Disclaimer- Butch, not me, yadda yadda. Well, this is the last of the shorts in "Outside Looking In." This does not mean I'm done with Cade-- far from it! Nor am I done with psychoanalyzing our characters... I'm just done with this format for now. But take heart, there will be more in the future!

Closure

"Just out of curiosity," Cade drawled, "is any design of yours NOT based off an elephant gun?"

Snapping a casing shut, Jack Fenton grinned. "Hey, prototypes are built to accommodate MY size. If it's gonna blow up, I'm gonna be the one holding it. Maddie figures out how to shrink 'em down once we're sure I've got all the bugs out."

"Sounds like you two make a good team."

"Best decision I ever made was asking her to marry me," Jack said honestly, checking over a smaller ecto-gun. "I've got great ideas, but making 'em practical? That's her department. I'm just lucky she puts up with a schlub like me."

Cade chuckled, leaning casually against the bleachers. He let his gaze roam over the gymnasium, watching the banners going up, the football team setting up the stage, all the trappings of a Casper High Pep Rally beginning to come together. And after the events of the last few months, those trappings included Jack and Maddie Fenton standing guard, surprisingly unobtrusively, behind the bleachers. Or at least as unobtrusive as a few hundred pounds of ghost-hunting hardware could be.

The psychiatrist frowned to himself, hands in his jacket pockets. There'd been ghost sightings around the school for a few days-- nothing major, just in and out, some type of green, amorphous blob with red eyes. What was bothering him was the conversation he'd had with Danny Phantom, during last night's chess lesson.

"Bertrand," the ghost teen had spat, green glare hot enough to melt the plastic pieces. "I should have guessed, after what they did to the last pep rally."

"You want to translate for those of us who don't have a copy of Who's Who and What's That? Who's Bertrand?"

"He's Spectra's assistant. She... she's a ghost too. Feeds on the misery of teenagers to keep herself powerful and young. They nearly disintegrated my-- Jazz Fenton last time, planning to make everybody so miserable that they could just feed forever... I managed to stop them. Barely."

Finding out that Penelope Spectra was a ghost had explained a lot, in Cade's opinion. It had also made him that much more eager to face the witch. She was cruising for some serious payback.

"Hey... Jack." Much to his amusement, Cade had discovered that Jack Fenton wasn't particularly comfortable being called "Mr. Fenton" by anyone under twenty. Probably because he didn't identify himself as an adult the majority of the time anyway.

The older man looked up from the circuits he was inspecting. "Yeah?"

"How much recoil does one of those things have, anyway?"

"An ecto-gun? Not much, it's an ectoplasmic blast, not a protonic one. Doesn't require a focusing field, since it's a disruptor. Most of them are just too big for most people to carry. Why?"

"Mind if I borrow one of those? Cop instincts never go away, and mine are itching like crazy all of a sudden."

Jack's frown was surprisingly thoughtful, but it quickly cleared into his more usual good-humored expression. "Sure thing, Doc. They've all been field cleared."

Selecting one of the smaller models, Cade quickly familiarized himself with the gun's configuration. It wasn't TOO different from a standard firearm, which he appreciated. It meant he wouldn't have to worry about old habits interfering in the heat of the moment. Out of the corner of his eye, Cade could see Lancer giving him an odd look, but he ignored it. Profiler or not, he'd had enough training and street experience to know when to listen to the hairs on the back of his neck.

"You were a cop?" Jack asked casually, going back to his work.

"Police profiler, Las Vegas. Not long, but long enough to learn when to duck."

The big man cocked an eyebrow at him. "And... you decided to become a school psychologist WHY?"

"Children are our future?" Cade cracked. "Seriously, because someone has to. And a lot of school personnel are underqualified, undertrained, and overworked. Besides, my chances of getting shot are a bit lower here."

Jack acknowledged that point with a laugh, and the two of them settled down to watch the pep rally.

It wasn't long before Cade's paranoia proved justified. In the middle of the cheerleader's big routine, a dark wind swept through the gym, coalescing in the middle of the stage. The black cocoon fell away, revealing a sharply dressed woman with red, swept back hair and a glowing green cougar by her side.

"Hello, kids," Spectra cooed. "Remember me?"

From the screams, it was obvious they did. Green energy swept from the bleachers towards the ghost-woman in an eldritch spiral, as the screams quieted and changed to moans and scattered sobs. Even the teachers, while not affected as strongly, seemed paralyzed by the melancholy in the room.

Then, from the other side of the stage came the voice Cade had been expecting.

"Yeah, we remember you, SPECTRA," Danny Phantom spat, green aura flaring. "We remember you REAL well. And if you think you're gonna turn Casper High into another free buffet, you are WAY wrong!"

The red-haired woman affected a yawn. "Bertrand. Take him down."

"With pleasure," the cougar sneered, snippy voice at odds with its fierce appearance. The feline leaped at Phantom, and the two went down in a tumbling ball of green, black, and white.

Smirking, Spectra turned back to her captive audience. "Your so-called HERO is out of the picture now... no one's going to save you. No one's going to BOTHER! They don't care about you... you're nothing to anyone as long as you're not making trouble! Quiet little robots, that's all you are and that's all you'll ever be!"

With a growl, Cade checked his pockets, then raised his gun and stepped out of the shelter of the bleachers. He wasn't unaffected by Spectra's power, not by a long shot, but a man didn't go through years of psychology classes, plus the police equivalent of boot camp, without learning something about holding onto his own confidence and self-esteem. Especially when it had come as hard-won as his had.

"Hey... Do you mind? I've put a lot of work into these kids, cleaning up your mess," he called. "I'd hate to have to go through it all again."

Snarling, she whirled to face him, eyes glowing an inhuman red. "Who do you think you are?"

He sketched a mocking bow, never taking his eyes off her. "Cade Maboroshi, at your service... and I THINK I'm a heck of a lot better therapist than you'll ever be, Spectra. You've got all the subtlety of a brick to the head. The only reason nobody ever caught you before is because you ran away before they could put two and two together."

"How DARE you speak to me like that?" Rising into the air, she launched a ball of green fire at him. Diving behind a ball cart, he returned fire, never missing a beat.

"Because it's true! You don't have any skill! All you do is find one weak spot and keep hitting it until the kid crumbles! Anyone can do that! Heck, most of these kids can do it to each other! You ever hear Paulina in the lunchroom? She can reduce a girl to tears in three minutes flat, and she's not exactly Sigmund Freud."

Peeking over the cart, he was gratified to see Spectra's flame aura waver. Cliché though it might be, it was a fact; most people who fed off of other people's misery weren't too strong in their own self-image to begin with. It was just a lot more literal in Spectra's case.

"So you're a ghost!" He called, still shooting. "You're not special, there's thousands of you! You're not as strong as Skulker or as smart as Plasmius, or any of a HUNDRED other ghosts out there! Heck, you have to have your kitty-cat there handle all the muscle!" Silently, he made a note to thank Danny Phantom for the overview of his enemies list. It was coming in much more handy than he thought.

"The only thing that makes you special is something that teenage girls around the globe do as naturally as breathing. And for what? To look good? News flash, Penelope... I've seen prettier faces on English Bulldogs!"

That did it. Spectra let out a screech, not of rage, but pure anguish. In her moment of distraction, Cade's next shot managed to knock her completely out of the air. Dropping the gun, Cade dashed over to the stunned ghost, who was trying to push herself to her knees.

"Why don't you just take a nap, huh?" he puffed, pulling a piece of rice paper out of his pocket and slapping it on her back. Spectra let out a little keen, stiffened, and then fell bonelessly to the ground.

"GET OFF ME!" a teenage voice roared somewhere behind him, and Cade jumped slightly as a green, ghostly feline went soaring over his head to smack, dazed, into the cinderblock wall of the gym. Ectoplasm being a somewhat giving material, Bertrand actually stuck, then slid downwards in the manner of one of those toys you used to find in cheap kids' cereals.

Cade nodded approvingly, turning to see a scratched, bruised, and still steaming Danny Phantom approaching. "Nice. Very nice."

The ghost grinned. "Not bad yourself, Dr. M." Then he winced as the smile pulled at the skin of his face. "Ow. I wonder if they make Bactine for ghosts?"

"I dunno... but why don't you vacuum these two up before that ofuda I slapped on Spectra wears off? I'm not exactly an expert with those things."

"Right." Pulling the Fenton Thermos from its sling, Phantom quickly sucked both ghosts into the cylinder. "I'll just... uh, get rid of these two... the spell should be wearing off pretty fast... You gonna be okay?"

"Sure. Though I like this thing... gonna be kind of sad to give it back to Jack Fenton."

Phantom snorted. "Ask if you can keep it. Given how many blasters those two go through, he probably won't mind." Taking off, he disappeared through the ceiling.

Cade watched him go for a moment, then turned back to the recovering student body. He looked down at the ecto-gun, then grinned. "You know... maybe I will..."

Owari
(End)