I had a really hard time figuring out how to start this off and make it lead into the part I was most anxious to write. After several revisions of the beginning part however, here it is. Now we see the fix that Danny, his family and his friends are in and what Freakshow is planning with all of them. If you spot any errors in the plot that you may dislike, please say so and I'll do my best to make it better. Enjoy
Chapter 8: A Deadly Reencounter
Out in the middle of grassy and dried out plains, where the Circus Gothica train-tracks ran, was the train itself. It was halted on the tracks as it was days ago, since Freakshow had escaped from the Amity Park Penitentiary. From the black and green colors and creepy images of skulls, bats, spider webs and other things all around the train's engine and linked cars, no one would ever think it was any kind of circus train, unless you actually looked at the side where it said Circus Gothica on it.
A few of these train cars were cages, where people would think would be used to keep the circus animals in for transportation. However, Freakshow was the owner of this circus train and used these cages for entirely different confinement purposes: Such as holding Danny's friends and family prisoner.
Tucker Foley and Samantha Manson were locked in one of these cages while the car linked behind it held the ghost-boy's parents and sister, Jasmine.
Sam, the young Goth girl with short black hair, wore a black tank top and a knee-length skirt. Her purple nylons were topped with her bulky, black boots, which extended to under her kneecaps.
Sam was currently curled up in a corner of the cage, hugging her knees and looking depressed. Even for a Goth. To think, that she had once loved this very train for its ominous look. She also had admired its owner for the Gothic lover's entertainment she had thought it would bring to her when it first came to Amity Park. She hated herself now to have allowed herself to be deceived by a crook who took control of her friend and made him commit crimes he had vowed to stand against. Now here she was, the prisoner of the man she had, at one time, been fond of.
Tucker, the African-American techno-geek with glasses, would usually have on his yellow, long-sleeve shirt and pale green pants with hiking-style boots. And of course, his favorite touch: a red beret on his head. But now, being the mayor of Amity Park and having been in the middle of a meeting when he was taken captive, he had on a business suit with a bowtie and dress shoes. Though he did still carry his beret around in his pocket so he could pull it out and wear it when he wasn't in any such meeting. He thought of it as an old-times souvenir. He also felt that it helped him to think better when he had it on, which is why he was wearing it at this moment.
But that didn't seem to matter right now. As much as he tried to find some technological way out of the situation he was now in, he just couldn't come up with anything helpful. He didn't have his trusty PDA with him. The one he used to carry around all the time when he acted as a superhero sidekick to Danny. The cell phone that he did have was no help as any substitute for it either. In fact, it wasn't even helpful as a phone right now because it had no service out here in the middle of nowhere.
Back in the day, he usually always carried his backpack around that was always full of gadgets that he could use, but since becoming mayor, he had to refrain from constantly having it on his person. He tried every trick he knew to try and make the signal of his cell phone stronger so he could somehow call for help, but by now, he had long since given up on that idea. Without his usual equipment, he felt so useless.
In the next cage over, Danny's very large father, Jack Fenton, had graying hair and had on an orange jumpsuit with black boots and gloves. His arm was around his wife in an effort to try and comfort her from her feelings of helplessness he just knew she was going through. But it still didn't stop him from feeling those same emotions of vulnerability as well.
The mother, Maddie Fenton, short for Madeline, was quite small in comparison with her husband. She had short, brown hair and had a blue jumpsuit on with the same colored boots and gloves as Jack did. Despite her small and skinny figure in association with her very tall and very large spouse, she was usually the cleverer of the two of them, especially when it came to ghost-related things. In spite of the ghost-hunting expertise that this married couple had however, like Tucker, they too were stumped on how they were supposed to get out of this fix.
Jasmine, or Jazz as everyone called her, had very long red hair that was pulled back from her face with a blue headband. This college girl wore a black long-sleeve shirt and shoes with blue jeans. Yet, although she was smart enough to have skipped a year at her university, all she felt she could do was look out from behind the bars of her cage solemnly at the dome shaped energy field that was in front and centered between the two cage-cars that these people were being held in. When Tucker, Sam and her parents had gone missing, she had been staying at the old Fenton Works where she would be more available in the investigation and help her little brother wherever she could.
Inside the dome she was staring at, Danny Phantom himself sat with his elbows on his bent knees with his hands covering the sides of his head to hide his saddened face.
This dome he was inside was known as a Ghost Trap and he had been imprisoned inside it for almost a week by now. The dome emitted a blue light on the inside, which had its own energy that kept any ghost inside its walls from using their powers to any extent. Humans could obviously pass through it, because several times, his parents and friends had reached through the bars of their own cells to extended hands of comfort to him, right through the energy field. Nevertheless, even though Danny was only half-ghost, the trap worked just as effectively on him. He had been in his Phantom form when the Ghost Trap was triggered and he couldn't even use his ability to transform back into Danny Fenton and walk out, like he was sure he would be able to if he was only in his human form.
It was almost five and a half days ago since he had read the note addressed from Freakshow who had left it at Fenton Works after finding Jazz hiding there and taking her. In concern for the well-being of his friends and family, The half-ghost teen had indeed departed from Amity Park to follow the tracks as the note instructed.
From past experience he had with Freakshow, Danny had a feeling that the evil ringmaster would have a deceitful trick up his sleeve. The last time he broke out of jail and used Danny's family as leverage against him, he never specified releasing them, even after Danny had done what the man wanted. Had the ghost-boy not turned the tables in time, it would have cost all of their lives.
Freakshow never said anything about letting his loved ones go free in the note either, once he arrived at the train. Therefore, Danny had every reason to believe that Freakshow would be planning to do no such thing.
So, Danny had an idea that he could sneak in while invisible, and get his friends out himself. However, Freakshow had been three steps ahead of him with these very thoughts and had the Ghost Trap set and ready for him. When Danny found the train and so much as touched the cages his peers were locked in, the blue dome had all of a sudden materialized around him.
It was only after the Ghost Trap was triggered that Danny realized that he should have known Freakshow would be up to something like this. Now, Amity Park was left unprotected and Freakshow still refused to let his family go.
Since then, Danny, his friends, and his family had no choice but to sit around while Freakshow had Lydia sent on errands in which she kept bringing back some things in concealed bags that varied in quantities. The ringmaster wouldn't let them see what was inside the bags nor would he tell them or hint what it could be. He always said that he didn't want to ruin the surprise. However, saying the word "surprise" was the only clue the ghost-boy and his kin needed to know that whatever was in that bag wasn't good on their part.
Today, while Lydia was off on another search mission, Freakshow took the time in putting a thick wooden post in the ground, perhaps about fifteen feet from the train tracks in front of the cage-cars that held his captives. The post was perhaps at least a foot in diameter and stood six feet high when it was stuck into the ground.
"What's that for? Marking the trail?" Danny asked in a taunting manner and speaking the minds of everyone else who was wondering.
Freakshow merely grinned and patted his now finished work. "You might say that it's meant to be for a bit of a traditional purpose. But, you'll see what I mean by that soon enough." That was all he said before walking over to where a fire was lit and started stoking the flames. It was a bit of a gray afternoon with no sun shining and there was a slight, chilling breeze.
How convenient for Freakshow to have built the fire a far enough distance away that no one else could feel its warmth but him.
Danny was sheltered enough from the wind in his dome-shaped confinement and being half-ghost, he was better adaptable to changes in temperature like this, anyway. But as he looked around at his fellow captives, he noticed Sam rubbing her bare arms, and shivering slightly. Luckily, Tucker had the jacket of his tuxedo, and when he noticed Sam shudder a bit, he took it off and put it around her.
Danny looked back over to the dark coated man. There was a large, dark sack that sat next to Freakshow, at his feet. Since Danny had gotten here, that sack had been getting bigger and bigger as it became full of the things that Lydia kept bringing back.
Danny had noticed that she had protective gloves on, even though the things were covered already when she handed them to her master. The young boy also observed how she seemed to back away from Freakshow in a hurry as soon as he had the wrapped objects. It was as if she was afraid whatever was in the sack would bite her or something. During times that Freakshow was out of earshot, the ghost-boy had discussions about this with his friends and family through the bars of their cages. It had long become unanimous that whatever was in the bag was probably for Danny if a ghost was afraid of it. And judging from the sack that seemed to have become quite full by now, they all had a feeling that they would soon find out what it was, and understand why Lydia was so intimidated by it.
Everyone remained silent for the remainder of the time until Lydia had returned. Freakshow stood up from the fire as she touched down. "Did you find any more?" He asked his ghost counterpart.
The red-cloaked ghost shook her hooded head but extended a hand out from under her cloak with something metallic in her hand. From the looks of it, they were two cuff-like bracelets. Freakshow took them and after taking a second to examine them, he grinned, looking in Danny's direction. "Excellent." He said with a malevolent smile that made the boy nervous. The old ringmaster then picked up the mysterious sack and opened it up to look inside. Lydia backed off slightly as he did so. "Well. We should have about enough anyway." He said.
"Enough of what?" Sam asked from behind the bars of her confinement.
"Enough for what?" Jazz asked in addition.
Freakshow set the sack down again and walked over to the Ghost Trap with the metal cuffs. Danny slowly stood up as he approached, his fear growing with every step the man took towards him. "I'll tell you for what." Freakshow said with that same malicious look at him. This time, there was a glimmer of triumph on his face that set off a small spark of dread in the teenage ghost and he involuntarily backed up a few steps inside his dome confinement.
Freakshow then swiftly passed right through the dome-wall that Danny was trapped behind, with long strides, and grabbed the teenage boy by his arm. "My revenge on the "ghost hero" who ruined my life."
Danny struggled against him but the Ghost Trap also diminished his ghost-enhanced strength, and the pale-faced villain managed to get one of the cuffs onto the boy's wrist. The second Freakshow had locked the cuff into place, it sent a tingle throughout Danny's entire body that made him cry out from the mere unexpectedness of it.
Freakshow still had his hold on Danny's arm as he reached into his coat with his free hand and pulled out some sort of remote control. He pressed a button on it and the Ghost Trap surrounding them vanished.
Despite the energy field being let down, Danny only noticed the tingle get worse and he had no time to react before Lydia suddenly flew at him and pinned his shoulders to the cage-car that Tucker and Sam were in. As Danny now attempted to pry the cloaked ghost off of him, Freakshow succeeded in getting the other cuff onto the hybrid teen's other wrist. He felt himself getting restrained on the inside as the tingle that he was already feeling from the first cuff multiplied.
Tucker and Sam reached their arms through the bars of their cage to try and help loosen the grip of the ringmaster and his ghostly servant on their friend. It was no use though, and almost as soon as the second cuff was snapped on, the captors began dragging him away from his friends. Danny desperately reached out for their hands, but he could only brush Sam's fingers as Freakshow and Lydia pulled him out of range of their caring touch. He tried to go intangible and break free of their hold on him, but the tingle the cuffs emitted completely disrupted his powers. His family greatly protested as Freakshow and Lydia dragged the boy over to the wooden post the pale-faced criminal had installed in the ground earlier.
The old ringmaster then forced the teenage boy down to his knees, putting his back against the wooden post. Lydia grabbed his cuffed wrists, pulling them behind him and around the post as Freakshow held the boy in place against it. As soon as the tattooed woman got his hands inches away from meeting each other behind the vertical beam of wood, a blue string of electric energy linked the two cuffs together. It pulsed with an electric blue light and had a magnetic field that was so strong, it may as well have been a thick chain.
Freakshow and Lydia now let go of Danny as he tried every effort to free himself. "Ah, so young and yet so determined in every effort you make. Whether you succeed or not." Freakshow said with a satisfied snigger as he watched his enemy struggle. "And I can tell you right now that you won't succeed in this one. Those are spectral cuffs." Danny stopped fighting it and looked up at Freakshow before he went on. "I had Lydia go and…"pick them up"…from The Guys in White, just for you. No ghost, or in your case, ghost-hybrid, can break them." Danny signed in frustration, giving in, and glared up at the pale-faced ringmaster. He hated the idea of giving up, but he was not going to give this criminal the satisfaction of seeing his victim look helpless and desperate.
"You have no idea how long and how much I've wanted to destroy you since turning me over to the police those three years ago." Freakshow said, looking down at his ghostly nemesis with his mean look.
Danny simply scoffed up at him. "Get in line with all the ghosts who want that exact same thing." He responded
"Yeah. They have a whole club." Sam said sarcastically from behind the clown-faced criminal. "I'm sure they have jackets, too."
Freakshow turned to face her. "And it will be I who gets to do the very thing that ghosts will, for once, be envious of me for." He let out his hysterical and yet evil laugh and went over to the fire to retrieve the sack.
"Look, Freakshow. You have me now. You can do whatever you want with me but let the others go." Danny demanded as the ringmaster opened up the sack.
"Don't worry, they will be freed. I just thought they might want to see you for the last time before I annihilate you." Freakshow said with a grin. "Plus, I can't have them running off, informing the police of my whereabouts and ruining my plans."
Danny glared up at the treacherous man. He should have known that would be his answer as soon as he made the demand.
"My time of vengeance is now at hand, Danny Phantom." Freakshow said, reaching into the sack. "Behold. The means of your destruction." Lydia cautiously stepped back and away from Freakshow again as he finally pulled out the thing that he had been collecting in the sack to present it.
"Roses?" Jazz said, with a skeptical look at the bright red flowers in Freakshow's hand. "How are roses supposed to destroy my little brother?" The twenty-year-old college girl looked over in the next cage-car where Tucker and Sam were. Tucker looked just as confused as she and her parents were and even seemed amused at the thought of flowers being the means of his ghostly friends destruction. But for some reason, Sam's expression wasn't nearly the same. It fact, she looked quite fearful.
Sam's mouth hung slightly open as she stared petrified at the red flowers. "Tucker?" She asked her geek friend, nervously. "Don't those look familiar to you?"
After she finished saying this, Tucker looked back at the flowers. As he squinted for a better look, he noticed them start to emit a red vapor. He scratched his head in thought and said, "now that I think of it, the blood-stained color seems to…" he stopped in mid-sentence and backtracked. "B-b-bl…blood?" He stuttered as it hit him as well what Sam was feeling. "Those aren't roses. They're…"
"Blood Blossoms." Danny finished for him, with the same fear that his friends were feeling in his own voice.
The Fentons didn't know what Blood Blossoms were, but from the tones of the kids' voices and the sound of the name, they knew that it couldn't be good at all for Danny.
Freakshow looked back and forth between the bound ghost-boy and his two companions with a very broad grin. "Ah. So you're familiar with them." Then, he looked at the confused faces of Danny's sister and parents. "But just for the enlightenment of those who don't know about it, allow me to explain." He walked over to the two cage-cars as if stepping in front of a grand audience for a performance and cleared his throat. "Blood Blossom was used around the 1600's during the Salem Witch Trials. It's very ancient and very rare nowadays. You can imagine what it took for me and Lydia to find enough in order to use them the way the Salem villagers…"
"Oh, skip the history lesson and get to the point." Mr. Fenton said, impatiently and angrily.
"Very well." Freakshow said with a shrug. Then after a dramatic pause he stated, "It's an anti-ghost remedy." He paused again as the ghost-hunting family looked at him with faces of growing anxiety in realizing what the kids were so afraid of. "And if used properly," Freakshow continued after drinking in the families stunned expressions, "it can not only repel and weaken any ghost, but it can also destroy them."
"Tell me about it." Tucker put in, and he turned to face Danny's parents who were already worried. "The last time we encountered that stuff, Vlad had introduced Danny to it and it nearly killed him."
"And I'll be sure it finishes the job this time." Freakshow said, looking back at Danny with his evil smile. Danny felt his heart pounding as Freakshow slowly started walking back over to him with the Blood Blossoms in his hand.
"You keep that floral abomination away from my boy!" Maddie called out from behind the ringmaster, grabbing the bars of her prison. But the clown-faced ringmaster ignored her demand and bent down, moving the blood-colored flowers towards her youngest child.
Danny cringed, turning his head away from the red substance shutting his eyes tight, but Freakshow grabbed him by his thick white hair and forced his face into the vapor that the Blood Blossoms gave off. The boy cried out as the touch of the vapor burned him and he instantly felt himself grow weaker.
It was only about a second or two before Freakshow let go of him and allowed him to withdraw from the Blood Blossoms, but the effects those few seconds he had in contact with them were astronomical. Danny's breathing suddenly got heavier and he looked up at Freakshow who was grinning proudly down at the destructive essence in his hands. "Remarkable. If simply touching the vapor causes you that much grief, I can't wait to see the effects the full circle will have."
Letting out an evil laugh, Freakshow reached into the bag for more of the blossoms and one-by-one started dropping them around Danny. As each Blood Blossom fell to the ground, forming the intended circle arrangement, Danny felt the familiar tingle being in close proximity to the blossoms gave him. His family and friends started to plea as the criminal made his way around teenage ghost, letting the blossoms fall into place, but they could do nothing to stop him from doing it.
Freakshow was now halfway around Danny and the boy shut his eyes again tight. His muscles tensed up as he tried to resist the tingling as it became worse to the point where it started to hurt.
The ringmaster eventually made the rest of the way around him and completed the deadly circle. As soon as the last blossom was in place, the rate the already climbing pain increased so suddenly, and Danny started crying out again.
He may have come across this substance before, but it had been long ago and he didn't think he ever remembered it hurting this much. He started to shout even louder as the pain just continued to build and infest every bit of his body, millions of tiny and burning stings worked together to cause the boy excessive and prolonged torture.
Before learning his secret identity, his parents use to always threaten to "tear him apart molecule-by-molecule." This must have been what it actually felt like.
"Yes, Phantom. Scream." Freakshow said with another laugh. "It makes watching your demise that much sweeter." Lydia watched from a distance, smiling as her master began drinking in his vengeance.
Danny felt himself growing steadily weaker as the red flowers slowly and painfully drained him of his physical as well as ghostly energy. He desperately tried to go intangible again and escape this torment, but the spectral-cuffs were already preventing him from using his powers and the agony was so overwhelming he just couldn't focus on anything put the severe pain that would not lift.
He heard his loved ones calling out for him and begging Freakshow to stop, but the evil criminal only let out his hysterical cackle.
Jazz hid her face in her hands as her mother embraced her. Jack put his arms around both his wife and daughter, closing his eyes tight. He could no longer bear to watch his son suffer so while he could do nothing but sit and listen to his heart-piercing cries.
"No." Jazz whimpered in her mother's arms, as her little brother's painful cries continued to increase and become filled with heart-filled suffering.
Sam's eyes started to swell up in tears and she covered her face, not wanting to believe that this was happening. "Please, make it stop." She begged, started to weep.
Tucker just stood there behind the bars of his cage in shocked silence, watching his best friend fade. He slid down to his knees and covered his ears in an attempt to block out the distressing cries of agony, but nothing he did could stop him from being fully aware of what was happening only a few yards away.
Danny's agonizing cries now started to become weaker as the torture he was going through ate away at him from the inside out. His head hung down as the last of his strength was starting to diminish. Any minute now he was probably going to pass out from the pain the Blood Blossoms were inflicting on him and they would simply continue on and finish their job in destroying him.
"Somebody…please." Danny managed to plead weakly and through gasped breaths. "Help me."
Freakshow threw his head back in laughter again. "That's right. Beg. You're hero days are over." The evil ringmaster bent down and pulled the poor boy's chin up, forcing him to look into his face, "And there's nothing anyone can do to make me stop watching you die." The helpless boy let out a moan of agony as the ringmaster let his head hang back down.
Just after Freakshow straightened up again, grinning, a young and defiant voice spoke from an unknown location. "Then how about if I make someone else make you." Freakshow spun around and so did his caged prisoners to see a young, teenage girl with long black hair and a blue, hooded, double-sleeved shirt, standing beside the train, just a short distance away.
Freakshow could have sworn that no one was there before.
Even though Lydia almost instantly recognized the girl from the cave, she was just as confused as her circus master was in how the human girl could have just appeared out of nowhere.
"Where did you come from?" Freakshow asked the girl, looking around, perplexed. For he saw no place where she could have just jumped out of hiding. "How did you find this place?"
The girl just ignored his questions and pointed at him, shouting, "Sick 'em, Wulf!"
At her command, a monstrous, dog-like ghost, suddenly became visible on top of the train and with a howl, he leaped right at Freakshow.
Well, this part alone turned out to be a bit longer than I thought, but I think a grand entrance for our heroine and her canine friend was a great way to end a chapter. I hope you enjoyed this chapter because as soon as I was done with it, I was quite excited to get it up. Chapter nine is on the way.