"Hey! The ranks are diminishing! We only have a few dozen more ghosts to capture!" exclaimed a relieved Sam.
"It's about time," Tucker wiped sweat off of his fate, breathing heavily. "I've never been so exhausted. It's good Jazz and Danny are okay." The brother and sister had rushed over to replenish their resources and told them of their plans a half hour ago.
Sam's eyebrows furrowed. "I hope they can do this." She sliced through three ghosts and, as they were weakened, sucked them into her thermos.
"They can," Tucker followed in suit, sucking in three more ghouls, "and they will." Other hunters were also doing well and finally things seemed to be looking up.
Dean sucked in the last two ghosts. "Okay! I think we are done here," he grinned.
Sam, his brother, shushed him, a police scanner in his right hand. He raised the volume.
"Sending all units to Spirit's Way Blvd," the man spoke a series of numbers.
Sam's eyes widened as he looked at his brother. "Another ghost attack…I thought you closed the portal!" He turned to Tucker.
"Oh no…Another must've opened!" The other Sam yelled. She pulled a large gun from her belt and, with intense amethyst eyes, stated, "Looks like the fight's not over yet."
Jazz and Danny put the Fenton phones in. Jazz finally unclasped the Specter Deflector from his waist. He breathed a sigh of relief and already felt his body healing. Eyes glowed (though remained blue) as he felt power and a comforting coldness seep back into him. He closed his eyes.
Jazz couldn't help but stare. When he looked at her with those bright eyes, she turned away quickly, feeling almost intrusive, even though he gave her a friendly smile. Though the initial shock that her brother was half-ghost had passed, the shock hit her again causing her to breathe in sharply. My brother is Danny Phantom, she told herself. She saw the transformation more than once and knew without a doubt that this was the truth, but it still amazed her and freaked her out at the same time. The whole day had felt like a dream…or, more frequently, like a nightmare.
"Hey Jazz?" She was so lost in her thoughts, she hadn't even realized he had changed back into his alter ego. He was in the Specter Speeder with a questioning glint in his eyes. "Waiting for the grass to grow?" He chuckled as he held out his hand to help her in.
His laugh comforted her because, though he didn't appear exactly as the little brother she knew and loved, he at least sounded the same. Yet still, it was disconcerting to think that only an hour ago he had tried to kill her. She nodded and took his hand. He pulled her into the vehicle and they took off into the green abyss.
Ember and Skulker led ghosts down Spirit's Way Blvd, many of which leapt into stores and houses and terrorized the citizens of Amity Park. Each place along the street was under their control now. Outside, it seemed as if an apocalypse had begun, with abandoned cars, lights left on and doors wide open, and no sign of human life.
Sam and the other hunters looked around in disbelief.
"Dang…it feels like we're on the set of The Walking Dead," Tucker commented.
Sam crossed her arms and gave Tucker a pointed look. Before she could say anything to him, an explosion shook the ground and, a few buildings down, they could see dark green smoke rising. Sam started sprinting over, gun raised, but one of the hunters grabbed her arm. "Wait…"
"Let go!" Sam shrieked, trying to pull free. "We need to get over there and take them out before they cause more damage!"
"No…we need to take them by surprise," Tucker looked at the pavement pensively.
Dean nodded. "It'll be easier to take them out if we catch them off guard."
Sam lowered her gun and shrugged. The hunter let her go. "You're right."
Jack thought long and hard about what his kids had said. Phantom was being controlled by another ghost? It would make sense because, as much of a menace he was, he had never tried to kill anyone. And he had just gained the world's trust at the time of those murders. Why would he do something so heinous after becoming a hero to everyone? He wasn't convinced the Phantom was on their side, but he did see a strong possibility that his children were telling the truth. Why would they lie anyway? Besides, Danny had been right: ghosts don't fight in armies, not those ghosts at least…most of those ghosts were recognizable as ones that nearly always fought independently.
Thinking over everything, Jack also realized that there may be a way to make the ultimate Fenton phones. A siren or something that could drown out the Master's voice and make the army of ghosts stop. They could possibly put an end to all the futile fighting once and for all.
He began writing blueprints of such a mechanism on the napkin that came with the hospital meal and conveyed his ideas to Maddie who suggested a few things to him.
"Jack, you need to go back to the house to create this. You are the only one who can do it."
He held her hand in his. "But I can't leave you here Mads -"
"Yes, you can. I'm safe here. Go," she assured him.
He nodded then stood up. He quickly got back to Fenton Works and immediately started developing the speakers and called up some tech-friends to help him.
They were a few minutes into the Ghost Zone when Jazz realized the silence hanging over the two siblings. She looked at Danny, white hair and all, eyes glowing and lighting up the controls as he drove.
"Dan -" "Ja-" They simultaneously spoke.
"Uh, you first," Danny chuckled, looking over at her.
"No, you."
He hesitated before speaking. "I know this is a lot to take in…And I'm sorry I didn't just tell you the truth before it was too late…"
"Well…I would like to tell you that I understand what you are going through, but that would be a lie," Jazz admitted. "But what I do know is that we can't dwell on the past. What happened, happened. I would like to hear more about it though, if you are willing to share."
Danny chuckled. "I don't even know where to start."
"Why not start from the beginning?"
He looked down at his feet and sighed heavily. "Sam, Tuck, and I were down in the lab, checking out all the fun nick-knacks. Naturally, we were most attracted to the ghost portal. There were so many unknowns. What if it actually worked? What if there really was some unexplored paranormal world? We were so curious. It was Sam's idea to look inside. I thought, you know, why not? So I put on a hazmat suit and walked in. I kept one hand on the wall to keep from falling but slipped and pressed something. That's when the electricity hit me and everything went black," he closed his eyes and breathed out, then looked at Jazz. "That's the second most scared I've ever been in my life to this day."
"What's the first?"
Danny peered out of the Specter Speeder, recalling the day he met Clockwork and faced his horrific fate. A fate worse than death. "That ghost from earlier. The one that looked similar to me but older…He's an evil version of me in the future."
"Wait, what?" Jazz's eyebrows furrowed.
"It's complicated. A couple years ago, around the CAT exam, Dan came back in time to ensure the safety of his, well, my future. To repeat history, make me become him. He strapped all of my loved ones to the vat of hot sauce at the Nasty Burger and…"
"And what?"
"Everyone nearly died. I wasn't fast enough…I couldn't go ghost in time…If Clockwork hadn't been there and hadn't changed everything, I would have become him."
Jazz gulped. "That sounds awful."
"I've never actually told anyone that," Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Not even Tucker? Or Sam?"
He shook his head. "It terrified me. The thought of living the rest of my life knowing I could've stopped my friends and family from dying. Sam and Tucker knew that they died in the future, I just never told them how close they came to it…"
"Well, it's over now," Jazz said, putting a hand on one of his shoulders.
"I guess so. Though, I don't know why or how he is back. And besides that, I've got other nightmares to face right now." Danny swallowed hard and kept a steady gaze on the road as he drove toward the headquarters.
"I hope this works," Jazz gulped.
Danny nodded in agreement.