THE FLAME AND THE PHANTOM in:
BAND BATTLE IN FLAMES
With the Fenton family having returned from Wisconsin together with Ember from the college reunion organized by Vlad Masters, Danny and Ember have told their friends what had happened in Wisconsin, revealing that Vlad Masters was also half-ghost himself, named Vlad Plasmius and attempted to get rid of Jack in order to win over Maddie, but thankfully had failed thanks to Danny and Ember.
Though this came as a shock, it finally made sense why some ghosts kept attacking Amity Park.
But what was more surprising was that after Ember's Human Disguise Belt had malfunctioned, she and Danny had somehow managed to Ecto-bond and Danny shared with her the power to disguise herself as a human without using the belt. After Kitty and Johnny 13 had heard this, both were astounded that they were able to do this very rare thing between ghosts, which hasn't happened in centuries, but both were very happy for them as it proved that Danny and Ember are truly meant to be together.
But, despite what had happened at Vlad's Mansion, Ember, thanks to Jazz's tutoring, was able to get an 'A-' for her chemistry test, which was more than enough to give her a better grade on her rapport card. Ember even thanked Jazz for all her help by giving her a hug.
And so, with Ember's problem with learning for chemistry had finally been solved, Danny and Ember told Sam and Tucker their idea how to call their band for the upcoming Casper High Talent Show: The Firing Spirits. Sam and Tucker loved the name.
When school ended, the friend group signed themselves in for the talent show, with the auditions being on Wednesday. All would go to Danny's place to practice and think of a song to use, which was hard to think of. Luckily for the new band, for the auditions you just have to show for at least one or two minutes what you can do and don't have to use a whole big song already.
After some thinking, Ember came up with the idea to combine two great songs together to use them for the audition, which sounded like a great plan. Danny suggested that if they made it through the audition, that they should use a song for the talent show that he had written some time ago, but hadn't worked on it until he embraced his Rock'n'roll-self. When Danny showed some bits of the song he'd worked on to his girlfriend and friend, everyone thought it was an amazing song to use for the talent show.
Wanting to practice on the combined song for the auditions, Tucker said that they could use his parent's garage to practice. And so, after putting things in place, The Firings Spirits began to work on the song for the audition. Though Danny and Ember were performing magnificent and Sam was great on her drum kit, Tucker however wasn't doing that well on his newly bought keyboard despite his will to keep going.
Thinking that it was probably cause of Tucker's nervousness, the band stopped practicing after a few hours so that Tucker could hopefully have a clearer mind.
Or so they thought…
Tuesday afternoon, Foley residence…
(May 18th, 2004)
When school was finished, Danny, Ember (in her human disguise) and Same went with Tucker back to his place to start practicing, with Danny and Ember both being the lead vocals and guitarists, Sam the drums and Tucker the keyboard.
I love rock and roll
So put another dime in the jukebox baby
I love rock and roll
So come and take your time and-
All were interrupted when Tucker pressed a few false notes on his keyboard, causing him to squeal and accidentally dropped the keyboard on the floor.
Tucker apologized while trying to put the keyboard back in place "Sorry! Sorry!" he cursed himself "Darn it!"
Danny, Ember and Sam exchanged a bit of worried look to see Tucker struggling.
Ember walked over to him "Tucker, what's wrong?"
"I can't do it, alright!" Tucker snapped.
"You can't do what?" Danny asked.
"Playing in the band, okay!" Tucker then sighed "I think it's better you guys choose a different keyboard player." And began to walk back into the house.
His friends went after him, with Sam holding his shoulder "Wait, Tucker. What do you mean you can't play in the band? Just tell us what's wrong."
"I…" Tucker tried to say "I'm scared…"
Danny and Ember came over to him, with Danny asking "You're scared of what? To play music?"
Tucker gave a nod before he sat down at a chair.
Ember gave Tucker a look of understanding and told him "Tuck, listen, I know it looks scared to play in front of a big crowd or to be judged by how you're playing. Believe me, I went through the same thing when I was playing in a band back in the Ghost-Zone."
Danny and Sam both were surprised to hear that "Wait. You were in a band back in the Ghost-Zone?"
Ember nodded "Yeah, it's a long story," but then she went back on telling Tucker "Trust me, Tucker, it may look al scary in the beginning, but once you start playing on stage for a little while, all that fear will slowly go away."
Tucker however frowned at her "Really now? Did you ever froze on stage when you were just halfway what you were playing? Did you ever began to panic? Wet your pants? Screaming while running off stage?!"
Ember, Danny and Sam exchanged a look of surprise.
"What are you talking about, Tucker?" Sam asked.
That was when Tucker owned them an explanation, something he hadn't told them before "There was a reason that I stopped playing piano when I was just 8 years old." Tucker began to tell, while thinking back when he was just a child "Because I was playing piano so well, my parents thought it was a great idea that I should sign myself in for a little piano-concert for kids in Detroit. Well, imagining in my mind that I was like Mozart or something, thinking the people would like me playing, I was so enthusiastic about it. Thant night, when it was finally my turn, I first didn't paid any attention to the audience and was just playing at my best. But when my mother called me and said how proud she was at me, I turned my head to her in the audience. That was… when I saw all those hundred faces, watching me… then… It happened so fast. I froze, feeling so afraid that I… I… I couldn't take it and ran away from the stage. I felt so humiliated… that from that day on, I haven't played a single note."
Danny, Ember and Sam were surprised to hear this from Tucker, but Danny and Sam were more surprised "So… that's why you stopped playing piano?" Danny asked.
Sam was a bit confused, as Tucker wasn't afraid to go on stage during his school protest to bring meat back on the menu a few months ago "But, that doesn't make any sense! I mean, you weren't that afraid to go on stage when you wanted to change back the menu after I changed it with ultra-recycle vegetarian food."
"That's completely different, Sam," Tucker answered while folding his arms, before he looked down in sadness "Whenever it comes to play music… I begin to get panicked and…"
Sam felt sorry for him, never realizing that Tucker had all this time stage fear ever since that incident when he was 8 "I'm sorry, Tucker, I didn't knew that. But, why didn't you told us this before?"
Tucker shook his head sadly "I don't know. I was ashamed of myself that I kept the real reason from you guys. I'm sorry, but if I'm playing with you guys on stage, I'm just gonna humiliate everyone. You guys are better off without me in the band."
Danny tried to reason with him "Oh, c'mon, Tuck. You're like the only one that I know who can play piano better than anyone. Who are we supposed to choose as our keyboard player?"
Tucker however didn't answer and just looked away and placed earphones in his ears to listen to some music that he'd downloaded on his PDA for some inspiration.
That was when Ember began to think 'Geez. It's even worse than I thought. But there's got to be something we can do to help?' after a minute, Ember knew how they could give Tucker a little boost in confidence "Hey, I know what could help you!"
That earned Danny's, Sam's and Tucker's attention "What do you mean, Em?" Danny asked.
With a mysterious smile, she told "Have you guys ever heard of the Potion of Confidence?"
Tucker and Sam shook their heads "Uh… no."
"Potion of Confidence?" Danny asked with some surprise. But as he could sense that that was a little lie from Ember, he began to form some suspicion.
Later, in the Ghost-Zone…
Using the Specter Speeder, Danny, Ember, Sam and Tucker entered the realm of the ghosts through the Fenton-Portal, with Sam behind the wheels.
After hearing what this ghost potion of confidence could do for Tucker, gave him some hope "And you're sure that it's gonna help me to overcome my fear of going on stage?" he asked with a smile.
"Absolutely," Ember answered with a smile. She then pointed to a floating tropical island nearby "There. That's the place."
Sam parked the Spector Speeder close to the edge of the island.
The door opened, with Danny and Ember both in their ghost forms, exiting.
"You guys wait here till me and Danny are back." Ember said before she and her boyfriend flew off into the small ghostly wilderness while putting on a camera-headset.
In the Specter Speeder, Sam and Tucker putted on the new Fenton Phones, which were black-green earphones that Jack and Maddie had made. While Sam looked into a mirror, admiring the earphones as they looked like great earrings, Tucker rolled his eyes while connecting them to his PDA and told Danny through the earphones "Luckily you and Ember don't have to wear these stupid Fenton Earphones, cause these things are a fashion 'don't'.
Danny answered back while he and Ember landed somewhere on the jungle-island as they had to go further on foot "They're not supposed to look good," Ember used her guitar as a machete to cut through some bush "They're supposed to filter out spectral noise so we can communicate."
"If you say so," Tucker said before he pressed button on his PDA, to play a song he'd downloaded yesterday.
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
Demons and angels all in one have arrived!
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
Cause Sam's Fenton Phones were connected to Tucker's PDA too, she could hear the loud Hard Rock song, which bothered her.
"What the hell kind of song is that?" Sam asked irritated while disconnecting her earphones.
"Haven't you heard?" Tucker asked with a smile "It's the newest hit since yesterday. Everybody talks about it!" he said enthusiastic and began to sing false "Hard rock hallelluja-ah-aaaah!"
Sam sighed before she spoke to Ember and Danny on her earphone "Honestly, I don't think these earphones are stupid. I think they make great techno-goth earrings." She admired them again in the mirror while moving away some of her hair.
"Really?" Danny said before he smiled and asked his girlfriend "Hey, maybe you should have a pair of those, Em?"
Though it was very kind of Danny, Ember chuckled as she states "Thanks, babypop, but I think goth is more like Sam's style," she said before cutting another bush, showing a big open field with a purple-colored waterfall.
"Here it is," Ember said while taking out an empty water bottle and flew over to the waterfall.
Sam saw it on her monitor "So, this is the place to get the potion of confidence?"
"Only a part of it," Ember answered while filling the empty bottle and flew over to a tree filled with some orange colored pears "Just squeeze some of this pear juice in it," Ember took one pear and squeezed the juice out into the bottle and then mixed it, turning the substance into a brownish/orange drink "Et voila. One bottle of Potion of Confidence."
But when she sensed that Danny was suspicious if all of this was true about this ghost- Potion of Confidence, she broke contact, making the screen of showing Ember's camera go blank.
Danny broke contact as well so he and Ember could have some privacy and walked over to his girlfriend, asking while folding his arms "Alright, Em. What's really going on here?"
Tried to form an innocent smile and placed her hands behind her back while looking away "What are you talking about?"
Danny wasn't being fooled by that and asked while narrowing his eyes "There is no Potion of Confidence, is there?"
Ember gave a shrug "No," then she smirked mischievous at her boyfriend "But, Tucker doesn't know that."
Seeing what Ember was planning to do, made Danny to form a smile "Oooh, I see. You just made that up so you could bring some more confidence into Tucker."
"Mmm hmm." Ember nodded.
"Smart move, Em." Danny complimented her.
But unknown to them, they were watched by a ghost, who was large in structure, has icy blue skin, blond hair and wears a striped pink pajamas. It began to smile and charged at Danny and Ember with open arms "Friends!"
Danny's warning ghost sense went off, making him to look back, seeing a hulking ghost flying over to them. Ember gasped while grabbing Danny "Look out!" and avoided being grabbed by the big ghost.
Danny looked surprised, while Ember asked the ghost annoyingly "Ugh! You again? Didn't I told you to leave me alone, Klemper?"
The ghost named Klemper smiled gleefully "But I just want to be your friend, Ember. Will you be my friend too?" he asked Danny before then tried to grab them both again, but avoided his grasp and flew away, with Klemper flying after them.
Inside the Specter Speeder, Sam knocked on the monitor as it was still showing a blank screen and couldn't hear anything what was happening with Danny and Ember "Danny? Ember? What's going on there? Talk to me!" she nearly panicked.
"Hard rock halleluja-ah!" Tucker sang false loudly, being so into the song he was listening to.
Sam groaned in annoyance "Tucker! Will you stop listening to that!"
That was when the screen went back on, showing Danny and Ember fleeing out of the wilderness-island, but then showed Danny being tackled and to the ground by Klemper.
"Get off me, Klemper!" Danny called while struggling under the weight of the hulking ghost.
"But I just want to be your friend." Klemper smiled and hugged Danny very tight.
Ember got so angry that her flaming hair flared up and fired it on Klemper like a flamethrower, hurting him from the back, causing him to release Danny.
Sam looked out from the cockpit of the Specter Speeder how Danny and Ember struggled against this new ghost called Klemper.
Ember glared at Klemper "For the billionth time, Klemper; I don't want to be your friend!" and hits the strings on her guitar hard, firing a purple vortex at Klemper, hitting him head on and sending him flying backwards.
Ember then sighed as she told her boyfriend "Seriously, he does this all the time, but he just won't listen."
"Don't worry, I get the picture, babe." Danny ensured before they were suddenly grabbed by Klemper.
"Friends!" he hugged Danny very tightly while he smiled.
Both Danny and Ember struggled to get themselves off of his tight hug, but both used their combined strength to break themselves free and kicked Klemper away from them.
Klemper then inhales and breathes out blue cloud at them. Ember was quick to avoid, but Danny was engulfed by Klemper's cloud, causing him to be trapped in a block of ice, but Danny managed to get himself free from the ice by firing two powerful ghost rays, breaking the ice.
Ember then spotted a floating refrigerator door, which gave her an idea. Danny could sense through their bond what Ember was planning and formed a smirk as both fly over to it, confusing Klemper before he flies after them. The ghost heroes open the fridge door fast and Klemper flies into it, unable to stop in time as Klemper crashed into the snow inside. Ember and Danny quickly close the door.
Inside the spooky-fridge, turning out to be another big realm filled with a frozen tundra of snow and ice, Klemper looks up from the snow in confusion. Then he saw a penguin standing in front of him. He smiled at it and asks the penguin as he leans to it "Will you be my friend?"
The penguin however squawks as if he says while walking away "Heeeeeell no."
Back with Danny and Ember, the ghost heroine shoots a ghost ray at the door handle, vaporizing it, making it nearly impossible to open it "There. That'll hold him off for a while." She said before flying back to the Specter Speeder together with her boyfriend.
Sam was covering her ears as Tucker was still singing false while listening to his new song on his PDA "Rock 'n' Roll angles, yeeaaah! Rock hallelujah-ah-aaah!"
As Danny and Ember phase intangibly into the cockpit, both changed back into their human forms and sat behind Tucker and Sam.
Sam was glad to see Danny and Ember okay "Who was that ghost that was attacking you?" she asked.
Ember rolled her eyes as she stated "Ugh. An annoying ghost named Klemper."
Danny was beginning to shiver as he blows on his hands and rubs his palms together "I didn't know that ghosts could get frostbite."
Ember formed a sweet smile as she transformed herself again into her ghost form "Oh, come here you…" she pulls her boyfriend close to her while flaring up her flaming hair before wrapping around them, giving Danny some warmth "How is does that feel?"
Danny didn't shiver that much anymore and said while he nodded "Much better. Thanks, babe."
Tucker just kept singing false, cheering for the rock band that made this song "Dark Angels! Yeah! Go Dark Angels! Hallelujah!"
Annoyed by this, both Danny and Ember covered their ears. Danny gave a little chuckle "Well, at least Tucker is confident to sing out loud, even though he can't sing."
"Defiantly," Ember said as Sam took the steering wheel and drove the Specter Speeder into the portal back to the human world, while Tucker kept singing false out loud.
Two Victorian-age ghost gentleman looked up in confusion, with one asking "What on Earth is that ghostly wail?"
His friend gave a shrug.
Later…
Inside Danny's room, Ember handed over the bottle with Potion of Confidence to Tucker as she explained to him "Here. Just take a few sips of this before the audition and your confidence will go sky high."
"And you're sure I won't screw things up?" Tucker asked with some uncertainty.
"Tuck, listen," Ember ensured him "Just take a few sips and your newly founded confidence will do the rest. It's as simple as that." she finished with a wink.
Tucker looked at the bottle with the brownish/orange looking liquid. But trusting Ember on this, he smiled and enthusiastically said "Alright then! Tomorrow, we're gonna rock!" and raised his fist into the air.
Danny gave him a high-five "Yeah, that's the spirit, Tucker!"
Sam then told Ember with a smile "It's great you remembered that that potion is gonna work, Em."
Ember however whispered to her, making sure that Tucker won't hear it "Actually, I made that all up. I'm just doing it to encourage him a bit."
Sam looked surprised at her that this potion isn't real, but then mischievously smiled "Not bad, Ember."
Later on, after Sam and Tucker went home, Danny and Ember flew over Amity Park in their ghost forms. After not having found any ghosts on their patrol just yet, Danny asked his ghost-girlfriend as they looked down below the streets from a building "Hey, Ember? You said that you were once in a band back in the Ghost-Zone?"
Seeing that they had plenty of time, Ember sat down and started to tell while Danny sat next to her "Yeah, that was some years back, when I'd just turned into a ghost after I died in that horrible fire. For weeks I roamed the Ghost-Zone. I was scared and hungry, not knowing where to go and not having any control over my ghost powers. One day, I found an old guitar in the Lost & Found realm. I was able to fix it and began to play on it, which gave me some comfort in that miserable place. But apparently, my talent for music had not gone unnoticed as I was heard by a ghost named Rocker, who was the leader of a ghost-band and saw some potential in me. Rocker learned me how to control my powers, and later on I became an official member of his band," she then took out her guitar "And that old guitar that I fixed? It's this one. With a few adjustments and infusing it with my ghost powers, it became my signature instrument, and my weapon."
"Wow. That's cool." Danny said with a smile, but then wandered "Then… why did you stop?"
Ember sighed before she told "Honestly, it was because I finally grew some conscious. You see, Danny, Rocker and his bandmembers were anything but good. Whenever they liked, they were hurting innocent ghosts. At first, I played along with it and helped my team. But one day… when I saw this little ghost girl in pain… she reminded me of my little sister, Amy. That's when it finally hit me. I realized that I'd become what I swore never to become. And if my own sister had seen me like this, I would never forgive myself. So… I decided to quite. But…"
"But what?" Danny asked.
"Well, Rocker and his band didn't took that pretty well and began to attack me," Ember explained as what happened when she tried to leave Rocker and his band "I tried to defend myself, but they proved to be too strong for me to handle on my own. But when I was on the brink that they wanted to kill me, something in me… snapped, as if I could… hear my little sister's voice… of my mother… telling me to fight back… for them," a tear fell from her eye as Ember began to smile, as it was her deceased mother and little sister that gave her the strength to defeat her former band "And so, I managed to defeat them, humiliating Rocker in front of all his ghost fans. I say that he got really scared of my powers now that I'd unlocked my full potential. But I didn't killed him or his bandmembers, instead I warned them to never bother me or any innocent ghost ever again. And then… I flew away and I never saw them again."
Danny was amazed by her tale "Wow, babe. That's… amazing, that you finally stood up against that asshole," he then smiled before putting his arm around her waist "And… I'm glad to hear that you hadn't become an evil ghost."
Ember formed a sweet smile as she looked into her boyfriend's eyes "Me too, Danny…" she said softly before both shared a passionate kiss.
Meanwhile, somewhere in downtown Amity Park…
While some older teenagers were still hanging around on the streets, skateboarding at the park or doing other teenage stuff, all were listening to the new song from the new popular band.
All we need is lightning with power and might
Striking down the prophets of false
As the moon is rising, give us the sign
Now let us rise up in awe
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
Demons and angels all in one have arrived!
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
In God's creation's supernatural high!
A few teenagers shouted out loudly, cheering for the lead singer "Yeeah! You rock Lord of Darkness! Woohooo!"
"Hard rock HALLELUJAAAAH!" a girl yelled out loud, loving the song so bad.
However, on top of the roof of a nearby building, four ghostly figures in the shadows were watching down on the fools who kept cheering their band's and the lead singer's name.
Their leader, calling himself 'The Lord of Darkness' appeared out of the shadow, forming an evil grin on his face. He was a tall muscled looking man with 3rd degree burned markings on his face and arms, having long black hair, a beard, devil horns on his forehead and big bat-like wings on his back, while his outfit consists a metal/goth looking armor and a black cape.
He chuckled evilly as he watched all the teenagers were now hypnotic rock song "Hahahahaha. Yes. Keep saying my name out loud, you fools. Your chanting only gives me strength," He watched his righthand, seeing his ghostly black/red energy increase, making his muscles grow some in strength, while his bandmembers' ghost energy also increased "Soon, all the world will call out my name and I will be the most powerful ghost in existence!" A black/red aura glow from his body, making it ignite like fire while his bat-like wings spread and his eyes glow bright red. He laughed evilly followed by his bandmembers "Bwahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
The next day, Casper High…
(May 19th, 2004)
To Danny, Ember and Sam's surprise, the whole school had changed into big fans of the new band 'The Dark Angels' and their bandleader, Lord of Darkness, with everyone wearing t-shirts, jackets and hats with the band's name or the face of Lord of Darkness on them, even hanging up posters everywhere which showed Lord of Darkness' face or The Dark Angels live during a concert. At every corner of the school, students kept listening to their song 'Hard Rock Hallelujah', with Tucker being one of them and was even wearing a black t-shirt with a red flame reading 'HARD ROCK HALLELUJAH' in black/white letters and was wearing a dark red beret with black flames on it.
While walking along the corridor together with this girlfriend Ember (in her human disguise), Sam and Tucker, who was listening to the same song since yesterday on his PDA, Danny narrowed his eyes as how everyone is so suddenly all-hardcore on this new band's song "I don't get it! This Lord of Darkness comes out of nowhere and suddenly he's the biggest thing since MP3's!"
Ember agreed with her boyfriend, responding with a scoff "You're right, babypop, it's so-"
"Infuriating how mindless pre-packaged corporate bubble gum is preventing true musical artists from being heard?" Sam asked, interrupting Ember's sentence.
"Yeah, indeed." Ember said while narrowing her eyes.
Tucker however stated as that would not change his mind of his like for the new trend song "The Dark Angels are not just about music, their song also help me to keep a cool head so I won't freak out while playing our song for the audition. Plus: They're an expression of my unique individuality." He stated while they go around the corner, seeing an entire hallway of students being Dark Angel-fans including the A-Listers and the whole hallway was filled with Dark Angel and Lord of Darkness posters.
Sam then said sarcastically while narrowing her eyes "Oh yeah, you're one of a kind! Every single one of you."
Danny groaned as this whole 'Lord of Darkness-trend' was getting on his nerves, making him look at Tucker seriously "C'mon, Tuck! The auditions for the talents show are in a few hours and we don't want you to get too distracted with this… whatever you're in to."
That was when Kwan walked passed them, pointing his thumps at Tucker while cheering "Great look, Foley! Lord of Darkness rules! Woohoo!"
Tucker raised his fist bump while turning back on the Hard Rock Hallelujah song "Dark Angels! Go Dark Angels! Hard Rock, oh yeah! Hard Rock, booyah! Hallelujah!"
"WILL YOU KEEP IT DOWN?!" Danny, Ember and Sam annoyingly call to him.
"Danny is right, Tuck," Ember told Tucker "We need you to be focused."
Tucker raised his hand while showing the bottle of Potion of Confidence "Relax, Emily. I have this," then he wandered "Speaking of auditions, where exactly is the audition for the talents show and when was it again?"
Danny figured that Tucker might have forgotten it and told "It'll be during lunch break, in the theater room."
"Oh, okay." Tucker said with a relief. But that was when his nervousness came back, seeing images of his 8 year old self flashing before his eyes, seeing himself freaking out while running away in panic.
As they saw the sweat coming from his forehead and began to shake, Danny snapped his fingers before Tucker's face "Tucker?" he then held his shoulders and shook him "Tucker!"
Tucker got back to his sentence "Uh-uh, what? I'm okay, I'm okay… I hope!" he then checked the time on his watch, knowing he has to make it to his next class "I gotta go! See you guys later!" he then ran away, before he played 'Hard Rock Hallelujah' on his PDA, giving him some rest.
Danny, Ember and Sam remained behind, with all three of them look at each other.
"I just hope your plan will work, Emily," Sam told Ember.
Ember sighed "I hope so too."
While all walked to their next class, Ember looked at one of the posters, showing Lord of Darkness while smirking as he played on his guitar. She took a closer look, somehow recognizing Lord of Darkness "He looks kinda familiar…"
But leaving it out of now, she followed her boyfriend and Sam.
Later, during lunch break at the school's Theater room…
Paulina, Star, Ashley and Brittany were performing a series of dance moves while a Britney Spears song was being played at the background, using their cheerleader moves to the fullest, with Paulina finishing with a split.
Three teachers, one male called Mr. Smith and two females, the biology teacher Mrs. Cricket and the other being Star's mother, Fiona, were volunteering to be the judges for the auditions and the talent show. While Smith and Cricket gave a small clap, being impressed with Paulina and her friends' performance, Fiona cheered for her daughter "Woohoo! Great job, girl!"
"Mrs. Hill!" Smith told her seriously "Control yourself."
Fiona chuckled "Oh, hihihihi. Sorry, Tony," and just gave a normal clap to her daughter "Good job. Very nice." But was still very proud nonetheless.
Star blushed out of embarrassment.
Paulina then asked the judges while putting her hands on her hips, being all arrogant "So, I hope that this means we're into to the talent show, am I right?"
Fiona, Smith and Cricket exchanged a nod and put Paulina and her friends on the list of people who made it to the talent show, with Smith saying "Yes, Miss Sanchez. You and your friends made to the next round."
While Ashley, Brittany and Star cheered, Paulina arrogantly smirked "Ha! I knew I would," he then gestured her friends to follow her "Let's go, ladies."
"Next please!" Smith called trough the megaphone.
After Paulina and her friends left the stage, they were met with several more students who wanted to perform in the talent show.
But while Paulina looked at the other students, thinking they wouldn't stand a chance against her, she bumped on Ember "Ow!"
Paulina groaned while rubbing her head "Urgh! Watch where you're going, loser."
Ember frowned at her "I should better tell you, Paulina."
Danny agreed with his girlfriend while joining her, followed by Tucker and Sam "Yeah, you were the one who didn't looked."
Though Paulina wouldn't take that from anyone, she began to mock them "Deciding to humiliate yourselves at the audition anyway, huh? Ha! Take my advice, losers, spare yourselves from making fools out of yourselves and just walk away while you still can."
Ashley agreed with Paulina, joining in mocking Danny and his friends "Yeah, like you guys will be standing any chance against us. Especially with you wearing those awful cheap earrings of yours from the 89 cents store." She points at Sam who's still wearing the Fenton Earphones, finding them nice to wear as earrings.
Sam however fired back as she folded her arms while forming a grin "Well, at least we don't have to bath ourselves in a pole of shallowness, unlike the likes of you."
Ashley was not taking that from the goth-geek "Me? Shallow?! I'm not shallow!"
Star however eased the situation and puts her hand on Ashley's shoulder "Don't bother yourself, Ash. She's not worth it."
Up the stage, a male student was tapdancing, but then slipped and fell right on his face!
Smith, Cricket and Fiona felt bad for him.
While the student stood up and collected one of his tap dance shoes that fell off, Smith said "Okay, well… maybe you'll do better next time." He and the other judges put the guy's name on the rejection list, while the boy sighed sadly while walking off the stage.
"Next!" Smith called for the next contestants to come on stage, which were Danny, Ember, Sam and Tucker.
After a short minute of preparing their guitars, drum kit and putting the keyboard in place along with some microphones while putting some plugs in some speakers, Danny said into his mike "Okay, we're all set." Sam and Ember nodded while Tucker felt his nervousness skyrocketed.
Tucker felt that his hands began to shake, feeling some sweat forming on his forehead. He glanced to his right, seeing Paulina and her friends watching him and his friends wanting to see them humiliate themselves.
Paulina chuckled "Oh, this is going be fun." While Ashley and Brittany agreed with Paulina, forming a smirk, Star however formed a little smile to Tucker and gave him an encouraging thumps up.
Seeing that Star gave Tucker some sense of encouragement, made Tucker form a small smile. He then reminded himself to better take the potion from the Ghost-Zone and quickly searched his back to get it.
Fiona and Cricket wrote something down on their papers while Smith asked "Okay, Mr. Fenton, so what is your band's name and what are you gonna play?"
"We're the Firing Spirits. And we're going to do a combination song of both Juke Box Hero and I Love Rock 'n' Roll." Danny answered through the mike.
Cricket and Fiona felt some impressiveness as they're going to two songs at the same time. Smith gave a simple nod "Alright then, whenever you guys are ready."
Sam glanced at Tucker, seeing he took the cover off the bottle and took a big sip from the potion.
Tucker thought the potion tasted awful, as it tasted like rotten pears and old water. But as he looked at his friends who watched him, the judges and then Star, he felt somehow… more confident. He formed a grin as he nodded to his friends that he was ready.
Ember formed a small smile at Tucker, seeing her plan was working.
Sam began to play on the drum kit, followed by Tucker and then Ember playing her guitar.
Danny: Bought a beat up six string in a secondhand store
Didn't know how to play it but I knew for sure
That one guitar felt good in my hands
Didn't take long to understand
Just one guitar slung way down low
Was a one-way ticket only one way to go
So I started rockin'
(Ember: Yeaaaaaah!)
Danny: ain't never gonna stop
Gotta keep on rockin'
(Ember: Yeaaaaaah!)
Danny: Someday I'm gonna make it to the top and sing
Ember: I love rock n' roll!
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock n' roll
So come an' take your time an' dance with me
Paulina, Ashley and Brittany's mouths fell right open out of shock, seeing that Danny and his friends were playing far better than any of them had expected.
Even the other students were all shocked while trying to get a glimpse of their performance, with Star forming a smile to see how well Tucker was playing.
Smith, Cricket and Fiona both were very impressed with their performance so far.
Danny: In a town without a name in a heavy downpour
Thought I passed my own shadow by the backstage door
Like a trip through the past to that day in the rain
And that one guitar made my whole life change, yeah, yeah, yeah…
Ember: An' we'll be movin' on an' singin' that same old song
Yeah with me, singin'
(Danny: I'm a Juke Box Hero!)
Ember: So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
(Danny: I'm a Juke Box Hero!)
Ember: So come an' take your time an' dance with me
(Danny: Juke Box Hero!)
Ember: Got stars in my eyes!)
(Danny: I'm just a Juke Box Hero!)
Ember: Aaaah aaaaah!
(Danny: Juke Box Hero)
Ember: I love rock n' roll
(Danny: Juke Box Hero!)
Ember: So come an' take your time an' dance with me
(Danny: Juke Box Hero)
Ember: I love rock n' roll
(Danny: Juke Box Hero!)
Ember: So come an' take your time an' dance with me
Both: Stars in my eyeeeeees
I love rock n' roll!
For a few seconds… a long silence fell. But then all the students were cheering for Danny, Ember, Sam and Tucker. With one guy saying "Wow… you rock, Firing Spirits."
The three judges all stood up from their chairs and clapped for their performance.
Danny felt overwhelmed by all this; that everyone loved how he and his friends played, which made him form a big smile as he glanced at his girlfriend, who gave him a rock sign.
Sam too couldn't almost believe what they did and everyone loved it.
Tucker was silent for a moment "I… I did it…?" he looked at his keyboard before he began to smile bright "I did it! I FREAKING DID IT!" he raised his fist high in the air.
Ember gave him a thumps up.
Smith, Cricket and Fiona both stood up and clapped for their performance. All three exchanged a nod, before Fiona says to them "Well, I think we all have agreed. Congratulations, Firing Spirits, you're in the talent show!"
While Danny and Ember hugged in celebration, Sam and Tucker gave each other a high five.
Paulina, Ashley and Brittany were still in shock with their mouths wide open. Star on the other hand thought they were amazing, especially with Tucker being so confident about himself.
"Did you… did you see what they were doing?!" Ashley asked her friends.
"I… I never knew that Fenton was this good!" Brittany called out in shock.
Paulina then changed from her stunned look to angry as she vowed "I… no! No one, and I mean no one is gonna take the win from me! NEVER!"
"Uhhh… don't you mean us, Paulina?" Star asked.
Paulina frowned at her friend "Shut up, Star!" she then gestured her friends to follow her "Let's get out of here."
Ashley and Brittany did what Paulina told them, while Star did too, but turned herself for a moment, looking at Tucker.
Tucker, while walking off the stage together with his friends, saw Star was looking at him. He formed a smile, and she did too while giving a small wave before going after Paulina again.
Sam, though not having noticed him looking at Star, gave Tucker an elbow "Well, aren't you gonna thank Emily for giving you the confidence you needed?"
Getting back to reality, Tucker nodded "Uhh… yeah, you're right," he then turned to Ember, saying "Hey, uhm… thanks Emily for uhm… you know?"
Ember gave a shrug "No problem, Tuck."
Danny then suggested, still being enthusiastic of them having passed the auditions "Now let us prepare for the real deal at the talent show!"
"Hell yeah!" all his three friends said.
Meanwhile on stage, a teenage boy was play back the song 'Hard Rock Hallelujah'.
Ember and Sam groaned while Sam suggested "Ugh! Anyone wanna get out of this place?"
Danny and Ember raised their hands "Yep."
Tucker however cheered for hearing that song again "Hard Rock! Oh Yeah! Hallelujah! Alright!"
Danny, Ember and Sam narrowed their eyes.
Later on during Mr. Lancer's math class…
Every student in the class was wearing a helmet with four prongs on top of it, while having a keyboard and three computer screens on their desks.
Danny wandered why they had to wear these dumb helmets and have all these computer screens in front of them, same with his girlfriend, his friends and all the other students.
Lancer was preparing a complicated rectangular prism device with a TV antenna over it along with lights, switches, buttons and dials "As you all know, since the Northwestern Nine Standardized testing will start next week, and my bonus is proportional to your grades, I managed to pursue principal Ishiyama to have installed the Cramtastic Mark Five. The latest in state-of-the-art subliminal study-aid technology." he stated with a smile as he managed to convince his boss to invest in these overrated computer system to help the students learn faster, only so that he'll receive a bonus if all his students are scoring high marks.
Ember frowned at the ridiculous idea of wasting that much money on these fast learning computer system "Seriously, Mr. Lancer? Couldn't the school better have used the money on other learning programs or improving things around here instead of wasting it on these stupid machines?!"
Everyone on the class glanced with surprise at the Californian rock-chick for speaking out like that.
Lancer narrowed his eyes at her for her criticism and folded his arms "So, you think this class is a waste of your time, Miss McLain?"
Though Sam and Tucker became concerned of Ember saying it out loud, Danny however mentally supported his girlfriend.
Ember rose up from her chair and removed the stupid helmet of her head "I'm saying that wasting money on improving our learning on just ONE miserable test is wrong! Wouldn't it have been better if you convinced our principal to equally divide of this so-called investment into every other class, so that all students at least will get some extra help for not getting high enough grades? If you would have at least thought about that, then we ALL would be receiving the help we need." she seriously asked the vice-principal.
The other students began to chat among each other, seeing that the Californian rock-chick had a point.
"Silence!" Lancer called out, making everyone to shut up "Although you may have a fair point, Miss McLain, in the end it's up to the school board to make the final decision. And that decision, is the Cramtastic Mark Five," Lancer proudly patted on the machine, before glancing seriously again at Ember "So, unless you wish to fail this class, I say you sit down, place the helmet on and learn all you can for the upcoming test."
Ember folded her arms before sitting down again and puts the helmet back on 'Stupid vice-principal Lancer! Just wanting us to get a higher grade so he gets a bonus on his salary?! Who the hell does he think he is?! He's supposed to help the students, not himself!' Ember angrily called in her mind.
Danny could now hear his girlfriend's thoughts more clearer than before, which surprised him. But then mentally talked to Ember 'You bet, babe,'
Ember was completely surprised that she could hear Danny's thoughts and glanced at him.
Both boyfriend and girlfriend exchanged a confused look. But thinking that they're maybe able to hear each other's thoughts because of their mental link, which has now probably been strengthened after they ecto-bonded, Danny and Ember both formed a small smile.
"Mr. Fenton! Miss McLain!" Lancer called the two lovebirds, warning them to pay attention. Seeing that everyone wasn't getting distracted, Lancer proudly pressed the red button on the device "Let the learning begin!"
But instead of seeing the any mathmatic lessons, all the students saw on their screens the Lord of Darkness and his band the Dark Angels.
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
Demons and angels all in one have arrived!
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
In God's creation's supernatural high!
Hearing their all favorite song, the students began to cheer, while Danny, Ember and Sam took of their helmets in annoyance, but Tucker was yelling out loud for his favorite band.
Lancer was stunned what happened and angrily turns the device off, making all the screens flick off, causing everyone sigh in disappointment.
Lancer pressed another button, ejecting the disk drive, revealing a black/red CD that reads 'LIVE! Hard Rock Hallelujah!'. Lancer grabs the CD while he gritting his teeth and wanted to call out to see who was responsible for this little prank, but then looks confused as organ began to play in the background, followed by a drum.
Lancer thought it was Tucker who was playing that song as he held out his PDA. "Foley! Turn off that blasted PDA!" and throws the disk at him, hitting Tucker's PDA.
Tucker narrowed his eyes as he protested "It's not me!" he then pointed with his thump to the windows "It's coming from outside!"
Everyone removed their helmets and rushed towards the windows as the music beat continues.
Just outside Casper High, a truck with a sound-stage on it stops in the middle of the road in front of the school with large amps and a black banner reading 'Dark Angels' in red flaming letters.
The stage then fills with black/red flames. As it dissipates, it first revealed the band leader of the Dark Angels 'The Lord of Darkness' while holding a black metal guitar with the body of the guitar in the shape of a flaming red/orange skull.
Out of the flames, Lord of Darkness' other three bandmembers appeared:
One guy, wearing a cow skull mask, a long black gothic jacket, played the bass. His name is Larry.
The other guy was wearing a black/red steampunk gothic suit and had purple hair as a tomahawk, playing the drum kit. His name is Vamp.
The third one, who was the only female in the group, had long dark red hair, pale skin, a long black cleavage spandex dress, tribal tattoos on her arms and had a piercing which was connected with a small chain to her left earring and was playing the keyboard. Her name is Ruby.
Lord of Darkness began to sing out loud into his mike, followed by his bandmembers "Hard rock Hallelujah! Hard rock HALLELUJAAAAH!"
Hearing the Dark Angels were playing right in front of their school, caused all the students to run out of the school building from three different sides and cheer loudly as they all gathered in front of the truck-stage.
"Hell-o Casper High!" he raised his fist into the air "Tell me who you love!"
"LORD OF DARKNESS! LORD OF DARKNESS! LORD OF DARKNESS! LORD OF DARKNESS! LORD OF DARKNESS!" the whole crowd chanted Lord of Darkness' name, making his aura to glow like fire while he spreads his bat-like wings and his eyes glow bright red.
His bandmember's strength increased too, making them evilly smirk.
"That's right, say my name!" Lord of Darkness smirks "Are you all ready to bring Hell on Earth?!"
The crowd cheers and rushes forward, keeping chanting the band's and Lord of Darkness' name. Danny, Ember and Sam all looked with confusion as how easily the students was influenced, while Tucker runs from the doorway in between his friends and jumped into the crowd and was held up by them in a mosh-pit style.
Tucker called out loud, cheering for the band while holding up his hands "We love you, Lord of Darkness!"
"That's right, my fellow fans. Chant my name!" he then evilly smirks while spreading his bat-like wings "Chant for your new master."
Sam looked a bit surprised while saying to Ember "I'm thinking that this the whole fame has gone into that Lord of Darkness' head."
Though Danny was about to agree, his warning ghost sense goes off.
Ember noticed it "Babypop? What is it?"
Confused, Danny looks around if the ghost he senses is close "There's… a ghost nearby. But I don't know where."
In the middle of the crowd, Lancer climbs on top of a fire hydrant, towering above the sea of cheering teens and held a bullhorn, calling over to the Dark Angels "Attention, you freakishly dressed middle-aged rock idol! I order you and your band to cease and desist!"
Larry, Vamp and Ruby exchanged a short look before laughing.
"You hear that, boss?" Larry asks "That baldhead thinks he can order us."
Lord of Darkness grinned of amusement "Well, let's show that grandpa the consequences of trying messing with us, and with all these teens under my influence," he glanced at the female bandmember "Ruby, do your magic."
Ruby smirked as she played several dark notes on her keyboard, causing a green mist engulfs the whole crowd who kept cheering. But as the green mist overwhelms them, all gasp before their eyes turned red and began to look like zombies, glaring with their demonic red eyes at Lancer as they roared.
Lancer gasps in horror "Night of the living dead!"
Danny then could clearly sense the ghost warning came from… the Lord of Darkness and his whole band "Lord of Darkness' the ghost? All of them?!"
Ember gasps as she recognized that power "Wait a minute," he glanced at the redhead bandmember "Ruby?" then at the steampunk gothic guy "Vamp?" then at guy wearing the cow skull mask "Larry?" then finally at the Lord of Darkness "No, it can't be! It's Rocker and his band!" Ember called out in shock.
Danny looked at her surprised "Rocker? The same Rocker and his band you were once part of back in the Ghost-Zone?"
Ember nodded, confirming that they are the same guys.
Both he and Ember then glared at the ghost band "Well, in that case," Danny said.
"Going ghost!" both Danny and Ember called, making themselves transform into their ghost forms.
"We gotta save Lancer!" Danny said, before he was surprised that he even said that "Wow, never thought I would ever say that."
Ember then suggested "You take care of Lancer," she then angrily looked at her former bandmember "I'll deal with them."
While Danny went to save Lancer from a crowd of angry zombie-like teens, Ember faced the Dark Angels while summoning her guitar in her hands.
"Hey punks!" Ember called to them while floating high above them "Remember me?!" she frowned at them.
Larry glared at their former bandmember "Ember!"
"You little traitor!" Vamp called out in angry before he made several drums, making his drum kit glow black/blue, causing them to summon a group of big ghost-bats and attacked Ember!
Using her guitar as a sword and fired several ghost ray's Ember managed to weaken Vamp's ghost-bats before she hit the strings on her guitar hard and fired a purple vortex at them, destroying most of them while the rest fled in terror.
Ember then faced Lord of Darkness, with him forming a grin as he chuckled "Aaaah. The little ghost girl is trying to stop me. How cute." he then pressed something on his guitar before hitting the strings hard, firing a big black/red ghost ray at Ember, which hit her hard, making her fly backwards and hit the ground!
Danny gasped at seeing his girlfriend being hurt, which snapped him and charged at the Dark Angels "You bastard!"
Lord of Darkness and his band simply smirked while Larry played several dark strings on his bass, summoning a big black/red fire around them and the stage-truck while all laughed evilly.
Danny attempted to fire a big ghost ray at them, but as the blast hits, he only blasted a small crater as Lord of Darkness and his band, along with their stage-truck had vanished.
Danny looked in surprise "Hey! Where the hell did they go?"
All the students had all returned to normal while feeling dizzy as some groaned.
Sam walked over to Tucker concerned as he tilts a little before he got back to his senses and looks around confused "Hey! No encore? What's that all about?" he asked Sam, who just narrowed her eyes at him.
Danny quickly transformed back into his human form and ran over to Ember, who'd just turned back into her human disguise "Are you okay, Em?!" he asked while helping Ember back up her feet.
Ember rubbed her head "Yeah, I'm okay. Geez, I never knew that they had gotten this strong all of the sudden." She said as how surprised she was how much stronger her former band have become. Worriedly, she says "We need to find them Danny and stop whatever they're planning."
"I agree," Danny agreed with his girlfriend "Tonight, they are our number-1 priority."
Both then looked at where the Dark Angels were at first, wandering where they've gone to.
The next day, at school during lunch break…
(May 21st, 2004)
Though Danny and Ember have been searching all across Amity Park for nearly all night, looking where Lord of Darkness (formerly known as Rocker) and his band have been hiding. But till so far, the two ghost heroes were out of luck.
But regardless, Danny and Ember have been trying to make some time beside from their nightly patrol to practice with Tucker and Sam for the talent show this Saturday.
Danny gave a yawn while sitting down at a table next to Ember, while Tucker and Sam sat on the opposite side.
"Having no luck in finding those ghost-rockers?" Sam asked.
Ember shook her head "No. I don't know what it is but for some reason they're stronger than ever before. And smarter." She stated as her former band wasn't that strong or smart in the Ghost-Zone.
Danny then theorized "Could it be that they could've gotten stronger as they've learned new ghost powers?"
Ember gave a shrug "Perhaps," she then looks determent "But we got to find them and send them back to the Ghost-Zone, wherever they might be."
"Well, in the meantime," Tucker said before taking out the same bottle that has Ember's fake potion in it and took a few sips out of it. Tucker shivered after swallowing the few sips of this that awfully tasting juice, he imagined his confidence skyrocketed and rose up from his chair with his hands on his hips "I'm ready to face anything that comes in my way!"
Tucker then saw Dash along with Kwan and two other jocks walking into the cafeteria, picking out a new victim to bully. Dash had his eyes on two nerds, who weren't even wearing any Dark Angels or Lord of Darkness clothes. He smirked as he gestured his jock friends to follow him.
Tucker narrowed his eyes at what Dash was planning to "You know what? Somebody is gonna have to put Dash in his place."
Sam nodded "Yeah, he sure lives up to his reputation as the biggest deuce bag in all of Casper High, but-" she stops as suddenly Tucker marches over to Dash and his friends "Tucker? Where are you going?" but seeing what he's about to do, both Sam and Ember gave a look of shock and worry.
"Oh no. He's gonna…" Ember, Sam and Danny quickly rose from their chairs, hoping to stop Tucker from making a big mistake, but they were too late.
Dash, holding up a basketball, hit the nerd hard in his face while he and his friends chuckled as Dash said "I asked you two a question. Why aren't you into the Dark Angels, huh?"
One answered while being afraid "I… I-I… we… we're just not into the Dark Angels, Dash. That's all."
Dash hit the other one with his basketball, making his glasses fall off "Whoops. My bad," Dash fake apologized before hitting the nerd with his basketball again.
"You little bitch." Tucker said, standing behind Dash, making him, Kwan and the other jocks look at him in surprise for a moment "You don't talk to them like that. If they're no fans of Dark Angels, you should respect their decision and leave them alone."
Dash then formed a grin, being amused of being challenged by another nerd and asked as he stood close to him, towering over him "Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do about it, Foley?"
The other students in the cafeteria all turned to Dash of being challenged by Tucker Foley, feeling that Danny's friend was about to get his ass kicked.
Ember shook her head in worry as this was not what she'd planned to happen.
Sam begged Tucker not to do anything stupid "Tucker, don't."
Tucker gave a short glance at Sam before glancing back at Dash very confident "Relax, Sam. I got this."
Danny had a feeling this was gonna end bad.
"What I'm gonna do about it, Dash?" Tucker asked before he folded his arms while he formed a smirk "First, I'm gonna call your father."
But that resulted in only in laughter by both Dash, his friends and some of the students, especially the A-listers.
Dash mocked him "Ooooh, I'm so scared. Hahahahaha." He took his basketball, and tossed it right at Tucker's head hard "Heads up!"
But Tucker caught the ball with one hand, surprising Dash and the other students, even Danny, Sam and Ember. Tucker glanced at the ball, still showing that same confident face as he glanced at Dash.
Dash growled as Tucker had the nerve of mocking his way to bully him "Give me my ball back, you little bitch."
Holding up the basketball in his right hand, Tucker gave a shrug while he formed a grin "You know, Dash, honestly, I feel sorry for you. For you picking on weaker students, only just to ease your own inner pain."
Some students exchanged a surprised look.
Dash frowned at Tucker "You don't know me at all, Foley."
Tucker chuckled as he spin the ball on his finger and walked around Dash in a circle "Oh, but I do. I know you all to well. You're the man. You're captain of both the football and the basketball team. You date all the pretty girls. Everyone worships you as some kind of a hero. High school is your kingdom." He glanced at the basketball for a moment before turning to the other students "But, let's be honest here, people. Dash is a bully. And you wanna know why?" Tucker then gave a shrug "It'd be way too easy to say Dash preys on the weak and gets away with everything simply because he's an asshole."
The students murmured as how much courage it takes for someone, especially Tucker Foley to call Dash like that. Sam, Danny and Ember exchanged a surprise look. Dash tightens his fists in anger.
Tucker however wasn't being intimidated and kept saying while turning back glancing at Dash while playing with the basketball "No. Dash here… is much more complex than that," as he spins the ball again on his finger he states "You see, people, according to leading psychiatrists, Dash is a bully for one of three reasons," Tucker pointed three fingers up while spinning the ball on his middle finger, then back on one finger as he states "One: Underneath all of that male bravado, there's an insecure little girl just banging on the closet door, trying to get out."
The students began to chuckle, thinking that Dash is only doing this to hide being gay, while Dash was very angry of being accused of hiding his true-self.
"Two: Like a caveman," Tucker states while playing with the ball before he gave a little shrug "Dash's brain is… underdeveloped," more students began to chuckle, while Danny, Ember and Sam exchanged a mixture of surprise and proudness of Tucker "Therefore, Dash is unable to use self-control. And so he acts out aggressively."
Dash was like on the brink to snap, feeling he was being humiliated in front of the whole school.
"And finally, the third reason," Tucker says while spinning the ball on his small finger while forming a grin "Dash has a small dick."
Everyone gasped as they laughed, even Danny, Ember and Sam weren't expecting that, causing them to laugh too. Dash was taken by surprise by that as he looks around in worry, even Kwan and the other jocks had not expected that and had no idea how to respond to it.
Seeing Dash's reaction, Tucker smirked as he played with the ball a bit more and was about to throw the ball hard over to Dash, making him take a step back out of shock, but clearly Tucker wasn't gonna throw the ball at Dash.
Tucker grins as he says to Dash "Don't hurt yourself, big boy." And tosses the ball back at Dash while walking back to his friend's table with pride.
The other students began to clap and cheer for Tucker, while Dash was still baffled of what Tucker said. Humiliated, Dash groans as he marches out of the cafeteria.
Sam walked over to Tucker with a proudly smile on her face "Tucker, that… that was amazing! You wiped off the floor with Dash without even fighting him."
Tucker gave a shrug as he was eating his sandwich "Don't thank me," he held up the bottle with the fake potion "Thank this potion." And gave a wink.
At the A-listers table, Paulina and her friends exchanged a look of surprise. Valerie formed a mixture of both shock and impressed "Wow… who knew that Tucker Foley had it in him?" she asked Star.
Star winked her eyes in surprise "Yeah… he's so much more…" she formed a dreamy smile as she watched Tucker "…confident."
Not long after, Lancer walked down the hallway, sorting through a stack of magazines "Lord of Darkness… Lord of Darkness… Lord of Darkness…" Lancer narrowed his eyes as he threw all those magazines into the trashcan "If is see one hint of that man in school today, I'll-" he interrupted himself as he saw a large group of students wearing shirts with Lord of Darkness' head on it "Chicken Soup for the Soul!"
Seeing that some students even went to the extreme and even started dressing like Lord of Darkness or like the others of the Dark Angels, Danny narrowed his eyes as a few girls, dressed like Ruby, passed by "Okay, this is starting to get freaky."
Tucker, while holding out his PDA, ready to listen to Hard Rock Hallelujah again, said "It's a Dark Angels thing. You wouldn't understand."
But just as he was about to press the button to start the song, Ember snatched his PDA out of his hand and looked at him very seriously "Tucker! Use your head for fuck's sake!"
Sam agreed with Ember "Emily is right, Tuck. That Lord of Darkness is using his mind-controlling ability to manipulate you."
Though it was hard for Tucker to resist, he agreed with Ember and Sam "You know what? You two are right."
"We are?" Sam raised an eyebrow, being surprised that Tucker agreed with them for once.
Tucker then took another big sip from Ember's fake potion, giving him the chills cause of the bad taste "Eck! That tastes awful," he said before he confidently smiled "But should protect me from being influenced by that metal rocker-ghost."
"It does?" Ember asked confused.
"Yeah," Tucker stated "Any time when I drink your Potion of Confidence, somehow Lord of Darkness' influence doesn't affect me," then he asked his friends "But what I don't understand is that any of you aren't being affected by Lord of Darkness' music?"
Ember rolled her eyes while smiling "That's because that deuce bag's music doesn't affect ghosts. Du-uh!"
"But what about you Sam? Maybe-" Tucker wandered why Sam wasn't affected by that hypnotic song.
"Because of my disdain that's anything popular?" Sam guessed.
"Well, actually I was gonna say individuality or intelligence," Tucker said before giving a shrug "But, okay."
That Tucker said that, made Sam look a bit surprised before she blushed "Oh… Hihihihi. You really think I'm smart?" that she blushed made Sam confused in her mind 'Wait. Am I blushing? Why the heck am I blushing?'
Just then, Star walked up to Tucker and said with a sweet smile "Hey, Tucker."
Tucker looked at first surprised at Star, but then formed a goofy smile "Uhh… hey, Star. What's up?" he asked in a flirty way.
Sam rolled his eyes of disapproval "Oh, give me a break."
Star gave a shrug "Oh, nothing much. Hey… I was wandering…"
She was interrupted when Valerie ran up to her, saying all enthusiastic "Star! Everyone! Lord of Darkness and the Dark Angels are giving away free concert tickets at Bucky's Music Megastore!"
"Are you serious?!" Star smiled brightly.
Immediately, all the students rushed to the exit, cheering "Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness!"
Lancer steps in front of the exit, spreading his hands, trying to prevent any of the students from leaving the school "You people aren't going anywhere except detention!" but his attempt was to no avail and was pushed through the door by the crowd of Dark Angels fans.
Tucker was even this close to go after the crowd, but tried hard to resist "No…! Must… resist!"
"Bucky's Music Megastore?" Ember asked surprised before she turns very serious "That's it! That's where they are!"
Danny gave a nod while also looking determent as he turned his arm intangible and took the Fenton Thermos out of his locker "Than we better get going and stop that middle-aged cowhead and his goons!"
But just as Danny, Ember, Sam and Tucker were about to run for the exit, Lancer appeared in front of them "Not so fast," Lancer's shirt was torn and had scratches on his arms "The four of you may be the only students left in the entire school," he then grabbed them by their shirts "But that's not going to stop me from giving you an education." He then dragged them through the hallway.
Danny and Ember however exchanged a smirk as they held Sam and Tucker, turning themselves intangible, freeing them from Lancer's grasp. Danny and Ember both transformed into their ghost form and held Sam and Tucker while flying off, turning themselves intangible and phased through the wall, leaving the school.
Realizing that Lancer wasn't holding his four students, made him gasp as he turns around, seeing they were gone "Lord of the Flies! They're slipping right through my hands!" and falls on his knees in defeat.
As Danny and Ember, while holding Sam and Tucker, flew over town, heading towards a building with the signs reading 'BUCKY'S music megastore', Ember became suspicious of why Lord of Darkness would host a concert.
Danny could sense her suspicion and said "I know, Em. I feel the same thing."
When they reached the music megastore, they saw a tall cardboard cutout of Lord of Darkness and many banners hanging on the side of the building which reads 'LORD OF DARKNESS – Dark Angels concert tickets!'
Down below, a huge crowd of thousands of fans were in line, all wanting to have free concert tickets.
For a moment, Sam glanced at Tucker while mentally thinking 'Well, despite he's only more confident because of Ember's fake potion, I could never imagine that Tucker would actually use his brains when he was facing Dash.' She formed a proudly smile at him, before looking away while trying to hide a blush.
Inside Bucky's Music Megastore, thousands of people were cheering for their favorite band while their hypnotic song was heard through all the building. On top of a big tower of video screens, showing Lord of Darkness and his band singing and playing, a black/red fire tornado erupts, revealing the evil metal rocker-ghost and his ghost-band.
All four ghosts raised their fists, forming a rock-sign while calling out loud "Hard rock Hallelujah! Hard rock…!"
The whole crowd finished the singing line by screaming out loud "HALLELUJAAAAAAAAAH!"
In the crowd, Jazz, dressed like Ruby, and Paul who was dressed as Larry were also cheering for the band.
Lord of Darkness and his goons held in their hands piles of yellow tickets and threw them into the crowd, making them to grab them as they cheered even louder.
"Tell me; who do you loooove?!" Lord of Darkness asked into a microphone.
"LORD OF DARKNEEEEEEEESS!" everyone in the crowd, even Jazz and Paul cheered.
The metal ghost-rocker's body and that of his band began to glow and their eyes became bright demonic red, sending more energy into them as their muscles increased in strength.
At that moment, Danny, Ember, Tucker and Sam phased through the wall and became tangible.
Thinking of a plan, Danny said "Something tells me these fans are not gonna love seeing their idols sucked inside the Fenton Thermos."
Sam then got an idea "I think I can distract them."
Back with Lord of Darkness and his band, their energy still multiplied and the bandleader's bat-like wings spread out "Yes… yes! Keep chanting my name."
Suddenly, all were interrupted when Sam called "Hey everybody!" all looked, seeing Sam hanging on one of the cardboards cutout of the band, having used a red marker to draw mocking and funny things on Lord of Darkness, Larry, Vamp and Ruby's face "Look, it's the Lord of Dorkness and The Fairy Hellhounds!"
Lord of Darkness and his goons noticed their auras was getting weaker, making their eyes go back to normal.
Larry glared at Sam for insulting them "Oh great. A critic."
Lord of Darkness however evilly smirked as he turns a button in his guitar, making some skulls on his guitar glow black/red/orange "Maybe she'll like a new tone better? Hahahahaha!"
As he made his right arm glow black/red, ready to hit the strings on it hard, both him and his goons were suddenly hit from Ember's energy beam from her guitar and Danny's powerful ghost ray, sending them flying backwards!
"Hey! Do you take requests?" Danny asks as he and Ember stood ready to face the Dark Angels "How about 'Beat It'?"
All four dark ghosts glared as they floated up with Lord of Darkness' wings spread out, with Ruby making her ghost-keyboard appear in her hands, Larry his bass guitar and Vamp his drum kit.
"How about we just lay down a few power notes instead, punk!" Larry angrily called as he hit the strings on his bass guitar hard, making a hug fire storm appear, which morphed into five fire-ghosts! The fire-ghosts attacked Danny and Ember, with Danny forming a powerful ghost-shield, blocking their combined attack while Ember hit the strings on her guitar hard, firing a series of ghost rays at the firing ghosts, but they had no effect.
Lord of Darkness then hit the strings on his guitar, sending a very powerful ghost-punch towards the two ghost heroes, hitting them head on!
Tucker, while having sneaked up from behind, opened the Fenton Thermos, ready to capture these ghosts without their knowledge. However, Ruby noticed Tucker's attempt of a sneak attack and played powerful notes on her keyboard, causing a small power burst, controlling several fans as her personal zombie-fans, making them appear from behind Tucker. Tucker yelped while running away from them.
Sam then appeared, holding up a fire extinguisher and blasts the zombie-fans away.
"Thanks, Sam." Tucker thanked his friend.
"You're welcome, Tuck."
Back with the fight, Ember and Lord of Darkness fought each other using their guitars as swords, avoiding and deflecting each other's attacks! As their guitars were sword locked, Lord of Darkness grins evilly at the flaming rocker "Hahahahaha! I've been waiting a long time of this moment, baby."
Suddenly, Lord of Darkness was hit by a powerful punch from Danny, sending him flying backwards, but Lord of Darkness quickly recovered and flew up with his bat wings, while Vamp appeared in front of his leader, facing Danny while he played several drums as his drum kit glowed, summoning another series of big ghost-bats, who attacked the two ghost heroes.
Being distracted, Lord of Darkness and his band evilly laughed as they vanished into a tornado of dark fire.
Danny could sense they were on the roof. Both him and Ember turned intangible and phased up through the ceiling, ready to face the Dark Angels.
Tucker and Sam meanwhile, kept trying to keep the zombie-controlled fans at bay, trying to barricade the stairway. From the rumble, a zombie-like Jazz suddenly grabbed Sam by her hair, making her scream.
"AAAAAAH!"
Tucker, while holding an old guitar, charged in on zombie-Jazz "Let her go!" and hit Jazz hard on the head, knocking her unconscious "Sorry for that, Jazz." Tucker apologized while throwing away the now broken old guitar.
Tucker and Sam then ran to another stairway which headed up to the roof.
On top of the building, Danny and Ember phased through the roof floor before turning tangible again.
While Larry, Vamp and Ruby were ready to face their former bandmember and the ghost-boy again, Lord of Darkness however held his hand, stopping them while he smirked "No. These punks are mine."
Danny and Ember charged at Lord of Darkness, with him kicking Danny away before he grabbed Ember and both struggled to wrestle each other down.
"I defeated you and your minions before, and I will do it again!" Ember vowed, while down below, the thousands of Dark Angel fans cheered for their band and chanted the bandleader's name.
"Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness!" the whole crowed chanted his name.
Lord of Darkness' body began to glow as his aura fired up black/red, causing his muscles to increase in size as he evilly smirked down on Ember, with her look in shock as she was slowly pushed further down "Chanting… makes you… stronger?!" Ember asked in shock.
"Got that right, little girl. A new little trick that I managed to master during our… little absence. The more fans chant my name, the stronger both me and the others get! Bwahahahahaha!" he grabbed Ember tight and thew her away, making her hit Danny as both crashed against the cardboard cutout, making it fall down face-down but was halfway still on the roof, while Danny transformed back into this human form, having been exhausted cause of the fight. Even Ember nearly had no energy left to fight her former band.
Suddenly, Larry used his increased power to summon a large firing chain and tighten both Danny and Ember against a nearby wall.
Lord of Darkness, Larry, Vamp and Ruby smiled evilly at them, with the bandleader leaning close to the two ghost teens "Despite the temptation to just finish you and your boyfriend right now, Ember, I have far more important plans then wasting my energy on you," Lord of Darkness stated as he told his little plan "You see, with this new power of mine, me and my band are now more powerful then ever before. And if you think I'm too strong for you now, just wait until midnight. When my concert will be broadcast global. Think about it, seven billion people chanting my name. And when that happens, I will become the most powerful ghost in existence and the whole world will be my playing ground! Bwahahahahaha!" he laughed evilly, followed by Vamp and Ruby as they floated backwards.
Larry however held his finger and asked his bandleader "Uhm… boss? Don't you mean this'll be our world once we've turned all humans into slaves?" Lord of Darkness glanced at Larry while narrowing his eyes "Well, I mean, we're a band right? So that means… we're a team, right?" Larry gave a shrug while smiling.
Lord of Darkness just stared at him with his narrowing eyes for a few seconds, before he frowned and slapped Larry's face hard "Shut up, you idiot!"
The door on the roof then suddenly opens, revealing Sam and Tucker, with Tucker holding the Fenton Thermos "Get away from our friends!"
The Dark Angels glanced at the duo, who now stood in between them and the two ghost heroes, finding it amusing that these two human teens had the guts to stand up against them. But as Sam was about to use the Fenton Thermos, Ruby fires a single red ghost ray at her, making her fall backwards on the cardboard cutout, as he loses the thermos!
Tucker gasped in horror as he ran over to Sam worriedly "Sam!"
As he checked on her if she was okay, Lord of Darkness appeared in front of them, making Tucker look up in shock.
Lord of Darkness then chuckled "Aw, teen love. So precious and so easy to break," he glanced down at him evilly "But nothing distracts teenagers more than hormones. And I need to keep you and your friends busy for the next eight hours…"
Tucker narrowed his eyes as he took out the bottle with Ember's fake potion and was about to drink it, but got snapped out of his hand by Vamp, who glanced at it in confusion "What's this? Your little medicine, nerd?" he then smirked and faked as he loses it in his hand, making it fall down the building "Whoops. My bad."
Tucker gasped as he now lost Ember's Potion of Confidence.
Lord of Darkness then picks a dial into his guitar, putting it on a black/red heart while he said Tucker, while Sam regained consciousness "With thousands of teens worship me like a god, then so will the two of you. And as they say when you're getting married at the altar," he asks before hitting the strings of his guitar hard sending a powerful pink wave full of red hearts from his guitar at Tucker and Sam "TILL DEATH DO US PART!"
Both Tucker and Sam were hit hard by the wave of red hearts, causing Sam to scream as she was pushed full backwards, sliding down on the cardboard cutout stopping halfway while Tucker's eyes glow red!
"Tucker! Sam!" Danny and Ember called in shock.
While Sam tried to get up on her knees and hands, Tucker's eyes slowly returned to normal as he blinked his eyes. But then slowly turns and glances at Sam. In his eyes, he didn't saw a worriedly and shocked Sam, but… a beautiful black haired girl, making him form a goofy and dreamy grin as his eyes turn into hearts "Wow… Sam…"
Sam narrows her right eye nervously while being confused "Huh?"
Lord of Darkness chuckled to see Tucker all distracted, while Ruby suggested "Well, I guess we should leave the new couple alone, right?"
Lord of Darkness nodded before he evilly grins at Danny and Ember "Well, enjoy watching your friends fall to their deaths, with nothing but their love to comfort them." he and his bandmembers them floated up "See you later, punks," he and his band evilly laughed before they vanished into a red/black firing tornado.
"New couple?" Sam asked skeptical "What the heck is that redhead ghost talking about?"
Tucker, now under Lord of Darkness' love spell, slowly climbed on the cardboard cutout, slowly going over to Sam as he reached out his arms to her, making Sam even more confused.
"Uh, Tucker? Now would be a real good time to hold cardboard so I can…"
But Tucker didn't listen and climbs closer to Sam, causing the cardboard to tip over slowly with the extra weight.
"Tucker, wait! What are you doing?"
Tucker sigh all dreamy "Wow. I just never realized that… you're really pretty when about to fall off a building."
Ember tried to call Tucker back while she and Danny struggled to get these firing chains of them "No wait, Tucker! Don't do it!"
Danny called for him too "Come back, Tuck!"
Tucker, being all dreamy with his eyelids still showing hearts "But I'm over here," he then pointed to the amazing looking goth girl "And I want to be over there." He took another step towards her, causing the cardboard to tip over further.
Sam became really scared "Tucker? Tucker!"
Down below, the people gasped in terror as they see the tipped-over cutout hang off the building.
Sam begged Tucker "Tucker, stop! Don't come any closer!"
Danny called for Tucker to stop "Tucker, SNAP OUT OF IT! Come back over here!"
Tucker however shook his head while saying all dreamy "Nothing is gonna stop me from being with Sam…"
Sam was even more confused as Tucker had never acted this way towards her "Wait, I know that look. That's the same, longing puppy-dog stare you give Paulina!"
"Who's Paulina?" Tucker asked while still being in his dreamy state, not having any desire for Paulina anymore.
Somehow, Sam was pleased to hear that and chuckled "Well… that's a pleasant side-effect."
But as Tucker comes closer, Sam was flicks back to the painful reality as she was about to fall off the cutout. She was this close to fall as she began to panic and nearly slide off, trying to hold on to the side!
Danny and Ember watched in terror of what was happening "SAM!"
Sam lost her grip and falls down of the clipboard while screaming.
But just as she was about to hit the ground, she was snapped out of the air by someone on a flaying motorcycle!
With her eyes held tight, Sam slowly opened her eyes, seeing she was caught by her left arm by Johnny 13 "Johnny?" she asked in surprise.
"Need a ride, gal?" he asked with a smile and flew down back on the roof.
Next to Danny and Ember, Kitty appeared. Her hands glow blue and made the firing chains to vanish, freeing Danny and Ember.
"Johnny! Kitty!" Ember said happily "Thanks for your help."
While Sam stepped off Johnny's motorcycle, Tucker rushed over to her and hugged her "Sam! Oh I'm so glad that you're safe!"
Sam felt kinds awkward about this.
Johnny and Kitty exchanged a confused look before Kitty asked Ember "Did we miss something?"
Ember narrowed her eyes as she stated "Bernie put him under a love spell."
"Bernie?" Sam and Danny asked simultaneously.
Suddenly, multiple police sirens were heard and dozens of police cars stopped in front of the music megastore, surrounding all the students and other teen fans.
While the students were all rounded up, Lancer appeared together with the police chief "Not to worry, Mr. Lancer," the police chief ensured "my men and I will escort these kids back to their homes where they'll receive their inevitable parental punishment."
Back on the roof, Johnny 13 and Kitty quickly hide while being invisible and Ember quickly transformed into her human disguise and Danny back into his human form as police officers rushed to the roof, with one officer saying very seriously "By authority of the Emergency Mass Grounding Act, you are all under house arrest."
Tucker however completely ignored them and kept hugging Sam, while he said dreamily "I'm never going to abandon you…"
Though that did sounded sweet of Tucker, Sam tried to break the hug before two police officers held them by their shoulder and pushed them to the exit "Okay, that's enough for you two lovebirds. Move!" one officer said.
Annoyed, Sam yelled "We're not lovebirds!"
Tucker asked in shock and confusion "Are we breaking up?"
Sam sighed while narrowing her eyes at Tucker "How can we break up? We were never together!"
Tucker smiled bright in relief "So we're not breaking up!"
Sam groaned in annoyance.
A few hours later, at Johnny and Kitty's apartment…
A knock was heard at the front door. Kitty (in her human disguise) opened the door, revealing two police officers holding Ember by the shoulders.
"Mrs. McLain. Your daughter was caught at the music megastore for skipping school." One officer said before he and his partner pushed Ember inside.
Johnny 13 (also in his human disguise) appeared, with both him and Kitty playing the part and looked at their daughter with a mixture of angry and disappointment.
"What the hell is a matter with you, Emily?!" Johnny asked angrily.
Kitty ensured the officers while holding Ember by her shoulders "Not to worry. We'll make sure our daughter is gonna learn her lesson."
The two officers nodded while one said "That's what we like to hear," he tipped his police hat "Good evening, ma'am."
As soon as the two police officers were gone and Kitty closed the door, both she and Johnny 13 pressed the logo of their Human-disguise belt, turning back into their ghost forms, while Kitty asked Ember worriedly "Bernie is back?! How come? I thought you dealt with him and his band years ago?"
At that moment, Ember could feel through her bond with Danny that her boyfriend was close, which made her smile and looked at her back, seeing Danny phasing into the apartment and turned back into his human form and asked his girlfriend "Okay, so you're telling me that this Lord of Darkness, formally known as The Rocker, his actually name is Bernie?"
Ember nodded, confirming what her boyfriend asked that Lord of Darkness' name is actually Bernie "Yeah. He calls himself differently because he's ashamed of having that name. That's why he's always acting like an asshole."
Kitty and Johnny both gave a nod, but then Kitty asked Ember again "But, how the heck have Bernie and the others gotten so powerful all of the sudden?"
Ember shook her head "I don't know. But apparently he has learned a few new tricks over the years," seeing the time was now 11:30pm, she said "But now we've go to stop him from giving that concert. Cause if he casts his hypnotic song globally, every human in the world will be turned into his slaves. He'll be unstoppable!"
Johnny and Kitty both shared a nod while Danny held her hand "We'll stop him, Ember. Together."
That earned a smile from Ember and both shared a short kiss.
Danny then said after breaking the kiss "Right. Let's go and pick up Tucker and Sam and go to that concert." All transformed into their ghost forms and left the apartment. But then, Kitty phased back inside and locked the door, not wanting to leave their home unlocked when leaving and then joined her friends.
Meanwhile, inside Jazz's room, still dressed as Ruby, was laying on her bed, looking sad as she was grounded by her parents, making her unable to see the Dark Angels concert.
But just then, she hears metal-rock music playing outside. Jazz looks outside, seeing a Dark Angels van driving down the street while blasting Hard Rock Hallelujah.
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
Demons and angels all in one have arrived!
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
In God's creation's supernatural high!
Jazz then saw several other teens running after the van, including Paul. He called out to Jazz from her window "Hey, Jazz! C'mon, let's go!"
Jazz smiled brightly and grabs a grapple gun from under her bed "I'm coming!" she called before shooting out the window until it snaps taut and she jumps out, sneaking out of her house. She and Paul, followed by hundreds of teens running to go to the concert.
Inside Tucker's room, the African-American boy was meditating in the middle of his room while having pictures and other various pieces of Sam memorabilia around him in a circle. He breathes in "Sam…. Sam…"
Right at that moment, Danny and Ember, while holding Sam, phased inside the room.
Hearing somebody was inside the room, made Tucker pop open his eyes "Huh? What…?" but as he saw Sam, he smiled bright and his eyes turned into hearts again "Sam! You snuck out to see me!" he sighed dreamily "Aaah. This is almost a dream come true."
Sam slapped her forehead while walking over to Tucker and shook him by holding his shoulders "Tucker! Snap out of it! I-" she interrupted herself when she saw the little Sam Shrine on the floor, making her cringing "Okay, even the part of me that's kind of liking the attention is really freaked out by this."
Tucker ensured her as he happily talks "It doesn't matter!" and held her hands "Just so long as we have each other."
Sam had enough of this and yelled "TUCKER! Listen to me! We're not together! You don't really feel that way about me and I don't feel that way about you."
"So why are you still holding my hands?" he asked with a goofy smile.
Sam rolls her eyes and throws Tucker's hands off her.
Though Tucker was a bit sad, he smiled as he took out something out of his pocket "Oh, I bought something for you!" he held up a small box.
Sam turned to see Tucker opening it, revealing a set of beautiful goth earrings, making her gasp as she looked at them "Tucker… these… these are…"
"Amazing?! Beautiful?!" Tucker guessed while still smiling.
Danny and Ember exchanged a confused look, while Ember said with a little smile "You know, despite Tucker is only under a love hypnosis, they are really cute together."
Sam groaned as she turned to Ember "I heard that!" she turns to Tucker, trying to decline his offer as politely as possible without hurting his feelings "Look, Tucker… I…"
"Just give it a try!" Tucker insisted while taking the gothic earrings out of the small box "I'm defiantly sure they'll suit you better than those other earrings you're still wearing."
Sam sighed "Tucker, they're not even real earrings. They're just some stupid communicators that," her eyes then went wide with realization "Filter out ghost noise!" she took off the Fenton Phones while smiling to her friends "That's why I was never affected by Bernie's music! I've been wearing the Fenton Phones the whole time!"
Ember's eyes too went wide of realization as she smiled "Of course! That is why only Tucker and not you were affected by Bernie's love hypnosis!"
Tucker blinked his eyes in confusion "Who's Bernie?"
Danny stated "That's Lord of Darkness' real name."
Though that made some sense to Tucker, he got back into his dreamy state and asked Sam softly "So… will you give it a shot?" he offered the box with gothic earrings.
Sam knew they didn't had time for this and just took the box and puts it in her pocket "I'll try them later on, but first we've got to stop Bernie and his band from taking over the world!"
Holding on to Danny and Ember, they turned tangible as they flew off and phased out of Tucker's house, heading towards the Amity Park Dome while joined with Johnny 13 and Kitty.
After a short flight of ten minutes, Team Phantom arrived at the Amity Park Dome where Lord of Darkness (or better know as Bernie) was holding his concert with the Dark Angels.
Avoiding the thousands of fans that entered the arena, Danny, Ember, Kitty and Johnny turned intangible while holding Sam and Tucker, going under ground to avoid the crowd and phased back up, close to the VIP entrance, where a security guard was taking a nap in a chair, giving them the chance to go intangible entered the arena.
Finding themselves inside the control station, which held lots of cables and computers.
Sam then told Tucker what to do "Go kill the power. We'll stand watch."
Tucker dreamily smiled at her "For you, anything, Sam…" and went over to the controls.
Kitty folded her arms while asking Sam with a smirk on her face "I never knew you two were into each other."
Sam groans in annoyance "Ugh! Would you knock it off already?! Bernie just put Tucker into some kind of love-spell."
Kitty however could sense that Sam was also in denial "But by the looks of it, you do want to end up together with him, right?"
"What?! No! I don't! I…" Sam was unsure for some reason "Well… maybe. But not like this! I mean, Tucker and I have barely anything in common!"
Kitty gave a shrug while teasing Sam "That never stops people from trying to be together."
Again, Sam groans with annoyance "I told you! We're not together! I mean, he's a total carnivore and I'm an Ultra-Recycle vegetarian!"
"So?" Kitty gave a shrug while she grinned.
"And he's a techno geek and I'm into goth!"
"So?"
Tucker, being distracted by Sam and Kitty discussion, sighed dreamily while leaning his elbow to some switches "Wow… Sam is really beautiful when she's arguing…" but leaning against some switches, turned the amps at the stage on.
"I told you! Tucker and I are not a couple!"
The amps on stage caught those last words "Tucker and I are not a couple!"
That caught the attention of multiple security guards, including Kwan and Dash who were volunteering as security guards for tonight. As they appeared, their eyes glow red and looked like zombies as they grabbed Danny, Ember (both back into their human forms), Tucker, Sam, Kitty and Johnny 13.
Though they thought they could fight themselves out of this, somehow they couldn't as the security guards turned-ghost-zombies glowed with green energy, causing Danny, Ember, Kitty and Johnny 13's powers being weakened.
Ruby then appeared, with her keyboard floating in front of her. She evilly smirked "Well, well, well. Look who tried to crash the party."
A minute later, Ruby brought the intruders into the VIP room, where Vamp, Larry and Bernie were getting ready for their big performance.
"Look what my zombie-minions caught tonight, boss?" Ruby asked with a smirk on her face as the zombie turned guards entered with the caught human/ghost teenagers.
All three looked, with Bernie smirking evilly "Ah, Ember and her human friends," he walked over to them while leaning close to Ember "Thought you could stop me with their help, huh? Well, guess again, baby. I have come prepared this time." He then turned to Kitty and Johnny 13, though surprised to see them, he evilly smirked at them "And look who we got here? Johnny 13 and his biker-girl, Kitty. Long time no seen."
Johnny 13 was surprised to see Bernie not in his Rocker look anymore "Bernie? Is that you?"
Hearing him calling by his real name, made Vamp, Ruby and Larry gasp in horror while Bernie roared as his eyes turned red and his skin more demonic "I AM NOT BERNIEEEEEE!" he then turned back to normal, though still furious at Johnny 13 "And it's not Rocker anymore either! I am now… THE LORD OF DARKNESS! And soon… LORD OF PLANET EARTH! With my new powers that increase with more people chanting my name, the stronger I become! And so too my bandmembers." He finished with a smirk while glancing at his bandmembers, who too smirked evilly.
"But how?" Danny wandered and demanded "How the heck can they become even more powerful while its only your power, Bernie?"
Bernie exploded with anger as he looked demonic again and grabbed Danny by the throat "For your information, ghost-boy," Bernie then turned back to normal "Larry, Vamp and Ruby are able to get stronger too as we're all spiritually connected after they've signed a contract,"
"Contract?" Ember asked in surprise before looking suspicious at Bernie "I don't remember of signing any contract when joining you guys."
Bernie released Danny while explaining to Ember as a small flame appeared in his right hand "That's because of you, Ember," out of the flame he showed a big contract, with Larry, Vamp and Ruby's signature on the bottom "To prevent that ANYONE would even dare to leave the band again, I made this special designed blood-contract that nobody can break."
Ember, Danny and Sam glanced at the contract, which was indeed a blood-contract as Larry, Vamp and Ruby's signature was signed with their green ecto-blood.
Sam stuck her tongue out in disgust "That's nasty!"
"Perhaps," Bernie shrugged before vanishing the contract in his hand "But necessary to keep the family together," he then looked surprised as his love-spell hadn't worked on her but Tucker did as he still dreamily glanced at Sam "I wander why my love-spell had only worked on him?" But then he shrugged as he made his guitar appear in black/red flames in his hands "No matter. When this concert is over, you will all bow to me. Let's go." He gestured his band to follow him to the stage while all evilly laughed, leaving Johnny, Kitty, Danny, Ember, Sam and Tucker being apprehended by Dash, Kwan and the other security guards.
As the lights dimmed in the arena, dozens of TV cameras were pointing at the stage as a light on them turned red, signaling they were live.
Ruby played a solo dark organ, making the crowd go wild.
Suddenly a black/red fired surrounded the stage as all bandmembers began to play!
Hard rock hallelujah
Hard rock hallelujah!
Hard rock hallelujah
Hard rock HALLELUJAAAAH!
Everyone in the crowd started shouting, chanting Bernie's stage name, causing his powers increase. With the camera's videoing everything live to the world. All across America, South-America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia… on every tv screen in the world the Dark Angels were shown, making everyone to look at the band with amazement. Bernie smirked evilly as he began to sing his hypnotic song.
The saints are crippled on this sinner's night
Lost are the lambs with no guiding light
The walls come down like thunder, the rock's about to roll
It's the arockalypse, now bare your soul
All we need is lightning with power and might
Striking down the prophets of false
As the moon is rising, give us the sign
Now let us rise up in awe
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
Demons and angels all in one have arrived!
Rock 'n' roll angels, bring thine hard rock hallelujah!
In God's creation's supernatural high!
On some tv-screens backstage, Team Phantom watched as Bernie and his band slowly became stronger and stronger, getting more people around the world under their control.
Johnny tried to summon Shadow, but was unable to "Fuck! I can't even summon my shadow!"
Sam struggled to get off of zombie-Dash's grasp "We've got break the spell over them somehow. But how?!"
Ember thought for a moment, but then realized what Ruby's weakness was of her zombie-mind control power "Wait, that's it! I remember how Ruby one time lost control over one of her zombie-controlled minions. It has to be something really disgusting that would shock everyone beyond their belief."
"Like what?" Johnny 13 asked "Giving a big fart?"
Kitty narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend "Really, Johnny?"
"What? It was just a suggestion."
Ember shook her head "No, no, no. It has to be something else," she then watched a few monitors, seeing that nearly 30% of all the world was tuning in on Bernie's concert "But we've got think of something quick!"
Sam then glanced at Tucker, saying with a goofy smile "Ah. Isn't this romantic, Sam? Being held hostage, together? You and me?"
Sam then got an idea as she glanced at Dash, still looking in his zombie-mode. Sam was feeling she was gonna regret this and glanced with a bit of sad face at Tucker "I'm sorry, Tucker. I don't mean to break your heart, but…"
Sam turns to look at Dash and takes his arms. Dash looks at her confused "What are you looking at?"
Then suddenly, out of the blue, Sam jumps on Dash and kisses him passionately, catching Dash totally by surprise!
Danny, Johnny and Kitty watched with total surprise and shock. Ember stuck her tongue out in disgust "Eck!"
But Tucker was in total shock "Sam… how could you…?" then suddenly, his eyes turned normal, making him shook his head heavily as the love-spell over him was broken.
Dash, disgusted and shocked, pushed Sam off of him while he turned back to normal, but was still in total shock and disgust of being kissed by Sam Manson "UGH! She tastes like geek!"
Sam did the same as she was totally grossed out of having kissed Dash Baxter "UGH! He tastes like failure!"
Kwan and the other guards, shocked and disgusted were too brought out of Ruby's control and turned back to normal before all screamed and ran away.
While trying to wipe away traces of Dash from her mouth, Sam turned at Tucker and tries to explain herself "Tucker, I'm so sorry, I…"
"You and Dash?" Tucker asked before pointing at himself "But we were…" he then sighed before looking down "But… we weren't, were we?"
Sam sighed, feeling bad for breaking Tucker's heart "No, Bernie did that. I'm sorry that I had to do that with Dash, but I couldn't think of another way to break Ruby's control power over them and… I never meant to hurt you Tucker," she then explained "Look, Tucker… you're a nice guy and all but… I actually like you more like…" she took out the small box with the gothic earrings and handed it back over to Tucker "…As a friend."
Danny, Ember, Johnny 13 and Kitty exchanged a short look before glancing back at Sam and Tucker.
Tucker took the small box with the earrings and puts them back inside his pocket "I understand. And maybe…" he began to smile at her "I like you better as a friend as well."
Sam smiled and both she and Tucker exchanged a hug.
Kitty then whispered to Ember "Honestly, I liked them better being a couple, but…" she then shrugged "if they want to stay friends, so be it."
All then glanced at the video screens, seeing a more powerful Bernie and Dark Angels, with nearly 60% of the world tuning in on the concert.
"C'mon!" Danny called as he and Ember transformed back to their ghost forms "Let's rock 'em up!" and all flew out backstage, ready to face Bernie and his band. Sam and Tucker ran after them.
All were now next to the stage, watching Bernie as he smirked in victory, believing he had now every single human under his control.
Tucker then watched the people on stage, causing him to panic and sweat started to form on his forehead "People… thousands of… people… in the crowd…!" he began to shiver and quickly asked Ember "Em! Please tell me you've got more of that Potion of Confidence!"
Ember awkwardly tried to explain to him "Actually Tucker, I-"
Being on the brink of total panic, Tucker grabbed Ember by her shirt, begging her "PLEASE! I can't face all those people in the crowd! If I don't have any of that potion now, I'll-"
Ember frowned at him before slapping him hard on the cheek "TUCKER! THERE IS NO POTION OF CONFIDENCE!"
Tucker looked at her in shock "What…?"
Ember sighed as she stated "It was a fake, Tuck. It was only ghost water mixed with pear juice. I only made up about that story of a potion to increase your confidence because I wanted to try to encourage you so you could face your stage fear and be more courageous."
Tucker was baffled of this revelation "But… but-but-but… when I was playing the keyboard during the addition? Me standing up against Dash?! That was all… that was…"
Danny ensured his friend "You did all of that by yourself, Tuck. You never needed any potion to be more confident. You had it all along within yourself."
Sam nodded as she puts her hand on Tucker's shoulder.
Tucker couldn't believe it. All what he'd accomplished today, was all along within himself. He looked at the crowd, not feeling that stage fear anymore. Then he glared at Bernie.
Tucker felt something snapped inside him "Bernie!"
Worriedly, Sam asked him "Tuck? Are you okay?"
"No, Sam!" Tucker angrily answered "I feel like my heart's been ripped out. But I know who I can take it out on!" he grabbed a nearby keytar, looking furious "I say, let's defeat that heartbreaking metal rocker-ghost in his own game! LET'S ROCK 'N' ROLL!"
Though all were surprised at Tucker's overconfidence, they all turned a proudly smile, while Sam, Danny and Tucker smirked as both Danny and Ember made both their guitars appear in their hands and send some of their ghost powers into a nearby spare-drum kit.
At the stage, Bernie kept playing before spreading his bat-like wings, his teeth turned into fangs cause of the increasing powers he feels and dark fires surrounded him.
Wings on my back, I got horns on my head
My fangs are sharp and my eyes are red
Not quite an angel or the one that fell
Now choose to join us or go straight to hell!
In the crowd, both Jazz and Paul cheered out loud for their Lord of Darkness while holding up a rock sign.
Bernie raised his fist, calling his crowd to chant the all favorite line of the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah!"
The whole crowd followed "HARD ROCK HALLUJAAAAH!"
"Hard Rock Hallelujah!" Bernie called "Hard Rock HALLELU-" he was suddenly hit hard from the back by a combined purple/green ghost ray, sending him flaying off the stage "AAAAHAAAHAAHAAAA!" and crashed into a nearby big television screen!
The whole crowd looked in shock as they turned to the ones who did that, seeing Danny, Ember with their guitars, Tucker holding a glowing keytar and Sam with a glowing drum kitt on stage, with Danny calling "Hey, Lord of Bernies! Mind if we jam with the band?"
From inside the cracked tv screen, a glowing black/red glow became brighter, destroying it into a million pieces, showing a now fully demonic Bernie, floating into the sky while glaring beyond fury down at Danny Phantom "My name… IS NOT… BERNIEEEEEEEEEEEE!" he lands hard on his feet on the stage, cracking it. He glared at his bandmembers, with Larry forming multiple fire-ghosts, Vamp summoned more bat-ghosts and Ruby turned nearly all the crowd into zombie-minions, ready to finally put an end to Ember McLain and Danny Phantom.
Danny, Ember, Tucker and Sam looked a bit worried, but after exchanging a short look to each other, all grinned and began to play an iconic rock song, sending a big green power thrust through the dome, causing some of the people returning back to normal from their zombie-controlled form.
"You want to control the world, asshole?" Ember asked angrily "Then you have to get through me and my band first! Us! The Firing Spirits!"
Seeing Ember meant serious, Bernie smirks evilly at her "You want a band battle, Ember? Then a battle you shall have. Get them!" he ordered his bandmembers to attack, making Larry and Vamp sending their fire and bat ghosts to attack.
Both Danny and Ember hit the strings on their guitars hard, sending another powerful combined green/purple ghost ray, which vaporized all the fire and bat-ghosts!
Larry and Vamp looked in shock, which caused Bernie to glare even more angrier as he glow bright black and red and used his guitar to fire a black/red ghost ray at them! Danny attempted to create a ghost shield, but the beam was too powerful, causing both him and Ember being hit hard backwards, hitting into the crowd!
Tucker and Sam looked with horror as they were facing the Dark Angels alone. But out of instinct, Sam hit the drums fast and hard, causing them to glow bright. Bernie smirked as he charged at them, but as he made contact, he was suddenly electrified and send backwards!
Sam looked with surprise at what she did "Whoa!" but then smiled bright "Ember, you rock."
Tucker then tried something himself and played many notes on the keytar, causing it to fire a bright light at Vamp, making him cover his eyes "AAAARGH! MY EYES!"
Then, Johnny 13 raced on his flying motorcycle around the stage, sending his shadow to assist his human friends "Shadow, fight Bernie and his Dark Angels," Shadow did just that and faced Larry, who were nearly equally matched!
Kitty then appeared, facing Larry. As she fired her Banishing Kiss power on him, he looked shocked, before Ruby flew in front of it, taking the whole hit! But the Banishing Kiss didn't worked on her!
Ruby laughed evilly "Hahahahaha! Nice try, kitty cat. But your power only works on men, so-" she was then suddenly hit by a strong uppercut from Kitty!
As Ruby tripped backwards, she looked in shock at what Kitty did, while the ghost-bikergirl smirked down on her "I can do more than just banishing men whenever I want!" and the delivered a strong kick against Ruby's stomach, but Kitty was then nearly hit by a combined attack from Larry and Bernie's guitars!
In the crowd, Jazz and Paul, who weren't turned into a zombie-minion, smiled to what they saw, thinking it was all part of the show "Mindless teenage rebellion and a killer light show? Is this an awesome concert or what?" Jazz asked Paul.
"Best concert ever!" Paul yelled in excitement.
The both of them, along with the crowd pump their fists and began cheering again "Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness! Lord of Darkness!"
Sensing so many people chanting his name, made Bernie's aura glow even more, increasing his and his bands power even more.
Larry hit the strings on his bass guitar hard, summoning bigger and more powerful fire-ghosts, while Vamp hit the drums hard too, summoning also bigger and stronger bat-ghosts!
Ruby, played several dark notes on her keyboard, sending a powerwave across the dome, turning nearly all the crowd into zombie-minions! As the powerwave was send across the globe, nearly every human that was watching the concert had turned into zombie-minions!
Danny, Ember, Tucker and Sam exchanged a worried look as Bernie, Larry, Vamp and Ruby towered over them, having become even more powerful than before.
Bernie evilly laughed as he turned into his demonic form and trapped both Danny and Ember into a black/red ghost vortex "BWAHAHAHAHAHA! YES! I am now all… POWERFUL! THIS WORLD IS MINE!"
"They're too strong, babypop!" Ember said, feeling hopeless.
"Dammit!" Danny angrily called as he looked at the audience "If we could just stop the people from chanting and hearing Bernie's song. Something so horrible that everyone in the world would be brought back to their senses."
Tucker, who wasn't trapped in the vortex along with Sam, appeared close to them with Sam and said "I think I got an idea. If I can get back to the controls, I might be able to play an awful video that would make everyone turn their heads away."
Sam stood close to him "We just got to keep Bernie and his goons at bay," then she worriedly looked at the crowd, ready to attack Team Phantom "And all those zombie puppets!"
Johnny 13 and Kitty then phased up from the floor, ready to defend them "We'll cover you guys!" Johnny said while Shadow appeared.
"Go, now!" Ember called as more and more zombie-turned people crawled on stage.
Tucker and Sam ran backstage, with Bernie smirking as he thought that Danny and Ember's friends were running for their lives to safe their own skin and mocked them "That's right. Go and run and save yourselves. But they won't be getting far," he evilly smirked to Danny and Ember as he ordered Ruby "Ruby! Finish them."
"With pleasure," Ruby smirked as she sends a group of zombie-turned fans after Sam and Tucker.
"No!" Danny and Ember said with horror, while Johnny 13 and Kitty tried to fight them off, but they were with too many.
Inside the control room, Tucker quickly connected his PDA to the main control, trying to upload a horrible video while searching for one, while Sam barricaded the door as lots of zombie-turned fans tried to break into it.
Sam held the door with all her strength "Tucker! Hurry! Just pick a video!"
Nearly a the brink of panic, Tucker quickly swiped through the videos on his PDA "They're so many of them! I don't know which one to choose!"
Suddenly, five zombie-turned fans managed to break in, making Sam to run over to Tucker "TUCKER!"
At stage, Johnny 13 and Kitty were nearly overwhelmed by the zombies, while some were ready to grab Danny and Ember "TUCKER! HURRY!" Danny and Ember both yelled while Bernie and his band laughed evilly, believing they have won.
Tucker then found the video he was looking for "Wait! THIS is it!" as the zombies were this close to grab them both, Tucker pressed the button!
All screens turned static before the video was shown… which was the music video of Rick Astley, singing Never Gonna Give You Up!
We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I (do I)
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy
I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand
Everyone in the crowd and the ones that attacked Johnny 13 and Kitty suddenly turned normal as they looked confused to the screens
Never gonna give you up!
Never gonna let you down!
Never gonna run around and desert you!
Never gonna make you cry!
Never gonna say goodbye!
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!
All across the world, everyone looked in shock before covering their ears, turning off their tv's, destroying them or even throwing them out of the windows!
Back in the dome, Bernie, Larry, Vamp and Ruby felt their powers were dropping, while Bernie turned back to his normal form, getting slowly weaker. He looked in shock what happened "What?! NOO!"
The vortex that trapped Danny and Ember suddenly vanished.
The whole crowd looked in horror to the screens while covering their ears, while one called in horror "AAARGH! It's the music video that everybody hates!"
Back in the control room, all the fans turned back to normal while fleeing in terror, trying to get away from all the screens showing Rick Astley dancing and singing that annoying song.
Tucker smirked and turned on the volume even more.
Never gonna give you up!
Never gonna let you down!
Never gonna run around and desert you!
Never gonna make you cry!
Never gonna say goodbye!
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!
Never gonna give you up!
Never gonna let you down!
Never gonna run around and desert you!
Never gonna make you cry!
Never gonna say goodbye!
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!
All the people in the arena fled in terror.
Bernie, who was getting weaker and weaker, tried to order the people "What? Where are you all going?! Stay where you are! No! NOOOO!" his body began to shrink and his strong muscles vanished, leaving him only skin and bones "Noooo…! My… muscles…! My… beautiful muscles…!"
Larry, Vamp and Ruby too felt enormously weaker and fell on their knees, groaning in pain.
Danny, Ember, Johnny 13 and Kitty exchanged a smirk before charging in on the weaker Dark Angels, delivering strong punches, kicks, hitting them with the instruments hard, till all fell one by one against the wall on the floor.
Bernie tried to reach out his hand as he lied on the floor "Nooo…! It… can't be… I am… the greatest rocker of all time…! I am… the Lord of… Darkness…!"
Danny and Ember both folded their hands while looking down at Bernie and his thugs with a smirk "And now you've reduced from a treat rocker to nothing." Danny said before Ember took the Fenton Thermos and blasts out the blue capture beam, capturing first Larry, then Ruby and then Vamp.
But while Bernie digging his nails into the floor as the capture beam was strong, he angrily vowed "You have won this round, punks! But mark my words! I will return!" he lost grip and was being sucked into the thermos "I SWEAR I WIL RETUUUUUUUUuuuuuurn…!"
Ember closed the thermos "Whenever that day will come, we'll be ready for you, Bernie."
"I'M THE LORD OF DARKNESS!" Bernie yelled in the Thermos.
All went to check inside the control room if Tucker and Sam were okay, seeing them at the monitors.
"Is it over?" Tucker asked with a hopeful smile.
Ember formed a grin as she held up the Thermos "Yep. These idiots won't be controlling the world any time soon."
Sam then suddenly hugged Tucker "You're a genius, Tucker! That was awesome!" and she then planted a kiss on his cheek, which took Tucker by surprise. Realizing what she was doing, Sam quickly broke the hug out of embarrassment and nervously chuckled while she blushed "Oh. Hehehe. I guess… Bernie's love-spell hadn't quite worn off, huh?"
Johnny raised an eyebrow as he reminded Sam "What are you talking about? You were never under Bernie's spell."
Sam gave Johnny an elbow to his chest, saying with her face like: Shut up, Johnny.
Danny and Ember shared a smile to each other.
And so, after having send Bernie and his band back into the Ghost-Zone, everything had basically turned back to normal, with almost everyone not even remembering what had happened during the concert of the Lord of Darkness and his Dark Angels. Heck, some of them don't even remember the bandleader's name anymore.
But regardless, with all being all peaceful again in Amity Park, there was just one more thing for Danny, Ember, Tucker and Sam to prepare for, beside their upcoming tests next week: The Casper High Talent Show.
Two days later, Casper High…
(6:30pm. May 22nd, 2004)
With most students from the school having gathered in the theatre room to witness the upcoming talent show, all enjoyed the few students' performances who managed to make it into the show after their audition, while there were a few that unfortunately didn't performed well.
The judges; Mr. Smith, Mrs. Cricket and Fiona all wrote down the results, seeing how was performing better.
On stage, Paulina, Brittany, Star and Ashley were performing an acrobatic dance while a pop music song was being played. They performed well, with all finishing with a split.
The whole crowd cheered for them while some even whistled. The judges too clapped.
Lancer then appeared on stage while he clapped and spoke in a mike "Well done, you girls. Well done,"
Proudly, Paulina and her friends left the stage "Ha! Let's see if those Firing Losers of Fenton and McLame can compete with that."
"Definitely, Paulina," Ashley agreed with her.
Lancer then spoke to the crowd "Alright. And now for our twelfth and final performance, here are… The Firing Spirits!" he presented the band to come to play while the students cheered.
But for some reason, neither Danny, Ember, Sam or Tucker were present.
Confused, Lancer said in the mike again "Uhm… give it up for: The Firing Spirits!"
Again, they weren't present. The judges were getting confused.
Paulina smirks "Haha! I knew it! I knew they didn't had the guts to play at the talent show. I say that we've won the talent show already."
Seeing that the band weren't present, Lancer said "Right, well… seeing that the Firing Spirits aren't present here, I say that we should pick out the winner of-"
He was interrupted when a solo drum was heard in the background, followed by two guitars and a keyboard sound. Confused, Lancer looked around, not seeing the ones who were supposed to play.
Then, slowly, a purple smoke appeared from the ground, followed by a blue flame. Lancer yelps as he runs of the stage, even the crowd of students nearly panicked. But out of the smoke and flames, appeared Danny, Ember (in her human disguise), Sam and Tucker.
Danny was wearing a red/blue/green/white headband, together with a black/red t-shirt, dark jeans with holes in the kneecaps, wearing a single fingerless glove over his right hand and black shoes while holding his silver colored guitar.
Ember had her long disguised brown hair out of her ponytail and was now loose and had her signature makeup at the corner of her eyes. She was wearing a purple/blue shirt with only one long fishnet sleeve over her right arm, black skirt, a purple/black fishnet panty and long black boots with blue flames and held her signature purple guitar with blue flames.
Sam had dyed some of her black hair purple and also had the same signature makeup at the corner of her eyes like Ember. She was wearing a long black short dress with a green jacket over it, purple/dark green skinny jeans and black combat boots, sitting with her drum kit.
Tucker was wearing a army headband, was wearing sunglasses, a white shirt with an army colored/white jacket, green pants and dark blue boots, playing his keyboard.
The whole crowd cheered as the opening was already incredible. Even the judges were impressed with this kind of special effects.
(This is the song 'Back from the Dead' by the band Skillet)
Danny: B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
Cold and black inside this coffin
Cause you all try to keep me down
How it feels to be forgotten
But you'll never forget me now
Ember: Enemies clawing at my eyes, I
Scratch and bleed, just to stay alive, yeah
The zombies come out at night
They'll never catch me
They'll never catch me
Danny: B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
Both: Light it up, light it up, now I'm burning
Feel the rush, feel the rush of adrenaline
We are young, we are strong, we will rise
Cause I'm back, back, back from the dead tonight!
To the floor, to the floor, hit the red line
Flying high, flying high at the speed of light
Full of love, full of light, full of fight
Cause I'm back, back, back from the dead tonight
Danny: B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
Everyone was beyond shock to see how incredible Danny and his friends were playing, which made them cheer loud for them. Dash, Paulina and the other A-listers' (jocks and cheerleaders) mouths fell wide open.
"Holy shit! Fenturd is actuall a… Fenrocker!?" Dash said while being baffled.
However, only Kwan and Star liked their song a lot, with Kwan saying "Wow. I never knew that Fenton and his friends had it in them."
Jazz cheered for her little brother "Whoohoo! That's my little brother right there! You rock, Danny!"
Paulina was so shocked, that she felt deep down Danny and his friends had way more talent that she has, which made her very angry as her envy got the better of her "Unbelievable! The nerve that those losers have!" he signaled Ashley, Britany and Star to follow her "C'mon!" though Ashley and Britany did as they were told, while Star remained behind, not having heard Paulina as she was so into the song. Paulina frowned at Star, but then shook her head, thinking she doesn't need her for what she's planning as how clumsy Star was the last time when she wanted to see Emily McLain humiliated.
Danny: Break the skin, you spread like poison
Dying slow when we all attack
How it feels to be the broken
You took a piece, now I'm biting back!
Ember: Enemies clawing at my eyes, I
Scratch and bleed, just to stay alive, yeah
The zombies come out at night
They'll never catch me
They'll never catch me
Danny: B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
Backstage, where many cables were attached to the speakers were connected, Paulina appeared with a big cable cutter while forming a big smirk "Let see if they're able to play without any power?"
Ashley and Britany were totally into this and formed a mischievous smirk.
But unknown to Paulina, Danny and his friends were already a few steps ahead of them. While still keep playing, both their guitars, Tucker's keyboard and Sam's drum kit were glowing a bit with green protective energy.
As Paulina cut several cables, thinking now music would come out, she and her friends were shocked that the music kept playing.
Both: Light it up, light it up, now I'm burning
Feel the rush, feel the rush of adrenaline
We are young, we are strong, we will rise
Cause I'm back, back, back from the dead tonight!
To the floor, to the floor, hit the red line
Flying high, flying high at the speed of light
Full of love, full of light, full of fight
Cause I'm back, back, back from the dead tonight!
Back, back, back from the dead tonight!
In her anger, Paulina desperately attempted to destroy all the speakers with an axe she found, but it was no use as the Firing Spirits kept playing!
"What is going on here?!" Britany shockingly said while ripping a cable off.
"I don't know!" Ashley said "It's like… WITCHCRAFT!"
Both: Deep down, for the count
Don't you dare count me out
Never break, never bow
Never beg, not a doubt
Ember: The zombies come out at night
They'll never catch me
They'll never catch me
Danny: B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back
Both: Light it up, light it up, now I'm burning
Feel the rush, feel the rush of adrenaline
We are young, we are strong, we will rise
Cause I'm back, back, back from the dead tonight
To the floor, to the floor, hit the red line
Flying high, flying high at the speed of light
Full of love, full of light, full of fight
Cause I'm back, back, back from the dead tonight
Back, back, back from the dead tonight
Danny: Dead tonight
(Ember: B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back)
Danny: Back from the dead tonight
(Ember: B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back)
Danny: Dead tonight
(Ember: B-ba-b-b-b-ba-ba-back)
Both: Back from the dead tonight!
As the song ends, the whole crowd of students yelled out in excitement and chanted their band's name "Firing Spirits! Firing Spirits! Firing Spirits!"
Danny, Ember, Sam and Tucker raised their fists.
Lancer clapped as he appeared on stage "Give it up for the Firing Spirits!" which made the students cheer louder.
Backstage, Paulina stamped on some destroyed speakers "No! No no no no NOOOO!" never thinking this would happen, she walked out and gestured her friends to follow her "It's time for Plan B!"
While Ashley and Britany ran after Paulina, Poindexter turned visible, having kept his eyes on the A-listers the whole time. Feeling what Paulina was up to, he frowned as his eyes turned red "Bullies…!" and became intangible, phasing through the wall, going after Paulina and her friends.
Meanwhile, back with in the theater room, the teachers handed over orange flyers with the names of all the acts of the talent show, showing that the students could vote for the winner. Nearly all the students, being exited of the Firing Spirits' performance, voted for them.
As all the students had cast their votes, all the orange papers were gathered by the janitor somewhere in another room.
Paulina and Ashley sneaked inside, with Ashley holding a pile of fake votes while Britany stayed at the door to keep watch.
Paulina quickly took the real votes and Ashley placed the fake votes, showing most votes would go to them. As they'd successfully switched everything, they left the room with the real votes and threw them somewhere to never being found before joining back with the other students in the theater room.
Thirty minutes later, everyone was waiting impatiently for the final results.
All the students of the talent show had gathered on stage, with Tucker showing being nervous. Sam puts her hand on his shoulder, ensuring he should calm down.
A moment later, Star's mother, Fiona walked up the stage, handing over an envelope with the final vote results to Lancer.
Paulina, Ashley and Britany exchanged a mischievous smile, believing they'd already won by manipulating the votes.
As Lancer took it the sealed envelope, the vice-principal turned to the audience "The results are in. The winner… of the Casper High Talent Show 2004… is…" he slowly opened the envelope, taking out the note with the result…"
Paulina formed a proudly smile and took a few steps forward, ready to receive the trophy.
"The Firing Spirits!" Lancer announced.
Paulina's eyes popped open out of shock, while the students cheered.
"We… we won?" Tucker said, not believing it the first few seconds, before he exploded with excitement "We won! WE WON!"
Danny, Ember, Sam and Tucker tightly hugged each other while cheering in victory!
"WHAAAAAAAAT?!" Paulina screamed out of shock "But… THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!" she protested and turned to Lancer.
The vice-principal however narrowed her eyes at her and stated "The students have spoken, Miss Sanchez. And that's that," he then turned to the winners as he and the other contestants applauded as Fiona presented the trophy in the shape of a music note over to the winners.
Danny, Ember, Tucker and Sam all took the trophy, not believing that they'd actually won and raised the trophy up as all the students cheered and applauded.
Danny then wandered something and took a mike and asked all the students of the school "So? Do you guys still think I'm 'The nerd with a guitar'?!"
All the students cheered while one yelled out loud as he raised his hand into a rock sign "Hell no, Fenton! YOU ROCK!"
Ember smiled as she joined her boyfriend, saying "You did it, Danny. You showed them all."
Danny shook his head as he smiled at his girlfriend and his friends "No," he held all their hands and raised them up "We showed them all."
All the audience kept cheering at the background, while Jazz in the crowd gave her little brother a big thumps up.
Above the whole audience, Poindexter smiled proudly while folding his hands, telling himself "I'm sure they'll thank me later for this," he then took from his back the pile of fake notes before he vaporized them with his ghost powers and turned intangible and phased out of the theatre.
An half-hour later, while everybody was going home, Danny, Ember, Tucker and Sam stood outside, looking at the trophy they'd won, saying; Winner Casper High Talent Show - 2004
"I still can't believe we've actually won." Danny told himself while he smiled.
Sam gave a shrug while she smiled "Well, despite I'm not really into popularity, having won a talent show and being praised by so many people does kinda feel good."
Tucker then says, feeling his natural confidence rising "Guys, this is the beginning of something amazing. After tonight, we're no longer a group of nobodies."
Ember then saw Star walking over to them "Speaking of which,"
Star stood before Tucker and told him with a bit of a shy smile "Hey, uhm… congratulations on your performance tonight. You were so… amazing out there."
Tucker smiled as he shrugged "Thanks, Star. You were not so bad yourself,"
That made Star to giggle.
Sam rolled her eyes out of annoyance "Oh, brother."
Then, Star took a piece of paper and gave it to Tucker "Here. Take this."
When Tucker looked at it, he was surprised to see it was Star's phone number. He looked surprised back at Star, who gave him a flirty smile.
"Call me…" she gestured while holding a phone-hand sign to her face and walked away.
Realizing that a cute girl just gave him her phone number, made Tucker smile bright before turning into a goofy smile "Wow. I can get used to this."
Seeing a lot of cheering fans of their band calling to them, Tucker smiled and walked over to them, signing autographs.
Sam folded her arms "I just hope this new fame won't go into his head."
Ember ensured her "No worries, Sam. If it ever comes to that, I'll have with him a serious talk," she stated with a serious face as she will probably talk some sense into Tucker just as she did to Danny when he ditched them over popularity last month.
That gave some relief to Sam "Thanks, Ember," she then thought about it and also turned to their new fans, also giving a few autographs.
"Tucker is right, babypop," Ember turned to her boyfriend "This truly is the start of something new."
"It sure is, my flaming girl," he then held her hands softly and asked "Hey listen… I was wandering if… we could go out together? Tomorrow night? Having an actual date?"
Ember looked at him surprised, before she gave him a romantic smile "Oh, Danny… I will defiantly go out with you," she then puts her arms around his neck and wandered "What did you had in mind?"
"It's a surprise," Danny said.
Though she was curious to what it was, they shared a short kiss before she said "Well, whatever it is… I look forward to it,"
When they were about to resume their kiss, they were interrupted by some students who cheered to have an autograph as well.
Both Danny and Ember exchanged a short glance, giving a shrug while they smiled and too started sharing autographs.
Meanwhile, in the Ghost-Zone…
On top of a series of floating islands of ice and snow, Bernie, Larry, Vamp and Ruby walked over the frozen wastelands while they shivered and rubbed their arms to try to get themselves warm. Behind them, they were followed by Klemper, who pumps up and down while chanting Bernie's name, which annoyed Bernie so much that he covered his eyes.
"Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! Bernie Bernie Be-ernie!"
Bernie began to shout and moan like a child "AAAARGH! Would you stop calling me that?! I am the Lord the Darkness! THE LORD OF DARNESS!"
While moving on with is band, Klemper just kept chanting The Lord of Darkness by his real "Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!"
A/N: Pfew! I gotta say, I feel like I've made the best chapter of my Danny Phantom story so far, as I feel this one was better than the original episode of the show 'Fanning the Flames'.
As for 'The Lord of Darkness' (aka Bernie) and his Dark Angels band, they're actually based on the metal-rock band from Finland called Lordi. Though Bernie is largely based on the leader and singer of the band, the other three bandmembers, Larry, Vamp and Ruby I came up with them myself. So, all four of those characters are basically my own OC's.
The part where Tucker confronts Dash after having drank Ember's fake potion to give him more confident was based on a scene from the movie '17 again', as I felt that that scene was so classic that it explained so well what truly goes through some bullies' heads when trying to hide their true problems and struggles as they unleash that frustration on weaker victims. So either way, it would make it funny if it was ever used in the real show, which I believe that Dash would've been totally satisfying.
To explain if I either plan that Tucker would eventually start dating Star or Sam or anyone else, that depends on what my instincts telling me what approach I should take. So, could it be a love triangle or not? Who knows? But either way, all my laid down plans would surprise you all ;)
But just to be clear, I don't think Rick Astley's song 'Never Gonna Give You Up' is annoying at all. In fact, I love that song! The reason that I choose that song in a way that the whole world hates it, was only just because in that time period Rick Astley's iconic song was used thousands of times in different memes and many ways to annoy people on Youtube. So anyway; no disrespect to Rick Astley ;)
Also, the ideas for the band outfits of Danny, Ember, Tucker and Sam go to my dear good friend 'Dreams Come True 996'. So give her a big thumps up for her drawing talent.
I'm gonna work on the next chapter right away and I'm sure you all love it.
All suggestions and ideas for the story and/or songs are welcome. Just send me a PM and I'll think about it.
See you all then!