I love the smell of fanfiction in the morning. It smells like...victory! Or ink.

I've only got one more chapter to go, and I hope you all like the conclusion I've made for you. It's not in this chapter, don't get your hopes up. The point is that my story's almost done!

Now let's broaden our minds! Lawrence:man off screen starts to play music:


Chapter Twelve: Terminal Delusion

Sam opened her eyes blearily. The room was dark, illuminated by only a few stray lamps and a pile of glowing green crates. Alongside these boxes were Spectra and the Opera Ghost, the latter jotting down writing on a clipboard as he floated along.

When Sam tried to move, she found that she couldn't. As she looked up and down, she fount the reason why: her wrists and ankles were bound with glowing green cuffs, attached to a concrete wall. She also realized that her backpack was on a nearby steel table, its contents strewn all over.

As she grunted against her restraints, O.G. turned to face her, his form a menacing silhouette.

"Oh good. You're up," he said nonchalantly.

"Where am I? Who are you? What did you do to Danny?" yelled Sam.

The ghost's smile melted into an arrogant sneer. "In order: about fifty meters under school property in a specially designed bunker; I'm Erik, patron ghost of the Opera Garnier; and your little boyfriend has been the victim of my brilliant plan."

"Boyfriend?" queried Sam. "Danny's not my boyfriend."

"Whatever," said Erik. "The important matter is that the final phase of my plan is about to be complete, and there's nothing that you or your boyfriend–"

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!"

"Whatever; there's nothing anyone can do to stop us!"

Sam looked from Erik towards the glowing green crates.

"What are those?" she asked, calmly this time.

"Those," said Erik, "are crates filled with approximately six hundred pounds of the deadliest plastic explosive compound known to either man or ghost: EC2."

Sam thought for a second. "That's what you must have taken off the Fenton Mainframe," she thought out loud.

"You really are quite bright. Can you figure out what EC2 does?"

Sam glared defiantly.

"No? It is an ectoplasmically-powered explosive. One tablespoon has the destructive power to disintegrate a 10x10 foot block of concrete. Imagine what all this can do to Casper High..." He laughed maliciously, sending chills down Sam's spine.

"You won't win," she said with defiance. "Danny will stop you."

"Danny?" asked Erik mockingly. "Danny, you say? I'm counting on that." And he phased through the ceiling and out of sight.

Sam stopped struggling against the manacles to think: How was she going to escape this?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Penelope Spectra: "You don't really think you'll win, do you?"

Sam smiled coldly. "Things change."

"How confident," said the doctor. "Even if Danny manages to get here in time to stop the EC2 canisters from going off, he's still doomed to die."

These words cut through Sam like a dagger. "You're lying!" she yelled. "Your little friend doesn't stand a chance against him! Danny's gotten through worse things than this!"

"It's not my friend he should worry about," stated Spectra. "It's what he gave him."

The teen was puzzled.

"You see," Spectra continued, "when Erik used the ecto-transfusion to sap away Danny's powers, the process had the partial effect of a mosquito bite. The transfusion infected Danny with the same thing that killed Erik in 1897. See, in addition to making his skin that disgusting color, Danny is now only hours, maybe minutes away from a massive brain aneurism."

Sam's eyes shot wide. An aneurism anywhere had the potential to be fatal, but a blood vessel bursting in the brain from atrophic stress was incurable and instantly fatal. If what Spectra was saying was true, Danny would be dead even before he got a chance to fight.

"Oh don't worry," said Spectra playfully. "He won't feel any pain except for a really bad headache. He'll just be gone," she snapped her fingers, "like that. Besides, the chances of you two ending up together were pretty much nonexistent anyway!" She laughed as she left Sam's sight, walking into the darkness.

A tear rolled down her cheek at the thought of it...

Danny became invisible as he flew over the football field. It was packed with spectators for the game tonight, who were oblivious to the drizzling rain. In the distance he heard the rumble of thunder as dark clouds gathered in the dimming light. As he winced at the pain in his ribs, he took out his cell phone, calling Tucker on the ground.

"So this EC2 is some kind of ecto-explosive?" he asked.

"Yeah," replied Tucker. "And with the supplies he stole, he probably has enough to take out half the city. At least the energy he took from you emits a homing signal like yours. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go look for Sam."

Danny looked at the screen of his phone; two green dots lined up in a city grid were being uploaded from Tucker's PDA. The readings showed that he was nearly on top of his enemy. As he came to a stop in the middle of the field, he saw Erik phasing out of the ground, causing screams of panic among the players and spectators.

"There you are!" said Danny as he made himself visible. Lightning crackled in the distance as the drizzle became a downpour. "You've got nowhere to run, Erik!"

Calmly as ever, Erik pressed a button on his wrist. The lights of the stadium began to take on a bluish hue as electricity beams cris-crossed between photovoltaic panels set up across the field. Danny recognized this as a form of ghost shield.

"Actually, my boy," retorted the Opera Ghost as the downpour increased, "you're the one with no place to run. HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Sam was starting to slip into delirium from Spectra's presence. She didn't even have to talk anymore to fill her patients full of misery and doubt. The goth was afraid that she might turn suicidal unless she was removed from the doctor's presence; this only strengthened her resolve to escape the bonds.

Suddenly, the sounds of a roar, a blast, and an explosion came from an unseen part of the room. This prompted Spectra to activate the comlink that she had put into her ear.

"Bertrand, report," she said with a tone of authority. A groan came out of the earpiece.

"Bertrand, answer me!" No reply. In frustration, she took the earpiece out and crushed it, letting the parts sift through her fingers.

"Well, then," said Spectra. "I believe that you've served your purpose."

Penelope's form changed from a young woman to something akin to a tangible shadow. Her legs became a spectral tail, her eyes a solid blood red. She floated over to Sam, raising her talon-like nails to sever her jugular vein.

A burst of green sparks erupted from behind the ghostly psychiatrist. She screamed in agony, then shivered out like a clubbed fish. As she collapsed to the floor, Sam saw Jazz, clad in chrome body armor, holding the weapon end of the Fenton Gost-Peeler out like a dagger. She pressed a button on the suit, making it retract into the base gun.

"Are you okay, Sam?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah. Could you get me down from here?"

Tucker burst through a previously unseen door, flooding the sterile room with light.

"Sam! I'm here to–"

He looked at Jazz, who was peeling the manacles away like wallpaper.

"Um..." Tucker was at a loss for words. "Never mind."

Sam fell to the floor as the bonds dissolved. She ran over to Tucker, dragging Jazz along with her.

"Where's Danny?" she asked, very worried.

"Up on the field, fighting the Opera Ghost. Why is there green stuff all over that hallway wall?"

Jazz blushed. "That's Bertrand. But never mind! You can explain everything on the way to the field."

Sam gathered up her belongings from the table and took off out the doorway, following Jazz and Tucker back to the surface. With luck, they wouldn't be too late...

Omigosh! How will Danny win? What will become of Amity Park? Why am I asking you all these questions?

Keep sending the reviews; I need them now more than ever, in this most desperate hour!

See you soon!

Your sincerest regards,

Monsieur Caracal.