A/N: And I'm back! Thanks for the wait guys, this past week has been super hectic. Updates should be coming back much more frequently again.
"Keep an eye on Star too Danny, she's been acting weird lately."
"What, you mean the stuff from last class? Sam, seriously, I'm sure she was just annoyed with you guys being stupid with each other. She is right next to us and already has to deal with Dale being an idiot."
Danny, Sam, and Tucker were back in Biology, and of course, the topic of choice was the strange events that ended up getting them detention the afternoon before.
"Well, I suggest that if you'd like to not get another detention we keep it down and actually work on our lab. Thank goodness it isn't needles or blood again." Tucker shivers as he arranges his goggles over his glasses. Danny laughs.
"Dude, you see ghost blood on a daily basis, and you're still freaked out by a drop of human blood?" Danny teases.
Tucker shakes his head. "It's… different. It's still hard for me to grasp the fact that you bleed glowing green stuff." He pauses and points at Danny. "It kind of reminds me of those slime videos online."
"Tucker!" Sam elbows him in the ribs while Danny simply raises an eyebrow.
"Glorious, I'm glad my blood reminds you of a middle-school fad."
The three of them are promptly interrupted by a puff of frosty breath and a chill. Danny tilts his head and stares down at the table, focusing on his surroundings.
"Who is it?" Sam asks, leaning in.
"Not sure, feels like someone stronger. Maybe Ember or Technus. I'll send a duplicate out, be right back."
Danny briefly walks out of the classroom, mumbling something to Mr. Marx who only responds with a dismissing wave. He returns a minute or so later and takes a seat at his lab table, albeit, a bit more distracted than he was before.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
While a human Danny sits lazily at a lab table, a blur of black and white shoots off through the roof of the school. He takes in the full breadth of his surroundings and notices Ember looming above him in the sky, her brows knitted together and a frown on her face.
Danny morphs his tail back into legs and floats up to her, crossing his arms.
"What's up one-hit-wonder, haven't seen you around lately. Taking some time to reinvent yourself?" He quips, getting right into the banter. He hasn't had a good fight in a while, and he was getting kind of restless.
Ember growls and readies her guitar. "Not in the mood baby-pop. Let's just cut to the chase!" She sends out a red chord of energy towards Danny that he dodges, but it acts as a homing missile and turns in a wide arc to focus back on him. He frowns and speeds away, flying faster than the glowing red projectile following him.
"Taking tips from your boyfriend now, huh?" he flies around in a large figure-eight, letting the chord follow him harmlessly.
Ember plucks a few more strings that emit dozens of smaller, faster notes. They fly out in all directions, seemingly aimlessly, before homing in on Danny from all angles.
He manages to block a few with small shields, but soon there prove to be too many for him to keep up with, and every once in a while he gets hit. His speed starts to reduce during the onslaught and he notices that the original one she sent out is gaining on him, fast.
Gotta make a choice.
Danny halts and projects a large shield to block the largest chord, but the majority of the small notes still hit him from other angles. He grimaces, but they're more like minor inconveniences than anything. The large chord collides with Danny's shield and dissipates along with his shield. He takes a breath.
"Catchy, but not my taste, got anything bett-"
A deep, gruesome tune rings through the air as Ember's guitar hits Danny hard in the back of the head, and he plummets towards the ground. He turns himself intangible at the last second and flies through the earth, searching for the perfect place to pounce.
"First Skulker, now you? What's gotten into people lately?"
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
"Danny? Danny!"
"I'm not sure if he can hear us Sam..."
"He should be able to, unless something's going wrong out there."
Sam and Tucker whisper back and forth to each other while attempting to figure out their next course of action. Since Danny split, this half of him has been getting more and more unresponsive, suggesting he's having some difficulty with whoever he's fighting outside. Currently, he's clasping the sides of his head with his hands, leaning on the lab table, and staring into nothingness. Every once in a while it would seem like his form… flickers in places, too. Needless to say, his friends were concerned.
"Dude, just get out of here if you need to."
"Tucker, I don't think he can. We might have to-"
"MANSON, FOLEY, FENTON! Do you need another detention?!"
Both of them snap to attention, and Sam again quickly speaks up.
"Sorry Mr. Marx, Danny's not feeling well so we're gonna take him to the nurse, bye!" Sam and Tucker move around the lab table, grab their still unaware friend by the arms and drag him out of the classroom. Mr. Marx moves to say something, but shrugs and moves on to the next group.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Danny manages to get a few hits in on Ember, but the blows they trade are anything but even. Ember repeatedly rings out as many attacks as she can as fast as she can, and they easily overwhelm Danny who's getting more and more worn out as the fight goes on. His suit has scattered burns and tears in it, and his snow-white hair is stained green from the repeated hits to the head.
Worse yet, Ember strangely seems to be getting stronger, her blue hair blazing brightly in the sky as the fight goes on. There weren't many people noticing the fight so far… this… isn't how her obsession is supposed to work.
I barely have time to counter-attack. I need to get on the offensive somehow. It doesn't help that I have to keep up this damn duplicate…
Danny flies down into the earth to buy himself some time to create a few ice crystals with his cryokinesis. A deafening rumble vibrates through the ground and his ghostly body, Ember wants him out.
Impatient little-
Almost feeling as if he'd be ripped apart by the deep sounds, Danny grimaces and emerges with a handful of glimmering blue gems.
I really don't want to do this, it could seriously hurt her… but at this rate, I don't have a choice.
The game of cat-and-mouse continues as soon as he reaches open air, and Danny pumps all of his energy into keeping the following red notes off of him while moving to sail over Ember on the ground. One by one he drops the small crystals directly above her, knowing full well she can't keep her concentration on her notes and dodge at the same time.
Ember notices the falling shards of ice and stops her onslaught to attempt to jump out of the way, but doesn't move fast enough. As soon as they hit the ground (or her) they explode, leaving Danny enough time to swoop down and finally make this a more even fight.
I guess mom and dad's ectoplasm research does come in handy sometimes.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Tucker and Sam drag Danny into the boy's bathroom right when the ghost alarm goes off. A crackling female voice on the PA system alerts the students to evacuate the school grounds, but Tucker and Sam tone it out. They move into a stall and plop duplicate Danny down on the toilet seat before surveying their options.
"We've gotta figure out how to get to Danny, this seems way worse than he thought it would be." Sam brushes her fingertips over a bit of Danny's skin that looks to be… burnt?
"We can't just leave his duplicate here though, it's barely functioning as-is, and he isn't answering his phone so we can tell him to get rid of it. If someone finds him like this that would probably mean bye-bye ghost secret."
"Or… extensive testing."
They both exchange a look. A few explosions can be heard from outside. Tucker sighs.
"One of us can go, and the other can stay here until it- he… whatever- poofs." He says, gesturing towards the blank-eyed Danny.
Sam pauses, staring at Danny for a moment, then starts to dig in her backpack.
"Or, we can get rid of the duplicate immediately and both of us can go help Danny."
She pulls out her lipstick blaster and wrist-ray and points the former at Danny's head.
"Sam!" Tucker reaches out to stop her, but he's too late.
Sam fires.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Outside, the ghost alarm blares and Danny and Ember have moved to close-counters combat, finally making the fight a bit more even. Usually, Danny wouldn't have an issue taking care of Ember and getting her to leave without using too much force, but for some reason she's refusing to back down. Both members of the battle have a myriad of injuries, some more serious than others, but both well past the point that they would ever want to take their fights in the past. It doesn't help that Danny neglected to bring a thermos. Again.
Hopefully Sam and Tucker turn up soon. I don't know how much I can keep this up.
Ember swings her guitar sideways like an axe to try to catch Danny's more injured left side, but he pulls up a shield to deflect it once again. Her weapon ricochets off of it and Danny uses her lack of balance to send the guitar flying with a strong and well-placed ectoblast. Ember seethes.
"Ecro molte du, Phantom!" She lunges towards Danny with her arms covered in blue flames, tackling him to the ground and clawing at his throat.
Sh- she's speaking in ghost speak?!
Danny chokes past her tight grip and pleads.
"Emb...er! Stop! What- what's wrong with you?!"
"Em na ronde higne storde!"
Power? What about power?! Danny looks up to her flames and notices that they're larger than ever, at this rate he knows that he won't be able to fight her if it continues.
Suddenly, he feels a cool chill run through his body like a breath of fresh air, and the heat from Ember's flames doesn't feel nearly as suffocating as before.
My strength… the duplicate!
Danny grins and unleashes a pulse of frost from his body, loosening Ember's grip and finally giving him enough strength to unleash his trump card.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
"Phantom!"
Tucker and Sam run out of the gym doors, panting and barreling through people trying to get to the front of the crowd.
"Thermos!" Sam yells behind her. Tucker chucks the hunk of metal forward, Sam barely catching it by it's strap. She starts to reel back to throw it before Danny yells at her.
"Not ready yet! It won't contain her!"
Danny fires a few ectoblasts towards Ember but none of them hit. Ember fires her own back as well, but this isn't her strong suit and the shots are weak and ill-placed. She glances back to see the guitar lying only a few yards behind her. Danny's still at range...
She lunges.
"No!"
A flash of red and a gust of wind flies by, followed by a growl by Ember. The Red Huntress halts in the air and wiggles the guitar, taunting Ember like a child.
"Ain't so hot without your guitar, huh flames?"
Ember's eyes shrink to narrow slits, but glow as fierce as ever. Her entire body tenses, and then bursts into flames. Danny tries to counteract the intense heat with his own cold, but the defense is negligible at best. He uses his arms to shield his face.
"Red, get out of here!"
"Give it BACK!"
Danny charges Ember, building up his core for a more intense ice blast, but she shoots off towards Valerie faster.
Valerie, having little time to do much else, manages to swing her hoverboard up and in between the flaming rocket that is Ember and herself, acting as a makeshift shield. The hoverboard shatters, sending bits of shrapnel as well as it's rider falling towards the ground. Another choice.
Less than 10 feet, should be fine.
Danny notices Ember's dazed state and takes the opportunity, cloaking his leg in cryoenergy and using all of his strength to kick Ember down.
She hits the dirt hard, leaving a deep crater around her body. Danny, still in the air, halts his flight and lets himself fall, making himself twice as heavy and slamming straight onto Ember's chest.
"Thermos!" Danny screams, hoping they're still close enough to reach him in time. He begins to use the stored energy in his core to freeze Ember solid, sapping away the strength in her own core.
Ember still isn't finished, yet. She uses her own heat to melt the ice, and at this point it's a battle of cores.
Ice- fire… she has the advantage.
"Phantom!" Sam breaks through the front line of the crowd. "Move, Phantom!" She stresses.
Danny starts to struggle, he can't keep this up for long… but if he lets her go, there's a chance-
He feels Ember start to push back from beneath him.
No.
"Both of us!" He calls.
Sam hesitates. No time.
"Do it!" He commands.
She does.
A/N: Next chapter up very soon, maybe even tonight! Remember to review 3