Look, everybody, it's the climax! And Vlad!
Chapter 7: Combat
I don't own Danny Phantom.
The three halfas arrived at the town park to find Cyclone firing massive red blasts at Aster with a vicious look on his face. Despite the amulet that allowed him to absorb the blasts without incurring physical harm, the hippie was beginning to look worn out and tired. Danny quickly primed a massive ball of ectoenergy and fired it at Cyclone's back, causing the ghost to do a somersault in midair and drop altitude. He rallied quickly and shot back up to the halfas' level, a wicked sneer plastered on his face and two balls of ectoplasm in his hands.
"Well, well, the halfas... Can't say I didn't expect you." His sneer widened. "I'm surprised it took you this long to figure things out, though. Oh well, your loss, my gain!" He released the ectoplasm in his hands in an arc, hitting all three halfas, who yelped in pain. Cyclone let out a deep chuckle that ended in a startled gasp as Aster, slightly recovered, rammed into his back.
"Leave 'em alone, pal! No one messes with my friends!"
Cyclone whipped around and caught Aster by the throat.
"You told them," he spat. "So much for your promise. And that means I can fulfill our part of the bargain even more." He sent an ectoblast-enhanced fist into Aster's stomach.
"He didn't tell us!" Dani shouted as her friend doubled over in pain. "We heard about you from someone else." Cyclone's grip tightened on Aster's neck as he turned around slowly.
"What?!" he spat. "Who?"
"Not telling, Psycho!" Danny and his duplicate flew at Cyclone simultaneously, as Lancer maneuvered himself to where he expected Cyclone to move to and Dani rushed to fly Aster to safety. Cyclone slammed into Lancer, who caught him up in a bear hug and started squeezing, only to find himself with empty arms and a cackling ghost twenty feet above him. He primed himself for a burst of speed upwards but was knocked to the ground by another massive scarlet blast from the grey ghost.
As he lay dazed in the snow, he watched Dani reenter the fight roaring in anger. Cyclone grabbed her outstretched arm and used her momentum to knock both her and Danny out of the air as well. He descended slowly after them and the three halfas grimly picked themselves up and readied their stances for a ground battle. Aster had mercifully disappeared.
The blue robed ghost alighted and grinned his pointed yellow grin while his clothing blew around him enhancing the air of menace.
"Is that the best you three can do?" he leered. "Come on and fight me like the ghosts you are!"
"We're not ghosts!" the two teens yelled as all three halfas fired blasts at Cyclone, who merely raised an ectodome and laughed. He condensed the dome into a ball of energy and threw it at Dani and Danny, sending them skidding into a cluster of trees. Lancer used the momentary distraction to send half a snowdrift telekinetically hurtling at Cyclone, effectively pinning the ghost to the ground for just long enough for Lancer to get up and continue the job.
"What is Plasmius planning?" he asked the ghost angrily. "I know he's up to something. Tell me."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Cyclone answered. "I've never even heard of a Plasmius." Lancer raised Cyclone's body slightly and slammed him into the snow and ice again, eyes blazing blue.
"Tell me," he growled, "or I'll blast you into the ground." Cyclone writhed in his grasp.
"I'm telling the truth! Get off me!" He lashed out with his legs and caught Lancer in the stomach. Cyclone rose up only to find that a green cord had appeared out of nowhere and bound his arms to his sides. There was a sharp tug on the rope and the ghost found himself back on the ground, a muscled teen standing over him with a foot on his chest.
"You've never heard of Plasmius?" Danny asked, putting more weight on his foot. "Blue skin, red eyes, spiky hair, white cape? Fruitloop?"
"Never." Danny pressed harder on Cyclone's chest, causing him to wince in pain.
"You're not in league with him?" Cyclone shook his head. Lancer spoke from several feet behind Danny, where he'd had a chance to think things through a little further.
"His plan's too self-serving for Vlad to want a part in it. He's working alone." Danny turned to face the former teacher, the captive ghost momentarily forgotten.
"Then what's Vlad getting at?"
"I don't know," Lancer answered, "but he's probably using this ghost's scheme anyway." He moved to uncap his Thermos just as Danny felt a vice grip on his ankle and slammed into the ground face first. Cyclone flew up into the air again, Lancer following, vaguely noticing that Dani had disappeared from the scene of the fight. He and Danny quickly found themselves locked in an exchange of ectoblasts and witty banter again and Lancer didn't even have time to think about where his pseudo-adoptive daughter had gone.
Dani reappeared five minutes later with a search group, this one grudgingly led by a thin, middle-aged man with blue skin. Danny noticed their appearance and shouted over to Lancer.
"Keep him busy, Will!" Lancer nodded and summoned two duplicates without losing the momentum of his blasts. Danny gave him a nod in return and flew down to the group of humans. He managed to communicate the urgency of the situation to them, namely that they really shouldn't be there at the moment, and sent them back out to find the other search groups and tell them the ghost had been found. Then he and Dani rejoined the aerial battle, worried slightly that Cyclone wasn't weakening as quickly as most ghosts they fought.
The last human to leave the park was Mr. Spears, who'd decided that the present moment wouldn't be a good time to ask Danny why he suddenly had a female twin. He'd made it to the gates when he noticed two unfamiliar blurs flash by overhead and with only a brief thought of Ghosts! he turned and ran back towards the clearing. He needed to warn Danny.
When he came back into view of the battle, he saw the two new ghosts hovering anxiously at the tree line and bickering, the fight with Cyclone continuing on the opposite side of the clearing. Spears didn't think the newcomers looked very harmful, but he'd soon learned upon arriving in Amity Park that with ghosts looks could be quite deceiving.
"Danny!" he shouted. "Spirit!" Both ghosts, their duplicates, and Danny's "twin," snapped their heads around at the sudden noise and Cyclone threw out another arc of ectoplasm, sending them hurtling backwards and eliminating the copies.
"Robert!" Spirit shouted. "Get out of here now! What do you think you're doing?!" Spears blinked.
"Robert?" he muttered, confused as to how Spirit knew his name. "Robert?"
"I'd do what Will says," said a low, deep voice behind the teacher. Spears jumped and vanished, but a pale greyish-purple hand still grabbed him and spun him around. The teacher found himself looking straight into a pair of bright green eyes hidden behind an old-fashioned pair of spectacles and a fringe of black hair.
"You're just going to get in the way here. Go!" Spears gulped and ran. As he rounded the first corner of the path, he thought he heard another voice whine, "I ain't gonna follow him, man. You do it."
---
When Dani had flown a pained Aster away from the scene of the battle, she'd sent him to the GEIST office to fetch the Ghost Writer, operating on the somewhat misguided principle that the more people there were fighting, the quicker the fight would be over. Aster had tried to point out, between gasps, that maybe that wasn't such a good idea, but Dani threatened to pull out of the New Year's pranks they'd planned if he didn't obey her.
He'd arrived at GEIST to find the Ghost Writer attempting to separate Cathy and another woman, who he suspected was Lancer's secretary. They appeared to be in a heated argument about who knew Will Spirit best. Aster had come in through the wall, thought for a moment, then did the only logical thing that came to mind and phased the secretary into the next office. He had returned to GEIST a moment later to find Writer restraining Cathy and trying to calm her down. Aster had pitched in, explaining the situation once she was acting rationally again. Then he had grabbed the Ghost Writer and left the building before either of them could really protest.
He and Writer argued all the way to the park about whether they should take part in the battle at all, since neither had any useful powers to speak of, or whether they should stay on the sidelines and help out only if and when they were needed. The argument continued once they arrived at the battle scene, since they noted that none of the halfas seemed to be tiring very quickly. Then Spears had shouted and they'd silently agreed that he, at least, shouldn't be there. Writer had sent him on his way then rejoined Aster in the air, forming an unspoken bond of anxiety with him.
---
Meanwhile, Cyclone was finally starting to wear down. Unfortunately, the five figures fighting him were beginning to as well, and the two ghosts hovering nervously on the side struck up their argument again. Danny was beginning to suspect that they would have to resort to their ultimate backup plan. Finally, after a particularly nasty round of ectoblasts from Cyclone, he gave in.
"You know, Cyclone, it's been a real scream fighting with you, but I think it's time we finished this." He winked at Dani, floating in the air beside him. Then they opened their mouths simultaneously and let out their Ghostly Wails. As the combined blasts hit the blue-clad ghost his form began to blur and minute particles began to slough off him. Cyclone began screaming soon afterwards, more in rage than pain.
Finally, the two teen halfas were too spent to continue Wailing and Lancer, who'd fallen back out of range, returned and caught the ghost in the beam of the Fenton Thermos. Cyclone gave a final shriek of anger as he was pulled into the container. A cloud of the shimmering particles was left behind. The halfas and the two ghostly onlookers watched as it seemed to condense and pulsate slightly. Then all of a sudden there was a quiet pop and everyone was knocked out of the air.
---
Vlad had been watching the progressive contamination of Amity Park with interest, even though it told him little that he didn't already know about the natures of ghosts and of the people of Amity Park. He knew that his personal involvement there wouldn't help matters, since he would also be susceptible to the ectoplasm and didn't entirely trust himself not to regress to his obsessions with Maddie and Jack. He'd promised himself, though, that if things went wrong and no one had realized that Cyclone was behind the disturbances by today, the last day before the halfas crossed dangerous limits into ghosthood, he would go to Amity Park and finish the fight himself. Team Phantom seemed to be right on track without him, though, so Vlad wasn't worried.
It did amuse him to see that two incredibly weak ghosts seemed to have joined the crew, including the hippie ghost Vlad had spoken to near the middle of his campaign and who had seen straight through Vlad's several attempts to win him over, while pretending to be completely clueless about politics. Vlad had left the ghost's lair after realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with him.
The television Vlad had left tuned to Amity Park's local station switched suddenly from monotonous soap opera to news broadcast. An overly chipper female voice began speaking.
"We interrupt this program to bring you two breaking stories. Casper High School was let out early today and its students sent out on ghost patrol, following the exposure of town heroes Danny Phantom and the Red Hunter as juniors Danny Fenton and Valerie Gray. This has sparked speculation that Will Spirit may also be half-ghost, as is Fenton, and we hope he will come forward soon and identify himself if this is the case. William Lancer, of the city's GEIST Program, is not responding to our calls." The woman paused and took a breath of air before continuing with the second half of the announcement. "We have also received reports from people passing the main park that Phantom and Spirit, along with several unidentified figures, are currently engaged with a malevolent ghost who is likely the cause of the current ectoplasmic contamination. Stay tuned for more updates."
The soap opera came back on and Vlad turned away from the set again. He grinned and rubbed his hands together.
Perfect, he thought, just how it needs to be.
---
Aster dragged himself out of the snow bank, feeling oddly heavy and sore. He pulled himself into a rough sitting position once he was back on the path and tried to get his bearings. A tall man was standing a little ways off, deep in thought and brushing clumps of snow off his long purple coat. He noticed Aster looking at him and smiled.
"You wouldn't happen to see my glasses, would you? I'm blind as a bat without them."
Aster shook his head, confused. The man looked vaguely familiar, almost like...
"Ghost Writer?" the hippie murmured.
"Not anymore, apparently," the man said frankly. "You'd be the hippie ghost?"
"Aster," the person in question corrected brusquely. He looked down at himself then, because the way the Ghost Writer had phrased the question had unsettled him.
His arms were a creamy pink now, the same colour as human skin. He wasn't translucent anymore either, and he felt warm inside. Aster pressed his hand against his arm. That was very definitely flesh he was feeling. A disconcerted thought flashed through his mind: Am I human again?
His clothing, like his companion's, had remained as it had been and Aster felt for the familiar feel of his necklace. It was gone. Aster panicked, then stopped when he realized that he was feeling panic without actually absorbing it. He didn't need the amulet. He leapt to his feet and whooped. The Ghost Writer jumped, and a snow bank across from them exploded as a slim black-haired figure jumped out.
"Where's the ghost?!" Danny asked, automatically assuming a fighting stance. Aster grinned.
"Easy, Danny. It's just us."
"Who are y-Aster? Ghost Writer?" Danny relaxed in confusion. The former ghosts nodded. "But what? How?"
"That is probably a question for your parents, Danny," the Ghost Writer said. "However, I'd assume that when we defeated Cyclone part of his 'humanity', for lack of a better word, transferred to us. You might notice you're back in your human form as well."
Danny looked down, noticed his khakis and t-shirt, and grinned. The scholar continued.
"I'd be somewhat surprised though if Aster and I turned out to be fully human. There wasn't enough humanity in Cyclone to do that to any of us, assuming we all got an equal amount."
Danny nodded, then decided to test himself. He summoned his transformation rings and went ghost, then changed back.
Well, I'm still a halfa, he thought. Good.
Lancer's hand emerged from the snow then and began flailing. The Ghost Writer grabbed it and pulled him out. Lancer blinked when he realized who he was looking at.
"Hello Will," Writer said cheerfully. "Seems we've all had a little change for the better." The tall man waved his arm to indicate, Danny, Aster, and Dani, who'd pulled herself out of the snowdrifts as well. He shivered then, from the cold. "Perhaps we should go somewhere else? I doubt any of us are in any condition to be standing out here much longer."
That was true. Both he and Aster were still barefoot, Aster was dressed for summer, and the three definite halfas had various injuries from the battle.
"FentonWorks is closest," Danny suggested, and the five of them set off, after finding the Ghost Writer's spectacles. The streets seemed to be deserted, with the search teams off elsewhere and the regular citizens trying to track Danny and Spirit down. The quintet arrived at FentonWorks a short, weary walk later, and were let inside by a worried and surprised Maddie Fenton.
And now my daily brain-bending is over… Two more chapters to go, folks, and an epilogue.