- Evil Reflections.
"Okay, ghost, spill it; you know something about that?" Valerie pointed at the large column without losing sight of Danny.
"Look, I'm just guessing here, but… well, Captain Phantasm, that ghost that we both had been fighting lately, have used bodyguards to protect himself and distract us so he can do his robberies; the first was a mega bruiser, next was that flying freak I heard you and that Manson girl defeated yesterday, and now, I suppose, he sent Mister Sparks against us while performing another crime." Danny quickly explained, getting ready to dash at the light's direction while taking off his gauntlets and placing them at his back thanks to the same straps he used to hold the Thermos.
"Are you going to attack him?"
"Yes, I'm hitting, blasting, punching, and all the stuff involved… so, if you excuse me, thanks again for your help, and for not shooting at me this time, but have to go." Danny left in a hurry, flying at top speed at the light's source. Valerie, as well as everyone else on Amity, got a good look at the column, and then, frowning, followed Danny.
"I too have some unfinished businesses with that captain, ghost!"
Danny stopped in front of Paulina's house, looking at several people (most of Mister Sanchez's guests, and his servants) leaving the place in a hurry. Then, the light faded, and two specters emerged from the building by phasing through the rooftop; Danny frowned when recognizing Captain, and then gave his full attention to his companion, a ghostly woman with bright red eyes, long silver-glowing hair, and an evil grin, wearing a bright red and green mixture of dress and tunic; the stolen mirrors were around her, circling the ghost at slow motion.
"The Mirror Empress, I presume."
"Oh, you know my name! How nice, young man," Empress gave Danny a predatory look, "and I assume you're this dumpster's resident specter. Don't worry, I'm not staying here for long; just enough to have some fun, and then I'll return The Ghost Zone; maybe I'll come back here later and conquer this realm."
"I have a better idea; I'm breaking those mirrors, and send you back jail!" Danny said as shooting a powerful ghost ray.
Unfortunately, the attack never touched the woman; one of the mirrors, glowing, moved in front of her, absorbing the ray, and sending it back against Danny, who barely could avoid getting hit by his own energy.
"You know the proverb; it's better to give than to receive." The woman cackled.
"Funny you said that," Captain interrupted her, "because it's time for me to get my reward."
"Oh, yes; I promised you the exact location of the treasure I gathered right before getting jailed." Empress turned slightly at him, "I'm doing something better; taking you there!"
The mirror right in front of Phantasm got a slight bright, and then a large energy beam jumped from it, hitting the thief. Before Phantasm or Danny could react, the beam sucked the evil ghost thief inside the mirror.
"Don't give me that look, boy." The woman said in fake innocence, "The more ghosts I absorb inside the mirrors, the more powerful I turn. And you look like a very suitable energy source."
Danny noticed the mirrors' bright, and dived to avoid getting captured as well. Unfortunately, one beam caught him, and started sucking the boy. The woman grinned in triumph, not noticing the red figure flying against her.
BLAST!
Valerie's attack hit the mirror, and, even if the blast bounced on it, almost getting the girl, served right to cut the tractor beam for a moment, releasing the boy.
"We are even, ghost!" Val said to Danny as preparing another blast. "Now, leave so I can break some glass here!"
"Valerie, wait!"
BLAST!
BLAST!
BLAST!
BLAST!
The mirrors moved at high speed, blocking all the attacks and redirecting them against the huntress. Valerie avoided two of them, but the third one hit the side of her sled, unbalancing her, and the fourth stroke her chest, sending her down. Danny flew under her, and caught the girl and the vehicle.
"Great; now I owe you again." Valerie groaned softly as Danny sighed; at least, that comment meant the girl wasn't badly hurt.
"A ghost and a human fighting alongside… things had changed a lot on the last centuries." The Empress rubbed her chin, "Well, one thing hadn't changed; humans don't give me that much power when sucking them, so you're going down, young lady."
The mirrors moved in front of the Empress, and got a dark blue glow; then, the five mirrors started shooting large beams against Danny, who had to drop the sled (that luckily flew away, alerted by its self-preservation alarms) to avoid the shots while still holding Valerie. Danny phased inside a nearby building to leave Val there, barely escaping a particularly powerful attack, and re-emerged to attack the woman.
Danny used his ghostly shield to protect from a beam, and then, using his free hand, attacked Empress with a freezing ray. Unfortunately, the mirrors reflected it just as they did with the regular blasts, and Danny had a split-second to move aside and dodge the returning ray, that froze a large section of the building behind him.
"No more tricks, my dear boy?" Empress mocked Danny right before sending a massive beam from the golden-framed mirror. Phantom protected again by using his shield, but this time it was barely enough to resist the attack.
"Okay, time for the big guns." Danny said to himself as landing at the closest rooftop, glaring at Empress. The boy took a deep breath.
"Ghostly WaaAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIILLLL….!"
The visible sound waves emerging from Danny's mouth, as usual, were heard all over Amity, and shattered all the buildings around him, plus breaking several windows and scaring all the city's dogs and cats.
"CUT THAT!" Empress growled as covering her ears, while her mirrors moved in front of her for protection; this time, they didn't returned the attack, and the woman certainly felt the impact, but it wasn't as effective as Danny expected. After almost a minute, Danny's wail faded, and he fell on his knees, exhausted.
"A brave attempt, kid, but nothing compared to a banshee army." Empress groaned and gave Danny a murderous look. Then, she commanded one of her mirrors in front of her, and activated its sucking effect; this time, Danny couldn't fight the force, and was quickly sucked inside the mirror, at the same time Valerie finally felt good enough to get a look at the battle, and his parents and Jazz arrived at the scene on the Fenton RV.
"Danny…" Jazz, horrified, covered her mouth as watching her brother disappear in front of her.
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WHACK!
Danny landed face first on a bright green surface.
"Not exactly my best landing." Danny rubbed his nose as raising his head to get a look at the place he was. It looked a lot like The Ghost Zone, but, surprisingly, the whole area around the place he crashed was covered in golden coins and assorted jewelry. Danny assumed it was the treasure Empress promised Phantasm.
"Oh, great, Fenturd is here too!" Danny heard Dash's annoyed voice, and gasped when turning to see him. The jock seemed to be deflated or something, because his muscles were gone, and his clothing was now ridiculously oversized for him.
"Dash? What happened to you?"
"Forget about him! Somebody help me!" Danny then looked at his left, spotting Paulina, barely recognizing the girl; her skin looked a lot like a toad's, and her hair was messy and broken. Not surprisingly, she was doing her best to cover her face as a group of little children on formal clothing mocked her.
"Can you please cool down? We all have problems here!" Danny wide opened his eyes when Star approached Paulina from behind; the blonde's head remained mostly the same, but her body was entirely Amazonian, tall and pretty well built.
"Okay, I'm getting a headache." Danny shook his head, "Can someone explain me what happened here?"
"That would be me, Fenton." Kwan approached the group; he looked entirely the same, but his tone and posture were totally different. "Apparently, the apparition that introduced herself as The Mirror Empress had caught us in some sort of parallel universe or dimension through the seemingly supernatural properties of her mirrors. As a side effect, and, corresponding to a mirror's inversing characteristics, we had developed personality and/or physical features that are opposite to our regular ones. Dash, our school's star athlete, is what we can consider a weakling; Paulina, who had always been proud of her certainly attractive looks, is now physically unappealing; her father's guests, all of them mature and sophisticate adults, had been reduced to a group of bratty kids; Star, a very graceful cheerleader, had changed said grace into brawl; and, as you might have noticed, my original IQ, that, I admit, is normally hardly on an average level, had increased notably. I don't see any major change on you, Fenton, but I'm 99 percent sure you might show it eventually."
Danny got a shocked expression at the jock's unusually intelligent speech, but it certainly explained why everyone looked and acted so different; at that moment, Danny finally noticed he had turned into his human self the moment he arrived at the mirror dimension, but thought it was because of the Ghostly Wail's draining effect, at least until now.
"Thanks a lot for the explanation, kid." Everyone turned to see Captain Phantasm, on his human disguise, aiming at them, "Now, if you're so smart, perhaps you can tell me how to leave this place and take the treasure with me."
"Well… that might take some time and a proper research, and, as you might have noticed, even if my intelligence had certainly augmented, I lack the instruments or experience to perform it…" Kwan tried to keep his cool but it was obvious the gun scared him.
Since everyone was distracted with Phantasm, Danny decided to turn invisible and try to surprise him from behind; he would later invent some excuse to cover his sudden appearing and attack. However, when he tried doing it, Danny found his invisibility power was gone; surprised, Danny tried using his phasing power on his right foot and make it pass through a small pile of jewels behind him, failing as well.
Danny remembered Sydney's story about Empress being able to cancel ghost powers, and then Kwan's reasoning about the mirror dimension's properties; the opposite of a ghostly body is a human one, so his spectral abilities were gone.
"But, if I got affected, it means Captain isn't using a disguise… he is human as well!" Danny thought, and decided using whatever advantage he had.
"Why don't you escape by yourself, fool?" Danny snapped at Phantasm, who turned his gun at the boy, forgetting about Kwan. Danny lost no time, and jumped at his enemy, grabbing him by the wrist.
What happened next surprised everyone, but Danny the most. He didn't just forced Phantasm (who was way bigger and apparently stronger) to release the gun, but dominated him with ease, and then, as if the former ghost was just a rag-doll, Danny lifted him over his head, and threw his enemy several feet away.
"Star, don't let him stand up!" Kwan reacted and addressed the blonde, making her to react as well. Phantasm, stunned, tried to stand up, but the now muscular teenage girl was faster and caught him by the collar, and then knocked him out with a mighty punch.
"A very surprising and welcome change, I see." Kwan said to Danny as he and the other persons looked at him. Danny knew everyone would attribute his sudden strength to the dimensional effect, and he had another theory supporting this change; being a half-ghost, his spectral self was normally way more powerful than the human one, but now, not having access to his regular powers, his human body's attributes were largely enhanced. Being a normal ghost, on the other hand, Phantasm lacked special attributes as a human, having only regular man's ones, and supernatural escaping skill gone.
"At least I can control Captain, especially with Star on my side, but being super-strong isn't going to take us out of here." Danny thought as picking up the pistol and getting rid of the bullets, throwing them away; the last thing he wanted was having a charged pistol with a criminal around, even if unconscious, especially since Danny's own weapon, the Fenton Gauntlets (still strapped to his back) were now a pair of kitchen mittens.
"Too bad you can't punch us back home, Fentonio." Dash said in his usual mocking tone, but conserving his distance, since he wasn't risking making Danny mad after looking at what he could do.
Danny rolled his eyes at Dash's comment that, for once, agreed with his own thoughts. However, after a moment, his expression brightened as taking a little object out from his pants' pocket.
"I have an idea. This is a Fenton Earphone; my parents designed it for communication inside the Ghost Zone, so maybe I can contact someone even if trapped in this dimension."
Kwan nodded at Danny while everyone (except the unconscious Phantasm) got eager looks as the boy placed the device on his ear.
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"This is the most fun I've had in ages!" Empress laughed as her mirrors reflected back Jack and Maddie's blasts. The hunters narrowly avoided getting hit by jumping behind a parked car.
"Nothing is working against that ghost!" Jack, panting, said to his wife. "Maybe we should return home to pick up more weapons!"
"And what one? That ghost's shield reflects back everything we shoot at her!" Maddie said as taking a look at the specter, and wide opened her eyes in fear.
"Jack, run!"
BOOM!
The hunters barely escaped from the powerful blast that destroyed the car they were hiding behind. At that moment, several police officers appeared on scene, surrounding the ghost. Valerie looked at them from the room she was still recovering, and gasped as they aimed their guns against Empress.
"Stop! Don't shoot her!"
PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG! PTANG!...
Luckily, nobody was killed, but many officers were wounded by their own bullets, the ghost cackling evilly the whole time.
"That's it!" Valerie growled, and since luckily her sled was now working a little better, jumped from the window and approached Empress at high speed to hit her directly, which hopefully would be more effective that bullets and blasts.
WHAM!
Val was sent down, spinning, and it was almost a miracle she could regain control of her sled before crashing. Empress gave her an amused look, and noticed the building behind the girl, one with pretty large windows that reflected the huntress' image.
"This will be so amusing." Empress grinned as shooting a blast against Valerie; the girl avoided it, but the ghost's real target was the windows behind her. A moment later, the glass started glowing red.
"Look, honey, I got triplets." The ghost laughed as three Red Huntresses jumped out from the windows; they looked exactly as Val, sled and all, but slightly transparent, and her eyes glowed an intense green.
"I'll rather be an only child, thank you!" Val, recovering from the initial surprise, started shooting at her copies that avoided the attack and shot her back. Valerie dived to escape, the three mirror clones behind her.
"If this is what Phantom feels, it's not nice!" Valerie said to herself as being chased down the street. The girl tried several evasive maneuvers, but couldn't lose her pursuers, and, eventually, one shot hit her and took the huntress down. Valerie rubbed her shoulder in pain as the three clones surrounded her, aiming at the huntress, who refused to give up and glared at them.
"Come on, show me if I'm that tough." Valerie growled at the clones as adopting a battle stance and giving them a challenging look. The copies smirked and took down their guns as their sleds, just like the original one, incorporated to their outfits; then, they adopted battle stances as well, slowly circling Valerie, ready to attack her.
Empress flew over Valerie and the copies, enjoying the show, so didn't notice Jazz slowly approaching from behind. The red-haired girl aimed carefully at her with a Thermos, and then opened it, hoping to suck her in. Unfortunately, the mirrors protected Empress, fighting the Thermos' tractor beam with a repulse one, hitting Jazz with an energy shock. The ghost turned slightly to see her before returning to watch the huntress.
"Jazz? Jazz, are you okay?"
"Yes, I am, Sam," Jazz replied the Goth via her earphone, "but the Thermoses are useless as well. Honestly, I have no idea about how to attack this ghost, or how to bring Danny back."
Sam was about to reply when both girls and Tucker heard a weird noise on the earphones.
"What's that?" Tucker asked Sam, who wide opened her eyes a moment later.
"It's Danny! I don't know what he's saying, but that's his voice!"
"You're right, Sam, but what language is that?" Jazz said, and then realization hit her. "Tucker, record whatever Danny is saying, and then play it backwards."
Tucker obeyed the older teen, and, when Danny stopped talking, played the tape as was told so he and the girls could hear what the halfa was saying.
"Sam? Tucker? Jazz? Guys, if you car hear me, please, answer! I'm trapped in some dimension with the popular guys and some other persons, and everything is pretty weird in here. This place reverses your features and gives you qualities and defects you normally lack; long story short, Dash is skinnier than me, and Kwan is almost a genius. Phantasm is here too, but totally powerless; the good news is that he can't escape, but the same applies to the rest of us. Please, answer!"
"Wow; you mean that, in there, I would be Mister Universe or something?" Tucker said, surprised.
"Well, if that dimension reverses everything, guess that explains why ghosts can't escape and we are hearing Danny backwards." Jazz rationalized as hiding behind a corner. "Now, the problem is how to get Danny and the others out of there."
Sam rubbed her chin in silent thought, and then had an idea.
"Tucker, record yourself telling Danny we are preparing something to help him out, and then play the tape backwards so he can understand you; Jazz, stay right there and wait for us; I'm looking for something at Danny's room." Sam said right before leaving the Operations Center, and hoping that the device she was bringing could be activated by a regular human.
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Valerie was doing her best against one of her clones. The copy tried kicking her, but the girl blocked it and replied with a fast punch at her belly; the copy received the attack's full force, but resisted and grabbed Val's wrist, twisting it painfully and forcing Val to kneel. The copy then tried kicking her again; Valerie used her free hand to stop the foot heading against her ribs, and, resisting the pain, kicked the copy's feet in a sweeping move, making her to release her prey and fall on her back. The huntress shook her arm in pain and stood up, ready to finish her enemy, but the copy made a tag-team slap with another one, who jumped in front of Val, who had to duck in a hurry to escape a sharp karate chop heading against her neck. The third copy grinned and placed behind the fighters, ready to enter the battle if the other clone needed help, while the copy who already had fought moved aside for rest.
"This is just so funny; much better than standing the guards chatting all day," Empress grinned, and then a nearby shop got her attention, "It's a shame my mirrors' guests aren't having some fun as well… guess I should be a good host, and give them entertainment. Besides, with the regular humans altered, and the ghosts powerless, they can no longer provide me with too much power anyway."
The ghost shot a sucking beam against the place, a pet shop, aiming at two cute little creatures that got her attention on first place.