Danny reached his hand toward the front door and placed a key in the lock. The feeling of re-entering his home was weird but satisfying. He could hear the tumblers working as he pushed the door open. He took the key out and held it in his hand as he walked in.
The boy had only a fraction of a moment to take in his dwelling. A pair of hands seemed to slam the door shut and knock Danny against it.
XxXxXxXxX
Their attention drawn toward the noise, Jack and Maddie hurried to the door and knocked on it.
"Danny!"
"Danny! Are you all right?"
XxXxXxXxX
As his parents continued their worried protestations, the boy shook his head and saw the face of his aggressor. It was Spectra. The top half of her was human, while her ghostly bottom half wrapped around Danny's body like an anaconda. Her left hand bolted the door, and the right clamped over his mouth.
"You thought you were so clever with that tape recorder stunt, didn't you? 'Oh, look at me. I busted you.' It doesn't matter. I can find another identity. I can find another way to get to you and your classmates." As she spoke, Danny balled his hand into a fist, which gave off a bright green glow. You're not gonna be rid of me so easily."
He brought his fist up and connected with her face. He took a few steps forward, shifting into ghost mode. "Then I guess we have to make it hard."
Spectra flipped backwards, becoming a full floating ghost. She charged at Danny, who, an annoyed expression on his face, floated upward through the ceiling.
With a look of fanatical determination, Spectra phased through the ceiling.
XxXxXxXxX
The two adults stood at the door. Maddie frantically knocked on it, while Jack worked the knob.
"We have to get inside. Something's happening to Danny, I know it!"
"All the keys are inside."
The woman grunted. "Well, can't we take the door off its hinges?"
"They're on the inside, too."
Another knock on the door from the frustrated matriarch. "Danny…", she whimpered.
XxXxXxXxX
Spectra found herself in a bedroom. There were pictures of space shuttles on the walls. The bed looked like it had been slept in…and still was. The covers looked to hide a giant mass.
She smiled as she approached the bed. "Oh, shame on you for making this so easy." Spectra leapt on the pile, raining blows upon it and laughing all the way. After a while, the mass of covers felt soft. Too soft. She threw back the covers to reveal…pillows.
A low growl emanated from her throat. Meanwhile, another sound was developing in the room. It sounded like laughter. From the wall.
Spectra didn't even turn around. She knew who it was. The laughter drew closer. Danny appeared from out of thin air, still laughing. She lunged at him and slashed with her claws.
The two of them flew through the walls of the top floor. Spectra set up another punch, but Danny dodged it and, again, became invisible.
The female entity growled as she flew, looking for her target.
XxXxXxXxX
Maddie wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at her husband. "Jack! What about the windows?"
"But the security system's armed. There's no way anyone could get in."
"Do you still have that old Club?"
"Yeah." He jerked a thumb toward the van. "It's under the driver's seat."
"Use that to prop the window open."
"But what about the--"
"Just do it…and prepare to toss me."
"Come again?"
"Through the window."
Jack loved and trusted his wife, which made what she was suggesting that much more questionable to him. He glanced at her as he propped the Club in the window, holding it open.
'You have to the count of five to close this window or else. Five…Four…'
Jack hefted his nimble spouse through the window. ('Three…') She dove as the window tried to close ('Two…'), the Club stopping it from clamping down on her. ('One.')
XxXxXxXxX
Maddie stood to her feet and glanced at the front door. The keys were right in front of it. She opened the door. Jack eagerly hurried inside.
The woman put a hand to her mouth. "Danny?"
XxXxXxXxX
"Danny?"
The boy could hear his mother's cry all the way in the bathroom. He stood in the shower, the curtains drawn. Given how enraged Spectra was currently, he didn't want to attack without a good solid plan. A sly expression came over him. He was ready to make his move…
Spectra flew by that very room. She peered in. It looked like any other bathroom. Any other empty bathroom. She grunted and flew past.
She continued down the hallway, unaware of the presence behind her.
"Penelope is a very pretty name." The fire in her eyes is all too obvious. "Too bad it's wasted on a hag like you."
Spectra roared as she flew at Danny. He dodged her like a veteran toreador. She turned around and glowered at the boy. If looks could kill, there would be no Fenton children left.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're cute when you're angry?"
The look on the entity's face softened. "Why, no." She always loved getting complimented on her beauty.
"Good. Don't want anyone spreading false rumors."
Another charge, another dodge. Danny flew through the floor, Spectra in hot pursuit.
About a second later, Maddie hurried up the stairs. She looked around and let out a defeated sigh.
"What's wrong?"
"I was sure I heard something up here. I'll check up here. You look down there."
"Got it!", Jack eagerly replied.
XxXxXxXxX
The lab hadn't changed too much since Danny's incarceration. His parents kept busy as ever, even though their hearts weren't quite in it as they were.
On a table were some of their inventions: the Fenton Fisher, the Fenton Thermos, the Fenton Peeler…so, maybe, there was a bit of a narcissism motif in the naming of the devices.
Danny had known about the latter creation; its ability to strip away a ghost's layers. He shuddered at the gruesome implications, at least, in terms of its use on him. Its use on other ghosts, however, was not a problem.
Spectra floated down, her hands balled into fists. The boy crouched down from behind a cabinet. He cupped his hands over his mouth. He'd hoped to throw his voice. After all, it couldn't been that hard, right?
"Tell me something." The malevolent one snapped her head around. "Just how long were you planning on maintaining your looks? A hundred years? A thousand years?" She peered around the cabinet. Nothing there. "A million?" She flies toward the source of the voice from the other side of the lab. One had to appreciate the acoustics of this place. "Or maybe 'til it was just you and the cockroaches. There's nothing like family reunions, is there?"
For Spectra, the room seemed to start spinning. "Show yourself, you little punk! What happened to your sister was nothing - you hear me? - nothing compared to what I'm gonna do to you!" She let out a crazy, end-of-her-rope kind of laughter. "You've fucked with the wrong woman!"
A powerful blast embedded itself in her back, threatening to burn its way through her chest. A primal scream erupted from her throat. She collapsed to the floor, just barely holding herself up with her arms.
Danny lowered his glowing hand. "Sorry. I wasn't aware I was dealing with a woman."
Spectra gritted her teeth as she slowly advanced on Danny. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the table of inventions. A mere second went by before she noticed his expression. Just the way the devices looked proved that serious harm could be done with them.
Danny hurried toward the inventions, but Spectra flipped the table, sending them flying. The ghost boy reached back and tried to catch the Peeler, which seemed to move in slow-motion. He grabbed the device just as Spectra grabbed his leg and swung him toward the wall.
He bumped his head against the wall, momentarily having forgotten to phase through it.
Spectra stared daggers at Danny as she walked toward him. His vision was blurry from the knock, but he tried to fire a shot. Nothing.
The witch drew ever closer. Danny shifted back to human form and turned it on again. The armor slowly encased his body, feeling like a metallic set of pajamas. As this was happening, Spectra stood back, shocked at what was happening to her adversary. This may account for why, in a number of animes, the villains don't simply attack the heroes while they are transforming.
When it was over, Danny was bowed on one knee, his head down, and fully suited. He raised his head at the apparition, the being that took away his freedom, his liberties and his sister. His eyes narrowed at her. He could only think of two words to say to Spectra:
"Let's rock."
"So, what, I'm supposed to be scared now that you look like some emaciated 'Transformer' rip-off? Please." Danny aimed the Peeler at Spectra's right hand, which she was waving around to accentuate her point. "You can't hurt me anymore than a feather can knock down a skyscraper…"
The beam from the Peeler, first stripped away the ghostly layer, leaving the hand of the young woman she was pretending to be. That soon was stripped away little by little, leaving the desiccated claw of a very elderly woman. Spectra stared at, then cradled her withered hand. "What did you just do?"
"Gave you a taste of humanity. You want to pretend to be human? Then you get to age just like humans. Then, you can find out what it means to lose those around you."
Spectra slowly advanced on Danny. "You shouldn't worry about me losing anything." He took aim once again. "You're the one who should…" The beam shot at her left arm, turning it into a young woman's, then a liver-spotted mass of saggy flesh. Spectra felt the appendage fall to her side. She tried to move it, but it was frail. Fragile. Useless.
The woman flew toward Danny in a blind fury. The boy simply raised the Peeler and aimed it at her lower half.
Her ghostly tail split in half, forming a pair of model's legs that, with each second, grew more and more decrepit. The weight of her upper half was greater than her legs could carry. She heard a distinct cracking sound. She looked down and saw that her legs were buckling. A loud crack came from both legs. Her ghost body collapsed on her weak appendages, shattering them. Spectra let out a loud, long and painful scream.
Danny threatened to smirk as he regarded his enemy. "That's for my sister, and this…", he said, aiming at her midsection. "…is for my parents." The stomach formed into an impressive shape but for a moment, before being riddled with wrinkles and stretch marks. Higher up on her body, two bumps formed, creating spectacular D-cup breasts…that quickly lost their shapes as well as the fight with gravity, joining what was left of her legs on the floor.
"This is for Tucker." The Peeler picked a new target: her right arm, stripping away its youth. He next aimed at her neck. "This…is for Sam." The youthful stability of the neck was quickly destroyed, giving her head a chance to crush it.
"Danny, can't we talk about th--?"
"You are done talking. This is for the students of Casper High." Danny aimed the Peeler at her mouth. It's lips puckered out into appealing forms before shriveling into a pair of deflated balloons that looked more than a little creepy on her ghostly face.
The boy aimed the device at her head. "And this…well, this is also for my sister." The beam stripped away the ghost head, revealing a beautiful red head (though, the boy briefly thought, it may be better that she didn't use her beauty for any purposes; they'd most likely be evil ones). It quickly devolved into a much less attractive one.
Danny stared at the ectoplasmic pile on the floor of the lab. As far as he was concerned, he'd have been content to leave Spectra like this, as a warning to any other ghosts who would dare step over the line as she did.
"Danny…"
He didn't even turn around to face her. She could rasp all she wanted. It wasn't going to do her a bit of good.
"You…wouldn't…leave me…like this…would you?" It clearly pained Spectra to even speak, such was the damage to her body.
The boy walked over to the Fenton Portal and placed a thumb on the ID panel. The doors whooshed open. "The Danny Fenton that you sent to juvenile hall probably wouldn't have, but the Danny Fenton that was recently released from juvenile hall? The Danny Fenton who lost his older sister and will never get her back? It is possible."
"Danny…I'm sorry." Spectra looked like she was crying.
"Sorry you got caught, not about committing the actual crime. I hate criminals like that. You know, I bet that in the nanosecond between seeing the beam and getting vaporized, Jazz begged for her life, too", Danny said as he grabbed the Thermos from the floor near the portal. "A quick death is a privilege, one you've done absolutely nothing to earn." He looked down at Spectra and sneered. He put the cylinder down and picked up the Peeler. Spectra forced herself to raise her eyebrows.
"Well, maybe one more for the road."
"Danny!"
Jazz's spirit flew through the entrance of the portal. She tried to take Danny by the arm, but her hand passed through him.
"Danny, don't do it. Don't hurt her, anymore. Can't you she that this is exactly what she wants?" The boy had the Peeler trained on Spectra, waiting to turn it on.
"This…is what…I want?" Spectra tried mightily to motion to the wrinkled mass of her body.
"She wants you to be just like her: manipulative, cruel, vindictive. You aren't her. You don't have to be her."
Danny's Peeler-holding arm was shaking. He lowered the arm and the device slipped from his hand.
Without a second thought, Danny shifted into his ghost form and hugged his sister tightly. "Oh, Jazz!"
He cried into her shoulder while she stroked his back and the back of his head. "There, there. It's all right."
Danny pulled away from her and stared into her eyes. "I miss you so much." He again buried his head into her. "It hurts missing you."
The hand that was stroking him reached behind his back and transmogrified into a fist holding a carving knife. "Don't worry, Danny." She raised the knife. "You'll never hurt again."
Just as she lowered it, a hook embedded itself into her wrist. The line attached to the hook grew taut. Jazz could feel her arm being pulled. With a sharp tug, the hook ripped her arm right out of its socket.
Jazz's screaming snapped Danny out of his funk. He turned around and saw a figure standing before the portal. It was Jazz holding the Fenton Fisher. Danny cocked an eyebrow; if Jazz is there, then who is this?
The figure that was once Jazz continued to scream. It sank to its knees and its screaming deepened, sounding more and more male. The long hair on fake Jazz receded to a somewhat neater - and distinctly unfeminine - style. A mustache grew under the figure's now stubby nose.
The body collapsed to the floor. It looked up at Spectra. She tried to open her mouth in shock.
"Bertrand! Why…?"
"Why? Why?! Two weeks and three days."
"Wh-what?"
"Two weeks and three days. That's how long I was trapped in that Thermos. No one to talk to. My legs cramping up. And who released me? Who was it that came to my rescue?" He put a female hand to his face. "Oh, yes, that's right - nobody! That's who let me out." He turned to Danny. "When someone gets a little power, they forget who their real friends are. You know what I mean?"
Danny shook his head. "Wait, it was you this whole time?"
"Correct, Sherlock. I wanted to get back at Spectra for abandoning me. Unfortunately, I needed you."
XxXxXxXxX
"I came to you that night. I was hoping you'd be bitter enough to want a little payback. Thankfully, I was right."
"Jazz" grabbed a tape recorder and taped it to the bottom of Spectra's chair. She pressed the 'record' button and disappeared through the floor just as Spectra walked in the room.
"It took a while to get something usable out of her, but take it from me: she's always been in love with the sound of her own voice. It was bound to come out."
"…you're just some punk kid with shitty grades, loony parents and a dead sister!"
"I had to be there for the trial. The thought of Spectra's goose getting cooked is what made those two and a half weeks even slightly bearable."
Danny, having heard the verdict, ran and hugged his parents. He saw people filing out of the door. As they swung in and out, he saw Jazz floating. She gave him the signal - tugging her ear - and disappeared. The boy smiled through his tears.
XxXxXxXxX
"Sappy? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely."
Spectra scowled as best as she could. "If I could…move…"
"Yes, but you can't." Bertrand turned around. "And as for you…" He was staring right into the barrel of the Fenton Thermos.
"It's about time you two got back together." Danny positioned the Thermos in such a way that Spectra and Bertrand could be sucked in at once. The two of them screamed as they were sucked inside. Danny placed the cap on the Thermos and set it aside.
He looked to Jazz and approached her cautiously. "Jazz? It is you, isn't it?"
"Danny, what's happened to you?" She ran a hand through his snow white hair. "What's with this suit and your hair? I told Mom and Dad that this ghost nonsense was dangerous, but do they listen?"
Whatever else Jazz felt like saying died in her throat; the air was practically squeezed out of her by her younger brother. His tears began afresh as he continued hugging. "It is you", he said, barely above a whisper.
She smiled and returned the hug. "I love you, Danny."
"Danny!"
The siblings broke apart and looked toward the door.
"Oh, man. Mom and Dad. I nearly forgot about them. Jazz, you have to go."
"But, Danny--"
Danny motioned to the both of them. "I don't think they'd be ready to see either of us like this."
"Good point." She kissed his cheek. "I'll see you soon."
"Bye, Jazz." The ghost flew into the portal. Danny transformed back into his human form as Jack and Maddie hurried down the stairs.
"Danny. What happened? The door locked on us. We heard screaming. Are you all right?"
The boy exhaled. "Mom, Dad. I've had a long day. Can I please get some rest?"
"Well, sure, son." Danny walked toward the stairs. "Maybe then, you can explain what happened." Jack's words stung the boy. Trying to explain what had happened would be a daunting task, and editing it for parental discretion was no picnic, either.
