With more determination than ever, Danny was flying towards the Maldum base. He wanted complete revenge on the Maldums for using him for power purposes and lying to him about what they wanted to do with him if he were to join them. He needed some way to stop the Maldums from trying to launch a complete attack on the Ghost Zone and in the real world, and the best way to hinder those plans would be to steal his powers back that the Maldums originally stole just a few days before.
Danny saw the Maldum base, hovering over the infinite abyss of the Ghost Zone. Now that Danny knew he was going to be against the Maldums, he thought the entire fortress looked more evil than he remembered it. Luckily for him, Myrus and Cobaark didn't know that he had switched to the Escerons' side, which should have given him an advantage.
Danny flew into the Maldum base after going intangible. He started quietly searching around, looking for the room that his powers were stored in. The dark hallways echoed with every step he took, but he tried his best not to make them loud. He searched in every room, but he didn't find a single vial. Danny was just about ready to give up until he heard something in a room down at the very end of the base. He thought he heard two people talking, and he could have sworn there was a machine humming in the background.
Anxious to see what was going on, Danny quietly started floating towards the door to the room he heard noise coming from. He looked in and saw Myrus, and he was hooked up to a large machine. Just as Danny looked in, he saw another ghost start walking away from the machine: Cobaark!
Danny watched Cobaark leave through the back of the room, and then saw Myrus close his eyes. Myrus was on a table very similar to the one Danny was on whenever the Escerons were trying to take his power, and it also looked similar to the table Danny was strapped on when the Myrus and the three shape-shifting dragons were actually stealing his powers from. Danny would even go so far as to say it was the same table.
Cobaark was watching Myrus nervously. Myrus was lying down on the metal table, but he also had a bunch of wires hooked up to him. The wires led back to a giant vat that had a glowing material in it, a material that looked a lot like the stuff that was in the vial with Danny's powers. That was what it had to be, but why would wires be hooked up to Myrus if Danny's power was really in a vat behind them.
Wait a minute…Danny thought softly as he stared at Myrus on the table with the wires hooked up to him. Cobaark looked really nervous with what he was about to do. He had no idea what either of them was doing.
"Lord Myrus?" Cobaark asked extremely nervously. Cobaark was standing at a control panel with his hand on a very large switch. "Are you ready to begin?"
"Pull the switch, Cobaark!" Myrus commanded, not looking away or anything.
Cobaark didn't hesitate for a moment. He pulled the massive switch, and on a computer screen above the vat, the words DRAIN INITIATED.
As it was happening, Myrus slowly closed his piercing white eyes while Cobaark bolted out of the back of the room. Danny took this opportunity to quietly go into the room. He looked at the giant machine that Myrus was hooked up to, and Danny finally realized something.
"Wait a minute!" Danny said as softly as he could. "Those are my powers! Myrus is hooking himself up to all those wires, and those wires are attached to that giant vat, and that giant vat has my powers in it! Myrus is draining my powers from that vat and making them flow into him! I gotta stop it!"
Danny thought frantically about how to turn the machine off before he finally turned around and saw the most obvious thing he could do.
"Oh, right. The switch…" Danny said, feeling a little stupid. He went over to the switch and flipped it back in the OFF position. Instantly, the computer and machine loudly shut off. Myrus opened his eyes and looked around, and it didn't take long for him to see Danny standing right there.
"Danny? What are you doing!" Myrus demanded. "How come you aren't trying to sneak information from the Escerons!"
"Why am I not trying to destroy the Escerons?…well, let me see. Oh yes," Danny started in an annoyed, sarcastic tone. "Because the Escerons aren't the ones who stole my power and lied to me about it!"
"What are you talking about?" Myrus tried to say in his best-confused voice.
"Don't play dumb, unless it's natural," Danny said. "I know all about what you guys are trying to do! You're trying to take over the Ghost Zone because you think no wars will break out if you're one giant nation, and to try to beat the Escerons, you disguised yourself as doctors and lied to me about all the high ectoplasma stuff and all that! You just wanted to use my powers and steal them, so you sucked them all out of my body when you were posing as doctors. I know it all."
In a fit of rage, Myrus tore all the wires off of him and screamed as loud as he could. The loud yell was enough to make Danny jump back, and Cobaark came bolting in through the back door to the room.
"My lord, what is it?" Cobaark asked, hoping he didn't do something to hurt Myrus when Myrus was hooked up to the machine.
Myrus looked at Cobaark and said, "Young Danny has just switched to the Escerons' side! I consider him a traitor now, and you know what I think of traitors. Kill him immediately!"
Saying this, Myrus stormed out of the back of the room and slammed the door behind him. Danny turned his head to face Cobaark.
"I may have lost to you once," Cobaark recalled, "but your little Esceron friends aren't here to help you now, are they?"
Saying this, Cobaark fired a blast of energy from his hand at Danny, and Danny flew out of the way just in time to dodge it. He was much faster than Cobaark remembered him being, but Cobaark just had to drop it and continue fighting.
Cobaark began charging at Danny again, this time, forming a ball of energy with both of his hands. Just as he was ready to fire it at Danny, Danny fired some of his own ectoplasmic energy at Cobaark.
Cobaark was sent flying backwards and crashed into a wall. Danny flew over to Cobaark with sharp speed and landed right in front of him.
"I…I don't get it," Cobaark said. "You weren't this strong the last time we fought…"
"Hmmm. Wonder why?" Danny said in a smart aleck tone. He formed a fist and punched Cobaark in the face as hard as he could; so fast that Cobaark's head made a dent in the solid wall behind him as Danny punched his face.
"Oh, that's right. Now I remember!" Danny said, giving Cobaark another solid blow to the face. "Because I only had a third of my powers then! Now I have two thirds, and once I get my powers back from that giant machine Myrus was just hooked up to, I'll have them all back!"
Danny made one more solid blow to Cobaark's head, and Cobaark was clearly in great pain. Danny tried to reach into his pocket to pull out the Fenton Thermos, but then he made a horrible realization.
"Oh no!" Danny said. "My dad broke the Fenton Thermos! Now I can't stop these guys! Oh no…what am I gonna do?"
"I'll tell you what you're not going to do!" Cobaark moaned. "You're not taking your powers from that vat. It is completely ghost proof!"
Thinking Cobaark was too weak to get up and fight, Danny walked over to the giant vat of the glowing green powers. He tried firing some energy at it, but that didn't so much as leave a dent in the vat. Danny tried punching it open, but Danny was only going to break a fist like that.
"Hmmm…this is pretty well secured," Danny said as he looked at the vat. "I'll have to get them some other way. If only I could…"
Before he could finish his trail of thought, Danny was knocked in the back of the head by some energy. He fell to the ground in pain, and looked up. Cobaark began to approach him, and had another ball of energy start to form in his hand.
"You're so pathetic, ya know that?" Cobaark said. He fired the blast of energy and hit Danny in the head with hit. Danny screamed in pain, but to both his and Cobaark's shock, he wasn't dead or unconscious.
Danny tried to get up, but Cobaark stomped on his back as he started to rise, and Danny fell flat on the floor again. He moaned as Cobaark started to form another ball of energy in his hand. There was no way he was going to survive another blast like that if it hit him.
"You could have been great," Cobaark said. "Lord Myrus and I would have treated you like a king if you joined our army. You could have received powers beyond your wildest imagination if you joined us, and you could have been assured you'd never have to fight your rivals again. But no…you just had to choose the foolish path. The other path…"
Danny finally regained some of his strength while Cobaark was giving his great speech, and Danny was able to see Cobaark ready to fire the fatal blast of energy at his head.
Danny finally just flew up into the air as fast as he could, and he tried to grab Cobaark as he was flying up. He succeeded, and carried Cobaark in the air going almost one hundred miles an hour (about fifteen miles an hour slower than he normally would be able to) and as he was just about to hit the ceiling, Danny raised Cobaark's body above his head and smashed Cobaark into the ceiling.
Cobaark moaned in pain as Danny pulled him out from the ceiling. As soon as Danny pulled Cobaark out of the ceiling, he threw Cobaark against a wall. Danny watched as Cobaark tumbled to the ground after he had been launched at the wall.
"And that is why you should never imitate any villains from those cheap action movies!" Danny said. "Didn't you know that always happens when they rant on about how great the good guy would have been if he turned bad? While they're just babbling on and on, the good guy always finds a way to strike back. It's so clichéd it's funny."
Cobaark snarled angrily as he got up. Danny's taunting just infuriated him, and he was ready to attack again.
Cobaark flew up into the air and went right in front of Danny.
"But this isn't one of those action movies, is it?" Cobaark said. "So that doesn't guarantee your survival at all!"
As he said this, Cobaark fired a ball of energy at Danny. Danny did a back flip in the air and just barely dodged the blast.
"But it doesn't guarantee victory for you, either!" Danny countered. He threw the hardest punch he could at Cobaark, but Cobaark just flew out of the way.
For a long time, the two did nothing except exchange punches and energy blasts while just barely dodging their opponent's. It went on and on like that for what seemed like forever, until Danny finally realized this was getting nowhere.
The fight's never going to end at this rate, Danny thought as he continued to act offensively and defensively. I gotta find some way to distract him and make him think he's won, then get him when he won't be expecting it. But how can I…of course! I can PRETEND I'm dead, then when Cobaark is walking away to tell Myrus he succeeded, I can get them both!
Trying to make Cobaark the least suspicious he could possibly make him, Danny "accidentally" pushed himself into Cobaark's fist as it went hurtling towards him. Danny pretended to be hugely impacted by the blow and sent himself flying back at the wall. He acted like he was crumpling to the ground, and when he hit the ground, he made himself go out of ghost mode. The white ring erupted from his mid section and split itself into two, then it moved in opposite directions up and down Danny's body. In a matter of seconds, Danny was back in his t-shirt, baggy jeans and shoes. His hair was black again and his eyes went back to pale blue.
Danny pretended to be defeated and unconscious, and hoped Cobaark would buy it. Although Danny had his eyes closed and couldn't see a thing, he could tell Cobaark was approaching him.
"Now, to get rid of the body…" Cobaark said. He lifted Danny up and started carrying him away.
Gee, would he ever think to check for a pulse? Danny thought to himself as Cobaark was carrying him. First he rants on, practically BEGGING me to get back and attack him, and now he's thinking I'm dead without even checking for any signs of life. How stupid IS this guy?
Just as Danny was ready to attack, he felt himself get thrown out of Cobaark's arms. He opened his eyes out of instinct and saw he was falling down a large hole. He smashed onto the floor below, and then looked up. He saw the hole in the floor above him getting sealed up, blocking his only escape route. But, that turned out to be the least of his problems. Danny heard heavy breathing, and when he looked in front of him, he saw three giant dragons that looked very hungry.
The dragons looked like giant, fat lizards with a long tail, but their skins were different colors; one had pink skin, another green, and the third had blue skin. They looked like stereotypical dragons.
"I take it these were the shape shifting dragons Raschenda and Vundeter told me about?" Danny said nervously as the three dragons started to close in on him.