Chapter 9 - A Mothers Love
Danny woke up, hours later. He looked around and saw that he was laying on a couch in a furnished room. It was clear of creatures and it was reasonably peaceful. Danny sat up quickly but felt the pain from his old wound. It seemed when he was human, his wound from Morace hurt a whole lot more. What or who had moved him? He remembered that he blacked out in the hall and he remembered seeing his mom-HIS MOM! He stood up but had to sit back down. He still didn't have a lot of energy to support his human self and he wasn't ready to try ghost mode yet. The door opened and who should step in but the one person he didn't want to be seen by at the moment.
Apprehension filled the room, making the air tense with raw emotions waiting to be seen. Danny watched her move slowly toward him, the hood having been removed a few minutes ago. Time slowed between them as they watched each others moves slowly. Danny tried to stand but his knees crumbled beneith his weight. Maddie, ever the faithful mother, caught him just before he fell. "Danny? Are you still tired?" Danny looked up at her, not sure of what to say. "Danny?"
Danny watched his mother catiously, his mind confused and unsure of what to say. He curled his hands into fists and made his choice. "Mom...I need to tell you something..." he spoke slowly, his words chocking as he spoke, "Mom I..." Danny had no choice. He mumbled something and those familure rings of white surrounded him. Danny looked at his mother, not as Danny Fenton but as Danny Phantom. Maddie didn't seem too surprised and this confused him. "Why aren't you surprised?"
"Danny, when Invis-"
"It's Phantom. I really need a publisist." Danny sighed and shook his head, feeling tired once again.
"When Phantom collapsed, I saw him change into you." Danny cursed his luck, why always him? "I'm not upset and I'm not going to hunt you. Why didn't you just tell your father and I?" Maddie closed her eyes for a moment, "Nevermind," she said as Danny opened his mouth, "We were so intent on capturing Phantom...what must you have thought of us?" Danny looked at his mother again, his green eyes fading to blue as his eyes started to close. Maddie caught her son just as he fell and waited for him to open his eyes. White rings turned him back into Danny Fenton before he opened his eyes.
"Sorry...I'm just a little tired. I didn't want to tell you guys cause I thought you would hunt me and throw me out." Danny felt as if something heavy had been lifted off his chest, but there still hung pleanty of more weight.
"So...how did this-" Maddie never got to finish her sentence as two spiders and one bomb head came into the room. Danny stood up but fumbled down again. He forced himself to go ghost and fire shots at the bomb head, making it's body explode on itself. Danny threw up the shield just in time to miss the explosion and getting attacked by the spiders, which had decided to do a drop attack. Danny, who was forced to keep his shield up, could do nothing at the moment other then use defence. Maddie pulled out one of her smaller guns and looked at her son. "What should we do?"
"You better think of something. I can't keep this shield up much longer." Danny forced himself to fight, gritting his teeth as the blackness of his dream world once again tried to take over.
"Bring the shield down and roll away when I say. I can take them out with my gun." Danny nodded and frowned at the same time. As much as he loved his mom, he knew she couldn't take down two of these by herself. Danny, once she gave the signal, would drop the shield, but he had another idea in mind. "Now!" Danny dropped the shield and rolled away, firing his ectoplasmic blast just as Maddie fired her own weapon. Within a matter of minutes the spiders were on their back side, down for the count. "Are you okay son?" Danny nodded and stood, leaning against his mother for support.
"Yeah, but right now fighting Plasmius is looking real easy." Danny shook his head when his mother looked at him, "Don't ask." Maddie respected her sons wishes and was about to say something when he stopped her and threw up his ghost shield. "Damn! That was new!" Maddie, shocked at the way her son was speaking, didn't notice the manifestation hurtling toward them. Danny and Maddie were flung backwards, landing on their backs. Danny groaned and saw his mother getting up. He fired at the thing before him.
It looked like a woman with vampire teeth and long blood red hair. She let out a screech that sent them flying further back. Maddie stood up, shaking her head and dodged another shriek but Danny wasn't so lucky and hit the wall only to be pinned down by a spider, it's teeth so close to his face that he saw the blood running slowly down them. He smelt the flesh in it's mouth, burning at the acid in the creatures great jaws. Danny knocked the spider off him by kicking with both feet and just dodged getting imapaled by a fire head.
"Danny!" Maddie dodged another shriek from the woman and ran to her son. They were back to back and Danny knew his shield woudn't be much help against he woman like creature. Her hair, hung in wet strands, dripping thickly with blood. Her teeth glistened with blood as well and some ran down the side of her mouth. Her body, almost perfect except for the missing area where her breasts normally would have been, was a void filled with black liquid. It fell to floor, buring it quickly. Danny took out the bombhead, throwing his shield up to avoid the sharp metal from it and threw the spider into a wall with another blast. He knocked off it's legs, destroying it.
He figured this one was a shrieker. He caught a glimpse of it from the destroyed book. Danny dodged one of her attacks but didn't expect what happened next, as her hair grew in length and tightened around him. He felt the blood seeping onto him. He let out a cry as his mom cut the hair off his body. Danny fired at the disfigured woman over and over again until she fell, the black void in her chest over filling, allowing black acid to burn away the floor. He fell to the floor but made sure he stayed in ghost mode.
"Are you alright?" Maddie asked. He nodded and pulled her out of the way as the fire head tried to cut his mom's head off. Danny barely had time to dodge it and just missed getting his own arm cut off. He fired at it, but had his moms help. The fire head fell to the floor, motionless. "Okay...what was that?"
"That was a fire head. Gotta watch out for their knives." Danny brushed himself off and watched, from a window as bombheads were tearing away at some spiders that had attacked them. Danny sighed, feeling some relative peace for the moment. Maddie touched his shoulder causing him to jump. "So where are dad and the others?"
"Not sure. I woke up alone. No doubt that they're going through the same thing we had to." Danny turned away. "What's wrong Danny?" Danny frowned, remembering Sam. Tucker at least had a few Fenton gadgets on him. Sam wasn't carrying anything and neither was Jazz for that matter. He was really worried about his friends, his dad would make it through with sheer dumb luck in most cases.
"Sam and Jazz don't have anything to protect them." Danny slipped back into his memory. He watched again as Sam melted away saying it was all his fault. It's not! It's not! Danny tried to tell himself but he wasn't even sure of himself anymore. Danny tried to think of something else but it wasn't working.
'A trip down memory lane?'
"What do you want?"
'This game is getting good. I like it, don't you?'
"No." Maddie watched her son talk to the air. "Why are you bothering me this time?"
'I would like to introduce myself.' Maddie heard the voice this time, 'How are you? Do you like my game?'
Maddie heard the voice this time,"Why are you doing this?" Maddie asked as she hugged Danny tighter to her body. "Where is my family and Danny's friends?"
'Ah, ah ah. The game wouldn't be fun if I gave you all the answers, now would it?' The girl laughed at the anger building up inside the woman, 'You don't like my game either? How sad.' Danny felt the fire burning insdie his body, making it hard to move let alone breathe. Danny let out a wail that destroyed a wall, knocking it down allowing some more of the spiders to come out. Danny was still wailing as the pain increased. The pain died down in his body and fell to his hands and knees, panting heavily. Maddie bent down and touched his shoulder lightly.
The girl laughed at the anger building up inside the woman, Danny felt the fire burning insdie his body, making it hard to move let alone breathe. Danny let out a wail that destroyed a wall, knocking it down allowing some more of the spiders to come out. Danny was still wailing as the pain increased. The pain died down in his body and fell to his hands and knees, panting heavily. Maddie bent down and touched his shoulder lightly."Danny?" He looked up for a moment before closing his eyes, falling into a dead faint. Maddie had to work quickly and threw up her own shield. The spiders tried to break through but it was no use. She worked quickly and sat Danny against her, trying to warm up his cold ghostly body, trying to wake him up. Thankfully his eyes fluttered open and he threw up his own ghost shield so she could drop hers. "Danny, are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah..." Danny took a little more time to stand up. "When I drop this shield I want you to run, get away from these things." Danny staggered a bit, "Try to find anyone." He was going to stop them from attacking his mom but she wouldn't have any of that.
"You listen to me Daniel Fenton!" Danny watched her, "I'm going to stay by your side. We're going to find the others together and get out of here." Danny frowned and slowly lowered the ghost sheild. Maddie shot at the spiders with ease, now that they had found a way to take them down easier. Maddie was quick with her gun but Danny had slowed down a bit and was running out of power. He didn't react in time and found one of the spiders latched onto him. He shot if off and fired numerous blasts in the direction of them. The spiders fell with ease but a crawler had somehow latched onto him in midst of him removing one menence. Danny felt another come at him from the front tackling him to the ground.
'You're losing your touch.'
Danny fired again knocking the crawler off. He fired at it again and again until he heard the snapping of bones. He did the same with the crawler on his back and fired at a shrieker who was about to choke his mother. Maddie smiled a thanks and fired her own gun, destorying a bombhead. Unfourntunatly, Danny did't get his shield up in time and had to duck to miss being impailed by one of the broken shards of the buzzsaw like blade.
Five fire heads stepped out from the wall along with two more spiders, and one hunch back. Danny groaned, getting into a defensive stance. Maddie prepared herself also and watched the malfactors come closer to them, preparing to kill them.