-Rescue Angel.
All the criminals turned, and gasped in shock. Rising in front of them, the kid who they thought was dead by now was currently carried by Amity Park's most famous resident, who was giving the criminals a murderous glare.
"Phantom…" Freddy wide opened his eyes, not believing what just happened; his hero had just saved his life!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG!
One criminal reacted and took out a gun to shoot at Danny and Freddy, but the bullets got deflected by the hero's ecto-shield, and the criminals were the ones who almost got hit by the bouncing projectiles.
"Too bad you guys aren't friendly, because one pal of mine is eager to meet you!" Danny smirked at the villains, and, a moment later, a huge shadow covered the three kidnappers who were in front of Danny.
"BAD. MEN."
The criminal boss got a scared expression under his mask at the view of the huge ghostly werewolf diving against his accomplices, and ran downstairs. Freddy, on the meantime, got an awed look when the criminals started shooting at Wulf, who received the bullets without feeling them; if hurting a werewolf without silver weaponry is hard, hurting a ghostly one is nearly impossible. The powerful lycanthrope extended his claws, and sliced the pistols' barrels in a single move; then, he grabbed two of the criminals by their collars, throwing them like rag dolls at the center of the rooftop, hurting badly and almost knocking them out.
The other criminal, scared, decided that jumping down the building was a safer option than facing the beast, and did it, but got caught by his ankle. He looked up to see Danny's scowling face, holding him with his right hand and Freddy with his left one, and then the halfa hovered to the center of the rooftop, dropping him there with his partners, with Wulf keeping an eye on them. Of course, by this moment, both Danny and Wulf knew they were just regular men on disguise, thanks to the halfa's ghost sense and the smelling one of his companion.
"Are you okay, friend?" Danny asked Freddy after landing on the rooftop, a few feet away from the criminal trio, in a calming tone. Freddy was pretty stunned; his hero not just had saved him, but was calling him friend.
"Y… yes, yes, I am, Mister Phantom." Freddy finally got his voice back and suddenly remembered about the other kids and the rest of the criminals, "Mister Phantom, there are a lot of bad guys down there, and they want to do horrible things to all the kids they caught!"
On the meantime, the criminals were met by their boss at the corridor a few floors down, and got surprised when looking at him panting and removing his mask.
"What's going on, boss?" A random criminal asked.
"We're leaving now! Hurry up!"
"Why? The Police found us?"
"You might be able to escape the cops," an eerie voice was heard at the corridor, making the criminals to look around and sweat cold, "but there's no place on Earth you can escape from me."
Danny, with a furious expression, became visible at the end of the corridor, carrying Freddy on his back, the little kid's arms around the ghost boy's neck; the halfa decided that, with all those criminals around, the safest place for the kid was with him, and of course Freddy wasn't complaining, especially after feeling the experience of becoming invisible and intangible.
All the criminals but their boss took out their guns and started shooting at Danny, who simply made Freddy and himself intangible again so the bullets passed through them, an experience that was both exciting and frightening to the little kid. The boss, who already suspected that wouldn't work, dashed downstairs while his gang kept shooting.
The moment the criminals stopped shooting, shocked at what they just saw, Danny pointed at them with both index fingers, in a pistol-like fashion, and started shooting short and fast blasts at the men's weapons with such aim and speed all of them dropped their guns in the next 5 seconds.
"You guys really need to cool down." Danny smirked and then touched the floor with both hands, sending a freezing wave through the corridor; a moment later, all the criminals had their legs totally covered on ice, stuck and unable to escape.
"Wow!" Freddy exclaimed, "You're so cool!"
"Thanks," Danny replied with a smile, enjoying the kid's enthusiasm, "Now, it's time for what we heroes call The Final Showdown."
The boss reached the floor where the kids were, and had an idea. He obviously couldn't defeat Phantom, but if he could get a kid to use as a hostage, maybe the ghost would let him go. With that idea, he ran to the children's room, his whip ready on his right hand, and opened the door.
"You know, your plan is a little familiar," the criminal shocked when finding Danny behind the door, hovering at his eyes' level, "What you did before turning criminal; writing scripts for Scooby Doo?"
WHACK!
The kidnapper was sent back several feet by the boy's punch, while Danny hovered out of the room, with Freddy and the other kids behind the halfa, looking at the hero and the criminal, who, by mere instinct, handled to stay on his feet, and threw his whip against Danny, who caught it effortlessly with his right hand, and turned slightly to look at the kids without totally sight of the villain.
"You guys want to see a little trick I normally don't use?" Danny asked the children, who immediately nodded and smiled at him; Danny then glared at the kidnapper, who gulped when Danny's hand and eyes got a bright green glowing.
"Ghost Stinger!"
A current of green energy ran through the whip, and reached the kidnapper in a split second.
"YYYYEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUCCCHHH!"
Danny dropped the whip, and walked next to the now nearly unconscious criminal, grabbing him by the collar, the halfa's eyes still glowing.
"W…what are you going to do?" The man said in fear.
"Well, if I use my whole strength, I might crack your skull in a split second, but relax; I'm not going to do that… YOU will hit yourself." Danny replied, and, a second later, overshadowed the man. The kids gasped at the scene of Phantom practically diving inside the kidnapper's body that stood straight and got a goofy expression, raising his fists in front of his face.
"Don't punch yourself!" Danny, manipulating the man's body, made him to punch his own face. "Ouch! Why are you punching yourself? Ugh!" Danny repeated the operation several times, hurting both the face and the belly; even if he could feel the hits, Danny's ghostly stamina allowed him to stand them with relative easiness, and the kids' laughter encouraged him to continue. He even made the kidnapper to walk in a clownish way right before dashing against the closest wall; a split second before impacting, Danny left the villain's body that, obviously, kept running.
CRACK!
The kidnapper fell to the floor, holding his bleeding nose, and feeling as if a gorilla had just danced over him. The man felt his jaw and teeth in acute pain, and his belly was killing him, not to mention he could barely see with his right eye; plus, besides the kids laughing at him and cheering at Phantom, he could hear a loud buzzing that was giving him a major headache. When the buzz started to disappear, he heard the ghost's voice again, as he grabbed him by the collar.
"I never use my full power against humans… but, if I ever know you hurt or kidnapped children again, no matter if it's in Amity or any other city, I'll do an exception and turn you into a REAL ghost; and remember I'm a phantom, so you'll never know when I'll be watching." Danny growled at the man, who paled and vanished a moment later.
"I told you!" Freddy turned to see the other kids, excited, "I told you he would save us!" The children surrounded Danny when he moved apart from the unconscious foe, cheering his name excitedly. Danny blushed, not used to get all that positive attention at once.
"I can't get the full credit," Danny admitted, "A friend of mine helped me… by the way, which one of you is Anna Walters?"
"I am, Mister Phantom." The little girl, covering her naked chest, smiled shyly at Danny, who grabbed his thermos and opened it to take out the girl's red shirt.
"I guess this is yours; it's a little dirty, but it's better than nothing." Danny handled the shirt to the girl, who immediately brightened and put it on. Since the clothing was covered with her natural scent, Wulf could use it to track down Anna.
Danny sent a message to his sister, and, anonymously, Jazz told the cops about the kids' location. Danny stayed with the children near the building's exit while Wulf kept an eye on the kidnappers. About ten minutes later, Danny and Wulf heard the patrols' sirens.
"I guess my friend and I should leave now," Danny told the kids, and then grabbed a half-broken brick; Danny focused a little of his ectoplasmic energy on his right index, and used it to write his autograph on it.
"For Freddy, my greatest fan. Danny Phantom." Freddy read the script when Danny handled him the brick, getting an even more excited expression, and then gave Danny a tight hug; the halfa smiled at the kid, and turned to leave, chuckling when noticing some of the other kids were hugging Wulf, who was more than glad to be liked by someone besides Ember and Danny even in his animal form; once Danny told the children he was the friend who helped him, they lost all fear for the huge werewolf, especially when he started talking a little Esperanto, making them to laugh at the weird language.
Danny and Wulf turned intangible and flew up to the rooftop when the cops spotted the kids. The boy and the lycanthrope stayed there looking at all the kids, the officers, and, a few minutes later, the parents, who were notified about them being safe the moment the cops saw them and the captured criminals.
"Please, thank Ember for me, and tell her that she did a great job with this whistle." Danny told Wulf while looking at the bright metallic tube which could produce a sound the werewolf was able to hear even if being in another dimension, either the human world or The Ghost Zone, "I suppose it is logical coming from a ghost whose powers are sound-based."
"Me. Telling. I. Know. She. Glad. For. Helping. Ember. Very. Warm. Tender. I. Like. Making. Her. Happy."
"Uh… leave the details for yourself, please; there are certain mental images I want to avoid." Danny commented, making the werewolf to chuckle and get a slight blush on his canine-like face.
"I. Leaving. Now." Wulf told Danny, and then shook paws/hands. Wulf moved aside and extended his claws, making a slashing-like move, producing his own portal to The Ghost Zone. After Danny thanked him again, the werewolf jumped at the portal, disappearing immediately from sight. Before the portal vanished, Danny could hear Ember's song to turn Wulf into human, and his friend saying something he couldn't understand, since it was Esperanto, but chuckled slightly and shook his head at the obviously caring tone the werewolf was using.
"If those two ever marry, I hope they invite me." Danny thought out loud, getting a happy expression. He certainly was glad for losing an enemy and gaining an ally, especially since it was the result of said former enemy finding love with one of his friends, and hoped nothing but the best for the couple.
Danny turned to see the kids one last time before leaving, but a characteristic sound froze him on the spot. Valerie, slowly descending on her sled, directed to Danny; he noticed she wasn't on her usual battle stance, but on a more relaxed posture, so Danny, even if still ready to escape or fight, relaxed a little as well.
"What's your deal, ghost?"
"Uh… I phase through walls, fly, turn invisible…"
"I mean, about the kidnapping thing!" Valerie groaned at his attempt to light the mood, "My battle suit can get the police frequency, and I heard that you and that animal saved the kids… by the way, how many dogs you do have?"
"First, his name is Wulf, a friend of mine, totally harmless unless you mess with him, and is not 100 percent animal, but a werewolf," Danny explained while making a mental note about the police frequency's thing (obviously, Valerie used that to know about Danny's sightings), "Second, I have no dogs; as I already told you like, one million times, I was just trying to keep that dog away from the labs… I did a lousy job, I admit, but wasn't responsible of his actions. And last, as I also had told you, not all ghosts are evil. I really wanted to help the children, and the whole idea of someone hurting them just for money makes me sick."
"As much as I hate to admit it… almost as much as the mental image of you puking I just got… guess this time I was wrong." Valerie grumbled, disliking the idea of apologizing at her enemy; however, as stubborn as she could be, Val knew this time he actually helped many people, and couldn't find anything wrong about the ghost's behavior.
"Thanks." Danny replied, partially stunned at the huntress' words, "I mean, I know it must be hard for you to say that…"
"You have no idea."
"So… this means we are in peace now?" Danny asked, hopeful.
"No, it just means THIS time I can't blame you, and I'm letting you go without a fight." Valerie cleared, "After all, maybe you attacked the kidnappers just so I stop blaming you for their crimes… but, whatever your reasons are, I'm giving you, for once, the benefit of the doubt, since it seems all the children are fine."
"Well, anyway, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me, so thanks. I guess I'll see you later, Val… erie." Danny quickly corrected himself, and hovered a few feet over the rooftop, ready to leave.
"Yes, you will, gh… Phantom," Valerie decided to call him by his name this time, considering that, for once at least, he deserved that. Danny gave her a friendly smile, and Valerie, against all her instincts, replied with a slight one of her own.
On the meantime, Freddy's parents had already arrived, and ran to embrace their son. Freddy was just too happy to see them, and couldn't wait to talk about Phantom saving him and the other kids.
"Hey, look! It's Phantom!" One cop yelled, making everyone to look up in the sky. Danny was flying away from the scene, waving bye to the kids, who cheered his name and waved as well in reply.
"You saw him, Mom?" Freddy told his mother without losing sight of Danny, "I told you; he is the angel that protects Amity."
And this time, his mother was more than happy to agree with him.
THE END.
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(Nice job, dude… but, next time, can I get more lines, and maybe a girl or a dozen?) We'll see, Tuck, we'll see.
Anyway, as a second disclaimer, as everyone noticed, I used some lyrics from "Son of Man", part of the soundtrack of Disney's Tarzan. (And, of course, Ramiro doesn't own anything here; neither Disney, nor the Tarzan's character, nor the song, nor Cameron Diaz' phone…) Tucker, what are you talking about? (Wait, are you telling me you have that phone number?). Of course not, Tuck! (Rats!)
I want to thank everyone who reviewed this story. As you saw, the rating came mostly because of the mention of a very delicate topic; kidnapping and child abuse. (Yes; sadly, this is a major problem in some countries.) Tell me about it; I hate to recognize this, but here in Mexico there are whole families involved in the "business" of dealing with human lives as if they were simple merchandise.
(Again, thanks for reading, and please leave a review before leaving). Thanks a bunch, Tucker; so long everyone, and keep the good writing. (I'm sure there's a mistake with your signature phrase.) Cool down, Captain Grammar.