pen out of one of her pockets and a pad of paper.
"Thanks," said Danny with a smile, before he signed the piece of paper. "Here you go," he said, as he tore the piece of paper off the pad. "Uh, here," he said more insistently but Sam made no motion to take it from him. "I'll put it in your pocket," he said, as he leaned over towards her, slipping the paper into the coat that had once been his as well.
"Come on, Danny," said Erica, as she hung on to the black-haired man's arm. "Let's get going. You must be freezing without your coat."
The two then walked past Sam, although it seemed more as if Erica was slowly dragging Danny away. It almost seemed to Sam, as she watched them walk past that Danny was reluctant to leave. She couldn't understand. Wasn't Erica his girlfriend and wasn't he cold without his coat? Sam knew what it felt like to be without a coat in the cold air that still whirled around her and buffeted her body.
Sam turned back round, away from the direction that Danny and Erica had taken. She bit her lip, as she stood there in Danny's coat, staring down the sidewalk. Something didn't seem quite right, yet she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Well, whatever it was, it had to wait until she could somewhere warm to stay for the time being.
The Goth girl shoved her hands into the coat pockets, but before she could take her first step, her fingers felt the paper that Danny had signed. She took it out of her pocket, curiosity getting the better of her, and unfolded the white sheet carefully with her back to the wind to keep it from blowing from her cold, white fingers. Sam read the signature and her eyes widened.
Just the act of reading it seemed to make things clearer in Sam's mind. She could remember Amity Park and the Roslyn Hospital. Sam could remember her friend, Tucker and more importantly, Danny. She could remember the formidable Blue Bow Army and its hold over the nearby Roslyn Hospital. She could remember how they had tried sneaking in to find this grey-haired youth that Danny had once met when he was there. She could remember how an overwhelming Blue Bow battalion had chased them out, but had overwhelmed Danny completely.
The piece of paper slipped out of Sam's hands and flew through the air. Winds buffeted it, making it soar away from Sam and down the street. It flapped, it fluttered and then it dropped over the railings and down the perilous five metre drop towards the sandy beach below. The paper fluttered down like a downed bird and slowly flopped on to the grains of sand.
One signature could be seen on the side that faced of the paper that faced skywards.
Danny Fenton, it read.
