Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
"V-man, what are you doing here?" Jack asked excitedly. Vlad, Sam, and Tucker all looked at him as though he was crazy.
"Daniel, you sound just like your idiot father," Vlad said. Wait a minute; Vladdie thinks I'm an idiot? Since when? "Anyway, you should probably be able to guess the basic outline of my plan by now, unless Jack's idiocy has indeed begun to rub off on you."
Jack stared at him blankly.
"Very well, it appears that you are becoming more like your idiot father than I had ever imagined, all the more reason for me to go through with my plan as soon as possible, to spare you from any further contamination. If I really must reiterate my intentions of the last year or so…I plan to destroy your oaf of a father and make dear Maddie mine, and also make you my apprentice. I'm offering you a chance to come quietly, just like at the reunion, though I know you'll refuse. The only reason I'm doing this is because your mother is less likely to fall for me if I eliminate you." Jack's mind was reeling. His college roomie, his best friend on earth, wanted him dead? And also had a slightly creepy crush on his wife? Just then, any and all vestiges of friendship Jack held, albeit one-sided, for Vlad vanished. Best bud or not, nobody moves in on Jack Fenton's wife and gets away with it.
"Vlad, you are one seriously messed-up Cheerio. That is never going to happen," Jack retorted.
"Very well," Vlad replied as a ring of black light appeared around his waist. "No more Mr. Nice Plasmius." The ring divided into two, and the Wisconsin Ghost was standing in Vlad's place.
Now Jack was really confused, though at the same time he felt a small, barely significant measure of relief. He was confused beyond measure that his pal was half-ghost, much less the dreaded Wisconsin Ghost that had terrorized his college reunion and then come to Amity Park when all of those ghost hunters had been after Danny. He was a little bit relieved, though, because during that same incident he'd fought the Wisconsin Ghost and won. And if he could beat Vlad with a couple of his own weapons, he sure as the Ghost Zone could beat him using his newfound powers.
Jack transformed and inexpertly rose up into the air. He flew as fast as he could at Vlad, but to his surprise, Vlad easily caught him by the throat, spun him around, and threw him into a row of lockers. Jack shook his head a bit to recover.
"It takes more than that to take out a Fenton, V-man!" he shouted. All of a sudden, his hand started glowing with green energy. Jack smirked. He knew that ecto-energy; he'd seen Phantom use it on multiple occasions. Surely this attack would hurt Vlad. Jack shot a ghost ray at Plasmius, but Vlad simply yawned and created a shield. Jack shot blast after blast, but all of them were deflected. Suddenly, Vlad split into four.
Jack was now slightly worried. He'd never seen Phantom do that.
Each of the four Vlads charged up pink spectral energy and launched it at Jack at the same time. He screamed as the four beams made contact, and when they abated he sank to the ground and changed back into Danny Fenton. Plasmius sneered down at him.
"Now, with you incapacitated for the time being, I can destroy Jack and Maddie will be mine!" he exclaimed, then teleported away in a swirl of pink energy. Sam ran up to Jack and helped him up.
"Vlad is such a creep. Are you okay?" She asked as she looked him over and checked for burn marks. I'd go after Vlad, but he probably went to my place to try and take Maddie. Danny's home; he should be able to fend him off. Besides, I'm way too weak to be much good. Sam ran her hands over a particularly nasty one on his upper arm, and Jack noticed her blush deeply.
She totally digs me! He thought to himself. Suddenly, an idea struck him. Maybe I can do Danny a favor, give him something to make up for all of the stuff he has to go through all day. Jack took Sam's hand in his own and looked deep into her eyes.
"Let's go to the library. I really need to tell you something." He started walking down the hall, still holding hands with her. He felt resistance, and turned around to see her looking at him strangely.
"Danny? The library's this way," she said as she jerked her thumb in the opposite direction. Jack smiled sheepishly and followed her directions. Once Tucker had decided that Danny wasn't roughed up too badly, he left the group and headed over to room 104 where he was a little late for a meeting of the school's Esperanto Club.
When Sam and Jack got to the library, Jack sat the two of them down across from each other at a table. He gulped. He had to make this convincing while at the same time staying true to his own love, Maddie.
"Sam, I've been meaning to tell you this for a while," he began. "We've been friends for almost ten years now, but I'm kinda starting to see you as more than a friend. I really like you, Sam. In fact, you could even say that I love you." Jack wasn't afraid of what might happen. He, along with the majority of Amity Park (majority being everyone except for Danny) knew that she liked Danny a lot. True to the predictions, Sam blushed a brilliant shade of red that would make a tomato envious.
"Danny, I…I love you, too," she said. She leaned over and gave him a soft kiss, but pulled away quickly for fear of being kicked out by the librarian. The bell rang signifying the end of study hall.
"Come over to my place tonight, Danny. We can talk about this more there." Sam was grinning as she got up and walked away, and Jack could see her just barely swinging her hips as she left. I got them together! YES! I, Jack Fenton, have succeeded where nearly everyone who knows them has failed. Cool! Jack stood up from his own seat and was whistling as he headed off to his next class.
Meanwhile, after target practice and some lunch, Maddie and Danny went back downstairs to the lab.
"Okay, Jack. Now you can start working on a new weapon if you like," Maddie said.
"Awesome!" Danny exclaimed in his best Jack imitation, and immediately ran over to the workbench. He got a tool kit and looked over the various pieces of technology that his father used to assemble a ghost-fighting weapon. He stared at the gutted electronic equipment. He scratched his head. He stared some more.
"Do you need any help, dear?" his mom called from the opposite end of the lab.
"No thanks, baby! I can handle it!" Danny called back. He picked up a rectangular device that had a few wires poking out of it and looked at it experimentally, then sighed and put it back down. Who was he kidding? He had no idea what any of this stuff was, let alone how to wire it together into some sort of weapon. How on earth did his father manage to invent things using this complex equipment but at the same time be so ridiculously goofy and blissfully ignorant of what was going on around him? Thankfully, Danny was spared further confusion by a scream. He spun around and saw Plasmius holding his mother by the wrist and floating a good ten feet in the air. He grabbed a nearby ectogun and pointed it at his arch-nemesis.
"Let her go, Plasmius," he growled.
"How about I don't, idiot," Vlad replied.
"How about you do, or I tear you apart molecule by molecule," Danny threatened. Without waiting for a reply, he fired the ecto-gun and it emitted a green beam of energy. Vlad swatted the beam away as he would a mosquito. Danny growled and grabbed a second gun, this time a Fenton Bazooka. He smirked as he fired the gun and another green energy beam gracefully arced out of the barrel of the bazooka and paused right next to Vlad's head.
"You missed, idiot!" Vlad crowed.
"Wasn't aiming for you, cheesehead!" Danny countered. Plasmius looked confused for a second, then yelped in surprise as the energy beam coagulated into a miniature ghost portal and sucked Vlad inside. Since the sensation of being sucked forcibly into a portal the size of a quarter had forced Vlad's ghost form to temporarily destabilize, he inadvertently dropped Maddie. Danny saw this, and quickly ran over and caught her before she hit the ground. He placed her down then ran over to the Fenton Portal and closed it in order to prevent Vlad from coming back through that route.
"Jack, I've never seen this side of you before," Maddie cooed once Danny came back from the portal. "The way you beat that ghost back into the ghost zone…" she started running her finger down his chest.
"Hehe…" Danny chuckled nervously. His dad had better get home quickly so they could switch places, or he'd seriously be scarred for life.
Well, what do you think? The final chapter is coming up next; so stay tuned!
