Chapter 7
Maddie Fenton, was a force to be reckoned with, but angry she was something else all together, maybe even something akin to angry Danny. She forced Tucker's parents to get him out of bed, then made him detail all of the current events in her son's life, something about her voice broke Spectra's little hold on him. She then told Tucker to get over to Sam's as fast as he could. Tucker jumped and ran. He knew that Maddie was going to kick some butt and he didn't want to miss it.
He caught up with Maddie and Jazz just as they were striding up the walk way to Sam's house. Maddie pounded on the door. Miss Hesslop answered. "I'm here to see Sam," Maddie said.
"I'm sorry," Miss Hesslop said in a sweet tone. "Samantha cannot be disturbed at this time."
"Listen," Maddie said. "You better let me talk to Samantha or I'm calling Mr. and Mrs. Manson, and then I'm calling the police."
Miss Hesslop laughed. "You don't want to see Sam," She said.
"I do!" Maddie said as she pushed a stunned Miss Hesslop. "Lead the way Jazz."
"I object!" Miss Hesslop said as she followed. She removed her bracelet and transitioned into her true form.
Maddie, Jazz and Tucker both marched into Sam's room without knocking. Sam, who was still sitting at her desk slaving away at homework looked up in surprise.
"What are you doing here?" She asked in confusion.
"We've come to rescue you," Tucker answered.
"What do you mean rescue me?" Sam said as she stood. "I'm perfectly fine." She caught a look at Spectra who was edging up behind Maddie, Jazz and Tucker and said. "Uh oh!"
Spectra grabbed Jazz first, which of course was a big mistake. The ghost was shocked by the Specter Deflector. Maddie grabbed Sam who started to fight her, as she was still under Spectra's power.
Maddie threw a chair at Spectra who laughed as it went right through her. "You'll have to do much better than that!" She said as she flew toward Maddie who ducked and rolled.
"You're messing with the wrong woman!" Maddie yelled. "I'm going to kick your ghost butt back to the Ghost Zone."
Spectra laughed as she circled Maddie. "Your witty, or should I say not so witty, banter reminds me of another enemy of mine. Danny Phantom."
Spectra flew at Maddie who ducked out of the way and attempted to kick the ghost but missed. "Danny is my son!" She said proudly.
"Ahh!" Spectra laughed. "Then I am going to enjoy taking my aggression out on you. You don't have ghost powers. Fighting me is useless."
"Get real!" Maddie said as she jumped forward and grabbed Spectra, wrestling her to the ground.
"Bertrand!" Spectra called in frustration, as she forced her way out of Maddie's grip and stood. Why weren't her ghost powers working on this woman? She should have already been disheartened and depressed. Maddie executed a perfect round house kick as Spectra jumped to attack her again. The ghost went flying up against the wall and Tucker took the opportunity to suck Spectra into the Fenton Thermos.
"Hey!" A voice cried from across the room as Bertrand came running for them. "Let Spectra out of there!"
"Two ghosts?" Maddie yelled.
"Where there is Spectra there is always Bertrand," Tucker explained. Maddie rolled her eyes in an expression of exasperation.
"Where's Danny?" Ask Sam now that the web Spectra had weaved around her was gone.
"He's off turning evil, fighting Vlad!" Jazz responded as they and hid under Sam's desk. Maddie continued to fight Bertrand. Catching him with the Fenton Thermos wasn't going to come as easy as catching Spectra off guard.
Sam felt like she'd just woken up from a very long nap. "What?" she asked in confusion.
"Penelope Specter," Tucker said as he coward in the back. "You new Nanny was Penelope Specter."
"Danny's gone totally evil," Jazz explained. "At least that's how Mom described it. Sounds like he's completely enraged and he's gone after Vlad."
Sam rubbed the back of her head for a moment in a very Danny like gesture. "Danny would never let himself become evil," she said with assurance. "And destroying Vlad doesn't make him a bad guy."
"A lot has happened," Tucker warned Sam. "Spectra had you pretty good. She even made you break up with Danny." Sam could vaguely remember her talk with Danny. She also knew that he'd come to see her, but Bertrand had overshadowed her, just in case she weakened. Sam felt sick to her stomach, but was glad Danny would understand what had happened when all was said and done.
"Tucker!" Maddie yelled in exasperation. "Where are you with that darned thermos?"
"Sorry Mrs. Fenton!" Tucker called then crawled forward. Maddie set up the situation and Tucker opened the thermos to catch Bertrand. But the ghost was scared, hysterical and mad. He avoided the beam from the thermos and smacked Tucker in the head with a shoe.
"Oh sorry Tucker Sweetie," Maddie said and set Bertrand up to be caught again. This time Tucker was successful in getting Bertrand into the container, even though he was still a bit dizzy.
"I think Jazz wants to start carrying around the thermos from now on," Tucker said as he rubbed the bump on his head.
"Oh no," Jazz said as she held up her hands. "The honor is all yours."
"Ha!" Tucker laughed. "I'll remember that next time you get overzealous at the next fight."
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Vlad stopped in an large clearing. He turned and looked back. Danny, who was right behind him came at him like a shot, pounding into his middle. Vlad went flying and landed on the ground. He flew back up and punched at Danny, sending ectoplazmic blasts of his own. Both ghost hybrids were so focused on their fighting that they failed to see the flash of red zooming toward them.
"All right," Valerie said. "Which one of you goes first?" Vlad and Danny stopped. They kept their eyes on each other each one waiting for the other to move first. Danny decided to take the initiative. Before either Vlad or Valerie could register what had happened Danny caught Valerie and held her in a choke hold.
"I could end this right here," Danny whispered in here ear. "You're better off not fighting me!"
"Let me go you monster!" Valerie cried and tried to kick and bite, but it just wasn't possible for her blows to connect.
"Her fate is in your hands Vlad," Danny called. "You can either save your little pawn or you can show her what a monster you are and I can finally dispatch this pest!"
"Pawn?" Valerie screamed. "Vlad? Masters?"
Danny held her tighter. "Meet your marvelous benefactor," he said. "The only reason he's been setting you up with ghost fighting equipment was to get to me."
"I don't care what you do with the girl," Vlad said. "She's useless in my plan now. Kill her for all I care! Do it now. Wouldn't that just complete your transition from goodness to evil? Daniel Fenton!"
"Danny Fenton?" Valerie screamed as she tried to look around at the ghost who held her. "What the hell? What's going on here?"
"Yes Valerie. Danny Fenton!" Vlad called. "And he's probably going to kill you now, because that's the kind of ruthless baddie he is."
"Me? Ruthless?" Danny yelled angrily. "Am I the one who forces other ghosts to do their dirty work? Am I the one who steals my parent's inventions? Am I the one who has many times plotted to kill my father? Tried to kill Sam? Am I the Green Bay Packer's fan? I think not!"
"Green Bay?" Valerie shrieked. "I've been in league with a Green Bay Packer's fan?"
"I am tired!" Danny ignored Valerie and continued. "I am tired of your constant crap Plasimus. It ends here and now."
"So what?" Vlad called "You think you can defeat me? You think that you can simply send me to oblivion and that's that? You're troubles will be over? You still have your evil self to contend with don't you? And the fact that all your friends and family are growing to resent you. You don't belong Danny and if I am gone there will be no one to understand you!"
Danny landed on the ground. "I'm going to let you go now," He said to Valerie. "I expect you to keep my secret and to run. I'm being merciful. I could destroy you just as easily as I let you go." He released Valerie and she ran, leaving her guns laying in the grass.
"Now back to you. Vlad." Danny said his green eyes flashing their anger. "Are you ready?"
"Bring it on!" Vlad yelled. Danny flew up toward Vlad while shooting an ectoplasmic blast. Vlad laughed as he dodged.
"Is that all you have for me boy? A few badly timed blasts?" He sent a few of his own. A couple hit and sent Danny spiraling down to the ground. Danny shot back up and hit Vlad with a ghostly wail and the older ghost hybrid went tumbling.
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"Did you hear that?" Maddie asked as she, Jazz, Tucker and Sam were on their way back to the Fenton home. Dispatching Bertrand had been quite difficult and had left them all with more than a few bumps and bruises.
"That's Danny," Sam said. She hadn't fully recovered from Spectra's pull yet, but she knew Danny's ghostly wail when she heard it. The group went running to find out where he was.
They had just about reached the clearing where Danny and Vlad were fighting when they ran into Valerie.
"Get her!" Sam said urgently. "She's going to try and kill Danny." Jazz ran as fast as she could and tackled Valerie who began scratching and biting and pulling Jazz's hair in a frenzied attempt to escape. Tucker who had been plugging information into his PDA stopped. His first thought was a wondf of, who should he be rooting for. Of course it was for Jazz, but he really hated seeing his date for the dance getting beat up, assuming she'd still want to go to the dance with him after all was said and done.
"Stop!" Maddie cried as she grabbed both girl's by the neck. "Enough of this fighting! Enough!" Both girl's struggled for a moment then stopped.
"Let me go Mrs. Fenton! Your son is an evil ghost! I need to…"
"Need to what?" Maddie demanded "Destroy him? Destroy my son? Danny who has never willingly hurt anyone in his life?"
"He's a ghost!" Valerie screamed.
"He's a human boy!" Maddie screamed back as she shook Valerie. "And he's my son! You need to think about what you are doing little girl before you get yourself in trouble."
"But he's only part human! The other part of him is ghost!" Valerie yelled.
"He's still human. He's Danny." Sam threw in. The fight seemed to go out of Valerie at that realization and she started crying, she was so confused.
"There, there," Maddie said as she patted the girl's back. "Now we need to find Danny. Where is he?" Valerie pointed to the clearing. If she thought however, that Maddie was about to let her go, she was mistaken as she was pulled with the group to the clearing.
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"Look," Vlad said as he picked himself off the ground after another brutal hit from Danny. "Your cheering section has arrived."
"All the better that they see you go down!" Danny yelled as he bombed down toward Vlad and knocking him up through the sky.
Vlad caught himself in the air then laughed and spun around. "No," he said. "Just more casualties of war." He looked down and saw Maddie standing there pointing one of her many Fenton weapons at him. "Maddie!" he said.
"Mom!" Danny yelled. "Get back!" But Maddie wasn't the type of person to shrink back in a crisis. She saw her son in trouble and was prepared to fight with him. Guns blazing! Vlad laughed evilly and darted forward zigzagging as he went to throw off Maddie's tracking. He then caught her and flew up in the air with her.
"Let me go you creep!" She demanded as she hit at him. But just as Valerie was unable to hit Danny before, Maddie was unable to exact any revenge on Vlad.
Danny flew down toward Sam, Jazz, Tucker and Valerie. Sam took a good look at him. Was he evil Danny again? Had he slipped beyond his humanity? Was he still hers? Glowing green eyes met worried amethyst and she knew. Her Danny was still Danny.
"He's got Mom!" Jazz cried to Danny as if it wasn't obvious. "What are we going to do? What if he tries to kill her like he did Sam?"
"I doubt he'll try to kill her," Tucker said. "He's too infatuated with her."
"Yeah but how do we rescue her?" was Jazz's reply. Suddenly the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle came screeching on to the field. Jack Fenton jumped out swinging his Fenton Jack-A-Nine-Tales.
"Get out of the way kids!" He said heroically. "I'll dispatch this ghost and save your mother." He kept swinging the weapon and yelled up to the ghost. "Let go of my wife you fiend!"
Vlad laughed and said to Maddie. "I'll give you a choice my darling Maddie. Either come with me and be mine forever or I toast your family."
"You're the one who is going to be toasted you creep!" Maddie spat just waiting for an opening to land a good hit on Vlad.
Jack kept swinging his weapon and watching the ghost, waiting for an opportunity to
attack. He made his way over to there group standing, watching in wonderment.
"Listen Danny," he said. "I need you to go up there and distract him. See if you can make him let go of your mom? Everyone looked at Jack in shock. They were utterly speechless. He looked back at them and said in annoyance. "I may be dumb but I'm not stupid! Now hurry up Danny we don't know what that creep will do to your mother!"
"That totally didn't make sense," Tucker said to Sam who tried not to laugh, and failed.
"Okay!" Danny said as he flew up toward Vlad. "Let go of my mom," he yelled.
"Oh dear," Vlad said to Maddie. "Looks like we've got some trouble headed our way. Hang on tight."
"Let me go you rotten creep!" Maddie growled. She finally was able to land a blow to Vlad and he let her slip. Danny flew up and grabbed her away from Vlad while he was stunned. Vlad flew after him at high speed, but the next thing he knew the Jack-A-Nine-Tales had been thrown and was wrapped around him like a tight cocoon. He cursed, "Oh butternut!" as he flew through the sky on a collision course with earth. But before he hit, Tucker opened the Fenton Thermos and sucked him inside.
"Ouch!" Vlad said from inside the thermos.
Everyone cheered as Danny brought his mother back down to earth and set her down carefully.
"Good job son!" Jack said as he patted Danny, who was still a ghost, on the back. Everyone was still speechless.
"Umm Dad?" Danny asked as he changed back to his human self. "How did you know? How long have you known?"
Jack shrugged. "I've known since the beginning Son," he answered in a relaxed ho hum tone. "What does it matter? I figured you'd let us know when you were ready. I told you I may be dumb but I'm not stupid! I know when the portal has been messed with!"
"You mean we've been stressing and hiding all this time and we didn't have to?" Tucker asked incredulously.
Jack nodded then said, "Well I didn't know how Maddie would take it. I thought maybe she'd want to run some crazy tests on Danny. I figured he wouldn't want to sit still for it so. I let things be."
"You knew and you didn't tell me?" Maddie growled at Jack. Jack laughed and put his arm around her waist and they began to discuss Danny's changes.
"Danny?" Sam asked softly as Jazz, Tucker and Danny's parents jabbered away about ghosts and Danny and his abilities. Jazz kept an iron grasp on Valerie so she just stood there with them, looking shocked. "They told me you'd gone evil."
"No," Danny said. "Just angry and needing to scare Vlad. I think I have control of that side of me now. Besides I promised you already. I wouldn't go evil for anyone."
Sam smiled and hugged him. "So what happened to you with the Nanny?"
"Spectra," Sam answered as she pulled away and looked in Danny's eyes.
"Spectra?" Danny asked in confusion. "How could that be? I couldn't detect her. She was scared of me instead of attacking…"
"Excuse me," Tucker said as he walked over to the two love birds. "I think this might answer some of our questions. He held up the silver bracelet. "I think it might disrupt your ghost sense or disguise the ghost or something."
"Let me see," Maddie said as she took the bracelet. She examined it a moment and looked at Jack. "Has something of yours gone missing lately Honey?" She handed him the device and he said. "Ahhh My Fenton Plasma Ecto Disrupter. What's it doing here?"
"Vlad has stolen a lot of your stuff Dad," Danny said. "You need to be more careful with your inventions.
Jack merely shrugged and put the device in his pocket. "Too bad it's malfunctioning," was all he said, failing to explain exactly what it was supposed to do.
"So we're all okay?" Maddie asked.
"All known body parts here and accounted for," Tucker replied
"Let's go home," they all said.
"What about Valerie?" Jazz asked as she pulled the girl along with her. "She wants to destroy Danny just as much as Vlad does. Maybe more."
Everyone turned their attention to Valerie who was looking a little more than scared.
"She's not bad!" Tucker said in an attempt to defend Valerie. He walked over to her. "I mean she honestly thought she was protecting people from Danny.
"It's true," Valerie said as she reached out to touch Tucker in relief that she had someone on her side. "He said you would stop at nothing to destroy Amity Park. I have my own ghost hunting identity to hide too. I won't tell your secret." She admitted that she didn't want anyone else to know she was the mysterious ghost hunter. She had a lot of questions to ask though, but she was sure she could get those answers out of Tucker with no problem.
"But what about Danny?" Sam asked. "You're not going to try and destroy him? Hunt him? Make our lives miserable."
Valerie looked down at her feet. "I didn't know I was making anyone's life miserable," she said softly. "I've just known the misery of my own."
"I've tried to make amends," Danny told Valerie gently. "But you wouldn't let me. I tried to explain what happened but you'd never stop fighting me long enough to try and understand."
"Ok everyone into the RV," Jack boomed.
"Don't you mean the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle?" Maddie asked. Jack only smiled.
"Dude," Tucker said. "I can't believe it. You're dad has known all along."
"Yeah," Danny laughed. "It kinda makes you wonder what else he knows." Danny, Sam and Tucker all looked at each other worriedly.
"What are you going to do with Vlad?" Jazz said as she studied the Fenton Thermos. "Are you just going to leave them in there with Spectra and Bertrand.
"Well, they do have the same hairdo," Tucker said. "Maybe they can exchange styling tips." At that, everyone laughed.
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