Heh. It's been awhile, huh? Like, um, seven months to be accurate. If anyone even cares to know what's been going on, here it is. I decided I wanted to branch out more (that thought came from me being stupid.) So, I tried going two different ways with it. After a while, I was just scared to open up this document because I would simply stare at it. So, what I finally decided to do is finish this one up the way I'd originally planned it (with nothing more but this one ghost). But, the more and more I thought about and read over some of the earlier chapters, the more I hated them. So, I'm most likely going to re-write this and post it as another whole fic.
Stupid idea, huh? Now, as for the branching out I had in mind; I thought about make a sequel to this story, but then figured if I did that, I would make it the sequel to the re-write, which will be almost the same, but quite different. I'm still not positive what I'm gonna do, but for now, y'all are getting the second to last chapter of RtP. Enjoy.
Heh. Oh, yeah. Sorry for making y'all wait so long. I would like to point out that the most reviews I've gotten for any chapter in this story was for the last chapter. I would like to thank all my wonderful reviews and readers for sticking it out. I hope this chapter is no let down.
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Chapter Eleven: My Utter Shock
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...an unwanted visitor rounded the corner with a snarl on his face as he realized his prey was loose.
"You-you traitor!" Tucker snarled. "You let them escape. You freed them!" And it was then that I realized, even when overshadowed, Tucker was still Tucker.
"I said I was a good actress," I reminded him. "And I could only have been a traitor if I had been on your side to begin with." He gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes as he realized his mistake. I smiled, happy to have won one the said battles of getting free. Now to win the next one...
"If there's a ghost shield around this place, how can you just waltz in here?" dad questioned. Tucker seemed a bit surprised but quickly resumed his composure.
"I should've known one of you would be smart enough to figure it out," Tucker applauded. "Too bad you don't know who you're dealing with."
"Plasmius," Phantom remarked. "I know its you."
"There's a hole or two in your theory," Tucker responded. I raised my eyebrow. What Phantom, er, Danny, had explained made sense to me earlier. "Plasmius is imprisoned in the mansion of the Master of Time, and you're ghost sense did go off. You should give me credit in making sure your were asleep, and for knowing that if a ghost sets off your ghost sense once and doesn't go out of range it won't go off again for the same ghost. Oh, and I simply cut the shield's power. No need to try and escape, though. It cut back on."
Great, now the possibilities had been opened to include almost every ghost I could remember and the ones that could've popped up over the period of ten years. Danny's fists curled and an ecto-blast formed around them. He shot them straight at Tucker's chest. Tucker fell backwards, but that was it. I noticed Sam and dad reach to pull out an ecto-gun.
"Don't bother," Tucker commented. "I've stored them all up somewhere safe, so no one can get hurt."
My eyes shifted to the forgotten ecto-gun that he'd given me. It was laying beside the wall the six other captives had been hung; ten or so feet away.
All of a sudden, Danny lurched out and attacked Tucker. Seizing the opportunity, I sprinted to the ecto-gun and picked it up. Sam then picked up Jazz while dad picked Jack up and began to slowly make their way to the exit, hoping they wouldn't be spotted.
I aimed the gun in the direction of Tucker and Danny. My finger was just about the pull the trigger when I realized that I might hit Danny instead of Tucker. Danny pushed Tucker off of him and floated into the air.
"That all you got?" he taunted as he swooped down to pick Tucker back up. Seconds before he reached him, though, I shot Tucker with the gun. He ceased trying to get up. That allowed Danny time to pick Tucker up, charge a fist, and punch a ghost out of Tucker, who fell down to the ground.
I tried my hardest to recognize the ghost, but found him not registering on my list of ghostly enemies. Quickly, with the ecto-gun still in my hand, I grabbed the closest person to me (Julie) and made a break for the door.
"Halt!" the ghost commanded. I stopped dead, realizing I'd been caught. He charged an ecto-blast, but Danny blocked it from hitting me.
"Go!" he demanded. I did just that. I ran down the hallway as fast as I could, considering I had a person and an ecto-gun on me at the time. When I was half-way out, I heard Danny say, "Wow! What happened to you? I mean, I haven't seen you for at least five years. Not that I'm not grateful--" He stopped there, as if something the ghost had done had caused him to have to.
"Nicole!" Sam exclaimed when she saw me. I looked up and saw how close I was to the ladder leading back upstairs. "I'll take Julie. Go back and get more people or fight or something!"
I gladly handed Julie over to Sam and started back the other direction. Half-way there I stopped and retraced my steps. Had that been there before? I noticed a small opening in the side of the wall. Another loud kaboom. I figured it wouldn't hurt if I looked inside here real quick. Danny could protect everyone. Besides, what if something useful was in here?
I opened the door the rest of the way and realized it was an office sort of room. In one corner, a pile of ecto-weapons lay stacked up. In another, some sort of..."Ghost Shield Generator," I read aloud. Then it hit me. I dropped the ecto-gun at the entrance of the room and ran to the corner where the ghost shield generator was.
"Now, how to turn it off," I muttered. This thing was most likely designed by the Fentons and stolen by that one ghost so there had to be an easy way to--
I smiled and flipped the on/off switch. Maybe Jack Fenton's goofiness and simple-minded ways paid off sometimes. I grabbed a few extra ecto-guns and left the room, noticing that in fifty seconds, the ghost shield would diminish.
"Nicole, I thought--what were you doing?" Sam asked when she saw me coming out of the office.
"No time to explain. Here." I threw her an ecto-gun. "The ghost shield will be gone in forty or something seconds."
"How--" she continued to question. I gave her no time to finish as I ran down the remaining stretch of passageway. When I got to the end I took in my surroundings. Danny and the ghost were fighting in the middle of the room. Tucker was lying close to the door, about five or six feet away, and Maddie was lying on the other side of the room.
I decided to let Sam or dad handle getting Tucker out of harm's way, and I decided to dive into the action.
My back flat against the wall as to not draw attention to myself, I cautiously made my way over to where Maddie lay with my ecto-gun held out in front of me. I watched the battle closely. Danny shot an ecto-blast, but the other ghost caught it and threw it back.
I wish I could've identified the other ghost. It seems Danny knew him, but he'd apparently made his presence know in my ten year absence. He was wearing over-alls. He had a tattoo or two, an eye patch, and some kind of hook on his right hand.
"Okay, you really are more powerful than I figured," Danny exclaimed. I was only a few feet from Maddie, now.
"I've had a lot of practice; being away so long and everything," he replied, creating a pink ecto-blast and shooting it at Danny. Thankfully, I was, at the moment, behind the big blue ghost.
The talking stopped as Danny tried to kick the ghost. Not surprising me, the ghost flew up and dodged, and while Danny was trying to regain enough control to continue the fight, the ghost shot another ecto-blast. Danny didn't see this one coming and was hit. He hit the ground.
"Ghost shield deactivated," a computerized woman's voice announced. The fight stopped as the ghost looked around confused.
"Who could've even found--!" he began but stopped as his eyes drifted my direction. "You!" he screeched. "My plan was perfect before you came into the scene!"
"I thought you wanted to kill me for knowing--"
"I didn't find you a menace in Alabama!"
"You knew where I was?" I asked. Now it was just plain creepy that a ghost would go to the trouble of keeping an eye on me across the country.
"I have my--" I cut him off by shooting my ecto-gun which, admittedly, would probably only make him angrier given the circumstances, but I'd give anything to make him shut up. Not many more things got more annoying than his voice.
Well, except the box ghost from years ago… Now that is what you call an annoying voice.
And yes, as I predicted, he glared at me (the ecto-gun having few if any effects on him) and charged right at me. I yelped and began to run, dropping the ecto-gun. I ran past Maddie and into the corner of the room, which wasn't really the best move on my part, but it had been a spur of the moment kind of thing.
"You have only interfered with my plans. Only you would try and take action to help out," the ghost ventured while floating towards me. "And now you get the honor of dying first." He held up his hand and pink...electricity crackled around his hand. Before I could realize it, he let the blast go, headed straight in my direction.
I did the only thing I knew to do in the situation, at least without my hunting suit; I covered my head, waiting for the blow to come. All of a sudden, about a second before the shot would've hit, I felt a really weird tingling feeling from the inside. I opened my eyes in just enough time to see the ghost's shot hit the wall, and me go through it.
"What?" I asked, unable to find any other words, when I realized I was now standing outside the shack with Danny floating beside me.
"Stay here," he demanded, before phasing back inside the shack.
Oh yeah, like that would keep me away.
If he knew anything about me, he'd know how futile a demand like that would be. I knew I had to go back down there to help Phantom and the others, but I knew the only thing that would end up happening again would be me getting backed into a corner. I needed a plan, and fast.
I ran back inside the shack and found the latch that led down to where the fight was going on, trying to think of something to do to help all the while. As I ran down the hallway toward Danny and the other ghost, not having seen Sam or dad anywhere, I noticed for the second time the little office. All of a sudden, I was hit with an idea.
"I wondered where he went!" I heard Sam exclaim from the room not too far away from me. That only sparked my curiosity more as to who the ghost was. Was he someone from their past or something? And if so, why had he not been seen in so long?
"There we go!" I happily muttered as the flashing lights from the Ghost Shield Generator kicked on and began counting down again, this time to turn on when it was done. I ran into the room, and stopped upon seeing it. There weren't many things in the room to begin with, but what had been in there was destroyed.
The chains that had held us all had all been ripped from the wall and thrown across the entire room, a few of the bricks from the walls and tiles from the floor had been pried out of there spot, and Sam and dad were trapped in the same corner I'd gotten myself trapped in. My eyes widened when I also saw Maddie and Tucker, who had woken up, trapped against a nearby wall.
Okay, time to help these people out.
"Hey! Over here!" I yelled and ran away from the exit, toward the center of the room. The ghost turned around from where he was about to hit Sam and dad with an ecto-blast, to face me.
"You're back, are you?" he taunted.
"I thought I told you to stay outside," Danny commented. I finally saw him behind the ghost, trying to protect Sam and dad. Now that they were out of trouble though, he floated up to the ghost's back.
"Please, do you not know who I am?" I asked as Danny kicked the ghost, making him turn around to face him instead of me. Sam and dad made a break for it, as did Maddie and Tucker.
"Phantom!" I called, not moving.
"Get outta here, Nicole," he demanded, shooting an ecto-blast at the larger ghost.
"No, come down here!" I called again, still not obeying his order.
"Why?" he asked, dodging the blue ghost's fist and diving in to try and kick him. "How?"
"Get down here, NOW!" I ordered. He paused in his fight which proved to be a mistake, as the other ghost hit him and caused him to fall to the ground.
"Fast enough for ya?" he asked as he let his head hit the floor.
"It'll do," I smiled. "Now, head for the door." I got him on his feet and pushed him toward the door.
"What? Why?" he questioned, looking up at the ghost that was flying towards us at top speed. "I never run away I--"
"Ghost shield activated," the computerized voice told us right as I pushed Phantom through the doorway and the other ghost slammed into the shield, shrieking in pain.
"--like to fight," he finished as he watched the ghost pick himself up of the floor. "Why'd you do that?" Phantom asked, angrily at me.
"To help you!" I shot back. "You need to stop attacking and start planning. Ever think of that?!" Nobody responded to my outburst, either shocked by it or thinking it over.
"You know," Maddie commented, talking for the first time since I'd gotten back in the building. "That's a good idea. Phantom, you need to stop simply attacking this ghost and start using any weaknesses it has. Plan, then attack, and don't even think about leaving any of us out of it."
"Are the other three safe?" Danny asked. I noticed everyone look at me.
"What?" I asked, wondering why they thought I'd have the answer.
"You were up there last," Danny stated.
"Well--I--" I faltered. "I don't remember seeing anyone up there, and no one said anything so if they were up there, they were still asleep or something."
"Okay then, you're job," he pointed at dad, "Is to go make sure Julie, Jack, and Jazz are alright and you can either stay up there or come back down here to fight; your choice." The big ghost screamed out in rage, drawing everyone's attention for a few seconds. It brought back a question I'd forgotten.
"You guys," I began. All eyes turned to me once again. "You seem to know this ghost. Who is he?"
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You know, well, you don't, but I originally had Sam answer at the very end, but I like this a whole lot more. Besides, with that small description I gave, it should be painfully obvious who it is. That is, if your memory is pretty good.
With all the reviews I got for the last chapter, I've decided that waiting seven months for to update the last chapter will be a smart idea. ((stares at angry mob)) Uh, nevermind.
Please review!!