A/N: Thank you, people, for the reviews. Sorry it took so long...busy with school and other things, too...just one of those days, (or weeks, I guess)...anyway...here's the fifth chapter.

Chapter 5 - Three Surprises

Ember's ghostly wail echoed through Danny's head like it was burning into him like fire. Easy listening music was bad enough for him, but music that had the power to control people? It was the last thing he wanted to hear right now, with his powers suddenly going haywire...

"...Oh, Ember, so warm and tender...You will remember my name..."

The happily cheering crowd at the close of the verse greatly contrasted the panic in his head as he wondered about his current situation.

"Ember?" he thought. "Here? Now? WHY!" Questions poured into his head, one after the other.

First off, what was he going to do? His powers were mysteriously shorted out for some reason...and there was no way for him to fight Ember in this condition. Second, there was the notion of his friends...they had unprotected ears...

He had forgotten about his friends...shutting one eye, and looking behind him, he braced for the worst...

But the impossible had occurred...

Sam AND Tucker, together, they were...

...fine?

They were fine! How?

Panic for his friends' safety suddenly turned into confusion. As he walked over to them, he managed to only blurt out small, incomplete phrases, complete with matching hand gestures.

"But you..."

"But I..."

"How!...you two..."

"Ember...there..."

"YOU here...NORMAL!"

Sam and Tucker looked at him like he was going nuts. But in Danny's head, it was exactly how he felt right now.

Tucker broke Danny's phrases of confusion. "Uhh...man? Is something wrong?"

Danny let himself breathe for a second before he was able to form his first complete sentence.

"How...are you guys not under Ember's control!"

Tucker and Sam, laughing a bit, pulled back their hair to reveal two sets of Fenton phones.

"C'mon, Danny," said Tucker. "Don't you think we'd know your battles at this point?"

Danny was aghast. Still in stunned mode, he blurted out, "Where did you guys get those!"

"We kept them from the first encounter with Ember," said Sam. "You don't need them, after all, since you're part ghost."

"Except for a certain love song..." thought Danny. He was still angry at Ember for that.

But either way, his confusion started to melt away with that statement. "So that's where those things went," he said. "I always wondered what happened to those things."

So Sam and Tucker were going to be fine. But that still didn't solve the greater challenge...

Ember...how was this fight going to be possible without his powers?

Sam and Tucker recognized the trademark look of worry in Danny's face, even if it was covered by a black eye.

"We know what you're thinking," said Tucker. "I don't know what you can do."

"This is just great!" said Danny out loud. "There's a mind-controlling ghost on the loose, and there isn't anything I can do about it!"

A voice. "...Nothing you can do about it? That's not the person I know."

Danny stopped and turned. His sister Jazz was standing there, Fenton phones in her ears.

Now Danny was blown away. First Sam and Tucker pull a miracle out of nowhere, and now Jazz was here! She was supposed to be away with their parents...

Wasn't she?

He was going crazy, wasn't he?

But even stranger, Sam and Tucker seemed to look more stunned by her sudden appearance out of nowhere.

"Where did you come from?" asked Sam. "I thought you were away!"

"I was able to convince them that I wasn't going," said Jazz. "It was just another convention for ghost-hunters out of town. I really think Mom and Dad are still convinced that I'm a ghost...that's why I didn't want to go...they might have wanted to take me there as a specimen or something..."

Danny laughed. "I thought they stopped believing that already!"

Jazz shrugged. "They're our parents. What do you think?"

"Well, she's got a point there," said Sam.

"But I still have one question." said Danny. "How did you know we were here?"

"I didn't know that you were here," said Jazz. "I'm probably just like you guys. I heard there was something going on down here, and I wanted to check it out. Thank goodness you decided to show up."

A piercing thought suddenly coursed through Danny's head.

"Jazz!" he thought. "Do you still have all those weapons in your purse?"

"Yeah," she said, opening it. "Everything's still here, why?"

A wave of good feeling...of relief, washed over Danny.

"No," he thought. "Thank goodness you decided to show up..."

"Danny?" asked Jazz. "What's wrong?"

Danny broke out of his stupor of seeing the weapons and looked at her.

"Jazz, I need to use these."

"Use these!" asked Jazz. "Don't you have ghost powers to take care of this?"

Danny suddenly blushed. "I...uh...umm..."

Jazz's expression suddenly changed from wonder to suspicion.

"What are you not telling me, Danny?"

"Let me explain," said Tucker. He told her the whole story.

"My goodness, Danny!" she said, after hearing about the shortened powers. "How do you think you lost them?"

"I don't know," said Danny. "That's a big question mark on my account."

Jazz turned to Sam and Tucker.

"You two didn't have anything to do with this, by any chance, did you?" asked Jazz to Sam and Tucker.

Danny and his friends gave her answer in the form of a dark glare with the "What are you thinking!" look.

"Geez, just asking," said Jazz, handing her purse to Danny.

Danny was about to take off, but Tucker stopped him.

"Wait a minute," he said. "This is dangerous. Do you think you can handle them without your powers?"

"Them?" thought Danny. "Who's "them," Tucker? It's only Ember!"

Sam cut in for him. "Hello, Danny! Ember is part of a quartet! And besides, what if you get hurt even more? You already hurt your eye from that fight with Technus!"

"Technus?" said Danny. "This is from Desiree!"

"Oh, uh...yeah," said Sam, flustered. "I knew that. But still, what if you get hurt?"

There was deep concern in her voice. Jazz picked up the concern and smiled at Danny, thinking about her own line from the previous night. He responded by elbowing her in the arm.

"I'm going to be fine," he said. "I've fought without my powers before, you know that."

"I'm still worried," said Sam. "The last thing you need is a trip to the hospital."

"I'll be fine," said Danny, putting on the Specter Deflector. "The next thing you'll see is me coming from the crowd, holding Ember in the Fenton thermos."

"Or vice versa," said Tucker, under his breath.

Sam elbowed him the ribcage.

"Don't say that again!" she said quietly.

Jazz smiled at them.

Then, winking at Danny, she said, "Go get her. Show Ember who you are!"

Danny hugged his sister and ran into the crowd.

"Be careful, Danny!" said all three as he disappeared.

"Think he'll be able to pull it off?" asked Tucker.

"He's Danny," said Jazz. "I know he'll be able to."

000000000000000000000

"What am I doing!" thought Danny as he ran through the Ember-stupefied crowd. "I'm not going to be able to do this!"

Ember's haunting refrains carried through the night wind out towards the ocean. He had that horrible thought that those chords were brainwashing the people out there in the boats. That could just add to more people that could be used against him in the upcoming fight.

And there were already thousands here...

But he had a job to do...he had to sneak past the security guards to gain access to the backstage, so he could capture her from the back.

Easier done than said. Also under Ember's control, the guards were cheering down in the mosh pit.

Laughing, and happy about the amount of time that he realized that this saved him, he silently made his way up the stairs that led towards the back.

There were some stagehands back there, but they weren't paying attention to anything. Danny quickly walked through the shady corridors and finally reached the curtains surrounding the stage.

He could see the cheering crowd, the crowd that gave Ember her power...her hair was flaring up so high that it was a wonder that no one could notice that it was actually fire.

But then again, they were so overpowered by Ember's voice that they weren't even paying attention.

And she wasn't paying attention to what was happening behind her either, this was his chance to capture her without fighting at all.

His heart racing, Danny took out the Fenton thermos and started to open it.

It was almost immediately knocked out of his hand by a flying arrow. Judging by the wind that he felt against his head, it was fired from close range.

"Sorry, but I can't let you do that," said a dark voice behind him.

Feeling his veins turning into ice, Danny looked behind him.

It was Skulker, and he had a big smile on his face.

He was here, too!

Yes, I know, another cliffhanger. Sorry about that.