Some people seem to agree with Dustin being hard on Andy as that would get the boy to use his powers, however, Andy has pretty low self esteem and calling him trash really isn't the best way to go to get him to learn. I know it only makes it worse for me if someone said I'm terrible at what I do, it doesn't make me strive to do better since I have low self esteem. I'm just saying different things work for different people, keep that in mind.
Oh and check out my Danny Phantom one-shot called 'The Lost One', it was an inspiration from Blue and it's pretty sad. I'd like to know what you guys think of it and if there should be a series based off of it. Anyways, now it's time for me to answer the reviews.
Blue: Yeah, Andy's not used to his powers and he has not yet come to terms with his fear of BEING half ghost, so that's going to make it hard for him. Dustin's gonna get more interesting. ^^'
OMNISENSE95: Never. Let's just say Dustin is smarter than you think. :P
Rune:You didn't come off as pushy and I know what it's like to go overboard with something you really like. ^^' *looks at my 400 dollar Pikachu 3DS* Erm... anyways...
Ah well, Skulker's gonna be in this chapter if that makes you feel better. :3 And yes, I've never seen any twins in the show so I assume they're much rarer to get and they have to be close together and die together in order to look the same or similar to each other when they become ghosts. I'm not sure how that would work with half ghosts though since they're not technically dead.
Wow, really? It's funny since you pointed out a small detail I missed in the show. And yeah, it should be a fun race between the brothers should Andy finally learn to catch up with Danny.
Good to know Andy's going a good job making you fangirl over him for making puns! :D I didn't think Danny was coddling Andy, if anything he's been trying to push Andy into using his powers more, he's just angry with the way Dustin keeps insulting his brother and that's perfectly natural. Andy hasn't gotten over his trauma from Corrupted Danny and is still not used to the fact he's half ghost, so of course he's reluctant.
I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint!
Guest: Yeah, it's loosely based off of Korra's tournament. I think it's better if you just read the story rather than ask me to do something in it. ^^'
muney73: I suppose it could be like the Glitz Pitz in Paper Mario TTYD! It's been years since I've played it though... but I really love that game. :D And I'm surprised you're stillbringing up the barfing.
Yeah, but by the time this arc ends there's a good chance I may not update on the next Friday until I can make better progress. So enjoy these weekly updates while they last. Of course Andy's gonna get better, I don't think he'll be SUPER better, but still improve enough to be a better ghost fighter. And Dustin's mostly reacting in anger while practically forcing Andy to get over his trauma- which is not an easy thing to do- and use his powers properly. That's like telling someone who is afraid of skating to get off their butt and skate like a professional right away, it's kinda impossible. I know people believe it's best Andy gets scolded, yelled at or have someone be hard on him, but that's really not the best way to deal with someone like him.
Well Sam plays an important part in the arc, so it'd be very off if they left without her.
ZAFT Prime: Glad to know you like it! :D And yeah, I'd figured ghosts in that universe would be more aggressive naturally.
Dracoya: It wasn't because I didn't want to read or see it, it's because I wasn't ALLOWED to, okay? My dad really hates witchcraft stuff... And of course I would know the original plot- I've spent a lot of time researching Danny Phantom because I'm a big fan of the show.
Yeah, yeah, you and everyone else wishes to see better grammar. Sorry, but this is what you get from a writer like me. Time in the Ghost Zone is vastly different from the real world... like say ten years could've passed and only ten months past in the living plane. You'll find out more about Dustin later.
As for your question as to what Danny and Andy's obsession would be if they were full ghosts... I'd have to say whatever was interesting to them when they were alive. Like Danny with outer space, and as for Andy... probably various of things, but I guess if I had to pick one... maybe mysteries.
Now that's a very dark idea, sounds like his own personal hell or something once he wakes up to reality. And as for Danny... I'm not sure about him.
Calm: I don't think you can really eat a ghost, but according to Paper Mario you apparently can but you can't digest them. ^^' And I apologize for Andy, he's... just not the type who can take a joke with the state he's in right now. And I saw it, thanks! You really made Fyre's day when he saw that someone cares for him! He's got really low self esteem.
PrincessDragon96: Yeah, it's loosely based off of the tournament in Korra.
I'm glad to know Dustin's an interesting character as I wasn't sure how most people would take to having another OC in the story. And glad to know you understand Dustin's point of view here.
The Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady, yeah, let's just say this is probably their first step into making Box Lunch. ;)
I hope the rest of the original plot is good!
Chapter 14: Learning with Experience
We walked back out into the arena, and I was looking down, feeling low. Danny put his hand on my back, trying to cheer me up. "Don't listen to him, bro, you're not trash."
I didn't reply, instead I looked up to see who our next enemies were. I knew I was being stubborn and that this was a bad idea, but the fear was strong… I wanted to retain as much humanity as possible. I ignored Technus as he shouted our team name, but the other team… apparently they're called Team Hunters. I wonder if Skulker is a part of it? Wouldn't surprise me if he was.
Dustin groaned as we saw the opposite team, which was made up of Skulker and two random muscleheads. "Geez… this is exactly why I was worried about training. These are the physically toughest guys here- I'm not going to be very good against them, and neither will Trash Heap here…"
"Stop calling me that." I hissed.
"Looks to me these are power based ghosts." Danny commented. "Our speed would be our biggest asset here."
"That WOULD be true, if Mr. Can't Defend Himself here could fly!" Dustin jabbed at me again, crossing his arms.
I glared but didn't say anything- he was right, I'm pretty much useless without being able to fly or use the speed Danny was talking about earlier.
"Will the inexperienced, young Phantoms be able to take on the more hunting experiences? They've been hunting ghosts all their afterlives after all!" I heard Technus announce.
"Well, well, well, looks like the whelp has been captured agai-" Skulker began to say before he stopped and looked at me. "... What's this? The whelp cloned himself? Hey, Walker! Isn't that against the rules to use a clone as a three-way team!?"
"It is, but that's not a clone, Skulker." Walker answered calmly and I frowned, what is it with these ghosts thinking I'm a clone? I don't look THAT much alike to my brother, do I? "Apparently, Danny Phantom had a twin all this time."
"W-WHAT!?" Skulker gasped, as did the rest of the audience. ...Did I REALLY look that similar to my brother!? "But I've seen this twin! He is 100% HUMAN!"
"C-can we not talk about this now!?" I snapped, feeling my face heating up despite not having a lot of human blood right now. I don't like all this attention on me.
"No way! That's impossible!" Skulker growled, crossing his arms. "Walker, there's no way this kid's an actual ghost- you must have your information mixed up!"
"The kid's a ghost, Skulker, like it or not. And my word is law around here, now you either begin the battle or you will be disqualified- am I clear?" Walker said with a firm tone, making me shiver- this guy shouldn't be crossed.
"Ugh… Fine, fine." Skulker grumbled under his breath, getting into a battle-ready position. "I still think this is utter crud, though…"
And with that, the bell rang and the battle began. Skulker was fast, he already had his suit rigged with weapons and shoot missiles at us. I yelped as I ran for cover, but ended up smashing into Dustin because I was too close to him. Danny himself flew into the air, shooting out his Ghost Rays at them.
"S-sorry!" I apologized to the other ghost boy, trying to get up quickly.
"And Andy just slammed into his own teammate! Things are not looking good for Team Phantoms this time!" Technus commented, making me wish I could just blast him off that microphone.
"SHUT UP!" Dustin shouted at Technus, growling in annoyance as he scrambled to his feet and had to block a punch from one of the muscleheads with his sword. "Oof! M-move it, Andy!"
I ended up rolling over the floor, in the confusion I couldn't recover in time before one of the muscle ghosts picked me up, and I just found myself being held captive. I tried going intangible but I wasn't fast enough before he threw me! I yelped as I was sent flying towards the out of bounds arena, and ended up hitting Dustin because he was in the way! Both of us ended up falling out of bounds and splashed into the green water! I quickly swam up to the surface, this water is gooey! … Is this ectoplasm- I think I'm going to be sick.
"THEY'RE OUT!" I heard Walker shouted before blowing a whistle.
"Oooh, and just like that, Team Phantoms just lost two team members, leaving it all up to the ghost boy!" Technus commented as I swam over to some land.
I glanced up, seeing my brother flying around the arena and nervously staring down three powerful ghosts. "Oh boy… this is not gonna be a fun time." Danny gulped, quickly turning his feet into the tail and beginning to fly around the muscleheads, clearly looking for an opening to attack. I suddenly felt someone's hand grabbed my arm and flew me out of the ectoplasm, I gulped… it was Dustin, and he didn't look happy.
"Andy, what the heck!?" Dustin growled, his grip on me tightening. "Seriously, what the heck! Why couldn't you have just fallen out of the arena instead of knocking me out too!?" He scowled as he put me down beside him.
"I-I'm sorry! It's not like I can control where the guy would throw me!" I said quickly. "L-look, my brother's strong, fast and smart, I'm sure he can handle those three alone."
I could see Danny flying around quickly, easily avoiding the two buffed ghosts, but Sulker was another story- he was able to shoot missiles at Danny, who is barely dodging. He fired a Ghost Ray at one of the other muscleheads before punching the other and using that tail of his to whip Skulker's metallic face… huh, I've never seen him use his tail as a weapon other than when he was… C-Corrupted D-Danny… For a brief moment, I thought I saw Danny's suit turned red and black. I quickly shook my head, trying to stop the nightmare from resurfacing in my mind's eye.
Dustin scowled beside me, crossing his arms. "Yeah, but he's only one ghost- at the very least, I could have run a distraction, or even convinced one of the idiots to turn on Skulker."
But I wasn't listening, all I could see was Corrupted Danny slashing his enemies in a rapid fashion, he was like an animal. He blasted away their ectoplasm and ripped off Skulker's robotic suit, before he slowly took out the smaller Skulker and-
"..dy! ANDY!" I suddenly felt Dustin shaking my side, making me quickly shake my head. W-wha? What did he say? "Were you listening!?"
"U-uh… I uh…" I blinked before noticing Danny was normal, well as normal as a half ghost boy can be- he simply managed to blast away a musclehead out of bounds and threw the other one on top of Skulker. "S-sorry, I uh… was thinking about something else…"
"...Right, I could tell." Dustin crossed his arms, giving me a look. "Your core was heating up- you felt like a furnace from this far away. What's on your mind?"
"What? I was hot?" I blinked, I didn't FEEL hot. "N-nothing's on my mind, just my brother is all…"
"Something is obviously bugging you or you wouldn't have spaced out like that." Dustin said, looking at me with a frown.
"I told you, it's nothing! I was only thinking about Danny." I snapped, wishing he would leave me alone. "Things have been a little uneasy between us lately."
"What do you mean uneasy?" Dustin asked, looking at me.
"Those arguments you saw us do earlier? We rarely ever have those! And Danny is a lot more stronger than you think." I said, sighing.
"Well I'm sure, but if something about your brother is causing this fear in you, then you two need to talk, otherwise we'll lose." He said to me in a serious tone.
I looked away from him and watched Danny managing to blast both Skulker and the other guy into the ectoplasm pool below, winning the round for us.
"KNOCK OUT! Team Phantoms will move on to the next round!" Walker announced as all the ghosts cheered.
I sighed in relief, glad to see Danny was able to carry on the fight without us. I didn't look at Dustin, though- I could already feel the disappointment in his eyes and didn't need to see it.
Danny flew over to us, looking relieved and a bit tired himself, "Hey guys, looks like we made it."
"No, YOU made it, but thanks to your brother, we ALMOST lost!" Dustin growled, looking at me and I was careful not to make direct eye contact.
"Look, Dustin, I know my brother hasn't been doing well out there, but you're being too hard on him." Danny said, glaring at Dustin.
"Or maybe you're not being hard enough on this stubborn boy." Dustin growled.
"Enough!" I snapped at both of them before I took Danny's arm and dragged him away from Dustin.
"What are you doing?" Danny frowned, looking at me in confusion.
I stopped when I saw we were a good distance away from the other ghost boy, "Look Danny, those handcuffs are gone, can't we just turn human and get out of here like you did before?"
Danny blinked before shrugging. "Er… I don't think so- seems like Walker is keeping us in our ghost forms with something else other than the handcuffs. Not sure what it is, but I can't seem to find it…"
"But we can't possibly win like this. I hate to admit it, but Dustin's right, I'm pretty much useless like this. Why don't we just try a jailbreak, find Sam and get out of here?" I suggested.
"Well… I guess you got a point there, bro, but…" Danny hesitated.
"Look, even if I were to train my powers now, there's not enough in-between time for me to learn much." I said, frowning.
"But you… I just don't want you being called useless or trash, because you're not. Can't you at least try to learn how to use intangibility faster? Or maybe how to shoot Ghost Ray so you have a long range attack?" Danny asked me.
"Look, it'll be better if-" I began to say, wanting nothing to do with these powers, it's bad enough that I'm stuck in this form as it is.
"If what? That you just throw in the towel because you're too much of a coward to use those powers?" Dustin suddenly spoke up from behind me! How did the guy- ugh!
"This is a PRIVATE conversation!" I snapped back, irritated at this guy.
"Save it, I'm NOT going to let you two ruin a chance for my freedom." Dustin hissed before he suddenly gave a smirk, that didn't look good for me. "Besides, you two may want to win this little event after all, not just for freedom, but for a certain mortal friend of yours."
That caught both of our attention real quick, "What?"
"Couldn't help but overhear you're looking for someone named 'Sam', right?" Dustin said with that smirk. "I heard Walker and the guards talking about a human named Sam being the grand prize while you two were still out cold."
My eyes widen and my heart would've beat against my chest if I wasn't… a… ghost right now… I hate this form. Danny though, he looked like someone was about to kill our sister or something.
"What!? Is she okay? What did they do to her!?" Danny demanded.
Dustin just kept shrugging, "Walker did say that we would have a chance of leaving the Ghost Zone. Not all ghost can just leave this place you know, some of us are incapable of existing in the living plane, and we require a living vessel in order to cross and exist on the otherside. That being a human vessel like your friend."
I don't think he's lying. "So if we lose… we lose Sam too…"
"Bingo." Dustin said, smirking before turning serious. "So if you don't shape up, Trash, then you might as well kiss that girl good-bye."
Danny glared, "I know Andy messed up, but he-"
"No Danny, he's right, I don't have an excuse for not using these powers of mine." I said suddenly. "Fear has been holding me back, because I didn't want to be a ghost- I wanted to be human."
"Really?" Dustin tsked in annoyance, glancing at me. "Guess that'd explain it… but what will you do now?"
I glared and tightened my hand into a fist, "If getting out of here means we have to fight as ghosts, then I guess I don't have a choice but to learn…" I can't keep letting this fear of Corrupted Danny keep beating me, I'm here now and Sam is counting on us to save her, even if it means using these ghost powers and learning how to use my ghost half.
"So how are you going to learn how to use the Plasma Ray in under 10 minutes?" Dustin asked me as I was trying to learn how to use the Ghost Ray.
"I'm not sure, but I'm a pretty fast learner when I want to be. Besides, you told me that I could use it to create a weapon and that may help me fight better." I told him. "I once wielded the Fenton Rod, a metallic rod made to combat ghosts, maybe if I could make something similar I won't be useless baggage."
"Yes, but it's going to take a lot more than just learning the basic Plasma Ray to do that." Dustin said.
"Besides, you can barely shoot them during a fight." Danny said from beside me.
"At least I'm TRYING." I snapped, getting irritated at both of them. I felt like a weak little kitten in a place full of wild cats.
"I'm sorry, no need to snap at me." My brother frowned.
"Look, I'm just a little stressed out. I want to help Sam and be more useful in a battle, but I can't! Maybe Dustin's right, I'm only trash weighing you down." I said with a frown, looking down at my gloved hands. Who am I fooling, even as a half ghost myself, I still can't keep up with my brother.
I felt cold gloved hands patting my back, I looked up to my brother and he gave me a small frown, "Andy… you're not trash, okay? You just haven't gotten used to these powers yet. You're learning pretty quickly considering it took me a month and two weeks to learn the Ghost Ray at all."
"And yet it's taken HIM six months to learn the basic Plasma Ray." Dustin spoke up.
I glared him and said, "Look, I may have been missing out on these ghost powers for six months, but I'm learning now." I held up a hand as it glowed green, but still haven't gotten the ray itself down.
"Which is still not a lot of time." Dustin snapped. "Danny, you and I better discuss some strategies while your brother work on something that won't help us much."
Danny glared at him, "Don't talk about my brother that way! I refuse to work with someone who can't respect someone I care about."
"But if you don't work with me, how will you save your friend?" Dustin said, with a slight smirk.
"Danny, go ahead, I'll meet you guys up in the ring when they call for us." I said, reassuring my brother.
"A-are you sure, bro?" Danny asked, frowning over at me.
I nodded, "Go on."
Danny frowned before turning to Dustin. I nodded to him before walking into a wider corner. I held up my hand, there's got to be an easier way to use this thing.
I glared as I concentrated, I've used this before, I can do it again. I just have to remember how I did it. I felt a cold and hot tingle got up my arm and my hand lit up green as I began forming a solid plasma ball into the palm of my gloved hand. I lifted my hand and let it go, it did shoot out a green laser beam. Great, now if I could just do it faster. I focused on my core, I can't let the fear hold me back… come on…
"That's right Andy, just keep focusing on your powers. You'll be like me in no time at all." I suddenly felt cold sweat forming on my forehead when I heard 'Corrupted Danny' whispering in my head again.
I shook my head, I can't let this fear keep me from using these powers, I'm going to need them to save Sam and get out of here. Come on Andy, be a man- err ghost! You've got to do this! I allowed the power flow through my arms and into my hands, trying to get it out faster each time I shot out a Ghost Ray. This wasn't so hard, using a Ghost Ray does slightly drain me, but with the abundance ectoplasm in the very air of this place, it didn't drain me much. But I still had to learn to fly and that would take far longer than five minutes.
Flying may need a mentor's help to learn it quickly. I frowned… I may not be able to fly for a while like this. So instead I focused on intangibility, I'm going to need to use it at the snap of a finger in a fight, or I'll be thrown before I could defend myself like last time.
Then I heard our team name being announced… it was time. I looked down at my gloved hands before curling them into a fist, it was now or never. I walked over towards the guard, and I see my brother and Dustin were already there waiting for me. And once again we were lead into the arena.
"Well bro? Have you gotten any better?" Danny asked me.
I felt a little irritated at that question, but I caught myself from snapping at him, "All I can do is try my best."
"Yes, the weak link of our team will do his best." Dustin said with a roll of his eyes.
I glared at him, "Stop talking to me like I'm some pathetic loser."
"Prove yourself in battle and maybe I will." The older ghost boy retorted back and I just silently glared.
When we got on the field, I saw a huge lone ghost dog growling at us, it had three heads… What is that? The ghost version of Cerberus or something? This thing is ENORMOUS! It's as big a house, it was glowing that ghostly color green, its eyes flashed red and all three heads have teeth that were big and sharp. I faintly heard Technus calling it the Cerberus… so yeah, it IS a ghost version of Cerberus. The battle bell rang and it was fighting time.
The three headed ghost dog jumped at us, Danny flew, Dustin jumped and I ran away. As soon as it landed, it had a huge THUD, almost like a quake, and the entire arena shook. I gulped, hoping it wouldn't suddenly fall into the ecto pool below. I looked back at it, trying to figure out what to do.
I saw Danny flying above me, shooting his Ghost Ray at it, but this only caused the Cerberus ghost to flinch and it growled angrily. I shot a Ghost Ray myself after it turned all three heads to my brother, and got a lucky shot right into the middle head's eye. It gave a loud screech and I shut my ears to try and filter it out!
With the ghost Cerberus pouncing around, panicking, I noticed Dustin running up to it with two blades in his hands, probably ready to chop it. The giant ghost Cerberus howled before it slammed a paw into Dustin and with a loud crashing sound, it buried him into the floor. The middle head had the eye I shot closed, probably trying to ignore the pain. I quickly worked through my memories of how Danny's ghost powers work, because it's the only base I have to use these powers to help. I remember Danny being able to carry a vehicle no problem, I once saw him carry a bus full of people with no problem, not to mention he could easily punch a hole through a steel train and feel little to no impact from it. That's it, ghosts, or at least halfas, have some kind of super strength. I don't know if it's strength for sure, it could be that they don't feel mass like living creatures do… so maybe I could…
I looked up when I heard my brother yelping, seeing the heads trying to bite him. Danny managed to fly around the three headed dog's giant body and fire most Ghost Rays before punching it off of Dustin. Ghost Cerberus growled as it was forced to flinch away. Then it jumped and slammed its paws into both of them. My eyes widen, it seems that Danny and Dustin are having trouble going intangible.
"Ugh… what's it doing? I can't go intangible!" I heard Danny shouting while struggling.
"This thing… is sucking… our powers away." Dustin grumbled.
I knew I had to do something! I ran towards the three headed ghost dog, charging up my Ghost Ray. I aimed for its eyes again, but the head on the left noticed me and had its tail to slam my body away, I was hit close to the edge and almost fell, but thankfully I managed to keep myself from falling.
I could hear the crowds going wild and Technus constantly going on and on about how I screwed up. I groaned as I glared, there's got to be a way to beat this thing! Ugh, if only I had the Fenton Rod…
"And Cerberus isn't even paying the weaker ghost boy any mind as it's about to get rid of the two biggest competition!" Technus announced.
Right, because I seem weak, why would it care what I do? I formed a plasma ball in the palm of my hand… maybe I can still solidify it and make it into a rod… I know I wasn't good at using the Ghost Ray yet, but if I could just get it into a stick-like shape… I shut my eyes in concentration and began molding the ball like clay, trying to turn it into a solid stick. I opened my eyes and felt myself sweating, but it's working, the ball was stretching out into a long stick, similar to the Fenton Rod I used to use.
Suddenly I saw a large shadow over me. I gulped when I looked up, seeing the Ghost Cerberus hovering over me. What happened to Danny and Dustin?
"Ooh! And just after sapping away their energy, Cerberus threw two of Team Phantoms right out of bounds! Looks like it's all up to one Phantom!" I heard Technus announce.
"Oh no…" I looked around, seeing Danny and Dustin flying to the entrance of the waiting room, it's where players who got knocked out of the arena go. So now I'm on my own.
Ghost Cerberus jumped at me, planning to pin me down and sap away my powers like it did with my brother and Dustin. I immediately grabbed the stick I was making and turned intangible, making its paws go right through me. All three of its heads looked surprised at this and I ran out of its paw, still holding to the… uh… Ghost Stick? … Nah. I held onto the Plasma Rod I created… yeah, sounds better.
The Ghost Cerberus jumped at me again and I quickly jumped away, only to see its paw about to land on me. I gasped but quickly held up the Plasma Rod, causing its paw to hit it. I groaned, feeling the Plasma Rod flickering, it's not strong enough to stay stable. I couldn't afford to give up, so I held down my head and pushed my feet on the ground, pushing against its paw. I shut my eyes and pushed back as hard as I could against the 20 feet tall Cerberus ghost. I was actually surprised that I was able to push back at all, but I had to remind myself I'm a halfa now. I moved forward, pushing back as much as I could while the Plasma Rod kept flickering. I can't give up… come on…
The Ghost Cerberus let out an angry roar as I opened my eyes and gasped at seeing that it launched all three of its head at me! I managed to make some room after I pushed him back, and jumped away from its incoming chomping heads, still holding the Plasma Rod in my hands, thankfully it was stabilizing now… probably due to the natural ecto atmosphere of the Ghost Zone. Angered even more, Ghost Cerberus charged at me again, this time I didn't hesitate to run at it myself, size doesn't matter here, your own power does.
It tried to land on me, but retaliated by sticking the Plasma Rod right under its torso. Ghost Cerberus screech when the Plasma Rod pierced its underbelly, I had to use my other hand to plug my ear during that. Ghost Cerberus stood up on its hind legs, trying to get away from the Plasma Rod, it began going off balance towards the edge. I used this to my advantage, I quickly ran at it while it was still reeling from pain, jumped as high as I could, and trust me that's REALLY high, like right up to its three necks high, ghosts can ignore the laws of gravity, and shoved the entire Plasma Rod right into its chest! Ghost Cerberus screeched louder before it fell into the pool below, causing a huge tidal wave that covered the entire arena… me included… eew…
"... I must say I'm surprised folks, but it seems TEAM PHANTOMS WIN THIS ROUND THANKS TO THEIR UNDERDOG!" Technus shouted in excitement, followed by the roar of the crowd watching.
I began blushing… now that the danger was gone, my stage fright came back. "You did it bro!" And I suddenly found myself being picked up up by my brother, who gave me a big hug. "You actually beat that giant three headed dog, all by yourself!"
I was just happy he flew me away from the arena… and all the attention. I'm going to need three showers when we get out of here, I'm soaked with ecto water. Danny brought me over to Dustin as the guard forced us back into the waiting room.
"Well Andy, I'll admit, I'm impressed. I had thought for sure we would lose when your brother and I were thrown out of the arena, and you surprised us." Dustin said evenly.
"Yeah bro, how did you do that? You made some stick with your Ghost Ray? That's awesome!" Danny said with a smile.
I chuckled sheepishly, "Well… I just… wished I had the Fenton Rod with me and tried to mold my Ghost Ray into a stick figure that's similar to the rod, it really helped me fight better having a familiar weapon in my hands."
"And it only took you six months to learn." Dustin said and I rolled my eyes at him.
"Dustin, that's enough." Danny hissed at him. "I think he's learning pretty quick. My brother's always been really smart."
"Well I suppose you've earned your right for some respect." Dustin commented. "But we will need to teach you how to fly and quick, we don't want you stay grounded for the next fight."
So now I had to learn to fly, Danny and Dustin were both teaching me. I had the basics down, but the problem is actually moving in midair, I can barely move. I guess it doesn't help I refuse to have my legs turn into that weird ghostly tail.
"You're holding back, that's why you're having trouble moving." Dustin said to me, frowning.
"Sorry, I guess flying just makes me nervous." I sighed.
"That might be also what's holding you back, bro. You need to relax and think happy thoughts. Flying also works with emotion." Danny said to me. "At least until you get more used to flying, why do you think Peter Pan always said you had to think happy thoughts to fly?"
I blinked… that's a good point. Okay, so think happy thoughts… I was thinking about that one future Danny showed me a while back, the one where everyone came together, my friends, both old and new, Vlad himself is finally being happy with a family, and all of us getting along. I remember I was happy to be a halfa, not worried or scared like I am now.
"Alright, now try to move, don't be scared about falling, just move as though you're about to walk." Dustin said.
I still can't move very fast, but I managed to move decently, at least I'm not wobbling around try to move in the air. I also practiced trying to make the Plasma Rod again so I wouldn't have to take as much time to make it during battle, or heck, I should make it before the battle starts.
Every ten to thirty minutes, we would be called to battle. With our newfound teamwork, the battles weren't so bad. I managed to get better and better fighting in my ghost form, using the ghost half's newfound strength and the Plasma Rod.
We fought on ghosts after ghosts. I wonder if it's already evening back in our world? If it is, I'll bet our families are worried sick. I've lost count to how many ghosts we've fought already, I've basically mastered the Plasma Rod by this point, but flying is still a challenge to me.
"Okay, this is good." Dustin said with a smile. "We are now in the semi-finals, we are almost done. We just have to face two more teams, and we'll finally get out of mudhole."
"And save Sam." Danny pointed out.
I nodded, glad I've managed to get better used to fighting as a ghost. I've gotten all the basics mastered; invisibility, intangibility and the Ghost Ray. Except for flying, I can't seem to master it. Still, I've been able to battle the ghosts without needing to fly so far, but only because we are not allowed to fly out of bounds, so that makes it easier to fight on the ground.
Since Walker is a big rule guy, he made sure to post up the rules for us on the wall in the waiting room. We are not to fly out of bounds or fall off the arena, we are also not allowed to use weapons of any kind unless they are natural or a part of our own power, like claws or my Plasma Rod. We are not to have help from the audience either.
"Thankfully fighting on the ground is easier than flying here, since flying may accidentally lead one to go out of bounds without realizing it." Dustin said to me. "But you WILL have to learn to fly at some point, or you're not going to survive long out here- ghost or not."
"I know." I sighed.
And then our names were called, it was time for the semi-finals. We've worked together pretty well so far, let's hope we can keep it up. We came onto the arena and the team we were fighting against… I was really surprised.
Ember, Johnny 13 and a ghost that looks to be in his late teens or early adulthood. Ember had her guitar, Johnny had his shadow and the ghost teen had drums. They're not breaking the rules since those 'weapons' are a part of their powers. I could hear Danny's jaw dropping beside me, "Ember!? Johnny?"
"Hello Dipstick, nice to finally meet you again." Ember said with a smirk. I remember her well. "I see your twin also got an upgrade to halfa status same as you."
"How did you know I'm his twin and not clone?" I asked.
"Word gets around fast in the Ghost Zone, plus we're kinda in the same tournament when Walker made the announcement." Johnny said.
"Where's Kitty?" I asked Johnny.
"She's not here, I got arrested for speeding, but I told her I'll be seeing her soon." He shrugged like it's no big deal.
"This is it, the semi-finals! Nobody wants to lose after coming this far, and now it's Team Phantoms vs Team Band! Who will come out on top and go on the finals?" Technus commented excitedly.
I created the Plasma Ray into my hands, not wanting to go into battle without it since it's the only thing keeping me in battle due to it being similar to my days as a human fighting with ghosts.
"Is hypnosis against the rules?" Danny whispered to us.
"No, so you better be careful you don't get caught in Ember's spell." Dustin whispered back.
"And what will happen if one of us does?" I asked, frowning.
"Then good luck getting out of it." he said before the bell rang.
"Let's start off with a bang!" Ember shouted before she strum her guitar, causing soundwaves coming to us.
Danny and Dustin quickly put up a dome shield to protect us from the soundwaves, I wasn't skilled enough to make a dome yet, so I stayed in the middle with them.
As soon as Ember's attack faded, they put the dome down before Danny shot out his Ghost Ray at Johnny's incoming Shadow and at Ember to keep her from using her guitar again. Dustin drew out his blades and charged over at the guy with the drums. I ran over to Ember while Danny was battling with Johnny's Shadow in the air, I slammed my Plasma Rod onto her hands just before she could get to her guitar again.
"Hey Ember, you remember me, right?" I asked her while pushing her away from her guitar.
Ember's fiery hair flared as she used it to try and hit me and set me on fire! I yelped before turning intangible, praying that ghost fire can't hurt me while I'm intangible. It felt hot, but thankfully it did go through me otherwise.
"How could I not, Dipstick?" She smirked at me. "You and I were so similar when I first saw you."
"You sent me that dream when you first came to Amity Park." I said to her as she tried to hit me with her fire hair again before diving for her guitar.
"I guess you could say that, but it seems you're not as lonely anymore, too bad, you're pretty cute." Ember chuckled as she turned a knob on her guitar.
"Never thought a famous singing rock star would find me cute." I chuckled, readying my Plasma Rod for any incoming attack.
Ember rolled her eyes as she strummed her guitar again and a big fist was coming at me. I fired a Ghost Ray with my free hand at it to weaken the incoming fist before slamming my Plasma Rod into it, the impact was enough to send me back a few feet. "Let's see how much you like my music!"
She strummed her guitar once more and the sound waves pushed me back further, right over the edge! I gulped, seeing how if she hits me again I'll fall. Ember smirked at me, ready to hit me again with another strum. I glared and had a thought about throwing my Plasma Rod at her, but I don't think that'll do me any good.
"BRO!" I heard Danny shout before he grabbed me and I found myself flying through the air with my brother holding my waist, barely avoiding Ember's attack that would've pushed me off the edge for sure.
"D-Danny!" I was surprised he saved me.
"Come on, we can do this together." Danny said to me. "I'll be your flier until you can learn to fly yourself."
I looked up at him before seeing Johnny's Shadow coming at us, I quickly slammed the Plasma Rod into its face, causing it to screech as it fell back and hit its owner Johnny.
"How do we deal with Ember? That music of her's isn't exactly easy to fight back against." I asked my brother as he was dodging some of her guitar waves.
"Thankfully without the crowd chanting her name, her powers can't hypnotize us, but I'm not sure how to get past those ghostly wails of a soundwave." Danny said, frowning as he was trying to get in close to her, but she kept pushing us back.
"Careful, don't go out of bounds." I warned as he was getting too close to the out-of-bounds area.
"Don't worry, I know the limits." Danny reassured me. I was about to argue, but stopped myself. It's true that ghosts are more naturally more aggressive than an average human, and that might be why I've been prone to argue with him lately, so I have to train myself not to let my judgement be clouded by pride.
From my view in the air, I could see Dustin easily handled the drummer ghost, and he just pushed Johnny out of the arena after I knocked down his shadow. That left Ember, and boy is she putting up one heck of a fight.
"Danny, when I throw the Plasma Rod at her, I want you to take us in and tackle her as hard as you can." I said to my brother.
"What?" Danny frowned, his voice sounding unsure. "A-are you sure?"
"Yes, trust me bro." I said calmly.
Danny hesitated as he looked down at me, I looked back up at him, staring into those ghostly green orbs and he stared back at my ghostly purple ones, then finally he nodded, "Okay, I'll trust you."
I smiled at those words. I gripped onto the Plasma Rod and began powering it up with my Ghost Ray, causing it to glow, then I threw it at Ember. She tried to use her guitar's sound waves to deflect it, but it kept coming at her thanks to the little power boost I gave it. She was trying so hard to deflect it away, she didn't notice Danny flying right at her. Both of us tackled her a split second after she finally noticed us! She let out a surprise yelp as we flew to the edge of the arena, Danny grabbed me and flew up as Ember was still being flung off the arena and into the ecto-water with a SPLASH.
"KNOCK OUT! TEAM PHANTOMS WIN!" Walker shouted.
"AND TEAM PHANTOMS WIN AGAIN! THEY WILL BE HEADING TO THE FINALS!" Technus shouted with the crowd roaring.
"Whew… we did it." I said in relief.
"How DARE you!" I heard Ember screaming in anger. "Just you wait dipsticks, I'll get out of here and when I do, you'll PAY for this!"
"Yeah, wait in line Ember, everyone has it out for us." Danny said back to her.
"Heh, I'm impressed, the teamwork you two put together is impressive, especially since you didn't seem to get along when you first arrived here." Dustin spoke up as he met up with us.
"Yeah…" Danny blushed. "We didn't usually argue like that, I guess all the stress got to both of us."
"But who is our final opponent? They must be good if they made it this far." I said nervously.
"The only ones left are us and Team Pirates." Dustin explained. "We finish them, we're home free and your friend is safe."
"Pirates? As in actual ghost pirates? I don't think I've seen those before." Danny commented. "This should be interesting."
I looked around the waiting room and saw the only other team left were three pirate ghosts, one was a skeleton, the other had an eyeball hanging down with a hook for a hand… and the last one looks strangely like a skeleton-ish… parrot? They all looked downright scary and the kind that would fight dirty… except maybe the parrot, but judging on looks alone would be foolish.
"Yeah, interesting indeed." I grumbled.
Okay, a lot of things happened in this chapter! Yes, now Skulker knows about Andy being half ghost, and now Andy's finally gotten his trademark weapon: the Plasma Rod! ... What? Did you really think I would have him fight just like his brother? :P Danny can fight with his fists, Andy specializes using the Fenton Rod during the first book, so it'd make sense that he would use something similar once he's able to. As you can see, there's starting to become a difference between Danny and Andy's powers with how they use them, this should make things more interesting. We see more familiar faces in the tournament, and we're coming to an end to the arc pretty soon. The pirate ghosts... I wonder what that could be setting for? :) Alright, as always, please leave a review on what you think to help keep up the motivation. I am DarkFoxKit and I look forward to hearing from you!