Last Chapter:

Skulker escaped from the battle after Jake set off a booby trap and his battle suit exploded. Danny explains that the mess the battle left was caused by his sleepwalking, while Jake writes his essay. Lao Shi drops by, asking to see both boys.

Wow, sorry I took a vacation from this fic. But it's here now, and I've got reviews to reply to.

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Disclaimer: I am the proud owner of no TV shows whatsoever! (Okay, so maybe I'm not really proud about that.)

In the Park

The huntress fired at the spectral primate, frustration growing every minute. She'd deducted that things would get bad without Danny around to protect the city, but not this bad. She felt guilty about the way she'd treated Danny in the past, but she had no time to dwell on her feelings. Without him around, the responsibility of protecting the city fell to her, and she had to do it whether she had other things she desperately needed to do or not.

Vlad's cronies were busy stopping traffic from entering the interstate freeway. The gorilla minions were using their massive strength to stomp holes into the asphalt, to prevent cars from getting through.

They weren't leaving it at that, either. When cars came too close to them, they threw the cars as far back down the road as they could. The cars would land somewhere on the street. They were landing on top of other vehicles, or causing accidents as people ran into them. Either way, they were taking out other cars with them as they burst into flame.

No one could get out of town as long as the gorillas were around.

Valerie's shot hit the gorilla head-on, infuriating the beast more. The animal lumbered in the direction the shot had come from.

Valerie flew at the beast quickly, releasing a string of fire from her ecto gun as she flew.

The gorilla groaned as it was hit by the blasts.

"Yes!" Valerie shouted, but her triumph was cut short as she spotted another ghost, Vlad Plasmius, coming toward the ruckus.

"Time to get out of here!" she said to herself, zooming off before she got caught by the mayor in his ghost form.

She really had to do something to pay him back for all he was putting her, and the rest of Amity, through. But first, she had to update her blog, in the slight chance that Danny would see it, and come to the town's aid.

"You wanted to see us?" Danny asked, coming out the Long's front door with Jake.

"Aye, young one, We have much to discuss. Come with me to my shop."

"Hey-a kids," Fu greeted, as they walked into the shop.

"Yo, whazzup Fu?"Jake asked.

"So I did a little research on your town last night, Danny, and I've got some important information for ya."

"What did you find, Fu?" Jake asked.

"Apparently, somebody who's in a position of power is one evil being. He goes by the name of Vlad Masters. He's created an army of deranged ghostly gorillas to keep the residents inside the city. If that wasn't enough, he's gained absolute control over Amity Park, and has a list of things he plans to accomplish, people he wants to kill, typical villain stuff."

Fu paused, then told Danny, "I'm sorry, kid, but it seems your old man's on the top of the mayor's hotlist."

Danny's eyes glowed green as he growled, "Cheese head! Leave it up to him to do something like this while I'm away."

"By the way, I think it would interest you to know that your teacher was blackmailed beforehand into choosing you to demonstrate the procedure for the class. It didn't really have anything to do with stuff you did at all."

"Of course," Danny realized, "Vlad knew Mr. Lancer would call child protection! He found a way around the stalemate we were at with the knowledge of each other's secrets! He must've seen it as a way to get rid of me long enough for him to carry out his whole 'killing my dad and marrying my mom' plan. But, then why did he take control of the city? Hey, Fu? How did you find all that out?"

"You can find almost anything on the Internet," Fu replied.

"Oh," Danny mumbled, blushing, "yeah, duh!"

"One more thing, kid," Fu added. "There's a 'Red Huntress' who's calling for you to go back home - stat. She says she doesn't know how you've been handling all the ghosts, 'cause she can't. She said so on her blog."

'Since when does Val blog?' Danny thought to himself. 'I hope she's okay. I mean, that may not be something that Vlad wants me to see - an invitation back to Amity Park. He was the one who wanted me out of the city, right?'

"As Fu Dog said, the sooner we can get him," Lao Shi pointed to Danny, "back to Amity Park, the better. It seems he's the one who must capture the ghostly gorillas, and other various ghosts."

"That's my job," Danny agreed.

"And we've got to get his town to forget about the magical world, too! About that Gramps, Rose might've come up with a solution. . . . " Jake said.

Danny listened as Jake related Rose's plan. He frowned slightly, thinking. After a while, he asked, "So, we're going to play a hypnotic recording around town and everyone's going to forget?"

"Yeah," Jake said.

"That sounds sick! It sort of seems like something Ember would do." Danny commented. "But I can't complain, because I don't have a better idea."

He sighed, thinking of whom the plan would affect. It would affect Sam and Tucker. It would affect his mom, his dad, and his well-meaning sister, Jazz. He didn't like the idea of hiding things from them, especially from those he'd be hiding things from again. Danny asked, "Will the recording make my family forget too?"

"Sorry, but some sacrifices will have to be made, kid," Fu Dog replied. "Jake said every human."

Danny sighed, and said, "Yeah, I know. That doesn't mean I have to like it."

"So any more concerns?" Fu asked.

"Wait!" Danny said. "What will happen the next time a ghost shows up? Will they all remember?"

"Don't look at me!" Fu replied, "Jake's the one who told us the plan!"

As all the heads in thee room turned to look at him, Jake immediately informed them that he didn't know the answer to the question.

"Cut me some slack, here. I was on a date! Do you seriously not expect me to take some time off once in a while?" Jake said to defend himself.

"Well, we could always just leave the broadcast running, so they'll always just forget anything else they see!" Fu offered.

Danny smiled, then he asked, "Okay, so how soon can we get the stuff to broadcast with?"

"I dunno," Fu replied. "That could be Murphy's main bit with this plan. I'm not sure how we're gonna get the stuff. I mean, this is nonstandard equipment we're talking about. Usually, if mortals find out, we just slip them a truth potion and we're done. But for a whole city, we'd have to put so much of the potion in, that it'd be a lethal amount."

"Bah! We'll have to find a way to make Roses' solution work." Lao Shi said. "Usually, I would discourage rushing into these things, but we have very little time if the mayor of Amity Park is moving quickly to carry out his plans. He has a whole city at his mercy, so we need to get Fenton back in Amity to stop him!"

Vlad examined the latest act of rebellion against him. His lab, not so secret as he thought if a vandal could find it, was in ruin. His equipment lay scattered across his floor, and his view screen for his spy bugs was smashed. Scorch marks covered the walls. Whoever had done this either had the use of ecto blasts available to them, or carried a ghost gun.

"SOMEBODY WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THIS!" he screeched.

Why did Vlad put himself in as the absolute leader of Amity Park, instead of just killing Jack and marrying Maddie?

Will Vlad catch the rebellious Valerie?

Is rushing into Rose's plan a good idea, even in the current circumstances?