I was about to yell at Sam when another metallic tentacle wrapped itself around my mouth. Not inside, but I couldn't move my jaw, so trying to stall Sam by talking was now out of the question.
Sam smirked with her mouthful of teeth and the tentacles around me tightened. "The best way to ruin the resolve of a hero is to destroy everyone he loves." She said to me. "Who should we start with?"
She raised an arm and a tentacle slithered out of her palm. It snaked down into the crowd. "Paulina will be first I think." The tentacle came back but this time it was wrapped around the Latino girl who I once had a crush on. Her eyes were closed and Sam glared at her with contempt. "And now let's make things more interesting."
The golden metal inside Sam started glowing. I expected her to try and drain my powers again, but instead Paulina was Sam's target. "My time belt does more than simply allow me to control time Danny." that was pretty obvious to me. "I can create illusions and make people see what I want them to see," duh "and now Paulina will see that you are the one killing her!" Uh-oh.
If I could move my jaw, it would have dropped. Paulina's eyes flickered open and she looked around in terror. Then she looked at Sam. She thought that she was looking at me. "Danny what are you doing? Why is there metal coming from you? Gahh! It's getting too tight… Help! Danny! Please stop…" Sam's tentacles tightened around Paulina and she no longer had enough breath to speak. Slowly she turned blue.
I struggled against the bonds holding me. They were now so tight that the extent of my movement was blinking. How could Sam do this? Paulina was suspended on the tentacles in front of me like a creepy marionette. I stared helplessly as one of the golden pieces of metal worked its way into Paulina's mouth.
Sam set Paulina down on the ground. For a second I thought that Paulina was dead, but the truth was far more sinister. Paulina twitched, groaned, and opened her eyes. They blazed a scarlet red color. Her tan skin became lighter.
Once again I struggled against the metal trap I was in. Sam cackle sounded like radio static and she brought her translucent face close to mine. "Aww, is poor Danny sad that I killed his girlfriend? Miss Shallow? Poor little Danny." I glared at her, because that was about the only way I could show how angry I was, and a faint flicker of something flickered across her face.
My optimistic side told me that it was fear that I had seen on Sam's face, but it could have been hatred. I wasn't going to give in. If I did, everyone would suffer Paulina's fate. Although how could I stop Sam anyway?
"Maybe we should try and dig a little bit deeper Dan." She said. Another tentacle slithered out and brought back another victim. This time it was Valerie. My eyes widened and Sam half glared, half smiled at me. "Yes, Valerie will make a nice edition to the robot race I'm creating. She hates ghosts too, enough to dump you and continue hunting them anyway."
In my world before I changed time, I had wanted to become Valerie's boyfriend. Unfortunately she hates my ghost half so much that she stopped dating me so that I wouldn't be in danger when she hunted Danny Phantom. I hate irony.
Unwanted thoughts flooded my brain. There was another reason why my ghost half was bad. It got me into so much trouble that now I almost wish that I didn't have it back. Sam watched my expressions and I saw her smile widening. I forced myself to keep a blank face so that Sam would not see how much I was suffering.
Clearly that was exactly what Sam wanted. As soon as my face became devoid of emotion she frowned and looked back to where she was holding Valerie. "You are lucky that you changed time Dan." Sam said. "This Valerie doesn't love you. Her demise won't bother you as much as it would have. I love you more than any Valerie ever could."
I blinked and stared at Sam. Sam had never said anything like that before. Why did she keep telling me that? Was it all a trick, like before? I desperately wanted to believe that Sam loved me but how could I? I felt like the villagers in "The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Sam had tricked me once, so now I didn't believe her, but was it true this time?
Sam silently changed Valerie into developing robot. My heart ached with unrequited love towards my former girlfriend and I felt tears spring to my eyes. I blinked them back before Sam would see them, and felt extreme hatred towards Sam rise in my chest. I didn't care what happened but Sam would pay for what she had done.
Valerie stood next to Paulina and they both glared at me. I assumed that they now hated ghosts as much as Sam does. That wasn't so great for me. I looked back at Sam and she stared back with a sickeningly excited look on her face.
"Looks like Valerie was one of the keys to your downfall Dan. I can practically taste the hatred rising off you. And look! Your ears are pointed." My eyes widened in horror as I remembered the backfired curse that Jack had put on me. Sam cackled again.
If I could have bit my lip I'm sure it would have bled from my pointed teeth. How much longer could I fight the evil taking over me? Something in me wanted to give in and let Sam win, after all, if I was human then I wouldn't have to worry about my ghost half ever interfering again. No more lost loves, no more ghost fighting, no more weird things.
But even as I thought that I realized that my dream world would never happen. If I did give up then Sam would have no one left to stop her from changing everyone into a robot. For some reason I didn't know, she needed to get rid of me. How many lives was I saving now just by resisting?
Sam's face shifted slightly and I saw traces of shocked disappointment in her look. I hoped that it was because my ears had changed back to normal.
"I guess it was only a temporary evil moment." Sam said. "But don't worry; my next victim should do the trick." I followed her tentacle with my eyes and watched as she dragged the next person out of the crowd.
In her golden appendage I saw a person I didn't recognize. His clothes were shredded and he had dark sinister looking stains on them. A shredded hat was on his head, but it was so stained by blood that it was impossible to tell the color. He was unconscious and slumped so I couldn't see his face.
Sam brought the person over in front of me and used another tentacle to lift his head. I felt my eyes widen so much that I thought they were going to fall out of my head as I stared into the horror that was Tucker's face.
The goggles I had given him were still on, but the lenses were shattered, leaving bloody cuts around both of his eyes. His nose was broken and bent at an odd angle, and still continued to bleed. Several of the teeth were missing from his open mouth, and a few clung to his gums as if unsure what to do.
Sam's tentacles glowed again and Tucker opened his eyes. "D- Danny?" he said in a hoarse, pained voice. He looked at me and I wondered what he was seeing.
"Where were you?" he whispered, and I desperately wished that he would stop talking for both of our sakes. "Sam… she is being taken over… God I hurt so much…" he stopped talking and simply lapsed back into unconsciousness.
I could feel myself shaking under Sam's grip. Sam jolted Tucker back awake. "Amity Park was in trouble… I tried to help since you couldn't… but I got hurt really badly when a house collapsed on me…" He fell silent again.
This time Sam set him on the ground and smirked at me. "Do you see what you've done by leaving Tucker alone? Look at the pain he's in because of you!" the tentacle around my head forced me to look down at where Tucker lay. I saw that his leg was broken too, and his breath was short and irregular.
When the metal around my head moved I felt my mouth become free. Sam didn't seem to realize her mistake and said, "Now will you join me Dan?" I glanced down at Tucker, remembered all the trouble my ghost half had caused, and remembered how my powers had changed my life.
I looked back at Sam with my eyes blazing. Sam looked shocked. I opened my freed mouth and said a very simple word. "No." The simple word that meant so little and yet so much, the simple word which caused Sam to fall screaming to the floor in agony holding her head in her hands, the simple word which was said by my ghost form and my human form together, and the simple word which was the reason Sam had covered my mouth and prevented me to speak.
My voice was Sam's only weakness.