The rings flashed up and Danny suddenly became Danny Phantom again. Just in time for Ember to smash him in the face with Sam's possessed fist, right before Kitty kicked him in the stomach and sent him flying with Paulina's high-heels.

"Sam." Danny yelled, trying to get up. She was bleeding rather profusely from the cuts caused by the Fenton Fisher line she'd strung up around the neighborhood. "Fight her! Don't let Ember control you!"

"Sam has already lost the fight, dipstick!" Ember's words, Sam's voice.

"No she hasn't!" Danny yelled, and placed a hand to Sam's stomach and blasted through her skin, knocking the ghost form of Ember out of her. Sam's wounded body collapsed in a heap, and Danny pulled her into another inverted ghost dome, locking her away for now.

Then Kitty attacked, using Paulina's body to claw at Danny's face. Danny fought back, but everything he tried, she deflected.

"You never answered my question earlier Kitty," Danny said through the fighting. "Why can't you guide Jinx through the ghost zone?"

This seemed to do nothing but make Kitty angry. Paulina's hands glowed red and suddenly Danny found himself increasingly un-able to defend himself from the blows, which were digging into his ghost form's version of skin, and stinging. "That's not important anymore! After you're gone, we'll raze this town! And Jump City! Dakota! Light City! Gotham, Metropolis, New York, San Francisco… Nashville! Every city that opposes the Lordship of Mistress Jinx will burn!"

"What!" Danny exclaimed. "Since when does she want to conquer earth?" He ducked as Kitty swiped at his head and returned with a right punch, but Kitty deflected it, and then grabbed his wrist and twisted it into a joint lock. He formed an ectoplasm beam with his left hand and shoved it into the face of the possessed Hispanic girl, trying to drive Kitty out… But a red ghost shield appeared centimeters from her face and stopped the beam dead. Then her hand lashed out, her fingernails-turned-claws by the ghost-amulet's power, digging into Danny's wrist and twisting it into a different but similarly painful lock.

"Danny?" Sam asked, turning over, and groggy.

"AAHh!" Danny yelled as Kitty continued to apply pressure. "Get out of here Sam! I can handle.. AAAAHHHHHHH!" The pain was becoming excruciating, and Danny felt the dark crimson energies of the amulet that were still controlling Kitty siphon into him, but not control him, no… They were killing him.

"Sam!" Danny yelled.

"Leave girl!" Paulina's host yelled from inside her.

"No!" Sam jumped up and grabbed Paulina's shoulders, dragged her to the ground, mounted her, and started pounding her face, bloodying both face and knuckles.

"You really wanted to do that, didn't you?" Danny asked. Sam blushed.

"Gah. Ouch!" Sam exclaimed. "What happened?" She gritted her teeth, the pain of her cuts assaulting her. Her left arm was pasted-over rivulets blood, and the stockings on her right leg were matted crimson.

"I'm sorry… You kind of got knocked out a window during the fight and landed on those cords you strung up."

"And I just got make up in the cut on my hand," she sighed,

Danny glared at her.

"What? It burns! Besides, Paulina's a shallow twat. She deserved it."

Now Danny sighed, exasperated by Sam's insistence that she had the right to beat the crap out of Paulina. But he was grateful and worried. "You need to get out of here. Get to the hospital before those cuts get you infected…"

Kitty popped out of Paulina suddenly, scaring Danny and Sam. "What… where… Danny?"

"Stay back you psycho—" Sam yelled at Kitty.

"No, Sam, wait…!"

"What Danny?"

"Her eyes. They're not red. She's not being controlled right now." Indeed, Kitty's eyes were completely devoid of redness, so much that Ben Stein might have gotten a bonus had any Clear Eyes executives been there.

"You have to help me Danny! Jinx tried to control ghosts, and she kept adding more and more to he 'army'… but now she can't take it. She's gone insane and… EAUGH!" Kitty suddenly jerked back, twitching, her eyes flashing red, once, then two rapid flashes. Then she blinked, and her eyes were glowing. Jinx's power was back.

"My Johnny! You tried to take him!" Kitty mumbled, glaring at Danny hatefully. A new shadow on the ground appeared, and Danny looked up…

Jinx.

She was there, not fifty feet away, hand outstretched at them, with the amulet glowing red at the end of it. Jinx landed near by, a crazed look in her eyes, and both Ember, and Kitty vanished. Leaving just the four humans, together in the middle of the road outside Sam's house.

"You should listen to him." She said, looking at Sam. "You're not a ghost, and you're certainly no superhero. Go away, before I decide you're not worth keeping alive…" Jinx had an odd tinge to her voice. A tinge that sounded almost… loony, as if The Joker had jumped ship into the young woman's body.

Danny looked deeper into her eyes. Crazed, yes. More so than he originally realized. They were pulsating red, eyes within eyes. Voices, it seemed cried out from them, but no sound… Danny could only feel them. The protests of the controlled. And they were driving Jinx absolutely insane.

0000

Tucker didn't stop running. His legs were hurting yes, but he had to get away and find help for Danny. Or wait for him to get done… or… something. He had no idea why he was running, really, other than that Danny had told him too. And it took running out in front of a car and almost getting hit by it to make him realize he also had no idea where he was running to. Jerking to a stop, Tucker went off balance and fell to the asphalt.

He sat up and rubbed his bruised shoulder. "Who the heck is still in this part of town!" He blurted.

A middle-aged African-American man quickly got out of the vehicle and ran around his car to where Tucker was. And he was a man Tucker recognized: Damon Gray, father of his ex-girlfriend and femme ghost hunter Valerie Gray.

"Oh, excuse me Mr. Gray…" Tucker blurted fearing reprisal.

"Are you OK…?" Damon blurted

"I'm fine. I think…" Tucker allowed Damon to help him up. "Why haven't you gotten out of town yet."

"Well, not that it's any of your business, but I had the hardest time getting, my daughter out the door. It's almost like she wanted to stay here with the ghosts everywhere… or whatever those things are."

"Wait… are you saying Valerie is with you?"

"You know her… Oh. You're that boy I caught sneaking into Axion a couple months ago."

"Yeah, that'd be me." Tucker gave a sheepish grin.

"Conner, right?"

"Tucker."

About this time, Valerie's head popped out of a window in the backseat of Damon's car. "Daddy? What's going on?" Then she saw Tucker. "Oh, it's you. Conner."

"Tucker.

"Whatever."

"Valerie!" Tucker rudely knocked Damon out of the way and ran over to her window. "Dan…Inviso-Bill is fighting ghosts and stuff over on…" he told her the name of Sam's street , "…and you need to go help him… I mean.. He'll be weak and easy to capture!"

"What are you getting at? Who told you…?" Valerie's voice was a mix of shock and anger. "How'd you know about my other job!"

Tucker's face contorted into a very painful nervous smile, but before he could say anything, Valerie's father appeared next to him.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing, Daddy. I'm OK." Valerie lied.

0000

A few minutes later Tucker ran on, hating what had just happened. He only wished that somehow what he had told Valerie could be forgotten some how. Maybe Danny could zap her brain or something…

"Conner!" A sudden but emphatic whisper came from seemingly nowhere, scaring Tuck out of his wits. And then Johnny 13 phased into visibility.

"Johnny! Look I swear it wasn't my fault… or Danny's! Please just…"

"Shut up, Conner, I'm not attacking you. What is going on?"

"It's Tucker."

"Whatever. Tell me what's happening. Where's Kitty? Is she safe?"

"I'm not sure. You see… this Jinx—this girl named Jinx came to town and started taking over ghosts. She took over Ember and Kitty at first, just them, you see, and now.."

"Now she has an army. Where's your friend?"

"Danny?"

Johnny's eyes narrowed. "No, I mean Pope Muhammad of Rivendell—OF COURSE I MEAN DANNY!"

"Where is Shadow?"

"I don't know, now tell me where your friend is!"

"He's somewhere in town fighting…"

Johnny took a step back, inhaled deeply, probably to calm himself. He seemed to think, mull over something for a moment. "What is this 'Jinx' using to control the ghosts?"

"A red amulet." Tucker breathed deeply too, now calmer than he had been since the fight began. "I don't know…"

"I do. Johnny cut him off."

0000

Danny charged forward, and punched at Jinx, thankful that Sam wasn't there any longer. And every time the same thing: that condemnable red aura around Jinx. Every time he stuck his hand in to it, it burned, and ripped some more of his ghostly body off, absorbing it. She physically controlled the essence of ectoplasm. It would be common since, then to detransform. One would think that Danny didn't because in the heat of battle common sense becomes very uncommon. But it was actually because in his human form he'd be powerless against her if she chose to use her standard arsenal of Hex Blasts. So it wasn't from lack of common sense at all.

"Why don't you take a hint, child?" Jinx's aura lashed out at him again, and Danny dodged backwards, having to suck his gut in to avoid contact. He countered with an ectoplasmic energy beam, but it didn't make contact, but was merely absorbed by the aura.

"Please, Jinx! Stop! Didn't you just want to find the woman's spirit and leave?"

This only seemed to make Jinx angry, and she whipped at him again with the aura, lashing across his chest and sending him to the ground, and then reared back for a succession of strikes that would eat away at Danny's ectoplasmic body.

"Llarnes!" Danny yelled in agony. Where the name had come from, telepathic link, perhaps, or maybe he had read it or heard it from one of the Titans before. It didn't matter; he was simply trying to appeal to the side of her that was still human. "You're going to have more blood on your hands after this. You… AAGHH! You're doing exactly the opposite of what you set out to! You're going to kill people…."

Danny sat up, Jinx apparently tired of draining him. But she gave no indication of relenting, just a psychotic grin. And all Danny could think about was the blood running down Sam's face, arms, and legs, and how Jinx was far too mad-driven to give a flip.

"You're going to hurt people I care about." Danny said in a low voice, unable to beat her and trying to reason. But one cannot reason with the insane.

"Like I care." Jinx replied.

Which, of course, was the WRONG thing to say. Danny stood up slowly, extended his hands out to the sides as if to prepare for a glomp. But this was no hug he had in store for her. His face contorted into a mask of rage.

"I CARE!" And if what Danny had used against Johnny had been the ectoplasmic equivalent of a Kamehameha wave, then what happened now was the ectoplasmic equivalent of the Death Star's main weapon.

The Green-White beam, shot from the ground and quickly made it to the sky, with Jinx burning atop it, the wave stripping the aura away and carrying her heavenward.

But then it stopped, right about when Jinx reached the lowest clouds, and red energy began pouring off the other side, as Jinx countered with a Hex Blast.

An enourmous, red, Hex Blast, fueled by ghost energy. Ghosts swirled around her, and started pumping energy into here, at least half her army. The other half began firing ectoplasmic energy beams at Danny, thousands upon thousands raining down on him. The first few smarted, but fueled Danny's determination, his resolve…

And as that grew, something changed. The blasts from Jinx's minions began to HELP him. Danny's attack was drawing so heavily on energy that it began to absorb it! And so the juggernauts of power, one unwittingly aiding the other, fell into a stalemate.

And then Danny had to wonder: Did Jinx know her minions were helping him by firing at him… Or was she so bonkers that she JUST DIDN'T CARE?

0000

Tucker and Johnny watched from the roof of a distant skyscraper. "It's called the Amulet of Roasha, forged in Salem, long before they ever thought of witch trials."

"And how is that important now?" Tucker asked Johnny.

"Hey, I thought it was nifty info. Anyway. It's weakness is that it is pretty much powerless against non ghosts. It can't control a ghost if the ghost is already overshadowing another human."

Just then, what sounded like a sonic boom resounded from the direction of the battle, and a huge green beam hurled Jinx into the sky, countered by a massive red blast from Jinx. And all the ghosts in the sky began swirling around that struggle,

"Why are half the ghosts helping Danny?" Tucker asked.

"I don't think she realizes that it IS helping Danny," Johnny replied.

"So what exactly do we do?" Johnny got an evil glint in his eye, sadistic joy, or something. And then Tucker realized what he was thinking. "No! No! You are not going to…"

But Tucker could do nothing to resist, as Johnny jumped inside of him. "Thanks for the body, Conner," Johnny smirked.

0000

Sam struggled into the car. She didn't have her license or even her permit… and normally she would never have stolen a car, even an abandoned one, but she felt herself about to pass out from the blood loss. She had to get to the hospital…

And to hold hope her head would stop swimming long enough for her to see the road… A few eternities went by in a blur and then she heard voices repeating something. Something that sounded like "Get a doctor, this girl is injured…"

0000

Danny directed the massive beam of ectoplasm forward, hoping he could break through Jinx's guard. But he felt neither side giving…

0000

Johnny flew higher, in Tucker's body, trying to make it through Jinx's blockade of ghosts around her. Giant strands of red and green energy were lashing out from the beam, and tearing parts of downtown Amity to shreds. The city couldn't take much more of this…

But the deadly stalemate continued. The only consolation was that most of the city in the area around the fight was evacuated. A red strand lashed up at Tucker's body, and Johnny dodged it, feeling the heat singe Tucker's skin.

A light green aura surrounded Johnny, and he charged headlong at Jinx, but not twenty feat away, the ghosts around him became solid, restricting the body of his host. And at this range, he noticed something he hadn't noticed before; something BAD.

The ghosts nearest Jinx were breaking up, vanishing into her aura. She was ABSORBING their souls to fuel her psychotically large Hex Blast…

And Kitty was nearing the end of the line.

"YOU WITCH!" Tucker yelled, Johnny's voice bellowing from the teen's vocal cords. "Leave my Kitty alone!"

And the same determination fueled power that Danny seemed to acess so freely perhaps took a chance and jumped, just for a moment, into one who didn't walk in both worlds. And yet an entity that did for now, as he was both Tucker Foley and Johnny Thirteen, their minds merged by determination, their bodies bonded on a whim.

And they managed to break through…

Perhaps Jinx gasped in horror, or perhaps she was too crazy for that, but when they collided, she must have been holding the amulet rather precariously, because it went flying.

"No!" Johnny yelled, slipping out of the way of Danny's massive blast just in time to not get vaporized..

He looked in the way the amulet had flown, trying to follow it, but was blinded. The intense glow of the sun, reflecting off Lake Amity in the Wisconsin sunset made tracking the amulet with human eyes impossible. Where it ended up next…

…was up to fate.

0000

Danny fell on all fours, then on his stomach, and rolled over on his back, breathing heavily, exhausted, the well dry. His ghost form melted away, but the fight was over. Finally everything would be alright. As soon as somebody caught the plummeting Jinx.

And ironically, Tucker and Johnny were the heroes this time…

0000

Mr. Lancer ambled along in front of the school There had been yet another battle earlier, and he was checking out the damage. It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. A few broken windows, mostly.

"These… ghosts!" he exclaimed. "The Great Gatsby, they are going to knock down the city!"

Something reflective caught his eye. He walked over and examined the object. An amulet of some sort, with a rather large red ruby encased by a gold scarab. He didn't much care for jewelry, and it was probably fake anyway. Either way, he could likely get a pretty penny for it on E-bay. If they could sell bags of air, surely a trinket that appeared so valuable would go for thousands.

0000

Five hours later, after much arguing and blame tossing, all the parties involved reached an agreement..

"Here it is," Danny said as he handed Johnny the pumpkin in which the Fright Knight's sword, the Soul Shredder, was sheathed. "You're leverage."

"Good," Johnny replied, holding Kitty close. "If you break the truce, I let the Knight out in Amity."

"And if you break the truce, I hunt you down and lock you in the thermos for all eternity."

Johnny visibly gulped. "OK. No more fights." Shadow made noise that would best be described as an sad puppy, if said puppy was possessed by Trigon. "Sorry, Shadow. A deal's a deal." Johnny and Kitty got on the bike, and drove off through the open ghost portal.

"That just leaves one thing:" Tucker said, "what to do with Jinx." The two teens surveyed the unconscious form of Llarnes Morath. It had taken almost more will power than Danny could muster, but he did eventually catch her. After all, she was insane when she did what she did.

"Noel said I should call the Titans." Danny sighed. Suddenly, a flash of light nearly blinded Danny and Tucker, and a ball of reality warping lighting appeared in the center of the room… and when it disappeared, a box with two round grenade looking devices and a letter appeared on the table, lid attached to the bottom rather than sealing it shut.

Danny picked up the letter and read.

Dear Danny of the Past.

These are Reality Bites bombs. Positive polarity turns ghosts solid; negative polarity makes what's solid ethereal. I have enclosed one of each. Use them and a spare thermos to mail Jinx to the Titans—just like Noel told you not to.

Thanks and have a great life, Tucker of the Future.

"What's it say?" Tucker asked.

Danny just arched an eyebrow.

Four Days Later….

Vlad leaned back in his chair. Some sort of amulet had been involved, in young Daniel's recent battle with Jinx. And his sources indicated it must have been the Amulet of Roasha.

The page he was viewing finished loading. A red ruby core surrounded by gold, modeled in the shape of a scarab. Yes, it was an exact match. "Bingo," Vlad said, his lips twisting into a wicked smile.

A/N: -LOUD TRUMPETS AND FANFARE- WOOT! I have now officially finished my first fan fiction! Yay me! W00T!

And all that Jazz. Well, as always, tell me what you think. I hope this ending was effective and not too much of a cop-out. After all, I said Johnny managed to get it away from her in the flashback…

I didn't say he didn't have help! Go Tucker!

Disclaimer: Reality Bites bombs were a product of Legend Maker's mind, not my own.

Disclaimer 2: Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman and Billianfold Inc. No reportable income was made off of this fanfic.