Chapter LXXXIV
Danny's eyes snapped open when his alarm went off at 7:00 a.m. All he could think about was the inevitable battles that would come from this day. His parents, Melee and X-treme, and who knows what others were just waiting for Phantom to make his grand entrance.
Danny rolled out of his bed and got dressed in a hurry. He nearly flew down the stairs and stumbled into the kitchen. Jazz was nowhere to be seen. Instead, his parents were sitting at the table, tinkering with a new invention.
"Morning, son!" Jack said loudly. "Today's the big day, huh?"
Danny paled. "W-what do you mean?"
"Today's the day we bring down Phantom!" Jack sealed the back onto the object he was fiddling with a screwdriver. "Finished!" he set the device down and took a swig of his morning orange juice.
"Your father's been working on a new Ghost Getter all night," Maddie explained as Danny eyed the device cautiously. "We found out the chemical compound ghost's use to become invisible. This device emits a sonic vibration that separates that compound into its individual elements, thus eliminating its invisibility powers for . . ." the woman trailed off as she went over the calculations in her head.
"Exactly two hours!" Jack proclaimed. "Until then, if the spook tries to disappear, the chemical signals will confuse themselves and charge the entire ghost with ectoplasmic energy, rendering it incapacitated."
"I guess there's no way I could convince you guys to not go after Phantom?"
"Sweetie, I know you think Phantom is a hero, but he is a ghost," Danny's mother loaded up her ammo and grenades into a portable steel locker. "And we could really use this money."
"For what?" Danny asked concerned. "I thought we had plenty of money! This was never an issue before!"
"Relax, kiddo," Jack said, placing a hand on his son's shoulder. "Everyone could use a million bucks! This money could go a long way in helping our research."
Danny sighed. "Look, if you guys do manage to catch Phantom," he forced down a reflexive grin, "and that's a big if, can you please promise me that you won't kill him?"
"Promise," Maddie replied quickly before Jack could make their son any more uncomfortable. "Now go on to school, sweetie."
Danny gave both his parents a hug before rushing off, nabbing his book bag on the way out.
"I don't see why he's so worried about the ghost kid," Jack said returning to his work. "He's just a ghost."
"Jack, we both know that Danny and Phantom are close. Maybe even friends."
"Why would Danny want ghost friends?" Jack set the Ghost Getter down and picked up a much more sinister looking device; one which was well acquainted with Danny and his face. "Sam and Tucker have been his best friends for as long as I can remember living here."
"He doesn't have many other friends," Maddie added sadly.
Jack finished bolting the set of razor sharp teeth into the Ghost Weasel's vacuum hose and set it aside next to the Ghost Getter. "Well after we get Phantom and the money, maybe we can," Jack paused, deep in thought. "Maybe we can find a way to spring him out? I mean, we could try to find some way around the terms of the ghost kid's capture."
"Jack, we can't do that!" Maddie exclaimed. "That's fraud!"
"Ok, ok," Jack said quickly. "We won't scam the guy." The large man sighed. "We'll think of something. But we should focus on catching him first!"
Maddie smiled. "Agreed."
Danny was extremely paranoid all day until his study hall. There had been no ghost attacks, no bounty hunter attacks, and, so far, no heart attacks. The latter was bound to change if Danny couldn't get his heart rate under control.
"Danny?" Valerie asked. "Are you alright?"
The boy jumped in his desk at the sound of the girl's voice, half-expecting a gun barrel to be pointed at his head. He saw that there wasn't one and calmed down as much as he could in his current state.
"I'm fine," he said shakily. "Just, uh, just a little tired. That's all." He began to tap on his desk, trying to mimic a tune he had heard on the radio, but in his cluttered mind the song wouldn't come to him.
"You don't look tired," Valerie commented, seeing her ex-boyfriend's jitteriness. "Are you sure you're ok?"
"I am fine," Danny replied reassuringly. "Peachy."
"Is something wrong?"
Danny looked at the girl and frowned. She could never understand and, if presented the truth, would probably want nothing to do with him. Other than his demise.
"Nothing's wrong, Val," Danny said. His voice was still trembling. "I don't feel good, ok?"
"Well I can see that," she gestured to Danny's legs, which were bouncing around under his desk erratically. "Danny, you're kinda scaring me. Are you sure you're-?"
Danny stood up, cutting Valerie off and ambled over to the study hall teacher. "Can I have a pass to the bathroom, please?"
"Can you wait until Ethan gets back?" the woman replied.
"Not really. Kinda an emergency," Danny rapped on the woman's desk with his fingers and looked from side to side as if a ghost or a bounty hunter would burst through the wall at any given moment.
The teacher wrote out the pass and handed it to Danny, who snatched it away and made a beeline for the door. Once in the hallway and safely guarded from prying eyes, Danny turned intangible and floated up to the school's fourth floor. It was more of a storage room than an actual part of the building, but it had been used for educational purposes at some time. Danny didn't really care about its history, only that it was empty and seldom ever used.
"Oh God, come on, come on, calm down Fenton, just calm down! Everything is going to be ok. Just don't go ghost and you won't have to fight anyone. Just lay low for a while, that's it. They'll all clear out eventually and everything will be back to normal. I can do this. I can do this."
Danny rubbed his forearms and paced back and forth. His body began shaking and he grabbed a podium lying amongst the discarded furniture and hurled it at the wall at the far side of the room. It shattered on impact.
"Damn it!" he shouted furiously. "I can't! I can't do this!" he slumped to the ground, shaking from his nervousness. "Why me? WHY?!"
"Why what, Daniel?"
Danny's ghost sense activated and he spun around, which was much harder to do since he was sitting on the floor. He lost his balance and tumbled onto his stomach. His eyes closed as pain shot up from his chin and spread through his jaw. When they slowly opened, he was at the steel boots of Skulker.
"Why do I have to do this?" he asked sheepishly, pushing his shaking body up off the floor. "Why do I have to live in fear all the time?"
Skulker placed a steadying hand on Danny's shoulder and scanned him. "You did not eat breakfast today." A compartment opened on the robot's shoulder and a thermos popped out. The mercenary caught it with one hand and offered it to the ghost boy. "This is a protein smoothie. You must drink it if you are to function with any degree of normalcy today."
Danny slowly accepted the thermos, wary of its familiar cylindrical shape. This one, however, did not sport the word Fenton anywhere on its surface. Danny slowly drank the smoothie. It was some kind of fruit blend and was not as disgusting as Danny thought it would be. Still, it was no slice of pie either. He considered asking why a massive ghost robot would carry something as frivolous and random as a protien smothie in his battle suit, but decided against it and stored the question away for another time.
"Thanks," he said after he had finished. "I do feel a little better now."
"Good. Now what is this self pity business I interrupted?"
"Skulker, I can't go out there," Danny motioned to a window. "Not as Phantom. The town is crawling with bounty hunters! Every living thing wants to capture me or kill me and turn me in for a million bucks!"
"A wise man once told me 'There is no such thing as danger; only opportunities to be had'."
"How does that help me?"
"Last night you allowed yourself to be intimidated by two men. Two! Not ten or a hundred, two! One with a skateboard and another with a fancy whip," Skulker looked out the window and saw that the streets beyond Casper High were dotted with ecto-signatures of anti-ghost weapons.
"These are humans, Daniel. Weak, fragile and fearful humans. You have gone toe-to-toe with a ghost that rivals Plasmius herself in power and came out alive. Humans? Guns? Bounty? These things are not worth becoming upset over. They pose no danger to you. Instead, look at the current situation as an opportunity to prove to the world and the Ghost Zone just how powerful you are. You can beat these primates and their weapons. Their desire is to turn you in for monetary purposes. Your desire is to survive."
Skulker turned back to Danny. "Show this town that you are in charge. Don't pull your punches, don't hold back. You've been a victim of these ungrateful worms for too long. You are a hero, and you deserve to be treated like one."
Danny no longer felt shaky or uneasy. But instead of gushing gratitude, the boy looked at Skulker suspiciously. "Is there some kind of personal stake in this for you?"
"Placing a bounty on your head means that Plasmius has endangered the wellbeing of Samantha and Tucker as well. I was at the meeting the bounty hunters organized and the 'ground rules' were that anything short of killing civilians without probably cause goes. I will not allow my employer's ambition to endanger the life of my niece."
Any nervousness, panic or fear that Danny felt slowly turned into anger. "She's not going to get away with this. Once I'm through with those bounty hunters, I'm going for her."
"I wish you good luck, then," Skulker said as he floated up through the ceiling. "And remember, they're only human."
Danny looked at the spot where Skulker had disappeared. True, the bounty hunters would consist of a mostly human population. But Danny was also 'only human'. The boy smirked.
And that's my advantage.
X-treme watched from his vantage point atop a skyscraper as his bounty hunting brethren scoured the city, searching for Phantom in every nook, cranny and, in the case of some of the more impolite of his kind, house they could find.
"These amateurs are causing more trouble than we need," Melee commented as one man was driven from a home by a short chubby woman wielding a rolling pin. He sported several red marks on his arms and head and one large gash that was bleeding profusely. He raised his ecto-gun, but passed out before he could pull the trigger. "This is just the kind of thing we want to avoid."
"Relax, wouldja?" X-treme replied. "Nobody's been hurt that bad yet."
Melee watched as the man stumbled into an alley and fell back against a dumpster, clutching his head. After several minutes, his arm slumped to the ground drenched in blood. The bounty hunter was dead.
"We have a casualty," Melee corrected. "One KIA, and it wasn't even Phantom who did him in."
X-treme looked at his partner down to where his binoculars were directed. His eyes widened behind his visor. "W-well serves him right for tryin' to break into some little old lady's home."
"This is ridiculous," Melee stated as he continued to observe the others. "No person, human or ghost, is worth a million dollars. This kind of reward money creates more problems than it is intended to solve."
"Then take it up with the poster," X-treme snapped.
"Oh, great idea, I never would have thought to do that," Melee shoved his partner with one arm while keeping his binoculars trained on another bounty hunter. "The poster is anonymous and nobody has any idea where to take the ghost child once he is captured."
X-treme balanced on the edge of the building where Melee's shove had sent him. He sat down, dangling his feet over the side. "Who cares? So long as we get the cash, I'm all for anonymimity."
"That isn't a word," Melee said as he focused in on another bounty hunter. "And who's to say we'll even get our reward?"
"You implyin' somethin', big guy?"
"I'm not implying anything. I just don't approve of all this secrecy."
"On that, I agree with you."
Melee tensed when a green flash of light appeared off behind a building some distance away. "I have a visual."
"On who? That Lydia chick? She was totally checkin' me out at that meeting."
"She is a ghost with solid red eyes. How would you know if she even saw you?" X-treme opened his mouth to reply, but the massive ninja cut him off. "Never mind. Phantom is in quadrant four. Shall we move to intercept?"
X-treme grabbed his skateboard and positioned it over the edge of the massive skyscraper. His foot was the only thing keeping it still. "After you," the smaller man said courteously.
Melee bowed and leapt from the roof. His immensely powerful leg muscles propelled him through the air over twenty yards away to the next building. X-treme grinned and leaned forward. His skateboard's magnetized wheels clung to the side of the building and his boots clamped onto the skateboard and the super athlete began his ninety degree descent from fifty stories, rapidly gaining speed.
X-treme saw the ground rushing at him, coming closer and closer. At the last possible second, the skateboard's magnetization disengaged and the man pressed a button on his shoulder. The skateboard's wheels glowed with bright white energy before sending a massive flame down underneath him. The hover board was traveling too fast to stop, but X-treme didn't want to stop. That wouldn't be very extreme. The board slid along the ground, the white propellant keeping it at its insanely fast speed while keeping it from slamming into the pavement. Once he had leveled out, X-treme pressed the button again and the wheels returned to normal. The board connected with the ground and the man crouched down, minimizing his air friction. The skateboard continued to travel at speeds well over a hundred miles per hour. The athlete wove in and out of traffic, dodging cars and trucks and busses full of school children with relative ease.
Once he rounded the final corner closest to Phantom's location, his skateboard caught on something – the sleeve of an unconscious man – and sent X-treme flying through the air, sans his skateboard. The man flipped, tucked into a somersault as he hit the ground and righted himself once he came to a stop.
"Melee, do you have a visual?" he spoke into his comm. device.
"Affirmative. Phantom took out a bunch of these guys. Some of them are seriously hurt. I called in the paramedics."
"Good for them," X-treme said as he spotted Phantom, duking it out with another man. The bounty hunter swung, missed, and was punched square in the jaw. His body flew like a rag doll into a second story window and smashed right through.
"Let's do this thing!" X-treme shouted as he grabbed his skateboard off the ground.
"Negative," Melee commanded. "Phantom is more dangerous than we thought. You hold back, I will engage."
"Uh, screw that noise, man! I'm not letting you take this one."
"When have I ever not split the bounty with you?"
X-treme clenched his hands into fists, but remained silent.
"That's what I thought. Stay tight, X, this won't take long."
Phantom watched as his latest combatant smashed through a widow. He grinned as more bounty hunters took cover as glass rained down upon them.
Daniel, I always knew you would see things my way.
This is being done for survival purposes only. Do not condone this type of behavior, you fool!
Both of you shut up! Where were you when I nearly shook myself to death this morning? You guys could have cleared that all up in no time, but you decided to sleep in. So until I'm done, I don't want to hear a thought from any of you. Got it?
As you wish.
Growl
It felt good to finally have some degree of control over the voices. He wished they would be more helpful when he really needed it, but absolute dominance seemed like a distant dream.
Phantom flew into the group of bounty hunters that had taken shelter in an alley way and mercilessly beat them down. One man tried to stab him with a pocket knife. The blade passed harmlessly through his intangible torso and sunk into the stomach of one of his partners who cried out in shock and pain.
Phantom kneed the attacker in the abdomen and backhanded him with enough force to slam him into the side of one of the buildings. The other man who now sported a knife in his stomach as elbowed in the forehead. He slumped to the ground. Both were unconscious. The remaining three looked at the ghost in horror; two women and a man. All three trained their ecto-rifles at him, but their aim was shaky.
"If you guys don't want to end up like those two," Phantom pointed at each KO'd bounty hunter with both his hands, "then I suggest that you leave. Now."
The three turned and scrambled over the chain link fence that led to the other side of the alley way. Phantom turned and floated back out into the street and frowned at the mess he had made. The whole city block was a mess. The pavement was cracked in several places. A fire hydrant had been destroyed by a grenade and water spouted into the air like a geyser. Any car that had been parked there was totaled, either destroyed by a bounty hunter or by Phantom during the fire fight. One of the buildings was ablaze with green fire. Debris consisting of drywall, glass and wood littered the area.
Phantom flew up to the water spout and curved his body. He flew over top the gushing fluid and struggled to resist the upward force on his body. The water was deviated into the burning building and the fire was quickly extinguished.
An explosion in the adjacent building caused another fire and Phantom, who had just regained tangibility after expunging the excess moisture from his body, sighed.
"You made quite a mess of things," the familiar voice of Melee said from behind him. Phantom turned in time to see the ninja slam into him and knock him to the ground. "I'd say the cost to fix all this would be about one million dollars."
"What are you, a city councilman?" Phantom punched the ninja in the chest. The large man was sent sprawling away. Phantom shook his arm rapidly, trying to dispel the pain. "Well if you are, I hope your resolve for this city is as solid as your abs."
"I take great pride in my physical strength," Melee replied, apparently unfazed by Phantom's punch. "So I will take that as a compliment."
Phantom flew at Melee, but remembered his energy whip too late as it sprung out of the black hilt and wrapped around his neck. Melee swung Phantom in a circle before hurling him into the only still-standing streetlight, shearing it in half. Phantom caught the pole before it fell and threw it at the ninja like an oversized javelin. Melee leapt in the air and sprinted on the streetlight as it sailed underneath him. He leapt off it and flipped in the air, aiming his foot at Phantom's chest.
"Oh come on," Phantom taunted as he grabbed Melee's foot. "Let's try regular unorthodox fighting tactics, none of this anime bull crap." Phantom swung the ninja at the ground toward a pile of glass.
Melee assessed the threat and retracted his whip. When he pressed the button again, a long pole extended from the end and stabbed into the concrete sidewalk. The pole bent as Melee used its flexibility to fling himself back at Phantom.
"Wow, that's almost impressive," the ghost boy said as he dodged a punch from the ninja. "What else can that thing do?"
Melee chose to reply by retracting the pole and extending a large axe. Phantom flew in and fired a ghost ray, but the ninja deftly maneuvered around the attack and swung his axe. The sound of energy sizzling through flesh greeted both combatants' ears, as did the inhuman wail of Phantom. The ghost boy tumbled to the ground and rolled to a stop several feet away. He opened his eyes and saw that his arm was lying at an odd angle in front of him.
So an axe made of energy can only break my arm? No big deal.
Upon closer inspection, Phantom realized that his arm wasn't broken. It had been cut off.
"Oh. My. God."
"I am willing to spare your life," Melee announced as he slowly and deliberately walked towards his prey. "There was no specification as to how you were to be presented. That is, of course, only if you surrender."
Phantom saw that his severed arm and the stub of his forearm were not cauterized. Both wounds were still bleeding, which gave Phantom a crazy idea; crazy enough to stave off the shock that was slowly working its way into him. Rising to his feet, the ghost boy picked his arm up and pressed it to the wound. His fears of misaligning the bone were quelled when the arm aligned itself, sealing the wound. Phantom charged an energy blast in his reattached limb and fired it at a stunned Melee.
"What in the-" the ninja was blasted off his feet as the green ball of energy slammed into his chest. His body flew through the air and was carried even further as he came into contact with the spouting water from the broken hydrant. Now wet, Melee bounced along the ground stopping only a few feet away from a downed power line.
"I don't want to kill you, Naruto," Phantom taunted. "But you're not giving me many options."
Melee stood to his feet and looked down at the sparking transformer. "Then allow me to make your task easier." The ninja lifted his leg before slamming it down through the transformer.
Phantom rushed at the ninja, hoping to save his life. When he got close enough to whisk him to safety, the ninja wrapped his hands around the ghost boy's neck.
"If I shall die, then you shall accompany me to oblivion!"
Phantom was not afflicted by the voltage coursing through him. It was, however, affecting his intangibility powers and thus preventing him from escaping Melee's iron grip.
"Game over, ghost child," Melee said in a steady voice, despite being electrocuted by a steady power source.
Phantom then realized that the massive ninja was not being harmed by the barrage of synthetic lightning. Something was saving him from excruciating pain and allowing him to inflict such punishment on Phantom.
The ghost boy managed to kick Melee's weapon from his belt and the electricity now surged through his body as well.
"YEEEEEEAAAAARRRRRGH!"
Phantom ignored the man's cry of pain and head butted him in the face. The ninja was dislodged from the transformer and, again, was sent flying through the air. Phantom grabbed his device from the ground and flew at him, swinging the object forward and pressing the button. To his excitement, the bright orange energy whip extended forward and wrapped around Melee's leg. Phantom yanked back and punched him in the head on the return trip.
Phantom retracted the whip and pressed the button again. This time, a large circle appeared in front of him giving the appearance of an umbrella. Phantom figured out the form's purpose instantly as he maneuvered the circle in front of him to deflect a skull shattering punch. This one was a shield.
"Return my weapon to me at once!"
"Yeah right!" Phantom used the shield to deflect several more attacks before retracting the energy weapon and pressing the button again. This one was a mace. "Ooh, neat-o!"
Melee roared and charged again. Phantom felt his lungs collapse as Melee's fist connected with his chest. Another punch nearly snapped his head off his shoulders. Melee grabbed his weapon out of Phantom's loosening grip and swung the mace into Phantom's back.
"I offered you life," Melee violently yanked the spiked club from Phantom's back, spinning him around. The ghost boy fell to the ground, his eyes wide open. "You chose the alternative."
Melee raised the mace above his head and slammed it down as hard as he could. Phantom's hands shot up and caught the club just inches above his head. The two struggled with the weapon, but Phantom was steadily losing the fight.
"Accept the end of your second life, restless soul," Melee said as soothingly as he could. "And embrace eternal peace."
"There's n-no eternal peace w-where I'M going to send YOU!"
Phantom turned intangible and allowed the mace to slam through his head and shatter the pavement below. He rolled over, regaining solidity, and launched his fist charged with ectoplasm into Melee's chest. The ninja staggered back and looked down at his body. Phantom's punch had vaporized the fabric and left a blistered mark right over his heart.
"It would appear," Melee looked back at Phantom, "that we are evenly matched."
"It would appear," Phantom growled. He focused all his energy into his head and closed his eyes. "But then again, appearances are deceiving. Skulker was right. I shouldn't pull my punches."
Phantom thrust his head forward and opened his eyes. Two green beams of energy erupted from his pupils and charged through the air before stabbing into the exposed portion of the ninja's skin. The twin lances sizzled through skin, muscle, tissue and stopped just short of his trachea. Melee clutched at his chest as he toppled backwards. Phantom floated over just as his head smacked into the street. He grabbed the ninja under his arms and carried him away from the battle zone. Ambulances had arrived on the scene and were assessing the severity of the wounds the other bounty hunters has sustained.
"Here's another one," Phantom said as he set the hulking human down so he would lean up against one of the ambulances. "Is he going to make it?"
The EMT he had addressed, a woman in her mid twenties froze at the sight of Phantom. Her mouth tried to form words, but only strangled squeaks and other odd noises escaped her lips.
An older man approached and checked the vitals of his newest patient. "He'll make it," the man said. "Shelly, help the others get this one into the back." The woman nodded and scurried away. "Can't say I'm looking forward to helping them."
Phantom was taken aback by the technician's statement. "What are you talking about?" he hovered to the ground, now having to look up at the man. "Aren't you supposed to want to save them?"
"Take a look around, kid," the man gestured to the destroyed city block. "How much more of this are we going to have to take?"
Phantom hung his head. "I'm really sorry-"
"What? No, it's not your fault! It's these stupid bounty hunters!" The man sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Every time I've had to come in and see to someone after a ghost fight, I've never seen this much carnage in one concentrated area. The only thing worse than bounty hunters are the people who put the bounties out in the first place."
"You can say that again," Phantom mumbled.
The Fenton RV chose that moment to screech onto the scene. Jack Fenton was ejected through the vehicle's sun roof and landed with uncanny catlike grace on the ground near the destruction.
"Phantom!" he bellowed. "I have you now!"
"Like hell you do!" the EMT moved in front of the ghost boy and glared daggers at Phantom's father.
"I'm only going to ask this once," Jack said slowly and angrily. "Move."
"That didn't sound like a question that sounded like a threat" the EMT said in an equally aggressive tone. "And I will not move."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Will not?"
"Will not," the EMT confirmed.
"Like 'yes-I-will' will, only with a 'not' at the end of it?"
"Yes . . . wait n- no, yes. Yes."
"So what you're saying is that you will move, only that you are not able to do so?"
"No? Wait, er, no. Yes. I think."
Jack grinned. "Then allow me to assist you." He hoisted the man over his shoulder, turned and set him down behind him. "Now Phantom," Jack continued. But when he turned around to face the ghost child, he was gone.
Danny Fenton let out a long, exasperated sigh as he flopped down on his bed. So much done in one day, and it was only Monday! Was the rest of the week going to be like this?
He turned the black hilt around in his hands. Melee's universal melee weapon was officially his new favorite toy. Not that Danny needed a handheld weapon as Phantom, but it was still freakin' sweet to mess around with. He slid the weapon under his bed and lie back, looking up at his ceiling.
This was quite an eventful day.
You did well combating that brute of a human. I couldn't have done better myself.
Aw shucks, yous just sayin' that on account'a yer trapped in my body!
For crying out loud . . .
Yeah, I guess I am. If I had my own body, the ninja would have been dead well before he sliced off your arm.
Speaking of which, how's it doing? I know I healed it up, but you guys are better at giving me internal status reports.
Your arm is functioning as well as it did the day you were born.
That would be a bad thing. As an infant, his motor skills would not be sufficiently-
It was an EXPRESSION, you imbecile! His arm is working fine!
Perhaps you should choose your verbiage better.
Perhaps I should MURDER YOU!
PERHAPS I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY!
Guys?
I apologize, Daniel. The violent one provoked me.
Yes, the smart one is quite irksome.
. . . It's good to have you back.
To Be Continued
A/N: What a doozy! So much violence . . . and I still have X more chapters to go! Don't worry, there's still plenty left to get in this segment, so the Rule of Nine will be enforced again.
REVIEWS! Are still trickling in. Oh well. You guys who just read and don't contribute don't get specially thanked in the special thanks section of the author's note. Special thanks goes to MissMeliss4251, darkbunny92, Goldamon X, Musicallity, Katreal, and The Golden Hat.
KEEP RUNNIN HOMIE