Oak Leaf Ninja: No, you're not.
greekghostgirl: You're too kind!
"Hmm," Jazz frowned in concentration as she examined the golden feline, "You say that Vlad dropped this?"
"We think so, yeah," Danny replied, leaning back in his chair, "Why? You find anything out about it?"
With a sigh, Jazz shook her head.
"All I can tell you is that it's gold, it's shaped like a cat, and it has a red gemstone for an eye. That's it."
"So," Tucker said, looking up from the game on his PDA, "We don't know what it's for?"
"Or why Vlad had it in the first place," Danny sighed, ruffling his hair.
"Does it really matter?" Jazz shrugged, "So he's got a golden cat, so what? He could have just bought this at some knick-knack shop in the Ghost Zone."
"Yeah," her brother snorted, "Right. If that's true, then I've got the Brooklyn Bridge to sell on eBay."
"Well," the red-head replied, picking up the statue, "I don't know what else- Hold on a minute."
"You found something?" Danny sat up a bit straighter at his sister's curious tone.
"Symbols," she muttered, examining the scribbles underneath the cat's base, "There's some sort of weird writing under here."
Both Danny and Tucker went in for a closer look at the strange hieroglyphics.
"What do you think they mean?" Tucker asked, peering over his friend's shoulder.
"Not sure," the boy replied, "You Jazz?"
The girl slowly shook her head as she continued to stare at the curious item.
"You know," she finally said, "The library might have some information that could help us decode this. We should go over there before it closes."
"And by 'we,'" Danny said, glancing at her, "You mean 'you,' right?"
Jazz scowled at her brother for several minutes before letting out an exhausted sigh.
"Fine," she grumbled, "I'll go to the library and see what books they've got to help us. But, first…"
She took a black cell phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. She pressed a few buttons before a flash came from the device.
"Needed a picture of the writing," Jazz explained, putting the phone away, "I should be back in a few hours."
"See ya', " Tucker waved as the girl picked up her backpack and walked out the door.
"So," Danny asked, relaxing in his chair again, "What do you think it means?"
"I think," his friend replied, going back to his game, "It's a curse."
"A what?" the halfa's eyebrows shot up at the geek's suggestion.
"You know," Tucker shrugged, "An ancient evil curse like in the movies. Somebody breaks into a sacred place, sees a warning in an ancient language, ignores it, steals something, and BOOM! he's cursed!"
"Oh, come on, Tucker," Danny chuckled, picking up the cat, "This is the real world. Not some crappy fanfiction that's being written by a bored college student with way too much time on her hands. Ancient evil curses aren't real. Or if they are, they're not as bad as you make them out."
"You'll be singing a different tune after you turn orange and have purple spots all over your face."
"But, I'm not the one who stole it, remember? We found it with Vlad."
Before the geek could argue back, a series of screams were heard from outside of the house. Both boys ran to the windows to see what the matter was. What they saw was a heap of twisted and severely damaged vehicles. A large figure was standing on top of the pile, throwing the mutilated metal at various buildings. Though the teenagers couldn't see his face, they immediately knew exactly who their foe was just by looking at the flaming hair.
"Oh, shit!" Tucker squealed, "It's your pathological blood-thirsty homicidal maniac self!"
Danny made no reply, but continued to stare at his worst nightmare, mouth and eyes wide open.
"How in the hell-?" he started, but couldn't finish, "Oh, never mind!"
Quickly, the ghost boy sprinted out of the house while uttering his famous phrase.
"I'm going ghost!"
Two white rings circled his waist and traveled in opposite directions as Fenton became Phantom. He had glanced at the statue he had forgotten he was still holding, but tossed it back into the house before phasing through the walls.
"Oh, Danny," the malicious demon cackled, tossing a Porsche at a random shopping mall, "Where are you?"
He was answered by an attempted punch from behind, but sensing the attack, Dan had shifted the molecules in his chest, allowing his younger counterpart to fall face-first through the hole.
"There you are," the elder Phantom sneered, as the boy got back up, "I've been thinking about the perfect revenge against you for shutting me up in a soup container."
"You should have stayed there!" Danny shouted, facing his enemy, "Cause I'm about to put you back in!"
"I would love to see you try," Dan smirked before unleashing his Ghostly Wail at the poor boy.
Though Danny should have really seen that coming, he was nevertheless, completely caught off guard and found himself sailing into the air. He phased through the buildings in his way, but landed rather painfully on the ground. Dan, who had been following the halfa from above, landed near him as Danny groaned, shuffling himself to his knees.
"You know how I'm going to kill you?" his menace asked, watching in amusement at the hybrid's furious expression, "I'm going to make it nice and slow so that you'll feel every ounce of pain as long as possible."
"Oh, please," Danny snorted, wiping the blood from his cut lip, "You think I'm scared of you?"
"If you're not now," Dan replied, narrowing his crimson eyes, "You will be soon enough."
The younger Phantom flew up as the elder one charged at him, but his escape was short-lived. Dan had caught him rodeo-style with an ecto-rope he had made, forcing the teen back down.
"Wait a second," Danny scowled, "If you kill me, then what's going to happen to you?"
"If there is one good thing that I must say about you ruining my time line," the ghost growled, "Is that you ruined it while I was still in the past. Apparently, that makes me exist out of time. So, you see, Danny, it doesn't matter if you live or die. I'll still exist. And after I'm finished with you, I'll show the entire world what my existence can do."
Danny flinched as Dan raised his fist to deliver a blow, but a blast of plasmic slime caught him by surprise, forcing him to release his hold on the boy. Danny turned his head to see who his rescuer was just as Tucker bent down to untie him.
"What the hell are you doing here?" the hybrid cried frantically, "Not that I don't appreciate being saved, but you're going to get killed if you stay here!"
"You got that right," Dan growled from behind.
Danny quickly took hold of his friend and rapidly flew into the sky just as the spook shot an electric ecto-beam in the geek's direction.
"We've got you out of here," Danny said, looking behind him.
"What?" Tucker frowned, "And leave you to deal with your jerky self all by yourself? Not a chance!"
"Tucker!" the exasperated hybrid pleaded, "I can't let you do that! You'll get killed!"
"So will you if you insist on going at this alone!" his friend argued back.
"Look," Danny sighed, landing in a nearby park, "If you want to help, then go find Sam and Jazz. Tell them what's going on, and get them out of here!"
"Whatut you?"
The teen had no time to reply as he saw his ultimate enemy flying towards them.
"Get out of here!" Danny shouted, flying up to meet the demon.
Reluctantly, Tucker ran, sending an urgent text message to both Sam and Jazz, warning them of the danger.
"You can run all you like, Danny," Dan said, coming closer to his prey, "But you'll never escape your fate!"
He grabbed the boy by the ankle, spun around a few times, and released him again, sending the teen spiraling out of control to the nearest building, which happened to be Fenton Works. Danny crash-landed inside the Fenton Op Center and involuntarily morphed back to his human form. Moaning, Danny sat up, only yanked off the ground by his collar and tossed into the floor below, creating a new hole.
"There's got to be something," he groaned, transforming back into his ghost form, "If I can get to the basement, I might be able to find something to help me."
He phased through the floor just as Dan reached for his collar again. With a growl, he followed the boy and caught him with his torso sticking out of the kitchen floor.
"Oh, no you don't," he sneered, grabbing his puny self and yanking him up, "Don't even try to think about it. It won't work."
Desperately, Danny tried to pry the older spook's fingers from his jumpsuit collar, but that only resulted in a malicious chuckle.
"Oh," Dan smirked, "You want me to put you down? Well, why didn't you just say so?"
With a grunt, the demon flung Danny on the opposite side of the room, knocking over the kitchen table in the process. Danny let out a small whimper as he landed and changed forms once again, unaware of the golden cat that had landed on his lap, staring at the violent spook with its glowing eye.
"I'm starting to get weary of our cat-and-mouse game," Dan said casually, walking slowly up to the injured teen, "I think it's time to end this once and for all, don't you?"
Without waiting for an answer, the phantom grabbed the hybrid's neck and pinned him to the wall.
"Good-bye, Danny," he smirked, tightening his fingers around the child's neck, "And good riddance."
Danny gasped and choked as he kicked as hard as he could at his would-be killer, but only in vain. His attempts to escape were growing weaker and weaker with every kick as the ghost's malicious smirk became wider and wider. Spots began to dance in front of Danny's eyes, signaling the arrival of his death. But, just as he was about to give up, a shout of surprise caught his attention, followed by the immediate release of his neck.
Massaging his neck, Danny coughed and gasped, filling his burning lungs with the oxygen they so desperately needed. The surprised cry continued, but seemed to change from human to a more animal-like cry. The hybrid looked around and noticed the statue's glowing eye emitting a red beam. His glance followed the beam's target, causing the boy to shout in surprise himself.
"Danny!" Tucker shouted, distracting the teen's attention for a moment, "Danny, I saw you crash here. Are you-"
Tucker stopped speaking suddenly as he watched with a mixture of horror and awe at the spectacle in front of him. It was Dan who had been the mute feline's target, but he appeared to be shrinking. In fact, he was shrinking! His vertical height wasn't the only thing that was affected, though. His claws, hair, and canines grew longer as his pointy ears moved to the top of his head. His animal-like shriek became more high-pitched as he crouched on all fours with a tail sprouting from behind.
Tucker and Danny both stared, mouth agape, at Dan's transformation. At long last, it was complete, but there was no Dan. At least, there was no bipedal Dan. The now-cat-ghost stared with wide eyes at his new paws, the lower part of the two front legs black with the upper part white, leaving the lower part of the back legs white and the upper part black. His back was completely white, but his front was a mixture of white and black with the white logo displayed proudly on his chest. His face was completely white with the exception of a pink nose and bright, red eyes. The eyes stared at the black tail coming from behind him.
"Mreow?" he asked, completely confused.
Tucker and Danny stared at their new pet before staring at the cause of it. The ruby was no longer glowing. It sat in the golden feline's eye socket, staring ahead as if nothing had happened. Its owner held its head just as proudly as before, oblivious to the chaos it had just created.
"See?" Tucker shouted, pointing at the statue, "I told you it was cursed!"