Somewhere in Vlad's Territory

There is a saying of the ghost known as Richard 'Rose'…

"He's got a soul so cold and rattlesnake mean it's said that humanity erased him from the history books and the devil kicked him out of hell."

And Buford Tannen might have believed it, too, if he'd believed in the existence of hell. Which he didn't, because if anyone deserved to go there, he did…

But as it stood, he could only emphatically agree with the first half of the saying. Then again, he couldn't imagine a devil much crueler. Rose was a sadist if there ever was one; he didn't just kill for fun, like Buford had done with Injuns and Chinamen. He tortured anyone he felt like torturing and got a kick out of it. Buford was afraid he would turn on the gang one day.

Part of this paranoia came from the fact that Buford did not like taking orders from anyone. When he'd been alive, he had been the boss. He had called the shots. Now, he was taking orders from this half-pint white-clad little…

"Alright," came Rose's voice from the other room. "We're moving out. Our target here goes by the name of Flare. He's ghost, and he can burn ya. We're not out to do much more than rough 'im up, though. Our real target…"

He reached into the pocket of his pearly white jacket.

"...is this here bunch." Rose held up three pictures. One was instantly recognizable as the Legendary Phantom Child that Boss Vlad feared so much. Another was the fabled ghost huntress called Maddie Fenton. The middle one struck Buford the most, though.

"Is that Clint Eastwood?" Buford asked, hovering closer to Rose and the ectoplasmic photos.

"Vlad said this hombre's a-called McFly."

That name definitely rang a bell… The Irish bugs that had lived outside of Hill Valley back in Buford's livin' days. "Is that so?"

"Quit yer starin'! We gotta move!" Yelled Rose. Everybody jumped to it. Nobody disobeyed the man when his finger was on the trigger.

And Rose's finger was always on the trigger.

And Incase You'd thought I'd Forgotten Timmy…

The godchild and his duo of faries struggled through the woods outside the Colorado compound. "Are we there yet?" Cosmo complained.

"Shut up!" Timmy yelled. "How can you be tired? You get to ride on my wrist!"

"Yeah, well I've been here collecting your sweat for 48 hours now!" Cosmo retorted.

Timmy smacked himself in the head. "I wish I could fly!" Why he didn't just wish to be where Danny was is lost to time. But fly he did, and arrived at the cemetery much quicker than he would have otherwise.

"Hey Sport, you mind if we take our normal forms for now?" Wanda inquired. "All this being wrist bands is sort of draining our magic." Timmy nodded in ascent. The fairies poofed themselves above his head.

Cosmo began wringing liquids out of his green hair, and Wanda poofed herself a dry outfit. "Now what, Timmy?" Wanda asked.

"I dunno. I thought you said this was where they were headed, Cosmo?"

"You trusted my sense of direction? HAHAHAHA!" Cosmo laughed hysterically, much to Wanda's chagrin.

"Ugh. Are you sure I can't just wish us home…"

Cosmo and Wanda closed Da Rules. "We're certain, Timmy. You can't make any wish that would alter time or speed up the harvest."

Timmy arched an eyebrow. "Why can't I speed up the harvest?"

"That rule was written back when most kids with Godparents were farmers. Speeding up the harvest would throw off the natural way of the economy. So the law is pretty much vestigial."

"It's what?" Timmy asked. Then he shrugged. "Can you teleport me off this rock?"

"That we can still do, Timmy," Wanda replied.

"Good. If Danny Phantom fails then I want a way off earth!"

Wanda sighed and would have fallen on her back in one frame, but she was not an anime character. So she just gave Timmy her Angry Glare.™

"You know, Sport," Wanda said suggestively, "don't you think maybe you could help out? You do have magical fairy godparents here to grant your every super-powered wish!"

"That's a brilliant idea!" Timmy yelled as if it wasn't obvious. He only wished for things like that when he thought it would be fun.

Timmy pulled a card out of his pocket. "I wish you two looked like Clefto and Ace again, and I wish I had…"

He held up the Maho Mushi trading card he'd removed.

"…All the powers of Sensei Kaze-Fu from the Galaxy Championship Saga of Maho Mushi!"

The fairies became dogs with capes, and Timmy suddenly glowed as he received the powers of the venerable old master.

"I wish I knew how to get into their seemingly secret base," Timmy told his fairies. Suddenly, the knowledge of the Hail Sizzle password popped into his mind. He ran over to the tombstone the magic had identified and entered the cringe-inducing phrase. The tombstone slid down, and Cosmo and Wanda suddenly changed from dogs to gasping mice and darted into the shadows. Timmy wished for stealth mode once again…

Inside the Compound…

Danny fell flat on his back, but as always, he got right back up. His mother had taken the revelation about his weakness against Vlad pretty hard. But how could he hope to undo ten years of Vlad's experience and his enourmous army when he'd been powerless against him before? It wasn't like Danny to give up, but something told him they'd need a plan they didn't yet have before they could do anything. Or perhaps he was just paralyzed by fear. He hadn't faced anything this challenging since… Since Sizzle…

Stepping backwards, Danny brought his green Soul Saber down at Dora, who deflected the attack with her customized blue version and stabbed at Danny. Since Dora was human and Danny wasn't in ghost form, theoretically the ectoplasm disrupting blades wouldn't injure them.

Then again. Other ghost gadgets had worked on Danny's human form. A flash of purple light whizzed by.

At Marty's suggestion and his mother's order, Danny had agreed to let Dora train him. Sam had been gone for the past few weeks, according to his mother, and was expected to show up for more supplies at anytime. For some reason, Danny wanted to see her more than anything.

Danny parried a jab and sidestepped a vertical cut, and then countered with a few sweeping blows. Dora was definitely good, and Danny thought he could learn a lot of sword techniques from her. And if he ever got the past back to normal, he'd make sure to train with his mother in whatever martial art she was a Ninth Dan in. Perhaps he could eventually add some sort of melee weapon or sword to his standard arsenal: he was quite partial to katanas.

BZZT BZZT A loud nose began blaring all around the trainer and trainee. A proximity alarm.

The base was receiving a new guest. Danny hoped it was Sam. But as he got to the fairly large antechamber, everyone looked puzzled. There was nobody there at all. But the elevator had clearly come down. If an invisible ghost had been near, then Danny's sense would have picked it up.

And the odds of wind or debris randomly punching in Hail Sizzle were about the same as an explosion producing a habitable planet…

Just then, there was a poof of lavender smoke in a corner with the words Totally Visible in it. And out from it stepped..

Snake Eyes from GI Joe? No, not really, but that is what Timmy looked like in his new superhero outfit. The biggest thing to distinguish him from the GI Joe character was the duo of gauntlets on his arms, one green and the other pink.

Several of the denizens of the base pointed weapons at the diminutive figure.

"Who the heck are you?" Dash yelled.

Timmy walked forward, and said, "I am Kaze, Master of Winds and chi!" He had artificially deepened his voice, which sounded ridiculous. Danny thought it reminded him of a young male version of Ember McLean, but this guy couldn't be her. Unless she'd possessed him! Danny realized he couldn't sense ghosts in overshadowed people.

Maddie walked into the room.

"I beseech you all to allow me to assist you in your fight!" again, Timmy felt his voice sounded forced. He whispered into his gauntlet that he wished he had a better voice, but the wands denied the request. Apparently, all the voice actors and actresses not killed during the war had moved to Brazil, so the OddParents had nothing to go by. Kuso.

"Danny," his mother said, "I can handle this. There is someone in chamber R-3 who I'm sure you'll want to see."

Sam…

Danny used the thumb scanner to open the door to Sam's room. He gasped when he saw her. She'd grown up. Her hair wasn't tied up as it had always been in the past. It hanged over her shoulders, short but not cropped off. Her face had a scar on it, as did her right forearm. But otherwise it was the same face. Instead of her traditional goth-gear, she wore a black ghost hunter's jumpsuit like Dora's, but it was half removed, the part that would cover her torso tied around her sides.

She'd filled out, too. What was obviously an old shirt was stretched so that it left most of her abdomen uncovered, but it still bore the little purple design Sam always wore. Is this what his mom had meant? Sam had changed, just like everyone else. But something about her demeanor let Danny know it was more than just a cosmetic change. She seemed almost like a different person, and that just from looking at her.

"Hi, Danny." She said. She walked over to him and place her hands on his shoulders. Is this really my childhood friend? They both thought. "My gosh, look at you. You haven't changed a bit."

"Sam. I'm so sorry. I heard about Tucker."

Sam's eyes got a hard edge, as did her tone of voice. "There's nothing to be sorry about. Not for you."

Danny looked up at her. She was a good head or two taller than him now. Sympathy was gone from her eyes. She looked… empty.

"So. Where did that come from," Danny said, meaning the scar on her face.

"I'd rather not talk about it," she said. "Just more proof that you try and save lives, and all that happens is more get lost; people get hurt."

"What do you mean?"

"When I tried to save Tucker from that (Sam swore here) Clockwork.." She trailed off.

"Tucker died anyway, and a bunch of people that wouldn't have died with him did, because I chose friendship over what was right. And all I have to show for it is this (she cursed again) scar." But she wasn't in a fury. But there was something bitter burning below the surface.

BZZT BZZT!The alarm again.

Danny and Sam rushed down to the antechamber as before. On the way, they only spoke once.

"When did you get in?" Danny asked.

"I came in yesterday through the north entrance." Sam replied.

When they arrived, the kid who called himself Kaze stood by the others, while Dora and Paulina struggled to remove the Ghost Catcher from door frame. They turned it off, releasing the ghost caught inside…

With spiked hair and denim shirt…

"Flare!" Danny blurted as Dora jerked him off the ground and pinned him against the wall with her Ecto-Repel cuffs.

"Do you know this ghost?" Maddie asked her son.

"Yes! We met in the past! Dora, let him go. He's on our side," Danny said. I think, he added silently.

"Danny-chan! Mcfurai-san!" Flare said as he greeted Danny and Marty.

"Um. Have we met?" Marty inquired.

"Oh, that is right. You have not met me in the past yet. How does time travel not confuse you? My mind is boggled every time I think about it!"

"I'm used to it," Marty said, but his words were drowned out in people talking and general confusion over the ghost that had stumbled in.

"Flare, what are you doing here?" Danny yelled. "These people hunt ghosts. You're a ghsot. Hence, you come here and you'll get hunted!"

"Actually," Qwan interjected, "we tend to shelter and/or redirect non-evil ghosts towards Brazil. That's where President Rice and all the nation's voice actors went."

"Whatever," Danny told the oversized ex-jock. Funny how Qwan and Dash had changed, but still retained much of themselves. At least they looked up to him now. Danny shoved the selfish thoughts out of his mind. This was no time for self-indulgence.

Flare caught his breath. (What he needed to breathe is unknown. But ghosts had to have some sort of energy to keep them anchored in the physical plane.) "Rose," he gasped out.

"Richard Rose and his gang roughed me up and said they were coming to kill you, and told me to stay away. I don't know how they new about our connection but.."

Sam interrupted him. "You idiot! You led them right to this place.. They're going to be here any.."

"GET DOWN!" Sam yelled, shoving Danny to the floor and simultaneously drawing a metal device from her belt and pressing the button that caused it to extend into to about 15 inches long, and deploy blades on both sides. It was a ghost-cutting axe like a Soul Saber.

BANG

BANG BANG

Danny looked up. Sam had deflected two ghost bullets away from him.

The other shot had hit Dash square in the chest. And as he lay dying, Rose walked up, removed the loading chamber from his revolver, spun it once, and pushed it back in. That was all it took to reload his gun. It could be done in about a second and a half, maybe less. Then he unloaded six extra shots into Dash's skull, everyone standing, paralyzed by their base suddenly being compromised by a bunch of western rejects with ghost revolvers.

Sam, though, wasn't going to take this. She moved next, hurling her axe at Rose. Rose dodged to the side and it slammed into the face of one of his gang, which numbered about 12..

And then all Hades, Heck, Hell, and the Netherverse broke loose simultaneously. Danny went ghost and attacked Rose as he dodged.

"Guusuto-Ken!" he yelled, taking a cue from Flare's attack naming system, and launched a massive ectoplasmic fist at Rose. It knocked him back against the wall of the compound, which he phased through.

Gunshots echoed through the small room, deafening the people inside. Marty dived into a corner and saw Buford.

Buford saw Marty. "It is you! You varmint. You're Clint East..." his rant stifled as Sam cut him down with the Soul Saber she'd removed from Danny's belt. Buford faded back into the ghost zone.

Dora and Paulina were holding there own as well. The cousins worked with almost telepathic precision, deflecting the ghost-shots, which moved slower than real bullets for some reason. The Second Law of Villain Dynamics stated that the more powerful an enemy's projectile, the slower it must move, so these poisonous ghost projectiles were moving slow enough to deflect.

Dora dived at the feet of a gunslinger and cut at his legs, he jumped the cut and blasted down, but Dora rolled out of the way and Paulina attacked. The phantom gunslinger realized his mistake about two seconds before Paulina's Soul Saber pierced his face. He disappeared in a puff of ectoplasmic smoke.

Danny activate the Fenton thermos, and a bunch of ghosts scattered. Three got sucked in, reducing the number of remaining ghosts to four. One of them shot at Maddie, who fell over and pulled the Amityville Horror and used it to unload on the ghost foolish enough to fire at her and her companions.

"Like before!" Flare yelled.

Danny back flipped over a ghost writhing in pain from the wound his mother had caused and picked up Sam's axe. He used it to hack off the arm of a ghost and then dodged as Flare shot a stream of fire over his chest that seared the ghost nearest the exit. Danny felt pain explode up his leg and saw that the ghost he had maimed had just used his remaining arm to jab a knife into Danny's right hamstring!

"GAAHHOUGGH!" Danny yelled as he collapsed. He'd felt worse thought. He put his hand in the ghosts face and fired an ecto-blast, knocking it back into Qwan's fury of cuts with his red Soul Saber. It caught the ghost through the abdomen and he fell apart.

Danny sighed in relief…

BANG BANG BANG!

The shots crackled up from the ground, all intended for Maddie Fenton. Flare had been able to erect an ectoplasmic shield. But he was a split second to late. Because as Rose phased through the ground, he saw on of his un-aimed shots had hit Maddie Fenton in the arm.

And he had three rounds left….