Yes, Anne, it does seem a bit rushed, don't it? But then again, this thing's gonna end soon. BTW, if no one caught that Ultimate Enemy reference, you know how SkulTech had that ray that short curcuited young Danny's powers; the palm pummeler, I believe? That's why Skulker thought he ought to remember that technology later. By the way, lots of stuff is happening at the same time here, too. Now, back on topic...

Disclaimer: I don't own either "Danny Phantom" or "Pirates of the Caribbean". Most of the characters you see are either property of Nickelodeon or Disney. Some others are my own.

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The Spirit of the Ship

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Chapter 18: Plan of Action

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"GUSTAVO!"

He heard his name called, and he knew who called so. Gustavo turned to his dangling "guests" and said to them, "Uno momento, por favor." He then floated up to the top of his levitating rock to confront his old "pal", Jack Sparrow. As soon as they looked glares, lightning struck, and it began to rain.

"I take it this change of weather is your doing?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Gustavo answered, "it's amazing how much control I really have over the elements. What do you want, Sparrow?"

"Gustavo," Jack began, "right now, all I'm asking as that you let Adriana go right now. And I saw Danny get over there, and whatever you did to him, I want him released, too."

Gustavo laughed at what he thought was a pitiful request. "What makes you think I'll do that? Everything's going just the way I want it. Nothing's going to change my mind anytime soon."

"I know this will!" Jack drew out his blade, as if requesting action. Before Gustavo could do the same, Jack threw it to the ground. Gustavo was stunned.

"You're willing to surrender your life just to save their's?"

"It's better the youth live on, I suppose."

"As you say. I'll let them go." With that, Gustavo stomped the ground beneath him, and Jack heard a cracking sound and two teenage screams to follow. He only assumed the worst.

"Oh, did you mean to let them go on the land?" Gustavo said, absolutely aware that he let Danny and Adriana drop into the ocean. "I'm sorry, Jack. You have to give me more detail."

Full of rage, Jack grabbed his sword and charged at Gustavo, yelling all the way. Gustavo just sttod there. As soon as Jack came within good hacking range, a rock wall popped up in front of him. Jack's actions stopped, and great surprise and pain followed when a large chunk of the wall fired right at Jack's chest. Gustavo popped his head out of the hole with an evil grin and said, "Do you really think you can kill me, Jack? I'm a God with this!"

"Then why are you fighting back?" Jack asked, getting up and holding his chest.

"I'm just trying to make this interesting for us both," Gustavo said, lowering his wall, then drawing his sword. "We both know you can't kill me as long as the staff is powering me."

"But I know I can still try!" Jack said, throwing a slash.

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Danny and Adriana were falling, screaming all the way down. They hit the ocean and quickly sunk a few feet. Danny tried getting to the surface himself, but not before quickly remembering Adriana was trapped in a metal cage. Knowing that metal sinks, Danny swam back down as fast as he could to retrieve her, where if her life ended, his could change entirely. He got his hands on the cage and tried swimming back to the surface with it, but to little avail. Adriana and the cage were too heavy for him to swim up on his own. If anything, the two were barely moving at all.

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"Jack was trying to save that girl," Elizabeth said, watching helplessly as the cage hit the ocean. "Will, we must do something."

In little response, Will stared at the ocean for a moment, looking at what remained of the ripples the cage's impact left. Will then ran up to the edge of the fort. Before he got his foot on the wall, he told his fiancee, "Meet me at the port."

Stunned at what she thought he would do, Elizabeth said, "You're not going to-"

"I am," Will interupted, diving into the ocean below afterwards.

Like a human dart, Will hit the ocean with the speed to send him down further than Danny and Adriana were at. It was good for Will, though, as he simply swam up and grabbed the cage as he did so. He and Danny got to the surface just inches away from Danny and Adriana passing out and really drowning, yet they had much difficulty keeping enough cage above water for Adriana to breathe.

"Keep her head above water!" Will said to Danny, keeping him informed on how to help his friend survive.

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Jack and Gustavo's battle grew very intense, and very quickly. Everything Jack threw, Gustavo blocked, and vice versa. Jack went for a slash, which Gustavo dodged a la limbo. Recovering, Gustavo tried throwing a swipe at Jack's feet, to which Jack jumped over in the nick time. Jack's next offensive strike led straight into Gustavo's sword, which he was using to block. Their blades were now crossed.

"What do you say we make things a little more interesting?" Gustavo said. Jack didn't know what Gustavo was getting at until he felt a quaking underneath him. He lost his balance and stumbled over, but got his composure back just before Gustavo could cut his head open, blocking his attack. Looking beyond Gustavo, Jack noticed Fort Charles moving away from him. He concluded Gustavo was moving his piece of territory.

"Impressive trick, Gustavo," Jack said, grabbing a handful of dirt from behind him, "but you forgot one thing." He threw the dirt into Gustavo's eyes, blinding him. Gustavo started screaming in pain, turned back, and retaliated as Jack said, "I'm a pirate!"

Gustavo's screaming quickly turned into heavy, frustrated breaths as he said, "You forgot one thing, too." He turned around at Jack, his eyes now bloodshot and pebbles and dust floating in front of his face. "I control the earth. Whether it be the the tiny rocks that get in your eyes..." As Gustavo was saying this, the dust and pebbles started forming into a rock about the size of a twenty-first century golfball. "...to the slightly bigger ones." Gustavo then sent the rock at Jack at a great speed.

The rock nailed Jack in his left eye, to which he responded by quickly covering it and yelling. He took his hand off his eye, now blackened and almost swollen shut, to see Gustavo charging at him. Jack reacted just in time to block it his attack.

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After an intense struggle and several close calls, Will and Danny finally got themselves and Adriana at the pier and were helped up by Elizabeth and a recently freed Norrington. Will and Danny were exhausted trying to keep Adriana, let alone themselves, alive, yet Danny was the only one who knew it was worth it. His future was safe. ...At least for now.

"You're a brave young man, Turner," Norrington complimented, "but a very foolish one, too."

"I've been told I have a reputation for doing stupid things," Will said, having to take breaths every now and again.

"I'm very proud of you, Will," Elizabeth said sootingly, stroking her fingers through Will's soaked hair.

"Okay, before I totally barf," Danny said, ruining the moment, "isn't that Gustavo's big rock thing coming to the town?"

Everyone looked to see Danny was right. Gustavo was heading toward the town slowly, and rotating at a simular speed.

"What's that mad man doing?" Norrington said, still unable to believe what was going on.

"He's fighting Jack," Adriana mentioned. "Gustavo's all-powerful as long as he has the staff of the gods. He controls all the elements."

"So," Will said, "what do we do now?"

"Danny's the only one who can stop him," Adriana said, which made Danny jump in awe.

"Are you nuts!" Danny asked, as if Adriana wasn't aware of what happened to him. "Gustavo's the most powerful guy out there and I lost my ghost powers. If you ask me, the odds are in his favor if I go up there. It's sui-"

Danny was cut off when Adriana held his hand. He suddenly became more calm and slightly embarassed with his facing turning scarlet as evidence.

"I know you can do it," was all Danny needed from Adriana to get his confidence back up.

"So," Danny said, "how do we stop this guy? I'm up for ideas."

"Looking at his path," Norrington said, using his navigation savvy, "he could be reaching over the baker's at any moment."

"What are you suggesting?" Danny asked the commadore.

"If you plan on fighting him yourself," Norrington suggested, "I can help you onto the bakery's roof. If that rock maintains its hieght over the village, you might be able to jump and pull yourself onto it."

"For everyone's sake," Danny said, "I hope you're right." Danny looked to Will and Elizabeth, still unfamiliar with their names, and said "You guys get Adriana out of her cage, then when you do, stay where you are. I don't want to risk any of you. Red coat, come on!"

Before Danny and Norrington went off, Will stopped them by shouting, "Wait!" Danny stopped and turned around.

"You'll need this," Will said, throwing his blade to Danny, who caught it by its hilt. "Do you know how to use one of those?"

"Please," Danny said, confidently, "Jack helped me through most of my training. What's the worst that could happen?"

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Jack was favoring quite poorly against Gustavo. He found himself on his back for the third time in their battle. Being a pirate, Jack was used to using unfair tricks to take advantage of his opponent. Since he was on a flat piece of land, his options were very limited. The fact that Gustavo was in total control of it, from making it float to making it move, wasn't helping much, either.

Slightly disoriented, Jack narrowly blocked another attack by Gustavo, who now had a rather demented look in his eyes. The two had their blades crosed. Jack got up and maintained he defensive cross, not even blinking as he stared Gustavo down.

"You seem to know me very well, Jack," Gustavo said, stroking his ego by taunting him, "but do you also know what I can control?"

Jack thought he knew the answer up until little trails of stream rose from Gustavo's sword. It seemed the raindrops very quickly evaporated once they hit Gustavo blade. Jack then remembered the staff gave Gustavo the power over fire, and must've been using it to heat up his sword.

"Can you take the heat?" Gustavo asked, pushing Jack back and taking the offensive.

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Danny, with his borrowed sword held by a belt loop on his pants, and Norrington made it to the bakery without a moment to spare. There were crates, probably full of sacks of flour, alongside the structure to give the two more height. After placing them next to eachother and getting on top of them, Norrington helped Danny onto the rooftop the building, which turned out more difficult than it sounded with a wet, steppled roof. After Danny pulled himself on, he had to keep his balance on the roof's point, which was almost more difficult than getting on it in the first place.

There, Danny saw the Gustavo's giant rock platform coming toward him, slightly to his left. Jack was still putting up a fight with Gustavo as both were on the edge of the flat structure. Gustavo's sword was steaming incredibly, almost like the water evaporated without even touching his sword first, and shone to a very bright orange, to which sparks flew everytime his or Jack's swords hit eachother.

It was now or never for Danny. He had to make his jump over to the rock. When it came within range, Danny took his leap of faith. His body hit the platform, and Danny was keeping himself on only by his arms, kicking in the air to pull the rest of himself up.

He could make out the action, though. Gustavo, whom Danny was directly behind, was throwing furious strikes at Jack with his smoking blade, now burning yellow. Sparks flew everywhere as his final attack cut Jack's sword cleanly in two. The broken piece flew in the air and slid in front of Danny, who could see the cut part was red hot. Jack was too distracted at what Gustavo did to his sword and was stabbed in the shin. Jack screamed in unbearable pain and fell to the ground, his pants slightly ablaze. He was in too much hurt to notice his pistol was forced out of his belt on impact.

Danny saw Jack writhe in pain as Gustavo, his sword cooling down, laughed, brought his hand up, and said, "Allow me to help you cool that down for you."

At those words, a stream of water, most likely from the ocean, rose up to the rock behind Jack and surrounded him, encasing him in a floating orb of sea water. Jack struggled as much as he could to get out, to which Gustavo just moved his hand to keep Jack in. Danny could tell by how Jack was struggling, he didn't get a very good breath.

Picking a good time to gloat, Gustavo watched Jack suffer and say, "Isn't it ironic for a pirate to drown without even being in the ocean?" It wasn't long after when Jack stopped struggling and just floated there.

Fearing the worst, Danny used all the upper body strength he had to push himself up, then threw his leg up and rolled himself on the rock. Now on, he grabbed Jack's cut blade and threw it at Gustavo. Since he was in despiration, he didn't have time to aim. The blade didn't hit Gustavo where Danny wanted, but it did hit him nonetheless on the back of his outstretched wrist. Gustavo held it under his other arm after letting letting out a painful gasp, which broke the concentration he had on Jack. The water splashed down followed by a very satisfying thud by Jack's lifeless body on the elevated land.

Gustavo, breathing loudly and furiosly through his teeth, turned around to see what had stopped him. Anger filled his eyes to see just what it was.

Danny Fenton.

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Get ready. The final battle comes after this! R&R! Well, you already "R"ed, so, just "R" right now.