OKAY, HERE'S CHAPTER 6! I DON'T OWN DANNY PHANTOM OR ANY OF THE RELATED CHARACTERS, NOR DO I OWN THE EPISODE 'KINDRED SPIRITS.' I DO, HOWEVER, OWN THE ORIGINAL IDEAS BEHIND THE RECREATION OF THIS EPISODE.
ENJOY!
CHAPTER 6
Danny Phantom hovered above the floor of the lab, waiting for Michael, like the clones destroyed before him, to melt into a puddle of lime-colored muck. His expectations, however, went unfulfilled, for the boy below was struggling to his feet, and he had already made it as far as his hands and knees.
'That's impossible!' Danny thought as Mike stood and swayed, clutching his left arm. Blue ectoplasm seeped from a gash on his bicep. 'Even if that wasn't enough to kill him, he should be unconscious! He should have changed back!'
Danny watched Michael take a step forward and stagger, then attempt to regain his footing. The clone overcompensated and tripped again, but recovered, and that's when Danny noticed that there was another cut on Mike's left thigh. The wound was deep enough to effect the muscle upon which it had been inflicted and hinder the movement of the leg.
Danny shook himself out of his stupor. 'Now's my chance!' He thought. He hovered downward until he was a foot off of the floor and then dropped, catching himself with flexed knees. 'This should do the trick.'
Danny inhaled again, preparing a second ghostly wail, and released the gathered energy, this time without being impeded. The wavering howl sent a shockwave before it that short-circuited lab equipment and shattered glass, and when it was over, Michael was nowhere to be seen.
Until a single second later, when he popped into existence directly in front of Danny.
Danny suppressed a cry of alarm and started backpedaling, placing as much distance between himself and the clone as possible. He pushed away from the floor with his left foot and took flight, turning invisible even as he recalled that Michael could see through the ruse.
Danny saw Michael reach forward and grab hold of his ankle with a single hand, even as the color faded away and the appendage became transparent. Not that it mattered; the other ghost boy could see him anyway.
Then somehow remaining anchored to the floor, Mike tugged Danny toward him, slamming his other palm into Phantom's chest and pinning him to the ground. The first thing Danny noticed as Michael leaned down was that the clone's eyes were glowing a dark sapphire blue; the second thing was that the wounds were already healed; and the third was that some sort of energy, an immense power, was emanating from him. It was enough to give Mike the ability to hold Danny to the floor with a single hand. Not good.
Michael spoke, his voice mocking and sinister. The sound filled Danny with outright fear. "You thought it would be that easy? That you could simply push me around and I would dissolve like those failures that came before me? I'm as real as you are, Daniel, and even more powerful. I'm going to-"
"You're monologue-ing again." Danny cut in, completely sincere. "You should really stop doing that."
Michael's expression changed to one of confusion as he stared at Danny for several seconds, then to one of rage. With no warning, he cocked his left arm back and clenched his hand into a fist, which he ignited with his ectoplasm and powered into Danny's stomach.
The force of the blow was strong enough to extract from Danny a shout of pain and deprive his lungs of any remaining oxygen. He would have curled into the fetal position and focused on breathing, but since his entire torso was pinned to the floor, all he could do was snap his knees to his chest and wheeze for the next thirty seconds. When he finally recovered, Danny relaxed his legs again and fixed his eyes on Michael. The other boy continued to speak.
"I told you before not to underestimate me, but you did, and now you're going to suffer for it. Not to mention that little stunt you pulled a minute ago by throwing me into the floor. That's worth quite a bit of payback on its own, and it's going to cost extra."
Danny felt the pressure on his chest ease, but before he could so much as roll away, Michael kicked him in the face, then dealt a similar blow to his side. He could feel several more of his ribs crack under the force of the strike as he curled up on his side; he shouted in pain when the beating continued. He couldn't give up; there had to be a way to fight back.
Not to be left without a vulnerable target, Michael reached down and grabbed one of Danny's wrists, then turned and simply threw him across the room. He followed the motion with a ball of ectoplasm and watched as Danny collided with one of Vlad's machines.
The force of Danny's initial impact cracked the super-reinforced glass, but even as he came into contact with the huge machine, Mike's secondary plasma blast struck him in the chest, adding momentum to his body and forcing him back further. The glass crumpled inward, enveloping Danny in a blanket of artificial snow and ice. He flexed his abs and attempted to sit up, but a bout of dizziness forced him to relax for a moment. That's when Michael reached into the machine and grabbed the front of Danny's jumpsuit.
'He must be fond of throwing things.' Danny groggily thought as he was sent hurtling again, this time toward the ceiling. He felt a sharp pain shoot down his back as he hit, then everything faded into darkness for a moment. He was reawakened by his impact with the floor. He was laying on his stomach on the edge of the crater created earlier by Mike's body. He detected a throbbing pain in his right thigh, then pressed it from his mind, ignoring it as best he could. Danny pressed his hands into the floor and pushed himself up, then pulled his legs forward so that he was sitting on his hands and knees. He turned his head to see Michael walking toward him. "If you wanted to play catch," He wheezed, "you should have asked. We could have used your dad!"
"SHUT UP!" Mike yelled. "The only thing I want to hear out of you is screaming!"
Danny watched as the other boy raised his right hand and released a ball of ectoplasmic energy in his direction, and somehow managed to roll out of the way. He continued to struggle to his feet. "Now, what would be the fun in that?" Danny asked as he managed to get one of his feet under his body. He pushed until he was standing, albeit unsteadily, on his own two feet; his thigh began to ache again.
Mike stopped in his tracks, just out of Danny's reach. "Fun?" He chuckled. "You're worried about fun? You're going to be dead in a minute!" He leaped forward and grabbed again at Danny's throat, but Danny stepped backward.
"I don't think so. . . ." Danny trilled in a sing-song tone. He widened his stance to steady himself and lit up his hands, throwing ectoplasm back at his opponent.
Michael dodged once and ducked, avoiding several blasts from Danny, and dove forward. Danny hopped sideways, avoiding Michael but throwing off his own balance at the same time. As he stumbled across the floor, Michael rolled to his feet and charged Danny again, turning invisible halfway between them. Danny felt a hand wrap around his wrist and twist his arm behind his back. He grunted in pain as his shoulder was nearly dislocated, then screamed as he was enveloped in fire. Michael was sending an ectoplasmic energy blast throughout his entire body.
The pain seemed to last for hours, but when it was over, Michael shoved Danny forward and watched him writhe on the floor in agony, watched as he struggled to breathe because every muscle in his body felt as though it had been soaked in acid.
'Pull it together!' Danny thought to himself. 'He's just toying with you. Find a weakness!' He watched Michael approach, knew more pain was coming, but still couldn't move, couldn't get up and fight back. He saw the clone reach for him and created an ecto-shield to protect himself while he thought. Michael simply brushed the barrier aside and reached toward Danny.
Danny panicked and fought past his pain, wriggling across the floor away from Michael, then rolling, increasing his speed. As he rolled, he phased through the floor, disappearing from view, but even as he fell through the floor, a force stopped him cold. Michael had reached through the concrete after him and grabbed his ankle. Danny felt himself being pulled out of his hiding place, then found himself dangling upside down, staring up into Mike's luminous eyes.
"Going somewhere?" Michael asked.
"Nope." Danny replied. "I was, but I think I'll hang around a little longer."
With no warning, Danny inhaled and unleashed another ghostly wail, funneling all of his available strength into the attack. At first, Michael seemed unfazed by the energy directed at him, but after a while two seconds of playing tough, the boy gritted his teeth and braced his feet on the floor to avoid being battered by Danny's wail. He was finally forced to drop Danny.
Dazed from being dropped on his head and neck, Danny cut off his ghostly wail, but he quickly rolled to his feet and continued. Mike crossed his forearms in front of his face and summoned a blue ectoplasmic shield, which lasted no more than three and a half seconds out of the ten-second barrage. After the shield dissipated, Michael was flung backwards and into the wall, within a gap between two of Vlad's machines. One of them was the one Danny had been thrown into.
Danny took a step forward and gasped in discomfort. The pain in his thigh had returned, and it felt as though someone had stabbed him in the leg. 'He must have fractured my femur.' He thought. He ignored it and took another step. When he was a few paces from Michael's unmoving form, he prepared another ghostly wail and let loose, releasing the attack point blank into the small cavity.
Danny watched as Michael's body was destroyed. The edges of his form became blurry, like an unfocused picture, and blue ectoplasm began to escape through his skin, seeming more like steam than water now that it was being disrupted by Danny's energy. The boy woke and screamed, his eyes still aglow with blue fire, and ignited his hands with energy, but the force of Danny's wail prevented him from rising and attacking.
Danny felt his strength fading and thought for a moment that he might give up, but then, Michael was gone, nothing but a charred, smoldering section of cement wall and floor where he had been sitting a moment before. Danny fell to his knees, out of breath, and gave a quick sigh. Michael was gone.
A cry of rage echoed through the room. Danny scrambled to his feet and turned around to find Vlad hovering above the floor of the room, his deadly gaze focused on the remaining ghost child. Plasmius was pissed.
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Okay, so let me know what you thought! If there's anything wrong, grammar-wise or even regarding continuity within the story, feel free to correct me. I was tired when I wrote this chapter and I can guarantee I made more mistakes than usual. Anyway, please enjoy! I look forward to posting the next chapter soon! If it doesn't go up this week, it will happen in the coming weekend, which is an extended one for me! Keep it surreal!
-Oreochema