Maddie carefully opened her eyes and looked around. She was on a roof, and her head was pounding. There was, thankfully, no sign of Creeper. Danny hovered on his side a few feet away, his eyes closed; when she went to sit up, he opened them. "They didn't hurt you, did they?" he asked in a voice that promised full retribution for the slightest bruise.

She shook her head. "Creeper?"

"Dealt with."

At the look on the boy's face, she decided not to press for to details. Instead, she stood and dusted herself off. "And Silver?"

Danny rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Who cares? The less I hear from her, the better." He paused to stare at the ground for a second, then threw himself around his mother's neck. "I'm glad you're okay," he whispered.

Now, if that isn't just the cutest thing…

Maddie shook her head, a gesture for her son to ignore the interloper, and led him to the edge of the roof. "I don't suppose you learned anything about your father and Jazz," she mentioned hopefully.

"No," he sighed, lowering her to the ground. "I found Ed Johnson, though." He told her almost everything that happened while they were separated, although he left out the most gruesome bits. "I guess he ran away while I was fighting Creeper," he finished. "I was afraid to leave you to look for him."

"That's alright, sweetie." Maddie found a rifle and spare ammunition in an abandoned police car. With unexpected expertise, she reloaded and cocked it, then sighted down the barrel. She gave a satisfied nod and turned back to her surprised son. "We'll look for him while we go. Come on."

Danny grinned, grateful that his mother was on his side for once. Unfortunately, his good mood was interrupted by an explosion over his head as a pair of arsonists jumped from a window to land between him and Maddie. Now that he wasn't more concerned with rescuing a helpless bystander, he was able to see that the creatures had two heads and four legs. It looked like two people had been fused together by the searing heat. One of them was larger than the other; it didn't have the misty dark blue glow of the other captains, but its six wing-like appendages glowed with white hot intensity.

I've missed watching you fight, amante, Silver whispered. It makes me...heh…hot…

A gunshot rang out; Danny had just enough time to make sure it was his mother doing the shooting before the arsonist captain was on top of him. It was fast. Very fast. It bounced against his ghost shield, which he then dropped in favor of attacking. Almost before he could even raise his arm, the thing was on him again. He grappled with the burning talons for a few minutes until he was able to blast it off of him and fly to safety above its head.

He glanced over to see Maddie just finish off her attacker and something exploded in his face. The arsonist captain threw another fireball at him and succeeded in knocking him out of the sky. Rather than press its advantage, however, it slammed its arms into the ground and created two mini explosions that reformed into another pair of normal arsonists. The boy called a warning, but Maddie was already moving again.

The arsonists were both difficult to defeat and painfully easy. They advanced with unnatural speed, trailing short-lived flames in their wake. In the interests of not wasting ammunition, Maddie waited until they were mere inches away before she fired. It was dangerous, and it was scary; but at that close range, it took care of them in one shot.

She fired an experimental shot at the captain and sighed miserably when it bounced off. She hated being helpless while her baby was in danger, but instead of standing around worrying, she edged past the supernatural duel to reload her rifle at the police car. It was just as well that she did, since the captain took that moment to create two more subordinates.

While his opponent was otherwise occupied, Danny slammed into it fists first, receiving a painful blast of heat for his trouble. At least these creatures didn't come back to life like the Inferna did, although the captain's ability to endlessly spawn reinforcements made it a moot point. It screeched and jumped high up on the side of the building to throw itself on Danny, who managed to duck underneath it. He blasted it again, then fired a constant beam of energy at it. It screamed, shuddered, and finally exploded.

"A brilliant climax, to say the least!" Killjoy exclaimed as mother and son ascertained each other's well being. "However, you may find it rather difficult to progress with the streets congested as they are."

Maddie looked around. Ahead, the road had caved in. To the right, a burning building had collapsed to block the way. She glanced at Danny, who shook his head, unsure whether to be amused or irritated. "Um, Killjoy?" he called, laughing. "I can fly and go intangible."

A second or two went by. "Ah, yes," the doctor muttered. "How positively foolish of me to have forgotten. Very well!" A pair of doors opened in the building to their left. "I suppose I shall then humbly request that you come into my theater. The direction you require is this way, anyway, and I believe it will save you some time."

They looked at each other, both silently wondering if they could trust Killjoy. His motives may have been pure, but his methods left a great deal to be desired. Maddie fought down the desire to take charge of the situation and protect her son. This situation required a fighter, not a mother, and she had no idea what to expect. Danny had been through this before, and he knew what he was doing. As much as it galled her to admit it, he didn't really need her. "What do you think?" she asked quietly.

He seemed surprised, but quickly shook it off and glared into the darkened theater. "No slayers," he told the doctor.

"My dear boy, I can with the utmost honesty guarantee you that there will be no slayers."

Danny wasn't sure he liked how Killjoy worded that, but he did have to admit. Aside from throwing monsters at him in some misguided attempt to heal his perfectly intact psyche, the man had never been hostile. Uncaring, sure. Depraved, most definitely. But never hostile.

In fact, thinking back to all their meetings, Danny had to admit that Killjoy had helped in his own weird way. More or less.

Against his better judgment, he led the way in.

The place was trashed. Slayers had been through at some point, leaving the walls and floor covered in pinpricks and slash marks. A few dozen people had apparently been using it as a hiding spot. A lone gorger stood looking around stupidly, unable to decide where to begin in all the bloody bounty. An ectoplasmic energy blast and a rifle shot felled the creature in less than a second. Danny and Maddie entered cautiously, alert for any attacks. Neither was surprised when the doors slammed shut behind them.

"And you have come at last," Killjoy announced happily. "Long have I been waiting for a patient to match my last. Alas, you are not he. But! You do make for an interesting case study, my dear boy. Something to pass the time…"

Something growled from far too close, and they looked at the top of a set of steps to see Copperfield, a pack of maulers at his heels. "So you did beat Creeper," he said. "Good. That means it's just us now."

There was not a lot of room to escape in the lobby, but Maddie ran and fired at the same time. She was pleased to see that the rifle did considerably more damage that her lost ecto-pistol. While she took care of the endless supply of maulers, Danny focused on the man himself.

Copperfield fired and vanished to reappear somewhere else, fire, and vanish again. Fortunately, he seemed content to let his maulers deal with Maddie and never fired at her. Unfortunately, she did not have an infinite supply of ammunition; this fight needed to end fast. Danny spun around to find his enemy, but he was too busy dodging gun fire to attack.

"Sometimes one must sacrifice in order to gain, yes?" Killjoy said suddenly. He actually said more, but Danny stopped listening. When Copperfield appeared again, he simply blasted and didn't bother trying to dodge. The hunter was knocked backwards, but Danny was unable to press the advantage.

Maddie saw what happened. She only had one bullet left, and she used it on Copperfield before he could disappear again, then started welding the rifle like a club. Danny slammed into his quarry and blasted him again, but the hunter dodged and vanished. The maulers were easily defeated after that, and none came to take their place.

"You win, child," said Copperfield's disembodied voice. "But I will not underestimate you a second time. Next time we meet, I will be the victor."

After a few more moments, Danny called out, "Killjoy!"

"I distinctly recall promising there would be no slayers," the doctor reminded him. "Furthermore, I am very disappointed. I gave you this opportunity to have some closure, and you have completely squandered it."

"Well, you're not a very good doctor, are you?" Maddie asked loftily.

"I beg your pardon, madam!"

Danny snickered at the impish look on his mother's face. "A good doctor inspires trust," she said, quoting something Jazz had said once. "It doesn't inspire much trust to throw monsters and madmen at your patients, does it?"

"Bah! My methods are perhaps a bit unorthodox, but I have never yet failed to cure a patient!" Lost in his ranting, he didn't seem to notice that they had found the back door.

"That was cool!" Danny exclaimed once they were in the back alley.

Maddie smiled at the praise, and started to answer, but movement ahead stopped them both as Ed Johnson peeked out from behind some stacked crates. "You guys are alive?" he asked, stunned.

They exchanged glances and Danny shook his head. "More or less," he replied.

"We're glad you're okay, Mr. Johnson," Maddie said sincerely.

"Ed, please." Ed stepped out of hiding to shake hands in greeting. "You have no idea how glad I am to see a pair of friendly faces. Let's get out of this alley before the gorgers come back."

They left quickly, but Danny couldn't help but wonder how the man managed to survive this long with no weapons or any ability to defend himself.

A/N: I would like to take this moment to say that, as much as I would like to claim Creeper, he's not mine. Silver and Ed are my only creations.And the mauler captains.