- A Shocking Battle.
"There's no news about the fugitives yet?" Walker asked Bullet the moment the one-eyed ghost entered his boss' office.
"No, sir, and honestly, that kind of worries me." Bullet confessed, "Captain Phantasm is a sneaky guy, and not that easy to find, but the others can't help but cause mayhem whenever on their own… it's just weird that we hadn't found any, or at least heard rumors about them attacking other ghosts."
"I had been thinking among the same lines." Walker rubbed his chin as walking around his office, "The only possible explanation is that they escaped to The Human Realm before we could organize the search parties."
"You want me to lead a search at The Human Realm, sir?"
"No… there's one good side effect of that possibility." Walker grinned slightly, "Once a ghost invades Amity, eventually he or she will face that pesky ghost boy, and, this time, we can use his overprotective nature for our own good. He might defeat and capture those specters, and send them back here, weakened and hurt enough for us to catch them."
"And if one of those fugitives is strong enough…" Bullet grinned as well, realizing it was a win-win situation. If Phantom could beat the fugitives, he would be doing a service to Walker, and, if not capable, the ghost boy would be eliminated, something the warden would certainly enjoy.
At that moment, both ghosts heard someone knocking the office door.
"Come in." Walker said, and, a moment later, one of his largest guards, who normally was at 'X' block, entered. "What do you want?"
"Eh… I was told you wanted talk to me, sir." The guard replied, confused. Walker and Bullet gave each other a puzzled look.
"Who told you that?"
"A new guard… at least, I think he's a new one, because I had never seen him before." The guard explained, "But I'm sure I would remember him, because he is a white ghost, not a green one like most of us guards."
"A white ghost… in uniform… PHANTASM!" Walker roared in realization, making both Bullet and the guard to jump in shock; the warden then dashed to his desk to activate his speaker, "ATTENTION, EVERYONE! ALL THE GUARDS, GO TO 'X'! IT'S AN EMERGENCY!"
At 'X' block, Captain Phantasm heard the alarm, and his guard disguise switched to his regular captain's one. The ghost he tricked was the guard in charge of the block's entrance door, and, after getting rid of him, the other guards inside were no match for him; all of them were now currently at the floor, unconscious or moaning in pain because of the bullets on their chests or stomachs. Captain finally reached his destination, the X-13 cell, its gate's bars glowing with green anti-ghost energy.
"Are you ready to go?" Captain talked to the captive, a pale female ghost with long messy white hair, wearing an old gray robe, and with ghostly cuffs on her wrists and ankles.
"The moment you get rid of these cursed restrains, sure I will!" The woman roared at him. Captain Phantasm chuckled, and got an amused expression.
"Don't worry; my helper is doing his job exactly… now!"
In a perfect cue, all the jail's lights turned off, just like the alarm and the anti-ghost's energy forming the bars of the 'X' cells. Of course, the captive ghosts still couldn't escape because of the still active cuffs, but those weren't so resistant.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Captain shot at the woman's cuffs, destroying them easily. The female got a wicked grin, and ran out from the cell; a moment later, she and Phantasm were making some fast stops on each cell so he could get rid of the other captives' cuffs.
"What's happening?" Bullet, running aside Walker and a bunch of other guards, asked when noticing the power failure.
"It's prisoner X-10! He is here as well!" Walker growled without stopping running, "Quick, half of the guards get sure the other prisoners don't escape; the rest, come with me!"
Walker reached the 'X' block's door, and, being an automatic one with no power left, needed the help of a couple of guards to open it. The moment they did it, and before getting inside, a large red-bearded pirate ghost attacked in a fury.
"Get them back to their cells!" Walker commanded his guards, as a couple of them tried to subdue the pirate and the others did their best to contain the rest of the prisoners.
"So long, Walker!" Phantasm mockingly saluted the warden as he and the female ghost left the place. Walker was about to charge at them when a ghostly clown tackled the warden from behind; both ghosts rolled at the floor punching and kicking each other until Bullet assisted Walker and dominated the clown with his electric whip, that was almost out of charge just as the prison's lights and cells.
"Close all the exits! Repair those lights! Do whatever you have to, BUT GET THEM!" Walker growled at his guards, but it was useless; they were all too busy battling the other criminals.
A few minutes later, Phantasm and the female ghost were out of jail, flying at fast as they could, heading to the Fenton Portal.
"You got all the mirrors?" The woman asked a little bit too eagerly.
"All but one; I think we can get it together." Phantasm explained, "There's a very strong opposition to get the mirrors, so I thought it would be safer if we get the last one with you already out of jail. Plus, the guys trying to stop us will be distracted trying to capture my helper."
The female grinned evilly as said 'helper' joined them, she and Phantasm moving aside so he could be the first one to emerge from the portal, and to avoid getting shocked by his touch.
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"Are you sure you don't want to rest, Sam?"
"Yes, Phantasm really shook you yesterday."
"Danny, I told you, I'm fine." Sam rolled her eyes yet conserved a discreet smile, "Seriously, I just got a couple of bruises, no big deal."
"Sorry, it's just that's not everyday one ghost decides attacking us at any of our homes… except in Danny's case, of course." Tucker pointed, getting a soft glare from Danny. The trio and Jazz were currently at Danny's room, discussing the events of the previous day.
"Still, this just supports the need of us carrying an anti-ghost weapon at all times." Jazz commented.
"No kidding; without the Deflector and Valerie's help, my mom and I would be done by now." Sam sighed; she hated to play damsel in distress, but it was obvious Phantasm and his bodyguards were dangerous enough to skip that detail for once.
"How is your mom, by the way?" Danny asked.
"She's back to her usual self. Actually, I think she is more upset about losing her favorite mirror than the fact a ghost attacked us, or that it was thanks to one of your parents' inventions that we're still among the living." Sam groaned in annoyance; she couldn't hate her parents (no matter how much she tried), but the girl didn't like them that much either, especially when acting like complete jerks and thinking so low about her friends.
"Okay, let's drop the subject of your mother's wrong sense of priorities for now, and focus on Danny's research." Jazz suggested, getting some amused looks from the younger teens.
"Well, Poindexter wasn't kidding about his files; they're very complete." Danny started, getting everyone's attention (especially Jazz's, who, always the learning-type, suggested the previous day to actually invite the nerdy ghost some other day for a chat and share information), "I got to see the profile of the ghosts assisting Phantasm; by the way, that pterodactyl was a human when alive, but used a dinosaur's disguise when committing his crimes, and died using a similar one, therefore he turned into that creature as a ghost."
"Too bad for us he wasn't a baseball team's mascot." Tucker joked.
"Whatever. Anyway, Sydney showed me the files of all the ghosts currently at 'X' block… many of them, curiously, seem to be obsessed with a group of meddling kids and a dog… but there's one that might be the key of this whole mess." Danny said as taking out a notebook where Jazz wrote down his conversation with Poindexter, thanks to her hearing everything through the earphones.
"After Pariah got defeated first time, and condemned to the Coffin of Forever Sleep, several ghosts saw the chance to take his place as the ruler of all ghosts. One of the most powerful was a woman, Rorrim, better known as The Mirror Empress; her main weapons were five magical mirrors that gave them several powers, including stopping other ghosts from using their skills. She was eventually defeated, after a battle that nearly destroyed half of the Ghost Zone, and became Prisoner X-13, the most dangerous and secured of them all."
"And what happened to her mirrors?" Sam asked, intrigued.
"They were destroyed so she couldn't use them again if escaping; however, according to Sydney's files, it seems she can replace them with regular mirrors as long as they fulfill certain characteristics; namely, being ancient ones, similar sized to her original mirrors, and made at different parts of the world, plus, and this one is the strongest rumor, they must be somehow linked to a powerful empire or kingdom." Jazz, who already knew about the research, replied.
"Okay, that would explain everything except why Captain Phantasm is helping her." Tucker commented.
"He is a burglar, Tucker, and one who knows prison life very well. She probably offered him some sort of payment." Danny guessed.
"But, for him getting paid, and she using the mirrors, Captain will need to take her out of jail, or maybe bring her the mirrors there." Sam deduced.
"True, and, as long as we know, he only has four mirrors. But we already know as well that he can escape that prison with ease, and even release other criminals, so taking out the Empress wouldn't be so hard." Jazz added.
"Then our best chance is me waiting at The Ghost Zone to get Phantasm the moment he decides releasing Empress, while you guys guard the portal." Danny proposed. "Sydney told me a lot of the information about this lady is classified one, including the way she got defeated first time, so we can't risk her getting her powers back."
"Before you do it, did Poindexter tell you how many bodyguards our thief got out of jail?" Tucker asked.
"No; Walker is keeping the fugitives' identities secret to everyone but his guards, obviously; he doesn't want the whole Ghost Zone to know about his failure at keeping them locked in." Danny replied, "But, on the meantime, we are keeping both Pterodactyl and Boxing Ghosts in their thermoses until we solve this; otherwise, they might help Phantasm again. Once we handle this thief, I'll release them near Walker's prison so he can catch them… or maybe I can negotiate a truce or some sort of deal with him and deliver them in person; I hope he dislikes them more than he hates me."
At that moment, the house's lights started failing, and Danny's ghost sense got activated.
At the lab, Jack and Maddie, who were currently trying to perfect a gun to use against the ghostly cop-thief, turned back at the portal. A large sparking humanoid figure emerged from it, roaring at the hunters, with Phantasm and Empress behind him.
"Good afternoon, sir and madam," Phantasm saluted mockingly, and then pointed at his huge companion. "I have a riddle for you; what happens when a convicted murderer goes to the electric chair and turns into a ghost? Here's a clue."
"We'll capture you, miserable ghost!" Jack growled as grabbing a large ecto-gun.
"Nobody attacks our son and his friends, and escapes so easily!" Maddie added as getting her own gun. Then, both hunters shot against the largest specter, who received the whole charge…
And started laughing, as the blasts got absorbed by his body and he almost doubled his size.
The large ghost extended his arms, and, a moment later, the batteries from all the weapons at the lab got drained, feeding the specter. Captain and Empress, cackling, phased through the wall behind them while Jack and Maddie had to dash out from the lab to avoid the powerful electric blast the massive ghost shot against them.
BOOM!
A moment later, the huge ghost emerged from the hole he made at the basement, and started walking down the street, making the whole neighborhood's lights and domestic appliances to malfunction. Danny and company dashed at his room's window, their jaws dropping when looking at the fugitive specter; Jazz then looked down at her notebook, finding a name among the criminals' Poindexter told Danny about.
"The 10,000-Volts Ghost."
"I'm Going Ghost!" Danny battle-cried jumping out the window, and transformed into his Phantom self at mid-air.
The 10,000-Volts Ghost spotted Danny heading against him, and attacked with a massive voltage ball; the boy avoided it by a few inches, the ball destroying part of a rooftop instead. Danny then started blasting the specter, but just like his parents' weapons, the huge ghost fed on the energy, turning even bigger, and attacking Danny back with a massive electrical charge.
Danny formed an ecto-shield to protect against the attack, resisting, but it was strong enough to force him back several feet. The boy then looked down, smiling when spotting a fire hydrant.
"Well, this works in comic books, and I have no other plans." Danny dashed down the street, landing in front of the hydrant. The boy blasted the massive specter several times to get his attention, and, when he tried grabbing him, Danny jumped aside; the ghost hit the hydrant, blasting it and releasing a huge water column.
ZHRAAAAKLLLEEE!
The ghost yelled in pain when getting hit by the liquid, but it wasn't enough to short-fuse him. The specter growled at Danny, and sent a powerful blast against him, zapping and sending the boy against a nearby wall.
"I need more water… man, where's a tsunami when you need it?" Danny said to himself as rubbing his head. The boy wide opened his eyes in fear when looking at the 10,000-Volts Ghost aiming at him with his open hands, and Danny hardly could escape an electric beam by phasing through the sidewalk.
"Hey, you! Yes, I'm talking to you, big, bright, and ugly!" The specter turned when hearing The Red Huntress, who was flying against him, her weapons aiming at the huge ghost. "I want that ghost gone as well, but guess you'll be first!"
The ghost received several impacts, and laughed, surprising Val. The girl tried to avoid an electric blast, but it hit the back of the sled, shocking the girl and messing with the vehicle's guide systems, so she fell from it while the sled flied erratically, no chances of saving her as usual.
"Got you!" Danny emerged from the pavement, catching Valerie on mid-air. The half-groggy girl regained full conscience almost immediately.
"Put me down, ghost!"
"Calm down, can you? I'm trying to help here." Danny said as landing and putting her down gently. "One bit of advice; that ghost feeds on energy, so your blasts only make him stronger."
"I noticed that." Valerie growled as looking at the huge specter that was now ignoring them and heading downtown. "But I can't let him go! That walking light can destroy the city in a moment, and I'm not sitting down and watch!"
"Well, unless you can drop a pool over him, there's not too much you can do against that guy." Danny snapped; Valerie, instead of fighting back, took a few shiny objects out from her outfit's pocket.
"Ghost bullets?" Danny gulped at the sight of the projectiles. Valerie ignored his expression, and took out a little blaster as well.
"Yeah; my sled got shot several times yesterday, so I removed them from it and then inserted on one of my weapons, and worked fine; my intention was using the bullets on you, but guess still owe you for rescuing a friend of mine at the museum, for whatever reason you might have, so I'm shooting down that giant instead."
"Uh… thank you." Danny replied, still a little scared but relieved when hearing Val wasn't attacking him this time. The girl's sled, now working properly again, flew next to her, and the huntress jumped over it to chase the monstrous ghost.
A few moments after Valerie left, Danny felt his cell phone vibrating inside his outfit's pocket, and took it out.
"Danny? Sam here; are you alright?"
"Yes, but this ghost is a major problem. Valerie is chasing him now, and she seems to have something effective, but I doubt it will be enough."
"Your parents and Jazz are heading there on the RV; Tucker and I are at the Operations Center. Listen, we already got a plan to fight that creature, but you have to get a few hundred feet of cable to make it work…"
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At Paulina's home, her father was chatting with his guests while the girl was doing the same with the A-list's guys; she liked her dad's fancy dinners, but sometimes she got bored being surrounded just by people her old man's age, so asked him to let her invite some 'friends' to have someone to talk during the event; of course, she also did it to show off her new last-fashion blue dress and bright designer shoes.
"Now, if I might have your attention," Mister Sanchez cleared his voice as walking next to an object hanging from the wall, covered with red silk clothing, "I'm showing you the rarest, most valuable piece of my art collection."
The man removed the clothing, revealing an oval-shaped mirror with a golden frame that had some small emeralds as well; everyone wide opened their eyes at the sight of the object (except Dash and Kwan, who were too busy with the snacks) while the man stood in front of it.
"This Spanish mirror belonged to Queen Isabel of Castilla; she and her husband, Fernando, financed Christopher Columbus' journeys partly by selling some valuable jewelry, including the mirror." The man said proudly as getting positive remarks from the crowd.
"We like it, and we're taking it."
Everyone gasped when looking at Captain Phantasm appearing from nowhere at the room's center, aiming at the people with his pistol. The specter motioned everyone to move the other side of the room, everyone too scared to try anything but obeying; once they were all apart the mirror, the Empress phased through the ceiling, landing in front of it.
"Oh, it's just perfect!" The female ghost grinned widely, and then turned to see her companion, "The rest of them, quick!"
Captain Phantasm made a fast move with his free hand, and took out his sack. He then passed it to the woman, whose eyes started glowing intensely, and, a moment later, the mirrors at the sack and the one at the wall levitated around her.
"And now, precious mirrors… give me back my old glory!"
The woman cackled as the mirrors moved at high speed around her, forming a bright tornado. The people gasped in horror while Phantasm started laughing as well.
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GROWL!
The 10,000-Volts Ghost leaned in pain when receiving two bullets at his belly. Valerie approached for a third shot, but had to move aside when the ghost reacted and tried to grab her. The monstrous specter couldn't get energy from the bullets, and the impacts were quite painful for him, but he was still far from being defeated.
The Fenton RV arrived at the scene right when Valerie ran out of ammo, and Jack and Maddie, armed with large guns, jumped down the vehicle.
"I hope this work, Maddie." Jack told his wife as them aimed at the ghost.
"I too, Jack. FIRE!" Maddie commanded; the hunters then shot the specter with a cement-like substance that dried immediately, trapping his legs. The ghost struggled a little and finally broke free, but couldn't attack the hunters because they were shooting back.
On the meantime, Jazz, who had sneaked inside the RV without her parents noticing, ran to the vehicle's keyboard, sending some commands to its computer. The antenna Jack installed on top of the vehicle to project a portable ghost-shield came to life, and moved aiming at Jazz's house general direction.
"It's everything ready?" Danny, phasing inside the vehicle, using the Fenton Gauntlets and carrying a large roll of cable, asked his sister.
"In a moment," Jazz replied as calling Tucker and Sam through her earphone. "I'm on position, guys; how are you doing?"
"Fine," Sam, at the Operations Center, called back. "Tucker made some modifications to the antennas; we are ready."
"Good." Jazz then turned at Danny. "It's up to you, bro."
Danny nodded at her, and phased out of the RV. He then opened a hidden compartment, revealing the vehicle's alternative power source, The Ecto-Converter that could turn ectoplasmic energy into normal electric one; he connected one end of the cable to it, and then flew heading against the ghost, that now was getting used to the cement and could melt it before the substance could solidify and capture him.
"What are you planning, ghost?" Valerie flew next to Danny while checking her outfit for any bullet left.
"I had been attacked by Fentons' weapons enough times to know how they work, and I have an idea to get this ghost with them, but you have to cover me." Danny quickly explained as making a lasso with the cable.
"I still don't trust you, ghost," Val growled, but softened her expression slightly a moment later, "but guess I owe you for saving me a while ago, and rescuing a friend of mine at the museum, so, go ahead; I'm attacking that monster anyway."
Danny nodded at Val right before she dived in front of the ghost to get his attention, saving Jack and Maddie in the process, because their weapons had no more cement left. The specter shot several electric balls against her, not noticing Danny right above him.
"Here goes nothing." Danny said to himself before throwing the lasso over the ghost, catching him.
"So long, Sparky," Jazz grinned (proud of her witty banter finally improving) as pressing a keyboard's button. The Converter got activated, and started draining the ghost's energy; once it got full of it, the antenna shot the excess as a large bright beam.
"Now, Tucker!" Jazz said at her earphone, and Sam repeated the order. Tucker pushed a lever, and, a second later, when the 10,000-Volts Ghost's energy reached the Operations Center, the many antennas and cables at it sent the electricity back to the city's power lines.
Downtown, the massive ghost cried in pain and fear as feeling his energy levels going down; the specter tried to get rid of the lasso, but Danny, with the Gauntlets protecting his hands, contained him. After a few moments, he was smaller than Jack; then, smaller than Danny; and finally, when turning into just a little sphere, got totally sucked inside the Converter. Jack and Maddie, realizing now what Jazz and the ghost boy did, wide opened their eyes in amazement.
"Jazzie-Pants, that was astonishing!" Jack said to her daughter, still hardly believing what happened.
"Jazz, how could you convince the ghost boy to help you do that?" Maddie asked.
"I'm very persuasive." Jazz grinned mischievously as discreetly pushing a button, shooting the sphere formerly known as the 10,000-Volts Ghost through Amity's sky.
"He is coming." Tucker, at the Operations Center, told Sam when checking the equipment's lectures. Sam nodded at him, and aimed at the largest antenna with a Thermo; the girl activated the trap, and, the moment the ghost arrived at the antenna, got sucked inside it.
On the meantime, Danny, sighing in relief, was about to leave before his parents or Valerie decided to start hunting him, when noticing a large light column at the distance.
"What's that?" Valerie, who was flying a few feet away from him, looked at the column as well, just like almost everyone in Amity. Danny frowned when finally recognizing the general direction the light seemed to surge; Paulina's neighborhood.
"Problems."