THE MONDAY AFTER
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Danny Phantom, Butch Hartman does.
PART FIVE: ALL-OUT WAR
Danny took a deep breath and lunged at the Creature, punching it in what he guessed was the general vicinity of its face. His fist sank wrist-deep into the slimy substance and when he withdrew his hand, he found it covered with black and green goo.
"Eww!" He said shaking his hand in the air to dislodge the mess. The goo spattered on the floor, and Danny watched in horrified fascination as the individual blobs made their way back to rejoin the Creature.
Taking a couple steps back, Danny - mindful of Mr. Lancer's safety - willed up a moderate ectoplasmic blast, and shot it at the Creature, hitting it on its left side, where Danny thought its shoulder area might be. The beam was absorbed into the Creature, causing the area around the entry point to glow, and smoke to eminate from the burning area. The Creature howled in pain and anger, and was joined by Mr. Lancer's muffled scream. Danny ceased firing at the Creature when he heard Mr. Lancer's cry.
"Be careful, Danny!" Sam shouted at him.
"I'm trying!" Danny shouted back. "But, I'm not sure exactly where Lancer is in all this . . . this stuff!"
"Well, why don't you ask him?" Tucker suggested.
Danny and Sam turned and stared at him.
"What?" Tucker asked. "I thought it was a good idea."
Danny smiled. "It's better than good, Tuck, it's great!"
Danny turned back to the Creature, and looked it up and down. It was a mostly shapeless, formless mass that sometimes had what looked like arms and legs and a head, and other times was just a large gooey blob. He approached it carefully.
"M . . .Mr. Lancer?" He called hesitantly. He wasn't even sure his teacher could hear him inside the Creature.
"What? Who's there?" Came the cry from inside.
"Mr. Lancer? Is that you?" Danny asked.
"Yes! Yes! Oh, please, for the love of all things Dickens get me out of here!"
"Where are you exactly? Uh, poke out your hand, so I can see where you are."
Danny watched intently as part of the Creature's midsection tentatively bulged out. The creature growled and shuddered its wobbly mass, and with a yelp, the bulge disappeared.
"Dang it!" Danny growled.
"Hold on, Danny, I think I can figure it out!"
Danny turned and watched as Tucker's fingers flew over the keyboard of his PDA.
"Okay, that thing is about seven feet high," Tucker said. "And Mr. Lancer is, what? Six foot? Six one?"
"He's not that tall, Tucker," Sam said. "Maybe five nine."
"Oh, come on, Sam!" Tucker protested. "He's got to be taller than that!"
"Well just because he's taller than us doesn't make him six feet tall!"
"Guys! Please!" Danny pleaded. "Tucker, what are you getting at?"
"If I can calculate the distance between the bulge we're guessing was Lancer's hand, and the top of this thing's head, I might be able to pin point Lancer's location. Then you could fire around him and . . ."
"And free Lancer without harming him," Danny finished. "Excellent! So, what've you got?"
Tucker stopped calculating and looked up at the monster, scrutinizing it, then squinted down at the PDA screen; Sam leaned in for a better look. After a long moment, Tucker said: "Anywhere from the top of its head to about a foot down and in on all sides should be safe. There might be more room, but, since we don't know exactly, I'd rather not take the chance."
Sam pulled back and smiled at him. "Nice calculations, Tucker!"
Danny grinned at his friend. "Okay, now let's put 'em to the test!"
Danny turned back to the Creature who continued to shudder and drip; its captive remained silent and still. From deep inside himself, he willed up an ectoplasmic energy blast stronger than the previous one, and aimed it a foot down from the top of the creature's head. He let loose with a blast that knocked him back a bit, and kept it as strong and steady as he could. The beam hit the Creature's head area and burned a hole through it, blasting a large burn mark on the chalk board behind it before Danny could shut it off.
"Oops!" He said, then snarled, "Dang it!" as he watched the Creature's gelatinous mass repair itself and appear completely unharmed.
"This isn't working!" He cried. "I can't hurt it; it just repairs itself!"
Danny hovered glaring at the Creature; Sam and Tucker stood behind him. The silence hung heavily over the room as the three teens wracked their brains for a solution. The Creature continued to stand where it was, as if waiting for Danny's next move.
Finally, Danny sighed. "I can only think of one other thing," he said. "And, I'm not sure I can even do it."
"What's that?" Sam asked.
Danny turned to her and Tucker. "Go in after Lancer myself."
"What?" Sam exclaimed. "Are you nuts?"
"Do you have a better solution?" Danny asked her, annoyed. "I tried talking to it, I tried blasting it, I tried hitting it - nothing is working!"
"I know, Danny, but . . ."
"But, nothing," Danny interrupted Sam's protest. "I should be able to get in, get Lancer and get out before that thing even knows what I'm doing. Sam, you be ready with the Fenton Thermos!"
"Okay," Sam reluctantly agreed.
Danny turned back to the Creature. "This is your last chance," he said. "to give back Lancer - unharmed! - or I'll . . ."
"Or you will what?" The Creature asked. After such a long silence, the Creature's voice startled Danny. "You will strike at Us with your strange appendages? Try to burn Us with your fire ray? These techniques have not worked before. Why do you think they will work now?"
"I don't," Danny said honestly. "That's why I'm going to do something different. I just wanted to give you one last chance to do the right thing."
"Do the right thing?" the Creature repeated. "What is the right thing to do?"
"Release Lancer," Danny answered forcefully.
"We cannot," The Creature replied with what sounded like regret. "We must avenge our Mother."
"Then you leave me no choice!"
Sam and Tucker watched as Danny disappeared into thin air. The Creature's midsection glowed suddenly and began quivering; they guessed that was where Danny was attempting to overshadow it. The creature roared and thrashed about, splattering it's black and green goo about the classroom. Sam and Tucker overturned a desk and crouched behind it, trying to avoid being covered in the muck, but as quickly as the goo was released, each individual piece began making its way back to the Creature.
Sam and Tucker watched the creature carefully, waiting for Danny to emerge with their teacher; Sam opened the top of the thermos in anticipation. Soon the creature's midsection glowed and trembled again, and Danny burst out, dragging Mr. Lancer by the arm. Though Danny had made them invisible, both were covered with the goo, so Sam and Tucker were able to make out their human shapes for a moment, until the stuff slid off them onto the floor, and made its way back to the Creature.
"Now, Sam!" Danny cried.
Sam stood and pointed the Fenton Thermos at the Creature, and the Thermos hummed to life. The Creature fought it, but the vacuum force was too strong, and it was soon sucked inside the Thermos; Sam slammed the lid back on, making sure to tighten it. When she looked up, Danny was back in his human form, and with Tucker's help the two were settling a now-unconscious Mr. Lancer into his chair behind his desk. Danny gently laid the man's face down on the desk and carefully backed away.
"Come on, let's get outta here," he whispered. "Before he wakes up!"
"Hopefully he'll just think he had a really weird dream!" Sam said as the three quietly slipped out of the classroom, gently closing the door behind them.
As careful as they were, the slight clicking of the door as it closed jolted Mr. Lancer awake. "Huh? Wha?" The teacher cried as he sat upright in his chair and looked anxiously around the room. He felt strange, but not as terribly sick as he had earlier. He wondered how long he'd been asleep.
"Frankenstein's monster what a horrible dream!"
Mr. Lancer stood and sucked in a deep breath, amazed at how easy it was, and how amazingly refreshed he suddenly felt. "Hmm, that's odd," he muttered to himself. "I could barely breathe this morning. I could've swore I was coming down with something."
He shrugged, and gathered up his papers. Looking at the clock he was shocked to see it was after five o'clock in the afternoon.
"Rip van Winkle! I was asleep all day!" He exclaimed. Suddenly embarrassed, though no one was around to see him, Mr. Lancer gathered his papers and belongings, and quickly and quietly exited the school, jumped in his car and sped away from what had been a truly bizarre day.